"newsline." it is tuesday, march 13th. 8:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. the bodies of 45 women and children were found in homes in syria monday. the city was a rebel strong hold, but government forces bombarded it nearly a month and regained control march 1st. human rights activists say

government troops kept firing at civilians after seizing the city. they say the death toll is rising. rebels shot these images showing bodies of 45 women and children in a room. the opposition forces appealed to the u.n. security council to respond urgently. they say civilians continue to be killed in homs. syria's state-run television showed images of several bodies with hands tied behind their back. it blames terrorist gangs for the killings. the u.s. secretary of state and russia's foreign minister called for an immediate end to the violence in syria. hillary clinton and lavrov met monday in new york. the talks came after former u.n. chief and special envoy to syria failed to persuade president

assad to halt the crackdown. they want a u.n. president to pressure assad. >> we expect all nations, including russia and china, to join us now in pressing the as add regime to silence its guns. >> but lavrov said stopping the violence was more important than assigning blame. >> think of putting that government in that position whether acceptable or not, it is about saving lives. >> he warned the conflict will escalate if foreign troops intervene and demand assad steps down. the afghan parliament condemned sunday's shooting rampage that killed 16 civilians. a u.s. soldier opened fire. 12 victims were women and

children. the u.s. military says the gunman acted alone and is in custody. the government's parliament said their people have run out of patience with the arbitrary action of foreign soldiers and urged the u.s. government to punish all involved in the incident. the spokesperson for nato led international forces promised a rapid, thorough investigation. he said u.s. serviceman will be brought to justice. >> it will lead to appropriate legal procedure and justice will be done. next we go to bangkok. in myanmar a rare thing took place. the leader had lower house deliberations. long been barred from

participating in politics. >> they are scheduled to have elections. 48 seats are open in local assemblies. she's running for lower seat in the country's largest city. in 1990 elections, the government ignored her victory. she observed lower house discussions from the public gallery. they discussed whether to lift restrictions on foreign

travelers. >> translator: it is difficult to comment since i have only listened to the discussion a short time. >> she's stepping up her election campaign. in addition to stomping in remote regions, she appears to campaign on the state run tv channel this week. in thailand, they commemorated the earthquake and tsunami while reflecting on their own experience of disaster seven years ago. here is the story. >> there were silent prayers for the victims in japan.

this event was held in central bangkok on march 11th. more than 140 pictures painted by thai people, including professional artists were auctioned. money raised about $7 million will go to support victims of the tragedy in japan. this picture was painted by young thais effected by the indian ocean tsunami in december, 2004. the artist is 18-year-old saw. >> translator: through this picture, i want to send a message to the japanese disaster victims that we will never abandon you. >> the 2004 tsunami left some 220,000 dead or missing in countries around the indian

ocean. in the village where saw and her family lived, more than 1,000 people were lost. about a quarter of the population. the village is in southern thailand. >> translator: this is where my house used to stand. >> she used to live by the sea. she was in her house when the tsunami hit. all she can remember is holding a tree trunk, holding on for dear life as she was swept by the waves. some other members of her family didn't survive. tsunami victims.n orphanage for

when she first arrived, saw seemed depressed. she hardly talks to anyone. her mood also effected the teachers and other children. of all the children effected by the tsunami, some were abandoned by their families. she saw children with harder situations. she learned to channel her energy towards helping them. >> she started taking care of other children. it gave new meaning to her life.

on this day, saw painted a picture to the auction for tsunami victims in japan. she wrote a message of hope to the children. >> translator: we all live on the same planet. so we should do everything we can to help each other. this is my message of moral support for japanese chirp. my days in the orphanage make me stronger, and gave me confidence. >> it is a hard heard message from a survivor in thailand to children of tohoku. hope will keep us alive. that's it for our bulletin. pop singer cindy lauper

