North. Kim jongun ordered preparations of a launch of a de facto longrange ballistic missile. The country tested one in february. South Koreas Defense Ministry said the north is ready for another nuclear test. Its last happened a month ago. The United States has been increasing pressure on the north over those developments. It plans to hold a drill with the south off the coast of the Korean Peninsula next week. The u. S. Has also been talking with other countries about imposing tougher sanctions against the north. Syrias heavily criticized leader said rebels in aleppo can leave the wartorn city if they lay down arms. He said the army will push to retake the city. Acted the entire country. On thursday, troops advanced into the central area recapturing key buildings. Government forces have repeatedly launched air strikes on the city since the latest ceasefire collapsed a few weeks ago. The Government Forces are expected to further intensify their offensive, fueling concern about more civilian casualties. The attacks have seriously damaged hospitals, putting the citys medical system on the verge of collapse. There would be like there will be no hospital serving these people. U. N. Syrian mediator said eastern aleppo may be totally destroyed if government attacks continue at the current rate for another two and a half months. He added that if they do continue, 275,000 people could die in the city. He strongly condemned the Syrian Government and its ally russia. Please look at my eyes. And eyes of the world. And of the public opinion. Are you really ready to continue this type of level of fighting. He also called on one group of islamist militants to withdraw from aleppo. He hopes a ceasefire in the city could hold. He expressed his resolve to do everything he can to prevent any more civilian casualties. Indonesias president has inspected large military exercises near the countrys Natuna Islands in the south china sea. Its an effort to keep beijings increased maritime activity in check. China claims large parts of the sea, including waters around the island. About 2,200 troops and nearly 50 aircraft have been taking part in the drills since late last month. On thursday, he traveled to the area. The First Time Since june. Soldiers parachuted out of c130 transport aircraft in landing operations. Indonesian authorities have recently been seizing chinese fishing boats off the islands on suspicion of illegal operations in indonesias exclusive economic zone. Analysts widodo made the visit to stress his countrys sovereignty over the islands. A group of 20 finance ministers and Central Bank Governors are gathering in washington to discuss the World Economy. Ai, whats on the agenda . Well, the leaders are expected to discuss and also express a common sense of crisis toward a possible rise in economic uncertainties. Protectionist trade policies are emermging in the u. S. Ahead of the president ial election there. And major european banks are dealing with financial risks. And the g20 officials are expected to discuss ways to stabilize Global Financial markets. Their meeting has just kicked off. Bank of japan governor highlighted the state of global uncertainty. Translator there are apparently many uncertain elements. So each participating nation will talk about its economic condition and financial leaders will discuss measures that each nation is taking. Participants will be discu discussing risks that may put a drag on the World Economy when industrialized economies are growing at a sluggish state. Another topic will be the free trade ahead of the u. S. President ial election next month. Both republican and Democratic Candidates are talking about trade policies. Imf managing director, the International Monetary fund, Christine Lagarde had a message for major banks. Many banks around the world have to look at the Business Model and have to undertake the right efforts, and the right rearchitecture in order to respond to the existing financing conditions. Many of the concerns are aimed at europes big institutions. An italian bank is facing a serious capital shortfall and worries are mounting over the Financial Health of major german lender deutsche bank. Japans finance minister is not at the g20. Aso is at home tied up with an extraordinary session of the diet. Still, he is scheduled to take part in an imf Committee Meeting which follows the g20. Lets take a look at markets now. Wall street ended largely flat. Thats ahid of the key u. S. Jobs data out later today. The Dow Jones Industrial average ending a little less than. 10 , the techheavy nasdaq ended down a little less than. 2 . Well see how markets in tokyo are kicking off this friday morning. For that, well go to Ramin Mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. Tell us how markets are opening, ramin. Really, as you said there, indexes in the u. S. Largely unchanged. Investors refraining from making any major bets ahead of key u. S. Nonfarm payrolls and unemployment data later today. Lets have a look at how the nikkei and topix are kicking off this friday, october 7th. And both in the negative. Not that much of a move. Well see how that progresses. But nevertheless, were lower. Now, the nikkei actually rose for a fourth day in a row on thursday, on the back of a weaker yen, closing up thursday over half a percent. Increased activity in Foreign Exchange markets, as some of japans biggest banks reportedly increased their holdings of u. S. Deposits. Actually, just in time to offset new rules which will limit their ability to raise u. S. Dollars in the debt market. Also, of course, were approaching the earning season in japan. So theres a lot of focus on japan inc. , so to speak. Now, looking at oil prices, big focus there throughout this week. We did see the wti benchmark futures climb above 50 a barrel in new york trading on thursday. Thats the first time in about three months, the surge came off u. S. Government data showed the Oil Inventories declined for five weeks in a row. So well see how High Oil Prices will affect the markets here. Ai . Ramin, get us updated also on currencies. It looks like the dollar has edged higher ahead of that muchanticipated jobs data. Tell us where the key currency is now. Its been creeping higher, hasnt it. Look at it now, 103. 