A separatist leader there told russian state tv that 3 to 4,000 russian soldiers have joined the separatist fighters voluntarily. Officers did not order them to go in and suggested some came while on vacation, a spoke he is person said. Nato officials released satellite images taken last week. They say the pictures show more than 1,000 russian soldiers in an area 20 kilometers inside the border. One photo shows more than ten military vehicles. Another shows artillery units in firing position. The Officials Say the forces look well trained and they say its highly unlikely they are separatist fighters. These latest images provide concrete examples of russian activity inside ukraine, but they are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the overall scope of russian troop and weapons movements. The images provide more evidence that russian soldiers equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry are operating inside ukraine. Members of an armed group have detained dozens of United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and they have trapped other u. N. Troops in the disputed territory. Members of the u. N. Security council are working to get the peacekeepers released. U. N. Officials say the 43 peacekeepers who are being detained are from fiji. The 81 who have been trapped are from the philippines. The peacekeepers monitoring the Demilitarized Zone between israel and syria. Israel controls the Golan Heights. Syria claims it. U. N. Officials say the peacekeepers were detained during a period of increased fighting between Syrian Government and opposition forces. The United Nations is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers and to restore full freedom of movement of the forces throughout this area of operation. Observers suggested the militants might be from alnusra front, a group linked to al qaeda. But he said u. N. Officials cannot confirm that. The capture came a day after opposition fighters overcame Government Troops to take control of the border crossing. Israeli commanders say stray fire from the fighting prompted them to fire back. Militants detained u. N. Peacekeepers in the same area last year. Officials in the philippines say chinese personnel are beefing up their presence in the south china sea. They say the chinese are adding weapons and other equipment to facilities they built on reefs off disputed islands. Nhks Charmaine Deogracias reports. Reporter nhk obtained photos of the Spratly Islands. Officials took them in july. It shows a long, thin building has gone up around what appears to be a seawall. Compared to another photo taken in february of this year, the construction has progressed rapidly. Philippine Officials Say since then, the chinese have done a lot of work. The Spratly Islands are located in the middle of the south china sea. China, the philippines, and others claim them. Photos of Mischief Reef taken in april show solar panels, radar facilities and what look like machine guns. And philippine Officials Say the facilities have been modernized and militarized over the past four years. Photos of Fiery Cross Reef show a heliport and what look like agricultural greenhouses and gun platforms. On subi reef, a wide, spherical object is believed to be a large radar facility. Regional security analysts in the philippines say china is beefing up existing facilities while building new installations elsewhere. China is strengthening its capability for an air sea battle in the future, so thats one perspective. And if we examine all the occupied land features of china in the area, they are all considered by china some military facility and not a civilian facility. Reporter Philippine MilitaryOfficials Say the chinese have confirmed work to build new facilities in at least seven locations. Philippine Officials Say theyre closely analyzing chinas activities. They say the use of the islands as an arms site could allow beijings military influence to be felt throughout the seas and its airspace. Charmaine deogracias, nhk world, manila. Let shift gears and go to business news. Investors in tokyo are starting their morning going through a handful of economic data. We are joined from the business desk. Good morning. What are some of the headline figures . Catherine, we have jobs, we have, you know, price data today, both closely followed by people who study japan, because they given a insight into the state of the economy. Now, government Officials Say the job market in july seemed to be stable. Officials at the internal Affairs Ministry say the Unemployment Rate rose by 0. 1 point to 3. 8 . The number of people with jobs rose by 460,000 from a year earlier to more than 63 million. That figure has been climbing for 19 months in a row. The number of people without jobs fell by 70,000 to about 2. 5 million. Its been falling for 50 consecutive months. Labor ministry Officials Say the ratio of job offers to seekers was unchanged at 1. 1. That means there were 110 positions available for every 100 job seekers. There have been more jobs than job seekers for nine straight months. The Officials Say there were more positions in the education, medical care, Public Welfare and manufacturing sectors. Officials also released data for july showing prices for many every day items went up. The Consumer Price index has been steadily increasing for 14 months. The Officials Say prices rose by 3. 