. . welcome to "newsline." i'm katherine kobayashi in tokyo. first, a look at the headlines. ukrainian president, petro poroshenko says he is signing an agreement with the european union, a movement russia is expected to protest s a growing call for iraq's prime minister to step down. it is coming from both sunni and shia muslims. experts say the japanese government's strategy to boost the nation's birth rate needs to go even further. awe krin's president is about to take his country closer to the european union.

petro poroshenko says he is going to sign a key economic agreement with the eu. the pact has been at the heart of the conflict between russia and ukraine since last poroshenko told members of the european parliament that he wants to build a strong democracy that's respected among the european nations. he says he will sign the association agreement with the eu on friday. the pact centers on trade liberalization. it will paef the way for eu membership. russia is expected to protest the move. a cease-fire in eastern ukraine where fighting continues is set to ex peer friday. he says russia's support for ending the violence has been insufficient. he has called on moscow to use its influence over pro-russian separatists. russia should support his peace plan not just with words but with deeds. the iraqi prime minister is facing growing calls from his

fellow shia muslims to step down. they say nuri al maliki's resignation is necessary to mend the divide in the conflict-hit nation. a powerful iraqi shia cleric called for a national unity government. he said the government needs new faces representing all groups. maliki is facing criticism he instigated the sunni insurgency by favoring the shia. the government launched air strikes in the northern city of beiji. they targeted militants trying to take over the biggest oil refinery. para troopers also launched an assault on tig grit. the military says it killed several dozens extremists. they are being supported by local sunni clans in central and northern iraq and continue to resist. the leader of iraq's kurdish

region vows to keep control of the northern city. barzani made the pledge during a visit to the city. he said he will deploy all available kurdish forces to defend it. the area near there has one of the largest oil fields in the couldn't tri. it has been claimed by both kurds and arabs. kurdish forces seized the area after government forces retreated. observers say leaders of the kurdish autonomous region want to establish control while maliki's government is struggling against the extremist. japan's health ministry has a new drug to treat skin cancer. japan will be the first country to approve the medication. the drug will be used to treat

melanoma, the type of skin cancer that resembling moles and sometimes develops from moles. advanced cases are difficult to treat with surgery or anti-cancer drugs. experts say about 1400 people develop symptoms of melanoma every year. half of them die. a health ministry panel granted pre-limb nary approval to an application from osaka based pharmaceutical. they developed the drug in cooperation with a u.s. firm which is now part of bristol-myers squibb. a drug blocked the action of pd-1 which weakens immune response. it allows the immune system to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. the health ministry is expected to issue okay soon. an international humanitarian aid group has

caused that the e-coli outbreak is spreading. it reports that the disease has killed nearly 400. doctors without borders says it has reached the limit of what they can do to site the outbreak. there is a real risk of it spreading out of control and is calling for massive information. the first case turned up in march in southern guinea and have sin been confirmed in sierra leone and liberia. the world health organization says more than 600 patients have been confirmed or are suspected carriers. it reports the disease has killed nearly 400 people. doctors without borders says it has reached the limit of what it can do to fight the deadly outbreak. treatment is still in the experimental stage. from july 2nd, an emergency meeting will be held in ghana.

it is time to take a look at what's making headlines in the business world. we are joined with more on that. tell us what's making headlines. >> it is a busy morning for government officials here in japan. they have been looking through a new batch of economic data. they have reasons to be pleased. new figures so that in may, consumer prices were up again. jobs increased and unemployment was down. officials say the cost of basic goods and services rose by 3.4% over the same year. the biggest jump in 32 years. consumer prices have been rising for 12 months straight. the increase in the consumption tax in april was a major factor. it went up from 5%-8%. officials say the number of jobs on offer rose. the ratio of job offers to job seekers edged up by 0.1 to 1.09. 109 positions were available for

every 100 people looking for work. it is the highest level since june, 1992. the unemployment rate declined slightly to 3.5%. that's the lowest level since december, 1997. these numbers were inline with investigators expectations. tokyo share prices opened lower. investors took their cues from wall street where u.s. stocks ended slightly lower after consumer spending was below forecast. the weaker dollar against the yen drove investors to sell japanese stocks. the downward momentum does appear to be limited. the nikkei is down less than half a percent at percent at this hour. the dollar that remains under some selling pressure this morning, people that track the market say dealers are holding back from actively buying the dollar as they are waiting for further signals on the pace of the u.s. economic recovery. the euro is slightly weaker against the yen. let's take a look at other asian

