hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's friday, october 24th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. we have breaking news out of new york city. officials say a doctor has tested positive for ebola. and they started their news conference by trying to calm fears. >> today testing confirmed that a patient here in new york city has tested positive for ebola. the patient is now here in bellevue hospital. we want to state at the outset

there is no reason for new yorkers to be alarmed. >> officials say the doctor had been in the hospital with a fever. they say he was working for doctors without borders in west africa, where the epidemic is spreading. they say the man is now in isolation at a hospital in new york city, designated for treating ebola patients. if it is confirmed the doctor has ebola, he will be the second person to develop symptoms in the u.s. after contracting the virus in west africa. now, once again, officials say a doctor has tested positive for ebola. we'll bring you more details on this developing story as they come in. now, an increasing number of medical workers in countries outside of west africa have been falling sick with the ebola virus, as we've been reporting. now, officials at the japanese health ministry are about to take steps to make sure medical institutions in japan safeguard

their staff. the officials plan to call on medical institutions to confirm whether anyone who shows up with a fever and other symptoms has visited west africa in the preceding three weeks. if this turns out to be the case, the patient will be immediately isolated and a local public health center notified. ministry officials say a system must be established to make sure the system is detected at the earliest possible stage to prevent secondary infection. officials at the world health organization are trying to find ways to stop the spread of ebola. they're weighing thing advantages and disadvantages of measures different countries have put in place, and they've decided against a travel ban. w.h.o.'s deputy chief said a ban is likely to cause economic hardship in the three west african nations hardest hit. keiji fukada said it could also raise the risk of the virus spreading by creating an uncontrolled migration of people

from the affected countries. he says sierra leone, guinea and liberia should reinforce exit screenings at all ports but he said entry screenings may have a limited effect. w.h.o. officials said 9,936 people are confirmed or suspected of having contracted the disease. they say 4,877 have died. north korean officials say they're closing their doors to foreign tourists. they say the ban is over ebola fears. a chinese travel agent specializing in north korean tours was sent a document about the restriction. the document did not say how long the measure will last or whether it applies to non-tourist visitors. on thursday the country's state-run tv channel aired a program about preventing ebola infections and the official news agency reported that nationwide task forces had been created to block the spread of the virus. pyongyang has not confirmed any infections. chinese business people

involved in trade with north korea are voicing concerns. they say the restriction will affect not only tourism but also business and public affairs. in other news, authorities in canada are trying to figure out the motives behind the attack in the nation's capital. a gunman shot and killed a soldier and stormed the parliament buildings before he was shot by a security guard. police officers are investigating his connections to radical islamists. >> we have learned through the current investigation that this individual has been in ottawa since at least october 2nd, 2014, that he was in town to deal with a passport issue, but that he was also hoping to leave for syria. >> paulson said the gunman was michael zehaf-bibeau, a 32-year-old canadian national. he believes zehaf-bibeau carried

out the attack by himself, and he says the suspect had connections to radical islamists. security camera video shows how zehaf-bibeau ran into the parliament building holding a gun. lawmakers and staff had to flee. officials denied local media reports that the suspect was under government surveillance. police say they will investigate his motive further. the prime minister stressed that canada will not be intimidated by terrorism. stephen harper spoke of the need to revise laws and enhance police authority to monitor individuals suspected of being radicalized. it's time now for the latest in business news. ai uchida joins us from our business desk. ai, what do you have for us? >> well, catherine, ebola is making investors nervous. let's take a look at events in chronological order. thursday wall street investors were doing their thing, trading stocks. then they heard about a health care worker in new york being isolated. investors immediately pulled stocks back from intraday highs. now, after the confirmation that

he did test positive for ebola, currency traders have been the fastest to react. in tokyo they sold the dollar and bought back the yen, which they tend to do when they are worried and want to put their money somewhere they think is safe for a while. the pair is currently trading at just above 108. now, an analyst we spoke to says tokyo stock prices are closely linked to movements in the dollar-yen. after the first confirmation came out, tokyo stocks ran into selling and the nikkei gave up half the morning's gains. right now it is trading higher by 1%. and the selling is spreading to several other stock markets in asia. hong kong's hang seng is -- hang seng is down more than .2%. in seoul we're also seeing the costs be down about .3%. well, government officials in south korea have released figures for their gdp in the july to september quarter. they say the economy expanded

