here in japan, it's 7:00 p.m. on a monday. i'm james tengan in tokyo. welcome to "newsline." three scientists including one japanese have won the nobel prize for physiology or medicine. campbell and tu share the award. >> the 2015 nobel prize in physiology and medicine with

one-half jointed to william c. campbell and mura for their discoveries concerning therapy againstnfections caused by roundworm parasites and the other half to tu for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria. >> omura and campbell discovered a new drug. its derivatives radically lower the ips dense of river blindness and lymphatic. it is also effective against a growing number of other parasitic diseases. two discovered a drug called artimicenin. it lowers mortality rates for malaria sufferers. omura is the 23rd nobel prize winner born in japan and the third japanese to win in the category of physiology or medicine after yamuraka won in 2012. top officials are going down to the wire on a major trade

deal. gene otani joins us with more and a wrap-up of the business headlines. gene. >> james, thanks. ministers from 12 countries including japan are negotiating to create one of the world's largest regional trade zones. they've spent six days in atlanta trying to reach a broad agreement on the transpacific partnership. officials of member countries have been making last-minute efforts all night as they try to resolve remaining differences ahead of monday's final ministerial session. japanese government officials say coordinating the agreement has taken more time than they expected. but they say the member countries are making progress. the 12 ministers are expected to hold a news conference after the final ministerial session on monday morning. >> my sense is there is no deal breakers. i don't feel that there is a motive within the group to complete this historic deal. >> the u.s. and australia have

agreed on an exclusive rights for biological medicines. their dispute has been one of the biggest hurdles. another gap remains on auto-related matters. but in broad terms, japan, the u.s. and other countries have reached a conssus. asian markets showed some strength following a weak jobs report out of the u.s. last week. tokyo stocks recovered to the 18,000 level for the first time in about two weeks. for the details, we go to our business reporter, yan nguyen, at the tokyo stock exchange. >> reporter: here in tokyo, markets rallied after u.s. jobs data came in well below estimates on friday. many now speculate that the federal reserve won't raise its key rates any time soon. and hopes in the tpp talks also helped investor sentiment. take a look at the closing levels this monday. th nikkei surpassed the 18,000 mark, adding almost 1.6% to

finish at 18,005. the broader topix index gained 1.3%. shares rose in companies that benefit from a tpp deal. hino motors led, up 4.5%. prima meat packers up 6%. investors also bought trading houses like itochu, betting that global trade would benefit from the deal. deregulation could help pharmaceuticals as well. shionogi up 3%. a strong start to the week. let's see if that sentiment holds with the bank of japan meeting this week. some analysts speculate that the boj may ease its monetary policy as early as this month. giang nguyen reporting from the tokyo stock exchange. >> all right, giang, thanks. in many other markets in the region advanced on speculation that the fed may delay rate hikes. in indonesia, the jakarta composite jumped 3.2%.

that's the biggest one-day gain in nearly six weeks. banking shares led the rally. in hong kong, the hang seng index added 1.6%. it rose for a third straight day, hitting its highest close in more than two weeks. all sectors higher. mumbai gained by 2.15%, extending its winning streak to a fourth day. singapore was up more than 2%. seoul's kospi rose 0.4%. markets in mainland china remain closed until wednesday. here's a look at our global economic calendar for this week. on tuesday, officials at the u.s. commerce department will release august trade data. the trade deficit in july fell to its lowest level in five months as exports rose. on wednesday, policymakers at the bank of japan will wrap up their two-day policy meeting. the focus is whether the central bank will introduce further monetary easing. on thursday, japan's machinery orders for august will be out. the orders in july fell 3.6%

from the month before. that's the second straight decline. on the same day, we'll have the minutes of the u.s. federal reserve policy meeting held last month. market players are eagerly waiting for the details of the discussion on interest rates. every monday we ask specialists to share their views on the coming week. chief economist gave us her thoughts on the j policy meeting. >> the weak economic data, trade data and industry production data, and it is becoming more clear that japanese economy is facing a downside risk in the near term. but having said that, the boj will likely wait and see how much the gdp number is going to contract for the third quarter this year. so i would say that bo j-will wait for the time being and then move to the next step only after they see the third quarter gdp

