Last debate. Barack obama and mitt romney are traveling through several states that could determine the election two weeks from now. Theyre both trying to do the same thing, win over undecided voters. President obama spoke to his supporters in florida, one of the key battleground states. He said romney had changed his stance on several issues monday during the debate on foreign policy. Obama reused the term he coined for flipflops, romnesia. There is no more serious issue in a president ial campaign than trust. The person who leads this country, youve got to have some confidence then he or she means what he or she says. Romney spoke at a rally in henderson, nevada. He said obama is resorting to attacks in the absence of new ideas of his own. Romney said he can stand criticisms for obama f two weeks. He says he cant stand four more years of the obama administration. Foreign ministers from japan and china have held talks to mend relations sha have become strained over the territorial dispute. Japanese government sources that i kawai and zhijun met in shanghai over the weekend. The sources say the two officials did not go into details. Diplomats are looking for a chance to improve their relations. Another meeting between senior officials took place in tokyo on october 11th. Japan and china is ready to look for a break through while studying the Economic Impact of the strained ties and public opinion. Japanese Disaster Management experts have shared lessons from last years earthquake and tsunami at a recent seminar in sri lanka. The event was held columbo. The government officials and Civil Engineers attended. The indian ocean tsunami in 2004 killed about 30,000 people in sri lanka. Tohoko University Professor advised they develop a system that quickly estimates the height of the tsunami and issues warnings to resident. You have the firsthand experience in the tsunami and the earthquake, so the first knowledge is pretty much for the future disaster work. The professor stressed the importance of gathering information about past tsunamis from ancient documts a geological evidence and said this would prepare them for a massive tsunami that may come once in a few hundred years. Two osprey transport aircraft deployed to okinawa on october 1st carried out the first nighttime training exercises. One took off at the u. S. Marine corps air station in okinawa at about 7 p. M. Local time on tuesday. The other ascended about 20 minutes later. The first one rose vertically like a helicopter, tilted the propellers forward and flew off to the north. The second one took off after running along the runway with the propellers tilted. It appears the infrared devices are being checked for nighttime flights. People in okinawa against the deployment have been repeatedly staging protests. They see the safety of the aircraft as not being fully established. U. S. Forces are expected to soon begin full operation of the tiltrotor aircraft. A former japanese abjecty has rejected arguments the country has nothing to do with the dispearance of her mother. She spoke at a rally in tokyo on tuesday and described out north korean agents abducted her and can her mother in 1978 in the sea of japan. She said three men assaulted her and her mother on their way home and rejected north krooes explanation and said the attackers were not japanese. The nation insists that her mother never entered the country. Ranslator y mother is now over 80 years old. A peel for your support to help bring her back to her home as soon as possible. So the return to japan ten years ago with four other abducties, but her mothers fate is unknown. They say north korean officials warned her she should keep her mouth shut when she returned to japan. Tech fans will tooning joining or rejoining long lines in front of apple stores. Now the latest business news. What are they waiting for now . Katherine, apple fans have another reason to be excited about because theyre going to be standing in line for a gadget this time a little smaller. Apple has invented the smaller tablet to fend off growing competition in a market they created. The move will tighten the race with the electronics makers. This is ipad mini. [ applause ] media from across the globe are converging on the california news conference. The ipad mini has a 7. 9inch screen measuring about 20 smaller than the full size tablet. It weighs about half as much. The least expensive model is selling at a price point 329 lower than previous versions. Apple plans to release the new device in the u. S. , europe, and japan on friday next week. We told you earlier this year that you would see some incredible innovation. Apple now enjoys a nearly 70 share in a Global Market it created with introduction of the ipad two years ago. The firms latest cofounder, steve jobs, had expressed reservation about developing a smaller ipad. He was concerned demand would be low. Apple executives went ahead with the smaller device citing stiff competition from its rivals. Google and a. M. Zob started with smaller tablets less than the full size ipad and those sales are trending upward. Microsoft is set to enter the tablet market with its own model this friday. The product comes with a cover that doubles as a keyboard. Industry watchers say apple executives are feeling the heat as competitors introduced unique tablets with features the ipad was lacking. I mean, it will certainly expand apples market, but i think the smaller form factor, if it is a cheaper price, that will get a lot of people who had not purchased a tablet before and were maybe thinking of one but didnt want to spend the 500 it costs to get an ipad. The technology rivals are now vying toet their pductame on Holiday Shopping lists around the world. Lets check on the markets for this wednesday morning. Despite apples announcement of its new ipad mini, its shares fell. U. S. Stock prices overall tumbled following a batch of disappointing Earnings Results with renewed concerns about the debt situation in europe. The Dow Jones Industrial average was down 1. 