i'm rico hizon in singapore, the headlines: japan's nikkei sinks more than a% in early trading — its lowest level si nce the end of october. it's after falls on wall street overnight. the dow jones dropped by almost 1200 points — the biggest one—day fall since the 2008 financial crisis. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. also in the programme: us vice president mike pence begins his journey to the winter olympics in south korea — as he seeks to counter warming ties with north korea. in 1987 she blew up a south korean plane — the bbc speaks to a former north korean spy about the country she was once prepared to kill for live from our studios in singapore

and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london and 9am in tokyo, where japan's nikkei index has sunk more than 4% in early trading. the malaise has spread to asian markets after share prices plummeted in the united states: the dowjones index finished nearly 5% down, dropping by more than 1100 points. it's the biggest one—day fall since the financial crisis a decade ago. you can see the asian markets here. the hang seng will start trading in about 30 minutes time. this fall in

the asian stock market is the steepest in over one year due to fears of a surging us economy leading to sharp interest rate hikes by the federal reserve sparking speculation that banks may be forced to tighten policy aggressively. shifting our attention now to the dowjones industrial average, shifting our attention now to the dow jones industrial average, that finished nearly 5% down, dropping by over 1100 points. the nasdaq also down by 3.9% overnight. let's speak to the bbc‘s rupert wingfield—hayes — who joins us live from tokyo. if we have a look at the market in japan, rupert, there is a lot of volatility. when it opened it was

down by 4%. we trimmed some of those losses and it was down by 1.8% now, back to 4% down. this market is volatile and coming off 26 year high as. yes, it is. i must say that despite this... people are relatively calm here about what is going on. there is a feeling that this is, that the japanese market is following what is happening in the united states. it is a herd mentality in stock markets around the world. when the us stock market falls everybody else joins in. everyone expects large falls again this morning on the nikkei and that is what we have seen. the underlying feeling, the sentiment about the japanese economy and the us economy is that the fundamentals of these economies are good and in fact the large falls we have seen in america on friday and again on monday are on the back of our truly good economic

data. based on the fact thatjobs are growing more than expected, wages are rising faster than expected and that is leading to an anticipation that the federal reserve will need to brave interest rates. fundamentally, the us economy is growing fast and jobs are growing fast and on the whole this is good news. the panic selling in the us market, investors usually shift their funds to a safe havenjapanese yen during times of uncertainty at. and when the japanese market is strong that also hurts corporate profits, especially those of exporters. i guess that is the one concern forjapan in all of this as we have begun to see already. whenever anybody gets nervous, whenever the world's stock market look, as they are today, volatile, people tend to move money into the yen and the yen has started to strengthen. was 110 on friday it is

110w strengthen. was 110 on friday it is now at 109 to the dollar. that is if it continues over a long period of time. you will have an impact on japanese exports and on repatriated profits from japanese companies overseas we re profits from japanese companies overseas were a lot of japanese companies own most of their money in the us, china and elsewhere. that is where they manufacture and they repatriate their profits in dollars, converting it to yen means they have less money. that is a long—term concern. we have to remember that the dowjones in the us has been on a very, very long unbroken bull run. in 2017 the dow did not fall more than 2% in any single day. it is at record highs and it is now... it is 110w record highs and it is now... it is now going through a correction and there is no need for anybody to panic about this. and the nikkei is also correcting from 26 year high as. has the government said anything about these current falls and the state of the japanese economy? we

saw the central bank, the japanese central bank come out yesterday after the initial fours to state that its belief is that the japanese fundamentals of the japanese economy are strong and that japanese corporate profit is high. also, it is easy money policy, that of quantitative easing, will continue. japan does not face the same sort of u pwa rd japan does not face the same sort of upward pressures on prices that the us economy is facing. inflation is quite low here. wages are not rising. in fact, the japanese government wants both wages and inflation to rise, they want a bit of what the us is getting at the moment. thank you very much for that update. we will have our asia business correspondent in about ten minutes time to tell us the overall impact of this fall in us stocks on

