digging into scandal. prosecutors in tokyo joined the investigation into the coverup at o'almost pus. investigators revealed how executives hid $1 billion worth of losses at olympus corporation. the prosecutors are cooperating with the tokyo police and the exchange commission to plul judge a scapel into corruption.

the paper says corruption ran all the way to the top. they transferred the markets overseas through bank accounts in lichtenstein and singapore. by 2003 olympus transferred more than $1 billion in losses. between 2006 and 2008 the executives hid most of the losses through the acquisition of several companies and overpriced consulting fees. the report says two former ceos, kishimoto and kikukawa were aware of the scheme and then informed chairman shimoyama. >> the core part of management was rotten and contaminated the parts around it. the situation was a worst-case example of japan's tribal corporate culture. >> they have denied involvement.

>> the former president michael woodford blew the whistle. he wants all the directors to resign so the firm can make a clean start. >> very, again as you would read through it, evident that the panel sees that the existing directors worked in an environment where there was no scrutiny, loyalty appeared to be not to the company. existing directors should resign at the earliest possible opportunity. >> olympus dismissed woodford as ceo in october after he raised questions about dubious transactions related to corporate buyouts. >> for more on the report, here are the details. >> the panel concluded the cover-up began in the late 1990s. it became clear at the time that the japanese government was going to introduce new accounting standards. businesses will be required to disclose losses on investments.

panel members say executives at olympus were worried they would be damaged if they reviewed the losses. so the report says they hid them. according to this report, investigators say a former auditor and former vice president mori oversaw the coverup and the panel says that they kept the former presidents apprised. both of them deny involvement. yet they held power for years. no one could object to their decisions. internal checks and balances failed. the cover-up remains under wraps. the panel concluded that all executives who were involved in this fraud should resign and face the consequences. >> translator: the report has revealed that the executives and

the auditors tacitly approved the irregularities committed by some. the fate of the company depends on how much the top executives and board members can change their approach. >> the new board is expected to meet on wednesday. they expect to focus on whether the company accountants can finish their mid-summer earnings report by the december 14th deadline. if they don't, olympus could be delisted from the tokyo stock exchange. the company faces delisting if they decide it caused serious losses to investors. of course, we are waiting to see if this develops into a criminal case. authorities in japan and elsewhere have already started investigating. this case is putting pressures on other japanese companies to reflect on their own corporate governance.

>> the euro zone faced a challenge after a warning by a rating agency to downgrade the credit of the member nations. tell me more about that. >> standard & poor's, the leading u.s. credit rating agency will review the rating of the bailout fund and if it is downgraded the fund will lose ability to raise money. the agency made the announcement on tuesday one day after it said it might downgrade 15 this nations. standard & poor's says it will place the fund's aaa rating on negative watch. the fund is the european financial stability facility and issues bonds. the money raised is used to provide aide aid to member companies. germany and france have the highest rating. the fund has a lending capacity of 440 billion year rows or $590

billion. the u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner urged the nations to work together to improve their fiscal problems. he met with the german minister in berlin ahead of the eu summit in brussels. >> i'm in europe to emphasize how important is it to the united states and the world economy as a whole that germany and france succeed in building a stronger europe. >> he stated the importance of gaining approval for a france-german proposal aimed at stemming the region's credit problems. geithner will meet with the french and italian leaders. the european union has launched an antitrust probe against apple and five major publishers over

the pricing of electronic books. the eu says agreements between the publishers and apple prohibit competition and allow book sellers to fix prices. the eu suspects the deals breech antitrust law. the publishers include harper colins, penguin books and a french company. in march eu authorities conducted onsite inspections in the subsidiaries in the block. is it the first antitrust investigation in the e-book market. share prizes are rising in tokyo following an overnight gain in new york. the nikkei is at 8,423. observers say that investors are buying shares hoping that eu leaders will come up with

measures against the debt crisis during a summit that begins on friday. this follows standard & poor's announcement on a possible downgrade. the dollar remains unchanged against the yen. the euro is now 104.09 to 15 yen. our sources say that investors are on the sidelines prior to the eu summit. here is a look at the interest rates. the yield on the japanese government bond is currently unchanged. brazil on emerging market is now seeing its economic growth come to a halt. the country's gross domestic product was stagnant in the third quarter. the national stock markets agency said that personal consumption which covers 60% of

gdp shrank a tenth of a percent due to government monetary tightening measures. capital investment fell 0.2% as the economic outlook worsened due to concerns on european debt troubles. brazil predicts its growth will fall to the 3% level for 2011. that is a drop from 7.5% marked in the previous year. once again let's see where the markets are trading.