urges people to support survivors of the disasters by buying products from the hard hit region. lauper is visiting japan onfrom. lauper is visiting japan on a concert tour. ibuying products from the hard hit region. lauper is visiting japan on a concert tour. she made the appeal at a news conference for foreign media in tokyo. the singer visited miyagi prefecture, she noticed slow progress of moving debris. she also talked about shock when a friend from fukushima gave her candy saying it wasn't contaminated with radiation. people in fukushima and the region are isolated and need support to revitalize their businesses and economy. >> don't isolate these people. buy from the areas that were hit, where the stores are still opened. just keep the money moving so people can recover and get back on their feet. >> she promised to continue

helping the affected areas to rebuild from the disaster. last year, she was in japan on march 11th, exact day of the disaster. many foreigners left japan in the immediate aftermath, but she stayed on and performed her concert as scheduled. a group of pakistani musicians. reports from islamabad. a rock song and we have this report from islamabad. ♪ >> the song is titled "land of the rising sun."

the band's vocalist wrote it to send a message of support to the country where he and his family lived for a period of time eight years ago. a video of the song was shown to the media on saturday night in islamabad. to commemorate the first anniversary of the march 11st disaster. disastet disasteh disaster. the video was shot in a building in islamabad that was damaged during the earthquake that devastated northern pakistan several years ago. this was to show the country's sense of solidarity with japan. >> the message to our video is about the friendship of pakistan and japan. i would like to say that pakistan is always there for japan and like japan has always been with us. >> the music video has been uploaded to a music site.

to reach a broader audience, the band is negotiating to get the video on local tv. they are calling for others to lend their support as well. german car manufacturers recorded record profits for 2011. weak euro boosted sales in china and other emerging markets. volkswagen announced revenues in 2011 for ten brands rose to 159.3 billion euros, or $209.5 billion. net earnings hit $20.8 billion. the company sold nearly 8.3 million vehicles overtaking

japan's toyota with 7.9 million vehicles. gm maintained its spot shifting 9 million units. daimler had revenues of $140 billion, and record net profits of $7.9 billion. bmw also broke its own records with revenues of $90.5 billion, and net profits of $6.4 billion. the head of the people's bank of china has indicated the central bank may ease monetary policy to spur economic growth. governor zhou xiaochuan hinted monday that the central bank may lower the reserve requirement ratio, that's the amount of cash chinese commercial banks must hold in reserve. >> the reserve ratio stands at

20%. we have much room to bring it down. >> he said it is necessary to closely monitor the impact of europe's debt crisis on his country's economy. he says global economic trends determine china's monetary policy. his remarks come as china's exports continue to decline, due largely to the credit crisis in europe. cutting the reserve requirement ratio would free more money for lending to businesses. china's rapid economic growth is creating social problems. some local government officials eager to speed up development have evicted residents and taken their land. we have a report from beijing. >> many chinese are unhappy about the unfair ex-appropriate preagency of their property. discontent is growing, leading to demonstrations and clashes with police. these are troubling times for the government as it prepares for major redistrict change this fall.

one recent flashpoint is a village in southeastern province. this village was robbed by confrontations late last year between residents and the government. our reporter tells us what happened there. >> residents say local officials didn't give them enough money in the land deal. it involves giving them the right to build on property. so residents held protests and called the police. the confrontation escalated when he died in custody. protesters squared off with security forces after barricading themselves in the village.

footage of the protests was posted online. and the story was picked up by western media. it drew attention inside and outside of china. the communist party with control had concern. party officials rushed there, promising promising -->> translator: we'll make every effort to consider their greefrances and resolve the issues. >> the party eventually decided to hold an election to choose a new local leader and other senior foigtsz into the first ever electiond into the first e electio into the first ever electif into the first ever electif into the first ever election in the villagevillages

took place march 3rd. the man that led the protests was elected leader. they saw this as a victory. some say the protesters want them to compromise and hold elections. officials across china are forced to deal with similar unrest. with major change of leadership ahead, ensuring social stability is becoming difficult to challenge for the government. >> it looks like they found a democratic solution, but things aren't so simple. before the vote, the communist party announced it had appointed

the eventual winner as the head of the local chapter. he ran virtually unopposed. some speculate the party attempted to use the vote to legitimize its law. the communist party conducted direction and other majors in an effort to calm confusion. they figure the villages were only upset with the local officials, and not with central leadership. in other words, seems the central government thought by letting people defy their leader, they could prevent further protests. single party rule is all important to the communist party. the election worked in this case. it calmed an angry village, but the chinese government will be cautious about falling back on such model when conflicts arise.

