hello. you're watching "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. here are the headlines. the islamic state militant group has released what it says is a message from its leader, calling for his supporters to take their fight worldwide. u.n. fishlz are reporting success in the fight against the ebola outbreak in west africa. and as concerns grow about shrinking volunteer fire brigades in japan's aging rural

areas, children are stepping up to figure out how to fill the gap. the islamic state militant group has released a recorded message from a man it describes as its leader. the meng is apparently intended to counter reports that he was wounded in a u.s.-led air strike. the group released the 17-minute audio recording online. it says the speaker is abu bakr al baghdadi. the message criticizes the campaign in iraq and syria by the u.s. and its allies. the speaker says they're terrified of islamic state and powerless. he urges islamic state fighters to, in his words, erupt the volcanoes of jihad everywhere. the message calls on followers to join hands with extremists in saudi arabia, egypt, libya, and elsewhere and step up the offensive against the u.s.-led coalition.

iraq's state-run television reported last saturday that baghdadi had been wounded in an airstrike by the u.s.-led coalition. it's not known when the message was recorded but it refers to an incident shortly before and after baghdadi's reported injury. the head of the u.n. mission fighting against the ebola outbreak says they've been successful in keeping the infected areas in west africa from expanding and he says more and more cases are now being managed and treated. anthony bander released u.s. mission for ebola emergency response. he told the u.n. general assembly that two of the three hardest-hit countries, guinea and liberia, are seeing fewer cases. but he says the number of new patients is increasing in sierra leone. >> we are already at 55% of case isolation and 87% of safe burials. >> officials have set a target of isolating 70% of the outbreak

by december 1st and say they've exceeded their goal of a safe burial for those who've decide. banbury told reporters that the u.n. strategy for ebola is working but he's concerned that infections could still be spreading in remote regions. >> we have a very serious crisis on our hands. it is not under control now. we're working very hard to get it under control. >> calling for more international cooperation to help contain the disease. the president of liberia has ended a state of emergency put into place to try to control the ebola outbreak. >> i have informed the leadership of the national legislature that i will not seek an extension to the state of emergency. >> ellen johnson-sirleaf told reporters on thursday that sufficient progress has been made getting the outbreak under control. more than 2,800 people have died

of ebola in liberia, the highest death toll among the three most affected west african countries. liberian government officials declared the state of emergency in august. they restricted the movement of people in severely affected areas. but president surleaf warned that people are still dying of the virus in some areas. she said health workers would continue to monitor the outbreak and isolate patients if need be. protesters in the streets of hong kong have suffered a legal setback. a court has denied their appeal. they want authorities to suspend the clearing of barricades from areas they've been occupying. pro-democracy demonstrators have been blocking three main roads in the city since late september. they're demanding fully democratic election reforms for the hong kong's chief executive. taxi and bus operators filed a court injunction last month to have the roadblocks cleared. the people supporting the students filed an appeal asking

for the enforcement to be postponed. however, on thursday the court rejected the appeal. the lawyer for the taxi operators indicated that the authorities would likely start clearing the areas as early as this weekend with the support of police. earlier this week a judge ruled that authorities can arrest anyone who obstructs barricade removal. student leaders say they're prepared for possible action. they also say that three representatives will head to beijing on saturday to seek direct talks with central government leaders. >> translator: we want leaders in beijing to understand that the one country, two systems policy will work well only when they respect the opinions of the hong kong people. >> however, the student leader did not mention whom they might be able to lead. and there's no guarantee they can enter mainland china since the central government sees their activity as illegal. to date many students and participants in the protests

have not been allowed to visit the mainland. european space agency officials say they're getting signals back from a probe that touched down on a comet. and they say the lander philae has begun sending its first images. >> it was very exciting when we knew that the first images were to come from the lander. >> they show the landing gear and the comet's rugged surface. the space probe rosetta was launched in 2004. it traveled more than 6.6 billion kilometers and three months ago it finally caught up with the comet known as 67p. the probe landed on wednesday after a seven-hour descent from the spacecraft. esa released a virtual treat by rosetta after the philae lander detached. rosetta commented that its back feels chill yafr philae left. and philae replied that it fields like it's floating. the team has confirmed that the harpoons used to anchor the

