♪ hello and thank you for joining us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo with the latest at this hour. two weeks have passed since russia began to attack ukraine. the turkish government brokered the meeting. the past three rounds of cease-fire negotiations failed to reach a breakthrough. ukraine is demanding a russian cease-fire and withdrawan. russia is demanding what it

calls demilitarization and a neutral status for ukraine. he wants legal assurance that ukraine won't join nato. now more civilian facilities in ukraine are under attack. nmariupol three people including a child were killed. they say 17 others were wounded. president zelenskyy accused russia of war crimes. >> the aerial bomb on the maternity hospital is the conclusive evidee of what is happening is genocide of ukrainians. >> satellite images released by a u.s. firm show that residential areas in mariupol have been damaged.

the u.n. said the number of civilians killed in ukraine stand at 516, including 37 children. an official said that russia is using unguided bombs. the united states has rejected claims by moscow that ukraine is now operating biowarfare labs with american support. the white house warns that russia could use the allegation as a pretext to use chemical weapons. the package includes $3.5 billion for weapons and other military assistance and $3 billion to deploy more u.s. troops to countries around ukraine to bolster their defenses. . the spending bill is expected to

be quickly approved by the senate before joeden signs it. the russian president has taken steps to set up a tariff-free zone on the kuril islands, four islands claimed by japan, japan calls these islands the northern territories, russia controls them. putin on wednesday signed into law an i amendment into a federal tax code for the northern territories, the amendment exemp countries from key tes for up to 20 years when doing business there. putin raised the idea of creating a tariff-free zone last september with the goal of boosting foreign investment. japan says this runs counter to run joint economic activities on the islands.

on monday, russia included japan on a list that have taken unfriendly action against moscow the move comes after japan imposed sanctions on russia after its invasion of ukraine. chief cabinet secretary said the government has reiterated its stance to the russian side, the move runs counter to japan's position. maintains the northern territories are an inherent part of japan's territory, the islands were legally occupied after world war ii. south korea's next president is promising better ties with neighbors and a firmer hand with north korea. yoon suk-yeol won by a razor-thin margin triggering a conservative shift. the people power party's yoon

defeated lee jae-myung. president political outsider's campaign centered on the harsh critics of the party. yoon began his day at the national cemetery in seoul where he visited the graves of south korea's past presidents. from there he got right down to business. yoon told reporters he will be tougher on north korea and make good on his campaign promise to strengthen national defense. the north has launched missiles on nine occasions since the start of the year. he is promising a system capable of deterring any provocation. key to that plan is the united states. yoon has already spoken with president biden to ensure their alliance is ironclad. as for relations with japan, yoon promised to cool down simmering tensions. >> translator: in thprocess of building a cooperative relationship, south korea and japan need to sit down face to face and get to the bottom of

historical issues, and both countries need to work on sorting out and resolving those issues. >> yoon emphasized the importance of improving future relations with japan for the betterment of younger generations. and japan's prime minister has welcomed yoon's victory. he expressed hope to strengthen ties that have soured in recent years. >> translator: i have high hopes for the leadership of president elect yoon suk-yeol. i intend to work closely with the new president to improve japan/south korean ties. >> kishida stressed the importance of healthy bilateral relations at a time when the international community is going through a major shift. he also said cooperation between

japan, south korea and the united states is important. kishida id he looks forward to dialogue with the new president's government. north korean leader kim jong-un plans to put more reconnaissance satellites into orbit to gather information on u.s. forces in the region. north korea's ruling workers' party newspaper reported on thursday kim inspected the national aerospace development administration. according to the paper, kim said the satellites will provide north korea's armed forces with real-time information on military actions of u.s. imperialism and its vessel forces in korea, japan and the south pacific. a photo accompanying the article shows kim inspecting a map of the korean peninsula and part of japan. north korea has described its ballistic missile launches on february 27th and march 5th as reconnaissance satellite development tests. south korea's intelligence service has pointed out the north could fire an

inter-continental ballistic missile under the pretext of launching a satellite. now u.s. forces are enhancing missile defense readiness in response to an increase in north korean missile launches. the u.s. indo-pacific command said in a statement it had ordered intensified surveillance and reconnaissance activities in the yellow sea. it alssaid the missile launches violate multiple u.n. security council resolutions and pose a threat to north korea's neighbors and the international community. the biden administration has be seeking dialogue with north korea on its nuclear and missile programs, but pyongyang has yet to respond. ♪ ♪ some evacuation orders for residents of northeastern japan have been lifted almost 11 years after the nuclear accident in