3.2% from the same period last yeah, which was slower than the previous quarter. exporters in south korea account for more than 50% of gdp, and they send many of their goods to china, but now they're feeling the effects of slower growth in the world's second biggest economy. government officials say exports rose just 2.1%. consumers have been more frugal since the is sewol ferry disast in april. officials have been trying a range of things to make them spend more but they only managed to lift private consumption by 1.6%. the officials were hoping growth in the third quarter would be stronger. for more let's speak with shin segon. he teaches economic at suk myong women's university in seoul. professor shin, thank you for your time. why didn't we see better figures? >> well, 3.2% growth this quarter seems to be a little bit of a surprise to many people in korea. but more surprising is that it's not coming from sluggish private

consumption. rather, it is coming from other sources. 1.6% growth in private consumption is a little bit better than last quarter, in which the growth rate was 1.5%. so i think the real problem is not private consumption. it is rather from poor plant investment and also poor performance in the export. in particular, the plant investment has been growing more than 7% in the first half, but the third quarter of statistics shows that it is 3.9%. and in the area of exports first half was 3.7% growths in exports but it came down to 2.1%. so i think the real surprise for the sluggish economic growth in korea, it is i think the poor investment and also poor export.

>> and how do you evaluate, then, what the government is doing? >> the government has been presented about 13 packages, and most of that was expansionary packages. but the problem with the government plan is because they have to abide by the, you know, national budget deficit and also the government has to finance a huge amount of packages, expansionary packages, so i think the budget deficit and difficulty in tax revenues, i think that is the constraint for the government to implement the very active policy. >> and what about the outlook, professor, for the whole year? officials at the bank of korea lowered their prediction for growth to 3.5%. economists at the international monetary fund shared their view. south korea's finance minister forecasting 3.7%.

what are you expecting? >> you know, for the korea to grow 3.7%, you know, fourth quarter growth has to be more than 4%, which seems to be pretty difficult. and for 3.5% projection i think the fourth quarter has to grow more than 3.7%. so i think a little bit lower than 3.5% will be the sound projection for the entire year. >> okay, professor. thank you very much for your time. investors have found themselves in an unprecedented position. they actually paid the japanese government to take their money. they bought up as much short-term debt as they could get their hands on, and that forced interest rates to go into the negative. officials at the finance ministry held an auction on thursday. they issued about 5.7 trillion yen worth of three-month debt. they received bids worth more than nine times that amount. and the average yield fell into the negative. if these investors hold the

bonds until they expire, they will lose money. market sources say there's a shortage of bonds. officials at the bank of japan are buying a large amount under their extraordinary monetary easing policy. and sources say private sector banks tend to hold bonds around this time of the year. officials at two japanese companies are working on a way to make clean energy for less money. they're working on a way to produce hydrogen at sea. the people at mitsubishi industries and shioto corporation will build the world's first floating hydrogen plant. they plan toex tract hydrogen from gas generated by crude oil that comes from the ocean floor. they say building a floating plant right next to offshore oil fields means they won't have to spend so much money transporting the gas. people at other companies are keeping a close eye on the situation. they'll need a stable and affordable supply of hydrogen

for themselves. toyota executives, for example, are thinking about selling fuel cell cars as early as this year. well, the people at toyota are worried that cars are losing their appeal to an important demographic. executives are aiming to draw young people back with two new sporty models in their lexus luxury line. the executives released the lexus coupe rc and higher performance rcf model. they've been reporting an increase in sales of their lexus cars in japan for five years in a row. but they're now facing tougher competition from foreign luxury brands like mercedes-benz and bmw. managers at those firms are opening more outlets in japan. >> translator: we've seen an ongoing trend where younger people are losing interest in cars. we hope these models will remind them how fun it is to get behind the wheel. >> he says he hopes the new models will enhance the brand's image to all drivers.

a zambian official in charge of foreign investments expressed his hope for more japanese businesses to enter his country. he says japan's technology and hard-working culture will help zambia to develop. francis chikonde, business development specialist of the zambia development agency, talked to nhk in tokyo. >> we are one of the largest copper mining companies -- countries. and government has realized that copper mining is not long-term future sustainable. >> he stresses zambia is looking to promote other priority sectors. he especially welcomes japanese investments in farming and information technology. friday marks the 50th anniversary of zambia's independence. since then chikonde says the country has not experienced a war and is stable both politically and socially.

that's the latest in business. i'll leave you with a check on markets. ♪ every morning investors turn their attention to asia. the tokyo market leads the way. and markets around the world follow. >> from the decision that could change the course of an economy. >> to the companies at the forefront of change. >> up-to-the-minute market reports.

