welcome to "newsline." it's tuesday, october 19th, 11:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. a powerful typhoon has swept over the northern philippines. it's expected to move north towards china on wednesday. typhoon megi passed over the philippines on monday leaving one man dead and forcing about 3,100 people to evacuate their homes.

the japan meteorological agency says it's the first typhoon in 19 years to reach a central pressure below 900. at one point the storm zone expanded to a radius of 190 kilometers, encompassing most parts of luzon. they're preparing to distribute food and are urging people to watch out for floods and landslides. telephone service is out in large areas of luzon. flights or ferries have been canceled or delays. at least 100,000 evacuated due to flooding during the weekend. the local government there says floodwaters have destroyed about 1,000 houses and have caused the evacuation of at least 100,000 residents. it adds some rivers and dams are reaching flood warning levels. another report says more than 400,000 people have already been evacuated suggesting that the damage is spreading.

hynan island lies in the path of typhoon megi. the government is on high alert and has deployed a rescue team to the flood-stricken area. we now go to the weather desk for the latest on the typhoon. tell it you us what we can expect from this storm. >> well, right now it is difficult to tell exactly where it's going to be heading. it is moving -- it is almost stationary over the south china sea. it will veer towards the north mid-week and head towards china. it could make landfall in taiwan looking at the possibility of it making landfall as well. it is going to be maintaining that strength, packing winds right now of 160 kilometers per hour as gusts are between 234 kilometers per hour. it's almost stationary now, and it will bring strong to damaging winds across luzon and

philippines. as well as bringing torrential rains in the next 24 hours. also up in eastern taiwan as well. by the end of the week see that torrential rain heading towards southeastern china. it all depends on when the storm system decides to quickly change its path. that's all from me just now. >> thanks very much, sumi. we will keep you up-to-date on the progress of that typhoon. we take a look at the latest in business. hello. u.s. industrial production in december declined for the first time in 15 months, raising more concerns about the prospect of recovery for the u.s. economy. the u.s. federal reserve reported on monday that output at factories, mines and uaffiliate firms stood at 93.2 last month.

that's 0.2 percentage points lower than august and the first decline since june 2009. the september figure was worse than expected. they attributed the decline to a slump in factory output, particularly machinery and computer production. since active corporate output leads the u.s. economy, the decline in industrial production is raising concerns about the overall health of the u.s. economy. apple announced on monday it posted record sales for the quarter that ended last month the company's sales for the july/september period marked an increase of 67%, $20.3 billion. its net profit rose 70%. apple sold 40.1 million iphones, the best sales period on record since the phone entered the market in 2007. sales of personal computers rose 27% from the previous quarter. meanwhile, sales of the

multifunctional tablet computer ipad were worse than expected. it's led to a dip in apple shares. japanese retailer rakuten is launching a search engine. >> we are very confident we were able to create a very com pet ittive, entertaining shopping mall. >> rakuten announced on monday that the joint venture will begin business on tuesday with 2,000 chinese shops listed on the is the. it will be the company's fifth overseas market. they already operate in the united states, among other markets. a private research firm says the number of japanese search exceeded 100 million. sales in china are increasing so rapidly they may soon surpass

the japanese market which stands at a total of over $80 billion in sales. rakuten's president said his firm is aiming for sales in china to approach the levels locked in japan. referring to recent anti-japanese demonstrations in china, he also said he hopes the online business will contribute to boost regional economies there and build trust between the two nations. tokyo stocks are rising on tuesday morning. on wall street's gains overnight. the nikkei 225 ended at 9,548. strong earnings reports in the u.s. in currencies, the dollar is moving a narrow range against the yen early tuesday. it's between 81.31-36. while the euro is 113.24-29.

speculation that the u.s. federal reserve may further ease monetary policy is keeping the yen strong. here's a look at the latest long-term interest rates. here's a look it at the japanese ten-year government bond. the hang seng opens up 0.4% higher. the shanghai for major blue chips is up 0.3%. and the sse composite is up 1.3%. we'll be back with more business news later. now back to catherean. fifa is investigating

allegations that two of its committee executives were selling their votes. they said reporters posing as executives from the u.s. found executives willing to accept money in change for selling their bids. they're identified as fifa's vice president and another member of the executive committee. they have released video of the undercover operation. fifa's executive committee is expected to decide in december which countries will host the world cup in 2018 and 2022. 3 high-ranking prosecutors say they will resign to take responsibility for the cover-up of a scandal involving their subordinates at the osaki district public prosecutor's office. the case started when they allegedly altered data on a floppy disk confiscated into an

