President. This man will likely take on the role of premiere. He currently holds the second highest position in the politburo committee. The congress will start on tuesday. They will discuss the many problems they face from political corruption to the ning wealth gap to friction within neighboring nations. Well be giving you insight and analysis all this week in our special series, china, change and challenge. We report from near the great hall of the people in beijing. Reporter a spokesperson for the National Peoples congress met reporters one day before its opening on tuesday. But she did not announce the countrys annual Defense Budget. Thats usually done the day before the congress. Translator the Defense Budget will be announced after discussion and approval by the National Peoples congress. Strengthening of National Defense is to protect the nations safety and peace. Not to pose a threat to other countries. Reporter chinas Defense Budget has grown by double digits nearly every year for over two decades. Mondays announcement drew close attention, observers say china left out the budget that the countrys military buildup threatened the international community. The annual congress brings together about 3,000 people, provincial leaders, legal officials and military observers gather to hear speeches and to cast votes. They will discuss policies and problems the country needs to tackle in the coming year. The congress is chinas parliament, given Top Authority under the constitution. Its empowered to Institute Growth and appoint top political leaders and officials. In practice, however, observers say the leadership decides key policies. Congress approves them. On the opening day the premier usually presents his report. It is essentially a policy speech. In the days that follow the Congress Members will hear reports from top officials and past bodies. This year they have especially important business, a reshuffle of state and government leaders. At the top, president hu jintao is stepping down. Xi jinping will be there. Wen jiabao is the outgoing premiere. Li keqiang will be his likely successor. The transition began in november. Xi took charge of the politburo. Congress will complete the process and finalize a shift to a new generation of leaders. They will discuss sound key economic and social issues. The benefits of growth are not being shared, and the income gap is causing resentment. People are also speaking about environmental conditions. A state of corruption and misconduct cases involving government officials is also fueling public frustration. Authorities will give an update on the state of the problem. Delegates will be briefed on foreign policy. Relations with neighboring countries are under strain. Countries are alarmed by chinas moves to assert their presence in the region. Regarding the dispute with japan over the senkaku islands, the spokesperson for the National PeoplesCongress Said it would be impolite not to reciprocate the others action. China looks for nationalization of the islands by japans government as provocation and justified to dispatch of chinese patrol boats and aircraft to the area as countermeasures. When the outgoing leadership took power corruption and economic inequality were identified as key challenges. Ten years later those issues have yet to be resolved. And democratic reforms seem to have made no progress at all. The world waits to see what congress has to say on the key issues facing chinas future. Nhk world, beijing. Well be bringing you more stories and insight from chinas National Peoples congress all this week. On tuesday our james tengan will report from beijing on premier wen jiabaos final policy speech. Cradle of culture. Economic powerhouse. Many enjoy the fruits of prosperity. Along the path to a new china. But millions are still missing out. And public discontent is growing. Against that backdrop officials are choosing a fresh slate of government leaders. Newsline correspondents will bring you full coverage of the incoming president s new administration. Dont miss china change and challenge at 8 00 p. M. Japan time. The Company Operating the hot air balloon involved in a fatal crash in egypt last month says pilot error or part defects may be to blame. 19 Foreign Tourists died in the accident at ancient ruins in the city of luxor. They spoke for the first time in cairo. There is no scenario for the accident except either a pilot mistake which is throwing the drop line without making sure it was not entangled with the hose. The other is a manufacturing fault. The president expressed deep apology. He said he spoke to the pilot in the hospital. The captain reportedly said that after the balloon caught fire, he fell and tried to reach the safety valve of a gas cylinder but failed as he was engulfed in flames. The Egyptian Government is still investigating the accident. People in northeastern japan spent two years trying to get back on their feet. Next month marks the second anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident. The march 11th disaster left nearly 2,000 people dead or missing. Survivors are moving forward on a path to recovery. The biggest challenge is the damaged Nuclear Plant in fukushima. Areas in the red are still offlimits. 