says international mediation to end the country's political crisis has failed. they've repeated their intention to keep supporters of mohammed morsi who are still camping out in cairo demanding morsi be reinstated. envoys from washington, the european union, and persian gulf countries have been engaged in mediation efforts since late july. they hope to prevent a showdown between the government and morsi supporters. the diplomatic intervention was sparked by the government's decision to forcibly disperse the pro morsi protesters. the government said the mediation has not achieved the hoped for results. it blames morsi's support base the muslim brotherhood. interim prime minister said the government is set to disband protesters according to the will of the people. a senior leader of the muslim brotherhood told nhk the world

is aware the government was installed through a military coup. he said there can be no dialogue until morsi returns to the presidency. the brotherhood is calling for another round of major demonstrations on thursday when a festival begins to celebrate the end of the muslim holy month of ramadan. observers say more clashes could erupt. u.s. secretary of state john kerry and eu foreign policy chief katherine ashton have released a joint statement expressing concern about the egypt crisis. the statement says they remain troubled that the government and opposition haven't found a way to break the dangerous stalemate but kerry and ashton say they remain ready to help in any way they can. the u.s. and russia are still at loggerheads over the decision to grant fugitive edward snowden temporary asylum. washington admits that decision was a factor behind the cancellation of a moscow summit

between president barack obama and president vladimir putin. the one-on-one meeting was supposed to take place next month ahead of the g-20 summit in st. petersburg. white house officials say obama will go to the g-20 meeting. >> we were not at the point in our progress on a number of these issues where a summit at the presidential level was the most constructive step. >> she also cited the gap between the two sides on missile defense, nuclear disarmament and human rights, but she says that the u.s. is committed to dialogue with moscow. she said her government will host a meeting of russian and foreign defense ministers on friday in washington as scheduled. many senior u.s. lawmakers have supported obama's decision. washington says it will continue demanding snowden's extradition. putin's presidential aide is disappointed at the summit cancellation.

he said the decision clearly shows the u.s. is not prepared to develop relations with russia on an equal basis. but he said the invitation for obama to visit russia still stands and that russian representatives are ready to continue working with their u.s. partners on all key issues. a group of united nations investigators will visit panama to visit an arms shipment that was detained. it was traveling from cuba to north korea. a vessel was found to be carrying military equipment. the shipment may violent a u.n. arms embargo against north korea. the u.n. security council's committee on north korea sanctions says that the six-member team will visit panama for three days beginning august 13th. officials seized a ship last

month. they found the obsolete equipment under sacks of sugar in the ship's hold. cuban authorities said that the cargo had planes and missiles sent to north korea to be repaired. the panamanian officials said that the crew members were endangering the nation's safety. member nations have commended panama for the handling of the incident. she said that the committee would wait for the report before deciding whether the shipment violates the sanctions. they have received no complet n explanation on the matter from north korea. north korean authorities say they're ready to reopen a joint zone with south korea. the kaesong complex has been closed since april. north koreans work there for south korean businesses. it's considered a rare symbol of inter-korean cooperation.

north korea's committee for peaceful reunification of the fatherland issued a statement. it says the failure of the kaesong complex would have a great effect on inter-korean relations. and it says leaders in pyongyang are responding to expectations at home and abroad for an easing of tensions. the statement goes on to say south korean businesspeople will be allowed to enter and leave the complex which is in north korea. it says the north will assure their safety and that of their assets. north korean workers will return to resume operations. authorities in pyongyang withdrew 53,000 of them in april. they're protesting against joint military exercises involving u.s. and south korean troops. the north korean statement proposed holding talks on august 14th regarding the resumption of operations at kaesong. a spokesperson for the south korean unification ministry welcomed the decision.

>> translator: we give credit to the north for its response. it has changed its attitude toward our demand for negotiations to solve the discord over kaesong. >> unification ministry representatives have indicated they'll consider north korea's offer for talks on reopening the industrial zone. delegates for the two koreas have already held six rounds of negotiations aimed at restarting operations at kaesong, but they failed to reach an agreement. relatives of japanese citizens abducted to north korea continue their push for the return of their loved ones. at a rally on the japan sea coast they have ap help to bring the abductees back. the rally on wednesday drew a crowd of supporters. the government has identified 17 japanese citizens as abductees. this woman's daughter was kidnapped in 1977.

