be big news for tokyo. the city has hosted the summer games before, back in 1964. >>> firefighters are working their way through a tunnel in central japan. they believe four people may be trapped inside. workers were building a road through a mountain when something blew up. rescue crews say the tunnel is filled with flammable gas. so they're proceeding with caution. the explosion took place in the city of minamiuonuma. police say the force threw workers at the tunnel's entrance off their feets. officers say stones and concrete hit three of them. doctors are treating the injured in the hospital. >> translator: i heard a loud sound. i thought it was a large explosion. >> people at the scene are still trying to figure out what caused the blast. spokesperson for land and infrastructure ministry say the workers were not using any explosives. a rescue team of ten equipped with oxygen tanks entered the tunnel while checking the density of the flammable gas inside but ran out of oxygen on their first attempt and w

i'm gene otani in tokyo. .

it took engineers nine years to plan and build the tokyo sky tree. now the result of their work is being shown to an excited public. ticketholders became the first ones to head partway up the 634-meter broadcasting tower to check out its observation decks. those without tickets are enjoying the other things this facility has to offer. officials held an opening ceremony earlier tuesday. tokyo sky tree has two panoramic observation decks and one is 350 meters above the ground. the other is 450 meters. the woman who won the contest to name the structure got a personalized tour before the public was allowed in. >> translator: i've been waiting for this day. i wouldn't see the view because of bad weather. but i was moved to be able to look down from here. >> 8,000 people won a lottery to visit tokyo sky tree on its opening day. the tower's operator issued tickets for the first 50 days to keep numbers under control. the new landmark and the complex around it have more than 300 shops and restaurants an aquarium and a planetarium. 200,000 people are expected

at the disasr management center. >> reporter: tokyo is prepared for the worst. that has yet to conduct a full-scale simulatn -- the march 2011 earthquake led to -- >> keeping command and control centers functional is a key to preventing disaster. >>> the united states has expressed concern to china over reports that relatives of human rights activist cheng juan chen have been detained. >> we have had contact with chinese authorities about these concerning reports. beyond that, we are awaiting further information on some of these issues. >> chen is receivingreatment in a beijing hospital. the blind activist says he wants to go to the u.s. the chinese government says he can leave the country for study purposes. new york university has invited chen to be a visiting scholar and urged the government to let him leave for the u.s. the united states plans to ask china to expedite chen's departure. >>> myanmar and europe are working to deepen ties. the lower house speaker has visited eu headquarters for the first time since it suspended all sanctions against the country.

from the tokyo stock exchange. this just in for you. japan's trade balance in april was in the red for a second straight month. the finance ministry said in its preliminary report on wednesday morning that japan's trade deficit was about $6.5 billion. exports were up for a second month in a row. that's almost an 8% rise from a year earlier in yen terms. it's mainly due to an increase in shipments of autos and automotive parts. however, imports, too, rose 8%, due to a rise in liquefied natural gas and crude oil. and that follows the shutdown of nuclear power plants across the country in the wake of the fukushima daiichi accident last year. >>> all right. more on the trade balance as the day progresses. now, separately, an international survey on overall happiness in life has found that japan ranks 21, and that's among 36 industrial emerging nations. the organization released the results on tuesday. japan is rated the safest country of all, because very few people reported falling victim to crimes. the country even ranked second and mathe

as for the high 23 degrees in tokyo. we could be seeing some light showers this afternoon. 27 in seoul. and 21 in chongqing with showers and 35 degrees in bangkok with thundershowers. all right. that's it for me now. and here is your extend forecast. >>> our lead story this hour -- negotiators from six western nations and iran are locked in a stalemate over the iranian nuclear program. they've agreed to meet again in miss cow next month. the leaders round of negotiations ended in baghdad a day later than scheduled. western negotiators demanded that iranian scientists stop enriching uranium to 20%. beyond that point, scientists can quickly concentrate the material to weapons grade. >> it's cle that we both want to make progress and that there is some common ground. however, significant differences remain. >> iranian delegates demanded that u.s. and european officials lift some economic sanctions. >> translator: iran has the right to enrich uranium and generate nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. >> negotiators are tryin