3 compared to the same month last year. The rate of increase was the same as in june. The index doesnt factor in the cost of fresh food, which tends to jump around and skew the numbers. Policymakers at the bank of japan say the increase in the consumption tax is partly responsible for the latest figures. They say without the tax rise, the Consumer Price index in july would have gone up by 1. 3 . Now lets check on markets. Investors in the u. S. , they sold stocks on weakerthanexpected earnings from retailers. Lets see whats happening with investors here and how they are reacting to japans own set of data. We are joined from the tokyo stock exchange. Good morning, ramin. How are marketing opening . I have another piece of data i want to give as well, japans Household Spending for july fell 5. 9 and that marks the fourth straight month of declines for that particular piece of data. Now, also because of the inpredictable situation in the ukraine, investors have been wary of renewed escalation and the Market Reaction has been pretty clear. Investors selling stocks and shifting now and sovereign bonds or Government Bonds, which they see as less risky investments, but lets have a look at how the sneak kind the topic kicks off this friday, august 29th, both in the negative following on from what we have seen in the u. S. And european markets. The tokyo markets carrying lieu that sentiment and added weight on japanese exported shares, traders sold the dollar to buy the yen, which they perceived the japanese currency still as a safer asset. Now the yields on Government Bonds, the german tenyear Government Bond hit a fresh record low of 0. 868 at one point and the yield on the u. S. Treasury note also trading lower, gold, in fact, was higher in light of the increased tensions in ukraine. So a lot of activity going on in bonds and some of the commodity dollardenominated assets. You mentioned currencies . Give us the levels on some of the key pairs. Yeah, sure, exactly, the dollar yen a big focus. The dollar is under selling pressure against the yen. The currency pair remains below the fouryen level, 103 to 4 now. Geopolitical events dominating despite the revised Second Quarter gdp dat that shows a to 4. 2 , higher than the estimate of 4 that came in above and also came in above analyst estimates. Weekly jobless claims edged lower. Now the euro will be guided by inflation data later today with some of the weaker eurozone economies experiencing a fall in prices and sluggish overall growth, leaving a lot of investors to think, according to analysts, that the European Central bank may be poised to take extra policy steps at its meeting next week. That is going to be a big focus. Keep track of all the sectors here for the nikkei and the broader topic as well as asian indexes, especially if you look at the shanghai composite and hang seng index, given back a lot of the gains that they made last week, a lot of investors concerns about falling real estate prices i and sluggish growth in china. So, we will keep track of all of those. Right now the sneak in the negative, the topic just edging into the positive, interesting. See how that develops. Back to you. Looks like a bit of a mixed picture this friday morning for tokyo stocks. Ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. I will be back next hour with more of your business headlines. Here ie is. Officials with the World Health Organization have been tracking the Ebola Outbreak in west africa, and they say the epidemic continues to accelerate. They say more than 20,000 people could be infected in the next six months. The w. H. O. Has published new figures. They show 3,069 people have been infected or believe to have been infected with ebola, and the fatality rate is reaching more than 50 . 1,552 of them have died. The u. N. Health agency Officials Say the number of actual patients could already be several times higher, and they say there could eventually be more than six times as many cases as doctors currently know about. Officials are calling for a Global Response to the spread of the virus. The agency says it needs 490 million to combat ebola as it set out a road map for tackling the outbreak. Researchers suspect the first case was a 2yearold boy in guinea in december. The disease has since spread to liberia, sierra leone and nigeria. Health care workers have not hesitated to help those infected with the virus, but many of them have been infected themselves. At least 240 doctors, nurses and other Health Care Workers have been infected. And more than 120 have died. W. H. O. Officials are concerned about the shortage of staff and facilities. A japanese doctor who has been working in liberia says Health Care Professionals face a range of threats. Nhk worlds nor rico okada reports. Reporter this doctor is an expert in infectious disease. He was dispatched by the World Health Organization to lie year ya where he saw a rapid rise in the number of ebola victims. Translator the hospital had enough beds when i arrived but the number of patients grew quickly during the week. Ten or so each day. Ebola is highly contagious and fatal and can quickly kill an entire family. Its a terrible disease. Reporter cato says the shortage of medical workers is increasing the risks of fatigue and error. Translator medical workers can contract the disease through a cut on their hands without even noticing. So some have walked away. Reporter dr. Cato has also