fukushima. still over 30,000 people are still unable to go home especially those in zones near the nuclear plant. one man has been working tirelessly to ensure the area he calls home doesn't fade from people's memories. >> reporter: he commutes regularly from his housing to his hometown with special permission. 77-year-old, a community leader akogi, one of the most contaminated areas, just after the nuclear accident he started setting foot in his district to monitor radiation levels. >> translator: oh, it's a little high here. >> reporter: those have been decreasing over the years but not low enough to lift the evacuation order. after making rounds to old

households in his district, he send out reports with the latest figures to residents who are living away. >> translator: many people are worried about their homes, i realize that informing them of levels won't give them peace of mind but i think it's better knowing than not knowing. >> reporter: 11 years on and there are still heavily contaminated areas designated as no-entry zones. decontamination work is ongoing at several sites. but his district is trapped in the so-called -- where work has begun again. last year the government set a new decontamination target for this area allow residents to

come by by the end of this decade, but concrete details have yet to be finalized. he's concerned that his district will not only banish -- vanish from the map but from people's memories. so with help from others in the community he's been keeping all records from radiation data, residents accounts and his documents. one detail keeps catching his attention, they have struck several times, especially in the 18th century that the district had always recovered. >> translator: people survive the famines, but no remains here after the nuclear disaster, i can't process the absurdity.

>> reporter: konno will release his research in book form this april to leave for prosperity, its title -- to our descendants 100 years from now. >> translator: my generation may be unable to return home we're too old but i hope that our descendants who read my book will return to this beautiful area and re-farm the land again. >> reporter: konno hopes hturn new leaf in its history. ♪ time now to check the action

from the beijing paralympics, where young athletes excelled in all of the men's giant slalom events on thursday. in the sting event norway came out on top after the first run. in second run, the 22-year-old crossed the finish line more than 3 seconds ahead of the competition to take his third gold of the game, pedersen, he said being free in the mountains and not locked in a wheelchair is an amazing feeling. austria's aigner claimed his second gold. in standing event, finland finished second in the first round. it was the first gold for the 21-year-old. he said he hopes his medal will inspire young people with disabilities to take up skiing. now to the weather, people

in southeastern parts of africa are preparing for an intensifying system. our meteorologist jonathan oh has the latest. >> moving to madagascar and into mozambique, it's been a few weeks since mozambique has been impacted by a tropical system. this storm is likely to intensify before it makes landfall. as we go throughout the next 48 hours, it's not a fast system. it will move slowly which increases the likelihood of serious flooding issues, especially along the coastal areas, eventually it will make its way southward as we go through the weekend into the first part of next week. in the meantime, this storm can dump up to 300 millimeters of heavy rainfall. some areas may see exceeding that amount over the next couple of days and that can really lead to some concerns as we go throughout the rest of this week. we are also talking about concerns on the flip side of the atlantic. as we are talking about a situation in the northern areas

of peru where our landslide took place, here's a look at the video to give you an idea of what's happening on the ground. is this landslide hit peru's amazon region. it destroyed 40 homes and a sports field. heavy rain and a geological fault were to blame. there have been no deaths reported so far, but dozens of people have been misplaced. many families found themselves sleeping outside and battling to salvage whatever things they could dig out of the rubble. we look for things to be calmer for the region as we go forward in time. inland and south we'll see more in terms of activity as we go through the day thursday, with thunderstorms down toward the south. very calm pattern across east asia with temperatures getting close to late march, april in some locations, as high pressure really is the big factor across the region. even into china we're talking about warm weather. look at the forecast on friday. partly cloudy skies in tokyo.

18 degrees for the high as we wrap up the workweek. beijing looking at 14. hope you have a good day wherever you are. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ and an update on our top story before we go, ukrainian foreign minister said his meeting with his russian counterpart lavrov ended without any progress on the cease-fire. and that concludes this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. coming up next is "newsline" biz with ramin knemel legard, so st right there.

