They detected particles of an organic compound that generates photo chemical smog. It causes various Health Problems including eye irration and respiratory issues. Chinese people have just come back from the Lunar New Year holiday. Traffic is increasing and factories are once again operating at full capacity. Many say they are worried by the situation. Translator i have a sore throat already. I know that pollution is serious out here. Translator i cant stand going outside without a mask on. Experts have called for urgent measures to contain the air pollution. They include tightening controls on vehicles exhausts and equipping factories to remove pollutants from smoke. Officials in japan are closely monitoring pollution coming from china. About 150 representatives of local governments and the environment industry in tokyo met to set up a task force, planning to share information on the problem and discuss preventive measures. Ministry officials said they need more observation points to detect minute pollutants called pm 2. 5. They are found in exhaust and factory smoke. The ministry is drawing up guidelines on protecting Peoples Health if the density of pm 2. 5 rises. Translator its close to china. People there are increasingly concerned about the issue. We want the Central Government to discuss the matter and clearly show us the results as soon as possible. Authorities in tokyo and osaka have started to provide pollution data online. Naval officers from mainly Asian Pacific countries have gathered in japan to discuss security it is aimed at promoting Mutual Understanding in the region. On monday 15 officers took part in an Opening Ceremony at japans maritime Staff College in tokyo. They represent 15 countries, including japan, the u. S. , south korea, china, and australia. The director of the Colleges ResearchDepartment Says he hopes they can discuss each nations participants and a way to building a Regional Security framework. He also commented on chinas presence at the event. Translator chinas participation has great significance, considering the timing of the meeting. Relations have soured over a territorial dispute. China denies the clang. Experts with japans Nuclear Regulator have thrown another wrench into plans to put power plants back online. Officials have been looking at six complexes to see if theyre stable. They found the one near the village of higashidori may be sitting on active faults. We have the report. Reporter the regulators dug into the ground. They found volcanic ash. They concluded that something under foot was not stable. They say two faults could be active. The plants operators have a different view. They say cracks around the foot were caused by ground water. The experts say theres little evidence to support that view. Translator we dont have a thorough explanation from the utility. Well have to listen to what they have to say. Reporter the regulators say they may need to check the structure of the plant and they may ask managers to review measures to protect the plant against earthquakes. Those findings could keep the plant offline for some time to come. Operators say they will conduct another Additional Survey of their own. Translator we would like to confirm through our Geological Research that there is no active fault under the plant. Reporter experts say the plant on the sea of japan coast may also be sitting atop active faults and they are looking at four other nuclear facilities. 48 of japans 50 commercial reactors are still offline. The people who run the plants are working hard to prove they are safe but the latest findings suggest restarting some of them may prove to be more difficult than some thought. Nhk world, tokyo. The jury is still out whether faults pose a threat to the countrys only two operating reactors. Geologists are preparing to dig some more at the Nuclear Plant in central japan in the hope of finding more conclusive evidence. Experts from the Nuclear Regulation authority have twice since november examined trenches at the plant. They remain divided over whether fishers found at the site are acti iive faults or the results landslides. They asked the plants operator to dig a new trench. Engineers say they will inspect underground layers and report their findings by midjuly. The regulators say theyre ready to order a shutdown of the plant if the presence of an active fault is confirmed. Thousands of people waiting to go home. Tons of debris waiting for disposal. Vast tracts of land awaiting to be restored. Overcoming the challenges of japans 2011 disaster wont be easy, but stepbystep, people are moving forward. Find out how on the road ahead every wednesday at 1 00 p. M. Japan time right here on newsline. Pakistanis are calling on their government to put an end to sectarian violence in the country. We have the details. People in pakistan are speaking out against sectarian violence, following a bombing which killed 85 people. As antishiite violence surges, people are calling on government to take action. We have the report. Reporter thousands of people have staged protests in several cities in pakistan. They are demanding military action following the sectarian killings of shias. Our request is that we want the army the army should come here and target operations should be started. Reporter the weekend bombing killed 85 people and wounded around 170 others near a market in quetta. Home to many shias. A sunni militant group has claimed responsibility. They regard shiites as pagan. The same city was hit by another attack on january 10th which killed about 100 people. The same group claimed responsibility for this attack targeting shias. A local Human Rights Group says more than 400 people were killed in sunni terrorist attacks last year, the highest number of fatalities on record. Violence against shia muslims does not account for all of the recent acts of terrorism in pakistan. Terrorists