comes out november this year. if the gdp numbers for the third quarter comes out weaker than expected, i think that boj will likely take additional action in november or january next year at the latest. >> she says the fact that the central bank is still struggling to hit its inflation target of 2% makes further monetary easing very likely. >> i think that the boj is likely to ramp down its inflation forecast at the october meeting. so that should promote the boj to rethink about the additional easing measures. possible easing measures is increase the buying pace of the jgb from the current face to, let's say, around 101 trillion yen. at the same time, the boj will they'd to think about extending the creation of the jgb to hold

by the bank of japan. so i think that the increase amount of the jgb buying and the extending of the jgb is a likely option for the boj. on the other hand, regarding the reducing the interest rate on excess reserves, i don't think that it's a likely option for the boj. here's a look at some of the other business stories we're following. eurozone retail sales remained flat in august. officials at the statistical office of the european union said sales in the 19-country currency bloc are unchanged from july. analysts expected a 0.1% drop. consumers spent more on automotive fuel, food and beverages, but they paid less for nonfood products such as clothing and electrical goods. officials at japan's economy ministry say the demand for crude steel is likely to fall 3.7% from the same period a year ago.

this will mark the fifth consecutive quarr of decline. the ministry attributes the drop to weak demand from ship builders and construction machinery makers. the machinery firms are seeing a slump -- a sales slump in china. the world bank is predicting slower growth for east asia. it says 14 economies in the region as a whole will expand 6.5% in 2015, down 0.3 percentage points from last year. the countries include china and southeast asian nations but not japan. economists at the bank issued the forecast on must be. they cite sluggishness in the chinese economy as well as falling prices of resources in malaysia and indonesia. the economists say vietnam will probably buck the trend due to robust investment by private sector firms. they also say the philippines will see steady growth on the back of strong domestic demand. as for next year, the world bank officials predict a further

slowdown throughout east asia. they predict growth of no higher than 6.4% for 2016 as china will likely continue to gradually lose steam. the bank officials are recommending additional regulatory restoforms so that growth can be maintained. and a correction, in earlier reports we said the growth forecast for 2016 was 6.3%. the correct figure is 6.4%. we apologize for the error. that's it for business news. i'll leave you with the markets.

workers have completed another step in the decades-long decommissioning of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. they have removed the ceiling of a protective cover from a badly damaged reactor building. on monday the workers used a remote-controlled crane to lift the last ceiling panel over the cover of the number 1 reactor. the plant's operator, tokyo electric power company, wants to start removing the nearly 400 units of nuclear fuel rods inside the storage pool. debris left untouched since the 2011 accident can be seen. the cover was installed to prevent radioactive particles from escaping. workers began removing the first of the six ceiling panels in july. tepco officials say they've detected no increase in radiation levels around the reactor building since the work began. >> translator: we still have a long way to go in dismantling

the rest of the cover. we would like to move forward while placing top priority on safety. >> the officials say they need to remove the debris and dismantle the rest of the cover before they begin extracting the spent fuel. a new social security and tax system known as my number kicked off in japan. local officials are preparing to send identification numbers out to millions of people. every resident in the country will receive temporary cards with their 12-digit number by the end of november. local governments will use the numbers for social security, tax records and disaster responses. officials across japan are working on explaining the new system. they insist that personal information leaked to the individual numbers is protected. japanese teenagers are set to embrace politics. the government has revealed a plan to end its longtime ban on political activities by high school students outside of the classroom. nhk world explains.

