18,000 troops are securing the international ent,lmost double britain's contingent in afghanistan akira saheki reports. >> reporter: the city is welcoming the athletes, the audiences and the troops. london is in a festive mood but security remains a pressing issue. private security firm admitted two weeks ago it could not provide the number of staff it had promised. the british government decided on july 11th to call up an extra 3,500 troops to fill the shortage. security is tight, ahead of the big event. the military has deployed ground-to-air missiles on the rooftops of the apartment buildings near the olympic venues. the navy has anchored its largest ship on the river thames. some londoners are welcoming the mood, but others are worried about the increased security. >> i think it's probably a good decision to make sure the games are safe for everyone. >> it's a bit worrying that they should need so many troops here or feel they should need it. >> reporter: the government says it has decided to deploy more troops because it wants to leave nothing to chance. coordinated attacks on london's tr

akira saheki, nhk world, london. >>> salespeople of america's favorite smartphone maker sold many units of their flagship products this spring but they were hoping to sell more. ai uchida, what is this all about? >> all about corporate earnings this time of the year. apple's numbers in the three months through june fell short of forecasts despite a surge in profit. looks like many consumers are opting to wait for the release of that i new iphone model. the u.s. electronics giant said on tuesday that its quarterly net profits stood at $8.8 billion, and that is up 20% from a year ago. sales also jumped 22% to $35 billion. but the strong figures were still lower than many analysts had expected, that's because unit sales of the iphone fell 26% from the previous quarter. the hugely popular smartphone accounts for neither half of apple's total sales. many consumers postponed their purchase of the product. they have apparently been anticipating the launch of a new model in the near future. >>> meanwhile sales of the ipad tablet soared 84% compared to the previous year. its new model had just c