Action in syria. Many of those around the table are pressuring u. S. President barack obama not to authorize strikes. Nhk world has a report. The g20 summit chaired by Vladimir Putin began on tuesday. The crisis in syria dominated the talks. The leaders discussed the issue in a dinner in the evening. President obama is believed to have asked for the understanding of u. S. Military action against syria once it is approved boy congress. He is also believed to explain that the u. S. Has evidence the Syrian Government unleashed a chemical weapon attack. Some leaders including britain and france are possibly supporting the u. S. Stance, however Britains Parliament rejected a proposal to join any military action. Many other members are openly against the u. S. Plan. Russia and china are strongly opposed to military action without a Un Security Council resolution. The two nations are joined by italy, brazil, and other countries. Early in the day obama and japanese Prime Minister abe met on the side lines of the summit and agreed to help improve the situation in syria through close coordination with the international community. I also look forward to having an extensive conversation about the situation in syria. I think the joint recognition that the chemical weapons in syria is its not only a tragedy, but a violation of International Law that must be addressed. Translator i certainly look forward to working closely with president obama to improve the situation on the ground. However the japanese Prime Minister refrained from voicing clear support for any u. S. Military action. He appeared to take a cautious stance amid a rift between the u. S. And russia on the syria issue. G 20 leaders are expected to resume talks on friday and they are expected to wrap up their summit boy adopting a joint declaration. It remains to be seen how much support obama willbe able to obtain and how or if they will mention the syrian crisis. St. Petersburg, russia. Japanese and chinese have not been the friendliest of neighbors of late. Prime minister abe told the chinese president they could improve ties by finding common ground. Shall ifs say they talked for about minutes in a waiting room before the summit. It was the first time they had spoken since they both took office over the last year. Abe has been exploring the possibility of meetings with leaders. The door to dialogue is always open, but they will not old official talks at the g20 summit. They said the lack of base for dialogue including over the senkaku islands. Japan controls the islands and china and taiwan claim them. They exchanged greetings. Officials said they hope to build on the conversations and strengthen ties with china and south korea. Abe also met with russian president putin. They agreed their foreign and defense minsters would hold talks in tokyo and something diplomats call a two plus two. Translator russias foreign and defense minsters will visit japan early in november under Prime Minister abes initiative. I believe it will strengthen the relationship and trust between the two countries. Translator its great to have Russian Foreign minster and the defense minster in japan on november 1st and 2nd. Realizing two plus two. Abe and putin agreed the Deputy Foreign minsters would need to discuss the islands. Japan claims sovereignty over the islands and they have long been a source of friction. They said there should be no winner or loser in trying to resolve the dispute. He drew on judo terminology and described it as a draw. Putin is a black belt in judo. He said the russian stance is that diplomats should explore measures acceptable to bothed ises. Time for the latest news. Leaders spoke about economic issues. Joining us now from the business desk with more on that. Good morning, ai. The japanese spoke up because their landscape has changed. Japans leaders launched a defense of their Economic Policy at the g20. They told counterparts they were pushing for growth while restoring fiscal health. Japans recovery he said will inspire global growth. Representatives from russia spoke up in support. Finance minster accompanied abe in explaining the midterm fiscal plan. Translator Prime Minister abe and i explainedia pans plan to rebuild the fiscal health. I think they understand because we didnt receive questions on that topic. He later mentioned a proposed increase in the consumption tax. He said abe will study the data and decide on the hike in early october. Leaders discussed the state of the global economy. They have seen currencies plunge in emerging countries like india and brazil on speculation the u. S. Can in easy money policy. U. S. Stock prices ended slightly higher on thursday on improving economic conditions. Gains were capped ahead of a jobs report due later today. The dow jones average gained six points to end at 14,937. Meanwhile the nasdaq put on more than a quarter of a percent, ending at 3,658. For more on japanese markets, lets go to eileen lee at the tokyo stock exchange. We have had a busy week and the dollar against the yen hit the key 100 level. How are the markets starting . Good morning. A busy week indeed with focus on Central Banks and economic data. Since you mentioned dollar yen, lets look at the currency markets first. Dollar yen is 100. 0507. The 1 helped helped level not seen since the end of july is. Improving employment numbers released on thursday. Weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level in about years and according to the adp report, the number of jobs in the private sector in august was near market estimates. Many expect the jobs report from the u. S. Labor department to show a strong increase in payrolls and all this as renewed expectations that a u. S. Federal reserve may taper the bondbuying program soon. They rose to nearly 3 and thats a high in more than ten years. Now on to the euro. The euro is lower against the dollar at 1. 