pressure points. the european union imposes new sanctions against iran. western leaders have tried time and again to get their counterparts in tehran to halt their nuclear program. they've done their best to make it more difficult to do business there. now eu foreign ministers slapped more economic penalties on iran banning trade in finance, energy, and transport. >> reporter: eu foreign ministers made the decision at a meeting in luxembourg on monday. they said they took the stance because talks between iran and

six world powers have made little progress. the eu is to ban in principle financial transactions between banks in the region and those in iran. the matter excludes medical and humanitarian aid. in addition, the eu has decided to impose a total ban on imports of iranian natural gas, though the current amount of import is quite limited. the union already banned iranian crude oil imports in july. the eu is also to prohibit member nations from shipping uranium and steel to iran as the country could use the material to build nuclear bombs. >> we have always said sanctions are not in end in themselves but are there to apply pressure on the iranian authorities to meet their international obligations and commitments. they are not aimed at the iranian people. >> reporter: the eu's latest move is an apparent attempt to gain concessions from iran regarding its nuclear ambitions.

takashi ichinose, nhk world. iran's supreme leader says the latest measures are nothing new. ayatollah ali khamenei is calling for a national show of defiance. khamenei said enemies of iran are attempting to divide the country. he called on the iranian people to unite. the economic penalties by the eu and the u.s. have caused the value of the currency, the riyal, to plummet. thousands of people took to the streets of tehran two weeks ago in protest. a spokesperson from iran's petroleum ministry said earlier this month a natural gas embargo would have no effect as the country doesn't export it to the eu. iran has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world. officials say they plan to expand exports to turkey and other neighboring countries. but these latest sanctions could affect those plans. eu foreign ministers agreed to tighten sanctions against syria, too. they've been trying to pressure president bashar al assad to

stop a crackdown on his own people. the ministers shared their concerns about the spread of the conflict into turkey and other neighboring countries. they agreed to impose sanctions on more individuals and companies. >> we've added 28 people to the list of those subject to a travel ban and an asset freeze. two additional entities were targeted with an asset freeze. >> 54 entities and 181 people are now subject to sanctions including assad and members of his family. this is the 19th time the eu has introduced the economic penalties. russian government leaders have opposed the sanctions against their allies at every turn. foreign minister sergei lavrov reiterated that stance on sunday in a meeting with eu ministers. syrian government forces have denied allegations they've dropped cluster bombs on residential areas. they say reports that they have are untrue. activists with human rights

watch say they have amateur video of government planes dropping cluster bombs and they've posted eyewitness accounts on their website. government commanders say they have no such weapons. they accused opposition forces of fabricating the allegations. an opposition activist in the northern city of aleppo told nhk that government planes continued using cluster bombs even after the claims were made. cluster bombs scatter hundreds of smaller bombs. they can kill people long after conflicts end. more than 100 governments have signed a treaty banning their use. syrian leaders have not signed the agreement. a pakistani girl shot by the taliban arrived in britain for medical care. doctors in pakistan have been treating malala yousafzai since she was attacked last week. government officials say she needs long-term care abroad. the pakistani government offered to pay for yousafzai's transport and treatment. doctors flew with her in an air ambulance provided by the united

arab emirates. yousafzai is 14 years old. she wrote a blog advocating girls' education. that angered some fundamentalists. gunmen boarded her school bus in northwestern pakistan last tuesday and shot her in the head. the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility. the shooting sparked an outpouring of condemnation across the country and abroad. police have arrested several suspects in connection with the attack. now, the people of scotland will have a chance to decide whether to end more than 300 years of union with the united kingdom. they'll vote on their independence by the end of 2014. british prime minister david cameron and scotland's first minister alex salmond agreed to the referendum. the deal follows months of negotiations between the british government and salmond's scottish national party. scots age 16 and older will be able to vote.

