Freezing. The sanctions also target a russian bank that began operating in crimea after russia annexed it. U. S. Firms are barred from doing business with the bank. For the Ukrainian Government the United States says it will provide an additional 75 million in assistance that includes unmanned Surveillance Drones and communications equipment. Officials from the u. S. Government say the Ukrainian Military will receive up to 230 armored vehicles. Reports say Vice President joe biden conveyed u. S. Decision on the new aid to ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in a telephone call on wednesday. The United States says prorussian separatists attacked the transport hub of debaltseve and the Industrial City of mariupol in Eastern Ukraine in a breach of the ceasefire accord agreed in february. Meanwhile, assistant secretary of state for european and Eurasian Affairs victoria newland said her country estimates between 400 and 500 russians have died in the cliblth. Nuland was giving testimony on ukraine at a Senate Foreign relations equipment hearing on tuesday. She stressed that what is needed is a complete ceasefire and a full pullback of all weapons from the area. Iraqi forces are close to making their biest gain yet in their fight against Islamic State militants. Troops have entered tikrit and say they have captured wide areas of the northern part of the city. Iraqi forces have been conducting a huge operation to retake the saddam husseins birthplace, which has been controlled by the militants since june of last year. Soldiers launched an offensive north of the city on wednesday and gained control of the area after fierce fighting. Footage taken from tikrit shows iraqi soldiers being welcomed by residents after militants fled the area. Government forces are attempting to surround the militants in central tikrit by advancing into the city from the east and south. They say islamic militants tried to stop their advance by destroying the bridge over the tigris river which runs east of the city. The operation is the largest counteroffensive so far by the iraqi government. They plan to move against the Islamic State groups biggest stronghold mosul in the north after retaking tikrit. A summit between japan, china and south korea has been proposed in a bid to improve relations. Senior diplomats say the meeting between the three countries will be discussed later this month. Japans Deputy Foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama met with his chinese counterpart liu chingmin and south koreas yu do su. Foreign minister and summit meetings between the neighbors counts have been suspended for the past three years. The countries are preparing to hold a trilateral foreign ministerial meeting next weekend in seoul. Japanese government officials see Foreign Investment as a key part of their growth strategy. Theyre taking steps they hope will make overseas investors more bullish on japan. Nhk worlds ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. So ai tell us what is the plan here . Well catherine, just a bit of background. Ever since Prime Minister shinzo abe has taken Office Direct Foreign Investment actually has been increasing. Here is the thing. The people in his Administration Want it to increase even more. And to go along with that they want officials to play a more active role in encouraging people from other countries to invest in japan. To go along with all that they see improving infrastructure as important too. Abe talked about the strategy at a meeting of the council on economic and fiscal policy. Translator Foreign Investment in japan has been on the rise as the country is becoming more attractive to foreign investors. We hope to further promote that trend. Direct Foreign Investment in japan last year was about 8. 4 billion billion. Thats three times what it was in 2013. Members of the cabinet and experts will meet as early as next week to discuss how to increase the amount of overseas money invested in the japanese economy. They aim to draw up a package of measures to achieve that goal. Theyre look at setting up a system where senior officials consult with foreign corporate investors. The package will also likely urge improvements to local airports to make them better able to handle small private planes. Officials at japans Agriculture Ministry plan to lower their sights when seth a target for the countrys ability to feed itself. It would be the first time theyve done that. Japan currently targets a caloriebased food selfsufficiency rate of 50 by fiscal 2020. The actual level in fiscal 2013 was 39 . So some people want what they say is a more realistic goal. Ministry officials now plan to include a target of achieving a 45 rate for fiscal 2025 in the new tenyear basic agriculture policy. They plan tone courage young people to take up farming and boost consumption of domestic farm products. Time for a check on markets now. U. S. Stock prices ended lower again after showing this years biggest drop on tuesday. Both the Dow Jones Industrial average and the techheavy nasdaq closed lower by just about 0. 