♪ welcome to "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. first a look at the headlines. prime minister shinzo abe has told other world leaders that japan is ready to make a stronger global contribution. a u.s. navy commander says hundreds of people from the asia pacific region may have joined the islamic state extremist group. and efforts to rebuild gaza remain stalled one month after fighting between israel and the

palestinian islamist group hamas ended. japanese prime minister shinzo abe spoke at the united nations general assembly in new york. he promised his country will contribute to fighting the ebola virus and countering threats from the islamic state militant group. nhk world's mike ibara has more from new york. >> reporter: prime minister abe spoke thursday morning at the general assembly hall. his main message was that japan is ready to make a stronger commitment to the world's fight against global threats. >> mr. president, humankind faces serious unprecedented crisis. the government of japan is putting forth its best possible effort in the fight against the ebola virus disease. international communities should come together and address this crisis that affects directly

peace and security of africa. japan regards the activities of isil, which extends across national borders and has declared unilaterally the establishment of a so-called state to be a serious threat to international order. what is important now is preventing extremists from taking root while also responding swiftly to the region's humanitarian crisis. to assist in this regard, japan will implement $15 million to emergency assistance right away. >> another important issue for

abe is reforming the security council. he stressed the united nations needs to adapt to changes taking place in the 21st century. >> it is my wish, with the 70th anniversary as a turning point, countries sharing the same aims all work together to finally resolve a long-standing issue to reform the u.n. in a way that reflects the realities of the 21st century. in that context japan seeks to become a permanent member of the security council and take an appropriate role that the status requires. >> abe also explained he is taking steps to empower women in

japan and said japan will also work to prevent sexual violence against women in conflict zones around the world. >> around the globe, we still find abhorrent circumstances in which women are unable to have success to such basic service of medical care and education. because they were born female. thereby depriving them of opportunities to be self-reliant. we intend to make the 21st century a world with no human rights violations against women. japan will stand at the fore and lead the international community in eliminating sexual violence.

during conflict. >> japan is bidding for a non-permanent seat on the security council next year. prime minister abe made the case that japan is prepared to play an important role in the u.n. prime minister abe also spoke with reporters in new york. he's stressed that dialogue is needed to improve strained relations with china and south korea. >> translator: they're japan's neighbors, so there are various issues that come up. in order to resolve these issues we should promote dialogue free of any preconditions. >> abe says he hopes to hold summit talks with china when he visits beijing in november for the apec meeting. he says both countries need to make constant efforts to improve bilateral relations. japan's prime minister also expressed his desire to have summit talks with south korea and make the most of various

international meetings. our senior political commentator masao nakajima joined us earlier with his analysis of abe's news conference. what are some of the main points abe spoke about? >> well, prime minister abe emphasized that japan's determination to proactively contribute to the world peace. he said japan will take the lead in solving problems the world is facing such as the ebola outbreak and climate change. he said this will be done through making use of the country's technology and experience. he also mentioned japan's support for the fight against islamic state militants by the united states and other nations. abe said japan will offer iraq, syria, and other affected regions humanitarian assistance. but he said the country will not offer any military support. >> all right. well, abe mentioned japan's relations with china and south korea. we talked about that a little bit earlier. what did he have to say in regards to that?

>> as you know, japan and china not getting along well over differences of opinion over the senkaku islands. japan maintains they're an inherent part of japanese territory in terms of history and international law. japan controls them but china and taiwan claim the islands. prime minister abe said the japan-china relationship is important and holding dialogue is necessary, especially when there are problems between them. he said japan would like to have summit talks with china without any conditions. japan-south korea relationship is not going well either because of mainly historical issues. as we heard, abe said he's hoping to have summit talks with south korea on the sidelines of apec meeting. >> masayo, japan's relations with russia is another focal issue. what did the prime minister say about that? >> well, japan is in a very difficult position in terms of relations with russia right now.

