kaho iz ma ta knee, nhk world. >> thanks for that report kaho. >>> chinese leaders have been working hard. now they're seeing signs that things are getting better in some parts of the country. let's go to gene otani on the business desk for all the details on that story. >> james, there seems to be a rural and urban divide in terms of where the prices are actually going. government officials know they have to get the housing market back on track for the sake of the economy. they've been trying all kinds of things to encourage people to buy. and recently they've started seeing some promising signs. officials in may recorded increases in new home prices in some of the cities that take part in a regular survey. but they say the turnaround was mostly limited to big cities suggesting a widening gap between more wealthy urban areas and the rest of the country. and the survey suggests the outlook remains uncertain. officials at the national bureau of statistics say the number of cities that recorded a month on month rise was up 2 to 20. the number that saw prices fall was down by 5 to 43. e

kaho izumitani, nhk world. >>> it's time to check in on the world weather. strong storms hit the united states causing travel problems and power outages. let's go to meteorologist jonathan oh with more. >> hello. we have been watching this cold front that's been moving across the united states. it has a history of causing some problems. earlier in the week we had a cold front pushing into the east bringing tornadoes. not good for the chicagoland area. now the front is pushing towards the east and now it's slamming into warm air from the south. that produced even more problems as we went through the day tuesday. let me show you video. very ominous looking clouds here as powerful thunderstorms impacted the region tuesday. here in new jersey you can see here the rain just pouring down in voluminous amounts. this caused problems for train travel flights, and also power problems. thousands of homes lost electricity because of this. the storm also causing some areas up to 25 millimeters of rain per hour at 113 kilomer per hour gusts. also including baltimore and w

kaho izutani, nhk world. >>> health officials in south korea say three more people have died from the illness known as mers. that brings the number of deaths in the country to 19. authorities at the health ministry said the latest victims were three men aged 65 58 and 49. they were being treated for infections before they died. officials have also confirmed four new cases. all the patients contracted the disease while they were in hospitals. that brings the total number of cases to 154. authorities are making an effort to keep people up to date about the outbreak. they're reaching out to foreigners who are looking for more information. >> translator: we're expanding our multi-lingual hotline. we'll be launching it in those two languages at 9:00 in the morning on thursday. >> government officials say 5500 people have been quarantined at home or in facilities. that includes japanese national who is have now returned to japan. none of them have shown any symptoms of the disease. japan's foreign minister fumio kawaii -- kishida. >> translator: we don't know of any being suspected with bei