But local Authorities Say at least 56 people are dead. [ sirens ] spokespersons for the Railway Company say more than 200 passengers were on the train when it departed the capital madrid, bound for el ferol. When it departed madrid. It went off the tracks near the city of santiago de compostela. Reuters quoted a passenger as saying that many people were trapped under the cars. Police and firefighters are searching for survivors. Its still not clear what caused the accident. U. S. President Barack Obama Says hell nominate Carolyn Kennedy as the next ambassador to japan. Shes the daughter of the late president john f. Kennedy. The white house announced the nomination in a news release, along with other selections for administration posts. Kennedy is expected to be confirmed to replace current ambassador john roos in tokyo. Kennedy is 55 years old. Shes a lawyer and an author and she heads a foundation that oversees a library commemorating her father. Kennedy has been active within the democratic party. She helped propel obama to the president ial nomination in 2008, and last year, she served as cochair of his reelection campaign. If approved by the senate, kennedy would become the first female ambassador to japan. The wait is over. Britains Prince William and wife catherine have named their newborn baby boy George Alexander louis. Royal officials made the announcement on wednesday. George has been the name of six british kings. George vi was Queen Elizabeths father. The choice seems popular. I think its a good, strong name. I guess its traditional but its modern as well. The bbc says Queen Elizabeth visited Kensington Palace on wednesday to meet her greatgrandson for the first time. The duke and duchess of cambridge together with the baby prince then traveled to the house of catherines parents in berkshire. Prince william is expected to return to his post at a Royal Air Force base in wales after two weeks of paternity leave. Catherine may stay in berkshire with the baby until around autumn. Reports say theyre trying to raise their child by themselves without the help of nannies. It looks like american fugitive Edward Snowden will be staying in moscow at a moscow airport for the time being. The former Intelligence Analyst had requested temporary asylum so he could enter russia, but snowden has not received the pass he needs to leave the airport. Snowden worked on contract for the National Security agency. Earlier this year he leaked details of government surveillance programs to the press. Hes wanted by u. S. Authorities. He has been holed up in the airports transit zone for more than a month. Lawyer tan anatoly kucharela helped snowden file his request for asylum early last week. He says immigration authorities usually grant documents that allow Asylum Seekers to move into the country one week after application. Translator the former nsa contractor intends to study russias culture, find work in russia and travel across russia. Kucharena says snowden eventually intend to more on to a latinamerican country, where he hopes to obtain permanent asylum. Authorities in the u. S. Have been pushing russian counterparts to return snowed on the the u. S. They say they made it clear they want him to face charges of espionage. Weve seen, of course, the press reports and are seeking clarification from the russian government. Obviously, any move that would allow mr. Snowden to depart the airport would be deeply disappointing. Psaki said secretary of state john kerry had telephone Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to reiterate the u. S. Position. Executives of a major Japanese Company have their eyes on the stock exchange. Good morning, ai uchida. It is the post office in japan, theyve had their eye on being listed for some time and trying to expand their earnings capacity so japans postal group will boost ties with u. S. Life insurer aflac in selling cancer Insurance Products. Sources close to the governmentowned japan post say the number of post offices that sell aflac cancer coverage will be raised from the current 1,000 to 20,000. Group executives will also consider developing cancer Insurance Products through its Affiliate Firm japan post insurance. That will be jointly with aflac and not through japanese insurers. Behind this move is japan posts goal to increase its earnings as it aims to become a listed company. Japan post Holdings President taizone shimuro said in an interview that he moved up the target by six months to april 0 2015. Japan post was advertised six years ago. The firm will ultimately sell twothirds of the shares on the market. Nishimura said the fine decision on when to become a listed company will be made by the finance ministry but he went on to say japan post can work toward the new schedule. U. S. Share prices ended mixed wednesday following earnings from Major Companies and some key economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial average shed 0. 