hello and welcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo wi at. the ceremony to award this year's nobel peace prize has been held in oslo, norway. noticeably absent is the winner of this year's prize, liu xiaobo, chinese pro democracy activist. ♪ the ceremony was held in oslo's city hall on friday.

>> the norwegian nobel committee has decided to award the nobel peace prize for 2010 to liu xiaobo for his long and nonviolent struggle for human rights in china. the norwegian nobel committee has long believed there is a close connection between human rights and peace. >> later the nobel peace prize committee chairman introduced liu's statement made in a chinese court last december. >> in his closing appeal to the court on the 23rd of december 2009 he said, "i feel with optimism look forward to the advent of a future free china, for there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom. and china will in the end become

a nation ruled by law by human rights reign supreme." >> after the address, he placed the peace prize medal on an empty seat that was reserved for the winner. liu's a long time pro-democracy activist in china, serving an 11-year prison sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the government. his wife and relatives have been put under strict surveillance. the last time a winner was barred from accepting the award was in 1935 when the german nazi party refused to allow an imprisoned german to attend. nearly 20 countries decided not to attend because of their close ties with china or for internal political reasons. in front of city hall, chinese pro democracy activists held a protest rally just before the

award ceremony calling for liu's immediate release. >> we are here to voice our demand for -- to china to release liu xiaobo immediately because obviously he won the nobel peace prize and all he did was just putting chinese people's wishes on to paper. the demand for democracy. and that's all. he has been a very peaceful person and the imprisonment of him is just ridiculous. it's safe to say that very few people in china were able to watch or even follow the nobel peace award ceremony. the country is clamping down on the media and on its pro-democracy activists. nhk world's yuko fukuyama brings

us the story from beijing. >> reporter: ever since the nobel committee announced her husband won the nobel peace prize, chinese authorities have placed her under house arrest. she's been cut off from her relatives and friends. a large contingent of foreign media is covering this side of the nobel prize story. authorities are taking journalists' identities one by one, controlling their actions to the cordoned off area. on top of this, there are more police officers than usual patrolling the streets of beijing. >> translator: giving the prize to a convict in china is a challenge to our country. it's a political intervention. >> translator: i don't want to talk about it. >> reporter: china is also blocking foreign tv broadcast to the nobel prize ceremony, including nhk.

no chinese media are reporting the anti-china protests under way in oslo, staged by liu xiaobo supporters from hong kong and the united states. but the news has spread through the web here. authorities are on high alert to prevent any domestic demonstrations from breaking out. yuko fukuyama, nhk world, beijing. a chinese writer living in japan says she was approached by liu xiaobo to convey his passion of bringing democracy to china, even if that meant in a different language. 45-year-old liu yanzi lives in osaka. she assisted in publishing a book of liu xiaobo's poems and essays in japanese. this is the book of liu's work. a needle wanders inside a blood vessel and blames each other's

betrayal, like lovers who just broke up. >> liu yanzi says the word betrayal is used here to describe the guilt liu xiaobo and fellow protesters feel about the 1989 crackdown on the pro democracy movement in tiananmen square. many protesters died in the violence. she met the chinese dissident three years ago through a mutual friend. she was later asked by liu to convey his hope of bringing democracy to china, to the people of japan. >> translator: he said he wants japanese readers to look at what is happening in china not as a fire on the other side of the river or someone else's problem. he said he wants japanese to look squarely at china's reality. >> reporter: liu sent the poems to liu yanzi by e-mail.