>> translator: it's good that the voting age will be 18 instead of 20 so more people can express themselves politically. >> translator: i don't know. politics seem to difficult. >> reporter: japan's diet approved a bill to lower the voting age from 20 to 18 in june. now the education ministry says high school students will be allowed to be politically active out of school as long as their schoolwork is not affected. the government ban dates back to campus protests decades ago. in 1969, the education ministry said political activity by students would negatively affect their education. the fear was that university riots would spread through high schools. high schools already teach classes on japan's political stem and civic studies.

but the ministry says the classes are focused on evaluating academic abilities, leaving little time to learn working knowledge. from june next year, some 2.4 million 18 to 19-year-olds will join the ranks of eligible voters. policymakers expect a low turnout rate among young people to pick up. high schools are already preparing students for the big change. some have practiced mock voting in class. students discuss real political issues and vote for actual parties. a new textbook on the electrosystem will be distributed to all high school students by the end of the year. however, the education ministry still bans political activity in schools and demands the teachers be neutral.

>> translator: an essential point is that high school students must be given a chance to have concrete political experiences. the students' independence and political activity should be respected. >> reporter: japan now joins other countries worldwide that allow citizens to vote from the age of 18. after decades of being apolitical, getting young people to exercise their new rights remains a challenge. nhk world. islamic state militants have added to their trail of destruction in the ancient syrian city of palmyra. ministers say the militants have blown up the roman era arch of triumph. the arch was at the entrance to palmyra, a unesco world heritage site.

it was considered a symbol of the city and featured decor showing influences from both east and west. palmyra thrived in ancient times thanks to the east/west trade route called the silk road. members of the militant group have destroyed temples and tombs since they captured palmyra in may. syrian government troops have stepped up their offensive against the militants. last week russian military forces began airstrikes in syria. japanese government officials have asked their counterparts in bangladesh for a swift probe into the killing of a japanese man. islamic state militants are suspected of murdering 66-year-old hoshi. hoshi was shot dead in northern ngladesh on saturday. an affiliate of the islamic state militant group has claimed responsibility. the same group said it also carried out the fatal shooting last week of an italian man in the capital. but the prime minister says there is no evidence that islamic state is operating in the country.

a japanese school in dhaka has suspended classes following the killing. japan's ambassador met bangladesh's interior minister on sunday. since ancient times, people in egypt have depended on the life-living waters of the nile river, but the demand for this precious resource is growing steadily. efforts are under way to ensure the water reaches as many farmers as possible. nhk world reports. >> reporter: covering some 6,700 kilometers, the nile is one of the longest rivers in the world. the riverbanks are lined with rice fields. generations of rice farmers have worked here. and now many are fearful for their future. >> translator: it's been getting

worse. in recent years, i've only been getting very little water. every year my harvests have been shrinking by one-third. >> reporter: one cause of the problem is the rapid population growth. two-thirds of egyptians are under 30, and the population is growing by a million people each year. to meet the extra demand for food, agriculture projects are spreading into the desert. the country now has 30% more farmland than 20 years ago. but the new farmers are using up water resources, and there is less available to irritate the land that has been cultivated for centuries. egypt's government wants to find ways to use its water resources efficiently. so it sought help from japan

international cooperation agency. last year it began measuring water usage. they found lower regions of the nile are not getting enough water because too much is being taken out by farmers upstream. on the basis of this study villagers are deciding how much water they can use. >> translator: up to now, farmers would estimate the amount of water left by looking at the water level. since conducting this study, we can perform more accurate calculations. >> reporter: in addition, farmers upstream are stretching from rice as less water is needed. >> translator: we're not growing rice this year, so we're not using so much water.

these days, everyone is being more frugal with water. >> reporter: the water shortage has caused other problems downstream. this rice looks so good, but actually, farmers are suffering from the quality. >> reporter: to make up for the lack of water, farmers have been using domestic wastewater. to improve the situation in this village, jica has built a small wastewater treatment facility. it improves the quality of the wastewater enough that it can be used for farming. the lal people are also coming up with their own initiatives for tackling this problem. one villager is encouraging people not to throw garbage into the river by making a weekly

pickup from homes where there is no trash collection. >> translator: every drop of water is life itself. i will keep teaching my children to treasure the water from the nile. >> reporter: since ancient times, the waters of the nile have brought egypt's civilization. now more than ever steps are needed to conserve its water. nhk world. >> thanks very much, yugi. currently in cairo near the mouth of the nile, it's sunny with a temperature reading of 77 degrees fahrenheit or 25 degrees celsius. sayaka mori joins us starting with conditions in china. sayaka. >> yes, the typhoon caused massive tornadoes over southeastern portions of china and tornadoes in october in guangdong is rare and the time when it's the strongest in 60 years to hit guangdong directly.