the country has to work with g-7 member countries to put pressure on russia because of ukraine. but at the same time, japan needs to deepen relations with the country in order to solve the issue of the russian islands. we call it the northern territories. japan maintains the islands are an inherent part of japan's territory and russia illegally occupied them after world war ii. abe said he will look at the possibility of russian president vladimir putin's visit in japan. he also mentioned the possibility of holding summit talks with putin on the sidelines of apec meeting in beijing. the united states has expanded its offensive against militants with the islamic state group. it's been launching air strikes on targets in syria with their allies. but the attacks have reportedly killed civilians. u.s. and coalition forces have

pounded the militants' command centers and other strongholds. on wednesday they hit 12 oil refineries controlled by islamic state including those in hasakah, mayadi, and abu kamal. u.s. military officials say the militants have earned more than $2 million per day smuggling oil to fund their operation. >> we will work to cut out their financing and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region. >> a syrian anti-government group says an air campaign killed at least 14 islamic state fighters but an opposition activist, in eastern syria says an air strike on a village killed nine civilians. he said the residents there are angry. a pentagon spokesperson says arab nations played a major role in the air strikes on oil refineries held by the islamic state militant group. press secretary john kirby said 10 of the 16 fighter jets that conducted the attacks were from

u.s. allies saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. >> there are other refineries that they have, and of course as i said, i'm not announcing future operations here, but we're going to continue to look at future strategic-level targets against isil in syria. and on the civilian casualty issue, certainly we take that seriously and we'll continue to look at that and review that as we work through the damage assessment process. >> kirby denied that syrian government forces have invaded the facilities attacked by u.s. military. he did not confirm media reports that the air strikes also killed the leader of the al qaeda affiliated extremist group khorasan. a u.s. navy commander says many from the asia pacific region have likely joined the islamic state extremist group. >> our estimations today is there's probably been about 1,000 potential aspiring fighters that have moved from this region, based on kind of our overall assessment. that number could get larger as we go forward.

>> admiral samuel locklear acknowledged that the american military is closely coordinating with allies and other nations to stop the trend. the recent fighting in gaza between israeli troops and the palestinian group hamas left much of the region's areas bordering israel devastated. the conflict ended a month ago but talks between officials for the two sides on bringing in construction materials have made little headway. israeli officials are opposed to allowing construction materials into gaza. they're worried that they could be diverted to military use. >> translator: there's no reconstruction going on. a ration of canned tuna can't rebuild my home. what we need is cement.

>> more than 2,100 palestinians died in the 50 days of fighting. many of them were civilians. 17 israelis, mainly soldiers, were killed. u.n. officials say about 58,000 people who lost their homes continue to live in shelters. a major effort is under way to remove unexploded shells. countries around the world have pledged financial support to help rebuild gaza, including $20 million from japan. leaders in japan have made it their mission to overcome deflation. and for more than a year now they've seen prices rise. ai uchida joins us now from our business desk. so ai, you have this morning's data. >> i certainly do, catherine. the consumer price index as you know traffics everything from everyday items like a bar of soap to bigger items like houses. the latest core numbers are for august, and it shows prices have been rising for 15 months in a row. government officials say prices rose by 3.1% compared with the same month last year. the index doesn't factor in the cost of fresh food, which tends

to jump around and skew the numbers. the officials say goods such as air-conditioners and clothing got more expensive. policy makers at the bank of japan say the increase in the consumption tax is partly responsible for the figures. without the tax rise the consumer price index is thought to have gone up by 1.1%. now, the cpi numbers were only slightly below market forecast. still, the nikkei is trading in negative territory this morning, currently down just shy of a 1% loss. analysts say a sell-off on wall street and a weaker dollar against the yen are the main reasons investors are selling tokyo stocks and exporters are leading the declines. the dollar ran into some selling against the yen after those cpi numbers came out and the pair is now trading in a narrow range at 108.85 to 87. and traders are continuing to sell the euro, and that's after european central bank president

mario draggi suggested he's ready to pump more money into the euro zone economy. the single currency is at the 1.27 level against the dollar and near 22-month lows. let's look at other asian markets this morning. south korea's kospi down by more than a fourth percent. in shanghai the key index is trading lower by a third percent. and in hong kong we're seeing the hang seng in negative territory, down 3/4%. well, people inside and outside china are becoming less confident about the economy. they're looking at a series of weak economic indicators like lower factory output and falling foreign direct investment. now a key survey shows managers in the manufacturing industry are feeling pessimistic about hiring. the hsbc flash manufacturing purchasing managers employment subindex dropped more than a point in september, to the lowest level since february

