Relations between china and taiwan could have consequences across east asia. Negotiators from iran and six world powers have taken a step toward limiting the Iranian Nuclear program. They agreed on a basic freem work for negotiations on a final agreement. They say theyll meet again next month. We had three very productive days during which weve identified all of the issues we need to address in reaching a comprehensive and final agreement. There is a lot to do. It wont be easy, but weve made a good start. Eu Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign minister announced what the talks had achieved. They said the delegates agreed on an agenda for their negotiations and will meet again in vienna on march 17. U. S. And european officials are pressing the iranians to further limit activities that could enable them to develop nuclear weapons. They want the iranians to drop their plans to build a heavy water reactor. Iranian officials are insisting they have a right to pursue nuclear development. They say they wont allow any of their facilities to be destroyed. The negotiators reached an interim deal in november. The iranians agreed to limit their Nuclear Activities in return for an easing of some economic sanctions. Representatives of both sides say they want to reach a final deal by july. There has been another major spill at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Workers were putting highly radioactive water into a storage tank, but they put in too much and more than 100 tons spilled out. Translator we were in the process of transferring contaminated water into a storage tank, but the water was directed to the wrong tank and it overflowed. The water overflowed barriers surrounding the tank. Workers detected high levels of radioactivity in the water. They found concentrations of strantd yum and other isotopes reaching 230 million becquerels per liter. Officials with Tokyo Electric Power company say the crews have closed all valves and taken other measures to maintain the spill. They say they dont think the water reached the pacific ocean. Now theyre trying to determine whether the accident was a result of operator error or a technical malfunction. Fishermen in northeast japan got a briefing on the water leak and say theyre worried about its impact. Translator the water may have stayed in the soil, but consumers are going to be increasingly worried. This news came as a shock. Translator tepco people should make sure theres no more human error, otherwise our distrust is going to get stronger. Sato said the situation could also hinder the utilitys plan to increase groundwater into the ocean before its gits contamina contaminated. Crews at the plant have another problem. They rely on thermometers to gauge whether multied nuclear fuel is being cooled sufficiently. They say theres now only one in reactor number two thats working. Tepco officials said on tuesday workers found a problem with one of the two remaining thermometers used to monitor the inside of the reactor. They looked into the cause and found that workers accidentally caused a short circuit while performing checks. The Company Continues to pour water into the water to cool melted fuel at the bottom. Tepco officials made their announcement more than 24 hours after workers uncovered the problem, but they say the faulty thermometer showed a similar reading about 12 degrees celsius as the working one. So they say they failed to notice the abnormality immediately. The Officials Say replacing the gauge is likely to take time because of high radiation levels in and around the reactor. They say a new thermometer will have to be inserted through a pipe. You cranian president Viktor Yanukovych announced Late Wednesday that the protest leaders had agreed to a trugs but gave no details on how that would be implemented. Violent crashes between antigovernment demonstrators and riot police left 28 dead in the capital kiev. Nhk worlds chia yamagishi has more. Reporter the announcement came out just before midnight wednesday. President yanukovych declared on his website a truce at the start of the negotiation. Yanukovych said it is aimed at cessations of bloodshed and stabilization of the situation. Hundreds of protesters held their ground in kievs independence square. They set fire to barricades to fend off riot police. Blankets, tires and woods kept burning through the night. The crashes on tuesday were the most violent since the protests started in november. 26 people were killed and more than 600 injured. Leaders in the country have been maneuvering their positions between russia and europe. President yanukovych joined the European Union in favor of closer ties with russia. He accepted a 15 billion bailout from leaders in moscow. That prompted demonstrators to fill the streets. They demanded closer ties with europe. U. S. President barack obama speaking in mexico warned the ukraine leaders. Well be monitoring very carefully the situation, recognizing that along with our European Partners and the International Community there will be consequences if people step over the line. Reporter the Obama Administration placed visa restrictions on 20 senior ukrainian officials wednesday. European leaders have stepped up pressure on yanukovych. They are considering limited sanctions on those responsible for the violence. Russian leaders, busy with the olympics, have said little about the situation. But president Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with german chancellor angela merkel. He said that the protesters were to blame for the violence. The protesters are waiting to hear details of the truce, but for now many say theyre not going anywhere. Chie yam gish she, nhk world. Mitch tack ha tory tells us why russia is important for the European Union politically and economically. Translator considering the eu, ukraine is similar to france in terms of population and area. Its inclusion will make a big difference. You cranes economic level is still low but it has definite growth potential. On the other hand, successfully establishing a common economic market made up of former soviet republics hinges on ukraines participation. So it is against russias interests to sit by and watch ukraine approach the European Union. Russia cant afford to do that. Japanese farmers are afraid free trade talks will do more bad than good. Biz team ram mean mellegard is here with more on this. Looks like another struggle between the official line and the farming community. Japanese farmers have renewed their call for maintaining tariffs on five key items including