[ cheers and applause ] the last miner to be rescued, 54-year-old shift foreman luis urzuwa emerged from the capsule at 9:57 p.m. wednesday. family menz ambers and rescuers hugged each other and cheered. urzua is the leader of the team. he volunteered to be the last man rescued so he could confirm that all the others had made it out safely. the miners were trapped when the gold and copper mine near copiapo in northern chile caved in on august 5th. they were confirmed alive 17 days later. rescue work to pull the men out one by one began before midnight on tuesday local time. the miners were lifted up in a capsule through a vertical shaft. the capsule is four meters high and just 56 centimeters wide. the chilean government initially said it would take two days to complete the operation. but the pace quickened, and all 33 men were lifted in just half that time. the operation will be completed when all the six rescue workers who had been sent down to help have returned to the surface. after preliminary medical checkup at the site, each miner was flown by helicopter to a hospital in copiapo, about 50 kilometers away, where they were expected to stay for several days. now, currently we are looking at live footage, live pictures of san jose mine, the entrance, the shaft, the entrance of the shaft there. where the capsule fenix is being pulled through. the second rescue worker, the second of six rescue workers, returned to the surface -- when he returned to the surface, he hugged chilean mine minister lawrence golborne. and now there are four more rescue workers waiting to be lifted. the third one currently on his way up -- now, what's interesting is when all 33 miners were raised to safety the six rescue workers underground held a sign up to the web cam. the sign read, "mission accomplished." and a successful one at that. all 33 miners raised to the surface safely. we are waiting now for the third rescue worker to be lifted to safety. now, the chilean presidential, sebastian pinera, said he will wait until all six rescue workers have returned. and we will keep you posted on the progress there. now let's take a look at the latest in business news. ines matsuyama joins us in the studio. >> thank you very much, catherine. hello. japan's corporate goods price index for september dropped 0.1% from a year earlier, its first decline in two months. on thursday japan's central bank said the index stood at 102.8 against a base value of 100 set in 2005. the index is a measure of the prices of goods traded among japanese firms. the index was down because of falling prices of machinery-related devices and vehicles, including automobiles. price competition is especially fierce in these areas. the price of communications equipment fell 6.2% from the previous month. electronic components and devices were down 4.2%, while vehicle prices saw a decline of 2.6%. by contrast, iron and steel saw a 4.9% increase due to higher prices on international markets. the european union plans to toughen regulations on offshore drilling in the region. the move comes after this year's massive u.s. oil spill in the gulf of mexico. on wednesday the european commission unveiled the new legislation for oil platforms at a news conference in brussels, belgium. the regulations will only give permits to companies with contingency plans and financial means to deal with environmental damage if an accident happens. the rules also require oil platforms to be supervised by national authorities and evaluated by independent experts. nearly 900 platforms operate in the eu region. some companies planning to drill 1,000 meters under the sea. in the case of an accident at those -- at any of those facilities, emergency operation may prove difficult. the european commission was hoping for a temporary freeze in new drilling until the new legislation comes into force. but britain and the netherlands rejected that plan. the asia pacific economic cooperation forum will adopt a plan promoting regional trade at its upcoming meeting in japan next month. ministers from 21 asia sxn pacific countries will meet in yokohama on november 10th and 11th. after that talks between leaders of the apec member nations take place on the 13th and 14th. apec's action plan is likely to call for making the distribution of goods in the region smoother and will standardize tariffs. it will also call for an information system to track cargo. when china's rare earth shipments to japan were suspended, it highlighted the impact of trade procedures in business. as chair country japan hopes to have the action plan included in a joint statement at the ministerial meeting. tokyo stocks surged on thursday morning after wall street's gains overnight. the nikkei 225 ended the morning session at 9,574, up 1.8% from wednesday's close. speculation the u.s. will further ease monetary policy prompted a stockpiling spree. that encouraged tokyo investors to jump into the market as well. talk of monetary easing by the federal reserve is also pushing the dollar lower. it's now trading between 81.41-44. the euro is currently at 114.66-71. and here's a look at the latest long-term interest rates. this is the yield on the benchmark 10-year japanese government bond. in other asian markets hong kong's hang seng is up 1.3%. the shanghai key index for major blue chips is up almost 2%. and in shenzhen the sse composite is slightly down, 0.1% currently. for now back to