remain on-air in the everge of an emergency. the israel broadcasting authority opened the new facility to the media. it sits seven meters below ground and has 30-centimeter thick concrete walls. they built the bunker tafr was forced to suspend live broadcasting during fighting in 2006 where the islamic fundamentalist group hezbollah. a shell landed near its haifa

bureau. the new studio comes as the israeli government threatens to launch a preemptive military strike against nuclear facilities in iran. >> and we as the iba, as the public radio and television, we have to be ready for any emergency. >> the broadcaster plans to set up similar studios in three more cities, including jerusalem. as we said earlier, people in okinawa are marking 40 years since the u.s. returned control of the prefecture to the japanese government. u.s. officials administered the island for 27 years after world war ii. residents and leaders already gathering to commemorate the anniversary. and james tengan is covering the event for us. james? >> reporter: the ceremony to mark the anniversary starts at 4:00 p.m. local time. it will take place at the okinawa convention center which you can see right behind me. the center is probably a fitting

venue for this event in another sense. the convention hall is just one kilometer from the u.s. marine corps futenma air station. in fact, the convention center stands on land that used to host u.s. army facilities. the land was returned to japan 36 years ago. and the convention center was built as part of projects to commemorate okinawa's return to japan. about 1,200 people are expected to attend the event, including japanese prime minister yoshihiko noda, nakayma and john roos. for many islanders, the return of okinawa offers the promise of stability and basic human rights under the japanese constitution. however, many also say it marked the beginning of another age of hardship. nhk world's tohomako met with the former okinawa governor who

led the bases out movement of the 1990s. he told us how he sees the current situation of the islands since their return. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: now 86 years old, he served out the okinawan governor from 1990 to 1998. after surviving the war, he devoted himself to studies at universities in okinawa, tokyo and the united states to try and understand why his islands had to make such a great sacrifice. during his tenure as governor, the oak gnaw wan people's anti-u.s. sentiment exploded after the rape of a teenage girl by three u.s. marine soldiers. in 1996, after a series of negotiations with the pentagon and tokyo, he won a concession.

the u.s. agreed to withdraw from bases from okinawa, including the notorious futenma marine air station. however, after the governor retired from the politics, the base issue became deadlocked over where to relocate it. >> people questioned so strongly that okinawa military bases should be cut down and -- but this was not done. so now there is great disappointment and anger toward the central government. local people feel that they are betrayed by the current central government after 40 years. >> anything have changed about the issue at the bases? >> nothing has changed at all.

even worse. >> reporter: ohta survived the battle of okinawa as a child soldier. he says the sacrifice of one-third of the islanders made him determined to eliminate military bases from his homeland. >> i am afraid unless the people understand the terrible experiences of local people during the battle of okinawa, they could not understand why they are thoroughly opposed to the u.s. military bases. we believe that the okinawan people will be protected by the japanese defense forces, but we -- japanese defense force soldiers killed the local people. they ordered mothers to kill their child simply to keep quiet so that they didn't find out by the enemy forces.

such terrible things which we never dreamed of even. so we are very much disappoint ed. we learned a big lesson that the military does not protect the civilians when the war occurs. >> ohta is frustrated by the indifference of the majority of japanese towards the u.s. military presence which could lead to the permanent establishment of bases in okinawa. >> japanese center always say the security is so important. it's in the national interest of japan. and in order to maintain the peace and security of the asia pacific regions, u.s. military

bases on okinawa are indispensable. however, even though they insist that the security is so important in its national intere interest, they do not want to bring in the military bases to their own backyard. >> what do you think about that? >> this is nonsense for us because if it's national interest, you know, they should share the -- undery in name of democracy. democracy, majority rules, you know? so that the okinawan always -- problems will not be solved unless those majority pay attention or take it as -- take okinawa problems as their own problems. >> reporter: ohta says an increase in the number of young

islanders who can clearly say no to what they see as an unfair burden could achve an okiwa without bases. >> we watch the current situation among the local youngsters. voices of okinawa should be independent if the central government tries oak gnaw wn oke as they used to. they have to listen to the minority groups, people like okinawan people, you know? this is -- i have the hope that they will change. >> as ohta pointed out, for many, this is far from a day of celebration. he speaks for a good majority of the island's residents, and perhaps we should take this opportunity to think about why