160,000 people Fukushima Prefecture are able to go home. The earthquake and tsunami triggered a total blackout after the fuel inside the reactor was able to be kept cool. Meltdowns happened in three of the six reactors. The temperature of the fuel continued to rise. High hydrogen built up and caused explosions. And the plant is no longer releasing specific amounts of radioactive materials. Crews will one day dismantle the four crippled reactors. The entire operation could take up to 40 years. But tepco owners have not set timeline. Reporter an engineer at tepco for almost 30 years and was in charge of safety before the accident. Now he supervises the cleanup process. What do you think the most difficult part, difficult element concerning the decommissioning process . Two difficult challenges. The one is how to understand the primary continent vessel. And two remove the molten fuel. The other is how to cope with waste. How to treat them and how to safely store it. For the long term. Tepco engineers are trying ton the situation in the reactors. They are using fiber optic scopes to gather images of the damage. They are using computer simulations to determine the condition of the molten fuel. The high levels of radiation are slowing things down. Workers can only go into reactor buildings for five to ten minutes at a time. We havent understand well how those are molten fuel distributed and located. We need to sample the debris and understand the characteristics and chemical characteristics of the debris so otherwise we cannot develop the necessary tool to remove the detritus. I hope we would like to understand some something about it within a couple of years. It takes a long time to its difficult to achieve it. Can we really say that the decommissioning process will end within a 40 years . Its very difficult to talk about such a far future. But it really takes some time. So even just for the next ten years or more, and you know there are the cessium measures, at some part of the decommissioning we need to wait. There are different ways to decommission a Nuclear Plant. But they all involve risk. Given the state of fukushima daiichi, he needs to plan for unexpected challenges. He believes executives have to discuss it with stakeholders and explain the risks of the options before they decide what course of action they should take. We really need to improve our capability of the risk of communications. The decommissioning, we noticed to share the information. Reporter another major issue is the toxic waste on site at fukushima daiichi. Every day, contaminated groundwater seeps. They put it into special casks. They are in a constant race to build enough Storage Capacity to prevent leaks into the environment. Its really impossible just to continue as we accumulate that water. So we need to think about the possibility of this or the other waste. Like the operation. Tepco engineers are planning to introduce a new device they say its capable of removing radioactive isotopes from the water. The managers need to talk to local residents in order to decide how to resolve this problem. Looking ahead, engineers have started updating the decommissioning rollback. The government places the entire process will take 40 years. Right now, there is no concrete plan to fit that timeline. Nhk world. Path to recovery two years on will continue on tuesday. Well look at the scale of the economic revival in the Northeastern Region two years after the disaster. Well focus on the widening gap on the pace of reconstruction. And on monday, march 11th, live coverage of the National Memorial ceremony at 2 46 p. M. , the exact time the earthquake struck. The governor of yamaguchi prefecture has put off deciding whether to put off a land people in northeastern japan are reminded daily on what they lost on march 11, 2011. The earthquake and tsunami took awoved ones, homes, entire communities. Survivors are moving ahead but they still face obstacles at the damaged Nuclear Plant and all along the pacific coast. Newsline will bring you their stories. Dont miss path to recovery two years on. The governor of yamaguchi prefecture has put off deciding whether to put off a Land Reclamation plan to build a Nuclear Power plan. The plan was stopped after the fukushima accident in 2011. The Power Company last october filed for an extension of the project, but governor of the prefecture rejected the request and asked the firm for explanation four times. He will give the firm a year to come up with more details on why the plant is needed as part of japans energy policy. Prime minister shinzo abe will review a former government policy. And debate goes on about the need to construct or reopen Nuclear Plants, they are drafting new measures to protect facilities during outside threats. The nra has convened a panel of nuclear experts. The panel held its first meeting on tokyo on monday. Including eight experts on Nuclear Plants, counterterrorism and nuclear security. They look to introduce additional background checks for plant workers and will cover criminal and financial records based on the employeess consent. And they also want the panel to discuss possible scenarios if terrorists try to intercept a shipment of nuclear materials. Their discussion will involve police, coast guard and other authorities. Bangkok has held its gubernatorial election. Campaigning was fierce and the competition was close. Although the election was to choose the next governor of the capital, the outcome reflects the political as more fear of the whole country. We explain more. Reporter both counts show the main opposition of the Democratic Party has won the election. He ran for his second term as governor after stepping down in early january. The race effectively pitted him against a former Deputy Police chief. The two sides engage in a fierce battle for power. Three years ago, the violent clash between the rival parties paralyzed parts of the capital for nine weeks. A group enjoyed support from voters who feel left behind from the countrys Economic Growth such as formers. They have the backing of the urban middle class. The confrontation between the red and yellow camps is one of the nations top political concerns. Observers say a role between the antigovernor and