that's all in business. it's back to catherine now. ministers are rolling up their sleeves in south africa to decide what to do after the kyoto protocol expires next year. forward nhk world reports from durbin. >> without exaggeration, we can say the future of our planet is at stake. people's lives, the health of the global economy, the very survival of some nations. >> reporter: in the opening statement of the ministerial meeting, they urged countries to move forward in stand still negotiations. they have been discussing how to agree on legally binding

fraywork to reduce co 2 emissions after 2012. the question is, when does it start and who will take part? developing nations want the kyoto protocol to continue. >> the continuation of the kyoto protocol is the cornerstone of our efforts in erasing climate change. >> reporter: european delegates have said they can setheir targets on the kyoto protocol even after 2012. but they would have to agree to a new deal. they are insisting the legally-binding framework include all major emitters to be launched as early as 2020. the head of chinese delegations suggested on monday that they might join a new framework after 2020. meanwhile, japan's environment minister also made a new proposal.

he called for an agreement on a new deal as early as possible even before 2020. >> translator: the important thing is that we create a framework under which all countries are committed to take action. >> reporter: he will make a speech about his proposal on wednesday. he will try to seek support for his idea through talks with major players. any proposal that does away with the kyoto protocol will be a hard sell for developing nations. it's still not clear how this new japanese approach will affect negotiations. with three days to go, countries have started to show new positions. whether this will lead to a breakthrough remains to be seen. nhk world, durbin.

suicide bombers have killed 60 people in two separate attacks in afghanistan. most were celebrating a muslim festival. the first went off in kabul around noon. 60 people were killed. shortly after, a bicycle bomb exploded near a shiite shrine. the two were filled with worshippers. it marks the martyrdom of the prophet muhammad's grandson hussain. karzai says is it the first time that a terrorist attack had taken place in afghanistan on an important religious day. the arrests of opposition supporters were made for the third day. the opposition protests followed a rally in a moscow square on

tuesday by young supporters of russia's governing party. opposition party supporters clashed with police who were cracking down on unauthorized gatherings. police detained over 3 people including the leader of social lib yal party and another opposition party executive who served as first deputy prime minister under boris yelton. and medved spoke about video clips about fraud that were found online. he said they could have been fabricated. belgium's new cabinet has been sworn in after 1 1/2 years of deadlock. the cabinet members took an oath in front of king albert ii at the palace in brussels on tuesday.

belgium had a caretaker government since the general election in june last year as the dutch-speaking north and the french-speaking south were unable to form a coalition government. but last week a u.s. credit rating agency downgraded their sovereign bonds creating a sense of crisis among the six political parties. they finally agreed to form a coalition government. >> translator: the government has a lot of things to do for the public, such as rebuilding the pension system. and the country's finances. >> the french-speaking socialist will make his diplomatic debut at an eu summit on thursday. people in thailand are struggling to get by four months after the start of devastating floods. many areas are still underwater. the disturbance is taking its

toll in an estimated 5 million people. nhk world reports from bangkok. >> reporter: 400 pumps work around the clock trying to remove flood waters from bangkok. but the task seems never ending. water quality has severely deteriorated. there appears infectious diseases may spread. the government sent health inspectors to affected areas. >> translator: the water has grown so bad even aquatic creatures can't live. >> reporter: this is a temporary clinic for people in inundated areas. many patients have skin diseases

from coming into contact with polluted water. >> translator: i told my daughter to be careful but she got a skin disease while playing in muddy water. >> translator: if the water quality continues to worsen i'm afraid more people will get infections. >> reporter: many districts remain cut off. this area about 50 kilometers west of bangkok is still under water one meter deep. residents of flooded farms have to live up stairs and it's hard for them to get out. this is one of them. his first daughter was born a few days after the flooding started. >> translator: these are the bags of food dropped by government helicopters.

