it's wednesday, september 28th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. a signal system has emerged as a possible cause of the subway accident in shanghai. the operator of the subway says it uses a signal system produced by the company blamed for a fatal railway crash in july. the accident happened on tuesday afternoon on the number ten line between yuyuan and laoximin stations. the rear end collision injured more than 270 people. the accident may have been caused by a flawed signal system. an automatic braking device had failed to work. a system failure on the same line caused a train to go in the opposite direction in late july. this was only days after the high speed railway accident that killed 40 people in zhejiang province. the president of the subway

operator, yu guangyao, spoke to reporters op. tuesday. >> translator: the signals were not supposed to have broken again after the accident. >> shanghai residents criticized the frequent accidents. >> translator: the frequent accidents are showing they are not having safe preparations. north korean leader kim jong-il's youngest son seems to be coordinating positions as his father's successor one year after he was appointed to a key post. co kim jong-un was named ruler of the korean workers' party last september. they attended a military parade together on north korea's foundation day on september 9th. kim jong-un joined his father in a meeting with the visiting laotian president choummaly sayasone last friday.

they are releadsing photos and videos that focus on the young kim. kim jong-un has yet to make any domestic tours on his own and his recorded voice has not been heard by the public. the north korean leadership is expected to publicize his achievements ahead of next year's 100th anniversary of the birth of his grandfather and the country's founder, kim il-sung. north korean premier choe yong rim has agreed to six-party talks without any preconditions. choe met hu jintao on thursday. he's hoped to resume the talks at an early date and said achieving a nuclear free korean peninsula is in the common interest of all countries concerned. choe said the six-party talks should be assumed uncondition

unconditionally. his remarks apparently aimed at the united states, south carolina and japan, the three countries demanding the north take actions before the six-party talks can be resumed, this would include halting uranium enrichment. the north korean premier asked china to increase economic cooperation with his country. north korea and amar province in the russian far east agreed to establish a joint venture to produce food. a visiting north korean delegation met the governor on tuesday. provincial government officials said the two sides will launch the joint venture next year at the earliest. the company will breed 1,000 cattle for meat, 500 goats, and groet wheat and soybeans. amur is one of the top russian producers in the far east. most will be exported to north korea to help ease its serious

food shortages. last month north korean leader kim jong-il visited russia for the first time in nine years to strengthen ties with the country in the energy and security fields. japan is stepping up cooperation with the philippines to establish common rules in business and other fields. japan's prime minister yoshihiko noda and philippine president beanything benigno aquino signed a joint statement partnership. the aim is to ensure free navigation in asian seas and promote cross border business activities. the japanese government apparently wants to boost cooperation with the signatories to deal with china's increasing maritime activities in the east and south china seas.

the idea of the strategic. incompetent is included in the japan/u.s. joint objectives agreed in june. japan intends to boost cooperation with other asian countries at the east asian summit scheduled for november. now the big question in the business world can greece avoid a dpe fault? for the latest own the developments there, ai uchida joins us now. how can greeceiment plement its funds? >> on tuesday they agreed an additional tax hike that will fix the asset tax for the next three years, aimed at continuing support from european and international financial authorities. the country's finance ministry says the tax increase will generate 2 billion euros or about $2.7 billion in tax revenue each year. the legislation is part of actual austerity measures

required by the european union and the international monetary fund as a condition for extending financial aid. other cost-cutting steps include temporary leave for government workers to cut personnel expenses in exchange for implementing these fiscal reconstruction plans greece expects to receive a loan of 8 billion euros in october to avoid a default, that is about $11 billion. but the latest move has triggered large scale protests and strike among public transportation workers and this is deepening confusion in greek. the german leader expressed her intention to continue helping greece. angela merkel and george papandreau said they will