now the system has weakened to a tropical depression. still packing lots of moisture. that's because more heavy rainfall. some areas have been 270 millimeters of rainfall already. an additional 120 or even 180 millimeters likely. that's why we still have warnings for heavy rain posted in the provinces. now, across the opposite side, we are looking at a very wet weather over the water. we have a tropical storm. it's packing wind gusts of 126 kilometers. it's over the waters, and it's large. quite large system. and it's expected to move up to the north while intensifying. the system will likely affect eastern portions of japan, especially hokkaido, as we go into thursday afternoon. so high waves expected across the eastern portions of japan. now, we are looking at cold weather. it's coming to the continent. take a look at this. ulan bator, your high will be 18 on tuesday. but down to three degrees on

wednesday. you may even see some snowfall, and the cold air will affect harbin on thursday, and that will move into hokkaido into the latter part of this week. now, looking at very messy conditions across the southeaste portions of the united states. historic flooding is happening. i want to take you to south carolina to show on you the very bad situation out there. heavy rain continuing to grip south carolina on sunday. flooding streets in the cities of columbia and charleston. this footage shows people needed to be rescued from deep water. the flood has already caused at least five deaths, washed out roads and prompted evacuations. now, columbia, the capital city of the state, 170 millimeters of rainfall in just one day. that's on sunday. that's a record wet day for you. and more wet weather expected. for you, here's why. we still have a low-pressure system across the southeast. and also hurricane joaquin is sending up moisture from the ocean and high-pressure system

is bringing cooler and wet weather across the north. so the moisture, it's gathered across the carolinas, bringing more wet weather. we're looking at more rain to continue at least into monday. but finally, sunny weather will come back on tuesday across many areas of south carolina. now, let's go down to guatemala. heavy rain caused mudslides across guatemala on thursday, killing at 130 people and 350 people are missing. more wet weather is expected on monday. that will hamper the recovery operation. but finally, sunny weather will come back on tuesday. and serious flooding happened across southeastern portions of france, too. take a look at this video from france. at least 16 people were killed in violent storms and flooding in southeastern france overnight saturday. three people are still missing. about 180 millimeters of rain fell in just three hours at the height of the stormy weather. now, good news is that the heavy rainmaker has pulled away.

however, more rain is expected because this low-pressure system is moving into the western continent as we go into the next couple of days. so we're looking at more rainfall, at least into tuesday. all right. that's it from me for now. here's your extended forecast.

our top story once again, three scientists including one japanese have won the nobel prize for physiology or medicine. omura, campbell and tu share the award. >> the 2015 nobel prize in physiology and medicine with one-half jointed to william c. campbell and satosha omura. and the other half to yuyu tu for he discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.

>> omura and irish-born campbell discovered a new drug. its derivatives radically lower the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic. it is also effective against a growing number of other parasitic diseases. tu, a chinese scientist, discovered a drug. it lowers mortality rates for malaria sufferers. their discoveries will enable medical personnel to fight diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually more effectively. omura is professor emeritus of a university. he has discovered over 400 bioactive compounds from microorganisms. many have been developed as highly effective drugs. omura told nhk on the phone that he wonders whether he really deserves the prize. he's the 23rd nobel prize winner born in japan. and he's the third japanese to win in the category of physiology or medicine after yamanaka won in 2012.

"newsline" will keep you updated on the nobel prize announcements. stay tuned for "newsroom tokyo" live at the top of the hour. for all of us here on ú