russian leaders responded last week by blocking japanese nationals from entering the country. >> they don't want to see anything like that happen again. >> translator: flying a fighter jet too close to other aircraft is an obstructive act and could lead to an accident. >> the pentagon press secretary says earlier this month that the chinese jet made several close passes by the u.s. navy plane in international air space. in may and june, chinese jets also flew unusually close to self defense force planes. he said he hopes the chinese will not repeat such dangerous acts. japan con trolgs the islands. china and taiwan claim them. vietnamese leaders are looking to mend fences. they're sending a senior official to try to rebuild ties. he'll spend tuesday and wednesday in china at the invitation of chinese communist party leaders and discuss how to avoid incidents that might destabilize relations. tensions flared in may when a state-run company set up an oil rig in waters claimed by both countries. it triggered anti-china protests and riots in vietnam. at least five chinese workers were killed. the vietnam ease spokesperson will send representatives to visit families of victims. >> michael brown was shot dead by a white police officer. family member, political leaders, human rights act vitss. they sang and prayed songs to celebrate his live. >> we have had enough of the senseless killing. what you guys can do to continue this is show up at the voting polls. let your voices be heard. >> brown was unarmed when he was shot. his death has sparked protest after protest. demonstrators have been calling for the police officer to be punished. and for an end to racial discrimination. the officers' supporters held their own rally. darren willson has been put on paid leave. a grand jury has begun hearing evidence to determine whether to bring criminal charges against him. and the u.s. justice department has opened its own investigation. residents of the gaza strip have seen things go back to the way they were. they started fighting again last week. health officials in gaza say since then more than 100 people have been killed. the two side held fire for nine days but hamas militants launched 100 rockets and mortars into israel every day since the cease fire broke down. israeli boy was killed on friday when the car he was traveling in was hit by a shell. he was four years old. israeli commanders are responding with air strikes and say they are targeting senior members of the militant group. palestinian president mahmoud abbas is trying to bring the two sides back to the table. he met with hamas leader in qatar's capital, doha and met in cairo with egyptian president. egyptian mediators brokered previous rounds of negotiations. israeli forces launched their offensive in july and since then more than 2f 100 people have been killed. >> all three of the major indices rose. the s&p 500 had the 2,000 for the first time ever. in the middle of the financial crisis, it sank to a low of 66 of. that was in march, 200. so in just five years, the index has grown threefold. as for monday, the s&p did give up some of the gains during the day but still managed to close at a record. and the dow jones industrial aver rang also rose closing at 17 17,000 for the third day in a row. >> we're seeing a little bit of hesitation, actually, here, for tokyo stocks at the open. following those gains on wall street, a little bit of a fullback for the nikkei for the august 26th. have a look at that. the nikkei is marginally in the negative. but the broader topix, marginally in the positive. many investors will want to see what extra steps the voj may take to support economic growth here in japan. analysts say many market players are concerned that the lack of anymore aggressive moves by the bank of japan is hampering the battle to beat deflation, which is a big focus here for japan's economy. now, unemployment and inflation data on friday, therefor, will be a very big focus for investors and market players and will be looking forward to that as well. yi? >> and what can you tell us about currency mark shlgts? where are the major pairs trading this morning? >> exactly. a little bit of a deviluation there in the dollar yen. by that, i mean, it is slightly weaker, hence, possibly, the reason why the nikkei has just dipped into the negative. 104.08. it's just gone a little bit lower on-air right now. now, traders still are convinced that interest rates in the u.s. will rise sooner than had been anticipated and they have been buying a dollar against a lot of currency,s including the end. still, dead on monday, the new home sales hit a four-month low in july. now, looking ahead, the big focus today is going to be on durable goods orders, as well as further data on home prices. investors continue to say the euro will take additional monetary measures. bottom of the screen, 137.23-29. now, a closely watched german survey showed a fall for a fourth consecutive month. that confirms views. now, yields on the german government bond also fell hitting fresh record lows. ochb of course, for asian indexes, as well, which may affect a lot of japanese shares. as i said, a bit of a mixed opening with the nikkei in the negative. we'll see how that develops. back to you. >> ramin, thank also lot for that report. hackers have infiltrated sony's online entertainment service and shut it down for almost a day. company officials say the attack crashed their play station net work for games, music and movies. officials at sony computer entertainment say the hackers caused a system failure across the global network. they say the distribution zfs was unavailable for about 20 hours while they dealt with the problem. but they say they found no evidence the hackers accessed the personal information of network users. 