lander to the comet's surface are not working properly. they say the landing site is different from their original plan. and they say they're concerned that the solar batteries may not have received enough sunlight. the comet is believed to to contain substances dating back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. scientists hope that samples could provide clues to the origin of comets, our solar system, and earth. joining me in the studio is ai uchida from the business desk. tokyo stock prices have been rising this week. could you give us an update on that? >> absolutely. we have definitely seen a rally on the nikkei actually touching a seven-year close highs for three straight sessions through thursday. stocks today, though, are lower this morning on some profit taking after those gains. for more details on individual shares ramin mellegard joins us. he has a full wrap-up for us. so ramin, what can you tell us? >> thank you very much, ai.

the nikkei did surge at the open but then it actually fell a little bit flat into the end of the morning session. but let's have a look at how things ended up for the nikkei and the topix. 17,330. as you can see, they're down 0.36%. and the broader topix lower as well. now, investors taking in a little bit of a cautious tone with analysts telling us that many would prefer to wait until japan's third quarter gdp data, due out on monday, before making any big moves. also, they want to get more information about a possible snap election here in japan and also the possibility of a delay in the next consumption tax hike, which was pegged for next year. so that's a big focus as well. that said, we were following some individual stocks and sectors, and within the financial sector i was following sumitomo mitsui financial group which that was down 2.65% and that's after japan's second biggest bank said the profits fell in the fiscal first half of

this year due to weaker performance of sales of mutual tunds actually the bank said its net profits fell 5.2% from a year earlier. now, later today mitsubishi ufj financial group and mizuho financial group will also be coming out with their earnings which pretty much wraps it up for the earnings season here in japan. now, also we did see a rebound in copper and some of the steel prices which actually led tokyo steel manufacturing to be one of the big performers up 5.35%. however, exporters saw a little bit of a muted reaction here with the dollar/yen not moving too much. however, just right now at the 115.98-116.03 levels. a lot of u.s. investors waiting for retail sales later today. very quickly looking at asian indexes the shanghai composite and hong kong's hang seng a little bit of a mixed picture, but those two will be setting off for next monday where a scheme is set for some shares to be exchanged between these two

indexes. so a lot of excitement building up for that. but for now that's all for me. back to you. >> rammin, thanks a lot for that update. new university graduates in japan who begin work this spring received higher starting salaries than those last year. it is the first increase in three years. officials at the labor ministry said new graduates earned about $1,730 a month. that's $20 more on average and up 1.2% in yen terms. about 50,000 companies responded to the poll. starting salaries at large companies with 1,000 or more workers went up 0.4%, marking a second straight year of increase. the survey showed mid-size and small firms turned starting salary declines into increases this spring. new employees at companies with between 100 and 999 workers began work with a pay increase of more than 1% from last. those with firms of 10 to 99 workers got paid about 2% more this year.

ministry officials say more small firms raised starting salaries because of a labor shortage in sectors like construction and nursing care. chinese leaders are creating a huge international investment bank in asia. they're calling it the asian infrastructure investment bank, or aiib. officials from 21 countries exchanged memorandums in beijing last month. and this month indonesian president also expressed his willingness to take part. but japan and the u.s. are keeping their distance. chinese president xi jinping says he wants the bank to fund infrastructure expansion. he also says china will take a leading role in developing the economy in asia pacific regions. aiib is expected to have capital worth $100 billion, and the chinese are likely to supply about half of that. jackson wong explained the details of the china-led investment bank. he's associate director at

united simpson securities in hong kong. >> well, i think from the economic point of view this is very reasonable because the other organizations such as the world bank, the asia development bank, or imf, they are mainly focused on sovereign finances rather than infrastructure buildings. but these aiip is mainly focused on infrastructure buildings. i would say this is more like a medical oriented organization rather than the macro oriented organization from the other organizations. so by building this whether to internationalize, this is not a necessary thing because -- unless china asks the members to patch their funds in terms of renminbi. otherwise it would still be the key thing. they won have to use the renminbi in short term. this bank is only for the own