tokyo, very cool. 15 degrees. as we've been reporting, tokyo sky tree will open today, but it may be surrounded by clouds. now, heading over to the americas, we are keeping an eye on tropical storm alberto, which is still sitting off the southeast coast of the u.s. it's likely to move away from mainland u.s. and could become a remnant low by your wednesday morning. however, dangerous surf and rip currents should remain along the southeast coast through monday. as we pull back, wet conditions across the eastern section of the u.s. and canada, and out toward the west, there are a couple of low-pressure systems moving along the u.s./canada border. things will turn quite severe in parts of the northern plains. thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail are possible on your tuesday. down toward the south, severe weather can be found in parts of texas as well as eastern oklahoma tonight. temperature wise, still on the hot side across the southern u.s. and northern mexico. and even denver will be seeing a very hot day. 34 degre

operators of the world's tallest tower light up the structure on its opening day in tokyo. welcome to nhk world "newsline." the hottest tourist attraction in japan is also the highest, the tokyo sky tree, 634 meters tall, two observation decks and stunning panoramic views. thousands of people lined up to head up the tower on opening day and for those who didn't have a ticket, that didn't stop them from celebrating. nhk world's rina nakano has the story. >> reporter: these people already have reservations to go up the sky tree but that didn't stop them from lining up hours before the opening. their goal, to be the first of the first. >> translator: i never get to climb up that high. that's why i'm curious to see how it feels up there. >> we didn't go on our honeymoon last year because of the earthquake so we decided to make this. >> reporter: it took engineers nine years to build the tokyo sky tree from the blueprint phase to opening day. the tower has two observation decks, one at 350 meters and the other at 450 meters. people who climb it say despite the bad weather, it's

so will tokyo markets have a little breather today? >> well, tokyo stocks were battered on tuesday, but we could be seeing a bit of an upside today. overnight in new york, the dow jones closed at a fresh high in four years and four months, spurred by favorable manufacturing data. for more we go to the tokyo stock exchange where ramin is standing by. good morning you to. after discouraging figures out of the u.s., an upturn for the market. >> definitely, good morning to you. the ism manufacturing data in the u.s. really gave an excuse for market players to pile back into the markets. we saw that pushing the dow as well as the s&p 500 higher, as well. and that's after the bumpy ride that we saw in april with some heavy losses. so really just one trading day left here in the holiday-shortened weekend in japan. let's look at the opening levels for this wednesday morning. looking at the nikkei and the topix, you see as you said, a bit of a rebound this morning. both indices trading a touch higher as you also mentioned there. the nikkei did

so to see how stocks are trading here in tokyo, let's go to ramin mellegard, who is at the tokyo stock exchange. ramin, what can you tell us? >> very good morning to you, ai. yes, a lot of concern there about what's happening in greece and a possible exit from the eurozone but not only that, we've also had the downgrade of a lot of spanish and italian banks. look at the opening levels for this friday for the nikkei and the topix and we've actually broken below another key level. you can see there, 8,700 -- 8,694 now, down 2%. nikkei really having a tough time this week, despite a little bit of positive economic data, yesterday's gdp numbers showing a third straight quarterly growth number, which actually spurred some market confidence in japan. yesterday we did see a little bit of a rebound across a lot of sectors which had been sold off heavily earlier in the week but there is hesitancy in the markets over in europe and we're seeing that directly translated into markets as well. now the euro, of course, has been heavily affected by all of this. let's have a look at some of the currenc

i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do join us again.

tokyo expecting up towards about 25 degrees. this is mainly due also to a westerly wind coming across the japanese alps here. it slides down the eastern slopes, and warms up. that's what's bringing this very warm weather. accompanied by some low humidities, though. what this is going to be causing, going into thursday, and especially into friday, is colliding with cooler air coming in from the north. and it will be bringing the threat of some thunderstorms, strong at times across much of eastern japan, even expanding off to the north. down towards the southern portions of japan into the japanese isles, you're expecting rough weather going into the next several details. the next 24 hours, 120 millimeters of rainfall could be expected there in okinawa, and in taiwan in the past 24 hours you have seen upwards of 111 millimeters of rainfall. this is bringing the threat of land slides and flash flooding, especially into the low-lying valleys here. much of the tropics, remaining scattered thunderstorms across much of the region here.