allegation of postal allegation abuse. two were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of covering up his alleged tampering of evidence. the head of the prosecutor's office intends to resign. he headed the osaka office in july 2009 when the alleged alteration is said to have happened. the current head and former number two at the office, kobayashi and tomai also reportedly intend to resign. china's vice president appears to have cemented his position as the likely successor to president hu jingtao. >> the announcement came monday. a sweeping replacement of leadership is expected next autumn in 2012 when the party

congress will meet for the first time in five years. they adopted a communique that includes an outline of china's five-year economic policy plan starting in 2011. the party reaffirmed its commitment to developing the country's tech industry and addressing the widening wealth gap caused by rapid economic growth. a hong kong tv station has filmed anti-japan demonstrations. china's inland province had a wave of demonstrations that erupted on saturday. the protesters are backing china's claim over the sengkaku islands, controlled by japan. hong kong based tv b took the footage of protests on monday. it shows about 100 young people calling for a boycott of

japanese products. scores of police officers are on alert around the protestors. the demonstrators are seen walking in file chanting slogans such as protect chinese territory and boycott japanese products. some are pumping their fists into the air, and others are singing the chinese national anthem. there was another massive rally in another province over the weekend. they smashed the windows of a japanese shop and the japanese appliance store. others destroyed japan-made cars parked along the street. police have been deployed to keep an eye on a japanese car dealership on the outskirts of the city. there were other demonstrations in several cities in china over the weekend. a japanese tour group on a friendly visit to china has changed their itinerary. apparently because of anti-japanese demonstrations. the japan/china friendship

center says 1,000 japanese, including senior high school students, were supposed to visit hunan province. but they changed their itinerary for security reasons due to large anti-japanese rallies in the two cities on saturday. the group was supposed to be on a tour of china from tuesday through next monday. the trip is part of a youth exchange program. they were also scheduled to take part in the japan week event, jointly sponsored by the japanese embassy in beijing. but the event has been postponed and dozens of japanese have canceled their tours. the japanese government will submit to the diet the video of the collision between a chinese fishing boat and two japanese patrol vessels near the sengk

sengkaku. the japan coast guard filmed the collision. following the committee's decision, prime minister kwan discussed the issue with party officials. they agreed they should submit the video to the lower house budget committee. they said the diet's request should be taken seriously. after the meeting, deputy general was asked by reporters whether the video would be released to the public. he said it has not been discussed yet. myanmar's election commission rejected international monitors for the country's first election in 20 years scheduled for november 7th. the chairman of the commission told a news conference in the

capital on monday there is no need to invite foreign election monitors, saying it is a domestic issue. but the commission added that it would allow diplomats based in the country to visit some polling stations. the country's military government enacted a law earlier this year that virtually excludes pro democracy leader aun sung see from taking office. they argue it will be difficult to have a fair vote. a vietnamese court has sentenced a former high-ranking official to life in prison for accepting a bribe related to a highway construction project funded by the japanese government.

they found the man guilty of receiving $260,000 from a japanese firm while he was in charge of the project. the court said he tainted the nation's honor and fueled public distrust and that the bribe was quite large. he has denied the charges and said he would appeal. former executives of the consulting firm were convicted on bribery charges by a japanese court last year. the scandal prompted japan's government to temporarily suspend new yen loans to vietnam. japan's business leaders have urged their government to step up efforts on promoting economic partnership agreements or epas with other countries. that's in a bid to boost expo s exports. a panel of government and business representatives met for a second time on monday since its launch last month.

>> translator: a survey shows japanese companies have a combined savings of $200 billion that can be tapped. the government will do what it can to help healthy firms meet investments within the country. >> business leaders pushed the need for research and development centers in japan. they've also asked the government to promote epas and cut corporate tax to enable domestic firms to better compete with foreign counter parts. in addition, they call for support with agricultural issues, which often pose a challenge in concluding epas. the government said it will hammer out a plan by early november. in september, japanese authorities intervened in the foreign change marx to reverse the yen's advance against the dollar. many market watchers believe that the impact from unilateral intervention limited. despite the $25 billion market action, the yen has continued to

rise. a small country in europe also plagued by foreign exchange woes tried to intervene in the markets to tame its currency. what were the results? we report from geneva. >> reporter: a weak euro is aiding recovery of economies in the euro zone. a strong franc is having the opposite effect here in switzerland. the country's known for its beautiful scenery and tourism is one of the main industries of the swiss economy. but a strong franc is harming the sector. had it year alone, the currency gained 12% against the euro. >> it's a bit expensive. it is. especially in the hotels. >> i think it's only that. then i look to the price, for example, prices i know well, like the mcdonald's or something. a hamburger is much more