markets starting with china, shanghai's key index is down 0.4 of a percent. the hang seng is treating slightly higher, up .10%. the kospi is down .21%. financial leaders have released the latest data for the current account. it is the broadest data. in may, it soared to a seven-month high. it has been in surplus for 27 months in a row. for more insight, we go to a research fellow at the korean finance in seoul. the current surplus coming in at more than $9 billion. what do you make of that? well, the increase in the current account surplus in may is due to the reversal in the

huge dividend payoffs that we saw in the month of april and also to the lessor deficit in the services account. as we all know, if the current account surplus continues its current pace, eventually, this will add more pressure on the appreciation of the korean one, which will lead to eventually lead to less competitiveness in the exporting industry, specially for the small and medium sized exporting companies. >> observers say the government is trying to grow the service sector and reduce its reliance on manufacturing and as you mentioned, the service account deficit narrowed to $340 million. that's from $1 billion a month earlier. can you tell us what's going on here and how you evaluate this

shift? >> well, basically, i think the government is trying to provide more incentives and promote competition in the services sector. korean services sector lacks in competitiveness in areas such as intellectual property, consulting services and financial services. and so the government is trying to gear more productivity in these areas. as we all know, the productivity in the services sector is not easily achieved in a short period of time. i think there is more room for improvement, for example,

deregulation in heavily regulated industry such as services and finances will help increase productivity in these areas. >> okay, thank you very much for your insight. research fellow at the korea institute of finance in seoul. officials at japanese electronics from sony are pushing ahead with efforts to shed staff and rescue their business. they say nearly 40% of employees in their loss-making p.c. arm will take early retirement. the officials have announced that on july 1st, they will sell their via home computer division to japan industrial partners. the division employees about 1100 employees. 420 of them will leave. most are workers at a plant in nagano prefecture. the people left behind will switch to a new firm founded by japan industrial partners or two other divisions within sony. sony is trying to overhaul their

company by cutting 5,000 employees worldwide. they have recorded a net loss of more than $1.1 billion for the fiscal year ending in march. their p.c. and tv divisions were largely to blame. prime minister shinzo abe has announced this week that he will tackle one of the biggest challenges for japan's economy, the declining population. he says he is determined to stop it from falling below 100 million for the next half a century. he promised more help for parents by expanding after-schoolchildcare services and offering special assistance to those having a third child. but he faces an uphill battle. many japanese are reluctant to have children or even get married because they feel they don't have the luxury to do so. we report. >> reporter: saki ito lives in

tokyo with her husband and four-month-old son. she works for a food company, but she's on parental leave until next year. she has to go on a long waiting list to get her son into a public nursery. she says she and her husband want a second child but she is worried they will struggle to cope. the government cut child allowance two years ago. school fees are rising. that's hurting parents who shoulder much of the cost. only households in three other developed countries pay a greater share of the bill. we have to pay our mortgage and we will need more money for tuition. i'm worried how we can manage our spending. >> japanese families are bringing in less than they used to. those with children tern 10% less annually than they did 15

years ago. she says it may be better to give one child proper care and education than to stretch things in for two. >> translator: i hope the government will foster an environment where women feel secure enough to have children and won't have to worry about the cost to raise them. another factor is the increasing number of people that choose not to marry. many say they don't earn enough money to raise a family. he is a social worker just inside tokyo. after graduating college, he hopped around between jobs in convenience stores and supermarkets. he was 31 when he landed his current job in april.

he now earns $9800 a month. after taxes and living expenses, there is nothing left for savings. he says he wants to get married one day but he doesn't feel financially stable enough to make such a big commitment. >> translator: i don't have any savings and i'm stretching my earnings out just enough to cover my own family. >> it is not only kawaguchi who is hesitating. figures show only 10% of men in their 30s who earn less than $30,000 a year are married. a government survey suggests half the unmarried men feel they can't afford to build a family. one expert says the government's new initiatives are helpful but it needs to go further.

we need measures to boost the incomes of young couples. increasing the number of nurseries, making it easier to take parental leave and endorsing flexible working hours are also important. japanese people are having fewer and fewer babies. abe is promising to work quickly to reverse the slide. he must promise the people that government will give them the support they need. that's all for now in business news. i'll leave you with a check on markets.

time for the results of the 15th day of the soccer world cup. in group g, the united states faced germany. both came with four points from one win and one draw. the two sides finished the first half without scoring. thomas mueller scored the first goal giving his team the lead.