313122 touching a low against the dollar. They are selling the common currency on comments by European Central bank. He said even though the key Interest Rate was kept unchanged at the ecb policy meeting on thursday, there were dugzs of a rate cut. Lets check on how the stock market is faring this morning. At the moment, investors are taking a step back both indeces opened higher and lets have a look at the nikkei that is down by 0. 08 at 14,052 points after it managed to hang on to the 14,000 level on thursday and the broader topix is up by 0. 15 . We will see how the why know declines against share prices of the exports and we want to keep track of the tenyear japanese governmentborn yield after the bank of japan maintained their monetary easing policy. Back to you. All right, sounds good. Tokyo is the no the only market open at this hour. I will leave you with a check on those. Prime minister abe has a lot on his mind these days. He is promoting tokyos bid to host the olympics in 2020 as he meets with World Leaders at the g20 summit. Abe held separate talks with argentine president. He told fernandez he will make it in time for the General Assembly of the International Olympic committee. He said he will be the first sitting japanese leader to visit argentina since his grandfather visited in 1959. She wishes the japanese every success with their olympic bid and said she wants to strengthen the longterm relationship between argentines and japanese. The brazilian president said she too hopes tokyo will be chosen to host the games. Groups from istanbul and madrid are attracting support. Members will announce the winner on saturday. Organizers will face a range of challenges to make the game a success. Efforts could have a big pay off. Nhk world explains. The professor is an expert on sports marketing. He said many people around the world dream of holding the olympics in their home countries. To see the games as a way to boost the pride of citizens and enhance their image. The Olympic Games help the city to create the new image or help them to do a lot of good branding of the city. People in japan are bringing the olympics back to tokyo. The city hosted the games once in 1964. The countrys spans about 10 billion to host the event. The japanese built Athletic Facilities along with highways and trail lines. They expanded tokyos airport. Officials wanted to show the world just how far japan had come since the defeat in world war ii. But 2008 beijing olympics was a landmark event for the people of china. Hosting the games was a symbol of chinas emerging economic strength. They said the 1984 games in los angeles proved the olympics can be a money making event. Because of marketing, the olympics can make a profit. Many cities start realizing how good the olympics are. A city will start bidding for the Olympic Games. Olympic organizations hold the commercial rights to Business Activities related to the games such as broadcasts and sponsorships. The potential for profit helps to explain why the competition to host the event can be fierce. Stage the olympics can bring longterm rewards including more tourists and business investments. They said it could begin as soon as the winning city is named and last until the closing ceremony. Nhk world, tokyo. Officials at the Tokyo Electric Power company warned of the potential new problem at the Fukushima Nuclear plant. That i say radioactive water that leaked from a storage tank last month may have merged with ground water. Tepco said they collected samples from a monitoring well about ten meters from the faulty tank. Tests show the water contained high levels of radioactive substances and they discovered more than 300 tons of coknow tam nated water that leaked from the tank. Company officials said some is water may have reached the sea. Even people who live far from the plant are worried about the leaks. Some fear fish and other food from japan may not be safe. More from nhk world. Shortly after the next march 2011, radiation levels in more than 50 of fish caught off fukushima exceeded the government safety limit. This figure has dropped dramatically, but still remains at 2 . The japanese government is restricting coastal fishing off fukushima and measuring radiation levels in the fish catches. It is also restricting shipment of fish caught offshore. Nevertheless safety krps are growing abroad. South korean parties are proposing a ban on all imports of all maritime accidents. Following the accident from Tokyo University from the science and technology has been studying ocean contamination off fukushima. They explain the reason for international distrust. People around the world see the japanese as trying to under state the impact of the fukushima accident. They think we just keep saying our food is safe without showing them any proof. I see their point. They said it will be difficult to dispel International Concern unless the government and tepco reveal not just the radiation data, but the way it was collected. Translator radioactive substances remain under the sea. We dont know how harmful it is. The situation is better than on the land, but the concerns of people in other countries are quite understandable. We need more transparency in research. Once we obtain critical data, we must share them with other countries immediately. Thats the only way we can regain their trust. The extend of radioactive contamination in the ocean remains largely unknown. He said the japanese government has a responsibility to research every possible aspect of the situation. He believes the only way the japanese government can restore International Confidence is to conduct a thorough study, disclose the results to the world. A tourist