continue helping greece. merkel expressed her intention to keep supporting the country. germany already extended over $150 billion to the euro rescue fund to help greece further, germany has to increase the amount by 1.7 times. german lawmakers will vote on the expansion of the euro receipeuro rescue fund thursday. criticism is mounting over the expansion, even within the ruling coalition. and now it's time for the markets. overnight on wall street, the dow jones average closed higher for a third trading session on hopes of a resolution to the eurozone debt issue. for more we cross refer over to mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. the markets continue to be driven by the sovereign debt problem in greece. how are stocks hookilooking at open this wednesday morning? >> reporter: market players are hard pressed not to take their eyes off that story you just mentioned, dominating global

markets for better or worse. how it's affecting the nikkei and the topix, both indexes trading in the positive for the first few minutes of trading. yesterday it gained almost 3%, some sectors under selling pressures in previous sessions bounced back. we liked electronics, high-tech sector, and autos and financials, among some of the better performers. we're likely to see further gains today on the back of the positive sentiment, gain in the u.s. and european markets and further reassurances from european officials that their plans are under way to prop up some of the bailout funds for weaker eurozone economies. currency markets usually reflect the effects of stock market plays and we did see some positive moves there and we did see the euro gaining again some key currencies including the yen after it dropped below 102 on monday, now as you can see they

are trading around the lower 104 yen levels and also following on from the currency markets we're keeping track of the energy markets with west texas intermediate crude delivery for november jumping around 5% on the back of the positive sentiment out of europe as well as a slight drop in the dollar, and moving on from energy sector also the metal sector is going to be a focus after we saw gold dropping around 12% for four straight days through monday but bouncing back around 4% yesterday backed up by the same sentiment that we saw in the oil sector as well so that's going to be another focus, energy and metals, let's keep track of stocks for those sectors as well. as far as economic data, the ca case-schiller home price index was an increase. the nikkei and topix trading

higher for the first few minutes of trading. back to you. >> that was ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. tokyo electric power company has begun sending out forms for people affected by the nuclear disaster to apply for compensation. similar forms have already been e-mailed to evacuees but tepco has become under fire for making the procedures complicated. a legal team was set up last month to help people affected by the crisis at the fukushima daiichi plant, since the volunteer lawyers started this counseling service last month they have received about 400 inquir inquiries. many were complaints the forms sent out by tepco were too complicated. other applicants say they're dissatisfied with the tilt's compensation terms. the company sent out some 7,000 forms on tuesday. the legal team says the utility's payment terms are negotiable and if applicants are unhappy with the offer they're

given, they can take their case to a government organization that will mediate compensation disputes. >> translator: tepco has not explained that victims can take their case to the government organization that's been set up to settle disputes. we want people to understand they can demand the amount of compensation they think they are due and take alternave meanwhil responsible for the conrsation has told nhk tepco will address questions about the complexity of the application process. >> translator: we will hold briefings, set up help desks and visit individual evacuees to offer assistance. we are now preparing supplementary materials that will help people find the relevant pages. these materials must be provided in the next couple of weeks so we will finish preparing these as soon as possible. tile for a recap of the

latest market figures. that is all for now in business news. back to catherine. >> thanks very much, ai. japan's atomic energy commission has resumed discussions on revising the country's nuclear policy.

work to revise the policy started last december but was suspended after the fukushima accident. following the disaster the commission added members who are experts on safety and take a tough stance on nuclear power. >> translator: i decided to resume the discussion to summarize everybody's views on nuclear power. >> some commission members called for shutting down all of japan's nuclear plants and promoting alternate energy sources. others said it's too early to determine long-term nuclear policy as the fukushima plant remains out of control. members advocating nuclear power noted that resource poor japan must aim for a realistic energy policy. the policy on nuclear power use, research and development was 1956 and been revised about every five years, last revised six years ago. it promotes nuclear power and