rice in the talks for the Trance Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. About 800 farmers and agricultural developive officials gathered in tokyo, it came ahead of the tpp talks in singapore on saturday. Lawmakers from the main governing body also attended. The secretary general of the main Ruling Liberal Democratic Party emphasized his partys position over the talks. Translator the ldp will do its best to abide by the Diet Committee resolutions to maintain tariffs on five items. The participants adopted a resolution that says it will clearly hurt the National Interest to enforce the removal of tariffs on all farm products. Also in tokyo, tpp negotiators from japan and the u. S. Are discussing tariffs on car imports. They held working level talks this week to try to resolve a deadlock in certain areas. Japanese officials are considering accepting the u. S. Demand to extend the period for safeguard measures that would let washington restrict japanese car imports should they surge. Meanwhile, japanese officials are urging the remediate removal of a 2. 5 tariff on key Automotive Parts exported to the United States. But u. S. Officials are calling for an extension in the time frame as far as possible and then a phaseout of tariffs in stages. Now lets get a check on the markets. Weak Economic Data out of france has pushed the euro lower. Euro dollar is changing hands at 1. 362 to 369 a 5 the euro dropped. Thats when data showed the Business Activity shank in february. The countrys Service Sector saw the biggest in years. Little changed from levels in late asian trading. Moving on to stocks, here is how major benchmarks are doing at this hour. Londons ftse is quarter percent down, fran furthers dax is almost 1 lower, and pariss cac 40 down just over. 3 . Already weighed down by down beat data out of china. Earlier in the day a private survey showed chinese Manufacturing Activity in february slowed to a sevenmonth low. Also asian equities were hit hard. Nikkei declined 2. 15 . The shanghai composite pulled back from a twomonth high posted on wednesday. Meanwhile, singapores key index managed to cap the loss helped by strong gdp data out of the city state. Japan posted its biggest trade deficit since last month since people began keeping records in 1979. The countrys imports exceeded expourts for a 19th month in a row. Officials at the finance ministry say the deficit in january came to about 27. 4 billion. Exports rose more than 9. 5 from a year earlier in yen terms. Automakers saw Strong Demand for cars in the u. S. , europe and china. But japan spent about 25 more on imports led by liquefied natural gas and crude oil. The weaker yen is making fuel imports more expensive. Ripzing domestic demand ahead of a sales tax hike in april also contributed to the surge. The Worlds Largest social networking site has announced its largest acquisition ever. Facebook says it will buy a mobile messaging startup called whats app for 19 billion. Whats applets smart phone users share text and photos. It was founded in california in 2009 and has been enjoying rapid growth. Just like a rival service in japan called line. Whats app now has 450 million users around the world. The deal indicates that facebook is hoping to strengthen its mobile communication services. Ceo Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook Page that whats app is on its way to connecting 1 bill yawn people. He called the service simple, fast and reliable. Thats all for Business News for this hour. Ill leave you with a look at the regions markets. A u. S. Naval intelligence chief says chinese commanders may be preparing a strategy for taking the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Captain james fanell heads the Pacific Fleet intelligence and information operations. He mentioned an amphibious exercise the Peoples Liberation army conducted in Southern China last year and offered his analysis. The pla has been given a new task to be able to conduct a short, sharp war to destroy Japanese Forces in the East China Sea followed by what can only be expected to be a seizure of the sen kay cues. Chinese forces have been training to improve their 5b89d to land on taiwan. Analysts say theyre working harder in other areas and highlighted two conductors they conducted last year. Bomber crews flew their first drills off the philippines. The japanese government maintains the Senkaku Islands are an inherent part of japans territory in terms of history and international law. It says theres no territorial issue to be resolved. An advisor to japans Prime Minister denied telling a u. S. Newspaper that one goal of japans Economic Policy is to build a Strong Military to stand up to china. The wall street journals Online Edition on wednesday carried the article based on an interview with honda. The article said honda was perfectly open about what he believes to be the nationalistic goals behind the policy overhaul known as abenomics. It promoted him saying that japan needs a stronger economy to stand up to china. Honda told reporters on thursday that the paper totally missed the point of what he wanted to say. Translator what i actually said is that a power balance is important for maintaining peace in east asia. I never said abenomics is for military purposes. I dont even think that way. Japans chief cabinet secretary says honda was surprised by the article. Translator honda said he made no comments about abenomics in that way so we expect honda to ask the newspaper to publish a correction. Suga says abenomics is aimed at helping japan break away from inflation and achieve economic recovery. Leaders from china and taiwan are changing their tone. Chinese president she jichk ping met earlier this week with a leading figure in chinas ruling party. They are the first talks in more than six decades. Some analysts believe a change in approach could have repercussions across east asia. During the years before this meeting, china and taiwan have been rapidly integrating their economies. Direct flights between china and taiwan have increased and more people are traveling between the two sides. They have also signed a series of free trade deals and economic accords. As much as 40 of taiwans exports now go to china and hong kong. Despite their differing political positions, the two sides have taken the first step toward increased political ties. An analyst says this could affect the regional balance of power in east asia. We spoke to expert yasuhiro mats da of the university of tokyo. He points out for china the effort to improve ties for taiwan is significant. It