Countrys embattled east. Chinese authorities are moving ahead with a project that has raised tensions in the south china sea. They say theyve completed the first stage of an Oil Drilling Operation near the paracel islands. The plan has triggered a standoff between china and vietnam. Both countries claim the islands. Officials with a unit of a staterun oil company say equipment is in place for the next stage. They say the second phase will be completed in august. Vietnamese Officials Say the areas within their countrys exclusive economic zone. Crews on fishing boats from the two countries have joined the standoff between government ships. Vietnam staterun tv says a chinese fishing ship rammed and sank a vietnamese fishing boetd on monday. But chinas official News Agency Says the vietnamese boat was harassing the chinese vetle. Xinhua says it capsized after colliding with a chinese boat. Japans defense minister says the leaders of pacific nations should Work Together to avoid trouble in the skies. He says they should consider setting up a code of conduct for aircraft. Itsunori onodera was speaking about an incident on saturday over the east china sea. The pilots of chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to Japanese Selfdefense force airplanes. Onodera says japanese officials have been urging chinese authorities to discuss setting up a hotline for emergencies involving ships and planes. But he said the chinese have not responded. Translator one option would be to establish a multinational code of conduct for aircraft, similar to the maritime code adopted by nations in the pacific region. Japan and china are two of the countries that agreed last month to the maritime codes at a symposium in the chinese city of change dow. Thailands military leader has been boosted by the king and now hes warning thais not to cause any trouble. Prayut seized power last week in a coup. He says on sunday King Bhumibol adulyadej authorized him to head power and order. He says the military will supervise Media Outlets and anyone responsible for reports that could cause chaos. He warns hell take tough and prompt legal action from those who protest against his rule. Earlier this month, a Constitutional Court ordered former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra to step down. On monday hundreds of her supporters rallied for a fourth day in bangkok. Soldiers and Police Officers surrounded them for more than an hour. Then the demonstrators left, but theyre refusing to stop the protests. People in japan are celebrating an imperial engagement. Princess noriko says shes getting married this fall. Her fiance is a shinto priest named kunimaro senge. Princess noriko is the first member of the imperial family to get engaged since 2004. Shes 25 years old, and the second daughter of the late prince takamado, the emperors cousin. She graduated from university three years ago and has since been carrying out public duties. Senge is 40. Hes the eldest son of a line of chief priests in western japan. Hes been officiating there since 2005. The couple met in april, 2007, when Princess Noriko went to worship. The princess will be the first woman from the imperial family not directly descended from an emperor to get married since 1945. Now the engagement could reignite debate over the rules of the imperial system. Any princess who marries a commoner has to leave the family. The emperors daughter lost her title when she got married in 2005. Eight princesses are single. Six are old enough to marry, so the imperial family could shrink. Some people worry it will eventually be too small to handle official duties. Government officials have studied the possibility of changing the system. They considered allowing princesses who marry to start their own branches of the imperial family. Now lets get the latest bus stories from ron madison. Japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe has renewed his commitment to bring more women into the labor force. He also stressed that his administration will improve its Financial Support for child rearing families. Abe spoke on tuesday at a meeting held in tokyo to discuss ways to enhance the position of working women in society. He called on corporate japan to change its male dominant thinking, noting that half of the consumers in the country are women. He said hes convinced that women play more active roles will lead to a vibrant japan. Translator we will aim by 2020 to create a society for women fill over 30 of key positions. To build such a structure in the entire country, we will carry out policies to encourage Business Leaders to work out plans to train women and promote them to managerial posts. Abe also said his government will help create more nursery schools, so no women who are willing to work have to stay home to look after their children. Japanese investors looking overseas now and watching their assets grow and grow. A measure of their investment in foreign markets swelled last year to a record level. Finance Ministry Officials take overseas holdings and then deduct Foreign Investments in japan to calculate what they call net external assets. Now this figure added up to more than 300 trillion yen, thats roughly 3 trillion u. S. Dollars and its also up 9. 