we'll include a dvd copy of one of the many kcsm produced documentaries. hello there. glad to have you on this edition of "newsline." it's 11:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. japan's first quarter gdp shows the economy took a big hit in the immediate aftermath of the quake and the tsunami. our business desk gives us the details. >> thanks very much, catherine. welcome to "newsline" business. the japanese economy shrank 0.9% in the january to march quarter reflecting the broad economic impact of the march 11th natural

disaster. cabinet office figures show japan's gdp fell for a second straight quarter. the 0.9% fall translates to an analyzed 3.7% shrinkage. private consumption fell 0.6% as the damage from the quake limited the supply of goods. another factor was that some consumers held back from spending money in the aftermath of the disaster. business investment was down 0.9%, falling for the first time in six quarters. meanwhile, exports rose 0.7%. with the quake's impact on the economy, what can we expect from the coming quarters? we asked the chief economist at barclays capital japan. >> translator: the gdp analyzed. so gdp proved worse than we had

expected. that said, we think that real gdp will start to grow in the quarter between july to september, after recording another decline in the quarter, between april to june. and we think the recovery will be driven by two factors. one, reconstruction demand. two, the reconstruction of production capacity. so decline in the first half and recovery in the second half. tokyo stocks are moving in a narrow range. e nikkei index eedrning sessiont that's dow nearly 11oifa thpened higher the dollar isaingund

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after doot the disaster began at fukushima. they agreed to work together to das eaplan brnational safety e end of the year. >> translator: it is imperative to check the security of all nuclear plants, includin the fukushima accident serves as a warning to all countries that usnueaengy >> he said that some such as germany are reconsidering nuclear power generation. but france will continue to operate its nuclear power plants. he added that the g8 leaders will show agreemt t nd to heighten nuclear safety standards in a joint summit declaration. ja ioow companies say the government should explain why it's asking them to he tpeto o t crippled fukushimaucarla padages to those affected by

the disaster. last government dedeon framework to help tokyo electric power companyr tepco pay damages. the plan asks other power cospeti nle plants to contribute funds for compensation paut in a petition submitted to the natural resources andney ency o federation of electric power mpie lts requests before the new framework can take ap eomnies first ask the government for a full platn w ty are being asked to help tepco pay damages. they also asked fdeil about the scope of compensation, as they say the plan might force emo psn costs to customers, to consums,raer roh higher power bills. the companies say the government should be hdesnsible for compensation payments as it has long pmod clr wein jan. a japanese venre fmas unveiled a new electric car. each of its fourhes h i own motor.

th coyoto-based venture says it runs 33 kilometers per charge and is as practical as a gasoline-powered car. the company now handles solar batteries and plans to produce the vehicle in three years. it was jointly developed by firms based on technologies provided byk. universi. >> the electric vehicle technology aow u t se an enormous amount of fossil fuel. this idea will get a lot of attention in the future. i think an open market will be created a tt vio players will take part in it. > property prices have been rising rapidly in hong kong. the averagerif residential condos surged 24% in 2010. and it went up at a 9% clip in the firs qrtfhi year. the impact of the fast price rise is continuing to expand in the city.

oureptejae yungh has more. >> reporter: in hong kong, the sale of luxurious residential budis a hot trend. they are going for 1.2 million u.s. lls. attracting people, including investors. >> more than% o the units have been sold already. we receive inquiries every day. >>epte tur i also bringing up prices of midsized condos. the price tag of small and midsized flats re 23% in 2010 year on year. hitting middle-class workers hard. this is a 26-year-old public relations consultant living with three family members. aiming to leave parent's home,

he checked the prices of property via internet almost every da he earns about $2,600 a month. nearly double the median income in hong kong. but he cannot find affordable property. >> it seems the price just keeps rising, up trend every y. and that's why it's out of my budget. >> reporter: lee is visiting nd wh al estate agents but most property goes far beyond his budget of $250,000. >> reporter: this one, built 31 yes ago, was affordable to him just a few years ago. but now it costs $420,000. while the housing prices continue to soar, he says he has

hoeut to stay at his parent's home. >> i don't think i can get anything until ten yrs later, i may have my first flat on my own in my early 30s maybe. >> reporter: experts say the situation will continue indefite. >>ralar:oung people who live with their parents are well off but not knowing when they'll be able to buy their own flat createsug psychological sense of discontent among them. >> reporter: housing is a basic neor although the government has implemented various measures to stabilize the surge in property prices, they'reunlikely to be controlled significantly anytime soon. people here just don't know when they can afford to buy their own flats. jaymee ng, nkh world, hong kong.

here's a recap of the latest market figures. >> that's all for now in business news. an international team of astronomers says it has discovered what appear to be planets that are not orbiting stars. some scientists have suggested the existence of such free-floating planets in space.

the team, which includes researchers from japan's nagoya and another university says it has discovered ten such suspected netting planets it the planets each have aupder. the discoveries were made over 18 months. using a special telescope at an observatory in new zealand. the researchers say the discovered celestial bodies must be floating planets because unlike fixed stars, they do not emit light. they say they found no fixed stars near these planets. >> translator: the discoveries are a step toward learning how planets were created and how they developed. >> some scientists expect a nasa surveyor to be launched in 2020 will be able to capture images of these floating planets. the united states has imposed new sanctions on syria.