2 . Some investors are already taking a wait and see stance ahead of next weeks Federal Reserve policy meeting. To see how markets here are reacting Ramin Mellegard joins us from the tokyo stock exchange. Good morning ramin. How are markets starting the day . Very good morning to you, ai. A quick recap on u. S. Stocks. Investors seem to be really concerned been only the stronger dollar but the prospects of rising interest rates, which is why we saw the u. S. Stocks trading lower. However, the nikkei and topix really look to be shrugging off any of that negativeness. So lets have a look at the opening levels here. 18,836. Up 2 3 of a percent for the nikkei. And yesterday also the nikkei shrugged off the weakness on wall street and actually rose. Domestic data also on machinery orders and corporate goods prices provided the positives. And were seeing a continuation of that. Right now the nikkei up over 100 points. In fact, an analyst i spoke to says with strong corporate profits, a current account surplus, robust exports and cheap Oil Prospects for japan look pretty solid going forward. Now, further buying may also come on nikkei futures ahead of the expiry of march contracts on friday. So were seeing the momentum building up. Also the weaker yen against the dollar should help a lost exporters. Ai. Ramin, how is the European Central banks quantitative easing measures affecting currency and bond markets this morning . Lets kick off with bond markets first because after the ecb began buying bonds from monday many investors really buying european government bonds such as german bund yields fell to an alltime low of 0. 2 . The yields on french italian, and spanish bonds also hitting record lows. This is really keeping the euro lower against major currency exposing 12year lows against the dollar and that since march 2013. Also against the yen, the single currency is at the lowest level in a year and seven months. Dollaryen also stuck in a bit of a tight range. U. S. Retail sales and Industrial Production across euro zone economies later today may give further indication for the single currency. And of course a lot of analysts still looking at the dollar against a basket of currencies and how thats going to trade. But for now thats all for me. Back to you. Sounds good. Well talk to you in a few hours. Ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. Ill be back next hour with more headlines. Neex a check heres a check on other markets. Four years ago crews at Fukushima Daiichi in japan were racing to keep the Nuclear Plant from spiraling out of control following the earthquake and tsunami. Today that sense of urgency has dissipated but the situation remains serious. Workers are juggling a host of problems as they try to decommission the facility. And given the risks involved Health Concerns and other worries weigh heavily on their minds. 51yearold mitts heero maedo has been working for more than 20 years as an Electrical Contractor at Fukushima Daiichi plant. Ma ma ma mayeda supervised about 30 workers at Fukushima Daiichi and took pride in his contribution to the plant. Translator i felt we were helping japan. We were generating electricity and supporting the country. Reporter when the Nuclear Accident occurred maeda rushed to the plant. He worked on rescoring external power, which was crucial in cooling the reactors and asserting an even bigger disaster. Maeda manages his staff from this office. Working in the aftermath of the disaster, he was exposed to the maximum permissible amount of radiation. Health and safety restrictions prevent him from working at daiichi until next year. Someone had to restore power at the daiichi plant. I just acted because it was my duty. Every day about 7,000 workers helped decommission the reactors. In heavy protective clothing they carry out such tasks as collecting and storing contaminated water. However, the decommissioning work is expected to take up to 40 years to complete. Keeping stress levels down and morale up is proving difficult. Maeda says a change of mood has definitely come over his staff. One worker is finishing his shift. This man began working at the plant before the accident occurred. He heard that many workers dont talk about their jobs, even to their family members. Translator my relatives dont like it. I dont mind if people say your work must be difficult, but some are really shocked and ask if im really free of raid radiation. Reporter maeda says its getting harder to find skilled workers. His company now has 1 3 the number of experienced staff it had before the accident. He says the situation is urgent. If it it carries on like this well go out of business. Four years after the not d. Decontamination of the plant continues. But its hard to predict when maedas hometown of mayia will be habitable again. Translator this is my field. They say its being decontaminated but residents are being accused of returning home. Maedas helping decommission the reactor out of a sense of duty to his hometown but he sometimes loses his faith in the future. And is starting to doubt whether its a good idea to continue his business. We need to figure out how to pass on this responsibility to the next generation. Otherwise, i cant see a clear future for the power plant. Reporter reducing the risk of radiation and improving the working