most of them described his feelings about the tiananmen square crackdown. they were still young when they set out on a journey. when they fell to the ground, they struggled, longing to live. when they were hurled into a crematorium, their bodies were still soft. the poems convey the sorrow of the people who took part in the pro democracy movement and who saw their fellow protesters mowed down mercilessly. besides engaging in literary activity, liu yanzi teaches chinese at a university in western japan. she's hoping to convey liu's feelings to the people of japan. >> translator: japanese have access to freedom like they have access to air. freedom is not something given by the state government or someone in a high position. >> reporter: she spoke about the significance of liu's receiving

the nobel peace prize and the fact that he cannot attend the awards ceremony. she also touched on freedom of speech in japan. >> translator: i was surprised to see that what's considered normal and what i've been given since birth in japan does not exist in china. >> translator: i want china to advance democratically and adopt to the system so it can develop economically and politically. >> translator: liu says freedom of speech is a breakthrough toward complete freedom. he may now be imprisoned, but that will still be useful for the next generation.

japan is drawing criticism for obstructing discussions at the u.n. climate change conference in cancun, mexico. participants remain divided over whether to extend the kyoto protocol on global warming. japan's staunchly opposes extending the pact beyond 2012 because it requires only industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. many rich nations say the pact is not effective without obliging the world's top emitters, the united states and china, to cut their gases. the u.s. has not ratified the treaty. china and other emerging economies want the protocol to stay in effect. as the conference winds up, calls for the protocol's extension are rising and environmentalists and the media are increasingly critical of japan's stance. the japanese delegation faced tough questions at a news conference on thursday. a group of 260 environmental organizations posted an advertisement in the financial times on friday calling on japan not to abandon kyoto.

the ad is a mock advertising poster based on the japanese animation "spirited away." it features a photo of prime minister naoto kan superimposed on a cartoon character with a headline that asks, washed away? japan's ambassador to the united nations has suggested it will take some more time for the united nations security council to agree on a response to recent north korean actions. tsuneo nishida spoke on wednesday to reporters in new york. >> translator: coordination is underway inside and outside the security council. but, none of the moves have produced concrete results. >> talks continue at the world body on how to respond to north korea's development of a uranium enrichment facility and its shelling of south korea's yeonpyeong island in november.

a senior japanese foreign ministry official says china contends that the u.n. security council should not denounce north korea at a time of heightened tensions on the korean peninsula. indonesian president, susilo bambang yudhoyono, and japanese foreign minister, seiji maehara, have pledged to make asia wide efforts to ease tensions on the korean peninsula. during a meeting, yudhoyono said he believe the war must be avoided at all costs. yudhoyono referred to indonesia's presidency of the association of south asian nations in 2011. he said, indonesia will seek to deepen talks on regional peace and stability and underline the importance of involving china. maehara replied that japan will hope to cooperate closely with indonesia, which he called a key asian player. >> translator: in any case, we need to avoid war. the president and i agree regional peace and stability are essential.

japan's defense minister, toshimi kitazawa, has expressed reservations about a u.s. proposal to conduct joint military drills with the united states and south korea. he was referring to a comment by the chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff that said he would support japan's participation in u.s./south korean maneuvers. >> translator: japan and the u.s. are allies. we still need to resolve a number of issues with south korea. >> kitazawa said japan must continue efforts to resolve pending issues to make the south korean public more receptive to the idea of joint drills with japan. japan ruled the korean peninsula before world war ii for 35 years. south koreans are still wary of japan's participation in joint military activities. a key member of japan's government is promising to do everything he can to resolve an international issue dragging on for decades. more than 30 years have passed since north korean agents

abducted japanese citizens. chief cabinet secretary yoshito sengoku spoke at a symposium attended by families of the abductees. >> translator: the japanese government will do everything it can in order to resolve this abduction issue as soon as possible. >> sengoku said the abductions were an extremely serious infringement of japan's sovereignty and an unimaginable violation of human rights. he also expressed regret and apologized for not having been able to resolve the issue yet. the head of a group that represents the families of abductees complained it is hard to figure out who is in charge of the issue because the responsibility often changes hands. >> translator: there has been no tangible result, even though the government has been saying the

abduction issue is the state's top priority. we want a cabinet minister to be named to work exclusively on this issue. if you could pick one word to describe the top news stories of 2010, what would that be? well, this year people in japan chose heat. here is how it is written in kanji. this character can also mean hot weather. every december japan's kanji association gathers to reveal the word of the year at the kiyomizu temple. on friday, the chief priest wrote the character for heat or hot in traditional calligraphy style. the association chose it from more than 280,000 entries and that's the record. so with this word of the year in mind, let's look back on the news events of 2010.