79 to 81. It actually rose above the 104 yen level overnight in new york. And thats a level we havent seen for about a month. Investors are buying the dollar on a higher anticipation of a rate hike. Recent solid ism manufacturing as well as Services Data showing an expansion. Weekly jobless claims, it comes out every thursday, and it showed the smallest figure actually since midapril when it hit almost a 43year low. So some positive signs there. But, of course, the nonfarm payrolls and unemployment data due out later today will further clarify everything for investors. With regards to the euro, talk of the European Central bank tapering off, or cutting back its bond buying program, caused a little bit of volatility. In fact, some of the yields were jumping higher. But, of course, many investors do not think the ecb will start raising rates. A quick look at asian markets before i go, ai. Seouls kospi is lower as is sydney. Chinese markets still on holiday. A negative start to our morning in this part of the world. Times are changing in japans tourism industry, in some places, even wellknown scenic spots arent enough. One city that wants to attract more visitors is turning to creativity, and costumes. Lets take a look. Reporter its not easy standing out in this crowd. But luna the banana princess is determined to make an impression. Her job depends on it. The back story. Junko works for the Tourism Office in kyushu city, western japan. And the city has an image problem. Translator not many people are interested in kitakyushu. So im trying to get their attention and make them take notice. Reporter the city has plenty of sightseeing spots. For instance, the steel works, a World Heritage site, and historic moji port. A show celebrating the citys close ties to the banana trade began here. Junko decided the town needed something more. Her search led her to the banana princess. She made the costume herself, from the fruity tiara, to the flowing blond tresses. It was a big part of her life growing up. Now she thinks those skills can help sell her hometown. Theyve appointed the banana princess official ambassador. Shes traveling around the country, using the character to open doors. Translator please come and visit kitakyushu. Bananas on her head. Thats cute. Translator wow. Reporter its all about starting a national conversation. Translator see you again, banana princess. Translator im happy. My costume worked. When i had no costume, everybody would pass by me without stopping. Reporter her main stop today where shes proving to be a peoples princess. Handing out business cards, she talks about an upcoming event. Translator youre so cute. Oh, banana. Sounds good. Translator i can use this kind of event to encourage more people to visit kitayushu. You can wait for tourists to come to you, or you can go out and work the streets. The queen is stepping out. That is the latest in Business News for this hour. Its back to catherine now. Nhk learned a panel reviewing the cost of the 2020 tokyo games will meet with the National Sports associations to discuss planned venues. It is proposing rethinking plans to keep down costs. They would be for volleyball, swimming, canoeing and rowing. They suggest they be moved to an existing facility outside tokyo. Its scheduled to hold its first meeting friday with the swimming federation. Meetings with other sports associations are in the works. The members will likely study how the venues were approved, how theyll be used after the games, and the feasibility of alternative plans. The proposal to rethink the venues triggered concern among the governing bodies of various sports. Tokyo governor koike said the metropolitan government will study the proposal and respond in about a month. Political fallout continues over mismanagement of a move for tokyos famous fish market. The newly elected governor said she will get to the bottom of what went wrong before she took office. One of her predecessors is now in the spotlight. Heres more. Reporter on wednesday, tokyo governor koike attended a questionandanswer session at the metropolitan assembly. The biggest bone of contention was the new wholesale food market. Translator the Top Priorities should be to ensure the safety of food traded there. I want to hear how you intend to deal with these problems. Translator i want to reform the whole system surrounding the central wholesale market. I will also determine whos responsible for the problem. Reporter the iconic market was built over 80 years ago and is beginning to show its age. The tokyo government came up with a plan to build a replacement two kilometers away. The site used to be home to a Processing Plant for natural gas. Giving rise to concerns about contaminants. The tokyo government came up with a plan. The contaminated soil will be removed and replaced with clean soil. The foundations will be filled in with clean soil to keep contaminants out. It later came to light that these steps were not properly carried out. The foundation of the building was not filled with clean soil. Koike had this to say. Translator i will find which of the past heads of the market was responsible. Even among those who have retired. Someone in that position approved what happened. That person will be held responsible. Reporter the biggest focus of attention is ishihara. He served as the governor of tokyo for 13 1 2 years. He remains a prominent figure as a writer, with a recent book on the bestseller list. He was in charge when the tokyo government chose the site for the new market. He claimed that he, too, had been misled by officials of the metropolitan government. Translator what do you think about the tokyo government . Translator its a hotbed of conspiracy. Reporter the video of a News Conference shows that he was not the one who was deceived by officials. Translator i told officials to consider creating an empty space underneath the building. Reporter last month, he offered to cooperate with koike in the investigation. Now he says that he will not attend the hearing and will only respond to inquiries in writing. Translator governor koike is trying to arrange a meeting with ishihara. I want them to meet. So they dont waste our tax money. Translator ishihara should show his sincerity by attending the hearing. Reporter in the past month, they have a planned relocation. So far, no one has been able to fully explain what went wrong. Koike said she will continue to reveal the truth. Nhk world, tokyo. The world tour of a show called sutra has come to japan. The 20 performers are all warrior monks from a chinese temple. The choreographer is from belgium. He decided to incorporate their martial art in a dance production. The play shows how people from two different cultures can understand each other through body movements