politicall changes urber in an era of transition. and pry open its potential. aung san suu kyi spent the past 24 years either under house arrest or under threat from her government. now myanmar's opposition leader is free and on her first foreign trip since the 1980 pps she headed first to thailand. she'll meet with migrant workers and give a speech at the world economic forum on east asia. her supporters were waiting to

greet her at the airport. aung san suu kyi will stay in thailand until the end of the week. she'll speak with representatives at the international conference about the work she and her colleagues are doing to move their country toward democracy. and she'll meet with refugees at a camp near the border with myanmar. aung san suu kyi returned home from britain in 1988 and became a leader of the democracy movement. she spent a total of 15 years under house arrest by the military government. but she refused to leave myanmar. she feared government officials would not allow her back into the country. recent moves toward democracy encouraged her to travel again. myanmar has a productive workforce, low wages and abundant resources. many business people see it as the last frontier of asia. so executives from japan and elsewhere are trying to find a way in. nhk world's hiro tanaka reports. >> reporter:okyo stock exchange has signed an agreement

with myanmar's central bank. moves are under way to set up the first stock market in the country. the aim is to deepen bilateral ties and gain a strong base to promote investment in local far farms. >> working together for a long time and i think we believe that he's very true and very good partner for us. >> reporter: shigeto is a japanese business person who helped to win the deal. he's the president of a college in myanmar. was created by japan's security group together with the local bank. the plan is to expand this to set up the new exchange. he has lived in myanmar for 14

years. he stayed behind even when many left the country due to u.s. and european sanctions. he has built a wide network of personal connections with government and other key figures -. . -- to fit in with the local society. he ran into some competition from south korea. but in the end, the deep trust he had won over the years from local officials made all the difference. >> translator: japanese people take time and nurture relationships. and it's not all about money. i think that our culture struck a chord with the people in myanmar. >> reporter: a major japanese

bank is also making inroad in myanmar ahead of its competitors from other countries. sumimito banking corporation has joined hands with myanmar's leading commercial bank. sumimito is aiming to top the partner's network to offer loan and other financial services to japanese firms when the local market opens its doors to foreign banks. at this local bank, huge amounts of bank notes are piled up. in myanmar, most payments are made with cash since automatic teller machines are not so common there yet. this branch handles as many as 5 million bank notes a day. >> translator: this is myanmar's leading bank so its methods are actually the most advanced for

this country. >> reporter: they plan to recommend to the local partner that it introduces teller machines and other systems. this will thop boost operational efficiency and improve its services. japanese firms aim to play a leading role in setting up a financial market in myanmar to boost the local economy and gain the foot of growth. the trial has just begun. our next story now. kofi annan says the people of syria do not want their future to be one of bloodshed and division. th he returned to damascus to try to salvage the peace plan he brokered. he urged president bashar al assad to follow through on his promises. in an appeal to assad to take bold steps to stop the fighting between government and

opposition forces. syria's state-run news agency quoted the president as saying that the frequent terror attacks and foreign military aid to terrorists would have end to. u.n. observers are in syria to monitor a peace agreement, but they've been unable to stop the fighting. more than 100 people were killed last week in the village of houla in central syria. members of the security council were among leaders from around the whorld have condhemd assad administration for its role. u.s. officials say iranian officials are to blame, too. an iranian military unit helped carry out the massacre. state department spokesperson victoria nuland said the elite forces supported the syrian military. the iranian group is known as qods. the qods force saying publicly that they were proud of the role that they had played in training and assisting the syrian forces.

and look what this has wrought. >> reporter: the state department has told a senior syrian diplomat in the u.s. to leave the country within 72 hours. france, britain, germany, canada, australia and other nations have also ordered syrian ambassadors and other diplomats to leave. french president francois hollande said wester nations took the action together to put more pressure on the syrian government. mitt romney has clinched the u.s. republican presidential nomination. he'll face president barack obama in the election in november. the former massachusetts governor is projected to win the primary in texas. with that, he has now secured more than 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination. >> we need to have presidents who understand how this economy works day-to-day, small business, middle size business, big business. i do. i want to use that experience to

get us to work again. romney will officially be nominated in august at the republican national convention. polls suggest that support rates for romney and obama are close. romney has five months to convince voters that he would be a better person to manage the u.s. economy. members of the japanese red army remain at large 40 years after coming to world attention. the extremists attacks an airport in israel in 1972. they staged more attacks in 1970s and '80s teaming up with palestinian armed groups. the japanese red army attacked tel aviv's airport on may 30th, 1972. it was the first in a series of strikes committed by the group around the world. red army members staged the attack. 24 people were killed and 76 others wounded. two of the attackers blew

themselves up, but okimoto was arrested and served a prison term in israel. he is now 64 years old. he lives in lebanon where authorities granted him political asylum. japanese police believe the a l asylum wasn't granted because palestinians consider him a hero for the attacks in israel. officials suspect they were involved in hijackings and embassy seizures. japanese police are continuing their hunt with a full-time team of investigators. the whistleblower at olympus has reached a settlement with the company over his dismissal. sources say the optical equipmentmaker will pay the former president 10 million pounds, more than $15 million. woodford said it's time for the company to move on and time for him to move on, too.