this summer was japan's hottest in a century. people in tokyo sweated their way through 71 days with temperatures above 30 degrees. more than 500 deaths are being blamed on the weather. europe was also feeling the heat this summer. wildfires raged in russia, temperatures stayed above 30 degrees for 25 days in a row. that's a 130-year record. global climate change is being blamed for these abnormal conditions. efforts are underway to come up with a solution. delegates from around the world are meeting in mexico at a u.n. conference called cop16 but discussions are deadlocked.

the kanji for heat could also be used to describe some hot spots in asia. on november 23rd, north korea fired artillery shells on a south korean island in the yellow sea. the attack killed four people, including two civilians. on september 7th a chinese trawler collided with two japanese patrol ships in the east china sea. it happened near japan's senkaku islands, territory china claims as its own. a visit by russia's president, to territory japan claims as its own provoked a heated response. dmitry medvedev traveled to russian-held islands off hokkaido on november 1st. the release of this woman warmed the hearts of opposition supporters in myanmar. the country's military regime freed aung san suu kyi from house arrest on november 13th. it followed myanmar's first general election in 20 years. political friction in thailand sparked heated battles between the government and its opponents.

from march to may, demonstrators staged protests and occupied bangkok's business district. they demanded the prime minister step down and call a new election. 91 people died in the unrest. the hottest story in october had the eyes of the world glued on chile. rescue workers saved 33 miners from their underground prison. they were trapped 700 meters below the surface of the earth for more than two months. >> three, two, one -- >> some people might have read updates about chile on this cool digital device. the ipad became the hot commodity in 2010. u.s. computer giant apple launched its tablet computer in april selling almost 7.5 million units by september. china's economy helped heat up

the global economy in 2010. it is now considered number two in the world, outpacing japan. the hottest event in china this year was the shanghai expo, more than 200 countries participated and about 73 million people visited, a record high for a world expo. and make sure you stay with "newsline" in 2011. we'll continue to keep you up to date on the hot stories from around the world. now some of the news received from broadcasting stations across asia. we begin with this item sent by rtn malaysia. mala to double their trade in five years from the current $16 billion annually. the agreement was reached during a meeting between malaysian

prime minister and the south korean president lee myung-bak in kuala lumpur on friday. the leaders also agreed to explore the possibility of signing a free trade agreement and inked two memoranda of understanding to boost cooperation in research and development and renewable energy. sri lanka's navy has organized various events over the past days to mark its 60th anniversary. on friday, a colorful parade took place in colombo. the president honored three navy officers for their service. earlier this week, senior naval officers from over 20 countries including china, great britain, india and russia, attended a seminar on security and safety at sea. an international regatta was also organized to mark the navy's anniversary. a contest to choose miss indochina 2010 took place in northern thailand's province on thursday. the competition is part of the

indochina fair of 2010 organized by thailand's tourism authority and the province. the crown went to a woman who received a cash prize, a diamond tiara and a sash. miss indochina will participate in various promotional activities over the coming days. hi there, time for another world weather update. well, the weather across eastern asia starting to get a little bit more active. up to the north, we have a snowstorm pushing in from northeastern china and coming in to japan. all along this front here, cold rain as well as thunderstorms. and as that low pushes into hokkaido on sunday, we're looking for blizzard conditions here. a lot of snow and intense wind, as well. now, down across the south we see rain blossoming, it's coming across from the bay of bengal through myanmar. it's going to intensify into the next couple of days. and if you can see this rain