calls for at least 30% reliance on nuclear energy after 2030. the policy continues in effect despite accidents at nuclear facilities and scandals that include coverups of accidents and other troubles. the commission will draw up a new policy outline over the next year. attention will focus on how deeply the commission can discuss revision of nuclear policy. a government panel says tokyo electric power company was unprepared for the fukushima accident and failed to take steps to minimize the damage. the committee investigating the accident held its third meeting on tuesday. it met behind closed doors, saying that allowing media access would negatively affect its interviews with the plant's staff. after the meeting, panel leader yoatur hatamura spoke with reporters. >> translator: if the company had assumed an accident right happen, the company could have

made preparations but they hadn't considered this at all. >> hatamura added that the group will further investigate why the utility was unable to contain the damage from the accident. the panel is scheduled to release an interim report on its probe at the end of the year. the fukushima municipal government plans to clear radioactive materials from all private dwellings in the city. the decision was made after high levels of radiation were detected in some areas. the city is located about 60 kilometers from the kipcrippled fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. some are concerned about health risks already moved out. they plan to decontaminate all 110,000 residents over the next two years. the goal to lower radiation levels in the air. >> translator: it's late to start decontamination.

>> translator: i'm worried because my child always wants to play outside. >> it has yet to be determined how the contaminated soil and other contaminated materials will be disposed of. >> "newsline" is the place to turn to on the latest from japan post march 11th. we have two segments offering two interspectives "nuclear watch" brings you insight and information on the impact from the crisis and "the road ahead." don't miss them on "newsline." in afghanistan, the u.s.-led war on terrorism has brought misery to many of its citizens. the ten year conflict makes finding a job close to impossible. it has also forced many afghans to flee from their homes. over 300,000 citizens are

classified by the u.n. as eternally displaced persons now live in camps across the country. nhk world's hideki yui reports. >> reporter: this is a camp in the capital of kabul. more and more people are coming here and fighting fights between international forces and the taliban. most people here fled from the south where fighting has intensified. >> translator: look at this. i got hit when a bomb exploded. >> reporter: even in the camp, some children die of malnutrition. this man lost his two young children. >> translator: i am very sad. the death of my sons is too much to bear. i really want these terrible

conditions to be improved. >> reporter: the afghan government provides no help to evacuees in camps. they survive only on bread and soup from charities. this is 8-year-old shafrin han. his father, a construction worker, was killed in the attack by the international forces. to escape the fighting, he and his brothers moved to a camp in kabul in july along with their uncle's family. jumaha is shrafin's uncle. he is 18 years old. he looks for day's work but comes up empty. more and more evacuees stream

into the city looking for job. on this day, he cannot agree on the chance of a job. somebody else takes it. >> translator: so many people compete for one job. i have to find work to feed the children. >> reporter: the united nations say over 10,000 civilians have been killed since 2007 when the fighting started intensifying. it warns that as more families lose their breadwinners, more families may lose their homes and become evacuees. >> there is a high increase in the first six months of 2011, the number of newly displaced persons within the country has been as high as that of last year throughout the 12 months last year.

the number of casualties continue to increase, it is of course an indication of the fact that the instability in the country is also increasing. >> earlier michio kijima spoke with nhk world's hideki yui who covered the story. >> hideki, as the fighting intensifies, more and more people in afghanistan are forced to live in evacuation camps. now, does this mean security is degenerating even further? >> reporter: yes, it's getting worse. u.n. data shows that a record 2,777 civilians fell victims to the fighting and terrorist attacks last year. as for this year from january to june, civilian deaths were up 15% from the same period last year. this sets a new record and can be blamed on worsening security. but the u.s. government claims that taliban-controlled areas are shrinking.

however, even in the capital, which has better security than most places, taliban attacks earlier this month killed 16 police officers and civilians. the u.n. headquarters and the international security assistance force were among their targets. in august the taliban attack of the british council compodnd the june strike ainst a russian holls causedeavy, ciliar ty hasint pred b ataliban to disarm and take r

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and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." matherine kobayashi i toky do stay with us.

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