reporter: mikio haruna, a visiting professor at waseda university, is an expert on public records. he says the proposed bill is dated. translator: it focuses on the protection of secrets. the government needs to disclose information and guarantee the right to know. reporter: government leaders want to enact the bill as soon as possible to make sure that proposed national security council can operate smoothly. but first, they must answer questions in the diet. yoshitaka hirauchi, nhk world, tokyo. prime minister abe said it s vital that the diet pass the two bills during the current session. he was speaking at a plenary session of the lower house. abe says the national security council would strengthen the command functions of the prime minister s office. he says this is important at a time when the security environment is getting more severe. abe also says that for the new security body to function effectively, legal and other systems must be in place to protect gover
front of the headquarters of the newspaper, nanfang zhoumo, they say freedom of speech has been buried and laid down mums to back up their accusation. the flower is traditionally handed out at funerals in china. translator: it s a violation of our rights. i can t stand it. we re at the boiling point. reporter: things have been heating up for several days. staff at the nanfang zhoumo planned to run a new year s message calling for freedom of speech. but the journalists say local authorities ordered major edits. once chinese citizens found out, they wrote message after message to show their opposition to the censorship and support for the journalists. most of their posts have been deleted. china s constitution grant freedom of speech and a press, but communist officials sometimes order the media to stay away from stories that put the party or the government in an unfavorable light. staff at a newspaper took the rare step of running an editorial, calling journalists and pr
above 40 degrees celsius. it is extremely hot in sydney. there are many wildfires throughout australia. most people in eastern australia experienced temperatures above the 40-degree benchmark. the high in sydney reached 42.3 degrees later in the afternoon. is there anything that you are aware of when it s very hot? drink a lot of water and stay out of the sun. reporter: the searing heat and dry air triggered wildfires in the southern state of tasmania. the flames are still flaring, and officials are trying to reach people who may be trapped. but the fires have spread to eastern australia. more than 100 have been reported, mainly in the state of new south wales. searing temperatures and strong winds are making it difficult for firefighters to put out the flames. there was an expectation, a hope, that something would abate these weather conditions as it moves across new south wales. the fact is that it is not. reporter: a firefighter was burned on his hand. authorities
communist party. here s more from beijing. reporter: they published their second edition of the year on thursday. it s the first time it hit newsstands since the censorship allegations surfaced. translator: i came to buy the newspaper to know what s happening here and to know the truth. translator: media restrictions are getting tighter. the government s propaganda division should be disbanded. reporter: editors did not run a story detailing their complaint that communist party officials forced them to change a new year editorial calling for freedom and democracy and they did not mention the anti-censorship demonstrations that have been happening this week. instead, editors wrote that even though the party has the right to control the media, it should change with the times. no major rallies happened on thursday outside the head office of nanfang zhoumo. hundreds of protesters gather for three straight days but authorities deployed dozens of police officers to deta
hello there. welcome to newsline. it s friday, january 11th. i m catherine kobayashi in tokyo. egyptian president has agreed to pakistans have seen one of their bloodiest days in years. they wounded more than 250. a suicide bomber detonated his explosiv explosives. police arrived at the scene. then a car bomb exploded. police say 56 people were killed. 116 wounded. a militant group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. a roadside bomb exploded earlier in the day. it killed at least 12 people. in separatist group claims responsible saying they were targeting security forces. a bomb killed 23 people at a religious gathering in the swat valley. the motives are not clear. government officials say 40,000 people have been killed in terrorist attacks over the last ten years. egyptian president morsi has agreed to cooperate with iran to call on syria s government and opposition forces to halt fighting. morsi met iranian foreign minister in cairo on thursday