7 from 2012. The Officials Say the weakening yen drove up the figure for the Third Straight year. Japanese investors have been sitting on the Worlds Largest overseas net assets for 23 years. Ministry Officials Say japanese firms have been buying more and more stocks in foreign companies. Japanese electronicsmakers shipped out more Home Appliances to the domestic market in april. And this is despite the sales tax hike at the beginning of last month. The Japan Electrical Manufacturers Association says the shipments of refrigerators, air conditioners, washers, as well as other appliances, came to 1. 5 billion last month. That was up 5. 3 in yen terms from a year earlier. Industry Officials Say manufacturers were unable to keep up with the surge in demand before the tax increase, and some of their shipments were carried over into april. The officials also say sales at Major Electronics retailers fell right after the tax hike but they are showing signs of a rebound this month. Theyre closely watching to see how much demand will recover during the summer bonus season. Four major japanese carmakers have jointly set up an electric car charging company. Theyre hoping to expand the use of electric vehicles in the country. The automakers are toyota, nissan, honda and mitsubishi. They established the company together with the Development Bank of japan. The new firm aims to double the number of charging stations in the country to 12,000. And help boost sales of electric cars, as well as plugin hybrids. Those vehicles currently account for just 2 of cars sold in japan. The company will make Financial Assistance available for Shopping Malls and other commercial facilities to install chargers. They will also foot the maintenance bill for eight years. In addition the firm plans to start a mobile phone service that drivers can use to find the nearest available charging station. Lets get a check of the markets. Investors in asia taking a bit of a breather following recent runups in the indexes. Major indexes finished up the day like this. Investors really struggled today to find trading cues before some Economic Data come out of the u. S. These include durable goods orders, and housing figures due out later on in the day. The nikkei average managing gains today, though up to 14,636. Building on gains of 4 that it had piled up over the last three sessions. Some Market Players continue to buy, others, though, took some profits following the recent advance. In seoul the kospi slipped 0. 6 , 1,997. Thats the lowest close in two weeks, selling by domestic Institutional Investors hurt market heavyweights Like Samsung Electronics and hyundai motor. And in hong kong the hang seng index down, as well, 0. 1 , 22,944. Retailers and Shopping Mall developers under pressure on speculation that hong kong regulators may limit the number of mainland chinese visitors. Japanese government officials are trying to figure out how theyll find specialized housing for millions of elderly citizens. That population is aging at a rate faster than in any other country. Some are looking at ventures now in vogue in the u. S. Theyre encouraging people to put their money in Health Care Reits, Real Estate Investment trusts. Nhk world explains. Reporter officials from japans Financial Services agency, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, held their first seminar on Health Care Reits this month. About 200 people attended from investment firms, construction companies, and operators of elderly homes. They heard about how they could benefit from reits. Translator im very interested in how we can use reits. Reporter theres already a shortage of facilities for the elderly around the country. Those facilities are expected to become even more strained in the near future, as the baby boom generation gets even older. But the cost of investing in new facilities is proving to be a major burden for the people operating senior housing. The government expects Health Care Reits will diversify the financials, too. Operators their facilities to investment trusts. They then can use the money from the sale to develop new facilities. The trusts collect rent from the operators, and pay dividends to investors. The average household has 1,600 trillion yen in Financial Assets and we need to channel these assets to the government area. Reporter japanese Financial Institutions are now setting up their own Health Care Reits. They plan to be enlisting them on the Tokyo Stock Exchange within the year. Translator well put money from the markets where there is a lot of capital into the Health Care Sector that suffers from a lack of capital. Reporter a nursing facility operator is also positioning itself in collaboration with a financial group. Ogawa is in charge of development and operations at this firm. He says facility operators have a longterm responsibility for senior residents. Reits usually come with a precondition that they are held for a minimum of ten years. Translator proper care cannot be achieved by the operator alone. We want the facility owners to share the responsibility. Reporter foreign firms have started to pay closer attention to japans Health Care Reits. This American HealthCare Investment firm has drawn up an advisory contract with the japanese financial body. The Company Expects the reit scheme will improve the quality of the operations, and provide better conditions for investors. It wants to rate the value of its assets. We would invest with, say, up and coming operators in situations where the occupancy was low for a number of reasons, but we know it could be leased up by an operator. Reporter to increase the supply of housing for seniors, investments should be extended to 40 operators. Health care reits should be