>> he added aftershocks are making the rescue operations difficult. 27 japanese are still missing in new zealand. israel has criticized the port call in syria of two eye rain yap warships, the country's first naval vessel to pass through the suez canal in more than 30 years. shimon peres leveled the move provocative in a speech in madrid on wednesday. >> israel doesn't think that iran is a danger only to israel. we think iran is a danger to the world. >> the comment followed the iranian media reports that the vessels arrived in the syrian port of latakia wednesday after passing through the egypt controlled suez canal. with the iranian warships and syria's military planning a joint exercise their cooperation is raising concern in israel. the egyptian government of

ousted president hosni mubarak had bogged the passage of iranian through the see wez canal since egypt severed diplomatic ties with iran after the islamic revolution there in 1979. the israeli government is keeping a particularly close eye on developments in egypt's diplomatic policy now that mubarak has been removed. the kings of bahrain and saudi arabia have met amid fears that bahrain's unrest could spread to its neighbor. saudi king king abdullah invited the king to discuss the enrest wednesday night. the meeting came as anti-government demonstrations in bahrain grow. on tuesday, tens of thousands of shia muslims protested against sunni rule on the streets of the capital manama. sunny muslims also hold power in saudi arabia, despite growing minority shia muslims' frustrations in the oil rich east.

the country has seen calls on the internet for large scale anti-government demonstration on march 11th. the saudi government on wednesday unveiled a package worth $36 billion to help boost youth employment and support poor people. the measures are being viewed as an attempt to redistribute oil wealth to appease the public and prevent the uprising from spreading. the turmoil in libya is worsening. leader moammar al gadhafi faces mounting pressure to step down despite a strong show of defiance. support for anti-government protests is growing in the military. waves of demonstrations continue across the country, pitting security forces against demonstrators. anti-government protesters control almost entire northeast region. in the capital tripoli, the mercenary soldiers have been

reportedly firing at protesters. the international group hamas -- excuse me, human rights watch estimates that a death toll has topped 300. al jazeera reported on wednesday that a group of army officers in the town of nisrata some 200 kilometers east of tripoli have expressed support for the protesters. gadhafi on tuesday night called on his supporters to take to the streets, less than 1,000 turned up at the main square in central tripoli on against. a rift is widening within the government after security minister abdul fatah al aabaydi. u.s. president barack obama condemned the violence in libya and studying a range of options to intensify the pressure on colonel gadhafi. >> the suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable.

so are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters, and further punish the people of libya. these actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. this violence must stop. >> obama said he was considering actions including sanctions and a freezing of overseas assets that the united states could take unilaterally or with its allies. the president said he will send secretary of state hillary clinton to a meeting of the u.n. human rights council in geneva on monday to discuss the developments in libya. british prime minister david cameron has also strongly denounced the libyan government. cameron made the remark wednesday during a visit to qatar. >> what is happening in libya is completely unacceptable. would i like us to go further and have a full you nations security council resolution? yes, i would. i think that would be good.

>> cameron says he would like to see the u.n. resolution send a clear warning to colonel gadhafi and the libyan armed forces that what they are doing is wrong. as violence continues to flare up in libya, european nations are taking measures to evacuate thousands of their citizens from the country. the european commission estimates there are about 10,000 eu citizens in libya. member governments are coordinating efforts to speed up the evacuation. >> the preparation of the evacuation have started with the member states, and the commission stands ready to support member states through the moppering and information centers so-called mrnic improvi transport capacities and identifying additional evacuation means in particular by sea in the next hours and days. >> france sent military aircraft and so far pulled out 400 people.

>> translator: given the situation in the airport, with everything canceled, we didn't know if we were going to be able to catch a regular flight, so it's a big relief. >> the british government plans to send charter flights to begin withdrawing 300 of its nationals from libya. greece is sending a ship. eu nations are calling on their nationals to evacuate immediately. as worries grow over unrest in libya, crude oil futures touched over $100 a barrel on wednesday. buy orders increased in new york wednesday following concerns supplies from major oil producer libya may grind to a halt due to the uprising. the wti index hit $100 for the

first time. in london, sea brent futures soared even higher, touched $111.85 per barrel, the highest level in 29 months. these strengths carried over to the tock yo commodity exchange on thursday. orders for middle east crude oil futures flooded after the opening bell at 9:00 a.m. prices briefly hit 55,240 yen or $673 per kiloliter. market sources say concerns escalated following reports a european oil company suspended its drilling operations in libya. the u.n. security council received a report saying north korea is violating resolutions in its pursuit of nuclear

weapons. the council's north korea sanctions committee briefed the council on its findings on wednesday. it says an american nuclear scientist who visited the north last november believes the country has multiple uranium enrichment facilities. the committee also says it has learned of north korea's continued access to nuclear technology. u.n. member nations are required to tell the council whether they have enforced sanctions in line with resolutions against the north. but with only roughly half doing so, the committee called again for the sanctions to be strictly enforced. >> the report of the panel of experts contained some new revelations, very, very clear evidence. we believe that the sanctions system needs to be implemented

and need to be made more efficient. japan's decision to raise the sales price of imimportanted wheat will deal a heavy blow to domestic foodmakers amid continued deflationary werereurs. the move comes as imported wheat increases an average of 18% starting in april. the move by the agriculture ministry comes as wheat faces growing demand in emerging the agricultural ministry reports and advises the wheat sells in october in line with market trends. the milling firms say they have no choice but to raise the price to absorb some of the cost hike. >> translator: we will do whatever we can to gain the understanding of our clients and