>> and analysis by specialists from around the world. >> get all the latest business news and insight every day. here on "newsline." a united nations rights watchdog has expressed concern about hong kong's electoral system. it called on china to ensure universal suffrage in the former british colony that includes the right to stand for election. the u.n. human rights committee gathered in geneva, switzerland. the panel plans to send letters to the governments of beijing and hong kong to relieve those concerns and ask for details on how the chief executive elections will proceed. a panel member argued the committee should strongly deny the hong kong government, ensurety right to sxroet right to stand for elections without unreasonable restrictions. a representative from a hong kong-based ngo welcomed the watchdog stance. >> now that u.n. human rights committee have decided to write to china to express concern

about this, we hope that china would have an eye to come to terms with international standards. i hope that message would be clear, that the world is watching. >> students and other citizens in hong kong are continuing their street protest. they argue that mainland china's reforms for hong kong's 2017 chief executive election will effectively block pro-democracy candidates from running. public servants in hong kong have run an anonymous ad in a newspaper expressing support for the protests. they wrote most of the protesters are committed to peaceful and non-violent means in their fight for a better hong kong. a representative from the group gave a telephone interview to nhk on the condition of anonymity. he said he hopes people will understand the voices of civil servants wishing for a better society, and he said the aims of the students are in line with the ideals of many in hong kong.

the notice counters a statement issued by two civil servant unions on monday. they criticized the protest movement. the group claims that more than 1,300 public workers including police and firefighters are expressing approval of the ad on social media. ♪ nearly two months have passed since a cease-fire between israel and hamas. brought an end to the heavy shelling of gaza. during 50 days of hostilities more than 2,100 people were killed, and about 18,000 houses destroyed. people in the gaza strip are now trying to rebuild their lives. but little progress has been made so far. pierre kruhenbeuer is the commissioner general of the united nations relief and works

agency for palestine refugees in the near east, or unrwa. he spoke to nhk world about the challenges the people of gaza are facing. >> reporter: pierre kuhenbeuer says the organization's priorities are humanitarian assistance and rebuilding homes. >> we have still about 120,000 people who are homeless in gaza because their homes have been destroyed by the shelling. right now we still have 45,000 people in 18 unrwa schools. they're not really prepared for housing tens of thousands of people whose homes have been destroyed. but of course nobody, none of us, would want to spend months in a school classroom instead of in one's own home. winter is coming. and so the population is going to face very big difficulties if we cannot change their situation very quickly.

>> reporter: it's important that the people in gaza get prompt access to construction materials. israel allowed shipments of such materials for the first time last week. but it still has strict limits in place, and it says the materials could be used by hamas. kruhenbuhl asked israel to allow the shipments to continue uninterrupted. >> it's very important that this continues. we cannot just have it once or twice. this has to be every day, dozens of trucks, because the destruction was so wide that you cannot only repair one or two places. you have to repair hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of apartments. if there is blocking of the construction material, if we have delays, then it could well go into 12, 15 or 18 years.

which of course would be unacceptable for the people of gaza. this is why we have to have this strong push now. >> reporter: israel imposed a blockade on gaza in 2007. kruhenbuhl said the international community should work toward getting the blockade lifted. >> it is an illegal blockade under international law. it is punishing the population in gaza. and this is creating long-term instability in the region. let me give you an example. in the year 2000 you had 80,000 people who were receiving food assistance from unrwa. in 2014 it was 830,000 people. this is because the blockade led to many people losing their jobs, many businesses to close, and therefore, people who were successful business people before started to receive humanitarian assistance from unrwa. you know, it's a question of dignity. it's a question of rights. and so the international community