>> in the interest of both parties, it has to be ratified by the main board of the olympus corporation on the board meeting on friday, the 8th of june. >> no details of the settlement are available. but it's believed to take into account the compensation he would have received if he had worked until the end of his contract. woodford argued in a lawsuit that he was unfairly dismissed last october. he had questioned company executives about accounting irregularities. prosecutors say they hid losses of more than a billion dollars. executeivives at one of japs biggest banks say they'll cooperate in an investigation into insider trading. they've asked the financial services agency to find sumimito trust bank. regulators say employees of it sold misuho shares based on privileged information.

the employees knew misuho would issue new stocks and that share prices would fall. through this process, the bank may have made about 20 million yen, or $250,000 in illegal profit. sources close to the case said the employees of nomura securities leaked the information. they were in charge of helping miso raise capital. they reportedly asked the employees to buy the new miso stock in exchange for the information. this is the second time since march that nomura employees have been involved in insider trading with those at sumimotsu. investigators at the exchange surveillance commission are looking into the case. against the backdrop of the credit woes of europe, the prospects for china are of growing concern. jaymee ng has more. >> industrial output is showing

lower growth. stock markets have also been posting a weak performance due to the ongoing turmoil. shanghai stocks fell by 4.3% from the beginning of this month through friday last week. the hang seng lost 12.2%. we asked a regional chief investment officer at ubs world management in hong kong about his views on investor sentiment and the chinese government's policies. >> i think right now the market was -- considering the problem in europe. but let's say u.s. is -- economy is doing well, china's economy is okay strong, then market doesn't have to be that worried. right now u.s. economic growth is a bit wobbly. china's economy is not that strong. china's profit is still shrinking, still contracting. so all this kind of doesn't help

the market. the market needs to see more positive news. from asia and u.s. if europe debt crisis is not going to have a solution soon. >> amid growing worries over the slowing economy, china's central bank has eased monetary policy by lowering the ratio for banks. >> i think the chinese government probably need to cut more triple rate in order to provide more liquidity. china's government need to stimulate demand for credit for loans. then it's more important. for example, need to give them more incentive to take up more loans. maybe infrastructure project need to be launched in order to have loan demand. so i think it's moving in the right direction, but still there are some way to go in terms of the help in the economy turning

around. >> he also says the chinese government needs to support investment for sustainable growth. but that it should be done the right way. >> what i talk about in 2008 or '09, they launch the stimulus package. that i think is the right move but too much of the investment. that's why they created a big bubble in 2009 and '10 afterwards. this time i think they learned a lesson. they're not going to launch a big investment project, but are more encouragement o investment into like small, medium sized enterprises. maybe new energy. energy saving project. maybe rural infrastructure project. maybe improving the technology within the company. so this kind of project should improve china's competitiveness,

not creating another asset bubble. so they have to be careful what kind of investment they need to ha have. >> that was the regional chief investment officer at ubs world management in hong kong. now a quick check on some other numbers from mainland china that may raise some market eyebrows. the national bureau of statistics said china's industrial profits recorded a year on year decrease of 1.6% from january to april. the decline was mainly due to falls in profits from state-own state-owned enterprises. growth rate was slower compared to the same period last year. china's cargo growth also slowed in april. the ministry of transport says cargo throughput competed at major ports rose 6. to 820

million tons in april. that's down 7.1 percentage points from a year ago, mainly due to a sluggish rise in cargo throughput for domestic trade. china's state corporation says the country should brace for power shortage this summer due to heat waves and drought. renewed economic activity will also boost power demand. it says a steady power supply will be its top priority as the nation gears up for the 18th national congress of the communist national party later this year. that wraps up report from hong kong. back to you in tokyo. >> that was jaymee ng in hong kong. going solo for cellular. japanese mobile phone company kddi will establish 100 mobile phone base stations equipped with solar power generation and storage battery systems. this comes after the company's experience in last year's march 11th disaster when conventional equipment in troubled areas

failed to work for about one month. kddi says its new base stations can function even in a blackout following a disaster as long as the sun is shining. and because the base stations can store surplus solar power, they are able to cut power consumption by about 40%. other carriers are also bowl sterg up their backup measures. a bank is experimenting with utilizing balloons to quickly reinstate phone links after disasters. two dogs in an animal shelter waiting for their owners to show up. it's not an uncommon tale but these dogs are not strays. their lives were upended by the accident at fukushima. and their troubles didn't stop there. >> reporter: an animal shelter run by a non-profit group far from the disaster area.