♪ ♪ this is "newsline biz." i'm ramin mellegard. japan's producer prices rose by the most in over 41 years in february. driven mainly by surging prices of crude oil and raw materials. the bank of japan said the cost of goods traded among companies increased 9.3% from a year earlier. the index rose for the 12th straight month. the spike is the biggest since january 1981 when japan was reeling from the second oil crisis. price hikes for petroleum products and the higher power generation costs contributed to the rise.

two-thirds of the items covered by the index, including commercial use coffee and corn, were more expensive than a month earlier. now the data indicates companies have already started passing on higher materials cost by marking up prices in business to business sales. boj officials say crude prices are continuing to rise in the wake of russia's invasion of ukraine. they said they will monitor how it affects producer prices. more japanese firms are suspending operation in russia over the conflict. the move comes amid heavy western sanctions. sony has shut its online store in russia and canceled a movie release. hitachi has temporarily halted construction and sales of machinery and memory devices to

russia. fast retailer, the operator of uniglo will temporarily close officials in tyo appear to be reluctant to allow japanese companies to follow suit when it comes to developments in russia's far east. the official cite the need for japan which imports nearly all its natural gas and crude oil to maintain a diverse energy sources. japanese public and private sectors have stakes in the sakhalin-1 and sakhalin-2 projects in russia together with u.s. and european countries. british oil giant shell and exxon-mobil of the u.s. have announced they will pull out.

but japan's economy minister has told the lower house committee that a withdrawal of japanese interests there would be futile if it failed to inflict harm on russia. many government officials believe japan needs to have a large number of diverse sources of energy. but some concede the country may be forced to amend its policies depending on how the conflict develops and on international public opinion. snow japan airlines have scrapped a plan to operate special planes to evacuate ja japanese from russia. the officials say they decided to cancel the plan because the flights may not be covered by insurance. some insurers have suspended their coverage of flights over russia as part of economic sanctions. all district services between russia and japan have been cancelled following the invasion of ukraine, japan's foreign

ministry has raised its risk warning level for all areas across russia urging japanese nationals to consider leaving on commercial flights. ♪ ♪ a feasibility study of using the carbon-capturing ability of the coastal ecosystem to combat global warming has started in a northern japanese port. sea grasses and other coastal plants capture and store carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. atmospheric carbon trapped in this way is known as blue carbon. a tokyo-based firm japan blue carbon started in kushido. over the next three years, it aims to study the growth of sea grass. research by the land ministry found that one square meter of sea grass absorbs 2.4 times the amount of

carbon absorbed by the same area of forest. >> translator: we want to contribute to reducing co2 emissions with blue carbon, which is not very well known yet. >> the firm plans to establish sea grass meadows around the country's coastline and sell blue carbon emission credits in the future. now many people with hearing impairments missed the warnings entirely when evacuation sirens and radio broadcasts were activated during the 2011 great east japan earthquake and tsunami. as a result, some were unable to escape. the disaster highlighted the critical vulnerability of those with hearing loss during disasters. nhk world's ida kota reports on growing efforts to find a solution. >> reporter: the torrential rainfall in northern kyushu three years ago, the sound of

heavy rain predicts the danger of the situation. however, this person who took the video couldn't hear due to a hearing impairment. he was also unable to hear the emergency call to evacuate. he had no idea of the danger he was in until the following morning when he woke up surrounded by water. he lost his farm due to flooding. >> translator: i could smell mud and i woke up wondering what had happened. it was scary. he realized the danger. only after you see it right in front of you. >> reporter: the federation of the deaf surveyed over 100 people with hearing impairments. it was clear that when a disaster strikes, many miss the evacuation calls. as a result, they end up

isolated and in danger. in february, a university and manufacturer joined forces to research and develop new technology that can alert those with hearing impairment to danger. the device reacts to sound by and ghting up. they hope to take the technology a step further, another device that captured sounds such as sirens and emergency radio systems and transforms them into an alert. >> translator: as artificial intelligence technology such as machine learning and deep learning evolve, the accuracy of the device's response to specific sounds continues to improve. >> translator: i want to create something so information arrives without delay and bring safety and a sense of security to

people's daily lives. >> reporter: he and others with hearing impairments in the region also took their own steps to protect themselves. they created special social media groups to share evacuation information and check in on one another's safety during disasters. they are trying to encourage people who do not have hearing problems to ensure that emergency information is quickly conveyed to all members. >> translator: i want people to feel free to say that they need help. >> translator: it's hard for me to obtain information on my own. in the event of a disaster, we need teams where everyone can spring into action. that's the kind of system we want to set up. >> reporter: the goal is to make sure that no one is ever left behind in a disaster. the search for innovative solution continues.

okay, let's get a check on the markets. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

that's it for "newsline biz" from tokyo. i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much for watching.

the top stories. the civilian evacuation of the besieged port city of mariupol has been canceled for the fourth time. empty buses were seen turning around following reports of russian shelling along the humanitarian corridor. fighting north of kyiv is intensifying as russian forces push toward the city. military experts say russia could attack kyiv within days. : says it is ready to deploy all of its mig 29 fighter