>> translator: my daughter was just 13 when she was kidnapped. my last memory is of her wearing a school uniform but the reality is she will be 50 years old soon. i miss my daughter with all my heart but for what purpose? >> she says she'll never give up until her daughter comes home. this woman and her mother were abducted by north korean agents in 1978. she returned to japan in 2002, but her mother is still missing. >> translator: i have a watch that my mother gave me before the incident. this is a treasure that binds me to my mother and encourages me when i feel down.

>> she asked people at the rally to put themselves in the place of the abductees waiting to be rescued and she called for an early resolution of the abduction issue. policymakers at the bank of japan have kept the assessment of the economy unchanged and agreed to continue the monetary easing measures. the policy members wrapped up their meeting on thursday. they describe the state of the japanese economy as starting to recover moderately. the central bank made an upward revision for each of the seven months through july. the bank officials say business investment is showing signs of improvement as corporate profits are recovering.

personal spending is recovering and they will continue the monetary easing measures introduced in april to achieve a 2% inflation target. the board members discussed the impact of a possible reduction in u.s. money boosting measures, an economic slow down in china and credit concerns in europe. japan's cabinet has approved a plan to regain fiscal health in the government's economic and fiscal policies. the plan calls for a cut by half in the primary balance deficit by fiscal 2015. that's compared to 2010. the gap between tax revenues and government spending to carry out policies amounted 6.6% of gross domestic product in 2010. to achieve the target, the plan says the government will make its utmost effort to limit the

issuance of new bonds to ensure the amount will not exceed the prove year's level. but the plan does not specify if they will go ahead with a tax hike scheduled for next april. prime minister shinzo abe has instructed the ministers to set up a panel to receive views from various experts on the consumption tax hike. abe said he will make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the tax hike after considering those opinions. japan's current account surplus in the january to june period was the second lowest since 1985. a weaker yen boosted the trade deficit. the finance ministry announced that the country's current account surplus for the first six months this year stood at about $33 billion. the nation's trade deficit was

about $44 billion and grew nearly 75% in yen terms from the same period last year to the highest level on record. the weaker yen pushed up the import costs for crude oil and natural gas. rising imports of smartphones from china were also a factor. meanwhile the income balance surplus rose more than 19% to about $90 billion. this was mainly due to higher dividend payments from overseas investments. japan's honda motor will open a new assembly plant in brazil. it'll be the firm's second car plant in the nation and will double its production capacity in the world's fourth largest auto market. honda announced it will invest $445 million to build the new plant. the new plant will begin operations in 2015 with an

annual capacity of 120,000 units. honda will also build a research facility to develop cars for the local market. the head of honda's local operations said brazil is an important platform for south america. >> translator: if we look at brazil over the long term its economy has a big potential for growth due to its abundant natural resources. we aim to provide a wide range of products for our customers there. >> auto sales in the country are expected to grow further. brazil will host both the 2014 world cup soccer tournament and the 2016 summer olympic games. last year 3.8 million new vehicles were sold in the country.

scientists from around the world are planning to create mutant forms of the bird flu virus. they want to fully assess the risks the virus presents. more than 130 people, mostly in eastern china were infected with the virus earlier this year. 43 of them died. a group of 22 scientists including researchers from japan, the united states and britain released a statement. they will modify the genes of the virus. they want to determine what make it more toxic and resistant to antibiotics and transmitted to mammals. the group carried out studies in 2011 but the u.s. tried to stop

publication of the results. the government officials allowed the results to be published after scientists argued they would help in the development of vaccines. they say they have found a highly likely case of human to human transmission of the virus. but they say it occurred only between members of a single family. the researchers published a study in the british medical journal. they looked at the case of a 60-year-old man and his 32-year-old daughter who died from the infection in april and may. the team says virus samples from the two were almost identical. the man was hospitalized after contracting the virus and his daughter was by his bedside. it is highly likely the virus

came from her father. other family members who came in contact with him have remained healthy. with a toss there this pizza chef knows how to give dough a good spin. and to prove he's got what it takes he traveled to the place where pizza was invented to face off against the best. >> reporter: this is how you toss very thin piece of dough. cooks used to spin dough to get the order and make it round. but now it's also a performing art. earlier this year, this man competed in the pizza acrobatic competition in italy. he flipped and spun his way to second place.

he makes pizza at the restaurant in a city near tokyo. five years ago, a co-worker invited him to join a group of pizza acrobats. ever since, he's been hooked. >> translator: i hope my pizza routine adds color and enjoyment to the service. giving the customers an experience that goes beyond a standard visit to a restaurant. >> reporter: when he's not tossing pizza at work he's at home practicing. he uses a circle cloth and gets ideas from everyday life. >> translator: when i saw how the washing machine spins i copied it using both of my hands round and round.