52 million people have accounts. the same hackers claimed online there were explosives on a plane carrying head of a sony subsidiary. officials diverted the plane for an emergency landing. investigators with the f.b.i. are looking into the matter. japanese government officials are coming up with ways to tackle one of the problems of their ageing society. they want to train 20,000 new construction workers to address a serious labor shortage. members of a labor ministry task force met to discuss solutions to the problem. in 1997, about 6.8 million people worked in construction. that was when the number was at itself peak. but it has since fallen by nearly 30%. experts say this has made it hard to pass on expir tees to younger general rations. min xii officials are planning to provide training for new workers and skills such as reinforcing steel and concrete molds. they also want to address the labor shortage in nursing care for the elderly and child day care. analyst is say about 11.4 million people qualify to be childcare workers or nurses. min xii officials want to exstend pay that raise wages for their employees. more for you in business next hour. here's another check on markets. the people in charge of fukushima say they have been able to remove radioactive substances. it can be discharged into the pacific ocean. fishermen are skeptical. workers with tokyo electric power company ran a trial last week. they pumped up ground water then ran it through a drainage system. they found most radioactive substances dropped to a level that was undetectible. officials explained the results to a local fisheries cooperative. they say it could lead consumers to doubt the safety of seafood from the reason. they asked officials to provide them with more details. volcano experts have taken a look at safety guidelines from japan's nuclear regulator. they are raising some questions. officials with the nuclear regulation authority drew up guidelines for dealing with volcanic eruptions. they require plant operators to take certain measures. that includes removing nuclear fuel from the facilities. several active volcanos lie within 100 kilometers of a plant in japan. regulators have approve a plan to restart two reactors there. they met with experts to discuss how to come up with standards for predicting eruptions. one said there's advance warning of major eruptions but it takes years to remove nuclear fuel. the regulators said they would consider what the experts had to say. they said they may require the operator of the plant to undertake additional measures before restarting the reactors. it's time to check on the markets. >> the nuclear plant entered the critical phase in march 11, 2011. officials at the plant noticed that the emergency cooling system was not working. but yoshida wasn't informed until late that night and the reactors had already started melting down. >> i'm very regretful about this. we failed to establish a system to receive warnings from the employees on time. >> the former chief of the plant condemned tepco's head office for mishandling the crisis. the following day, yoshida decided to inject sea water into the crippled number one reactor to cool it down. tepco officials wanted to suspend the plan as they have yet to gain o approval. but yoshida defied that order. >> i remember vividly tepco officials told me over the phone to stop right away. no arguments. but i decided not to follow the order because there were no rational reasons. >> yoshida also testified that tepco officials didn't know what kind of emergency equipment the failed workers needed. >> tepco head office september things that were not suitable to fix the situation. this was really troublesome since we had to take time to analyze what they were and how they could be used. >> after radiation around the plant increased, tepco head office stops. instead, nee dropped it off at the facility 50 kilometers away. i had to dispatch workers to get those things. >> while the three nuclear reactors were meting down, yoshida was at the helm, securing new equipment and making first important decisions. this former head of the plant was closely acquainted with yoshida. >> translator: we can learn a lot from this interview. it's very important that officials in charge learn how to improve the organization, measures to respond to emergencies and management. >> the government plans to disclose almost all of yoshi's interviews. the records should be closely examined. >> reporter: after driving two hours east of seoul, travel arrive at this building. the worlds say, the prison inside me. this facility offers its paying guests an experience that resembles to some extent life in jail. it has 30 solitary confinement cells. guests wear this uniform and spend one week in a cell like this. during that time, all contact with the outside world is cut off. the cell is only about 5 1/2 square meters. it has a sink, a toilet and a small desk. personal belongings are forbidden. the iron doors are locked. meals are served through a small window. guests are only