expensive here. ♪ >> reporter: let's look at the impact using big mac index. this compares the price of the same ham berger across different countries. in neighboring france, a big mac costs $4.50. in switzerland, the same item is $6.70. >> definitely having an effect. switzerland is very dependent on tourism coming from the euro zone. we expect that this winter the impact of the weak euro is going to be stronger. >> reporter: uncertainty has continued to affect the euro zone ever since the collapse of economy. the swiss franc is considered a low-risk currency and has been attracting investors, has caused

its price to rise. >> it's the euro land which worried a lot of investors this year. you see people coming into bankruptcy, it's a very obvious choice to it buy the swiss franc. >> reporter: to prevent the currency from rising too high, they sold the franc and bought the euro. after an aggressive intervention in march 2009, the swiss franc did fall by 3.3%. the central bank continued to take unilateral action and at one point it seemed that it its effort had succeeded in making the franc more stable. however, when the full scale of the debt problem became clear in december 2009, the franc once again began to advance. >> we face an economy on the current level that is extremely strabl.

you could claim that the swiss national bank was successful or did not disturb the run of the economy. if you measure it, were they able to keep the swiss franc at 150 whf they established intervention or not. >> reporter: the value of the euro, which the swiss bought has continued to fall. in the first half of 2010 alone, this has cost the bank $12 billion. these events are a reminder that unilateral intervention can sometimes bring temporary support. and of how expensive it can be for a country's central bank to try to adjust the value of its currency on its own. accident? a recap of the latest market figures.

coming up next is zsumi zusi with the weather report. >> we're keeping a close eye on typhoon megi, which maintains

its strength and will be strong and damaging winds across the philippines throughout the day. that heavy rain will slowly start to move away from the area. but it will help to pump a lot of moisture into the indochina peninsula. we have several systems in place, triggering flooding rains in the region for it thailand and vietnam. additional rainfall is not good news. it looks like there will be some more on the way. elsewhere across eastern asia. looking quite calm and quiet today. some unsettled weather to be found in the southwestern corner of china. largely dry and settled for much of china. that rain tapering off in the northeastern corner as well. as for japan, after a frosty start, look for good spells of sunshine across the north. it does turn a little bit more cloudy and wet as we head towards the south. we've got tropical downpours for the okinawa islands as well. tokyo will be 41 with rain at times. 15 degrees for your daytime high

in bay joinineijing. 25 in taipei with heavy rain. in europe, a large storm system affecting the northern tier of europe. we've got wet weather as well as strong winds. all that activity will be heading into central areas next. with that cool air in place, a lot of the precipitation found are going to be falling in the form of sleet and snow, especially up you in the mountains for scandinavia and germany. a couple of showers for the uk. generally things are looking up on your wednesday. down in the southeastern corner, plenty of wet weather to continue for greece and turkey. heavy rain and thunderstorms really affect greece today. flooding is going to be a major concern. it has been raining here for quite a bit now. in terms of temperatures,

looking definitely much cooler this week. 6 degrees in moscow. 9 in berlin. 12 in viennaa. 13 degrees with light rain in paris. showers in london as well. here's your extended forecast.

in our top news this hour, soccer's governing body fifa is

investigating allegations that two of its executives offered to sell their votes in choosing the host of the world cup games. fifa said in a statement on monday that it has asked the chairman of its ethics committee to act without delay. it says the committee will meet on wednesday at fifa headquarters in switzerland. the vote-selling allegations were reported in the london-based sunday times. it said reporters posing as lobbyists from the united states found two fifa officials willing to accept money in return for supporting the u.s. bid for the games. the two officials are identified as fifa's vice president and another member of the executive committee. the newspaper you has released video recordings of its undercover operation. fifa's executive committee is expected to decide in december which countries will host the world cup in 2018 and 2022. nine countries and territories are bidding for the games. three high-ranking

prosecutors say they will resign to take responsibility for the cover-up of a scandal investigating their subordinate at the osaka prosecutor's office. the case started with one allegedly altered data on a floppy disk confiscated during an investigation into a case of postal system abuse. two of his former superiors were arrested earlier this month on suspicionp his alleged tampering of evidence. the head of the high prosecutor's office intends to resign. he headed the osaka office in 2009 when the alleged incident is supposed to have happened. the current number two and another executive reportedly also intend to resign. that's all for me on this edition of "newsline." thanks very much for joining us.

my colleague, gene otani is up at the top of the next hour. do stay with us. iijj