happens at a time when relations between the country and neighboring nations are strained. China has very bad relations with japan now and also has very unstable relations with Southeast Asian countries. I think that having better unstable relations with china, china can enjoy much Better International environment. In my view, president man joe in taiwan oons has still two years and some months term, but his Approval Rating is very low, about 10 or so. So if he wants to establish his own historical legacy, the only prominent legacy should be the historical reconciliation with the mainland china. Basically United States, japan and other nations are welcoming these talks. Theyre also carefully watching what kind of development will appear through this series of dialogues. For example, in u. S. Views, china is now economically and militarily rising, sharply rising and trying to change the status quo in this region by physical means. And if taiwan stops opposing this chinese move or even standing by chinese side, i think the strategic balance will be greatly changed in this region. So the United States and also other nations including japan would like taiwan not to change the present stance about the regional status quo. So this is a kind of very unrif rent situation. One question is whether xi and mao will meet. Professor matsuda says its doubtful. If president mao cannot attend the summit meeting, he can meet with president obama, Prime Minister abe and other political leaders from the asia pacific. If this becomes precedent, chinese president cannot attend this meeting and doing these kinds of meetings every year. This is a quite politically risky attempt for beijing. Rather i foresee that beijing will try to invite president mao to beijing or some other places in china or a third place or wherever next year in 2015. Theres a storm hovering over the eastern parts of the United States. Our meteorologist robert speta has more. Yes, gene. What we are seeing right now is this new storm which is developing. It is pushing east. Everybody from the Mississippi River out towards the eastern seaboards, you want to watch this very closely. Just take a look at the satellite imagery, this Big Broadband of cloud cover is moving off. This is going to be a widespread and very complex storm system. Towards the north, western parts of the great lakes, you could be seeing widespread snow totals around 10 to 15 centimeters, isolatesed areas even towards southern oirn. Youre looking at around 30 centimeters as it continues to push off and widespread freezing rain across the great lakes and new england as well. Even flights into toronto very well could be delayed or canceled here on your thursday because of that Ice Accumulation which is going to be piling up, and that definitely affects aircraft. I think the biggest topic we are talking about today is, well, you cant miss it, Severe Weather towards the south, Severe Weather season is starting to ramp up yet again. Were looking at squall lines starting to set up. A few could have gusty Straight Line winds up to 50, even 80 kilometers per hour. Accompanied by that, the risk of large hail. I would not be completely surprised its not the main threat but we well could see tornadoes come out of this system as it continues to push east on thursday. Even into friday along the eastern seaboard. Down towards the south, very mild and warm weather. You see towards the north cooler temperatures. Thats whats fueling up this storm system. Towards new york, a high of eight, up into the double digits. As that front does approach by friday into saturday. Lets see whats going on over here towards eastern asia where High Pressure is coming in. What that means is much fairer weather for many of you. A few flurries near coastal areas here across the Pacific Coast of japan, but nothing even remotely close to what we saw the last two weekends with the severe storm systems out here. Still flurries towards western parts of hokkaido, actually about 30 centimeters. Around sapporo could see into the higher elevations. For much of the rest of japan, korea, china, the big blue h is descending from the north. That means much sunnier skies. Its even going to start to pull in some warm air out of the South China Sea and temperatures will be on the rise for the next several days. Take a look at okinawa and naha getting up to 20 degrees, right at average. Taipei also seeing a warmup. Tokyo up to ten degrees. Getting back to average from belowaverage temperatures earlier on this week. Lets see whats going on towards the British Isles where a storm system is moving through, another one. Still bringing gusty winds. Sustained winds around 50, could gust up to 120 kilometers per hour. Accompanying that is snowfall into the scandinavian peninsula. Its the northern part of the British Isles where youll see the heaviest rainfall accumulations. Still a flood threat down towards the south. The good news is most is moving toward the north. Much of western europe you will be seeing the showers in the next several days. I do want to mention whats going on towards sochi. Friday rain showers for you, saturday partly cloudy skies, but look at the warming trend, up to 18 degrees there for you by sunday. Here is the extended forecast. Japanese and french performers shared the stage in a Charity Concert in northeastern france. The event raised money for survivors of the earthquake and tsunami three years ago in northeastern japan. About 500 people attended the concert at a church in the city of strassburg. Maki abe is a freshman at a high school in fukushima prefecture. She sang with young members of a french coral group. Music by tchaikovsky with a french orchestra. Translator this concert is a Good Opportunity to keep peoples memories of the disasters from fading. Translator im grateful that people listened so intentfully when i talked about the tsunami. The organizers will collect money donate friday the audience to put towards the Recovery Efforts in japan. Thats newsline at this hour. Im gene otani here in tokyo. From all of us here at nhk world, thanks for joining us. Have a great day wherever you are. A7guc here are the headlines this hour. At least 26 the testers reportedly killed in the latest violence in kiev, as Foreign Ministers from the eu are there for crisis talks with the ukrainian president at a possible european sanctions. The belestone in democratic evolution since the fall of moammar gadhafi. Today for aoting new assembly. A rare emotional meeting for south and North Koreans separated 60 years ago by the war