has to mobilize also politically to change the paradigm that is now imposing so much suffering on the people of gaza. >> nhk world's tomaya ushida interviewed unrwa commissioner general pierre kruhenbuhl. now it's time for a check of the weather. people in tokyo are seeing sunny blue skies this morning. meteorologist robert speta tells us more in world weather. >> yes. and across much of japan for that matter we are going to be seeing for the next several days and really most of the week some really decent weather out here. we have this high pressure moving in overhead. it's going to be resulting in some partly cloudy skies. temperatures may be a little bit cooler out here, but it's still fairly decent. as that does continue to drift off toward the east, much of the korean peninsula as well still going to be dominated by this high, bringing in those partly cloudy skies. i do want to specifically mention, though, northeastern china, because what you are seeing out here is the high but unfortunately once you start

getting the aerosols in the atmosphere around here, specifically around beijing, you start to see those air quality levels deteriorate. and it does look like that p.m. 2.5 levels, those air pollutants in the atmosphere, are going to be here at a high level rate, around the unhealthy to hazardous. on friday. and even over through saturday. very little change here in your forecast. still much of that area continuing to be dominated by the high. and you really just need a colt front to come through and circulate up the atmosphere. and we have one, but it's maintaining farther toward the north and not pushing down there toward the south. meanwhile, though, i do want to talk about what's going on in the tropics. we have this precipitation continuing to linger across the philippines and over through vietnam. specifically southern portions of the philippines into davao there, mindanao, you've seen about 70 millimeters in the past 24 hours. also across parts of vietnam, over 100 millimeters has also been reported. there is the risk of some localized flooding taking place out here. continuing on the track toward the west, not a named system by

any means but we have a tropical low out here. you can see it spinning here in the northern portions of the indian ocean. could be one of the first storms of the season. in this area of the world to develop. will be a cyclone. if it does. still a lot of time to watch this. but if you are in oman over through pakistan, western india, this is something to keep a very close eye on because by next week this could be a big flood maker, something to watch out for through the coming days. let's go over toward europe now. and first i want to talk about the british isles. x gonzalo. that's long gone. but what you have is a high pressure situated across portions of the iberian peninsula, western europe. low off to the north. and right smack in the middle is much of ireland and scotland. you've been seeing some breezy conditions out here. still could see some scattered light rain showers, nothing flooding, but it is going to be really windy out there toward the north. then down toward the south we still have that cutoff low continuing to spin here bringing

some precipitation across the balkan peninsula. even some severe thunderstorms are potentially going to be occurring across western portions of ukraine as this slowly drifts off there toward the east. kiev with a high of minus 1, staying on the chilly side, but on the other side of the continent, lisbon and madrid, up there into the mid 20s. let's move over toward the americas now. first i want to talk about here in the pacific northwest. one low after another. parts of oregon and washington. you can see winds as high as 14u7b kilometers per hour coming out of this 37 central u.s., high pressure dominating. decent weather out here over the next 24 hours. but if you're in the northeast, you're still looking at the potential from flight delays, even cancellations from parts of washington. boston and washington, that is. over through new england also seeing some precipitation and that's going to continue to linger as we go through friday. i'll leave you now with your extended forecast.

♪ ♪ we'd like to update you on our top story this hour. the mayor of new york city says a doctor who has recently returned from west africa has

tested positive for ebola. >> today testing confirmed that a patient here in new york city had tested positive for ebola. the patient is now here in bellevue hospital. we want to state at the outset there is no reason for new yorkers to be alarmed. >> officials say the doctor was working for doctors without borders in guinea. one of the west african nations hit by ebola. they say when he returned to the u.s. he had no symptoms. officials say before the doctor developed a fever he took the subway in new york and also went to a bowling alley. if it is confirmed the doctor has ebola, he will be the second person to develop symptoms in the u.s. after contracting the virus in west africa. once again, officials say a doctor has tested positive for ebola in new york city. new york city mayor bill de blasio says there is no reason for new yorkers to be alarmed.

we'll have more details on this developing story at the top of the hour. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. tonight with less than two weeks until the midterm selections, a conversation with senator patrick leahy of vermont, chair of the senate judiciary committee about how new voting rick may keep hundred of thousands -- riekzs may keep hundreds of thousands from casting their ballots this year. over a year ago, the supreme court struck down a key provision of the voting rights act of 1965, opening the door for states to place restrictions on who can vote including implementing new rules requiring voter i.d.s. leahy and other senators have a bill pentagon th-- bill pending now. we'll have a conversation with one of the true innovators of funk music, george clinton. after nearly 40 years of touring, he swears this is his last. he's written about his life and career. you'll love the title -- "brothers be like, yo, george, ain't that funking kind of hard