some scottish people believe they can achieve economic independence because of oil reserves in the north sea and growing wind power industry. opinion polls suggest only about 30% of scots favor independence. officials at the japanese embassy in paris have lodged a protest against national tv stance france dur. the host of a variety show on the network made a joke about the effects of radiation from the fukushima nuclear plant. the japanese national soccer team beat france 1-0 on friday in a friendly match. it was japan's first-ever victory over france. goalkeeper kawashima contributed to the victory by making many saves. the host of a saturday night variety show said he played wonderful. he then showed a photo of the goalkeeper wed four arms. he described it as the fukushima effect. he was referring to the crisis at the fukushima daiichi plant in march last year. some commentator in the european media criticized the remarks.

a newspaper in belgium said the joke went too war. caucasi kawashima currently plays in the belgium league. u.s. shoppers in september rushing retail sales higher for the third straight month. commerce department officials said monday that retail sales reached $412.9 billion last month, up 1.1% from august and better than market forecasts of around 0.7%. sales at department stores fell by .2%. but most retailers saw increases. electronics and home appliances rose 4.5%. gasoline sales were up 2.5%. autos and related parts as well as food and beverages were up over 1%. continued improvement comes after the nation's jobless rate fell below 8% in september for

the first time in three years and eight months. market analysts are now turning their attention to july to september gdp figures due out later this month. they want to see if the u.s. economy can stay on the recovery track. now japan is not enough for softbank moss boss nasayoshi son. committed to turning his telecom firm into a global mobile phone giant. the chairman and ceo laid out his ambitions after the company announced it bought the third largest u.s. carrier, sprint nextel. he revealed his intentions in an exclusive interview with nhk. >> translator: as we grow as a global firm, we can make our management stronger, firmer, and larger. this will lead to more capital investment for the next generation. it will enable us to provide better services including easier

connections at higher speeds with lower charges. >> son said both softbank and sprint sell apple's iphones and both want to improve their high-speed lte wireless services. these were some of his main reasons for the recent buyout decision. son said he wanted to enhance softbank's competitiveness by accelerating capital investment. he said he wants to increase the firm's procurement ability for new telecoms equipment by taking advantage of scale. the softbank chief added the company intends to implement in the u.s. market the firm's accumulated know-how on smartphone sales and infrastructure improvement. softbank announced on monday it will pay about $20 billion to buy 70% of sprint shares. the purchase will create a global telecommunications giant with more than 96 million subscribers. >> president latest news on the bluefin tuna could be good or bad for sushi lovers.

conservation experts say the bluefin population in the east atlantic has increased. this marks a reversal of decades of decline. it also raises fears of a return to overfishing. a report by the international commission for the conservation of atlantic tuna says observers have spotted a clear-cut increase in recent years. the bluefin population in the mediterranean and other waters in the east atlantic fell from the 1970s to the mid-2000s. the report says the population recovered as each ratifying country reduced its catch in line with commission guidelines. the result sounds a warning to conservationists and parties related to fisheries management that it could encourage expanded fishing quotas. the commission is set to meet next month in morocco to discuss management of atlantic bluefin tuna stocks. most of japan's nuclear reactors remain offline. that means the country has to import large quantities of liquid natural gas to keep its thermal power plants going.

the japanese government has asked qatar, the world's largest exporter of the fuel, to lower its prices. japan's trade and industry minister, yukio edano met with senior qatari official hamad al atia in tokyo on monday. edano explained japan's energy situation and requested a discount. >> translator: we're asking for affordable stable supplies of liquified natural gas to meet our country's needs. >> the price of lng from qatar is linked to the price of crude oil. that makes it relatively expensive. al atia wants to maintain good relations with japan so he'll listen to what edano has to say but he stopped short of making a commitment on pricing. japan's need to import lng plunged its trade balance into the red. government officials plan to strengthen alliances with other lng importers to improve their negotiating position. japanese pride themselves on honoring their traditions but

these days they're trying to rid themselves of what's become somewhat of a financial tradition. they want to end two decades of deflation. kanno is chief economist at jpmorgan securities japan. nhk world's ching-li tor sat down with him to find out when and how japan can beat deflation. >> thank you so much for your time today, mr. kanno. >> my dear pleasure. thank you. global economy is slowing down. more sharply than we originally expected. and it means actually the output gap remains quite large in japan and the -- our price outlook also has been revised down recently so it is quite unlikely that the inflation rate will reach 1% in 2014. the inflation rate will remain probably below 0.5% unless the boj does something very drastically.

