last good-bye, the last u.s. troops pull out of iraq. residen residents wonder, what's next? the final convoy of u.s. soldiers stationed in iraq has left the country. american forces flooded in nine years ago. tens of thousands of iraqis died in those years in attacks by the americans and militants.

here's a report from baghdad. >> reporter: u.s. troops have been stationed in iraq since 2003. at one point, 170,000 soldiers were deployed in the country. the last unit crossed the border into neighboring kuwait on sunday. in baghdad, people expressed mixed feelings about the departure. >> translator: i'm pleased. all iraqis hated the occupati occupational forces. >> translator: i'm so worried about security. i wonder if we can continue the security forces now. >> reporter: in iraq, more than

100,000 are said to have died in acts of battles and terrorism. 54-year-old says he was suppressed under saddam hussein's rule and says he had high hopes for the future immediately after the u.s. invasion. >> translator: i thought iraq would be a better country when hussein fell. i hope the nation's wealth would finally be returned to the people. >> reporter: after saddam hussein's fall, acts of terrorism became ram pant and confrontations in islamic religious sects intensifies. security went from bad to worse. many students lost their lives during u.s. military operations against extremists. his family members all lost their jobs. three years ago one of his three sons lost his life.

his second son was shot dead. >> translator: he was shot from there. >> reporter: he was on the rooftop of his own home and was shot by u.s. forces. he was mistaken for a militant. his widow and small children now live with hasan. >> translator: i had high hopes that the americans would bring about democracy. what actually happened were killings and arrests. they said they would liberate iraq from dictatorship but what they did was worse than hussein. >> reporter: u.s. forces have pulled out saying their mission in iraq has been completed. but during the past eight years and nine months, iraqi citizens paid dearly and deep scars remain. nhk world, baghdad.

a tropical storm has ravaged parts of the philippines, the country's red cross says the death toll has exceeded 650 and more than 800 others are still missing. tropical storm washi made landfall on friday bringing heavy rains. disaster management officials say 120,000 people have had their homes swept away or damaged. about 46,000 of them are said to be staying at shelters. the military has deployed 20,000 troops for rescue operations while the government and the red cross are distributing food and clothes and medical supplies. but they say relief goods have not reached many of the displaced people seeking shelter throughout the island. the red cross is on alert over a possible outbreak of infectious diseases. prime minister noda and mle

myung bak met and they were discussing the korean women forced to work in brafles during world war ii. noda expressed his cooperation to work. in response, he raised the issue of the so-called comfort women. >> translator: japan must have the courage for this matter. it has been the hurdle between the two countries. >> he explained that the women are now old and asked noda to commit to settling the issue. noda responded by saying the issue was legally resolved when the two countries normalized bilateral ties in 1965. but he conveyed his intention to make further efforts.

>> translator: on the issue of comfort women, japan has devoted and will continue to devote various efforts to resolving the issue from a humanitarian perspective. >> he also said it was regrettable that statue for the comfort women was put up in the embassy in seoul and asked for the prompt removal. south korea is planning to build a tourism facility on the island south of japan. noda said there are challenging issues between the two countries. noda also urged south korea to move forward on suspended trade negotiations including an economic partnership agreement between the two countries sean the free trade agreement with china. members of the advisory council to egypt's military have resigned in protest of the military's violent crackdown on

protesters which left ten people dead. nine delegates resigned on saturday. the resignations came amid growing criticism of the military as clashes between soldiers and prodemocracy protesters began. violence erupted on friday as demonstrators called for rapid shift from military rule to a civilian government of the on saturday the government began to remove pro testers from tahrir square and clubbing them. ten people have died and nearly 500 have been injured. >> translator: the military is just -- it does not do anything good for our country. >> translator: the army should be protecting us instead of attacking us. i want them to step down now. >> thousands of people continued

protesting and throwing stones at soldiers near the square on sunday. a russian oil and gas drilling rig has cappize eiz si. four people, confirmed dead and 39 are missing. the 70 meter platteform turned over 200 kilometers off the island on sunday morning while it was being towed by an ice breaker and tug boats to the island. it sank 20 minutes later. at least 57 people were on board, including russian crew members and experts in natural resource development. the russian emergency ministry is using planes to search for the missing but high waves are disrupting the rescue operations. 6 meter waves were observed at the time of the accident. the operator of the fukushima daiichi plant says a large quantity of contaminated water was found in a tunnel below a building that stores highly

radio active water. tepco is investigating how about 230 tons of water got into the tunnel. tepco says a worker found the water on sunday. the water reportedly was about 50 centimeters to 3 meters deep throughout the 54 meter long tunnel. the utility says the level of radiation at the surface of the water is 3 mil see verts per hour. tepco speculates that radioactive water from the processing facility may have been diluted by ground water after it flowed into the tunnel. utility says the tunnel is not connected to the sea. the discovery raises questions about tepco's infectispection a management capabilities because the firm failed to notice the water after the waste processing facility was completed in april. >> the governor of fukushima

