government sources say he crossed the border aboard a train on friday morning and arrived in northeastern china. the sources say that the brother-in-law of kim jong-il is likely to be accompanying the heir apparent. last september kim jong un was named the vice chairman of the ruling korean workers party, indicating that he was officially chosen as the successor to his father. observers had been expecting kim jong un's first solo visit to china. >>> tepco will release its earnings report today. ai uchida from the business desk gives us the details. >> hi there, welcome to "newsline business." tokyo electric power company, or tepco, is expected to post an historic loss of around $15 billion in the fiscal year ended march. this is due to the huge cost of recovery efforts arising from the recent disaster. a source close to tepco says the company will allocate $5 billion to stabilize the troubled fukushima daiichi reactors. it also needs to earmark funds for future decommissioning of the reactors and restarting suspended they were thermal power plants. the extraordinary loss brings the overall defi

the official retracted earlier remarks that a north korean train that arrived in northeastern china was carrying the north korean leader's son, kim jong un. he explained that intelligence reports indicated that the train was most likely carrying kim jong il himself. sources familiar with the china/north korean relations said the delegations left two men at a province and stopped at a lake where a monument honors the late founder of north korea, kim il song. an employee at a hotel told nhk that a north korean leader had arrived and that people were banned from entering nearby hotels and restaurants. kim jong il is expected to visit cities in northeastern china. >>> the leaders of japan, china, and south korea are meeting this weekend in tokyo. this get-together will be the fourth in a series of high-level talks. japan's prime minister naoto kan and chinese premier wen jiabao and south korean prime minister lee myung-bak will hold talks on saturday. nhk world's hiroki najima is in studio to guide us through all this. now, hiroki, the leaders are expected to make a statement of cooperation

whether across eastern asia, we see clouds build over northeastern china. this will produce some showers and thunderstorms including beijing, and then some clouds also moving into the korean peninsula as well. it looks like it will stay essentially dry in and around south korea. much of japan is going to be enjoying warm sunshine over the next couple of days. the seasonal rain bands is slowly sagging south, and that is dry skies in the okinawa islands as well. looking unsettled for taiwan again, but we look for dry wlvr and philippines will have more showers. we have widespread rain. other areas have isolated thunderstorms. for indochina as well, pockets of heavy showers showing up here in cambodia, central thailand and looking at plenty of rain elsewhere across the region. we've got 34 degrees in bangkok today, 28 in hong kong. heating up in shanghai, 32 degrees, and then 31 in beijing with thunderstorms. tokyo is going to be quite pleasant at 23 degrees. elsewhere across the region looking pleasant and mild. it looking smild and sunny throughout the wedne

that's going to bring some showers to northeastern china on wednesday. still looking quite unsettled in the southeastern corner as well. some heavy showers associated with this seasonal rain, but that's going to be pushing out today. but it will remain quite unsettled across places like parts of taiwan, especially in south will contend with drenching downpours in the days to come. looking at a scattering of showers, again, for indochina, more intense as we head into wednesday and for the philippines as well, especially in central and southern portions. you're going to be contending with rain and thunderstorms. taking a look at your temperatures. 36 degrees many manila today. 23 in taipei. it stays hot in beijing, 29 degrees. seoul, 23 with sunny spells. now, across swra p croscross ja unstable conditions today. we have on and off showers in the okinawa island. quite heavy in nature. central portions looking at those showers to blossom later on this afternoon. so look out for some strong gusts, some strong thunderstorms this afternoon. including tokyo. th

we have a low pressure system moving across northeastern china. this is going to be bringing plenty of showers. most of it is going to be light showers, but a couple of thunderstorms to watch out for. parts of mongolia also will be seeing some heavy snow. now over the next couple of days, a system will make its way eastward into the korean peninsula southeast into russia turning things quite wet and cloudy in the coming days. meanwhile, southern chiepal be contending with more showers picking up that moisture off the south china sea. this has been an ongoing story, so flooding risks will be pretty high out here. as for the philippines, we have a tropical low showing signs of developing here. heavy rain expected in the coming days across central and southern portions, accompanied by strong winds. as well that system not in a hurry to go anywhere. it will be really dampening the region over the coming days. temperatures look like this. 37 in manila today. 26 in taipei. warming up to 31. it will be chilly in tokyo at 15 degrees. let's take a closer l

they left the japanese consulate general in northeastern china on friday. sources close to the case say the man and two women are related to each other. the trio had been given protection by the japanese consulate general after taking refuge there in 2008 and 2009. they expressed their desire to live in japan but the chinese government would not allow them to leave. china does not recognize north korean defectors as refugees and had demanded japan not shelter them. diplomatic sources say the deadlock was broken when japan recently declared in writing that it acknowledges china's position. >>> japan's defense chief says the recent unofficial disclosure of u.s. diplomatic cables will not affect the relocation of a bill tear case in okinawa. the whistle-blowing website wikileaks on wednesday released what are diplomatic cables sent to washington from the u.s. embassy in tokyo. one cable says a plan to relocate u.s. marines from okinawa to guam would involve spending $1 billion building an unnecessary road in the u.s. territory. another cable says in 2009 japan