>> reporter: both the u.s. federal reserve and the bank of japan eased monetary policy in september, but while u.s. markets got a sustained boost, japanese markets soon wrote off the bank of japan action. >> the fed will continue the monetary policy until unemployment rate falls as low as at least 8%, 7%. but what the boj said sounds a little bit modest compared to the fed. the boj is saying the boj will continue to ease the policy until 1% inflation target is in horizon. but it is very unclear what it means. so if the boj changes the wording, say that the boj will continue easing until 1% inflation target is achieved or the 1% inflation is achieved stably. that is a much clearer message that the boj would want to get

out of deflation more seriously. >> reporter: kanno also shared his forecast of the bank of japan's possible move at its next policy meeting on october 30th and the likely market reaction. >> boj is likely to increase the size of asset purchases by 10 trillion yen. the market participants have already priced in that boj would do something at the end of this month. if the boj doesn't do anything, then probably the yen will be stronger. the second option is that the boj may cut their interest rate on the reserve. excess reserves held by the banks as the bojs. the third option is just a change of the frameworks and to affect the inflation expectations or the market participants' mindset. if they believe the boj has become more aggressive toward --

easing the money as monetary policy to get out of deflation, then the yen will be weakened automatically. and so the curb key is weakening the currency, i think. moves to boycott japanese products is spreading across china. car sales fell off the cliff in china, nearly half compared to the same month last year. we examine the damage when international politics and business collide. >> reporter: nissan motor unveiled a new car last month, developed especially for the chinese market. nissan is the top seller of japanese cars in china. the price for the 1,600 cc

runabout starts from about $11,000. almost the same as chinese models. nissan kept costs down by using more locally made parts. nissan executives hopes the new car launch would jump start sales in the country. but the timing couldn't have been worse. anti-japanese sentiment is running high. company analysts say the impact on sales has been larger than expected. >> this is the kind of crisis that really we don't like because it's completely outside of reach of companies. you know, political situationth, very emotional between the two countries and you're caught in the middle. >> reporter: japanese automakers have been forced to kep a lower profile since the senkaku issue

erupted. that means less, sometimes no product promotion. this model show held in tangen last month is a key event on the industry calendar. but honda, mitsubishi and fuji all bowed out at the last moment. the situation is made worse by a spreading consumer boycott targeting japanese products. >> translator: because of the senkaku issue, i'm going to buy a german car. >> translator: given the political problems, i don't think it's a good idea to buy a japanese car now. >> reporter: one dealer of european cars is offering what they call the patriotic service. it's a discount offered customers who get over $700 off

the sticker price. >> reporter: declining sales are now affecting output. toyota and nissan, scared about local production from september through october. some plants cut the number of operating days or shortened operating hours. more assembly lines could follow suit. managers at japan's automakers say they hope it's just a bump in the road for their chinese operations. but that could all depend on an improvement in japan/china relations. and there is no sign of that happening any time soon. an impact on japanese carmakers in china is spreading. toyota announced it will shut down most of the production lines at its tianjin plant for

five days starting october 22nd. south korea's defense minister has apologized for lakds security along the border. a north korean soldier defected earlier this month by walking across undetected. the soldier passed through the two-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone separating north and south korea. he entered the south by scaling a four-meter wire fence. no one knew he was there until he knocked on the door of a military outpost and sought asylum. south korean military officials said earlier they had spotted the soldier on a surveillance camera. >> translator: there was an obvious failure in security at the border. we us a handled the report on the defection of the north korean soldier inappropriately. >> kim said the military will investigate 14 officers including one on the joint chiefs of staff. he said the military will start deploying more guards and reinforce fences.