asian equities. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. the south korean president, moonjae—in, says he hopes north korea's participation in the winter olympics will lead to broader peace in the region. the north's decision to send a senior leader to the olympics has prompted speculation of possible talks on non—sporting issues at the games, which begin in pyeongchang on friday. that's where my colleague stephen mcdonnell is, and told us about the excitement building ahead of the games. we are waiting to host the winter olympics in the coming days in these mountains and already international political events are overshadowing the sport. there are three main players, you have north korea, south korea, and the us administration. moon jae—in‘s administration, they will be hoping there will be talk surrounding the games and you have the us vice president with his group of north korean defectors trying to pooh—pooh the whole thing. the north koreans, they would be trying to talk freely, the north korean team is trying to do everything to keep its team away from the general community. the joint women's hockey team,

the north korean players stay in a different place. there is a team of north korean performers who are coming, they arrive on a ferry, they will get off the ferry, go to the performance space, go onto the ferry and stay there and eat there. they will not be with the rest of the people. what the whole 0lympic myth is built around, they are built around these type of things. people really hope that for at least two weeks we can stop fighting

with one another and that former enemies can become friends tee 545 5:33:15 2525151 gone on trial in belgium in a separate case linked to his arrest in brussels. 29—year—old salah abdeslam is accused of attempting to murder police officers during a gun battle, four months after the paris attacks. the former president of the maldives, maumoon abdul gayoom, has been arrested, shortly after a fifteen—day state of emergency was declared. this video was posted on social media shortly before his arrest. the political crisis was triggered when president abdulla yameen refused to comply with a supreme court order. the former us gymnastics doctor,

larry nassar, has been sentenced to an additional a0 years to bring his total prison term to 125 years. the sentence relates to the sexual abuse of young female athletes. nassar carried out the abuse over two decades under the guise of medical treatment. a greedy dog's efforts to steal some leftover pancakes at a home in the us state of massachusetts almost went horribly wrong after it accidentally ignited the stove, causing something on top of it to catch fire. luckily, the alarm system alerted first responders, before any serious damage was done. a lucky escape. more now on the impact of the latest us stock market fall here in asia. with me is karishma wasvani, our business correspondent. we spoke an hour ago and the losses

we re we spoke an hour ago and the losses were not as deep as it is right now. the nikkei is now down by 5%. and you see a similar reaction in korea as well. i expect across the trading day here in asia you will see similar falls. day here in asia you will see similarfalls. everytime we have day here in asia you will see similar falls. everytime we have a big story like this from the united states, where the market falls they are, not to underplay the significance of this, you do see a corresponding fall here in asia. that is explained by the fact that what happens in the us economy and the us stock market is the key indicator for a lot of asian investors as well. don't forget that over the last ten years, during the era of cheap money when the us interest rates were at record lows backin interest rates were at record lows back in the us, many of those foreign funds came into foreign —— asian markets and bought emergent market stocks which help this evaluation he'd grow. there is a lot

of nervousness around that but it must be said that we have not seen strong economic fundamentals like this in the us and in asia for the better pa rt this in the us and in asia for the better part of the last ten years. we have wages rising marginally in the us. injapan as well, a country that for the longest time was stuck ina spiral of that for the longest time was stuck in a spiral of low or no growth and no wage growth and now it is seeing better economic fundamentals. a lot of economists are telling me hold on, takea of economists are telling me hold on, take a moment to come take a deep breath and have a look at the economic fundamentals in both economies, in the us and asia, things are better than expected. do not get too anxious just yet. and the markets can notjust goes straight up. some traders are even saying this is a healthy correction because since donald trump took off as the dowjones industrial average has been up more than 30% and the s&p 500 has been up as well. we have

heard about healthy correction a lot recently. it is the positive economic news that has caused this market correction. many traders are looking at the us central banker, whose job it is to tweak interest rates to ensure that the economy is not growing too fast or too slowly. it looks for a goldilocks scenario. they say ok, jobs growth is doing better, as his wage growth. we expect the us central bank to raise interest rates faster than we thought they might earlier in the year. in preparation for that, that is where you see a little of this market sell—off and a healthy correction, as you put it. that is what we will see in the few days ahead in this trading week but fundamentally, economic growth in both the asia and the united states is still strong. and, briefly, will be fundamentals mean higher interest rates for asia? you have the likes of australia having a marked and monetary policy meeting today. the