>> reporter: the government provided baby formula as well but they can't feed their child without clean water. >> translator: i never expected this to happen. i don't know what to do. >> reporter: as this crisis drags on, the pressure is on the thai government to prevent the infections from spreading. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. "nuclear watch" brings insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis and "the road ahead" examines efforts to recover and rebuild.

don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "newsline." a major japanese food company says it will replace 4,000 cans of powdered milk for free after samples were found to contain radioactive substances. 38 becquerels per kilogram was found in powdered milk produced between march 14th and march 20th, below the government safety limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram, but they decided to replace all the powdered milk it produced during that period. the product was tested after consumers questioned its safety last month. all the powdered skim milk used as a base for the recalled product was processed before the march 11th disaster. some came from hokkaido in northern japan and a large amount was imported from australia. the final product was processed in a facility near tokyo after

mar 11th -- march 11th. meiji says radioactive cesium from the fukushima daiichi plant may have entered the facility when it was vented during the drying process. tokyo electric power company has confirmed that radioactive water leaked from the fukushima daiichi plant into the sea. spokespersons say the 150 liters of water contained strontium which has been leaked to bone cancer. the water leaked from cracks in a desalination device. they detected strontium from a gutter near the building. the gutter drains into the pacific ocean. experts say that strontium accumulates in the bones once inside the body. it has properties similar to calcium and releases radiation for a long time. one type of strontium, strontium 90, has a half life of 29 years. tepco spokespersons apologized

for the leak but said it is likely to have little effect on the environment. engineers have checked the safety of nuclear power plants located near mountains in western japan. here is the report from kobe. >> reporter: this facility is e defense, the government-backed nuclear safety organization has been testing the country's nuclear pour plants. in tuesday's experiment, engineers created a 3.8 meter high hill using 200 tons of rock and soil. but why? because nuclear power plants in japan are often built on narrow stretches of coastal land carved from surrounding mountains. so the hill is representative of the nuclear power plants across the country. the safety organization says more than half of japan's nuclear plants are located near such mountain slopes.

landslides could damage the reactors. the experiment starts. the hill was made to shake on the same wavelength as a major earthquake that struck off niigata prefecture, central japan, in 2007. and it does not collapse. >> translator: the purpose of this experiment is to obtain data needed to calculate possible damage. i believe that we were able to get a worthy result. >> reporter: the japan nuclear energy safety organization plans to use data from the experiment to draw up safety guidelines. tetsutaro soe, nhk world, kobe. unsettled weather dominates europe and asia.

>> welcome back to your weather update. let's look at what is happening in east asia. most of eastern china and taiwan are looking at wet conditions. winds could pick up tonight. and the wet and windy conditions could develop and affect the southern islands of japan tonight. up to the north and northwestern flank of japan is con tedding with a mix of rain and snow. in hokkaido we are anticipating 30 sent meters of snow by thursday morning. the eastern coast may see a mix of rain and snow today. down in the south remaining very wet avoss vietnam. we are concerned additional risks of flooding and landslides. temperature wise we are expecting 13 degrees in tokyo

and 6 in seoul and 31 in manila with a chance of showers. in the americas we are seeing a long rain band from the deep south region all the way up to eastern canada spreading heavy rain. we are expecting 50 millimeters of rain in the next 24 hours. the system has been moving slowly. the rainfall total could be significant. across the lower appalachians you could see heavy snow up to 20 centimeters or more. in northeastern canada and new england it will continue to see a mix of rain and snow as well as freezing rain into wednesday. up in the north an area of cold and blustery conditions is moving southward over ontario and quebec. but elsewhere it will remain largely dry under a high pressure testimony. just a few snow showers moving through the northern plains.

temperature wise, minus 2348 winnipeg and 2 in chicago. in denver cooler than average but warmer than tuesday. and in california, strong santa ana winds are winding down overnight. we are expecting 20 degrees in los angeles. finally in europe it's wet and windy again across most of the european countries. a new atlantic system is producing wet and windy conditions in the british isles. heavy snowfall warnings in effect across the area and wind can across the northern portion of ireland. meanwhile most of continental europe is staying very windy. winds over 60 kilometers per hour were recorded in a wide area. in southern germany winds could hit 150. those windy conditions could

persist throughout wednesday. rain and snow showers will continue across europe and down to the south a mix of rain and snow is -- i should say heavy rain is moving across the balkan peninsula and turkey. we are expecting 0 degrees in moscow and 2 in warsaw. and 17 in lisbon. i will leave you now with your extended forecast. ♪

i will leave you now with you that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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