16 to 15,542, weighed down by weak corporate results. Meanwhile, a jump in apples share price helped the tech heavy nasdaq to edge up. To see how all that will affect stocks here we go to Ramin Mellegard who is at the tokyo stock exchange. Good morning. It seems like corporate earnings are a focus in the markets. How is tokyo responding . A lot of focus on corporate earnings, ai, good morning to you both in the u. S. And japan. Lets have a look at the opening levels for thursday, july 25th, and in the negative right now, they actually kicked off in the positive but have just now dipped into the negative. Well see how that fares for the rest of the day. Let me remind viewers the nikkei ended lower wednesday largely on profittaking moves following two previous days of gains. Wednesday in the u. S. Facebook came out with its earnings posting a better than consensus results and its shares climbed nearly 20 in afterhours trading, so there may be some focus on high tech sector, also especially after google also came out and unveiled its latest tablet and tvlinked products as well. Also following on with apple the componentmakers here in japan will be a focus as theyve been pretty active in the last couple of days following the u. S. Companys Earnings Results and well see if the shares gain further today, responding to apples performance, so big focus on tech and i. T. Sector but also Construction Machinery shares in japan may also be a focus, and thats after u. S. Construction machinerymaking giant caterpillar came out with its earnings posting weaker than expected rnearnings in the seco quarter and also cut its full year forecast so well keep track of the likes of komatsu and kubota in japan. Canon cited europe which dented its flagship camera center, well look to see how its stock performs today. Let me switch to currencies, the dollar yen and some of other pairs having a big say in how stocks are trading, 100. 3136 dollar yen after new home u. S. Sales in june coming at the highest level in more than five years. The euro yen also having broken above the 132 yen level, 132. 3439, hitting a fresh twomonth high boosted by stronger than expected manufacturing data in germany and france. Now the focus is on the business german may i say, may i add actually the german Business Sentiment later today and that may add further direction. Following on with earnings, yahoo japan and nissan will be coming out with earnings after the bell today, so were in full swing here with earnings as well. Back to you, ai. Keeping you busy ramin. Thank you for the update, Ramin Mellegard, from the tokyo stock exchange. Japanese delegates to the Transpacific Partnership free trade talks are busy catching up on details of the ongoing negotiations in malaysia. The japanese officials joined the negotiations from tuesday. This round of talks has been going on between the 11 other member nations since last week. Chief negotiators from the other nations opened a special session on wednesday to help japan catch up. Japans chief negotiator Koji Tsuruoka and several others were briefed about the status of the talks in seven fields including market access. Tsuruoka conveyed japans intention to conduct constructive talks. The special sessions to brief japan will also be held on thursday, the last day of the current round of negotiations. And thats the latest in business. Ill leave you with a check on markets. Ai uchida has been working on another story the parents of children with disabilities say they could use some more help. Expenditures on services for japanese with disabilities account for less than a fifth of 1 of gdp. More and more parents say they need specialized facilities for their schoolaged children. Now some forwardthinking people are stepping in to help. Heres her report. Reporter this is an afterschool Child Care Center for schoolaged children with disabilities. In opened in may in tokyos itabashi ward. Konnichiwa. Reporter Elementary School children with special needs are usually sent to ordinary afterschool centers, but these are available only until the end of Elementary School, so when children reach junior high age, most have no place to go, but this facility can look after older disabled children until 6 00 p. M. , and its a valuable place for them to interact with people besides family members. Support Like Services for people with disabilities is often left up to the local governments to handle, but with so much red tape, things can take time. Aiko auyagi decided to start this facility called mochinogi, her second of the kind. Its run by a Workers Cooperative that is funded, managed and staffed by its members to meet the requirements of the local community. As a result, its relatively flexible and can respond quickly to meet specific needs. Translator were able to provide a lot of support and various kinds of care and we work to answer the needs of the local community and resolve its issues. If we werent a Workers Cooperative there would be many things wed be unable to do. Michi omada is one parent who uses the facility. She met aoyogi three years ago when she was looking for a place to send her disabled son who was nearing the end of Elementary School. Everyone pitched in. Aoyagi searched for people to work at the facility and helped raise startup money. Owada looked for other locations for the facility and spread the word among local residents. Translator the best thing would be for the local government to take care of it, but we cant wait. We figure that if we got working, something would come from it. We decided that we had to create the services that we needed. Translator if we can raise the money from people in the local community and Work Together to make things happen, we can handle any difficulty. Reporter experts expect cooperatives like this to become engines of change in local communities. Translator they try to make things that are beneficial to the entire community, not just for a handful of people. Thats how theyve been stepping in to tackle the problems of local people when authorities cannot. Its great to spread the concept of Workers Cooperatives, have so many people feel this way and see how important they can be. Reporter childrens needs will change as they grow older. People at this cooperative are currently considering starting a