welcome to "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. first, a look at the headlines. >> islamist mit tants have swept through northe iraq taking 50 people hostage. energy ministers from ukraine and russia haggle over gas prices, customers in europe worry that supplies could be cut off. and the japanese special effects makeup artist now using his skills to make prosthetics look more realistic. islamic militants linked to

al qaeda are sweeping through northern iraq. they've taken care of the country's second largest city mosul. they long to a group that attacked the consulate general of turkey in mosul. they seized about 50 people and reportedly forced half a million people to flee. the militants also battle with security forces in other cities, the site of iraq's largest oil refinery. they say military commanders will launch an operation to contain the insurgents and he's calling on iraqis to join the fight. a spokesperson for the u.s. state department says secretary of state john kerry discussed the situation. he said u.s. officials are ready to provide any assistance to the governments of turkey and iraq.

the syrian president issued a statement calling them terrorists and he said his government is ready to cooperate rate with iraqi leaders to fight their common enemy. millions of europeans fear their natural gas could be cut off. they get their supplies from russia but it passes through ukraine. energy ministers from those countries have failed to spoil the dispute over a price. russian producers raised the price in april and warned they would turn off the tap unless the ukrainians paid up. russia suggested they restore a discounted price, $385 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. that's $100 lower than the previous offer. but the minister from ukraine said the price was not low enough and demanded an even

better deal. the energy commissioner called on both sides to keep talking. he pushed them to try to reach an agreement by a monday day. russian president vladimir putin said it's not clear why the ukrainians are insisting on more reductio reductions. managers of japanese companies have been spending more over the last little while on new equipment, but they now appear to be pulling back. ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. >> in march we saw a record jump in machinery orders. managers do tend to invest more in equipment when they are encouraged about what's ahead. in april, things changed and managers ended up purchasing less equipment. they placed orders worth about $8.3 billion. they say that's down 9.1% and was the first decline in two

months. they don't including numbers for ship building and electric power utilities. orders from nonmanufacturers rose 0.9%. still analysts said overall orders remain high. they main tear their assessment that orders are on an upward trend. those numbers dame in better than what many analysts had expected. but the nikkei opened below the 15,000 level. people in the market followed the weaker trend on wall street. they've become cautious about the pace of the u.s. economic recovery. now, people who track currency markets say traders are taking their cues from central banks. the euro is being sold against the dollar and the yen after the european central bank lowered its key interest rates. but dealers are buying the

dollar and selling the yen. they are not expecting japan to follow the lead. the boj starts its two-day policy meeting today. let's take a look at what's happening in other markets. in south korea, the kospi is lower. and shanghai's key index is down more than 2/10 of a percent. >> chief negotiators in the transpacific talks are expected to meet in canada early next month. officials from the 12 countries are planning the next meeting for july 3rd for a period of ten days in the city of vancouver. the talks will focus on tariffs on farm products, as well as trade and investment rules. they'll try to narrow their differences on such things as

incidetellectual property. it's getting harder for leaders to make decisions. the people at general electric have their sights set on french energy giant. but some of their rivals are trying to spoil their plan. executives at mitsubishi heavy industries are hoping they'll be able to counter the weight of ge. they say they could submit an offer as early as monday. they have their eyes on a sales network in europe, the middle east and south america. executives at ge have already made a bid of $17 billion. japanese leaders are flushing out their plans to make japan and friendlier place to do business. officials from the government

and the ruling party have agreed to lower the corporate tax rate to make firms more competitive, but they're still working on the numbers. members of the cabinet are on track to approve their growth strategy later this month. they discussed the rate cut with the head of the liberal democratic party's tax committee. they plan to cut the rate gradually over the next several years from 35% to below 30%. they say they'll need other sources of revenue to make up for the low ber rate. people walking into japanese businesses are seeing more and more signs of something missing in the economy. the signs read, help wanted. managers can't find enough workers to fill open positions, so many of them are turning to foreign students to do the job.