catherine. >> thanks very much, ines. well, the operation, the remarkable operation in chile to rescue 33 miners trapped about 700 meters underground has finally ended. the last miner has stepped out from the fenix capsule. and people around the rescue site shouted for joy. now, the last miner to be rescued, 54-year-old shift foreman luis urzua emerged from the capsule at 9:57 p.m. on wednesday. family members and rescuers hugged each other and cheered and applauded the rescue of all the miners. urzua is the leader of the team. he volunteered to be the last man rescued. so he could confirm that all the others had made it out safely. the miners were trapped when the gold and copper mine near copiapo in northern chile caved in august 5th. they were confirmed alive 17 days later. rescue work to pull the men out one by one began before midnight on tuesday local time. the miners were lifted up in a capsule through a vertical shaft. the capsule is four meters high and just 54 centimeters wide. the chilean government initially said it would take two days to complete the operation, but the pace quickened and all 33 men were lifted in just half that time. the operation will be completed when all the six rescue workers who had been sent down to help have returned to the surface. after a preliminary medical checkup at the site each miner was flown by helicopter to a hospital in copiapo, about 50 kilometers away, where they are expected to stay for several days. now, there are still rescue workers below ground waiting to be lifted. two of them have been rescued. we'll keep you updated on details as we are still waiting for four more of the rescue crew to surface. now, in other news senior foreign ministry officials from japan and china have met in china. it's believed they discussed a possibility bilateral summit in vietnam in late october. ties have been strained since a chinese trawler collided with two japanese patrol boats in september near japan's senkaku islands, which are claimed by china and taiwan. akitaka saiki of japan's foreign minister met yang yanyi of china's foreign ministry in beijing on wednesday. the possible summit would take place on the sidelines of meetings of the association of southeast asian nations plus other countries in hanoi in late october. this move comes after japan's prime minister, naoto kan, and chinese premier wen jiabao agreed earlier this month that the two nations will work to build a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship. saiki also met wu dawei, who chairs the six-party talks on the north korea nuclear program. afterwards wu told reporters that they exchanged views on the stalled six-party talks. the meeting came after wu met north korean first vice minister kim kye gwan in beijing. foreign minister seiji maehara has explained to australian foreign minister kevin rudd japan's stance on the senkaku islands. at a meeting in tokyo on wednesday evening maehara said the islands are japan's inherent territory and that japan wants to improve ties with china. the australian foreign minister reportedly showed his understanding on japan's stance. maehara and rudd also agreed to keep in close contact on the possibility of japan importing rare earth metals from australia. maehara said that not only the japanese government but the private sector is interested in australian rare earth metals. this comes after china suspende procedures for its rare earth exports to japan following the collision incident. a program to invite chinese military officials to japan has been cancelled after the chinese side asked the hosts to postpone the plan, scheduled for later this month. the nippon foundation, a host of the program, said it conveyed its decision to cancel the program to the chinese side on wednesday. the foundation said the chinese military asked for the postponement due to difficulties in adjusting its schedule. the foundation has sponsored the annual exchange of visits between japan's self-defense forces and china's people's liberation army since 2001 in a private framework. under the program for this year sdf officials visited china in japan and chinese army officials had been planning to call on japan from october 20th. china has already asked japan to defer a port call by its maritime self-defense force's training squadron. the vessels were scheduled to visit qingdao on friday. japan's next generation high-speed train is expected to take an almost straight route between tokyo and the commercial hub of nagoya. central japan railway company plans to begin operating the magnetically levitated, or mag lev train between the two cities in 2027. an advisory panel for the transport minister had been studying three possible routes. japan railway backs an almost straight route through a tunnel beneath the southern japan alps. but nagano prefecture favors an alternative plan to bypass the mountains by way of major regional cities. the panel has now decided to submit a report next week, citing the almost straight route linking tokyo and nagoya in 40 minutes as the most economically efficient. the fastest conventional train now in service links the two cities in two hours. once the route is decided, the panel will shift its focus to construction safety and environment impact assessment. a lighting test has been conducted at tokyo's sky tree. the new landmark in japan's capital under construction is now nearly 490 meters tall. the structure