philippines and india later this week. and, of course, korea has raised interest rates late last year. could this be the start of more interest rate hikes because we are more fundamentally sound? do the difficult balance that asian central banks need to basically create in order to keep in step with the us economy. they need to make sure that there are economies are not growing too slowly. in order to do that they need to sometimes cut interest rates. at the same time, if you see the central bank in the us raising rates they will be in a difficult position to decide how their economic fundamentals remain strong. that is an area where we will be watching in the months ahead. thank you so much for your insides. 0ur very own asia business correspondent there. this is newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: a rare insight into the cult of the kim dynasty from the north korean agent who blew up a korean airlines plane in 1987.

this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. the ban on the african national congress is lifted immediately, and the anc leader, nelson mandela, after 27 years injail, is to be set free unconditionally. the aircraft was returning from belgrade, where manchester united had entered the semi—final of the european cup. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it "a piece of cake". thousands of people have given

the yachstwoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. our top stories. japan's nikkei index sinks more than 4% in early trading. it's lowest level since the end of october. there have been further sharp falls in share prices in the united states, with the dowjones down by nearly 5%. and this was the most watched on bbc.com. an investigation has revealed thousands of british people sold timeshares in the 1980s are now trapped in the arrangement and it's costing them hundreds of pounds in fees each year.

timeshares are a holiday property investment that was popular at the time. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the financial times reports on turmoil in global markets — with this photo showing the main indexes all in the red. it gives more information on why there's been such a decline, saying investors are worried the global recovery is reviving long—dormant inflationary pressures on wages and prices. the philippine inquirer leads with a warning from a supreme court official that appeasing china over disputed islands in the south china sea won't work. it says it will only embolden beijing further.

china has angered regional rivals by building a military bases on islands. and the china daily has the story of an 81—year—old who has finally completed her bachelor's degree. you can see a photo of xue minxiu — who started her degree in 1957 — but she was also working as a nurse so she had to put it on hold — until now. in trending, trump and the uk healthcare system is sparking discussions online? yes, let's looks at what is trending right now. donald trump has sparked a backlash after tweeting that the uk's healthcare system is "going broke and not working". his comments are thought to be in response to a protest in london over the weekend demanding more nhs funding. among those who retaliated to mr trump's comments was the british health secretary, who tweeted that he's proud of the system.

the us vice president mike pence is starting a trip to asia aimed at showing solidarity with regional allies and also helping south korea celebrate the launch of its olympic games. but he actually has a much tougher task — mending a potential breach with the south korean government over how to deal with the north korean regime of kim jong—un. before he visits south korea he's stopping off japan. earlier i spoke to hiro katsumata from tohoku university — i asked him how significant this stop—off was. let me point out that the us—japan alliance is stronger than ever before under the trump administration for many reasons. one of the reasons is that the alliance has become important, not just forjapan, but for the us. north korea has almost succeeded in ballistic missiles that can reach

the us territory of guam. it is more serious not only forjapan, but the us. vice president pence wants to make sure to put the pressure on north korea and to demonstrate the power and strength of the us japan alliance. how worried is japan right now on how south korea is dealing with the north koreans. japan has always been worried about the issue of north korea. it is a serious issue forjapan for 20 years and so on. importantly, again, this issue is becoming important, serious, not only for the us, not only forjapan, but also for the us, so the interest of the us and japan, the visit is timely and important.

there are reports right now that north korea is planning to hijack the korean winter olympic games through a propaganda campaign. how should this be handled by the japanese and the americans? that is a tricky issue. certainly, you are right. north korea is trying to use this opportunity to showcase, improve its image, to reject its image as a peaceloving country, or whatever. —— project its image. but the us is becoming strategic as well. vice president pence does not stop by to 0kinawa anyway,

he is going to south korea to attend the opening ceremony of the olympics. he doesn't have too go there anyway, but he has decided to make a brief stop at the 0kinawa in order to remind them that sports and security are two different issues. a north korean spy who blew up a korean airlines aircraftjust months before the 1988 seoul 0lympics has issued a stark warning ahead of south korea's winter games. kim hyon hui says the regime that recruited her and trained her to murder 115 south koreans has not changed. she's been recounting her extraordinary story to our seoul correspondent laura bicker. news reel: she was under heavy sedation with her mouth covered with adhesive tape... translation: i was told that i was on the front line to unify korea, that i would be free in south korea like a revolutionary hero.