environment is important. But these efforts are not enough to secure workers in the long term. Those on the front lines also need to have motivation and hope. The accident at Fukushima Daiichi contaminated a number of communities surrounding the plant. Fear of radiation forced people to leave in a hurry. In some cases they never went back. But what they left behind tells a story of a chilling period in this countrys history. A story one Museum Curator has tried to reconstruct piece by piece. Nhk worlds Jun Yotsumoto reports. Reporter a road sign mangled by the power of the sea. A poster for a festival that never took place. A clock froze nen time marking the moment the earthquake struck. All of these items come from evacuated towns around Fukushima Daiichi. For nearly a year mitsuro takahashi and his small team have been trying to preserve reminders of japans 2011 disaster. Theyve collected more than 100 items from the evacuation zone. Translator it reads the name of the village the tsunami destroyed. Reporter this decanter is the first object takahashi brought back. Finding it helped him understand his teams mission. Translator the idea came to me that this could be the only physical evidence that shows people did indeed live here. Reporter we followed takahashi and his team when they visited the restricted area in december. They went to a Community Hall that was used as an evacuation shelter shortly after the disaster. Translator you really see the whole picture here how quickly people had to leave without having time to clean up. Reporter the residents were fleeing the radiation from Fukushima Daiichi. The invisible threat is still a concern. Takahashi and his team need to check the level of radiation for each item. Only the ones that meet Safety Standards can be taken back to the museum. These newspapers from fukushima are okay. They carried details of disaster and were supposed to go out to readers on march 12th. But they sat abandoned in fujio hayashis shop. So i was always thinking that records of what happened must be passed down to future generations. Last month takahashis team took 40 of the items on display. Even though the items are inanimate visitors can feel their stories. I used to walk and jog in this neighborhood. It might sound like an exaggeration but a dream about this place. So in that sense im thankful mementos such as these have been preserved. Reporter even visitors from outside fukushima are impressed by the collection. Translator i feel these items directly convey how these peoples lives were suddenly disconnected and how cruel their situation was. Translator some people may say these objects are part of a negative legacy. But it wont stay negative if we learn lessons and start working to build a better world. Ill be happy if the objects help lead to us a positive future. Reporter takahashi and his team want that too. So theyll continue to collect the objects, hoping to tell stories of an and its painful aftermath. Jun yotsumoto, nhk world, fukushima. People around the world offered tributes and prayers for japan as it marked the anniversary of the 2011 disaster. Indonesians understand all too well what this country has been through. The 2004 indian ocean tsunami wiped out coastal areas there. But a lone tree that survived kept hopes alive and it helped connect people in these asian nations. Nhk worlds yusuke otah has that story. Reporter this is banda aceh in western indonesia. Through all the hardships one thing kept people going. This coastal area was hit by the tsunami, and everything was swept away in 2004, but only this tree survived. This 25meter sea oak tree survived the disaster. It is Still Standing here 11 years after the tsunami watching over the people. The 2004 indian ocean tsunami claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people in banda aceh alone. This photo was taken in banda aceh immediately after the disaster. The lone sea oak tree remains standing on the coastline in the midst of the devastation gave people the courage to go on. Sakura narukaya is one of those who found consolation in the tree. The tsunami swept away not only her house but also her 6yearold granddaughter. Translator every time i looked at the shi oak tree, it taught me never to give up. Reporter sakura was able to reopen the hotel she owned and pick up the pieces of her life. Then she heard the heartrending news that another tsunami had struck northeastern japan. She learned about a lone pine tree that survived in iwate prefecture might be dying. She wanted to donate a s hichlt oak tree from banda aceh to the city. Translator i really wanted to help the people there, as we shared a similar hardships. Sacra got the idea from replanting of sea oaks in banda aceh. Local people were replanting sea oaks to replace those they had lost. In some coastal areas, the trees were starting to grow back. One year after the tsunami struck northeastern japan, sakura visited japan to donate some young sea oaks to the city. City representatives expressed their deep appreciation and hoped that people in both cities would move on with reconstruction work. To mark the fourth anniversary of the disaster in japan, sakura and her friends paid