On his hand after wiping his face. Russia announced it carried out another strike using a base in iran. In some parts of aleppo, more than 2 million residenents are stranded without food or drinking water. The u. N. Has asked both sides to accept a a ceasefire so that emergency supplies can be delivered to civilians. Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson told media on thursday that moscow will back the u. N. Proposal observing a a 48hour weekly ceasefire in the city from next week. The president of turkey is blaming a series of deadly bombings on kurdish militants and a movement from a cleric. The blast killed a total of 12 people. On thursday a car loaded with explosives blew up outside the police. At least 200 people were injured. A roadside bomb went off the same day in the province of bitlis. Six people were killed including soldiers. Another bombing near a Police Station left three people dead and more than 70 wounded on wednesday. Turkish president erdogan said the attacks were the works of the pkk. He added that the network headed by Fethullah Gulen also played a role. But he has not elaborated on why he thinks the movement was involved. Ankara insists the failed coup. It has detained thousands of people. Chinas premier has met with myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi in beijing. She is myanmars state counselor and foreign minister. Chinas state run Central Television and other media are reporting that li praised suu kyi for choosing china. Since myanmarss new government took office in march. The media said li also expressed praise for suiting its situatioion. Hopes to promote ties between it and asean. The reports also say the two sides agree to Work Together to find a breakthrough for a chinaled project to construct a large dam in myanmar. The myanmar government suspended work in 2011 citing opposition from local people and other reasons. Many people in myanmar remain wary of china due to its close relationship with the former military government. A russian cabinet minister says president Vladimir Putin and shinzo abe will hold a summit meeting on september 2nd. Minister for the development of the Russian Far East spoke to reporters on thursday. Abe is scheduled to attend the Economic Forum early next month. The event is aimed at encouraging Asian Pacific countries to invest in russia. Officials from japan and russia have been planning the summit on the sidelines of the forum. During a meeting with abe in may, putin said the economy is his most important concern. Japan has proposed an eightpoint cooperation plan to boost the russian economy. Chinas earfforts to cut oi production is struggling. Achieved less than half the annual targets in the first seven months of this year. The government has set reduction goals of 45 million tons of steel and 250 million tons for coal this year. Officials have achieved 47 of that in steel. And 38 for coal by july. The government wants to cut overproduction to boost the economy. An official of the National Development and Reform Commission insisted the targege will be achieveved. He said some regions were making slow progress and the commission will step up supervision. Checking the markets. A jump in oil prices. Ramin mellegard has more from the tokyo stock exchange. A recovery in the price of Key Crude Oil benchmarks helped gains for this friday, august 19th. The nikkei closing at 16,545 up 0. 36 . And the broader topix up 0. 38 . Crude futures jumped overnight and thats following news that Petroleum Producing Countries may start taux on a freeze in output levels so oil and Energy Shares led the pack. We did follow inpex and japex rose on the day. Also japanese trading houses did well. They rely on energy and commodity profits. Mitsubishi corporation and mitsui also up. Honda, mazda, and toyota are higher. Despite fridays gains, however, the nikkei does end the week in the negative. Im Ramin Mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. And moving on to other markets in the asia pacific region. In china the shanghai composite inched up to end three days of losses for the week. Rose on hopes for stimulus measures by the government. Hong kongs hang seng index retreated from the ninemonth high. Ended in the positive but casino operators were down. Seouls kospi finished almost flat and the benchmark in sydney were up 0. 3 . Rose on higher commodity prices. Swedish based auto firm volvo hass agreed to work with uber t develop a selfdriving car. The companies will invest 300 million to jointly develop the Autonomous Vehicle based on volvo models. Theyll also cooperate to develop highly accurate three dimensional maps and sensors to detect objects on busy streets. Executives at volvo want the alliance to create selfdriving technology as soon as possible. Uber hopes to introduce Ride Sharing Services featuring the cars with sophisticated safety features. The two are among several Auto Companies teaming up to develop the technology. Ford has invested in ventures to put driverless vehicles on the roads in five years. General motors is working with an uber rival. A leading japanese paper maker is preparing to build a new factory and start producing as next generation that is extremely thin, light, and strong. The material is called cellulose nanofiber. To change wood, rice straw, and other plants into the material. A s single cellulose nanofiberr leless thann a h human hair. Researcherers are considering t use of the new material in a wide range of fields. From autoparts to nursing Care Products to food. Officials at nippon papaper say they will its scheduled to be completed by september next year and roll out about 30 tons of the material annually for the food and cosmetics industries. Amid continuing uncertainty over the global economy, many people feel anxious about the future. Thats encouraged a new kind of investor to look to the