instead of words. Heres a look. Reporter the protagonist travels to the temple where he meets the warrior monks. At one point he confronts a child warrior monk. And the two mirror each others movements. Things are very particular for this space and this time, and these people right there. And its very, very powerful when you start to understand very little bit about how certain things about why and how people do certain things. Reporter the boxes were a crucial tool in facilitating communication between sharakoi and the monks. The lotus blossom is one of the highlights of sutra. The child in the center represents the buddha. It entails the buddhist notion of life and death. He first met the monks in 2007. In this isolated setting, the masters passed down the secret techniques they have inherited for 1,500 years. Theres a monk there trying to find inner peace, inner balance, inner power. Everything is very, very strong and stable. And so it was interesting to bring the two together. Reporter hes created a succession of works that bring together elements from very different cultures. This one blends traditional indian art with contemporary dance. He has also re interpreted the story of the tower of babel in the old test the. This production brought performers from more than ten Different Countries together. His most recent work depicts xenophobia towards refugees around the world. His father was a muslim originally from morocco. His mother is a devout christian. He grew up in an immigrant community, and faced prejudice and discrimination all his life. Sutra depicts some scenes in which he recalls the difficulties he faced growing up. ve always beenoong f a form of internal justice. Andve also been looking for a way of reconciliation with different elements that seem to be contradictory, but are not contradictory. Reporter one of the warrior monks first appeared in the production at the age of 10. Translator our lives are devoted to training. I couldnt have imagined fusing what we do with western culture. But we were able to, because he incorporated our ideas, tried to understand our spirituality and respected our culture. Reporter about 20 years into his career, he continues searching for ways that we might better understand each other, on stages around the world. We now turn our attention to hurricane matthew. Its approaching the southern u. S. State of florida, after wreaking havoc in haiti and three other countries. Over 200 people are dead, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. Millions of people in florida are being told to evacuate as the storm continues to track north. Our meteorologist robert speta joins us now with more. Rain now is actually located right over the bahamas, right near freeport. One of the Northern Islands of the bahamas. Looking at this continuing to track towards the north, making landfall likely as we go ahead into friday morning. But really, conditions already going downhill. Some of the outer rain bands already impacting the florida coastline. It moved over haiti earlier today. Then across cuba. I want to show you video coming out of northern haiti. Were getting more and more of these images of just utter destruction. And for those of you who are thinking, you dont want to evacuate along the florida coastline, this gives you an idea of the power of this storm. Back up to a category 4 hurricane at this time. Over 100 casualties reported. Look at the widespread devastation. Communication out still in a lot of areas of haiti. The storm is over the bahamas. The threat of storm surge is still a big issue for this specific area. Well watch that inner eye wall, because thats where these winds which are gusting up to about 290 Kilometers Per Hour is expected. Now, right in here, thats where you have that center of circulation starting to move over freeport, and then eventually off to the north. The outer rain bands already coming onshore. Some of these areas around the space coast, thats where the nasa, Cape Canaveral is located, has never in history, since weve been tracking these storms, been hit directly by a major hurricane. In fact, this is the first one since 2005 to hit the u. S. Theres some people who may be ahead of this, who are younger than 11 years old, who do not remember the last one out here. A lot of people move in and out of florida. This may be a lot of peoples first storm. This is one you really want to take seriously. Rare for a category 4 to make a direct landfall in these specific areas. Up through savannah, thats why 2 Million People have been told to evacuate. Especially along these Barrier Islands where the threat of storm surge is very serious. Were actually looking at about threemeter high storm surge to inundate some of the coastal areas. You have the damaging winds which is going to be expected to make a wide swath here. Isolated rainfall. And of course, that threat of tornadoes. Tornado watches likely issued well ahead of this storm system. One thing i do want to note is the track keeps it along the coast. It still could continue to feed off the gulf stream. Typically when you have landfalling systems, they weaken. But maybe not the case with this. Were expecting it to maintain the hurricane intensity. Really ongoing. Very, very serious situation. Hopefully everybody is heeding these warnings across this area. Eastern asia, another tropical system. Another storm system which this one more of a monsoonal low. Big rainmaker for the northern philippines and even taiwan as well. Youre going to continue to watch that moisture build up, wrapping around this. Back towards the north, clear skies across most of japan today. Another low will make its way through the weekend. But on the chilly side. Hokkaido seeing its first decent snowfall of the year. Tokyo high of 25. Look at ulaanbaatar, 3 for your high on friday. Ill leave you now with your extended outlook. That is all for this edition of nhk newsline. Im Catherine Kobayashi in tokyo. Thanks for staying with us. On this edition of native report, we meet artist Dyani White Hawk polk and learn about the traditional lakota and modern influences in her art, we visit the eastern band of cherokee to see how their Fisheries Resource is managed, and we attend the American Indians studies Summer Institute of the Wisconsin Department of public instruction. Stay tuned for all of this and a word from our elders today on native report. Production of native report is made possible by grants from the Shakopee MdewakantonSioux Community and the blandin foundation