Competing in the world cup and finding inspiration in an manga comic from japan. Iraqi military commanders are battling to turn back an advance by islamist militants and the foreign minister confirmed a government sought u. S. Military assistance. In washington, president barack obama and his top aids are orchestrating their response. Nhk worlds jun notsimoto reports. Reporter the insurgents are pushing to gain more control in parts of iraq. Their moving tour is baghdad. They atacked baqubah and fallujah, 70 kilometers from the capital. And they also control iraqs second largest city, mosul. Government forces have staged air strikes in mosul. And they are carrying out raids on other key rebel strongholds. Military Officials Say they have driven militants back from the countrys Largest Oil Refinery in the Northern City of baoji. Foreign minister baradei said the Iraqi Government asked u. S. Leaders to carry out air strikes. But, the u. S. Defense chief says any targets must be clarified. Options like air strikes as the president said has not ruled in or out, but there has to be a reason for those. There has to be an objective. Reporter the insurgents exact location is hard to pinpoint. They are mixed in with civilians. And they dont have a key base for their operations. U. S. Leaders fear that air strikes could kill innocent people. Hagel also criticized iraqi Prime MinisterNuri Al Maliki for not sharing power with different factions. He says thats what sparked the violence. This current government in iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to bring a unity government together with the sunnis, the kurds and the sh shia. Reporter maliki is a shia, who form a majority. The insurgents are the sunni minority. And experts say sunnis have grown frustrated with how they have been treated. The fighting has raised diplomatic tensions beyond iraqs borders. Iranian president rouhani has defended holy shrines in iraq. Leaders are urging for National Reconciliation in iraq without foreign interference. On wednesday, u. S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with iraqi leaders on the phone. He called on leaders to find a peaceful resolution. On the same day, u. S. President barack obama met congressional leaders. He hasnt ruled out air raids to try and help stabilize the situation in iraq. Jun yyotsumoto. Mohammad javad zarif says negotiators meeting in svienna have begun drafting a final agreement but they are divided on some main key issues. Delegates from iran and the six powers have been meeting since the beginning of the week. Theyre picking up where they left off their talks last month. The two sides have been having trouble agreeing on the number of centrifuges iran uses to enrich uranium. Another Sticking Point is the timetable for lifting International Sanctions on iran. Zarif says some positions held by western leaders are unacceptable. Hes called on them to take a more realistic approach. Still, zarif says work to draft a final deal on Irans Nuclear program has started. And hes expressing hope that it will go smoothly. The talks are scheduled to continue through friday. The negotiators are up against a july 20th deadline for finalizing the deal. All right, to the latest in business now. Sony shareholders are voicing their criticism of the people who run the company. Theyre blaming managers for two straight years of losses but change is on the way. The shareholders attend their annual meeting in tokyo. The company booked a 1. 2 billion net loss for the fiscal 2013 year. Thats mainly due to its money losing tv unit. They cite the high cost of streamlining efforts. Shareholders expressed disappointment about the tv business that posted a loss for ten straight years. One pointed out that executives failed to offer detailed restructuring plans. Others questioned whether the Current Management Team can turn the company around. The ceo said he understands the criticism but he stressed it is his responsibility to complete Structural Reforms by march and put the company on a path to growth from next year. Japanese Home Appliance makers shipped fewer products in may compared to the same month last year. It was the first drop in 12 months. Industry officials are blaming the consumption tax hike in april. Officials at the Japan Electrical Manufacturers Association say appliance makers shipped around 1. 7 billion worth of products for the month. Thats down more than 5. 