>> reporter: international students will read allowed the company motto at the company meeting in chinese. 70% of the workers of this chain restaurant come from abroad. most of them students from china. they make about $10 an hour, the same as their japanese colleagues. more than 100,000 international students have taken part-time jobs. that's up 50% over the past five years. some managers have changed their training programs to attract new employees. this woman started here as a

part-timer. now she works full time and leads training. >> translator: here you go. >> translator: you made a noise. please do it more slowly. if you serve like that, you might spill some stew. >> reporter: japanese law prohibits international students from working more than 28 hours a week, so managers keep track of everyone's schedule so employees don't go over the limit. >> translator: we'll listen to what the foreign workers have to say and create a better work environment for them. >> reporter: one language school has taken on a new role. about 1,200 student from 40

countries are starting at this school. and the people who run it have launched a job placement company to attract even more. school officers want to support applicants who want to study and earn their living at the same time. the company received more than 500 calls from managers looking to hire at restaurants and distribution firms. >> translator: hour challenge is to figure out how to find good matches between the students and businesses looking to fill openings. >> reporter: and the phones keep on ringing. managers looking for the right people to get the job done. nhk world, tokyo.

>> and that's all for now in business news. i'll leave you with a check on markets.

japanese leaders say there's been another near miss involving aircraft over the east china sea. they say on wednesday, a chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to self-defense force planes and they've launched a protest against their counterparts in beijing. they say a chinese su-27 came as close as 30 meters to a japanese reconnaissance aircraft and 45 meters to another. a photograph of the chinese jet shows a white missile like object between its left wing. the planes were patrolling the area where the two country's air defense identification zones over lap. the defense minister criticized

china's action. >> translator: it was an extremely dangerous act for the chinese jet to fly so close to japanese self-defense planes over international waters. >> a minister at the japanese embassy in beijing filed a protest with the asian affairs department. he asked them to realize the seriousness of the matter. but embassy officials say they rejected japan's claims saying they were not true. last month, they approached fds aircraft on two separate occasions. they're asking them to protest what they call extremely dangerous acts. the spokesperson for the u.s. state department says all countries must respect the safety of aircraft in flight. >> any attempt to interfere with freedom of overflight in

international air space increases the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and unintended incidents. >> they said countries need to resolve their differences peacefully and develop procedures for managing crisis situations at sea and in the area. japanese leaders say they'll oppose any attempt to change the status quo by force. they hosted their counterparts from australia. they agreed on the importance of observing the rule of law. the ministers agreed commanders from both countries would organize more joint drills and they agreed to work together to develop defense equipment. >> in terms of a nonnuclear diesel electric submarine, the japanese submarine is very, very good indeed. >> the japanese defense minister brought up plans to reinterpret the constitution. government leaders want to exercise the right to collective

self-dense so japanese personnel can defend an ally under attack. security forces in the philippines have captured one of the men on the u.s. government's most wanted list. he's a senior commander in the extremist group. u.s. officials were offering a $500,000 reward for information reading to his capture. they found him in a slum near ma nilly international airport. u.s. officials have been supporting a filipino military campaign against the group. they believe only a few hundred core members remain.

pharmacies across japan can show mostover the counter drugs via the internet from thursday. the deregulation of online drug sales follows a supreme court decision last year ruling the goth's blanket band invalid. operators must have a brick and mortar store. the websites must include the addresses of their shops and the names of certified pharmacists and they have to provide a telephone number for patient confrontation. minute city officials say more than 1,000 drugstores plan to register their websites. they have contracted private countries to monitor distribution of fake medicines and sales by unauthorized dealers. they also plan to set up local con siltation centers where customers are report rule violations.

a special effects makeup artist in western japan has found a new way to use his skills from horror movies. now he's producing prosthetics and he's customizing orders. >> a makeup artist at work carefully applying delicate flesh tones to create a prosthetic hand that looks totally real. he is 31. he's made all kinds of prosthetics including ears and fingers. all are inkrcredibly realistic. once they're in place, it's hard to tell they're not real. >> translator: i want people to be able to live normal lives. i want them to forget that they're wearing a prosthetic. that's my goal. >> he trained as a special effects makeup artist in the

film industry. using silicon and special papts, he transformed actors into warewolves and szombies. >> translator: it didn't look real. it didn't look like there might be blood flowing through the veins. it just seemed like an inanimate object. they thought it should have looked softer, more alive. >> he has a new customer. this 29-year-old man lost the fingers of his left hand in an accident when he was 20. he has a prosthetic hand but it's too con pick with us and he often feels as though people are

staring at him. >> translator: wherever i meet someone for the first time, i always feel self conscious about my hand. >> the fist step is to make a mold of the customer's right hand. he fashions the left hand out of clay. the carving process takes a whole day to finish. he carefully carves out the wrinkles and pores. from that clay model, he creates the artificial hand out of silicon. the color is very important. he applies the base color using a fine spray. then to create warm natural skin tones, he uses more than ten different pigments. >> translator: i want to get the paint so it feels exactly right. that's the hardest part.