permitted to leave their room when they take a shower or attend group sessions. they each pay about $500 for a seven-night stay. these stays people who work in cities use fat sit as a retreat. a couple from seoul opened it last year. to escape their hectic life, they were even willing to go to prison. >> translator: we have a lot of rules. but you stay here, you can empty your body and mind while you reflect, rest and recharge. that's what this space is for. >> reporter: this woman is making her first visit. she runs a popular spa in seoul. helping her clients relax is hard work. so she needs to get away. >> translator: i'm mentally and physically exhausted from working 12 hours a day from early morning until late at night. i came here because i want to feel refreshed. >> reporter: she has to check in her smart phone, an essential item in her life. she will be out of touch with her family. after she enters her room, she makes a series of bows. >> translator: i've been so busy that i haven't been able to think about my life. this is the chance to heal myself. >> reporter: some people simply sleep. others meditate. and others spend their time alone in their own way. one week later, the solitary confinement ends. >> translator: i'm really refreshed. i can't put into words how revitalized i feel. >> translator: this center represents how much we push ourselves into a corner as though we were in jail. i hope it will help our guests truly understand what makes them trap and torture themselves. >> reporter: visitors to the facility report they emerge from the solitary confinement happier, stronger and with a brighter outlook. it's time for a check of the weather with robert speta. people in south korea are dealing with torrential downpours. what's the latest? >> yes. we have been seeing out here is one low pressure area after another in this latest one, it did bring heavy rainfall. we have seen flooding out here. as we look through the next 24 hours, we still could see some more rainfall. the bulk of the worst of the weather is removed to the east. we still have the west -- easterly wind coming in bringing in rain totals which could add up to 60 millimeters. as far as what has occurred, some areas into south korea, upwards of 245 millimeters reported in the past 24 hours. that much rainfall in a short amount of time, in these urban areas, can result in that flash flooding. we have been seeing some of the devastation reports coming out of this area. as we look ahead, the heaviest rain is moving towards the east. on top of japan, which don't need rain. tokyo, showers tuesday into wednesday. the heaviest, up to 200 millimeters. this is on top of already saturated grounds. take a look at this graphic. this is not total rainfall. this is the rainfall anomaly we have seen above or below average this past month via the satellite here. you can see some areas in south korea well above average. down towards the south where you need the rain, it's well below average across the philippines, you have been dealing with drought, well below average totals you have been seeing out here. the good news for the philippines, you are getting rainfall. it's coming down in such a short period. most classes have been suspended because we have a low pressure area bringing some heavy rainfall out across the your area. to the north, taipei with a high of 32. you are seeing showers. tokyo, as i mentioned, on tuesday, showers are pushing through. high of 28. now look towards the americas. we have a low pressure area moving through ontario, off there towards quebec. you can see the cold front, that has been firing up severe thunderstorms. look at these photos out of wisconsin. this is a shelf cloud, a leading edge of a storm system. that's associated with gust fronts, and that rolled through the area on monday. now pushing off towards the east across the great lakes, towards the northeast. could you see severe weather with this and wednesday, another low developing in the central plains. look at these temperatures. this is another thing fuelling into this. southerly winds and very humid. your heat indexes could be higher than this. wichita falls, 38. bring your attention off the eastern coastline. we have cristobal. good news with this, all warnings have been dropped. we have tropical storm watches in effect for bermuda. this will remain out of sea and head off there towards the northeast. moving towards europe, more on this later on, but we have several low pressure systems. one over the baltic states pulling in cool air from the north and also we have blustery conditions and rainfall across the low countries into southern portions of the british isles. temperatures feeling fall-like out here. here is our extended forecast.óx >> hello and a warm and sunny welcome to the show today. there's was a lot going on around europe this week, here's a few of the stories that we featured! image improvement. local drinking laws on the spanish island of mallorca are tightened dance till you drop. fans celebrate the tomorrowland festival in belgium. vintage vehicles. luxury oldtimers relive their glory days on an english racetrack. it's the holiday season here in europe and hundreds of thousands of people choose to spend their time off on the spanish and greek islands. mallorca is trying to improve it's reputation as of this summer and local authorities have tightened their laws on the famous party strip of playa de