in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. international forces invaded afghanistan more than a decade ago to target the taliban and al qaeda. now nato leaders are preparing for the end of the war that has claimed thousands of lives. soldiers, militants and civilians. they've reconfirmed their plan to wrap up their troops' combat role by the end of 2014. the leaders ended up a two-day summit monday in chicago. u.s. president barack obama says afghan forces will take the lead in combat operations across the country in 2013. >> there is real improvement in those areas where we've had a significant presence. you can see the taliban not having a foothold, that there is genuine improvement in the performance of afghan national security forces. >> obama and the other leaders decided to temporarily increase the number of afghan security personnel to 350,000. the size of the force will eventually be cut back to 230,000. nato members will continue to offer financial assistance to afghanistan after their troops pull out, but there are c

in tokyo, i'm catherine kobayashi. the leaders of japan and the united states are trying to show solidarity in the face of common challenges and common threats. prime minister yoshihiko noda and president barack obama met in washington and emphasized the importance of their country's decades-old alliance on maint n maintaining security in the asia pacific region. the leaders issued a joint statement monday following their talks. they titled it "a shared vision for the future." the document says the japan/u.s. alliance is peace, security and stability in the region. >> translator: the asia pacific region is at the center of the world's development, but at the same time, there are so unstable factors such as fears over north korea and the buildup of armaments over maritime disputes. we will realize the realignment of u.s. forces to strengthen the security of the region. >> obama calls the asia-pacific region strategically important and stresses the u.s. military presence there will be geographically distributed and opera

in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. the united states is renegotiating with c china over the fate of the chinese human rights activist chen quangcheng, who was transferred to a beijing hospital from the u.s. embassy there wednesday. the u.s. government announced chen would be moved to a safe location within the country reflecting his choice. the move was based on an agreement with china. on thursday, chen revealed his concerns to nhk in a telephone interview. >> he also said chinese authoritiy ies have set up seve new surveillance cameras at his home where his mother still lives. chen says the reassurances he got before leaving the embassy have not been kept and his rights are being violated. u.s. state department spokesperson victoria nuland said chen had a change of mind after half a day in the hospital. she added the u.s. government is rethinking its agreement with china and negotiating the possibility of chen and his family abroad. chinese government is trying to avoid a lengthy dispute that could accelerate demands

plenty of sunshine at 28 degrees here in tokyo. heading on into north america. severe storms have been impacting texas. we've had reports of large hail here. hail and gusty winds also reported in georgia, florida, and north carolina. you can see this front just stalled out across much of the atlantic coast. well, it's not going to be moving very far today. staying very wet and unstable with thunderstorms right up into the northeast. however, it is going to ease a little bit. so staying wet and unstable, but not quite as heavy as it was on your tuesday overnight. down towards the south, we have the first named system in the eastern pacific. this is a tropical storm moving west at 17 kilometers an hour. it will continue on its westerly path away from any land masses. and it is going to start to weaken off, becoming a remnant low by friday. that's certainly good news. but we'll still keep an eye on that one for you. still dry and clear across much of the rest of the continent. seeing a few thunderstorms popping up across the rockies. because it is very hot across m

for more in tokyo we have ramean melagard from the tokyo stocks exchange. what can you tell us at the open? >> thank you very much ai. french and german stocks ended high after opening lower. concerns after the french elections eased a little bit, but also hopes the spanish government will come up with measures to use public funds to help shore up its banking sector. in t u.s. the nasdaq didlose a touch higher. we saw gains for apple's shares while the dow was way down a little bit about shares in hewlett-packard and ibm weighing on that index. let's have a look at how things are kicking off here in tokyo. switching there to the nikkei and the topix boast indices are trading a touch higher this tuesday morning. the nikkei had the worst points last day this year yesterday, but it was mostly really catching up after the holidays that we had last week. so we're seeing a little bit of a rebou here. maybe a bing opptunity for some of those heavily sold off issues yesterday. athat that includes blue chip exports hit hard yesterday. we saw a reversal today from th