both japan and the united states were not able to provide the islanders with a better life. what pertinent messages will there be for the people in the dignitaries' speeches today. we'll report on the actual ceremony later on in "newsline." james tengan, nhk world, ginowan city, okinawa. >> thanks very much there, james. another okinawa related story. a u.s. state department official has suggested u.s. military leaders are prepared to hand back some facilities as planned. deputy assistant secretary of state says the measure would ease the prefecture's burden of hosting the bases. >> okinawa is very centrally located to many countries in the region, and i think our presence in okinawa serves as a deter tonight ensure peace and stability, not only for japan but also for neighboring countries in the region. >> zumult said he doesn't have a specific date in mind but he says he believes part of camp

zuccaran and others can be returned soon. he said there is no obstacle to returning these areas. japanese and u.s. officials agreed last month to relocate about 9,000 marines from okinawa to places outside japan. the americans also agreed to return some land used by the u.s. military in okinawa. the two issues were linked from the plan to relocate the futenma base. zumult suggested officials were eager to separate the issues so they could move quick three transfer marines. officials from japan and mexico are the latest to call for a wider financial safety net. they'll try to persuade members of the group of 20 nations to boost the capacity of the international monetary fund. japanese finance minister met with the treasure secretary in

tokyo. they agreed to seek the cooperation of their counterparts from china, brazil and other countries next month at the g-20 summit in los cabos, mexico. they want an additional $430 billion in bailout funds. the imf already won commitments from g-20 finance ministers and central bank governors. japanese leaders have announced $60 billion in additional loans. a senior executive of u.s. bank jpmorgan chase is resigning. bungled trades cost the firm $2 billion in losses. ina drew headed the bank's investment strategy division. her employees botched trades on derivative financial products in an effort to hedge against risk. drew was regardedad one of the top female sxut executives on wall street. jpmorgan chase has not disclosed details of the trades that led to drew's resignation. but analysts suspect her group made the wrong bets on credit

default swaps in london and other markets. those swap deals are used as an insurance against possible defaults on debt insured instruments. the job situation in looking better for japan's college graduates with more of them finding employment this year than last year. the labor ministry surveyed over 4,700 people who graduated this past march. results show that as of april 1st, 93.6% had landed jobs. the ratio is up 2.6 percentage points from last year when the figure marked a record low. the labor ministry says despite the improvement, some 25,000 students are estimated to have graduated from college without job offers this year. meanwhile, the employment rate among new high school graduates came to 94.8%. up 1.6 percentage points from last year. the education ministry says the

job situation for high school graduates has now recovered to its prefinancial crisis level of 2008. singapore is a small country with big ambitions with few resources, the island nation has made its name as a center of finance trade and biotechnology. so what's next on its list of targets? nhk world's yuko funazaki reports. >> reporter: leading hollywood production company lucas film picked singapore as the site of its first overseas studio. transformers, iron man and "mission impossible." some of these visual effects are made here in singapore. singapore is a half day ahead of the united states. that means, lucas film can work 24 hours a day from its base in san francisco. 500 people now work at the singapore studio.

200 more will be hired over the next two years. >> singapore offers very good infrastructure. ip, intellectual property is very well protected, which is very important for us. and also we got very good support from the government to develop the entertainment business over the long term. >> reporter: next year, lucas film plans to open new studio in the same multimedia industrial zone as a government-funded mediapolis now under construction. the singapore government will build state of the art facilities on the 19-acre site, including a special effects studio in the digital media lab. the aim is to bring together game and animation software producers. along with tv and other multimedia firms. established media giants are not

the only targets. here, a government official welcomes the head of a japanese venture firm who came to seek advice. the singapore government even has an investment fund to support new content producers. >> translator: they have a variety of plans like hiring support and preferential treatment in finding offices. we hope to build a base here and enter a partnership with a local firm to start a new web business. >> because we believe very strongly in the international potential of the media industry. we believe we are one of the best places in the world for home-grown companies, as well as foreign companies to come and do things and create new media products and services. and this is one of our key tools for developing it long term.

