nuclear ambition. the u.n.'s atomic watchdog reveals what iranian scientists up to in a mountain bunker. the international atomic energy agency has confirmed that iran have begun enriching are uranium. it's necessary to produce nuclear weapons. it's to exacerbate tensions with the u.s.

scientists are working to refine uranium 20% purity. american researchers released images of the facility three years ago. the underground plant is well protected against possible military attacks from israel and other nations. iran's envoy to the iaea said on state television that all nuclear facilities are running under the surveillance of the agency. u.s. leaders are strongly condemning iran, state department spokesperson brushed off tehran's position that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes. >> when you enrich 20% there's no reason for that if you're talking about a peaceful program. it generally tends to indicate that you are enriching to a level that takes you to a different kind of nuclear program. >> she said this is first

violation of u.n. security council resolutions. they obligate the country to stop its enrichment program. she called on iran to cooperate with iaea inspections. an iranian court has sentenced an iranian-american to death on charges of espionage. the man is accused of being a cia agent. the iranian intelligence authorities arrested the man last month on suspicion of spying. he allegedly received training in intelligence gathering at a u.s. military base in neighboring afghanistan. the revolutionary court in tehran concluded on monday that he w an agent of the u.s. intelligence agency, and handed down a death sentence. iran's judicial authority says he confessed to links with the cia but the u.s. government denies the claims and has demanded his release. iranian authorities arrested several other people on sunday for alleged links with the cia and obstruction of the

parliamentary elections scheduled for march of this year. the united arab emirates says a new crude oil pipeline will be operational within six months. it will allow oil toby pass the strait of hormuz. the announcement comes as the evenings swell between western nations and iran over its nuclear program raising fears of military conflict and disruption to the flow of oil. the uae's new pipeline may be closed by war or accident. the strait is one of the most important oil transit channels. local reporters that the pipeline is almost complete. he said he hopes it will be operational by may or june. the new pipeline will be capable of transporting 70% of crude oil produced in the uae. iran has threatened to block the strait if u.s. be tightens its

sanctions. it recently held a military exercise in the waters to demonstrate its capabilities. other gulf oil producers are taking a pro-u.s. stance. the uae's announcement is aimed at restraining iran. the uae is the second largest crude oil supplier to japan after saudi arabia. japanese optical equipment maker olympus is suing some of its currents and former executives. this is for their role in a scandal that covered up losses over many years. olympus announced on tuesday it had filed the lawsuit against 19 people at the tokyo district court. it is seeking up to $47 million in damaged compensation. the move came after a third-party panel lawyers concluded a probe into current and former board members in connection with the accounting fraud. the panel said former president, former auditor and former vice

president all played a key role in hiding investment losses worth over 100 billion yen. legal panel also criticized current president and five other directors for failing to detect the fraud. olympus announced that the current executives who are accused of fraud are to resign their posts by march or april. french and german leaders are again taking the lead on the european credit crisis. ai has the details. >> the german chancellor and french president met yesterday. they agreed that economic growth should be part of the region's plan and not just measures to boost budget discipline. they discussed europe's debt problems in berlin on monday ahead of an eu summit later this month. they expressed optimism about a new treaty for tighter budget discipline that all earn u nations except britain are

aiming for. merkel said talks are under way. sarkozy noted the pact will be signed by march 1st. >> translator: we agree that our current priority issues are to boost the regional economy, employment and competitive standing. >> sarkozy's comment comes as debt woes affecting the economy. the two leaders plan to draft measures and submit them to the european commission. the eu's executive body. investors are willing to pay extra money for safe assets. germany sold its short term government bonds at negative yields for the first time. the german central bank said its auction on monday of six month bonds worth 3.9 billion euros drew more buyers than expected. the average yield of minus

0.0122%. a negative yield means germany can borrow money and receive modest interest from investors. germany's solid budget situation makes the country a safe haven for investors as debt worries for italy and other eurozone members shows no signs of easing. european council president has welcomed the euro's decline against other currencies. he said in copenhagen on monday the weak euro will help promote the region's exports. he said the key to resolving the debt problems is to boost economic growth while boosting fiscal discipline of member nations. he said specific measures will be discussed at the eu summit to be held in three weeks. he also expressed hope the eu and japan will soon begin official talks for a free trade deal. initial discussions are already in progress. the aim is to start concrete negotiations by june.