prefecture expressed displeasure over the announcement that the plant has been under control. he met three cabinet members on sunday. the meeting follows prime minister noda's declaration on friday that the crisis is contained as all of the reactors have successfully been brought to a state of cold shutdown. he said noda himself should have come to explain the government's decision. >> translator: noda's comment that the crisis is over makes us doubt whether he fully understands the situation. >> translator: the government concluded that the nuclear accident has been contained because additional evacuations will no longer be necessary. >> he added many crucial

challenges remain, including decontamination and resident's health care. he stressed the government is determined to stay responsibility for these issues. governor sato says it's important to listen to the people of fukushima. if it wants to review the evacuation zones around the disabled plant and called on the government to pay full compensation to all residents of the prefecture. >> chinese authorities have been trying to bring down inflation. our business team joins me with that. good morning. >> good morning, that's correct. specifically in the real estate market actually, we are seeing new home prices heading down in major cities in china. concerns are mounting that tight controls to curb speculation may be leading to a downturn in the real estate market. the national bureau of statistics on sunday said the price index of new housing in november fell in 49 out of 70 major cities when compared to the previous month. beijing and shanghai were among

them. looking at recent trends, september recorded slumping prices in 17 cities while october saw drops in 34 cities. the declines are due to government actions to curb speculation. measures included restrictions on loans to buy second homes. these steps have apparently dampened the market. competition to cut prices on condominiums and other homes is becoming more intense in some cities. the chinese government, however, plans to keep its tight controls in place as real estate prices still remain unstable. >> u.s. stocks ended mixed on friday as concerns over europe are pushing aside an improved u.s. economic outlook. for more on how stocks are starting here in japan this monday morning, we switch over to the tokyo stock exchange. how are tokyo stocks kicking off? >> good morning, we could be in for a volatile week for the christmas period and also some

of the news there from the possibility kretd it rating downgrades of eurozone countries and also key housing data out of the u.s. which will be crucial this week as well as that country heads into a crucial year with the elections coming up as well. that's going to be a major focus how the u.s. economy is looking. let's look at the opening levels this monday morning here in tokyo. both indexes trading marginally lower, not a massive move really and a lot of analysts expecting actually volume to be a little bit thin this week. we have a holiday shortened week in japan with a national holiday on friday. trading might be a little thin. direction will most definitely come from europe. we did see further developments there with the dow ending down around 2 and a half% a1/2% and

negative views on sovereign debt issuers and that may weigh on market sent. overall as we head into this week. the prospect of negative downgrades also keeping the pressure there on the euro. let's have a look at the currency markets this morning as well. and some of the pairs there. the dollar, yen, holding around 77.80 to 8 of. euro yen, it has been stronger against the euro, 101.44-46. it tends to be center stage as far as market sent. and any further analysis. ai? >> with market participants closely watching how markets are trending, the focus on exporters, gaming fans could be in for an exciting year. >> especially for the likes of soeb sony which just launched

its latest playstation hand held gaming device in tokyo. it will be launched later in the u.s. in february. that could be a focus here as a lot of companies focus on domestic demand with the yen hurting their exports. but generally, a lot of the focus will be coming from europe this week. we'll keep track of how that plays into japanese stocks. for now the nikkei just marginally lower this monday morning. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that. and here's a quick look now at what's happening on japan's business front this week. on tuesday, the cabinet is expected to approve a fourth supplementary dget and trade data due out on wednesday. the balance slipped into red in october for first time in two months. the bank of japan will wind up a regular policy board meeting on the same day and auto production

is due out on thursday. friday is a holiday for us here in japan. let's turn to the u.s. serve housing related data will be out this week, housing starts and new home sales for november will be released on tuesday and friday. the third and final reading of third quarter gross domestic product is due out on thursday. the markets are expecting the latest figure to be a touch higher at 2.1%. durable goods will come out on friday. are consumers pulling back? we'll find out when consumer spending for november comes out. here's a recap of the latest market figures.

that's the latest in business for this hour. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on fallout from the earthquake and unami. "nuclear watch" brings insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis. and the road ahead examines the efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead." the japanese government decided its next generation fighter jet will be the stealth capability f-35. the aircraft is jointly developed by u.s. company lockheed martin and partners in eight other countries.