at the very end of the game, germany faced dangerous cross play in front of their nets but the captain saved the day with his sharp defense. germany beat the u.s. 1-0. elsewhere in group g play, portugal faced ghana. both teams needed a victory to proceed to the final round. in the 31st minute of the first half, ghana's john boiets handed them a lead and then the striker equalized the score at 1-1. in the 80th minute, portugal's star striker, cristiano ronaldo

scored his first goal. portugal beat ghana, 2-1. still failed to make it to the finals. germany clinched. the team has qualified for the final round. the u.s. came in second in the group and will proceed to the final 16. in jup h, algeria faced russia to face the fourth attempt to take the country beyond the world cup group stage. the game started with russian forward alexander kopa putting in his first goal just six minutes into the first hafr. algeria fought aggressively but finish td the first half without scoring. in the 50th minute, algeria equalized and tied with russia, 1-1.

in another group h match, south korea faced off against belgium. at the end of the first half, belgium's deven defor was sent off with a red card for rough play. down to 10 players, belgium still managed to take the lead in the 78th minute when the defender scored the first goal. the match ended with belgium beating south korea 1-0. so algeria will advance to the final round for the first time. belgium will also proceed but russia and south korea are out. the 16 teams moving on to the final round have now been determined. the host team, brazil, will face chile on saturday. in other soccer news, the sport's global governing body has punished uruguayan striker, louis suarez for biting an opponent during a world cup match. fifa says he bleached the disciplinary code by biting the

shoulder of a player for italy's team during a group stage match. uruguay went on to beat italy and qualify for the knockout round. his punishment includes a ban on taking part in uruguay's next nine official matches or any other soccer-related activity for four months. the bans mean suarez has to sit out of the rest of the world cup, including uruguay's last 16 match against columbia. in other news, australia's deputy prime minister says the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 will move farther south. warren truss spoke to reporters on thursday about the missing plane. >> we are now shifting our attention to an area further

south along that arc. >> he said it is highly likely the aircraft was on autopilot before it crashed into the indian ocean. the commercial flight disappeared after taking off fr kuala lumpur march 8th. 239 people were on board. they searched the indian ocean off northwest australia and have yet to find any clues. the new search will start in august and is expected to takes months. time for a check of the weather. people in northern areas of the philippines are dealing with heavy rain. mya shoji joins us with more on what's happening there and elsewhere in world weather. >> a tropical low system has developed to a tropical depression over the east of luzan. this is also feeding the system with the southwestern monsoonal flow being very much exasperated. about 100 millimeters of additional rainfall will be

falling over the central locations of luzan. this is likely to continue for the next few days. flooding will be a huge concern across this location. flooding is also another huge concern in the southern areas of china. this is do you to the rainy season. the season is still here lingering over the river and along it as well as the lower locations will be provided with additional amounts of 100 millimeters of rainfall. it is sandwich by heat wave in the north and southern locations. the southeast, heat warnings in place. some locations could hit 40s for the high temperature today and tomorrow. it is very unstable across the northeast with the air, the upper level air temperature and the surface heat is going to be bringing unsafe conditions again and thunderstorm warnings are in place widely across the region. that is likely to descend to

north and south korea by saturday. we look and see the rainy season officially called off in okinawa. now, hot 33 degrees with plenty of sunshine, that's likely to continue for a week. watch out for heat stroke there. beijing is reaching up to 34 degrees. as for tokyo and parts of yokohama. we are likely to see afternoon showers. not welcome for dinnertime. showers will be popping up around that time. here across central mediterranean, we have numerous reports of thunderstorm and that's likely to continue with risks of flooding and strong gusts. another system is providing wet and windy conditions for western france. we are likely to see the temperatures have fallen with the rain. 19 degrees. we have a north african high pressure system dominating greece and it is reaching 34 degrees with chance of thunderstorms. and, these temperatures will be continuing throughout your

weekend. please watch out for this extreme heat and heat stroke. now, across the u.s., texas has seen few torn adic activities. to the midsection, this is a very slow-moving system. severe thunderstorms will be stretching from the dabbing dags all the way down into the texas panhandle. rapid city, wichita, these big cities will be in target and in store for severe thunderstorms, including large hail and strong gusts. tornadic activity could be strong. a history of producing one in wyoming as well. here across the southwest, the fire level is on the critical level. 33 in fresno. that's likely to reach up to about 41 degrees on your monday. so do watch out for heat stroke there as well. as for brazil, before heating up here, a little bit of the rain coming in in the south. rio de janeiro will be escaping from that, 33 degrees with partly sunny skies. two-set game set for saturday.

allea i'll leave you now for your extended forecast.

that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm kat lynn kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

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tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with a true tv visionary, brian lamb, the founder and driving force on c-span, which turned the camera on our democratic process. he has now written a book called "sundays at eight: 25 years of stories from c-span's q&a and booknotes." us,re glad you have joined our rare conversation with c-span founder "booknotes --brian lamb, coming up. ♪