there are 30 dogs here. most were rescued from one village in fukushima. after the nuclear accident, the shelter took in dogs whose owners were no longer able to care for them. the dogs get plenty of food, but the organization is short staffed so animals only get five minutes a day outside of the pens to walk around the grounds. five minutes is not much time for an energetic pup like chau. and the 3-year-old wants more than a leisurely stroll. far away in fec shuma, his owners are trying to rebuild their lives. they couldn't take their dog when they evacuated. heartbreaking for the three daughters. >> translator: when we see a dog on tv, we always think about cha and start talking about him.

sometimes we look at old pictures. cha was an important family member. we thought of him like a little brother. we used to run outside together. we would go for walks. i want to do that again. back at the shelter, 13-year-old beagle chibi is also missing her owners. she's 70 in human years. she has rarely barked. a present has arrived. perhaps this will cheer her up. a new collar sent by chibi's owners. the old beagle seems to perk up immediately. one month later, chibi's owners finally visit the center. but this is a sad day for the

family. nine days after receiving the collar, chibi died. chibi had chronic heart problems. staff gave her medicine and took her to a vet. but she wasn't able to see her family again before she passed away. they retrieve her remains and the collar that got chibi barking again. >> chibi was always walking in the mountains. i will take her remains there so she can go back there and run free again. >> reporter: two other dogs have died in the past year. like chibi, they never saw their owners again. >> translator: it's really sad. for sure the dogs all want to go home. just because they're dogs doesn't mean they don't miss home. i hope they can all go home

soon. >> reporter: more visitors arrive. this time it's the takakura family. it's been one year since the girls last played with cha. they spend 2 1/2 hours together. their little brother is having the time of his life. >> translator: it was fun, but cha ran so much, it tired me out. >> reporter: fukushima and gifu are more than 500 kilometers apart. they don't know when they'll have a chance to see their dog again. it's time to leave. the children promise they will come back soon.

cha watches them go and keeps watching long after they've gone. >> the shelter's manages say they'll look after the dogs for two years. if the owners are still not able to take them back by then, a search will begin for foster homes. people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." lots of sunshine here in tokyo, but a very different picture in china it seems. let's turn to rachel ferguson for the details. >> hi there. why clear skies across much of japan today. it will be changing from this evening, though. showers make their way over from central china. the shanghai region and down in towards the south has been

experiencing some very heavy rain. ongoing for the last several weeks off and on. it is the rainy season now and it has led to various problems. we have some video to show you. this coming out of guangdong province. more than 3,000 hectares of farm land have been flooded. massive mud slides occurred here as well killing four people and affecting more than 150,000 rescue efforts and disaster relief are under way now. but unfortunately, the wet season will continue for the next few months. it's just getting started, in fact, down across the south. we also have the southwest monsoon which is getting pretty active now over indochina. eastern and western coasts of indochina looking for heavy downpours on wednesday and into thursday. some other areas experiencing heavy rain is the southeast of the united states. and it's because of beryl. the tropical storm that made

landfall on monday morning, now a tropical depression. moving through georgia into south carolina. making way for the water. now once it moves over the atlantic again, it's likely to get invigorated, become a tropical storm once again. keeping a close eye on what happens as we head into wednesday afternoon. at the moment, 45 kilometer an hour winds. we're not deal with storm force winds but it's going to be gusty around the system. the main threat is the rain. it has been so heavy over the last several days. the coast is still in for another soaking down here as we head into the next 48 hours. and overall totals could reach up to about 400 millimeters. so that's certainly enough to cause problems with flooding. now also that system is helping to pull lots of moisture from the south into this front line which is extending down in towards texas. all along that front, thunderstorms and heavy rain. down here to the south, texas into nebraska is where we'll

find the worst of the storms. that system is going to make its way fairly slowly east. the lower mississippi valley, you'll be deal with heavy thunderstorms as we head on from wednesday into thursday as well. temperatures are fairly split, actually. cooler air coming down from the north behind that front. chicago down to 19 degrees to the south about ten degrees warmer -- hotter than that. 34 degrees in houston. low 30s in oklahoma city. d.c., atlanta and miami. with a hot day in new york city, too, at 27. into europe we go. things are going to change here. it's been dry and very warm across much of western and central europe for the last week or so. we are going to see a change. a low pressure system bringing storms across the british aisles and also a front which is going to be sagging right down. and along with jet stream moving down towards the south is going to allow cooler and unsettled weather to dominate the continent. staying hot and dry, however in the southwest, although even

here you'll see pop-up thunderstorms during the heat of the day. here are your temperatures then. 24 in moscow. we've also got 24 in london. but east to west, you'll see the temperatures drop by 5 to 10 degrees into the next couple of days. here's your extended forecast.

and that's all for now on this edition of "newsline." i'm yuko aotani in tokyo.

thank you very much for watching.