consumers on the price hike. >> given the deflationary economic climate, bread and noodlemakers are cautious about charging more for their products. observers say foodmakers have a hard time ahead as the prices of other grains are also rising. hong kong is proud of being a trade hub in asia. but its vibrant economy has spawned a nagging problem. its landfills are getting close to capacity. so the government is now proposing a host of urgent measure's including the construction of an incinerator. nhk world's adrian brown reports from hong kong on the pressing waste management issue that has sparked controversy. >> reporter: in hong kong the growing amount of garbage is an imminent problem. burning the refuse is one solution the government has now

come up with. and last week it announced the most suitable site for the new incinerator. >> translator: our study shows that the area around shekuchau has a relatively small population and would make less of an environmental impact. >> reporter: the latest government survey shows that local households and businesses produced 30% more garbage during the ten years through 2009. it means that each of the city's 7 million people produced a staggering 921 kilograms of municipal waste. hong kong has three landfills for dumping garbage, but if the residents continue to generate waste at the current pace, they'll be filled from 2014. the hong kong government has come up with a solution. but it's a solution that could end up costing the hong kong

taxpayer more than 3.3 billion u.s. dollars because the proposal calls for the building of a super incinerator, capable of burning up to 3,000 tons of refuse every day. the new plant will be located off this pristine stretch of coastline, west of hong kong island. the plan would cost $29 million a year to operate. the government's not said how it will cover this ballooning cost. but there are fears it will put a burden on taxpayers. environmentalists like rosa ma say the proposed incinerator is not the solution. >> does that mean the government thinks that we burn this problem away or is it willing to again do the harder job is to mobilize its people to deal with the waste sensibly? i think ultimately that is the solution. >> translator: rich people can afford to pay taxes, but poor people cannot.

>> translator: i agree. people aren't interested in recycling today. but that will change if the taxes go up. >> reporter: to deal with the waste problem the government has also set a target to raise its waste recycling ratio to 55% by 2015. >> to be fair to our fellow citizens, i think people are doing more. compared with five years ago, household refuse recycling has in fact doubled. they're still capturing about 40%. there's still a lion's share of household waste not fully recycled. so that's one area that we need to do more. >> reporter: carlos wing hong lo, a professor at hong kong polytechnic university, says letting the problem drag on could be detrimental to

sustaining growth in hong kong. >> no one would like to go to a see that has an environmental sanitation problem. particularly, it will undermine the image that hong kong government is a capable government to manage. >> reporter: as hong kong stands at a cross-roads on whether to dump, burn, or recycle, the government has shifted to invest in its future. but it's still unclear if the problem is so. adrian brown, nhk world, hong kong. businesses around the world not only compete to sell goods and services. they're in a contest to attract the best and brightest talent, leaders who can navigate the globe. k yuko aotani reports on

overcoming obstacles in his own life, now teaches others to be front runners. >> reporter: japan used to lead the world in competitiveness. that was in the '90s. in 2010, an international survey ranked it as 27, far behind places such as singapore, taiwan and south korea. one of the reasons for the decline may be people power. ann shore advises forms that are struggling to develop workers to be internationally adapt. he heads the japanese branch of an international consulting company. >> i also think innovative leaders -- reporte he knows what it is like to overmehaen a, he survive when and howo u inere as tbe ond

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hi there. time now for your world weather update.lomo uettled weather on the way for eastern asia. we have showers affecting the pacific edge of japan, thunderstorms rumbling away in isolated areas and lighter rain will also come into tokyo later on. then, we've got this low pressure system starting to head hete china. that will bring rain and snow to the northern region. it will turn things wintery again on friday, bringing gnicower across china, we'll see that

area of snow move away from the gifr inquseledo toward the south just now but more snow showers on friday as that cold air will start to dive into the region. for now, staying pretty mild on thursday. 20 degrees in chongqing. in shanghai. up toward the north, 18 degrees in beijing. annezean wreoong at fairly calm conditions, an i christchurch to finish off the work week, showers coming in friday, that will cool things down. 16 degrees daytime and we will be back in the sshe mehe weekend otherwise staying relatively quiet and settled here. for the americas, looking at the winter storm impacting the northwestern corner of the u.s. this is going to be bringing significant snow again in and around monta,oong

to pick up to 30 centimeters of snow throughout your thursday. it's going to be sagging towards the south, spreading that know as it goes and potentially could see quite a bit of snow falling in northern california as well. out towards the east, dealing with a separate system, torrential rains likely to occur could bring flooding problems, risk of tornadoes, damaging winds, severe thunderstorms to watch out for occurring over quita de area, as you can see. snow will be found towards the great lakes, picking up the cold arctic air, toronto, 4 degrees, 6 in new york city, 3 in chicago, but turning much colder towards the northwest, only 1 in vancouver and zero for seattle. now, finally taking a look at europe, we still have that high pressure system towards the east but this frontal line is starting to move into continental, winds picking up in

norw a srto e at rain turn to snow as that enters that cold zone for northern germany, the low countries and northern france. pretty mild and really quiet for the iberian peninsula and over towards e hesi oth mediterranean, the weather looks very stormy again, lots of wet conditions over the next couple of days. southern italy dealing with gale force windsnd also torrential rains a flood concern here. athens will be 13 degrees day, cold weather for central and eastern europe, minus 10 in moscow and minus 7 in warsaw. but different story all together for the west, spring-like here. 14 degrees in london, 8 in madrid and 20 degrees in lisbon. here is your extended forecast.

and that concludes this

edition of "newsline." i'm keikichi hanada. on behalf of our team, thank you for staying with us.

>> california's gold is produced in association with kcet los angeles and is seen statewide on california public television. this series is endorsed by-- well, hello, everybody. i'm huell howser. walking down the steps. and these just aren't any old steps either. these are very historic steps here in los angeles. these steps were made famous back in 1932 by laurel and hardy in their classic film, the music box. and if you remember that particular scene, it was quite a production for laurel and hardy to get a piano, a boxed up piano all the way up these steps.