the incident is one of a series of recent breach busy north koreans. another soldier crossed the border on ox the 6th. he claimed he killed two of miss superior officers while defecting. allies of vladimir putin have swept russia's first elections for governor in eight years. but critics are making new accusations of fraud. five provinces held elections on sunday. candidates from the ruling united russia party won them all. russia scrapped polls for governor in 2004. the president began appointing people to office. critics accused the government of fraud in elections in december for the lower house. protesters called for reforms. government leaders announced this spring that they would revive voting at the provincial level. >> but opposition leaders say some of their members were unable to run. they say politicians couldn't get approval to stand for office

in areas dominated by the ruling party. a collection of writings by franz kafka that was hidden away for years is about to see the light. a court in israel has ruled that the documents be made public. two sisters argue that they legally inherited kafka's papers. the court has ordered the women to turn them over to the national library of israel. kafka gave the writings to his friend, max, shortly before he died in 1924. max's secretary kept the writings. when she died, they went to her two daughters. the court said its ruling was in line with the will. kafka is known for works including the metamorphosis. researchers hope this collection will give them a new perspective on his writing. people in tokyo are enjoying sunny skies. over in the western pacific, a couple of storms are still there. let's turn to rachel ferguson for the updates. >> hi, there. we go to the western pacific first. we have two storms here.

one is maria. the smaller storm moving quickly to the north. the specced is prapiroon. this is the system that's been around for a while. it was a typhoon, now a severe storm. let's start with this one, moving at the moment southwest at 15 kilometers an hour. it's started to pick up the pace just a little bit. we're expecting it to turn towards the northeast, coming quite close to the pacific edge of japan towards the weekend. for the time being, it's going to be impacting the okinawa islands into wednesday with sustained winds of 80 kilometers an hour, up to 83 kilometers an hour, and gusts exceeding that, 120 kilometers an hour. heavy rain, potentially short-term heavy rain as well as storm surge, which along with spring tide will cause concern for coastal flooding. let's talk about what it happening with maria, going to be heading toward the north, pulling away a little more quickly out towards the northeast. so that's certainly good news. but before that happens, again,

it's going to be affecting the islands another day before it starts to head off towards the northeast. now we're going to be seeing a lot of moisture coming up towards the south of japan. so parts of kyushu could be seeing heavy showers from tonight. then into wednesday night, thursday, we'll see this low coming across from northeastern china. it's got got a lot of cold air behind it. at the moment it's dumping heavy rain in northeastern china. it will come across the korean peninsula and japan as well, bringing temperatures down and bringing that wet weather as well. let's talk about another tropical system. this is hurricane rafael which is heading toward bermuda. we're expecting it to come very close tuesday afternoon, tuesday night. it is expected to bring also about 100 millimeters of rain with it as it goes. so that system is moving at the moment towards the north. it will also be swerving towards the northeast. most likely becoming a remnant low when it hits cooler waters

past bermuda. hurricane paul has weakened off a little bit. it's become a category 2 storm. and it's heading towards the baja, california, peninsula. we're expecting landfall tuesday night. it should become a tropical storm quickly after that. it's not just the western coast of the peninsula but the eastern coast is going to be getting pretty significant rainfall, as well as that western edge of mainland mexico. those are the treermopical stor. we have an intent winter storm up toward the pacific northwest. this is bringing significant snow to the canadian rockies, the northern rockies, and the intermountain west. it's going to be progressing along towards the east, actually intensifying as it goes. so this storm will be causing some trouble down towards the south and the midwest over the next couple of days. out east, things are starting to settle down for many of you. northern parts of new england still wet and windy today. still a good dose of snow to come for eastern canada.

temperatures across the north are looking cool. we have the mid teens across places like vancouver, seattle, winni peg, 12 in toronto, 16 in new york city. some places are hot, 29 in houston. we've got 30 in oklahoma city with 31 in miami. 32 in los angeles, expected to warm up to 35 by thursday. here's your extended forecast.

one more story before we go. living through the invention of radio, television, and the airplane, a 115-year-old in northwestern japan renewed his record as the world's oldest living man. jiro-emon kimura set a guinness

world record for oldest man both last year and this year. he was born in april 1897. an editor went to kimura's home on monday and presented him with a certificate of the record. >> thank you very much. >> kimura worked at a post office and lived by farming after he retired. he spends much of his day in bed but does not have any significant health problems. he has 25 great grandchildren and 13 great great grandchildren. the guinness book says the world's oldest man to date christian mortensen from denmark lived 115 yards and 252 days before he died in 1998. kimura cold break that record if he lives to december 28th this year. that's all for now on this edition of "newsline."