>> the final touch is to implant a few hairs into each of the fingers. he does this with a fine needle. a month and a half has passed since he made the initial mold. the new prosthetic hand is finally ready. >> translator: hello. it's good to see you again. >> right away, the customer tries on the new hand. >> translator: this is amazing. >> the seam where the prosthetic meets the arm can be covered up by wearing a wristwatch. >> translator: the look and the color are almost as good as a real hand. even for me, it's hard to tell the difference. >> translator: i think there are a lot of people who are unhappy with their prosthetics.

i want to keep on improving my skills so that i can think happiness to a lot more people. >> so far, he has focused on appearance. in the future, he wants to work with companies that make state of the art prosthetic limbs to bring fully functioning hands to life. time now for a check of the weather. it's rainy season in japan and people across the country are dealing with muggy weather conditions. >> another wet day across tokyo. here in this region. we're looking at about 55 millimeters of sudden burst of showers in an hour. the total up to about 130 millimeters in the past 24 hours. looks like more additional rain to come. we got couple of systems that will be coursing themselves in the similar direction just south of here. this is now providing the very

heavy rain across the region and that's likely to move into the pacific side bringing as much as 120 meters of additional rainfall there rngs about 80 millimeters. another system will make its way there which used to be a tropical storm. it just transformed into a low pressure system, but moving in a similar course and likely to bring drenching amounts of rainfall. another round of very heavy downpours in the evening today. it's very unstable across north eastern locations of china. this is due to upper level cold air. when it heats up in the daytime, afternoon showers and thunderstorms will be capable of erupting. even if you see partly summer skies in seoul, after daytime, you may see thounder showers. 34 in beijing. that's very high.

same digits go to bangkok with the chance of thunderstorms. and towards the west of that, we have a cycloni development. hst moving away from india, but it looks like it will become a severe storm system by thursday noon. the good news is, as it churns over water, it will decrease its intensity and it's likely to provide heavy rain showers across the area where you don't really see a lot of rainfall in this countr especially in and around muscat. we'll keep a very close monitor on this. it's also providing and enhancing the south western monsoon flow here in india. that's likely to bring blessing for the area that has been hit with excessive heat. we have a couple of storm systems here across this

continent as well. one in the northern plains and one affecting the eastern half of this continent. couple of tornados have been recorded already and it's likely to provide large hail across this area. a lot of the big cities likely to be under a severe weather threat. it's likely to move into the southeastern areas of canada bringing about 70 millimeters of additional rainfall that could cause flash flooding. another threat of severe weather is going to be from minnesota all the way down into texas. back behind that, really clear and dry. too dry. the relative humidity level is very low again with real heat. las vegas hitting almost 40 degrees. it's 39 for you. so please watch out for your flammable items. i'll leave you now for extended forecast.

we'd like to remind you of our lead story this hour. islamic militants linked to al qaeda are sweeping through northern iraq. they're advancing through other cities. the militants belong to a group called the islamic state in iraq. they attacked the consulate general of turkey in mosul and have reportedly forced half a

million people to flee. they also battled with security forces in other cities, the site of iraq's largest oil refinery. the prime minister says military commanders will launch an operation to contain the insurgents and he's calling on iraqis to join the fight. secretary of state john kerry discussed the situation with the tur kish foreign minister. he said they are ready to provide any foreignssistance to the governments of turkey and iraq. syrian president issued a statement calling them terrorists and he said his government is ready to cooperate with iraqi leaders to fight their common enny. more details on this story as they come in. thanks very much for joining us. this wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. we'll be back at the top of the hour. tavis: good evening.

from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with four-time emmy winner allison andey, starring in "mom" "masters of sex." emmys ford home those work on "the west wing." a conversation with allison janney coming up right now. ♪