2009. leaders want to stabilize the job market. for insight into this situation jackson wong joins us from hong kong. he's associate director at united simpson securities. jackson, thanks for your time. now, why are managers so down on employment? >> well, i think china's economy is trying to find its footing. so at this point a lot of businesses are still facing a lot of uncertainties. when you face a lot of uncertainties, hiring managers tend not to do a lot of hiring at this point. for example, when we looked at the property markets in china, we know they are slumping and the sales are very sluggish. but if they cannot solve more threats and facing inventory problems they are not going to roll out more projects at this point. no more new projects. so they will not do more hiring. i think this is the cause of the sluggish job data. >> and what about going forward?

expecting the numbers to get worse? >> well, i think the number will stay low for short term. however, i do think this number would get some improvement in fourth quarter because back in the late second quarter or the start of the third quarter the people bank of china has already rolled out some stimulus to stimulate the economy. i think this we'll see in the fourth quarter. if that kicks in, i think the whole pmi number and the job data will improve in the fourth quarter. >> japan, premierly and i ping wants the economy to grow at 7.5% this year. he's underscored the importance of a stable job market. how will the latest reading affect his plans? >> i think 7.5% is not set in stone and i think the first

priority is to stabilize the job market as you already mentioned. i think if the number doesn't fall below 7.2 or 7.3% they are in no hurry to roll out big projects to stimulate the economy. however, if the job data is worsening quick they would immediately roll out projects to stimulate the economy. >> so what kind of measures are you expecting? >> well, the people bank of china can always roll out their big guns such as require reserve ratio cuts or interest rate cuts. i think they tend not to abuse these policies. and what they have been doing is to roll out microstimulus and relax loans and mortgages to developers. i think they will keep doing this for developers and other small businesses. if they can solve their

financial or inventory problems, it will heal -- the job market will pick up soon. >> okay, jackson, thank you very much for your insight. jackson wong there. he is associated director at united simpson securities in hong kong. officials at tokyo gas are trying to get a better deal on the most widely used source of energy in japan. they're teaming up with their counterparts at the world's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas, korea corporation. officials said they'll hold talks to buy lng together. tokyo gas imported 12 million tons of lmg last year. they're gas corporation about 40 million tons. officials at both firms want to improve their negotiation position and expanned the scale of their puz to lower costs. japanese improrters have been bringing in more and more lng since the accident at fukushima in 2011.

but they're not happy with the prices they're paying. officials at tokyo electric power company and chugu power company are also in talks to buy lng together. executives at another jnds power firm are looking up at the sky and seeing an opportunity. they want to invest in solar thermal technology. the executives at mitsubishi hit avpi power systems say they'll build a solar power plant in yokohama and they plan to start test runs in 2016. >> soemar thermal power generation works by using sunlight to create steam. the steam then drives turbines to produce electricity. heat can be stored and used to generate power at night or on cloudy days. it's considered more stable than power from conventional solar panlds and wind turbines but the plants are expensive to build and not very efficient. engineers say they'll work on a way to harness sunlight and produce steam more effectively to lower costs.

executives at electronic giant hit avpi are looking for ways to increase their competitiveness, so they're preparing to cut ties with a corporate culture that's ruled japan for decades. they say they'll start paying top employees based on their performance, not on their seniority. the executives said from next month they'll calculate wages for marriage solely on merit. until now they've considered a person's age and length of service when determining 70% of the salary, and they've looked at performance to decide just 3 30%. the executives say the new system will apply to all 11,000 managers at the firm. now, the people at nissan have already abandoned the senior-based wage situation for their managers. and executives at sony are considering doing the same for all their employees. i'll have for more you in business next hour. for now i'll leave you with a check on markets.