Property Market in search of greater financial security. We report on the potential rewards and the risks. Reporter a seminar for firsttime property investors. Theyre learning how to make a profit by renting out an apartment. Translator the key to investing in apartments is to avoid vacancies. Reporter more japanese people are Company Workers in their 30s and 40s. Theyre uncertain about the economy and worried about their future. By renting apartments, they hope to secure a new channel of income. Hopefully one thats stable and longterm. Translator i want to have another source of income in addition to my current job. Translator the Pension System might not work by the time we reach the age to receive it. So i think i need to be better prepared. Translator Property Investment used to be thought of as a matter for only a limited group of people. But now it is becoming more common for ordininary people to invest. Reporter another factor sent people to property is low Interest Rates caused by monetary easing. Mizuguci started investing in real estate this year. Hes already bought one rental apartment. Today an agent is showing him another candidate. Mizuguchi says his motive is simple. Financial security for his family. Very low Interest Rates means he gets almost no return from a bank deposit. On the other hand, its never been easier to take out a property loan. A 21 square meter apartment on the outskirts of tokyo sellsls r aroundnd 250,000. Translator r Interest Rates are very low at the moment, i think its a chance to borrow money and do investment. Reporter the Real Estate Agent has put together a revenue forecast for mizuguchi. The average Interest Rate is 1. 65 . Thanks to the low rate, his Monthly Payment is 100 less than it would have been years ago. Translator its easier to take out loans from Financial Institutions these days. People earning around 40,000 a year now have a shot. Reporter of course, there are risks. The big one for rental properties is a vacant apartment. Renter income cant be guaranteed. And market analyst ishizawa says investors need to prepare for hard times. Translator investors should keep extra cash in case something happens. Most investors limit the amount of money they borrow, but some rely 100 on a loan for funding. Reporter more young people want to become landlords. Thats generating competition in the market and making it more important than ever for investors to be educated and aware of the risks. Keiko tomura, nhk world, tokyo. Japanese cuisine is starting to catch on in the middle east. There aree over 600 japanese restaurants in the region. Twice as many as a decade ago. Providing opportunities for rice farmers in fukushima who were hit hard by the 2011 disaster. Hideki nakayama reports. Reporter this highend supermarket launched a new brand of japanese rice. This premium variety is grown in fukushima prefecture. Its prized for its firm texture which makes it perfect for sushi. Customers say they are worried about radiation from the Nuclear Disaster in fukushima. This is the first rice from the region to pass inspections and go on sale in the middle east. The only concern i have is because of the origin of the place. We trust the system very well. Hence well trust your certification. Reporter hes spearheading the promotion drive for the rice. Translator there are a a l e number of japanese restaurants in the middle east. I think i its a market with strong potential for us. Reporter so im here in a warehouse of japanese food importer. The rice they are selling is mostly made in california thoefz united states. Rice from california looks similar to japananese rice, bu its cheaeaper. So it t has domiminated ththe m until now. But as prices rise, japanese rice no longer looks at such a disadvantage. Translalator its not just e california rice. Overall rice prices are going up. Anand that closes the conspicuo price difference. I think this is an opportunity for japanese rice. Reporter he and his team came up with a way for customers to choose japanese rice for its quality. Uses california rice for its sushi and in other dishes here. But the chef says hed prefer a Higher Quality product. I want people to understand what the japanese really eat. Not just photocopy the dish and make something out of it. Authentic what they eat. Translator in the middle east people have a strong desire for authentic cuisine. Im hoping we can expand our sales and our brand of rice becomes better known here. Reporter rice is one of fukushimas most highly valued products. He wants to ship his hometown quality to the world. Hideki nakayama, nhk world, dubai. On the 14th day of the rio olympic games, japanese around the world had many reasons to rejoice including snatching its firstever gold medal in badminton. Japan Ayaka Takahashi and missssaki matsuitomo won. They lost the first game to the danes but wowon the second with teamwork. In the third they led 1916 but the japanese took five consecutive points to turn things around. Back home family and friends cheered their champions. Translator i was so nervous the whole time. All i can say is that im so happy for them. Translator i want to give her a big hug, but i think my daughter would be too embarrassed. The gold means new heights for japanese badminton. The danes took silver and Great Britain settled for bronze. And in womens badminton singles, okuhara was to play on friday but will win by default. Chinas player has dropped out from a leg injury. In other competitions, kawai faced belarus in the 63 kilogram final. Kawai won 60. Its the fourth consecutive gold medal in this category for japan. It was toughgher for the team captain in the 53 kilogram final. Her goal was to win a fourth consecutive gold medal. She faced the u. S. Yoshida was leading by one point but it turned around in the second period. She lost two more points in the last minute and was beaten