helped set up a Treatment Center in the capital, monrovia. Initially, he fretted about being able to recruit enough medical workers. The fear of infection has driven many from hospitals across the region. But he was touched by how many locals volunteer for the job. Translator i was so glad to see many young medical staff joining. So, im hope willing that the treatment of the disease will improve thanks to them. Reporter he educated locals about the ebola virus and how to wear protective masks to avoid an infection. Ca it. O says more help from abroad is vital. He says the outbreak will not be resolved until people stop seeing it as something only affects west africa. Translator know how and measures to minimize the outbreak will help japan and other countries to deal with new infections in the future. We should strive to tackle ebola by pooling our Global Knowledge and working together. Reporter cato says he will continue to support the people in this period of desperate need. Noriko o nor noriko okoda, nhk world. Japanese authorities trying to get a step ahead of people they think are selling synthetic drugs, they are raiding shops and forcing owners to take suspicious substances off their shelves and they are not letting them sell those products again until they have the results of lab tests. Nhk worlds fumio kanda reports. Reporter synthetic drugs contain components that cause hallucinations and dizziness. Theyre spreading rapidly in japan, especially among the young. Translator even with a small amount, i foam at the mouth or feel my heart speeding up. In the end, i feel its more than i can handle and i could die. Reporter the drugs have been linked to a series of accidents. In june, a car driven by a man who had smoked a synthetic herb slammed his car into pedestrians in tokyo. The incident killed one person and left seven others injured. A string of new drugs has emerged with chemical structures slightly altered to stay on the right side of the law. Experts say they cant keep up with the stream of new products. On wednesday, officials from the Health MinistrysDrug Control Office raided nearly 30 shops in three tokyo districts. At the shop in shibuya, staff were ordered to remove synthetic drugs from the shelves and stock. Translator its too late to act after an accident. Well continue raiding shops. And when we find violations, well deal with them strictly. Reporter officials plan to perform similar raids and bans on nearly 200 shops across the country. The raids are a sign that the spread of the synthetic drugs has created huge concerns in japan. That means growing pressure on the authorities to crack down. Fumio kanda, nhk world, tokyo. The National Police agency plans to ask for a budget of 5 million for countermeasures next fiscal year. Officials will spend some of that money on equipment and chemicals to quickly detect illegal drugs. Indian Prime Minister modi is scheduled to arrive in japan on friday for the First Time Since taking office in may. Japan is eager to strengthen ties. India is a major economy. Reporter when modi led his party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in may, it was the first change of power in a decade. Japan will host modi as an official guest. Modi chose japan as the destination of his first bilateral visit outside south asia. He last visited two years ago when he was a chief minister. He sees japan as a key business partner. Modi says his top priority is reversing Indias Economic downturn from a year ago and hes calling on japan to invest more. The japanese Ambassador Says india needs to earn that investment. The mainstay of relations is, of course, trade and investment and economic cooperation. So we hope that there look more positively developments for the improvement of the Business Environment for Japanese Companies operating in india. Reporter india is planning to build Highspeed Railway lines across the country as a stimulus measure. Last month, the Modi Administration announced the first line will link the commercial hub of mumbai and the industrial industry of ahmedabad. Both cities are in western india where japan and france are conducting surveys for the project. Competition to win contracts has been intensifying. We are really proud of the world number one track record of japanese shinkansen in terms of speed, safety and punctuality. And, you know, this track record is well known in india. So, i really hope that it will be duly taken into account when this is taken in india. Reporter india is increasingly concerned over china exerting greater influence in sri lanka and other nearby countries. Chinas increased presence comes as it is locked in territorial disputes with india. Modis administration released a draft budget in july, which includes an increase of more than 10 for defense. With an eye on china, modi appears ready to modernize the military. India held a joint naval exercise with japan and the u. S. In late july and security will likely be hint agenda when modi meets japanese Prime Minister, shinzo abe. On the political and security front, we have already had consultations and dialogues at various levels, including ministerial level. And japans maritime selfdefense force and the indian navy have had bilateral and multilateral joint exercises so far. So we also would like to strengthen cooperation in those areas. Reporter as china increases maritime activities, japan regards