5 from last may. They say demand has been sluggish after the tax hike. Many consumers had rushed to buy big ticket items before april. But the drop was not as serious as officials thought it would be. They have been forecasting a 12 decline for the entire fiscal year. Executives at many manufacturers have a plan to turn things around. They say that theyll be rolling out new products ahead of schedule to try to take advantage of the summer bonus season. U. S. Retail giant amazon has made a name for itself as an Online Shopping portal. And now executives are taking the business in a new arena. They have launched the companys first smartphone. Amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos unveiled the fire phone at a launch event in seattle. The device has a variety of 3d functions including one that displays buildings on a map. The company Officials Say it also offers an immersive experience for gamers. They say its camera recognizes objects like books and dvds. Then displays pricing as well as other information. The phone can also identify music and video content and link users to amazons Online Stores for making purchases. Company Officials Say the fire phone will go on sale in the u. S. Market july 25th. Analysts say south Korea Samsung electronics and apple have nearly half the Global Market for smartphones. Amazon executives are trying to catch up with their technology laden model. On to the markets, investors in tokyo taking their cues from the outcome of the u. S. Federal reserve policy meeting. They are taking comfort from its commitment to keep the countrys Interest Rates low for some time. Tokyos nikkei average climbed 1. 6 , finished at 15,361. Thats a level we havent seen since the end of january. Foreign investors bought shares of bellwether Companies Like toyota motor and this helped to boost trading volume. Over in sydney, the s p 500 asx 200 index posted its biggest one day gain so far this year. It closed up nearly 1. 6 , 5468. The index was led higher by market heavyweight mining shares like bhp billiton. Other markets appear to be shrugging off the positive lead from wall street. Chinese markets finished lower with the shanghai composite suffering the worst day since april. The index gave up more than 1. 5 , finishing at 2,023. Investors concerned about insufficient liquidity in the markets due to upcoming initial public offerings. Thats as a sizable amount of capital will no doubt be be diverted to new share sales. General motors said mary barra is under fire again for her companys handling of an ignition defect and millions of its cars. Barra admitted the problem was mishandled. She was called to testify again before a congressional subcommittee. Barra responded to allegations gm knew about the flaw in inin addition switches for more than a decade but failed to recall the cars until recently. 13 people died in Car Accidents allegedly linked to the defect. Barra said gm failed to handle a complex safety issue in a responsible way. I addressed the entire Global Workforce about the report. I told our team as bluntly as i knew how that the series of questionable actions and inactions uncovered in the investigation were inexcusable. She stressed again that she will not resign until the problems in the company are solved. Gm fired 15 people including engineers and researchers for failing to report the problem to executives. The firm also plans to set up a fund to help families of the victims. Many are criticizing the company, though, for saying top management was not to blame for the problem. Airline managers in japan are looking into the sky. Theyre seeing a bit of a hole, though. There are about 57 pilots certified to fly commercial aircraft, but many are in their 40s and will be retiring around the year 2030. With growing demand, airlines say theyll need another 3,000 pilots by them. Some educators are taking steps to fill the gap. Reporter planes take off one after another at airports across japan. But in the last few months, low Cost Carriers have had to cancel hundreds of flights due to pilots calling in sick or resigning. The shortage of pilots in japan has become a serious problem for the airlines. Some educators are stepping in to help train new pilots. In april, this university and in southwestern japan started offering a Flight Training course. Former Airline Captains and trainers were hired to teach. Translator we believe training new pilots in jean is an urgent issue. Were excited to make a great start as the timing is good. Reporter ten aspiring pilots, aged between 18 to 30 were admitted to the school. The students will start flying aircraft later this year. I train airplanes, i want to be a pilot. Translator i want to become the worlds safest pilot. And wow my passengers. Reporter 75 of pilots in japan are either trained by the nations top two airlines or are graduates of a governmentfunded aviation college. While people in the u. S. And britain have hundreds of training schools to choose from, japan only has about 20. Okinawa is one place theyre training pilots. They offer courses that are faster. Students can obtain a license in just 14 months. At this training facility, students obtain part of their pilots license in the u. S. The institution installed flight simulators certified by the u. S. Federal aviation administration. These u. S. Made simulators help students get accustomed to the american testing system. The total fees here start about 110,000. Thats almost half as much students pay at other facilities in japan. Translator i can cut expenses by using a simulator and experience emergency situations. I cant do that on real aircraft. Reporter there are 20 students in the program right now. But over the next few years, the people who run it hope that the number will rise to about 100. Im