time to get a check on markets. tokyo stock prices are up slightly this tuesday morning after a three day weekend as investors bought back recent decliners. the nikkei average currently at 84 the 19, up 28 points. a gain of one-third of a percent. the topix is up two thirds of a percent currently at 733. investors are reluctant to engaging active trading because they are still wary of the yen's rise against the euro which is hurting the earns of japanese exporters. now currencies. euro and dollar are falling against the yen on tuesday morning in tokyo. the declines are due to persistent concerns over european debt problems. the euro at 98.11-16 yen. dollar at 76.87-90 yen. investors are waiting to see whether spanish and italian bonds can attract enough buyers

at auctions later this week. participants are likely to continue selling the euro as they seek the safety of the yen. here's a look at the latest long term interest rates. this is the yield on the benchmark ten year japanese government bond. nissan and daimler are cooperating to produce gasoline engines in the united states. the japanese and german automakers will be making the engines for mercedes-benz and infinity vehicles. the companies announced the project on sunday. nissan spokesperson said the auditorium will begin producing the dame lir developed engines in 2014 at its plant in tennessee. the alliance of nissan and renault started in 2010. the latest venture would meet daimler's need to obtain locally produced engines to increase car production in america and

satisfy nissan's factory to be used more effectively. automakers are trying to use tie ups to cut development costs and produce main parts more efficiently. in another example germany's bmw agreed to supply desle engines to toyota. let's get you a recap of the latest market figures. and that's the latest from business. back to katherine. >> thanks very much. another person believed to be a former member of the aum

shinrikyo cult have turned herself into police. she's suspected of helping a former member wanted for murder evade capture for more than 17 years. tokyo metropolitan police said the 49-year-old surrendered to police early tuesday morning accompanied by her lawyer. the woman told police that she had been with hitata until he surrendered to police on december 31st. she is thought have worked as a nurse at a hospital operate by the cult. hitata was wanted in connection with the abduction and measure of a tokyo notary official in 1995. the woman was placed on a wanted listing 1997 for allegedly helping another member flee but those charges were dropped when the statute of limitations expired. the metropolitan police intend to formally arrest the woman once they establish her identity. two buddhist monks died over

the weekend after setting themselves on fire in china's tibetan regions. the tibetan government in exile says the men killed themselves as a protest against the chinese government's repression. china's official news agency says a monk in his 40s died after setting himself on fire sunday in a tibetan region. the u.s. sponsored radio free asia says the monk shouted slogans calling for freedom for tibet as he set himself alight in front of a police station. also the report says two former monks attempted to burn themselves to death friday in another tibetan area. it says one has been confirmed dead. the tibetan government has condemned china for carrying out a crackdown on the religious freedom of tibetan people. the leaders of south korea

and china have agreed to monitor north korea's moves as the new leadership establishes itself. the south korea president lee myung-bak andinin held a summit. visiting china to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. officials from the south korean presidential office say the leaders agree to work together towards a peaceful, stable and nuclear-free korean peninsula. but they agreed it would be difficult to restart negotiations on the north's nuclear program or bilateral talks between the two koreas. they believe the new north korean leadership is unlikely to want dialogue with other countries at this stage. the leaders also talked about efforts to forge a free trade agreement. the president said his country hopes to begin talks with china by march. and the president also discussed last month's deadly incident in the yellow sea. a chinese fishing boat captain fatally stabbed a south korean

maritime police officer. the chinese side reportedly promised to educate its fishermen to prevent similar attacks. three north korean men lost at sea for three weeks are now in the custody of officials from their country. they went out fishing in mid-december in a small boat. their engine failed and they drifted into japanese waters. the men left monday from an airport in southwestern japan. they were handed over to north korean officials in the chinese city of dalian. japan coast guard officers found their wooden boat on friday. they discovered the body of a fourth man on board. the survivors say their crew mate died of exhaustion. the men denied they defected and pushed to secure their return home.