amade criticism of the crackdown on the protests there. the sanctions target syrian president bashar al assad and six other leaders. on wednesday, u.s. president barack obama ordered the sanctions, freezing any assets the syrian leaders have in the u.s. the obama administration has been cite sided for being lukewarm in its handling of syria so far. last month, the u.s. imposed sanctions on three syrian military and intelligence officials. also freezing their assets. they are accused of oppressing the protesters. president assad has since toughened his stance against opponents demanding his resignation. the united nations says 850 people have died since thepr pro-democracy protests intensified in march. russian president dmitry medvedev says he will reveal his decision on whether to run for re-election in 2012.

wednesday, medvedev held a news conference for international reports outside moscow for the first time since taking nofs 2008. asked about the presidential election next march, he said he'll decide with prime minister vladimir putin which of them will run for the post. >> translator: i will discuss with prime minister putin to decide in a responsible manner for the nation and the people. >> medvedev has expressed his desire for re-election on a platform of economic and social reforms. but putin recently announced that he was forming a new political grouping. observers see it as a vehicle for him to serve as president again. news teams have been broadcasting images from the quake and tsunami-ravaged

northeastern japan but one filmmaker has focused her camera on survivors with an extra burden. impaired hearing. >> reporter: 11 days after the quake, this woman took her camera to the heart of the disaster area. she's a director with a broadcasting station for the hearing impaired in nagoya. >> reporter: according to current records, nine people

with hearing disabilities were killed in the disaster. she interviewed several survivors who are hard-of-hearing. she said she wanted to show the added difficulties that hearing impaired people face in a disaster. a screening of the film was held on may 5th. over 80 people filled the event space. this man runs a barbershop. the tsunami pushed its way into his shop as high as a man's chest. now everything is covered in mud. he and his wife both have impaired hearing so they could not hear the tsunami warning sirens or the announcement. they didn't know the tsunami was coming until they saw it approaching.

>> reporter: luckily the couple survived, as they were on the second floor. but this illustrates the problem of conveying key information to hearing impaired people in a disaster. at the evacuation shelter, the couple couldn't hear the meal announcements and had a hard time keeping up to date with information.

>> filmmaker imamura says hearing impaired people need tsunami alerts which could come through their cell phones either as a text message or vibration. she also underlies the need for sign language interpreters at emergency shelters. now let's take a look at the global weather forecast.

with sumi zushi. >> let's look at eastern asia. high pressure system covering much of japan. we can expect warm sunshine throughout the region. you can see showers working their way across china. that will bring plenty of isolated heavy showers. south korea will stay dry, if not a little bit cloudy. central and shououthern portionf china dry again. temperatures on the hot side again. well into the 30s here. then further south towards southeastern asia we're looking at more showers for taiwan and thunderstorms across the philippines as well as persistent rain in eastern manila. further south we have more persistent rain.

as for indochina not much change here as well. plenty of showers in store. pockets of heavy showers pop up in parts of thailand as well as myanmar picking up moisture from the bay of bengal. myanmar looking wet again today. also also for bangladesh and india, a low-pressure system in place and that means more heavy rain over the next couple of days. now, temperaturewise, we've got 32 degrees in bangkok today. 36 in manila with thunderstorms. then warming up to 33 in shanghai. across japan, things are going to be very warm here as well. 27 in kanazawa. 28 in fukouka. in the northeastern corner of japan as well, we see warm sunshine prevail over the next couple of days. lots of sunshine. just a few clouds in the sky. looking a little cloudy in hachinoi on friday. across sendai, down towards mito as well. 26 degrees in soma. warming up to 27 on friday,

holding on to sunshine. now, for europe, looking very unsettled again. especially across the northern tier of the continent. looking windy across sweden, norway and then into the british isles. watch out for those heavy showers across the northern uk. some hefty showers across parts of sweden and southern norway as well. central areas here picking up a couple of showers for germany and also france. especially with the heat of the day. again, spain and portugal, that widespread rain continuing throughout your thursday. lots of thunderstorms expected as well. but that is going to be easing over the next couple of days come friday. we should start to see that settling down quite a bit. the flooding risk pretty high. it has been raining here for almost a week now. now, rain will start up in northern algeria. and still looking quite cloudy and unsettled for southern italy here. and across the southern end of the balkans, greece, albania,

looking at thunderstorms, across turkey as well. rainy day in athens. today, 22 degrees. 21 in rome, cloudy skies. sunshine in vienna. nice and warm in kiev as well. here's your extended forecast now.

the emperrer and empress have attended a charity concert in tokyo in support of people who survived the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. the imperial couple waved as the audience applauded them when they arrived at the concert hall on wednesday night.

♪ about 40 musicians performed on the theme of rebirth. at the end of the event, the musicians sang a 1960s hit song. the title of the song translates as looking up at the stars in the sky. ♪ the event organizer says proceeds from the concert will be donated to the disaster areas through the japanese red cross society. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.

we'll be back with more.