♪ japan's athletes are still golden on the seventh day of the asian games in incheon, south korea. they've dominated in the pool thanks to hagine and his teammate. hagino has won four gold medals so far and was looking for his fifth in the 200-meter backstroke. iriye won the 100-meter backstroke earlier in the week. he took the lead early and swam to his third consecutive victory. hagino finished third and has now won a medal in all seven events he's entered.

japan's women's team triumphed in the 400-meter medley relay. south korea finished second, followed by hong kong. china was favored to win a medal in the event but was disqualified in the heat. olympic silver medalist sato misuzuki took gold in the women's 50-meter breast stroke and chinese swimmers shared silver and bronze. japanese fencers struggled to earn scores against china in the men's foil team event. japan's ace fencer yuchlt kiota faced off with the gold medalist in the individual event. >> one. >> his attacks reversed the match and japan grabbed the gold for the first time in 40 years in the games.

china has opened up a big lead in the overall 34medal cou with 155. japan knits sits in second. and korea with 92. autumn has officially started this eke in the northern hemisphere. meteorologist robert speta with who might be feeling cooler. >> yes. what we are seeing starting off in north america is actually a fairly decent cooldown following some summer-like temperatures this week. and really what's been happening, we had this high pressure just dominating much of the central u.s., and that's been pumping that warm air across much of the central plains into the dakotas and also the central portions of canada. you can see down here toward the west we have that area of cool weather and have been bringing gusty winds out there as well. that's going to continue to track east and bring much more autumn-like temperatures for those of you across the rockies

and through the northern plains. temperatures right now into winnipeg. into the high 20s. you're expecting to get down into the teens. parts of wyoming pushing into the lower portions of the teens as well. 10, 11 degrees for your high by sunday into monday. on the other side of the country, though, still feeling rather mild out here. over toward washington, d.c. and into new york highs in the mid 20s. thunderstorms and scattered showers expected to persist across the florida peninsula out here. you see miami with a high of 31 there. some thunderstorms in your forecast on your friday. let's move over toward europe. also autumn-like weather and cooler temperatures across the north here. but the bigger problem has been these low pressure areas. one after another. bringing us some very gusty winds. the northern portions of the british isles, some areas out here, especially along the western seaboard could see winds up to 8 0rks 90 kilometers per hour. also some wind into the scandinavian peninsula.

this jet stream dips toward the south. this is an area of active weather. unsettled conditions, threat of large hail, even some rain across portions of the balkans, that's going to work its way tone aet into turkey and also across the black sea you could be looking at strong thunderstorms as we look ahead to friday and saturday. temperatures staying decent not in the iberian peninsula. paris at 21 here on your friday. let's move over toward he eastern asia now. show you on the satellite picture here. we have our latest tropical storm. i know it looks like it's heading toward japan on your three-day forecast but as we look ahead toward the five-day forecast it turns to the northeast, missing mainland japan. so this is good news, this is going to be having an indirect impact talking about the fall-like temperatures, what's going to happen is this is going to move off and as it does it pulls in the cooler dryer air

behind it. high pressure's going to be dominating much of japan and korea through the weekend. but monday and tuesday these temperatures you see in the mid 20s they could be dropping into the low 20s, even highs pushing into the teens for some of you out here. you think of autumn, though, you're going to start to think about the foliage and the changing of the seasons. october 20th that's when you typically see it across much of 40kdo but i think with this next cold snap we might be seeing some areas in the higher elevations if you want to see the trees change colors you could be heading here. it's not till november, though, if you're off toward tokyo, you see the trees change good greens to the oranges and the reds. i'll leave you now with your extended forecast. ♪

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that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

passages which was named as one of the most ten influential books of our time and remained on the bench for three years. a conversation with gale right now.