advantageous for both the operators of senior facilities and investors. Keiko aso, nhk world, tokyo. Okay. That is going to do it for biz this hour. Heres a check of the markets. President elect promised to negotiate an end to the prorussian insurgency in the east, but he also rised an air strike inted. Petro poroshenko said he would not hold talks with armed insurgents he calls terrorists. Prorussian rebels seized the Donetsk International airport on monday, a day after the president ial election. They claim the election was illegitimate. Fighter jets and military helicopters flew overhead while black smoke rose in the air. Local media reported that 15 people have been wounded. The mayor of donetsk called on residents to stay home, warning the security situation could worsen. Authorities in egypt have given voters a surprise. Theyve declared the second day of the president ial election a national holiday. People have been casting ballots at polling stations nationwide in the twoday election. The interim Prime Minister said on staterun television that egyptians had requested a day off. And he said the government agreed. Polls suggest former defense minister Abdel Fattah Al sisi is set to win. His only challenger is hamdeen sabahi, a leftist politician. Several groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, are urging people not to vote. The Islamist Group has been the target of a crackdown under sisis command. Some younger egyptians are also rejecting the election. They include people who led democratic protests. Analysts say some people think sisis victory is a foregone conclusion, and arent bothering to cast ballots. They say authorities may be hoping the unexpected holiday will increase voter turnout, and enhance the legitimacy of the outcome. Now egypts new president will undoubtedly face many pressing challenges. Nhk senior commentator on the middle east observed the Political Landscape in the country during the election campaign. Sisi fails to win the election by a large margin, many egyptians who regarded him as a savior of the nation since he ousted mohamed morsi. They criticize the former president pursued an islamist agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, and divided the nation, and neglected the economic social problems of the country. The people are desperate for security and stability needed to bring back tourists and investment voteal to the economy. They see sisi as a strong leader, even if he shared military background with hosni mubarak, who was overthrown in the 2011 uprising. But restoring security is not going to be easy. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has grassroots support, continues antigovernment protests. Attacks by radical islamists rocked the nation, sisi chose not to appear in public during his campaign to avoid assassination attempts. The interim government has designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and court has sentenced hundreds of its members to death. But the crackdown could prompt a backlash and draw criticism from the international community. Improving the economy is another challenge that may be especially difficult for sisi. 20 of the population is under the poverty line, living on less than 2 u. S. Dollars a day. While inflation and unemployment are putting pressure on citizens. Egypt relies heavily on foreign aid. But in order to get help from the International Monetary fund, the government has to implement reforms, such as cutting subsidies for bread and fuel. The patience of the people is already close to its limit. If sisi cannot turn the economy around soon, it may trigger again huge demonstrations. The new 3rez will face immense challenges from his first day in office in the polarized country. A suicide bomber has attacked a military bus in afghanistans capital kabul. A taliban spokesperson says the group is responsible. At least two Afghan Soldiers were killed, and nine others wounded. The bomber was riding a motorcycle when he approached a mini bus carrying Afghan Soldiers. He got close to the bus, then detonated an explosive, taliban militants have staged repeated attacks against Security Forces and military personnel across afghanistan. The suicide bombing has renewed concerns about security ahead of the president ial runoff scheduled for next month. Voters across the European Union have registered their frustration with the status quo. Election officials are counting up the ballots of four days of voting for seats in the European Parliament. Politicians from euro skeptic parties and those with right leading views look to dramatically strengthen their position in the assembly. Nhk world has more. Reporter voting in the eus 2 Member States ended on sunday. Preliminary results suggest politicians opposed to a stronger eu are on course to make significant gains. Analysts say voters are fed up with austerity measures to deal with europes economic troubles, as well as record unemployment. In france, the far right National Front has emerged as a fruntrunner. Theyre expected to see their seats surge from 3 to 24. Translator french people have clearly expressed their wishes. They do not want to be ruled by the eu, or obey eu laws. Translator its all over for the eu. It now has no value. Reporter french president Francois Hollandes socialist party came in a distant third. He said the National French popularity signals the public distrust of the eu and his party. In britain, the Uk Independence Party appears to have won the most