taking a look now at market figures. the nobel prize winning chemist who warned of ozone depletion died on saturday at 84. his death was announced on

sunday by the university of california irvine. rowland was born in 1927 in ohio. after skipping grades in high school he entered university at the age of 16 and studied chemistry. in the 1970s he suspected that the earth's protective ozone layer was being depleted by clor oh for oh carbons from refrigeration devices. his theories were disputed by business leaders and some scientists. in the 1980s scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer proving rowland correct. this led to the 1998 protocol for the production of the ozone layer. in 1995 he and two other researchers were awarded the nobel prize for chemistry. rowland said scientists have an obligation to take action when they discover something that affects the environment. last week, we were saying

spring was just around the corner, but we may have spoken too soon. rachel ferguson joins us with the world weather forecast. rachel, it feels chilly in tokyo this morning. >> hi, catherine, it does feel chilly. we're still in the middle of winter feels like right now. fortunately, we don't have any of the snow falling to the north of japan. we have been experiencing winter storm conditions once again across much of northern japan, and that has left about half meter of snow in some areas. already getting 48 centimeters in the last 24 hours. some areas seeing gusts up to 75 kilometers an hour, recorded in yamagata. you can see the forecast that the low is bringing the storm is moving away. that's good news. strong northwesterly winds bringing the chill will continue to impact northwestern japan. in the next 24 hours, there's still potential for another 20 to 30 centimeters of snow, some

making its way to eastern tohoku, too. we will be staying mostly dry in the pacific edge of the country down towards the south, but yes, still a little chilly. much of the rest of the region isdry. korean peninsula through mongolia, much of china. showers continue for the southern coast. while it is still fairly light on tuesday, some areas could get heavy heading into wednesday. we will see snow showers continuing here in western china. scattered thunderstorms across parts of indochina and northern philippines and taiwan seeing another wet day today. temperatures continue to be a little on the cool side for this time of year. just 15 degrees in hong kong. usually see 22 in the middle of march. 11 in shanghai, and chilly day in tokyo today at 9 degrees. as we head into north america, another winter storm to talk about here, up in the pacific

northwest. now it is really going to get fairly intense for the northern mountains of california. you could see 90 centimeters of snow in the next 24 hours, accompanied by strong gusts. that will make travel hazardous in some areas. even as this system moves inland and starts to dissipate, there's a steady stream of moisture the next couple days. really the rest of the week looks wintry for canada, bc, through in towards central california. then we run into high, dry weather here. not always a good thing because we have a surge of warmth and may-like temperatures coming up from the south. however, it's going to be dry. that means potential for fire weather for the central and northern plains as well. we still have severe weather today on monday to still right across parts of the united states. severe weather is likely still

for areas around the great lakes. we have lots of rain turning to snow in northern parts of eastern canada. you could see about 20 centimeters of snow to the north. some of this is going to be freezing rain before it turns over to snow. having said that, you'll be noticing unseasonable warmth across much of the u.s. 24 in d.c. we have 18 in chicago. 28 in oklahoma city. as we head to europe, again, still dry and settled for much of the continent, but we continue to see lots of storms to the southeast. inland snow as well, particularly heavy for parts of turkey. you'll see falling temperatures in the course of the week. i will leave you with the extended forecas

the bodies of 45 women and children were found in homes in syria on monday. the city was a rebel strong hold. government forces bombarded it nearly a month, regained control march 1st. human rights activists say government troops kept firing at civilians after seizing the city. they say the death toll is rising. rebels shot these images showing the bodies of 45 women and children in a room. the opposition forces appealed to the u.n. security council to respond urgently. they say civilians continue to be killed in homs. meanwhile, syria state-run television showed images of several bodies with their hands tied behind their back. it blames terrorist gangs for the killings. that's all for this edition

of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tokyo. do join us again. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com