>> reporter: dna is a leading japanese provider of mobile phone games. the firm opened an office in singapore last year. toshiheki is the director of market development. he recently invited local developers of game software to a company event. he let them try japanese games hoping to increase their interest in dna. some of the developers were apparently eager to sell their own games to the firm. >> translator: as the game market expands rapidly in southeast asia, the region's

leading talents and firms are gathering here. singapore is most likely to become a hub for the i.t. and game industries. >> reporter: singapore has years of experience attracting global talent and investment to its biomedical sectors. it's now hoping to replicate that success in the media industry, targeting both start-ups and major firms. yuko funazaki, nhk world, singapore. and here are the latest market figures now.

it's dark and wet here in tokyo. time now to check the world weather forecast with rachel ferguson. >> yes, certainly looking a little bit wet and gloomy today, but wednesday will promise brighter skies and much higher temperatures as well. getting up to 27 degrees here in tokyo. but as for today, very wet across much of japan. it's because of this front and a low pressure system coming in together. while the rain will move away for much of japan into tomorrow, that front will be left over so still moving across the southern japanese islands. yakushima has seen about 150 millimeters of rain. we're likely to add to that as we head into wednesday as that front stays in place. now it's been affecting southeastern china. we're still seeing some significant rainfall hitting coastal areas. you could see another 50 to 100

millimeters of rain in the next 24 hours. falling on already saturated land. so quite unwelcome rain here. towards the northeast, we've got another system moving through. fairly wet and unstable. and again, for indochina, yesterday we were seeing some heavy rain towards the east. today again, the eastern half will get some soaking rains. but it's starting to move further towards the western half of the peninsula. all right. let's go now to north america. we have the first named storm of the season. leta here to the southwest of mexico. the first named storm of the eastern pacific, of course is moving west at 19 kilometers an hour. this is our tropical storm. is probably just going to start to weaken off. it will become a remnant low by friday. so it's moving away from land masses at the moment. doesn't look like it will be posing too much of a problem. certainly some good news. severe outbreaks of weather today, though, from southern texas down into northeastern

mexico. some thunderstorms likely to contain damaging winds, flooding rains and potential for tornadoes here. the eastern coast is looking pretty wet from florida right up through the northeast once again. another round of heavy rain, thunderstorms embedded in there as well. and the potential for flash flooding. up towards the midwest, you can see this rain dashing across ontario. we've actually got some severe storms down into northern missouri. you can't see the rain with them because they're mostly going to be quite dry storms. getting a lot of heat moving up through the midwest. 27 degrees in chicago. 27 you might think that's hot but if we head to the desert southwest, 41 in phoenix. and actually that extreme heat combined with some low humidity and some gusty winds is creating fire weather. and there are warnings and watches posted in parts of utah as well as nevada and arizona. all right. we'll head on into europe today. across the north once again, the british isles and scandinavia getting impacted by this large

low pressure system. we're now seeing fronts pushing in to central europe. so gusty winds and heavy rain coming in to you in the alpine region. out towards the southeast, we've got a low bringing thunderstorms across the balkans. that's heading up to the northeast. in its place we'll see this rain coming over the next 24 to 48 hours. so a bit of a break in the balkans before more thunderstorms appear. to the southwest, while it stays mostly dry but very hot. his bonn 30 degrees. up to about 34 on your wednesday. and there are some heat watches posted for spain. fairly chilly in london. 13 degrees here and in paris. berlin down to 13 on wednesday as well. moscow will be warming up to about 20 degrees to the middle of the week. here's your extended forecast.

a concert was held in moscow to support japan's recovery from the march 11th disaster last year and to deepen bilateral exchanges. ♪ nearly 5,000 people turned up at the kremlin concert hall. ♪

japanese singer kayoko sang apa japanese song accompanied by an ethnic russian instrument. she also sang a russian piece to the applause of the audience. ♪ russian singer anita sang another japanese song which is popular in russia. performances at the concert also included demonstrations by