attacks are also carried out by separatist groups and the pakistani taliban. The largest Extremist Group in the country. The pakistani estimate that 40,000 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in the country in the past decade alone. Pakistan is gearing up for the general elections scheduled to take place in may. There is strong opposition from the public who demand stronger measures against terrorism. Nhk world, islamabad. We have another story from pakistan. A deadly attack hit the city of peshawar in northwestern pakistan on monday. The target the office of the top political official for the khyber tribal area, a major sanctuary in the country for militants. Two explosions of gunfire were heard where tribal officials and members of Political Parties were gathered for talks. At least five People Killed and seven injured. Pakistani officials suspect that the attackers were Wearing Police uniforms at the time. There was no immediate claim of responsibility following the incident. The United States and six Asian Countries are participating in an annual joint defense exercise hosted by thailand. It is the largest such exercise in asia. As a multinational effort, its focus reflects current state of the world. We have the report on the implications. Reporter american and chinese officials have meetings over the joint drill. Other countries are also joining. A total of 13,000 troops are participating. This military exercise comes in the wake of the hostage crisis in algeria for the reason the participating countries are focusing on rescuing their citizens. Japanese selfdefense forces joined u. S. Forces to practice the emergency evacuation and transportation of japanese nationals. The algeria hostage crisis last month ended with ten japanese nationals dead. Japanese accounted for the largest number of foreign fatalities in the incident. In the drill, participants pretended japanese overseas Company Workers and their families were in immediate danger. About 100 people, played the part of evacuees. They were transported by u. S. Helicopters to a safe place. Translator i think the drill was very useful, because it was based on a likely situation. Many japanese nationals are living all around the world today, despite the unstable global situation. Reporter its now in its 32nd year. In this years installment, personnel from myanmar are participating as observers for the first time. During its formal military government, myanmar strengthened its ties with china. Myanmar joining a u. S. Led military operation is a sign of a new trend. Theyre one of many that come and observe and very, very important because were going to need participating nations throughout the region to be able to deal with the Different Levels of crises thats going to happen somewhere in the future. We welcome their observation. We welcome their participation. Its a step in the right direction. Reporter the United States hopes to keep china in check as it establishes Stronger Security ties with myanmar. Nhk world, thailand. And that wraps up our bulletin. Im Dhra Dhirakaosal in bangkok. Honda engineers have come up with a way to make vehicles lighter and more fuel efficient. Theyve melded the hardness of steel with the lightness of aluminum. Honda officials unveiled the sample made with the technology. They say one key is the way the two metals are folded. The technique also relies on special adhesives. The resulting plate is lighter than steel and cheaper than products made just with aluminum. Company representatives say the new method can be used on parts such as door panels and a cars trunk. That would shave around 20 kilograms off a vehicles weight. Honda plans to use the technology in a new model set to go on sale in the United States next month. Honda isnt the only carmaker thats trying to make lighter cars. Others both in japan and overseas are also pursuing the same goal. Last year, japans suzuki motor rolled out a mini car thats about 70 kilograms lighter than the previous model. Suzuki reduced the use of regular steel and instead employed high tensile Strength Steel for the body of the new model. Bmw plans to release an electric car and other models in japan next year. They use carbon fiber for much of their bodies. Carbon fiber is lighter than steel. Experts say the key to winning the race to produce lighter vehicles lies in their safety, competitive prices and better driving performance. The yens retreat has caught the attention of investors in many parts of the world. Some asian investors say the weak currency makes japanese real estate seem like a good buy. Nhk World Reports from singapore. Reporter as japanese yen becomes weaker, asian private investors are now paying attention into japanese properties. More than 100 investors attended the seminar here on japanese properties. They were invited by major japanese and u. S. Property firms. The presenters focused on two apartment buildings in central tokyo. Both are brand new. Some units cost more than 1 million. Some people in the audience decided to buy on the spot. One investor snapped up five apartments. A total of 65 units were for sale. At the end of the event organizers had deals for about 40 of them. We thought it was a good time to get into the japanese Real Estate Market since the yen is weakening quite a bit. Reporter investors like these say japans Real Estate Market is a relatively safe bet. They see little risk that properties will lose value. Thats because prices have been hovering at low levels for nearly 20 years. Southeast based asia investors, they tend to be more mid, longterm based investors, which do not look for quick gains. And i think there is a lot of hope and expectation that Japan Economy will finally start to improve. Reporter Property Company officials plan to hold more seminars. They hope to convince more asian investors to buy in japan. Potential buyers say one