the building of cooperative ties with india as vital to stabilizing the asia pacific region. Japan hopes modis visit will be an opportunity to further develop their Strategic Global partnership. Nhk world. Its time now for a check of the weather. People in tokyo are feeling a little chilly this morning as they get to work or school. Meteorologist robert speta tells us more in world weather. Yes, catherine and it does look like at least for the next several days, if you dont want to be wearing your sweater, it is going to be warming up. But for now, definitely staying cool out there. Really whats been happening, we have all this cloud cover and its just been blocking out the sun, but also, High Pressure off here toward the north has been pushing in that cooler air out of parts of far eastern russia. So, temperatures, well, they are in for the low to middle 20s actually. Tokyo saw 23 here on thursday. Yokohama just getting up to about the 22degree mark. Now, as i mentioned though, it will be warming back up, not quite the average, but still, into the high 20s, 24 in tokyo on friday, over toward sunday, getting up to about 28 degrees, even in osaka working its way back up to 30. Seeing a little taste of autumn, but not quite there just yet. Now, lets pull back the picture though and take a look far back toward the west, because southern portions of south korea, you are seeing those rain showers out here, actually, a few strong cells could be 20 millimeters an hour, showers across central and eastern china. This is what i want to key in on, a low thats moving into parts of vietnam. We have flooding warns and land slide warnings in effect at this time over 80 to 100 millimeters of rainfall reported here, we are seeing rapid river level rise irk track off toward lay woes and farther inland, look ahead to the next 24 to 48 hour, also back toward the east, even reports of flooding into the philippines due to another tropical wave. Neither of these are going to be develop nothing any named storm systems but they are doing their part to enhance the southwest monsoon, so, parts of the indochina peninsula seeing some flooding and even farther toward the west, mo northern portions of indian and western india, this is your past seven days total of rainfall based on satellite estimates. We have been seeing some areas up to about 5 to 600 millimeters. I want to show what you it looks like on the ground here, especially northern india, just inundation of this rainfall. We have been seeing, it has been disrupting road communication, water and power supplies, crops have been damaged and housing is definitely in a poor state. A floodwater allowing the river also inundated a major part of a wildlife sanctuary. You can see some of those animals trying to make it through the floodwaters there, so, not just people dealing with this, but even a lot of the wildlife out here as well. Now, the flooding is definitely a big problem off here toward the north, but you can see right here in central portions of india, youre in a deficit of rainfall. You need it here and unfortunately, the forecast still expects more rain out here toward the west and into northern india. So, something we want to continue to watch here. Lets move over toward the americas and right now, if you have a Labor Day Weekend plans in the central and the midwest parts of u. S. , you want to watch out for this storm system. I think on friday and saturday this is gonna be a Severe Weathermaker, some strong cells really developing out here, but as we look ahead going through the weekend, that systems gonna move out, gonna get out of the picture, but another one comes out of the rockies and i think this is going to be a big Severe Weather event on sunday. You can see it develop right there and thats gonna push across, travel plans through chicago very well could be delayed. Meanwhile, the south, things are staying hot, we still have the southwest monsoon kicking up some thunderstorms out here, this is what i want to leave you with, nice photo coming out of new mexico, some rain showers with a rainbow over laid on top of it back on wednesday. Here is the extended forecast. And that wraps up this edition of newsline. Im Catherine Kobayashi in tokyo. Thanks for staying with us. Garrison keillor maxine kumin lives on a farm in New Hampshire where she breeds arabian and quarter horses, writing poetry, four novels, more than 20 childrens books. She says, i dont want to write poems that arent necessary. I want to write poems that matter. This is a little one called after love. Afterward, the compromise. Bodies resume their boundaries. These legs, for instance, mine. Your arms take you back in. Spoons of our fingers, lips admit their ownership. The bedding yawns, a door blows aimlessly ajar and overhead, a plane singsongs coming down. Nothing is changed, except there was a moment when the wolf, the mongering wolf who stands outside the self lay lightly down, and slept. applause thank you. s s facts and positive growth in the third quarter. The military restores calm. With home prices declining nationwide, chinas economy is looking shaky. And in south korea, rice farmers are locking horns with a long time ally and protector. Hello, you are watching asia biz forecast. Imee coe fukushima. This week, we look at the thai economy. Business in thailand has been struggling since protesters took to the streets late last year. Military