band connecting all the way up into southern japan, as well. so we'll have that over the weekend. down into the philippines, further to the south here, we continue to get very, very strong northeast monsoon coming in. and that is really kicking up the wind and the thunderstorms. very heavy rain here, particularly for eastern luzon. so the potential for flooding and landslides as we head into the weekend, 32 degrees forecast for manila, 21 in taipei, 14 in shanghai, all kind of moderate. but as we head up to the north, really, we are cooling down here. seoul, 0, you're going to be struggling to get above freezing, actually. and the same goes for beijing into the weekend. we see that coming down even further, minus 19 in ulan bator. if we look at tokyo, ahead of that storm system coming in, 18 is forecast with sunshine. enjoy that over here. let's head to north america. we've got a storm system pushing in further towards central locations of the u.s.

this is going to be spreading snow across the northern plains and down into the midwest, too. you can see about 30 centimeters in wisconsin. as that storm pushes further in towards the gulf, it's going to be mostly rain down here, of course, maybe some intense thunderstorms too. that's something to watch out for. widespread snow pushes into quebec. but it isn't going to be very heavy. you do need to watch out for the wind, though, because it will be quite intense. temperaturewise, a little bit warmer in toronto. no negative figures for you here on friday. 2 for the high, new york city also 2, partly cloudy. 6 in washington, d.c. up in winnipeg, a very sunny day, but minus 18 is your high. okay, i want to show you some photographs now as we head into europe of what's been going on. now, this is, first of all, germany, a beautiful scene here. but not so pretty when we take to the streets and you have to face that commute. very difficult road conditions. also, in moscow, people here are wrapping up. and the commute looks the same here.

lots of slush, ice, snow to contend with. then into western ukraine, what we had here was snow, but it thawed. and that turned to flood conditions. so very messy-looking scene here. plenty to clear up as we head on into the weekend. but let's have a look at what's going to be happening in the next few days. fine out to the west. temperatures are back up to seasonal normals. and you should have a bit of a rest from the snow. and actually, out to the east, as well, as one system pulls away. you should get a bit of a break from that heavy snow in parts like the baltic states and western russia. we can't ignore this. our new storm coming in picking up all that moisture. there's going to be a lot of snow spreading through much of poland as well as down into austria. in austria, you could get an additional 60 centimeters of new snow. you will have to deal with certainly trying to clean that up, getting the shovels out. and we leave you now with your extended forecast.

before wrapping up this newscast, the top story once again. the ceremony to award this year's nobel peace prize has been held in oslo, norway. noticeably absent was the winner of this year's prize, chinese pro democracy activist liu xiaobo. the ceremony took place in oslo's city hall on friday. >> the norwegian nobel committee has decided to award the nobel peace prize for 2010 to liu xiaobo for his long and nonviolent struggle of fundamental rights in china. the norwegian nobel committee has long believed there is a close connection between human rights and peace. >> later, the nobel peace prize committee chairman introduced liu's statement made in a

chinese court last december. >> in his closing appeal to the court on the 23rd of december 2009 he said, "i feel with optimism look forward to the advent of a future free china. for there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom. and china will in the end become a nation ruled by law by human rights reign supreme." >> after the address, he placed liu's peace prize medal on an empty seat that was reserved for the winner. liu's a long time pro-democracy activist in china serving an 11-year prison sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the government. his wife and relatives have been put under strict surveillance.

the last time a winner was barred from accepting the award was in 1935 when the german nazi party refused to allow an imprisoned german to attend. of the 65 countries invited to this year's ceremony, nearly 20 decided not to attend because of their close ties with china or for internal political reasons. in front of the city hall, chinese pro democracy activists held a protest rally just before the awards ceremony calling for liu's immediate release. >> we are here to voice our demand for -- to china to release liu xiaobo immediately because obviously he won the nobel peace prize and all he did was just putting chinese people's wishes on to paper, the demand for democracy. and that's all. he has been a very peaceful person and the imprisonment of

him is just ridiculous. and that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. we'll be back in 30 minutes. thanks for joining us on nhk world.jj