looking for probably about five school in entire japan. We have a lot of demands for those schools to fly the simulator in the area. Reporter aviation specialists say as well as training more pilots schools need to ensure the high quality of each training. Translator i think the government needs to Work Together with airlines, Training Facilities and universities to ensure there is a standard level of training. We need to ensure each school is at the same level. Reporter kobayashi says in the shortterm, Airline Managers should consider hiring more people from abroad. And government officials have decided to allow pilots who left the selfdefense courses to work for the airlines. They hope that will help them solve a problem that is just taken off. Akiko okomoto, nhk world. Thats going to do it for business hour. Lets get a check of the markets now. Japanese Officials Say theyre gearing up for fresh talks with their north korean counterparts, possibly next week. Top of the agenda is the norths promise to investigate the fate of missing japanese abductees. Pyongyang promised last month to set up a special committee to probe the abductions. The japanese government says north korean agents kidnapped at least 17 people in the 1970s and 80s. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga laid out japans priorities on wednesday. Translator north korea is going to explain to us how the special committee will be formed and who will be in charge. We will scrutinize the information very carefully. Suga says the japanese delegation will be led by junichi ihara, with the Foreign Ministry asian. Sitting across from him will be song il ho, north koreas envoy for normalizing relations with japan. Japanese officials want to use the talks to determine how much authority the committee will actually wield inside the north. They also want to know if the head of north koreas secret police will be part of the committee. And Officials Say if theyre satisfied the committee can carry out an effective investigation, they will consider lifting some sanctions. Workers at Fukushima Daiichi have spent months carrying out painstaking task. They have been removing a nuclear fuel from a damaged reactor building and putting it in storage. But now the people overseeing the operations say they could run out of space. So they have changed their plan. The workers have been moving more than 1500 units of fuel rods from a pool in the reactor number four building. They have been taking the fuel to a common storage pool. Space in the pool is limited so officials have planned to remove some fuel rods being stored there to make more room. But now they say it is taking more time than expected to confirm if casks carrying the rods are safe. The officials new plan is to transfer 180 units of unused fuel rods from the number four building to a different reactor building. They say theyll start in november and they expect to finish removing all the rods by the end of the year as scheduled. The plants operator will apply to the Nuclear Regulation authority for approval of the new plan. Four crippled reactors, a constant buildup of contaminated water, radioactive leaks threatening the involvement. The people in charge of Fukushima Daiichi are struggling to control the plant. How will they stop the leaks and commission the facilitys . Get the latest on the aftermath of the Nuclear Accident with in depth reports and special features. Nuclear watch, only on newsline. The world cup finals are heating up. A chance for millions of japanese soccer fans to rekindle their love for hugely popular comic. The long running manga series captain subasa has inspired players not only on the national team, but around the world. Nhk world has more. Reporter the comic tells a story of a boy, who grows up to become a professional player. Many japanese soccer players have improved their skills by imitating the amazing performances of the comics captain. Professional players try to recreate the acrobatic plays drawn in the manga. The midfielder and his teammate try out the shoot. And a goal at the countershoot. Reporter the comic and animated cartoon have been translated and circulated in many countries, in europe, the middle east, asia, and south america. Under a variety of different names, tsubasa inspired some of the worlds top soccer stars, including massey, podolski, torres and inesta. Reporter this is the author of the comic which he has been drawing since 1981. He says that when he started, it was a farfetched dream to talk about japanese success in soccer. Japan did not even qualify for the world cup until 1998. Translator the Japanese Team is closer than ever to winning the world cup. So i hope they will get close as possible to that goal. Reporter tsubasas dream is to win the world cup trophy, one shared by the japanese players. Translator tsubasa was my role model. Im serious about living out his dream to win the world cup. Reporter the japanese squad will face greece in the second group league match on thursday. After losing their opener, the team must win to keep their dream alive. Yugi osawa, nhk world. Time now