good of the own region. >> as you know, jackson, u.s. officials say, and this is a direct quote, they have concerns about the ambiguous nature of the bank's proposal. do you think china can meet international standards of governance and transparency? >> at this stage it's still very early. we don't know how successful or how big this aiip will be. but when we look at the governance standpoint of view, i think china will have enough expertise to do in. when we look at the newest list of globally systematically important banks published by the financial stability board, three of the major chinese banks including industrial and commercial bank of china, bank of china and agricultural bank of china, they all -- these all three major banks in the list, that's pretty impressive and i

think china can follow enough expertise from this bank to run the new organization and also don't forget the other members will contribute officials in this new bank too. i'm not so concerned about the governance issue here. >> and what are the challenges then that the bank faces as it tries to expand? >> well, money is always the problem. i think the funding gap will be faced by the other -- the rest of the members at this stage. we know china will be supplying half of the funds. however, will the rest of the 20 countries have sufficient funds to come up with another $50 billion? well, at this stage when we take into political reasons in this, i think they might hesitate at this point because they would not want to upset the other major organization by being too

aggressive on this. so i think at the earliest stage china would have to do a lot of things in order to show the rest of the countries that this organization is going to help the economy rather than to fulfill their power hunger needs. initially. executives at u.s. retailer walmart stores are happy with recent market moves. they are seeing u.s. consumers spend more at their stores as they don't need to pay as much for gasoline. walmart's earnings report for the quarter ending in october shows their net sales in the u.s. rose 3.4% year on year to $70 billion. sales at existing stores excluding those just opened or closed rose 0.5% from a year earlier. this marks the first increase in seven quarters. walmart u.s. president greg foran says gasoline prices have definitely dropped and american consumers have more money to spend freely.

the average gasoline price has fallen about 20% from the peak marked in april due to a drop in crude oil prices. many experts expect that a sharp drop in gasoline prices will boost consumer spending ahead of the holiday shopping season beginning later this month. the u.s. justice department says a toyota group company has agreed to plead guilty and pay a criminal fine for fixing prices. department officials say auto parts maker ai shinseki is to pay $35.8 million. officials say the firm conspired with other makers in adjusting prices of valve devices for controlling engine air flow. they say the practice continued from the year 2000 to 2010. the case is part of the department's ongoing antitrust investigations into auto parts cartels centering on japanese firms. 31 companies including aishen and 34 individuals have been charged. the firms have agreed to pay about $2.4 billion in criminal

fines. the way that japanese companies support their workers diagnosed with cancer is coming under scrutiny. the health and labor ministry surveyed 411 firms in japan that place importance on offering their employees cancer screenings. it shows only 10% of the firms provide some kind of support for employees diagnosed with cancer. they include changing the employee's working hours or work roles. the other firms say it's difficult to provide support because they say being sick is a personal problem or they don't know what kind of support they should provide. among those aged up to 64 and working, 200,000 people are diagnosed can cancer every year. and a third of these workers have no choice but to quit because they have trouble undergoing treatment while working. ministry officials say they will study ways to help employees with cancer continue working.

they say if people have to quit their jobs due to the illness it could have a negative effect on companies as well. that's the latest in business for this hour. i will leave you with a check on markets. ♪ local communities in japan often form volunteer fire brigades. these intrepid groups play an important role in putting out fires and rescuing people. and they help out with other

disasters. but membership has been shrinking and current volunteers are aging. the residents of one city have decided to do something about this and are working to nurture future firefighters. nhk world's jun okamoto reports. >> reporter: these elementary school children are members of the young firefighters club in western japan. the club was started as a local organization of the local fire brigade. today the children are using practice extinguishers as they train to put out fires. sixth-grader karin honda. >> translator: i want to be the fastest to put out the fire. >> reporter: karin's father is a volunteer at the local brigade.

he set up the youth group after growing concern over lack of new members in his organization and the advancing age of current members. >> translator: we hardly have any young members. in particular, ones in their 20s. so we need young people to join us. if i can get my daughter to join, we'll have at least one member. >> reporter: karin at first had no interest in fighting fires. >> translator: it looked really hard. so i didn't want to join. >> reporter: the firefighters club held its inaugural ceremony in august of this year, and then its activities got under way. volunteers from the brigade trained karin and her fellow youth members. throughout her training karin gradually realized the importance of her role as a leader.