is scheduled to open in spring 2012, when it will reach 634 meters into the sky, making it the world's tallest tv tower. the test was carried out on wednesday night to check lighting equipment. about 2,000 bulbs will be used to illuminate the tower in blue and purple on alternate days. engineers turned on 51 light-emitting diode bulbs attached to the tower to check the color and brightness of the lights. spectators gathered, taking photos. >> translator: we enjoyed the illuminati illumination. >> translator: the purple light was beautiful. the property market in hong kong has been overheating since last year. average prices of the high-end properties increased around 40% in the past year and a half. experts say the increase is backed up by investment from overseas and mainland china. nhk world's rob mcbride reports. >> reporter: just in the property market and just in time. at home in a satellite town about an hour by train from central hong kong teddy hoi in the small apartment he bought for himself and his wife with help from his mother. 50 square meters in size and costing the equivalent of 245,000 u.s. dollars, it's already gone up 10% in the eight weeks since he bought. >> right after i bought this flat for two weeks, and then the property agent called me and asked me, do you want to sell it? i haven't -- i haven't moved in yet at that time. >> reporter: hong kong's legendary high-rise property market, with sky-high prices to match, measured in the millions of hong kong dollars. now it's surpassed even its own legend with a 40% increase in the past 18 months. it's the hot topic at investor conferences like this one in hong kong. with no sectors anywhere in asia able to match such a return. and a lot of the rise has been thanks to investment from mainland chinese buyers looking for a relatively safe investment and the chance of hong kong residency. >> the recognition of the status. so a lot in china actually do have a lot of excess cash. they tend to spend it in different cities, including hong kong. some would see hong kong also as a risk diversification. they can put some money sort of offshore, and that's attractive. in addition to the fact that some of them also get free passport for the investment in hong kong. >> reporter: and property agents here are reporting mainland buyers are going for high-end properties. >> for certain sectors, especially the primary sector and also the luxury sector, up to 35% of the purchase is from mainlanders. >> reporter: with hong kong's hilly terrain limiting the supply of suitable land for housing, demand always outstrips the supply of new apartments. and with most of the land in the hands of the hong kong government, releasing new plots for development has traditionally been the way of regulating the market. but it's far from perfect. >> and so the government is now putting more land for auction, and so it may increase the supply, the future supply. but not -- but they cannot adjust the supply in the present moment. >> reporter: trying to cool the market in the short term, the government has been looking at other measures to deal with speculators. recently, hong kong tightened up its mortgage lending rules through the banks, increasing the deposit that buyers have to find for a flat from 30% to 40% of its value. that's a huge amount of cash for anyone, speculators and ordinary purchasers alike. >> so these kinds of what they call anti-speculation measures, they will attack the speculator investor, but they will also -- they will hurt the genuine home buyer because they have to save more money before they actually can enter the private property market. >> reporter: political groups are now calling on the government to reintroduce a scheme that subsidizes home ownership for hong kong people on lower incomes. >> do morning, everybody. >> reporter: and for many within the property sector itself there are calls for government to take more of a lead, especially in areas like the new territory separating hong kong from mainland china, where development until now has largely been left with limited planning and even less imagination. >> and we could create some very i think interesting and attractive ecocommunities in the new territories. but the mindset is such that everyone wants to be in the urban area, the bright lights, the high salaries if you like are in the urban area. so there's a pull to the urban area. what we need to create is a push to the new territories. and i think if you have the right product and the right type of development in the new territories we could reverse the flow. >> reporter: with serious concerns of a property bubble ready to burst, whatever the hong kong government does it doesn't want to be the one to burst it. while many in hong kong still want to get into the property market, the millions who've already managed it will be concerned about the biggest investment in their lives. teddy hechltu now among them. rob mcbride, nhk world, hong kong. next for you is a recap of the latest market figures. and watch out for dollar-yen. ♪ ♪ >> and that's all for now in biz news. next is the weather forecast with saki ochi. hi and welcome back to your "world weather update." heading first into south america, where all eyes have of course been on chile since yesterday. rescue operations really heading their final stages and the weather has been cooperating as well. it's been a clear evening and it's going