for a check of the weather. People in some areas in north america are dealing with Severe Weather conditions. Meteorologist robert speta tells us more in world weather. Yes, well, we have been watching all week are these severe storms, really erupting across the Central Plains through the great lakes region. And you can see on the satellite picture, right where that high tops on the cloud cover here is in the bright white that is, where the strong storms are. And in the eastern great lakes we had numerous reports of hail here on your wednesday. And also a report of a tornado there in the southern ontario. Thats where we have a video out. Want to go ahead and show you this out of angus, ontario, where on tuesday night, wow, this rode through, you can see the damage to about 80 or numerous homes out here. Local weather agencies stated that an ef2 tornado produced winds of 100 kilometers per hour, three people have suffered minor injuries. Cleanup efforts still under way, but about 80 to 100 homes have been condemned. Still just taking your time trying to pick up after, and about 3500 people lost power. So a lot of people impacted by the storms as far as the forecast is concerned, there is still that threat of some severe thunderstorms out here. And there should be because what we have is hot and humid conditions down here towards the southeast. It is relatively dryer and cooler off towards the north. And right where that is meeting here, that is where we have that Severe Weather threat, more so though back here towards the west. Right there in those areas in red, we could still see upwards of about 100 to 150 millimeters of rainfall and winds as high as 120 kilometers per hour. Not to mention that threat of some large hail, baseball sized and still the threat of tornadoes. So a lot of people need to watch out for this in the Central Plains. You have travel plans out here, just be be be ready for some delays or cancellations as far as your flights are concerned as this does continue to track off. Back towards the west and the southwest, dry conditions around the four corners region. And then in the southeast, as i mentioned before, hot and muggy, houston with i33, atlanta 33 as well. Same goes for you, those of you there into washington, d. C. Lets move over towards europe now, where were looking at the storm system we have been watching all week. Several low pressure areas pushing across italy, over towards the balkan peninsula, even into western portions of turkey. Already we have seen numerous reports of large hail and some damaging winds, even earlier this week. One report of a tornado out here. Well, that threat is still going to be there, but tapering off as we head into the weekend. Behind it some dryer conditions work their way in, some warming temperatures as well. High Wind Warnings over towards the netherlands and northern portions of germany. That will keep things cool. Berlin, high of 19. London and paris both into the low 20s. Lets move over towards eastern asia. The rainy season continuing to dominate. For now, japan High Pressure is in place. Afternoon thunderstorms still cant be ruled out, but by the weekend, were going to see a big changeup. We had that rainy season, new low will develop along that. And thats going to race off towards the northeast and you can see by saturday, some heavy showers there into kyushu and by sunday morning, tokyo, be ready for wet, windy conditions. For now, partly cloudy skies, temperatures all the way up to 28 there on your friday. Lets wrap things up here in brazil where were talking about the world cup. You can see right here, that big area of cloud cover, that is the south atlantic convergence zone and will bring showers for sao paulo. If youre watching the japan versus greece game, well, well be looking at passing showers, maybe a thunderstorm. But the big thing, i think, is temperatures in the high 20s and also going to be very hot and muggy out here on your thursday. Heres the extended outlook. One more story to share with you before we go. Music lovers in paris have enjoyed a rare Live Performance of a japanese string instrument, the koto. Most of the seven pieces are written or arranged by japanese composer michio miyagi. A concert was held to mark the 120th anniversary of his birth. Miyagi helped to revitalize traditional japanese music by adding western elements. His main work is haru no umi. He performed the place with french violinist renee chemet in 1932. Translator very interesting concert. I liked the rhythms. Translator i loved the wide variety of traditional and modern styles. Gg99nnwcca7guc welcome back to the france 24 newsroom. Here are the headlines. A call from help a call for help from a rack. The iraqi Prime Minister asks the u. S. To launch airstrikes against the isis fighters taking over the north. Spain celebrates its new monarch. Felipe vixth calls for unity following his proclamation as king. He replaces his father after 40 years on the throne, but that is not the only spanish rain coming to an end. It is all over for the spanish world cup champ, crashing out of the tournament after two