in japan said they love the food, but for muslim visitors, following guidelines is not always easier. Bit by bit, managers are catching on. Cooks have crafted a special menu with their own seasonings. More from nhk world. The thriving economies have given the Service Industry a new market. Starting from july, the government gives visafree entry to visitors from malaysia. A lop day still presents a challenge. Me and my family, we are very concerned about our food. When we eat, its simple. All of the restaurants dont serve the food and how they prepare the food. Islam prohibits believers from consuming alcohol or components of pork. Foods that are processed are certified. A Hotel Operator near narita airport decided to cater to muslim guests. The kitchen developed its own menu. It found suppliers of chicken and beef. Utensils are kept free from contact with alcohol or pork. These knives are for preparing halal foods only. Seasonings must also meet the sandard. Sake and sweetened sake are indispensable to japanese cuisine. The chef substituted them by mixing different kinds of sugar. The last and most difficult hurdle was soy sauce. The essential ingredient normally contains about 2 alcohol. Translator so sois is a basis of our is you keen. Without it our food cannot be japanese. The hotel commissioned the soy sauce brewery to commission a special brenlend. They evaporated with steam while trying to preserve the flavor. After much trial and error, the alcohol content was brought to the minimum. The product gained halal certification. Translator we were baffled at first as we had never attempted an alcoholfree product. I think we recreated something as authentic as the traditional soy sauce. The hotel held a tasting in july inviting residents of japan to try an all new halal menu. It was the first time many were able to enjoy fully halal japanese delicacies like tempura. If japan has food for muslims, its really, really good. I think it will attract more tourists. Translator i want to expand our repertoire to more dishes that satisfy our customers. In addition to the special h efforts they say is an incase re in booking Severe Weather is proving disastrous for dvers in the uk. We have that i world weather. Yes, we had a long frontal system that is pulling in and swinging by and creating Severe Weather that includes foggy conditions as well. Take a look at this video from the uk. A multiple car piled up occurred on a motor way in the english county of kent on early thursday morning. Over 100 vehicles were involved in the crash. 60 people injured with eight people in serious conditions. Witnesses reported low visibility due to a fog at the time of the accident. The passing cold front will be now aiming towards western half of this continent so it will be quite unstable across much of the west and that includes wet and cooler weather the way some gusty conditions as well as thunderstorms from spain all the way up to northwestern germany continuing for your friday. Looking nice and fine out here, but quite unstable in the southern areas especially in italy and sicily with thunderstorms in store for you for the most of the day. Dipping down is this jet stream to the south. Thats a lot of cold air across the russian region. Here in moscow, 13 degrees is for your high. Kiev averages around 21 degrees for the high for this time of year down to 12. Looking quite nice and fine across much of the heart of this continent. Now to Eastern Continental asia. Yesterday in tokyo, we had numerous thunderstorms during this rush hour approximate period. The low is moving away and the cold front moved away and we are looking at fine weather. Rain from shanghai to south korea. This is not bringing heavy downpours, but light showers will be continuing and that will be moving into japan on saturday and into your sunday. In North Eastern china, unstable conditions could trigger heavy downpours. Short time heavy downpours and thunderstorms across the area. Good news isha the flooding peak has receded. Here across southern areas of china, we have been seeing ongoing heavy showers. It looks like additional amounts of 100 millimeters could be well possible. Hong kong at 28 degrees. A little bit of sunshine there and tokyo down to 29 with a cool off. Heating up to 22 degrees. Moving over to north america, a system is pulling into the Pacific Northwest that can create Severe Weather, but generally speak calm across the interior here. We have a Tropical Storm system that formed over water. It will be moving into the Baja California area towards your weekend. We have been tracking and now a tropical depression. It will be bringing ongoing heavy downpours across the caribbeans. To the north of that, cold and hot across the interior. That will be the outlook for your day today. The heating is quite on the extreme side. Heating up to 39 on your friday. Phoenix at 42 degrees. A lot of these above average temperatures. On the other hand, meanwhile the great lakes are looking quite cold and low temperatures in the morning and overnight could dip down to freezing. Do cover up the sensitive plants outdoors. I will leave you now with the extended forecast. That conclude this is edition of newsline. Hope you join us again. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions woodruff president obama arrived in russia for a summit with World Leaders, a meeting overshadowed by tensions around a strike on syria. Good evening. Im judy woodruff. Brown and im jeffrey brown. On the newshour tonight, we hear from former National Security advisor Brent Scowcroft and former diplomat chris hill. And we continue our talks with members of congress about syria tonight, democratic congressman alan grayson. Woodruff then, from western massachusetts, a story about a county taking going local to ol