shinawatra. This is responsible for the slow response to flooding in 2011. This is the younger sister of thaksin. Bangkok is a traditional strong hold of the antiThaksin Group. Preelection opinion poles forecast that the candidate was in a narrow lead. The unexpectedly wide popularity of the pro thaksin bloc shows that more bangkok voters are welcoming the economic policies. The government is maintaining brisk Economic Growth on the back of the growing middle class. Last november, those opposing the administration staged a mass rally. Police estimated 20,000 people took part. The protesters felt alarmed by the resurgent influence who was ousted in 2006. The tension between the rival camps could have further escalated. The anti Thaksin Group gained a strong hold in iraq. The battle for pow every between the two camps will likely continue. Nhk world, bangkok. Elementary School Students since central japan took part in a promote to promote one of their citys main industries, musical instruments. And in doing so, they managed to make it into a world famous reference book. After rehearsing for weeks, 712 pup pills brought their keyboard harmonicas to a park to interpret Twinkle Twinkle Little star. Their goal . To play for five minutes before a judge from the guinness book of world record. Translator you have set a new record. Congratulations. 688 children completed the challenge. 24 more than the previous record set in turkey. Translator i think all of us became one, and we just went. Im so happy we set a new Guinness World record. The children came from 13 schools. Their city is home to japans three largest manufacturer of musical instruments. Spring is coming soon to japan, at least it feels that way. Rachael ferguson is here with the forecast. Rachael . Well, spring is coming. You might need to just hold your horses. I am going to tell you, we might see snow tonight. That being said, the rest of the forecast for the rest of the week, certainly by mid week, looks very good indeed. Ill show it to you in a moment. Taking a look at the rest of the continent. High and dry. Were seeing unseasonably heavy rain, focusing on thailand because a little low is moving through. Another small low pushing through japan. That is responsible for a few snowflakes, but generally things looking quite promising across eastern asia. 16 in shanghai. 14 in beijing, and just into double figure there. And tuesday highs in places that we are seeing High Temperatures in the very low single digits. And looking pretty good 20 degree for the High Temperature will last through the beginning of next week. Looking at lows as well. Seeing this for the high last week. A really big improvement. Just a little bit of the last of the winter snowfall this evening. Into the americas, again, a very much still winter across the northern plains. In fact, blizzard warnings posted for eastern montana and Western North dakota. Are you being advised to bring winter survival kit with you if you are traveling there. Pretty treacherous stuff. 20 cent meters of snow. 30 in some places and buffeted by strong winds. Storm is show moving. Will push into illinois and iowa. Not to forget the central canadian provinces. Out west, looking dry right now, but there is a low just looming offshore and it will be bringing the rains, but the upper elevations will see snow. And you can see 35 centimeters and there is a winter storm watch posted for northern california. Down toward the south. Looking a little bit more springlike. 26 degrees on in houston on monday. And 1 degrees for chicago, and a 6 on the forecast for d. C. And europe, once again there, is going to be a gradual warming trend which will please many of you. Clear skies across much of the continent. Wet weather up toward the north. Most of it will be rain. Same goes for the southwest this is a much more angry system. In fact, its bringing hail to parts of northern africa, including morocco. Thunderstorms reported as well. And it is a fairly violent system now. It will be heading in toward the middle of the mediterranean by mid week. See thunderstorms come in toward you in rome. Here are temperatures. That should make you feel better. 17 degrees in lisbon. 15 in madrid. 13 in london. 10 degrees in vienna, definitely an improvement in central europe. The cutoff line there, anywhere east of poland is still going to be dealing with some subzero highs. Moscow, minus 6. Minus 3 in kiev. Here is your extended forecast. Elementary School Students in central japan took part in an event to promote one of their citys main industries. Musical instruments. And in doing so, they managed to make it into a world famous reference book. After rehearsing for weeks, 712 pup pills brought their keyboard harmonicas to a park to interpret twinkle twinkle once again, our lead story. The Company Operating the hot air balloon involved in a fatal crash in egypt last month says pilot error or part defects may to be blame. 19 Foreign Tourists died in the accident at ancient ruins in the city of luxor. The firms president spoke publicly about the accident for the first time in cairo. There is no third scenario for the accident except either a pilot mistake which is throwing the drop line without making sure its not entangled with the hose. The other is a manufacturing fault. The president expressed deep apologies for causing many casualties. He also said he spoke to the pilot in the hospital. The captain reportedly said that after the balloon caught fire, he fell and tried to reach the safety valve of a gas cylinder but failed as he was engulfed in flames. The Egyptian Government is still investigating the accident. Well be back in 30 minutes. Im gene otani. From all of us, thank you for joining us. Have a great day wherever you are