i was full of pride and dignity. but i realised it was murder, killing my own people, innocent, everyday people. it was a japanese radio, a small radio, and that's where i put the detonator. next to it was the liquid explosive in a liquor bottle in a plastic bag which i placed on the shelf in the plane. in the north, we are told that the south is a colony of america, poor and corrupt, that the us is an aggressor. we are told they are the arch enemy and we cannot live under the same sky. news reel: in a blaze

of publicity this morning, the south koreans paraded the woman they claimed was a north korean agent. kim hyon—hui apparently told intelligence officers she'd blown up the south korean airliner to disrupt the olympic games. do you think right now all of this is fake? do you think the run—up to the olympics, the overtures of peace coming from kim jong—un, do you think it is fake? translation: of course it is fake. the ultimate goal of north korea is to complete its nuclear programme. they have nothing in their mind but nuclear weapons. north korea will not change through dialogue. north korea cannot be changed by soft words. i believe only pressure will work on north korea. so, you have life, you have love,

and now i believe you have children. umm, do they know what you did? translation: my children are not old enough to know the story, and i have not tried to tell them the details yet. but these days, with internet readily available, and my interviews on media, i suspect they must know something. my son is quiet, but i think he knows. as the bomber, i have a lifelong work of atonement. it is my cross to bear for the rest of my life. banks are watching. —— and queue for

watching. thank you. well, it's remaining cold for much of this week. there is some snow in the forecast. that will cause many of you problems on the roads to start tuesday. it is going to be a very cold day with frost elsewhere. some sunshine around as well. this is the weather front bringing the sleet and snow to scotland and northern ireland over the course of the night. by tuesday morning, this is what it looks like. some rain at lower levels. sleet and snow to the high ground with plenty of showers behind it. skies will be brightening up gradually through the morning across scotland and northern ireland. these are snow showers, also some hail showers, adding to snow in scotland and northern ireland. very cold. you can see the blue hue. temperatures, sub—zero for many, even by 8am. that weather front lies this way. it could cause problems.

further east, cold and frosty, largely dry, with sunshine. certainly scraping cars first thing before heading out. it looks like that band of rain, sleet, and snow, will gradually fizzle out towards the midlands. ahead of that, continuing to be sunshine for east anglia and the south—east. and further north and west, apart from showers, sunny but it will be cold. the weather front may even invigorate again and take some snow to east anglia before it clears out. behind it, widespread clear skies. and a very cold night to come on tuesday night and wednesday morning, probably the coldest night of the week. temperatures well below freezing out of town. it does mean a ridge of high pressure should bring spells of sunshine on wednesday. that's before this weather system brings strong wind and cloud and rain to the west of the uk.

with that, milder air. it will be brief, cold air will make a return by the end of the week and towards the weekend. pretty much a very cold and frosty start across the board on wednesday. crisp, winter sunshine. scotland and northern ireland, england and wales, cloudy with outbreaks of rain. mainly rain, with some sleet and snow to the hills. the air, starting to get more mild. thursday, slightly less cold air. temperatures, 6—9—10 degrees. cloudy and breezy. friday, a ridge of high pressure building in. plenty of winter sunshine but that cold air begins to come in from the west. i'm sharanjit leyl with bbc world news. our top story. asian markets tumble after wall street suffers its largest decline in years. japan's nikkei is down by 4% after the dowjones closes down nearly 1200 points — its biggest fall since the 2008 financial crisis. the us vice president mike pence

is starting a trip to asia which is meant to show solidarity with allies and help south korea celebrate the launch of its olympic games on friday. and this video is trending on bbc.com... home surveillance video shows a dog sneaking a leftover pancake, but by doing so, the ignition button on the stove came on, causing something on top to ignite. luckily the alarm system called first responders before the fire spread and a friendship ensued. that story is popular on bbc.com that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk... the eu's chief negotiator warns the uk faces ‘unavoidable' trade