>> reporter: the plane is a cutting edge fighter with high tech abilities to obscure it from radar. it won approval from the government and ruling party to acquire the aircraft. defense minister on tuesday said the f-35 sophistication helped it beat out its challengers. >> translator: basically the most critical factor is the aircraft's capabilities. >> reporter: three other candidates included the fa-18 engineered by boeing. but this plane is said to have less stealth capabilities than the f-35. another possibility was the euro fighter typhoon by a con sort shum of companies from britain and germany and italy and spain. some ministry officials were cautious about it out of consideration for the japan/u.s. alliance.

the f-35 is not a done deal. the plane is still under development and some defects have been found. admiral david venlet, in charge of the f-35 project at the u.s. department of defense told a military magazine that many cracks and other defects have been found in the fuselage of an f-35 and metal fatigue tests over the past year. he said most of the problems are small but the cost burden of fixing them all will being very large. he has suggested slowing down production of the jet for the next several years. already there are doubts whether the plane will be ready by 2016 when the defense ministry plans to introduce it. there are also fears that history may be repeating. past delays and other procurements have led to higher price tags or a forced reduction in community. when the defense ministry talked about buying the f-2 fighter for

example, the price was 8 billion yen per plane but holdups in development led costs to balloon to 13 billion yen per plane. as a result, japan could buy only 94 planes instead of 130 as originally planned. the defense ministry, 50 f-35 planes and earmarked for the 2012 budget for the initial purchase of four aircraft. that's 13.7 billion yen per plane. but if development cost rise, the resulting higher price could force japan to reduce its purchase. manufacturer lockheed martin told nhk it has not received any notification about the purchase from the defense ministry. the company says the plane fulfills all requirements to be japan's next fighter jet and suggested discovery delays and

price blowouts are unlikely. we talked to nhk world to get perspective on this story. especial lih e specializes in japanese. >> translator: f-35 is the latest fighter with stealth capability. it can launch an attack before it's discovered by the enemy. out of the three candidates, f-35 is the only jet with stealth capability. japan's neighbors, namely china and russia, developing the stealth jets. that's the largest concern is a possible schedule delay, ministry of defense takes f-35 success with f-4 fighters which were deployed about 40 years

ago. the majority of them are to be retired by 2021. defense ministry believes the delivery should be made by the end of 2016 to allow enough time for pilot's training. however, defects of f-35 were discovered during the test, leading to development delay. some are concerned about missing the delivery date. a delay could impact japan's air defense capability. except for some fighters, they have paid license fees to locally produce fighter jets developed by united states. that's retained its production technologies. however there is no production plan next year and onward. companies here began to withdraw from production as production basis weakened. the u.s. said it would allow the final assemble of f-35 here in japan.

the state of our technologies including stealth capabilities would not be disclosed. they are likely to stay in the black books. to what extent the u.s. is able to produce electronics is not clear yet. a formal decision will be announced tuesday, japanese government has asked to clarify then how it is going to deal with these challenges. we're seeing wintry conditions and tropical storm in asia. here are the details in the global weather forecast. welcome back to your weather update. we'll first take a look at the southeast asia areas here. we do continue to see the clouds from tropical storm washi, did devastate areas of southern philippines. you can see it's heading back to sea but does maintain its

strength as a tropical storm system. winds have eased somewhat and it looks like it is now on a weakening trend over the next 24 hours. it is expected to dissipate and weaken into a tropical depression. that is good news. it does look like it will remain well. we do still see quite a bit of moisture surrounding this system and it will get wet for areas across central sections of vietnam and also outer rain bands could be impacting sections of malaysia and indonesia and could be looking at wetter weather to come. as for the philippines for the south, looks like you may see clear spots in areas but there is still the chance of showers. not good news. it could easily further exacerbate the flooding situation here. for northern sections we're looking at a heavy rain possibility later on today. you do want to watch out here as well. elsewhere looking at high pressure area dominating much of

china as well as the korean peninsula. as for japan, it's the nornl northwestern flange that will see cold precipitation off the sea of japan. we're talking a lot of snow and thundery episodes could be accompanying the snow. you do want to watch for that. highs on monday, tokyo comes up to 10 degrees with some sunny spells expected. 3 degrees in seoul and up to 11 in shanghai and 21 expected in taipai. you can see this area of precipitation rapidly will be developing into monday and we will be talking about a lot of wintry precipitation, blizzard warnings are started to be issued here. you do want to watch for heavy blowing snow and icy condition as holiday travel picks up. do stay on the watch for that. for the pacific northwest as well, british columbia will look at cold rain as well as snow and

freezing rain coming in on monday. highs look like this for monday. 7 in seattle, minus 2 in denver and 11 degrees in oklahoma city. things are starting to get pretty chilly in parts of areas. and finally a look at europe. here it is going to be once again unsettled. we have a low developing through the scandanavian region and thundershowers for the northern tip of italy and unsettled weather through the british isles there will be a high chance of snow for the higher elevations. things are going to look colder for the workweek. highs on monday looking in the low single digits for the majority of cities here. a 3 in vienna. and 4 degrees in berlin. that's a look at your weather conditions for now. up next is your three-day outlook.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." do stay with us.