silent respect to the victims in front of the sea oak. Translator our hearts are always with the people of rikuzentakata and the rest of tohoku. I hope people in japan will keep their hopes up, and never give up, just like the sea oak tree in banda aceh. Reporter the surviving sea oak helps unite people in indonesia and japan. Now prayers from banda aceh are reaching the hearts of people in japan. Yusuke ota, nhk world, banda aceh. It is time now for a check of the weather with our People Living along the coastlines of australia and other islands across the western pacific are feeling the effects of powerful storms. Meteorologist robert speta tells us whats happening. Yes, lets get right into this. We have numerous storms to take about out here. Four in the western and south pacific, and even over there towards the indian ocean as well. Plus we have a separate system in the south atlantic. But well talk a little more on that later on. Take a look at the satellite imagery. I have to get off the screen so you can see all of this. We have bobby off toward the north. Several cyclones toward the south. Lets first talk about this one here, which is currently impacting the marshall islands, Tropical Storm warnings and watches are in effect. If you are in guam or you have plans to go to guam this weekend, you have to be getting ready for this one. It looks like its moving ahead as a severe Tropical Storm bringing some rather hot winds and heavy rainfall as well. Moving to the southern hemisphere, cyclone pam is out here. This is moving across the island of vanuatu. This is when the sun came out. This is a very large storm. As far as all these cyclones this is definitely the biggest and most powerful. A very big wind field wrapping. You can see the eye is continuing to develop, indicating the strengthening of this storm. Right now continuing to intensify up to a category 4 cyclone. Thats on the fiji scale. Winds of 167 gusting to 204 kilometers per hour. Continuing to track down here toward the south. The big thing with this is it is edging farther to the west. You could be seeing winds gusting over 200 kilometers per hour, as this does push by. Then were talking about the rainfall and the high seas. So its a threat of lowlying storm surge flooding, but a lot of rain piling up on these islands. Moving farther to the west, remember, this is very active. We have cyclone nathan here. The big issue with nathan, its not making landfall, but its lingering right near the queensland coastline. What that means, theres a threat of flooding. The other side of the continent as well pefwe have cyclone olin coming ashore. The big issue is i think there would be flooding in western australia, and as i mentioned, over 300 to possibly 400 millimeters could occur around the cooktown area if youre in northern portions of queensland. So a lot happening in the tropics. We are going to continue to talk about this throughout the next several days. Then as we move into the americas, we have this area of low pressure spinning up into southern portions of texas, pumping in that moisture into the gulf of mexico, bringing some heavy rainfall. Thats on top of whats been occurring across the Mississippi River valley. Theres flash flood watches and warnings in effect for this time. Well continue to track towards the northeast, though. Temperatures look like this. Houston with a high of 21. Atlanta at 19. New york youll be seeing some warming trend here in the next couple days as well. A 9 there for your high. And los angeles, look at that 28. Actually recordbreaking temperatures over the coming weekend expected out there for you. And then lets wrap things up here into east asia. We have this area of low pressure over northern japan. Its been bringing that rough weather. Well, the good news is that its tapering off by saturday, sunday we could still see flurries, but for the most part seeing clearing conditions with High Pressure ridging in from the west. Seoul, sunny skies there for you. Tokyo 14 on your thursday. Heres your extended outlook. And thats all for this edition of newsline. Im Catherine Kobayashi in tokyo. Thanks for joining us. Steves the dramatic rock of cashel is one of irelands most evocative sites. This was the seat of ancient irish kings for seven centuries. St. Patrick baptized king aengus here in about 450 a. D. In around 1100 an irish king gave cashel to the church, and it grew to become the ecclesiastical capital of all ireland. 800 years ago, this Monastic Community was just a chapel and a round tower standing high on this bluff. It looked out then as it does today over the plain of tipperary, called the golden vale because its rich soil makes it irelands best farmland. On this historic rock, you stroll among these ruins in the footsteps of st. Patrick, and wandering through my favorite celtic cross graveyard, i feel the soul of ireland. Todays asian voices comes to you from pakistans capitol islamabad. We look at the comic series that has enjoyed decades of popularity. What makes it so popular . Should girls be allowed education . No. Should boys be allowed education . Yes. Gogi is a popular cartoon in pakistan. Using humor it raises questions about the countrys