8 to close at 13,102. To see how stocks near japan are opening, we crsover to ramin at the tokyo stock exchange. Ramin, earnings season is taking a center stage. We also saw the euro weaken on concerns about spain. Yes, indeed. Earnings in the u. S. Certainly came into play beating down overall sentiment, and also we did see the euro coming into play as well. It weakened against the yen as well as the dollar, and i followed down grade of five of spains economic regions by u. S. Rating agency moodys and that also caused a bf a jump in spains Government Bond yields, so that was a major effect there. Lets have a look at the opening levels for this wednesday, october 24th. The nikkei and the topix trading down, the nikkei down by 1 , 8925, and topix at 743. The nikkei did end yesterday slightly higher, extended gains to seven days, doesnt look like it will do that today. I must add yesterday the last couple of days has been on lower than average volume. Well see how it plays out today. Basically what are investors waiting for . The answer may very welcome from the bankf japaneeti due out next week due to convene next week and investors seem to be expecting japans central bank to get ready to take extra measures to boost growth and perhaps increase its asset buying program which includes such things as real estate funds, Exchange Trade funds as well as corporate bonds. So a lot of focus there on what the bank of japan may do next week. Well have to see. That does seem to explain a little bit of hesitancy that were seeing in the markets today. Definitely today the follow through were seeing from the u. S. Markets. Speaking of the yen, we have seen it gain against the euro. Tell us more about that. A look at the currency levels, of course, we have seen some shifts there, specifically with the euro and just having a look at some of the charts now, the euro is retreated to the 103 levels after trading in the 104 yen levels most of yesterday. You can see the 103. 62 to 67 and in other words the euro is buying fewer yen today than it did on tuesday because of spains bond yields spiking higher after moodys moved. The dollar remains at the upper 79 yen levels having touched 80 at one stage yesterday and may stale in a bit of a range ahead of the twoday fed meeting that wraps up on wednesday. I mentioned earnings in japan. Well get results later today. They include yahoo nintendo, and kddi, the second biggest mobile phone operator and along with softbank it carries apples iphone. A lot of focus there. Well see how earnings both in the u. S. And japan play out for stocks. Yuko, back to you. Thanks always, ramin, at the tokyo stock exchange. He chine economy has been losing steam. The pace of growth slowed down to 7. 4 between july and september from a year earlier. Was that the seventh straight quarter of slower growth. Whats happening to the chinese economy . Reporter the shopping district is located in the heart of beijing. People hearsay they used to hear from them. Translator they say consumption is expanding, but i dont think the overall economy is that good. Translator our company made a lot of money last year, but not this year. Our managers are telling us to cut the costs down. Reporter the city of dongguan in the Coastal Region is home to factories making clothes for overseas markets. Surprisingly, a business is booming in this town. Rows and rows of sewing machines are on sale at this Machinery Store and came from nearby clothing factories. Clothes makers are going bankrupt in increasing numbers amid struggling exports stemming from europes debt crisis. Translator so many firms are going under. Thats why were getting so many of these secondhand sewing machines. Reporter at this trade fair some 25,000 companies are trying to promote exports. The European Crisis is casting a dark shadow. This Company Makes slides for large fourwheel drive vehicles. Exports accounted for 95 of the products it mfrds, but they have been showing a significant decline. Translator we are seeing a particularly sharp drop in east europe from the way orders are falling, our exports in the future are going to show a precipitous decline. Reporter now there is another reason for worry. Since last month the relations between japan and china have been worsening because of the dispute over a group of small islands in the east china sea. The dispute could affect some 20,000 Japanese Companies in china. It also warn that is both countries will face a heavy price to pay as a result of the dispute. They are spreading a campaign to boycott japanese products. Toyota motors said it is down 50 from a year earlier. This plant in tianjin is halting most of the production line this is week. Workers are becoming increasingly concerned about their livelihoods. Translator i cant make ends meet if they cut the working hours. I need to look for another job. Reporter auto makers have been unable to make up for the slowdown in japanese car sales. This situation could hurt some contractors like all parts makers and also consumer spending. Many inside and outsidehina e wondering how china can stimulate its economy in the midst of domestic and external troubles. Nhk world, beijing. And thats it for me for now. I will hand it back to you, katherine. Thanks very much, yuko. Japans dispute with dhien aover the Senkaku Islands is straining 40 years of ties. The ripples have spread to a city home to one of japans oldest china towns. A chinese resident is trying to stop the dispute from driving a wedge between neighbors. Reporter a Photo Exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between japan and china. The display opened earlier this month in kobe next to osaka. His grandfather moved the family to japan. He was born in kobe and has lived here all his life. He belongs to a Community Group of overseas chinese. Through these photos he wants to revisit past friendship building events organized by local chinese