so we really do want to see the rain coming in here where we have it is across northeastern china and hokkaido. and the korean peninsula seeing a calm weekend. let's look and see what's happening in the northeastern coast of japan. this is key cities. looks like temperatures are going to be fairly good and weatherwise, partly sunny skies. not bad either. fairly good outlook here. temperaturewise for the rest of eastern asia. 30 degrees in beijing. warm day there. 22 in seoul and 25 in tokyo. clear skies just perfect day, actually. as we head into saturday. down towards the tropics. 34 in manila and also in bangkok. in most of those places you will be seeing some thunderstorms moving through during the eat of the day. as we head into north america, out west is looking nice and settled for once. it's not going to last very long so do enjoy it while you can. we are going to see rain coming right in down to coast, down towards southern california. probably see some snow on the mountains, too. fairly cold towards the north. as for the central plains, well, things are going to be much dryer

pretty wet again today, showers will continue across the indo china peninsula and all the way up in towards areas like bangladesh, northeasternndia, rain will be a continuing story really for the next couple of days. wednesday's highs showing 32 degrees in manila, getting up to 26 in tae pay and 23 in shanghai. seoul will heat up to 29 degrees and tokyo, too, gets up into the 20s, getting away from the teens that we saw earlier this week. two-day outlook for quake-affected areas, will show mostly teens today on wednesday, although it does get up to 23 degrees, plenty of sunshine, the dry weather should persist into thursday as well. as for europe, a messy picture across the northern tier of the region and the british isles, too, rounds of rain and winds are going to be continuing to move through again today, heading in towards the baltic states and western russia as well. now we look to the south here, southeast that is, the balkan area and in towards italy, unsettled picture. lots of heat, triggering thunderstorms especially in the afternoon and evening hours so you want to watch out for that. it is going to be again pretty

across china, lots of clouds building over the region across the north central portions toward the northeastern corner here. this low pressure system continues to bring drenching downpours in isolated areas. starting to spread across the korean peninsula. light to medium showers, but nothing on the severe side. just to the west of the philippines we've got an active low pressure system that is, in fact, showing signs of intensifying as it moves slowly over the south china seas. this will bring heavy rain to taiwan as well as persistent rain off the philippines, as well. let's head towards south asia. picking up monsoon rain across indochina peninsula to india as well as bangladesh. we are keeping a very close eye on this area high flood risk as well as landslides, especially across bangladesh and down into thailand, as wl. 30 in hong kong today. isolated showers. cloudy in chongqing, 25. 32 in shanghai. very warm in beijing at 29. now for the united states, looking unsettled over towards the northwestern corner. chilly and wintry in around montana and wyoming. could see isolated heavy snow duri

china does stay dry. central and southern portions seeing less rain than we'd like. northeastern corner with showers here. that will help cool things down in beijing today. 26 for the high. 22 in seoul. slightly cooler than yesterday. tokyo will be 22 degrees. now we head into north america. major story here will be the powerful low pressure system that continues to move slowly across the region. this is bringing very stormy weather conditions in and around the central mississippi valley. tornadoes and large hail and also heavy showers. that is going to continue into the night here. the greatest threat in and around arkansas, illinois into kentucky here look at high risk of tornadoes as well as large hail and damaging winds. similar conditions into thursday as well as the storm system continues to move slowly to the east. over to the northwest, a new system coming in is going to be pulling cool air. looking quite unsettled here. could see late season snow as well, especially in and around washington today. 14 degrees in vancouver today. 14 in seattle. 17 in winnipeg. looking much

across china, lots of clouds building over the region across the north-central portions up toward the northeastern corner here. we have this lingering low pressure system that continues to bring drenching downpours in isolated areas. couple thunderstorms to watch out for as well and starting to spread across the korean peninsula. we'll see light to moderate showers across central portions of the country as well, but nothing on the severe side. to the west of the philippines, we have an active low pressure system that is in fact showing signs of intensifying as it moves slowly over the south china sea. this is going to be bringing heavy rain to taiwan as well as persistent rain to regions of the philippines as well. now let's head toward south iss asia, picking up monsoon rain into northeastern india, as well as bangladesh. this is going to be an ongoing story. we're keeping a very close eye on this area. high flood risk as well as landslides, especially across bangladesh then all the way down into thailand as well. 30 degrees in hong kong today. some isolated showers, but good spells of sunshine h