consideration is whether the yens weakness will continue. They are also watching for signs of pickup in the japanese economy. Nhk world, singapore. Australia is a nation of immigrants and active in helping refugees. The nation received more than 10,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance every year over the past decade. But the increasing financial burden push the its Prime Minister to review the generous policy. The move has met with criticism as well as support. Its likely to become a focal point in the upcoming september election to choose federal lawmakers. We have the story from sidney. Reporter this refugee from afghanistan, the 19yearold came to australia by boat in may of 2010 after the taliban killed his brother and sister. The four month journey took him through malaysia and indonesia. Then for final week he was packed on to a small vessel with 30 people. He lost 10 kilograms by he arrived at a remote australian island. He took the risk because he saw australia as his only chance for survival. He worked hard to graduate from high school. He hopes to go to university to study law. He wants to be able to help others. To him australia is a nation of hope for refugees. If i stay in afghanistan i could lose my life forever. Now i have the happiest time in my life, like i appreciate australia a lot. Reporter but theres a flip side to the countrys generous policy. Costs have risen sharply. More and horse people arrive hoping to be admitted as refugees. The cost to accommodate them in facilities has risen by nearly four times in the past three years. Australia is struggling with a chronic fiscal deficit. Cuts are being considered in education and welfare spending. The ballooning refugee related expenditures are increasingly unpopular. I think that were a country that should allow people to come in, but i think it should be controlled. I dont agree with the people that just buy their way in. Getting on boats and paying people 50,000 to do so. Reporter after a major shift in the handling of refugees like august the support for the Prime Minister has plummeted. Her government decided to fund the neighboring countries to build shelters for incoming boat people. Previously the refugees screening process was usually complete within a year. But under the new policy its open ended for people waiting outside the country. Some have given up and returned home. The administration has made a commercial to discourage potential refugees. You dont get an advantage because youve got on a boat. No advantage. Boat arrivals will not make it to australia. No advantage. Reporter the internet version of the ad has been posted in seven languages. But a new policy has started to draw criticism from the opposition. The liberals call it inhumane to put the displaced people in misery for an extended period of time. We want to be a country which shows compassion towards refugees. Reporter in contrast, some conservatives are calling for a harsher policy that would allow the deportation of boat people. Australia is reeling from the gap between the humanitarian aspects and the economic costs of protecting refugees. The wet and cold continues in tokyo. Rachael ferguson has the details. Hi there. Yes, there is cold air across much of eastern asia, japan included in that. Weve been seeing a bit of a drizzly day in tokyo and rain across much of the country. A little bit of snow up towards the north and also snow back in across the continent. Shanghai will be experiencing significant snow about 10 centimeters is possible and going to be that really heavy wet kind of snow. Further to the west it will be rain rather than snow. The precipitation will be going on for the better part of the work week. Temperatures falling here. Well take a look at those in a second. I want to point out this area of heavy rain moving across the philippines. This is a tropical depression. It is bringing significant rain, certainly enough to cause problems with flooding, landslides and mudslides will be high risk. Look at the temperatures then. 11 degrees in chongqing. Shanghai, 4 degrees here. Well see an improvement over the week. Should be back up to 10 degrees by the weekend. All right. On we go into the americas. Out west it is quiet. A lot going on in the east and over towards the plains as well. Theres a winter snowstorm. Now this one is moving towards the great lakes here. You can see about 25 sent meters, the heaviest of the snow will be in southern ontario. And then further along this cold front stretching down towards the gulf coast, this is going to be thunderstorms. There will be rain as well. The rain is not going to be so heavy. But it is falling already on saturated land. That means we could see flooding in lower lying areas, too. Ill give you a closer look at exactly whats going to be happening here across the midwest. We have this snow, heavy snow there indicated by the darker gray across much of ontario. Then Severe Weather stretching all the way down across from texas to alabama and up further towards illinois as well. So we got quite a lot to deal with here on your monday. In terms of your temperature, well, youll see a big drop here, more than 10 degrees across quite a wide area, particularly here across the upper midwest. Chicago, 8 degrees for you on monday. Falling to a high of only minus 6 on tuesday. Thats the forecast. All right. Were going to head into europe here and take a look at what is going on. As far as the winter has been so far, well this is pretty quiet, in fact. There is snow to be found here across the northern tier. Most of it is going to be fairly light. It will be persistent. Then look at this dry skies from the british aisles right into western russia. There are a couple systems here. This one bringing rain and thunderstorms across the balkans and italy as well. And then over in the southwest, there is going to be a little bit of a