rain showers keeping it cool. 24 and a clear day in tokyo. once again a little bit chilly in ulan bator, 53 for the high. in america, let's check on beryl. it made landfall on jacksonville, florida on monday morning as a tropical storm, quickly downgraded to a tropical depression. has since u-turned and is moving out toward the atlantic once again. but it has to move through georgia and south carolina first. winds have died down. 45 kilometer-an-hour winds. these are not storm-force winds though it will feel very gusty near the system. however, the rain has been ongoing and will be ongoingor the next several days. as this system moves out over the water been it is likely to be invigorated by warmer waters getting out of the rough terrain of the land and become a tropical storm once again. keeping a very keen eye on this one. certainly in the next 24 hours you can see 80 to 100 millimeters of rain in places like south carolina. totals we are talking about from this system. maybe even reaching 400 millimeters. that's enough to cause significant

japanese finance minister met with the treasure secretary in tokyo. they agreed to seek the cooperation of their counterparts from china, brazil and other countries next month at the g-20 summit in los cabos, mexico. they want an additional $430 billion in bailout funds. the imf already won commitments from g-20 finance ministers and central bank governors. japanese leaders have announced $60 billion in additional loans. >>> a senior executive of u.s. bank jpmorgan chase is resigning. bungled trades cost the firm $2 billion in losses. ina drew headed the bank's investment strategy division. her employees botched trades on derivative financial products in an effort to hedge against risk. drew was regardedad one of the top female sxut executives on wall street. jpmorgan chase has not disclosed details of the trades that led to drew's resignation. but analysts suspect her group made the wrong bets on credit default swaps in london and other markets. those swap deals are used as an insurance against possible defaults on debt insured instruments. >>> the j

september 1st 1923, tokyo, japan.just before midday a massive earthquake struck japan's teeming capital city. thousands of buildings were flattened almost immediately killing or trapping a great many helpless people. worse was to follow as fires spread rapidly through the shattered city. tokyo's fire service was completely overwhelmed by the immensity of the disaster. it was estimated later that had the richter scale existed at the time, the earthquake would have measured between 7.9 and 8.3. the earthquake, which would become known as the great kanto earthquake, occurred deep beneath the seabed in sagami bay about 57 miles southeast of tokyo. the shockwaves struck the industrial port of yokohama in tokyo bay first, resulting in major structural damage and more than 200 fires. around 27,000 people would die in yokohama and 40,000 were injured. less than a minute after hitting yokohama the earthquake struck tokyo. here the devastation was even worse. 400,000 buildings were destroyed; at least 100,000 people killed and

here in tokyo. switching there to the nikkei and the topix boast indices are trading a touch higher this tuesday morning. the nikkei had the worst points last day this year yesterday, but it was mostly really catching up after the holidays that we had last week. so we're seeing a little bit of a rebound here. maybe a buying opportunity for some of those heavily sold off issues yesterday. ath that includes blue chip exports hit hard yesterday. we saw a reversal today from the yen's gains yesterday. let's have a look at the foreign currency levels. we can see exactly the picture there, especially with the the euro. if you look at the bottom of the screen there, 104.30 to 35. this was trading around 103 yesterday. so you see there the yen weakening a touch against the euro. as i said there, some concerns there easing a little bit after the french elections. so that's really the main picture as far as the stocks and currencies. ai. >> ramin some could you earnings reports due in japan as well, sinlt tha

i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tokyo. thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> it is

tokyo has the money. this is the most populous urban area in the world and the city's economy with only recently overtaken by the entire country of india. will the bullet train and subways and expressway, the infrastructure is in place and the olympic committee might feel after last year's earthquake in tsunami, awarding tokyo the olympics would be a good way of helping japan's recover. but what might count against toke you it is has hosted the game before in 1964 and with the winter olympics in 2018 due to take place in south korea, awarding the 2020 games to tokyo would mean two consecutive olympics taking place in the same part of the world. >> now here's some unusual question for you. what do you do if you want to expand railway but 120-year-old building is in the way? what do you do? if your answer is to move the entire building, 6,200 tons of it, well, that's right. that's what's happening to this city. it's been pushed very slowly to the west by engineers. you're watching "g.m.t." from "bbc world n