to stay dry for the next 24 hours as well. nice weather. copiapo on thursday expecting sunshine, and temperatures up to 28 degrees. it does get chillier in the evenings and early mornings. but nice weather as those miners get a chance to rest and catch up with their friends and family. over towards east asia, meanwhile, we're keeping an eye on this cluster of clouds here, this is the new storm system, tropical storm megan that's formed. it is on a strengthening track so over the next couple of days it could likely obtain typhoon status, so picking up much stronger winds, organizing further. right now it is heading in a northwesterly direction, although not too much, really moving slowly, meandering about the open waters here, but gradually expected to move toward the northern end of the philippines or even toward taiwan. we will keep a close eye on its progress and development. elsewhere across east asia of course south china sea still looking at quite a few showers including hainan island will pick up rainfall. central sections of china look a little dryer as we head into friday. for japan still pretty unsettled with off and on showers. northern portions of the country could see more significant rainfall come friday. thursday's highs looking at 23 degrees in tokyo. 27 for taipei. and then 32 degrees and rather steamy in bangkok. now, over toward the americas just off the yucatan peninsula here we have hurricane paula still with us. category 1 storm system right now. so losing strength. and will likely peter out slowly as it makes landfall. so winds right now at 140 kilometers per hour. pretty strong but hopefully they will start easing over the next couple of days. now, rainfall amounts, big concern here. the bulk of the rain is going to be moving into western cuba, affecting parts of the florida peninsula as well. mountain areas of cuba will need to watch for potentially life-threatening flash flooding as well as landslides. up towards the united states it is going to be fairly calm and clear. high pressure really in control here. we do have this low now moving up along the mississippi valley. this has been triggering quite a few storms across the south, and now that's moving more in toward the midwest, ohio valley region. that will slowly peter out as that rainfall heads toward the mid-atlantic region. elsewhere, canada to western canada remains wet on the coast of british columbia especially still looking at some pretty stormy conditions. rainfall as well as potentially destructive winds. highs shaping up to be 18 degrees in new york and 16 in d.c. so definitely cooler temperatures moving down along the atlantic coastline, atlanta, 22 degrees. toward the west, 14 degrees in seattle. and 13 for vancouver. all right. that's it from me just now, and here is your city-by-city forecast. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ now, the extraordinary operation in chile to rescue 33 miners trapped about 700 meters underground has finally ended. earlier, the last miner stepped out from the fenix capsule, and people around the rescue site shouted for joy. the last miner to be rescued, 54-year-old shift foreman luis urzua, emerged from the capsule at 9:57 p.m. on wednesday. family members and rescuers hugged each other and cheered and applaud the rescue of all the miners. urzua is the leader of the team. he volunteered to be the last man rescued so he could confirm that all the others had made it out safely. the miners were trapped when the gold and copper mine near copiapo in northern chile caved in on august 5th. they were confirmed alive 17 days later. rescue work to pull the men out one by one began before midnight on tuesday local time. the miners were lifted up in a capsule through a vertical shaft. the capsule is four meters high and just 54 centimeters wide. the chilean government initially said it would take two days to complete the operation. but the pace quickened and all 33 men were lifted in just half that time. the operation will be completed when all the six rescue workers who had been sent down to help have returned to the surface. after preliminary medical checkup at the site each miner was flown by helicopter to a hospital in copiapo, about 50 kilometers away, where they're expected to stay for several days. now, there are three more rescue workers underground, or rather two more. earlier the third rescue worker -- or the third rescue worker returned to the surface. so that means there's three more left. a total of six rescue workers had been underground. three have been lifted to the surface, have returned. and this is footage coming out from san jose earlier when the third rescue worker returned to the surface. so three more to go. three more rescue workers waiting to be lift ed. the rescue operation to raise the miners took about 24 hours. the rescue operation has been deemed successful. now, once all six rescue crew have returned, this operation will officially be over. chilean mine minister lawrence golborne earlier hugged and shook hands with the third rescue worker when he returned. and what was interesting was that the six rescue workers below had put a sign up against the web cam. the sign read "mission completed" when all 33 miners had been lifted to safety. now, this is live footage. we've turned to live pictures now. the fourth rescue worker is being raised. so two more to go. once all six have returned, this operation will