>> since i'm the leader i have a lot of things to do such as making sure that everyone coordinates with each other. having fun is fine, but i want everyone to work hard when it's time to work hard. >> reporter: on this day members of the firefighters club are meeting in the brigade's warehouse. they are preparing to go on a neighborhood patrol over fire prevention. members discuss what type of information they should pass on to citizens. club members spend an hour working around the neighborhood, taking turns calling out the pieces of advice they put together. [ applause ]

after their patrol karin and her fellow club members receive encouraging feedback from the head of the fire brigade. the experience of conducting firefighting activities seems to give some of the younger members a sense of maturity. >> translator: it was fun. and i learned a lot. i like to help my neighborhood by getting rid of fires. >> translator: my biggest dream it for members of this young firefighters club to join the local fire brigade. i'll do my best to make sure that happens. >> reporter: the hope is that eventually the members will continue their activities after they get older and start in the brigade so that it remains an important part of the community for many years to come. jun okamoto, nhk world, unago. people in many areas of the

u.s. are dealing with severe weather conditions. and seeing temperatures plummeting. mai shoji joins us with more in world weather. >> many locations across the u.s. is covered with a cold wave. the recent cold surge has brought the temperatures down to about freezing or even below that. even across the four corners region. we have videos coming up to show you what people are dealing with as we speak. a potent cold surge drove its way south across the u.s. this week, bringing snowfall and dropping temperatures for more than half the country. the heaviest snowfall occurred in a michigan town where 108 centimeters fell this week. authorities say that four people were killed in minnesota due to slick roads. as one snowstorm moves east, another is working its way to the west. these images out of oregon shows the snow which is already covering trees and roadways. more snow will surely make for slick conditions. traveling will be very much disturbed.

we're also talking about gusts reaching to about 65 kilometers per hour in and around colorado and another round of about 50 centimeters of snowfall moving in. to the pacific side, we're seeing winter precipitation turn to freezing rain and possibly heavy rain in these locations, especially in and around washington. more snow for you in the etf. east. we're likely to see the first snow of the season in the city of new york, new york city, i should say, likely to pile up as much as one to three centimeters as we speak. now down toward the south we have a cold front which is going to be swinging across the deep south. and that's likely to bring some dramatic temperature drop. about 8, 9, or 10 degrees difference. especially in and around columbia in georgia and some areas in florida. a huge drop into your friday. then the low temperatures will continue on to your saturday. usually, your highs reach about

20s, but we're only looking at some low teens into your weekend. so do bundle up. now, these are your temperatures for the rest of this continent. new york, as i mentioned, has snow in the forecast for you with 7 on the high but your lows are extremely low. denver still looking at minus 12 degrees. your windchill factor could go down as much as minus 20 degrees. very easy to get frostbite within 30 minutes. please watch out for this cold wave. now, across europe things are still very severe. this system is now moving into the southern balkans and western turkey. there's still some potential of tornadoes, large hail, and very heavy rainfall. excessive rainfall alerts are across southeastern areas of france as well as northern italy because of this system pulling in. so not a good break at all for these locations where flooding is ongoing. another round of heavy rain could worsen the situation. wet and windy conditions will be widely spread across the iberian

peninsula and the british isles. and we're still looking at warsaw in the east with some rain in the forecast for you. but the temperatures not bad at all. still well above the average. winter pressure pattern, very typical one, is dominating much of japan. about 19 centimeters of snow today adding up on top of what we see here. this is due to the sea effect snow which is a typical event during winter time but a little early for this year. snow adding up to 40 centimeters in hokkaido and gusts will be reaching about 126 kilometers per hour throughout the day today. i'll leave you now for your extended forecast. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ that's all for now on "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo.

hope to see you again at the top of the hour.

good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. the seismic shift in congress as republicans take on the house and senate in the wake of the midterm elections. we got a sense of what this mean for the country and for president obama's final two years in office. first from reince priebus, chairman of the committee, and two, two editorial director for strategic partnership for atlantic media. we're glad you've joined us. those conversations coming up right now. ♪ ♪