like him. Translator i want everyone to know the history of the chinese living here, developing close relations with the japanese. Reporter he has always been part of the local community making lots of japanese friends. After a massive earthquake hit kobe in 1995, cai sprang into action. He rounded up supplies for evacuees sheltering in a school for chinese. Translator i did it as an individual. It was all about personal ties, whether you were japanese or chinese, it was irrelevant. We are and will be part of the local community. Thats why i value my friendship with my japanese neighbors. Reporter last month the dispute sent antijapanese demonstrators into the streets scho for chinese nationals wasa torched. Playing havoc with the friendship event cai was organizing. Translator it was cancelled, just so you know, it is just too bad. Thats the way it is. Reporter the event was to have marked the anniversary of normal ties between japan and china. A chinese from the mainland was to have given a speech but the office cancelled it. Translator i donthink we can hold the event, at least not this year. There is nothing we can do about it. It is just too bad. Reporter september 29th, the same day the normalization went into effect 40 years ago cai held a gathering, the annual viewing of the men at a chinese temple. 200 people packed the room. Both chinese and japanese attended. Cai felt it was high time to strengthen local ties. It was just like it used to be in happier times. Translator china and japan have political differences, but here we can shut them out. I am glad to be here sharing a meal with the chinese. Translator during 40 years of normal ties things sometimes got out of hand like now. Both peoples need to meet the challenge by reaching out on a personal basis. Reporter cai hopes differences beeen the two governments will not interfere with the relationship between kobes chinese and japanese residents. When afghans break bread, almost all of them break the national bread. They have to depend on imported grain to make it. Now Japanese Researchers have stepped in to help afghans get back to their roots. For generations him and his ancestors have farmed wheat in northern afghanistan. To escape the war, he and his family fled to pakistan. They came home nine years ago and returned to growing wheat. Translator when the karzai government took over i heard there would be International Aid for agriculture, so i was really excited. Reporter it was harder than he expected. Translator these seeds come from america. They grow well with lots of water but we dont have much water. The plants are weak. Reporter afghanistan gets little rain and most of the fields have no irrigation. Seeds produced only 20 of the crop he was counting on. He has seven children. Despite his wheat farming heritage, he is considering a switch to opium poppies. They can grow in extremely dry climates and fetch a high price. Then a welcome offer came from a Japanese Research er. Translator what we have here is a collection of againgenetic resources of wheat gathered in afghanistan in 1955. Reporter almost 60 years ago a Japanese Research group studying the origin of wheat traveled to afghanistan. They took back around 500 samples. He is reading a Research Project that kept the string of wheat alive all of these years. He wondered if the preserved grain would sprout in its native soil. He reached out through an aid group to plant the seeds in afghanistan. Translator the nation has lost everything due to war and civil war. I was wondering what i could do i figuredur reseah cod be a little bit of a help. Reporter last november ban came up with the Afghan Government officials to soe the first seeds. Eight months later the wheat had flourished. Apart from some mild discoloration, almost all the plants were healthy. We are grateful. We have afghanistan wheat again. Reporter professor ban plans to begin cross breeding the wheat next year. He wants to create a strain that is more immune to disease and gives bigger ears in dry climates. Translator our goal is for the people of afghanistan to grow wheat in their own fields and to harvest it and feed their people. Reporter he says this is only his first step. His ambition is for afghan wheat to spread once more across its home country. It is time to check weather conditions around the world. People in southern areas of the philippines are dealing with Stormy Weather. Thats right, kathleen. The Tropical Storm formed just off the east coast now producing Stormy Weather across the southern half of the philippines. Now it is a Tropical Storm packing sustained winds of 65 Kilometers Per Hour wit gusts of 90 Kilometers Per Hour and looks like it will make landfall within the next several hours and then cross the country towards the northwest and out to sea by friday morning and as it moves over the warm water, it could intensify even more and then may make a second line sunday morning local time. Rain intensifying as the system approaches. We anticipate more than 150 millimeters to fall for a wide area for the next 72 hours or so with locally 200 millimeters or more, so that could certainly enough to cause a flooding as well as landslide. Stormy conditions also battered much of japan yesterday and things have changed. We experiencing sunny skies across much of the nation but the exception is going to be the northwestern side of the country, light showers and snow showers will continue for the next several hours. Out towards the west a belt of High Pressure is blanketing the Korean Peninsula and much of china and snow showers is intensifying a little bit across temperaturesre quite warming up, 10 degrees, about two Degrees Higher than average and meanwhile moderating into typical levels and 18 degrees should be warming up to 21 on friday. Tokyo is 4 degrees cooler than yesterday with 21 degrees expected today. All right. Heading into the americas, were seeing another tropical activity over the central caribbean sea. T