two americans under arrest right now in tokyo. they were taken into custody after a woman was found dead in one of the men's hotel rooms. cnn's key yon joining us from tokyo. you have been digging into this story. what can you tell us about the woman killed and how she died? >> reporter: well, we know she's 21-year-old nikola furlong. she's an exchange student from ireland who was studying here in japan just north of tokyo. tokyo police are telling us that she died of suffocation by cervical compression. that sounds like strangulation. what the kyoto news agency -- i'm sorry. on wednesday night when she and her friend were approached by two american men. they went to dinner after the concert. they ended up in a hotel at a party, drinking area, and then the police say she was found dead in a hotel room hours later with one of the americans. that's where the investigation is at this point. >> you mentioned she was an exchange student. what do we know about these two guys? were they students? about how old are they? >> we know that t

in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. in a last-ditch bid to avoid an election rerun, greece's president proposed forming a government of private sector technocrats. karolos papoulias. an ultra right party rejected the idea. the other leaders agreed to continue discussion. former finance minister, leader of the third place pasok said the negotiations would not be easy, but he wants to fulfill his responsibilities. the second place radical left coalition reiterated it will not join any government that pushes austerity measures. the ministers from 17 euro nations on monday urged greece to swiftly form a government that can implement austerity measures. the measures are a prerequisite for receiving new bailout funds. the political impasse in greece is casting growing uncertainty over the belt tightening program. >>> those uncertainties, of course, have worried investors over the last week. let's see how the markets are doing now. >>> people in okinawa are looking back and forward. residents of japan's southernmost prefecture

are they in touch with investigators or authorities there in tokyo? >> well, my understanding is that the irish embassy are looking after all of that, and they are keeping the family very much updated with any developments that are ongoing. >> how long had she been there? >> she was there since last october. it was part of an exchange with dublin university. >> and i'm curious how this is impacting the community there. this is a small town, as you said, so i'm sure everybody there as you were talking about is aware of this. what will you do to help the community get through this? >> about all we can do is try to be there for them in whatever way we can, and i know that's the underwhelming wish of everyone is to be as supportive as they can possibly be in a very, very difficult situation, and the wish of everyone is to be whatever support or encouragement they can be to everyone involved. >> how is her sister doing? i understand she had posted just i believe that day or recently some pictures of nicola on her facebook page. how is she holding up? >> sh

tokyo certainly has the money. this is the most populist urban area in the world, and the city's economy was only recently overtaken by the entire country of india. with a bullet train and subways and expressways, the infrastructure is in place, and the olympic committee might feel that after last year's earthquake and tsunami, awarding tokyo the olympics would be a good way of helping japan to recover. but what might help is this city has hosted the games before, in 1964. and about the winter olympics in 2018 due to take place in south korea, awarding the 2020 games to tokyo would mean two consecutive olympics taking place in the same part of the world. >> roland buerk. here's an unusual question. what if you want to expand a railway, but a 120-year-old building information way, what do you do? if any of you answered move the entire building, then congratulations, that is exactly what's happening to this old factory in the swiss city of zurich. it's been pushed very slowly around 60 meters to the west. engineers h

in tokyo, we are seeing lots of clouds covering the sun. even light showers are falling. but tomorrow, the sun may come out, and we are looking forward to sunny and warm conditions here in tokyo over the weekend. light showers across much of japan, but that should be gone within the next 24 hours. the exception is going to be hokkaido that will continue to see thundershowers into tomorrow. out towards the west, lots of heavy rain and thunderstorms are still impacting southern china and much of the indochina peninsula. the heaviest rain can be seen at the southern end of china and the northern tier of the indochina peninsula. out towards the east, there's a pink showing up. that will be severe tropical storm sanvu. it is still strengthening and will likely move south of the ogasawa islands over the weekend. so stormy conditions are expected to impact the islands from tomorrow. no major impact on mainland japan is in the forecast. there is more potent storms south of mexico. that will be hurricane bud. bud has been upgraded to a major hurricane now packing winds of 185 kilo