here's patchari raksawong in bangkok with the details. >>> president thein sein's words of praise have special significance considering he served as prime minister during the harsh military regime. that same regime kept aung san suu kyi under house arrest for more than a decade. experts say his unprecedented remarks are another attempt to convince the international community that his government is committed to democratic reform. thein sein used his u.n. speech to congratulate aung san suu kyi for the award she received earlier this month from the u.s. congress. >> the president also expressed hope that western nations would soon lift all economic sanctions against his country. >> u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton met with thein sein on wednesday. she told him the u.s. would begin easing sanctions on trade. washington has already moved to lower restrictions on finance and investment. the obama administration will need to get approval from congress for the changes. some u.s. lawmakers remain concerned about myanmar's treatment of political prisoners and ethnic minorities. washingto

patchari raksawong at our bureau in bangkok has the details. >>> a tribunal jointly established by the united nations and the cambodia government has ordered the release of tirit, saying she is unfit for trial. tirrit was a minister in charge of officials under the khmer rouge regime. she's the wife of another former defendant, a former vice prime minister sari, and the sister-in-law of pol pot. the court confirmed on thursday that tirit is suffering from illness, which is likely alzheimer's disease, and remains unfit to face trial. during its four years in power, the pol pot regime killed more than 1.7 million cambodians through large-scale massacres and forced labor. currently, three of the khmer rouge leaders remain on trial, but with all of them past the age of 80, the question is whether the judges will be able to reach a final verdict before it's too late. >>> a new u.n. report says that the taliban raked in hundreds of millions of dollars last fiscal year. it also reveals a tangled web of funding sources with implications for the international community. nhk world's hideki yui r

patchari raksawong in bangkok has this update on the situation. >>> pakistanis took to the streets after friday prayers as demonstrations against the controversial film spread. the protests have received support from the government. now the prime minister called on people to show their anger peacefully, but there have been some reports of violence. nhk world's hideki yui reports from islamabad. >> reporter: pakistan declared friday a national holiday called a day of love for the prophet. in the capital of islamabad, the prime minister called for international laws that would make such religious insults illegal. >> translator: an attack on the holy prophet is an attack on the full 1.5 billion muslims. therefore, this is something that is unacceptable. >> reporter: the film has aggravated anti-u.s. sentiment in pakistan. demonstrations against the film have been occurring daily. at least four people have been killed and many more injured in clashes with police. on friday, protesters in the northwestern city of peshawar became violent and set fire to movie theaters. the u.s. state departmen

i'm patchari raksawong in bangk bangkok. >>> for an update on the weather forecast, here's mai shoji. mai? >> looks like again we'll be having unstable conditions over japan. much of japan will be seeing those isolated thunderstorms to pop up, especially during the afternoon and evening hours due to the low pressure system and the moisture surge. however, northern japan will be seeing some clear weather. it will be brief relief, however, though. we have a low pressure system that is distributing a lot of hefty rainfall over the korean peninsula. that's going to be bringing about 30 millimeters in an hour type of sudden bursts of rainfall. and then you can see that that will be next taking aim toward hokkaido. as it en routes toward hokkaido, northern japan, again, we'll be finding those isolated thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. but rain actually in tokyo considering the total amount that we should be seeing that this time of the year. in the past two months, tokyo has only seen 32% of that. so some locations are actually wanting those rain to fall. however, yet again, these isolated

i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> hot weather continues in tokyo. the lack of rain is creating some shortage in wat. meteorologist robert speta has more on the weather for here and elsewhere. robert? >> yes, gene. across portions of tokyo it has been very dry, and unfortunately the rain showers towards hokkaido will not be helping out. most of these showers will be staying off towards the north and actually around hokkaido here, some areas could be seeing upwards of 150 mill liters in the next 24 hour, adding on top of continuous rainfall since last weekend, so about 320 mi millimeters have been seen. most of that will be staying off towards the north. as this low continues to interact with the tropical depression here down towards the southeast, it does look like a few stray storms could be blowing through the region and much of central japan but not really helping out that drought situation. as these two continue to weaken, it looks by thursday most of japan is going to be seeing much fairer weather. let's look down towards the south in and around

i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> a large typhoon is heading towards okinawa. meteorologist robert speta has the details. rob rt? >>> well, currently there's a very violent typhoon samba is pulling off here towards the north. on the satellite imagery, you can see that very clear and defined eye in here. around that eye is the eye wall, and that's where you're packing some winds upwards of 288 kilometers per hour. it does look like all this energy is going to continue to push off here towards the north across portions of southern okinawa here. you could actually be seeing some ten-meter-high waves with it as it starts to crash onshore. also, you have the risk of storm surge here in the right front quadrant of the storm is where you're going to be seeing some wind blowing this water onshore. and then on sunday morning you have high tide so, that combined with this high storm surge is definitely going to be creating the risk of some coastal flooding across much of this region here. and then as it continues to push off there towards the north, some widespread rain

i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> the united nations has marked an international day of peace on september 21st for the past ten years. it's not known how many people actually do observe a cease-fire, but what is known is that ordinary people celebrate this event in their own ways. people are gathering for a student film festival near tokyo. nhk world's tomoka kamata take us there. >> reporter: the main event i short film competition. the first prize winner will be invited to screen 60 minutes' film next year. a japanese movie distribution company started the event last year. about 40 student groups from five countries posted five-minute clips of the documentaries, animation, and dramas. university student shimpei shigeta won first prize last year. shigeta first visited cambodia three years ago as a volunteer. he dug wells alongside local people. he was struck by their efforts to rebuild the country after years of a civil war that killed millions. shigeta made a film entitled "cross road" about a team engaged in removing land mines from a village. the team included former members

i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> government forces are pounding rebel positions in syria's main cities. the britain-based syrian observatory for human rights says nearly 100 civilians were killed on sunday across the country. government troops used tanks and helicopters to attack rebels in the south of the capital damascus. a staff member for unrwa, the u.n. agency providing relief to palestinian refugees, was fatally shot on his way to work. the incident occurred three days after another staff member and his son were killed in a suburb of damascus. syria's state-run tv reports that a car bomb exploded on sunday night in the northern city of aleppo. the blast reportedly killed 17 people including several civilians. >>> people across northeast japan are walking along a path to recovery. they've worked for 18 months to rebuild from the disaster in march of last year. over the next two days, we'll reflect on what happened and what's changed. people who were forced to leave the area around fukushima fukushima left behind almost everything. they left behind homes, photo album, the st