votes. Its leaders want the country to quit the eu. But as members of this union, we cant run our own country, and crucially we cant control our own borders. Reporter supporters say eu membership is a heavy burden on the country. Because we feel that the old parties have not provided for the british people. And so, we need to have a fresh change. Reporter predictions by the European Parliament indicate centrist parties will lose ground in the 751 seat assembly. But keep their majority. Members of parties opposed to the eu say they plan to form their own bloc in parliament. Analysts say the tieup could affect issues ranging from free trade negotiations to the selection of the European Commission president. Chee yamaguchi, nhk world. Dry weather in northern china is kicking up sand for east asia. Our meteorologist jonathan oh has the latest on that. Jonathan, i hear that yellow sand is on the way. What should we expect . Hello, shery. Yes, we are definitely having to look out for the very dry weather conditions because of a High Pressure system located in central china, and low pressure located toward the korean peninsula, and thats kicking up the winds, and thats creating the yellow sand conditions. So we will be monitoring the system as we go throughout tuesday, and into wednesday, because its going to create a haze, and some difficult breathing conditions, because of the yellow sand. Meanwhile, we are looking out for this stationary front that is continuing to indicate the rainy season for the Southern Coast of china. Still a real serious issue. Lots of flooding, so far from the latest totals from this past weekends flooding event, 15 people have been reportedly killed because of this rainy situation, and so it looks like more rain is on the way for that area. Meanwhile, we have upper level low thats ushering in some colder air, that opened the door for the possibility of seeing some rain in the kanto region in tokyo but looks like some improving weather conditions expected as we go into wednesday but that is opening the door for some of the yellow sand to move in. You can see the darker red shades indicating the really heavy areas of yellow sand toward the korean peninsula, extending back into central portions of china. That will be moving eastward so yes, japan will be affected as we go into wednesday and also thursday. Plenty of rain expected as we take a look at the Southern Coast of china as we go through the next 72 hours. But i do want to point out that the monsoon for the southwest asian areas moving toward the north and west, and so because of that, portions of east india seeing a lot of rainfall expecting to see even flooding possiblibilities going throughout the next few days. Heres a look at the forecast. 30 degrees at taipei, yes, youre under a flooding warning, heavy rain advisory, because of the rainy season. A high of 32 in hong kong, with a chance for some rain. We will see a mix of sun and clouds for tokyo with highs in the mid to upper 20s. Lets take a look at the americas. We do have a low pressure system located in the central plains. The southern portion of this system bringing the possibility of some severe weather. Mainly due to large hail. But we also have the possibility of strong winds, and also tornado, and so well be looking out for this system as it moves toward the east, and so unstable weather for the eastern half of the United States, and also parts of canada will be seeing some possibility of some rain. Meanwhile were keeping an eye out, amanda located in the eastern pacific. This system really intensified quickly but now its running into some very hostile environments. Because of this expect it to really weaken quickly as it 3406s toward the north. A Tropical Storm by thursday, and then really weakening into a low pressure system by the weekend. Heres a look at the precipitation forecast. The eastern half of the United States expecting some rain, as we go throughout your tuesday, and into wednesday. Houston, look out for some rain and thunderstorms, a high of 29. 25 in oklahoma city, and yes, the eastern half of the u. S. , a chance for some thunderstorms, highs in the low 30s. Finally, in europe, we are looking out for a couple of low pressure systems covering a good portion of central europe. A lot of instability with this, so the british isles, into germany, and all the way into portions of the balkan peninsula, youll be seeing a chance for some rain. Thats not a good situation for you because you had a lot of flooding problems earlier and it looks like more rain is headed your direction. Meanwhile the Scandinavian Peninsula and also into the iberian peninsula, you should be seeing some drier conditions as we go throughout your tuesday with high around 24 degrees in madrid. But yes, plenty of rain for the central portions of europe. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. Heres your extended forecast. And thats all for this hour on newsline. Im shery ahn. Thank you for watching. nw . Q . Q . . Here are the headlines for you this hour. Prorussian separatist in ukraine say up to 40 of their fighters have been killed in just one day. Ukraines new president elect says he will bring peace but that he will not negotiate with terrorists. Strong statements from pope francis. He compares child sex abuse to a syntenic mass. The pontiff adds that while he favors celibacy in the priesthood, it is not dogma and the door is always open to change. The military in nigeria says it has located the