doortodoor transportation service. How quickly theyre able to implement such changes may put the Workers Cooperative movement further into the spotlight. Ai uchida, nhk world. Indian police are questioning the principal of a Primary School where 23 children died last week after eating a school lunch laced with pesticide. The headmistress went missing soon after the children began falling sick. She was arrested on wednesday. The children started to show signs of Food Poisoning after eating the free lunch cooked at the school in the eastern state of bihar on july 16th. Forensic tests have shown that the meal contained toxic levels of a deadly pesticide. The chief minister of bihar state says police are now questioning the school headmistress. The Indian Government has been staging a nationwide campaign to provide free lunches with the aim of ensuring that children from poor families have at least one hot meal a day. But the poisoning case has sparked skepticism about the safety of school meals. Bombers in Southern Thailand have killed three people and two others. Security forces are facing violence in the region despite a peace deal with muslim separate is for the holy month of rama n ramadan. An Army Spokesperson told nhk that suspected insurgents detonated a hospital on wednesday. Two Police Officers were wounded. Teachers have become targets for militants who demand that children receive an islamic education. Muslim separatists have been waging an insurgency against the government for a decade. Theyre seeking autonomy for the three southernmost provinces. 1,300 people have been killed in the fighting since 2004 including at least 160 educators. The explosion comes two weeks after muslim negotiators agreed to halt violence during ramadan as part of ongoing peace talks with the government, but frequent attacks are casting a shadow on the negotiations. The next round of talks is scheduled to commence after ramadan. The government of myanmar is struggling to contain the spread of sectarian hatred in the country where recently granted greater freedom of expression. Religious leaders are reportedly fanning the conflict between buddhists and the small muslim population. Violence between the two groups has killed more than 100 people since may last year. Nhk worlds tiha twey reports from myanmars largest city, yangon. Reporter muslims around the world are celebrating the holy month of ramadan, including in myanmar. Muslims make up a fraction of the population of myanmar, where 90 of people are buddhist. Relations between the two communities have always been difficult. Theyre getting steadily worse. Violence sparked in may last year when a group of muslim men attacked buddhist women in a western state. Antimuslim rioting killed more man 100 people and left the government to declare a state of emergency. The government was criticized for not doing enough to protect muslims. Earlier this month president thein sein said in a radio address that hes committed to stopping the violence. Translator well crack down on those who spread fear and hatred. Well do all we can to stop these criminal acts. Reporter some highranking Buddhist Monks are using inflammatory rhetoric and calling for muslims to be expelled from the country. This man is the leader of a radical antimuslim group. He has called for a boycott of stores run by muslims, and he wants marriage between buddhists and muslims to be outlawed. Translator islamic extremists receiving assistance from abroad are behind the recent violence in our country. Reporter u. S. News magazine time ran a feature story last month on wira thu. His face was on the cover with the headline, the face of buddhist terror. The magazine portrayed the monk as the bedroom manipulator who incites sectarian hatred. The article triggered angry demonstrations on the streets of yangon. Protesters called it an insult to buddhism. The government of myanmar found itself in a difficult position. Greater freedom of the press was one of its most high preferred democratic reforms, but citing security concerns, the authorities decided to burn the issues of the magazine. Translator weve taken this step to try and quell peoples anger and prevent more confusion. Reporter many people in myanmar are starting to worry about the spread of radicalism. Translator its only in a few people who are fanning hatred. Translator theres no denying we have religious divisions. The government should do something about it. Reporter people in myanmar were denied a voice by the previous military regime. Under the civilianelected government, theyre allowed to speak more freely. But free speech means allowing different opinions and opposing views to be heard. Unless buddhists and muslims can find a willingness to compromise and coexist, religion threatens to derail myanmars democracy. Thi ha thwe, nhk world, yangon. Gunmen have stormed a Police Station in Northern Iraq killing nine officers. Security forces are facing mountain sectarian violence with 500 iraqis killed in july alone. Suspected sunni muslim militants attacked a Police Station near mosul on wednesday. Soldiers were targeted in the same area just days earlier. Bombers also struck tuesday in the capital baghdad. And nearby kut. 19 people were killed and 86 wounded in the days violence. Militants in the Northern City of kirkuk detonated car bombs on the same night near two sunni mosques. Police officers say the bombers were targeting sunni muslims attending evening prayers. Muslims began observing the holy month of ramadan two weeks ago. A bombing outside a Police Station in egypt has left one person dead and dozens wounded. The