>> he worked on this ahead of the world championships. and in april, he traveled to italy. this is the world's most prestigious competition of its kind and he is the only japanese to ever place second. next year, he hopes to win top prize. so now, he works on his showmanship. he visits a local bar where a popular bartender works. he takes a good look at the bartender's moves.

>> translator: he sure is a first-class entertainer. when i come here and watch him, i learn so much about performance. >> reporter: while he aims to be the best in the world, his day-to-day focus is on entertaining his customers. and that will help him in his competitions. >> translator: i never want to become complacent. i just want to make people happy. i want to take first prize by spinning pizzas in an entertaining way. >> reporter: he tosses and twirls and prepares for next year's competition. hiroshima, nagasaki, the

atomic bombings killed thousands in an instant a left survivors suffering in the ruins. "newsline" is looking back on what happened then and what's happened since. don't miss our special coverage war to peace through thursday august 15th. people in western and central parts of europe have been dealing with severe weather. severe weather has been reported across much of western and central regions of europe. an active frontal system has been creating severe weather in parts of europe. take a look at this large hail. it battered eastern france. on tuesday, frankfurt was hit hard by thunderstorms and strong

winds. trees have fallen on streets and these big trucks were overturned by winds. scaffolding was torn off buildings. and you can see this cloud formation of rain clouds covering much of the central regions. looks like it is sagging all the way into southern france and this is pretty active. we have numerous reports of hails and damaging winds of 155 kilometers an hour. in germany we have a report of funnel clouds. this is likely to continue into our thursday. back behind we have an atlantic system moving into the british isles. across much of the eastern regions we have the heat dome that is persistent and it is likely to prevail into the later half of the week. but with that cold front passing through things will be dramatically different.

friday, 37 degrees for the high in budapest. down to 27 degrees on saturday. that's a huge jump. vienna at 31 for your friday down to 20 degrees. 11 degrees difference. that's going to be difficult for the bodies to cope with. take precautions for this dramatic difference. in east asia this is the tropical storm that is downgraded to a tropical depression but it is packing winds on a damaging level as well as drenching rainfall to fall and anywhere across the indo-china peninsula flooding is a risk as well as landslides and mud slides. to the north of that the high pressure system is sitting here. and combined with the pacific high is very strong. we have heat warnings and advisory posted in east asia. i feel like a broken record. but shanghai up to 40 grows.

and kyoto looking at 36 today for the high. but to friday looking at 38 degrees. western and central japan has an early warning sent out there will be extreme hot temperatures to be prevailing across the area for the next consecutive ten days. other cities are looking at very high temperatures as well. please be precautious with heatstroke. now to north america. central regions are seeing much of the severe weather. but now toward the eastern regions with heavy rain to persist. on saturday morning about 50 millimeters of rainfall. flash flooding in new york and d.c. and boston. where we need the rain is in the pacific northwest. not getting any, dry and very windy and that could ignite wildfires that would spread very

rapidly. 40 degrees in dallas. i'll leave you now for your extended forecast.

and that concludes this edition of "newsline." on behalf of our team, thank you for staying with us.

tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis tonight, a conversation with harrison ford. he has played a president and adventurers. his films have grossed billions worldwide, but of all the men he

has played, nine is like the brooklyn dodgers player who challenge the pervasive situation of the day by putting jackie roosevelt robinson on the field, and sports would never be the same. we are glad you joined us for our conversation with harrison ford, coming up right now. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only about halfway to completely eliminate hunger, and we have a lot of work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: more than a decade before civil rights activists took to the streets to challenge jim crow laws, branch rickey, general manager of the then brooklyn dodgers, and played by harrison ford in the movie "42," went up against a wall of segregation and brought in jackie roosevelt robinson to integrate america's then all- white pastime. it was a courageous move by both men. robinson endured horrendous opposition, of course, from racially charged taunts to death threats, all the while triumphing on the field. rickey took on the baseball establishment, defied owners, general managers, and fans. that important piece of history is front and center in "42," a movie that celebrates how rickey and robinson changed america. before we start our conversation with harrison ford, let's take a look. proof--do you do it

it? >> i love baseball. i have given my whole life to it. 40-odd years ago, i was at a university, and we had a negro catcher, the best hitter on the so i am laid low, broken because of the color of his skin and i did not do enough to help. i told myself. unfair atsomething ,he heart of the game i love and i knew that when the time came that i could no longer do i could love baseball again. tavis: first of all, good to see you again, welcome back. >> thanks. thanks for having me. tavis: congratulations, number one last weekend.