for the first time in the olympics. In the mens 200meter dash, usain bolt led the race throughout in his last olympic games. He is the first ever to win gold in both 100meter and 200meter dashes in three consecutive games. And heres the medal count at the end of day 14. The u. S. Is way out there with 35 golds. Britain has 22. And china 20. Japan is in sixth place with 12 golds. People in Rio De Janeiro are getting a glimpse of japanese culture. Tokyo as the next host of the summer olympics has organized events for people attending the current rio games. Japanese play wright noda help ed do workshops aimed at transcending borders, languages, and cultures. Visitors were allowed to watch rehearsal for a performance. Traranslator i loved it. The mix of asian and brazilian culture was excellent. People had a chance to try their hand at the japanese craft of origami. They could also learn how to make ornamental flowers from japanese cloth. Translator we called the project caravan because we hope to travel through brazil and then return to japan with new experiences. Noda says dance and music are well loved in brazil so he thinks people will embrace the event. The u. S. Olympic committee has apologized for four american swimmers who were found to have lied about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio De Janeiro. The committee called their behavior unacceptable. The four included ryan lochte, the winner of the mens 4 x 200meter relay. Translator we found no proof to back up their claims. They were not victims in this case. The police say their investigation has revealed a s discrepancy in the stories. While the men w were returning the athlete village from a party, their taxi stopped at a gagas station where t t resestr was vandalized. An argument t then broke o out bebetween the athletes and two security staff. One of the security guards drew a gun. They say the four americans were allowed to leave a after they handed over about 50 to pay for the damage to the gas station. The u. S. Olympic committee has called the athletes behavior unacceptable in a statement. It apologized to the people of brazil. Police removed two of the swimmers from their plane for questioning as they were preparing to leave on wednesday. They were later allowed to leave for home. Ryan lochte left brazil earlier in the week while the fourth swimmer is still in the country. The weekend is approaching, but it may not be that sunny for those of us living here in tokyo. Jonathan oh joins us with the details. Jonathan, i know you love to sunbathe, but perhaps not this weekend . Well, yeah. Were looking at some more cloud cover as we go throughout the weekend. So yeah its going to have to wait until a little bit later. But we are tracking a couple of storms that may be keeping things even cloudi ieier as we through the weekend. Does that mean more typhoons . Well, i think we are looking at the possibility of seeing some of these turning into something much stronger. In fact, heres a look at the perspective for east asia. We have two tropical depressions. One right down by japan. Another toward the east. Bubut then way to t the south w have a new Tropical Storm. That will make it the ninth one in the western pacific for this season. Weve been dealing with a bit of a mix of different factors. First we had a trough moving into the area. We had a tropical system move through earlier this week. Now the trough has passed further toward the east. But a tropical depression is bringing in more clouds and potentially more rain forward in time. So we are seeing the possibility of some wet weather especially as we go through saturday and sunday. It looks like were going to see those clouds hang around even into the first part of next week. Ththe reon w whys this system t thsouth. Th tropil storm is expected to moveowoward the north as we go through the weekend. Weo into mony and it looks liketts setting its sights once again for the central portioofof japan. We will kp a close eye on this as we go into next week. It may b be a very wet start to the work week next week. Meanwhile we go over toward the west and we have another Tropical Storm thats causing the problem over into hainan. This is monday. More than 1. 2 meters of rain has fallen in this area. I mean, that is not a good amount. Thats way too much for those who are living in the region. For those in the northern portions of vietnam, youre really getting slammed right now with this Tropical Storm moving to the west northwest at 15 kilometers per hour. Now, we are expecting the system to lose i its tropipical characteristics into saturdrday. But the rainin thats associaia wi it, thats not going to end that quickly. Some areas could see potentially up to 150 millimeters of rainfall in is short period of time. Flooding is still a concern for these areas as we go throughout the weekend into the first part of next week. Be prepared for that. Rain from taipei to hong kong, bangkok looking at thunderstorms as well. Chongqing and shanghai, youre looking at hot conditions. Highs in the upper 30s coming up on friday. Rain for tokyo as we see the moisture moving into the area. As the look at north america, theres a lot going on here. Were still seeing instability in areas we do not need more rainfall, texas, louisiana, arkansas. Looking at the possibility of more rainfall forward in time. Then another low crossing over the midwest. And thats packing quite a bit of cold air higher up in the atmosphere. High pressure also forcing its way down. So we haveve cooler temperature into the rocky mountains. Then we have floododing potenti into the mimidwest. Yes, bauause of t the collision between the cold airir from the north and very warm a air from e south. So look out for the possibility of maybe dealiling with flash flooding from titime to o time. Some strong thunderstorms may also be part of the equation he