attack comes after three days of clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted president mohamed morsi. Security Authorities Say one soldier was killed in the explosion in the northern tune of mansoura. They say civilians were among the injured. Reports by media opposed to morsi blame the attack on his power base, the muslim brotherhood. But the organization denies any involvement. Morsi supporters and opponents have clashed repeatedly across egypt since the military deposed him three weeks ago. 14 people have died in cairo and other locations from monday through wednesday. Defense minister and army chief Abdel Fattah Al sisi has called for demonstrations on friday. He wants the military to be given a mandate to confront what he calls violence and potential terrorism. A team of paleontologists has dug up a dinosaur fossil in northern mexico that is being described as a rare find. Its the fossilized remains of a fivemeter long dinosaur tail, the first ever found in mexico. The paleontologists say the tail is unusually well preserved. It has 50 connected vertebrae and is completely intact. Bones believed to be the dinosaurs hips were also found nearby. The researchers say the dinosaur could very well be the giant planteating hadrosaur. They lived in the latter cretaceous period about 74 million to 80 million years ago. Translator there are not many sites in the world where such discoveries are made. The team hopes the discovery will lead to new revelations about dinosaurs. People in eastern thailand are experiencing extreme weather conditions, heavy rain has resulted in flooding. Mai shoji gives us the latest in world weather. A deluge of rain has been affecting much of thailand. Especially these areas thats here in the satellite picture. Take a look at a video picture first to show you the situation. A southwest monsoon is causing persisting drenching rains in thailand. In chanthaburi pronince two people including a 9yearold boy have died in floodrelated accidents. Several buildings and roads have been inundated with tens of thousands of people affected. Returning to the satellite picture, you can see that weve got rain clouds covering much of the indochina peninsula. This is due to that southwest monsoonal flow being very active and pounding the coastal areas with rainfall. That includes chanthaburi as well due to the southwestern monsoonal flow coming into the rainor, so were looking at more rain, which means higher risk of further flooding and landslides so well keep a very close eye on this. And to the bigger picture, an upper cold low sitting here in the northern china and russia border. Due to this its bringing unstable conditions. It is bringing thunderstorms, hail and gusts are possible. The system is affecting northern japan and thunderstorms on the severe side could be possible, even tornadic activity, sudden bursts of showers will be possible into the next 24 hours here across much of the northern half of this country. In between these two systems, this is the High Pressure system sitting here. It doesnt look like its going anywhere, but between here, rain bands will be developing so into friday actually, be developing and heavy rain to come in between beijing and shanghai. I did mention about the summer pacific high sitting here. It is still affecting the area. Shanghai is reaching 39 degrees, quite a dangerous level. Even western japan is in the bulk of that. Kyoto where the gion festival is held, 35 degrees until friday, but take a look at hangzhou, the 40s to friday. Do stay hydrated. Lets look at the americas where the cold front is sagging all the way to the south. And due to the tropical moisture from gulf of mexico, this is the collision and thunderstorms are very active across the southeast. Another area were looking at thunderstorms, and this one actually could even spawn tornadoes. We have a tornado watch in southern manitoba as we speak. Flash floods are also still posted, risk is actually posted in a wide range in the southwest and down to new mexico due to the moisture surging from the bay of california. Its quite hot. Still that heat dome across the pacific northwest, but cooler and dry across the great lakes region. And that includes chicago, toronto, looking at nice temperatures but houstons reaching up to 37 degrees and phoenix, 41, las vegas in the 40s, too. Lets move over to europe. We have an atlantic system moving into the british isles. This will bring you showers on the heavier side sometimes and thunderstorms into your weekend. Its pulling a very active warm front. From this we have a report of a funnel cloud in france as well as lightning that damaged a car in germany. Looks like this will be moving towards the northeast, but unstable conditions will continue for the next couple days. Paris, madrid, milan, take a look at that in the 30s due to the very hot heat moving in from north africa. Ill leave you for the extended forecast. And that is all for this edition of newsline. Im Catherine Kobayashi in tokyo. Thanks for joining us. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions woodruff president obama put a spotlight on the American Economy today, while accusing washington of taking its eye off the ball. Good evening, im judy woodruff. Brown and im jeffrey brown. On the newshour tonight we recap the president s speech, including his pledge to fight for the middle class with new investments in jobs, education and homeownership. Woodruff then in an exclusive interview, the majority leader of the senate expressed optimism that congress will start to be productive again. We talk with nevada democrat harry reid