one way for students from different countries to make friends is to take part in cultural exchanges. but tension on the korean peninsula makes it difficult for students in north korea and nearby countries to meet each other. however, some youngsters have taken the first steps. >> reporter: all across japan people have been viewing this traveling exhibit ever since november. elementary and junior high students from japan, south and north korea, as well as china drew the pictures. about 160 drawings are on the wall. the theme is my treasure. a fifth grade boy from south korea drew his pet dog. an important family member. this north korean girl captains

a local soccer team. her younger sister, a fan drew the portrait. >> translator: all these colors are bright. i was expecting them to be darker. i'm impressed by the cheery pictures. they capture the spirit of the children. >> translator: i think this exhibit is a good opportunity for people in north and south korea as well as china to become interested in japan. and we japanese will become interested in them too. >> reporter: in august the japanese organizers collected drawings by children. now in its 11th year, they face a crisis whenever tensions rise on the korean peninsula. but the exhibit has managed to carry on.

the organizers don't let borders and hostility interfere with their commitment to children. >> translator: we want to create a stage in which youngsters meet each other through their drawings. i believe this has helped us get through difficult times. >> reporter: recently the organizers have been encouraging children from different countries to collaborate on the same works. japanese and south korean children draw a carriage they would like to ride on. >> translator: i'm finished! >> reporter: the students added their faces to cards drawn by friends. they all wrote messages on the back of their pictures.

>> translator: i wrote, "let's play baseball in pyongyang." >> reporter: when work was finished the children joined up all the cards to make a long train. >> translator: these drawings make up the friendship train. i believe it expands the exhibit and increasing the connections between the participants will lead to peace. >> reporter: everyone hopes some day all the youngsters can meet in person. they have certainly made that hope clear in this year's pictures. japan's world cup soccer st sawa has another achievement.

the award was made in switzerland. she said the award would energize her and she'll continue to train hard every day. a night of double celebration for japan as women's team coach won "world coach of the year" for women's football. his tenacious squad became the first asian nation to win a soccer world cup. he expressed his gratitude for the support japan received after the disaster last year. he said that the team e gave strength and encouragement to the japanese people. it was the first time a japanese player or coach has won a fifa title. argentina's lionel messi won as the world's best footballer for the third straight year. you can kick the ball around here in tokyo but you would be

cold. let's go get the world weather picture. welcome to your weather update. let's look at conditions in asia. things are looking relatively dry across china as well as the korean peninsula. we have this low in these areas but that's not developing a whole lot. you can see it stays very light at most. now for japan, we're talking about quite a bit of drier weather today but as we head into the evening and on into wednesday you can see a little more precipitation starts developing along the western flank, more moisture coming in off the sea of japan, so you do want to watch out for another round of snowfall in the area. to the south, southeast asia, areas like central southern sections of the philippines will be looking again at chances of

heavier downpours so watch out for that. highs on tuesday look like this. 9 in tokyo. seasonal. 1 in seoul. 9 in shanghai and 20 degrees in taipei. getting over into the americas, it is going to be a picture for the gulf coast. trio of lows here and continue to bring in more moisture, trigger some stronger storms in texas. looks like we'll continue to see some stormy weather for the lower mississippi valley as well as in towards texas and oklahoma. now towards the north a lot of this precipitation is going to be falling as snow. heavier snow expected to spread in the northern rockies and really central, eastern sections of canada looking at a little bit more snowfall for the course of tuesday. highs across the board look like this. 8 in new york. wild on the aseaboard. 11 in chicago. 9 one denver and seasonal 6 degrees in seattle. lastly getting into europe and here the alpine region has been

dealing with quite a bit of snow since the weekend. plenty of heavy snows impacting the area. let's get a look at the situation. we have some video coming in first from austrua. two to three meters piling up. residents trying to dig out from this heavy snowfall. a lot of road closures as well as flight cancellations. in neighboring switzerland, heavy snowfall has forced some ski slopes to close, just too much snow in the area. even for skiing. so, very serious event going on here. plenty of snowfall. right now we're still looking at a little bit more moisture in the area, but that is going to be heading out. you can see a little bit more moisture in the next 24 hours but it really starts breaking up and hopefully we'll see more drier conditions for all the pine region as well.

for the scandinavia region, norway more moisture coming in along the coastline and similar windy and wet for scotland, especially this northwestern section, ireland too looking on the unsettled side. highs on tuesday, looking at a double digits for london and paris, on the mild side. even gets up to 6 degrees in vienna. remains right at the freezing mark in moscow with a mix of rain and snow expected. here's your three day outlook.

our lead story this our -- underground plant is well protected against possible military attacks from israel and other nations. iran's envoy to the iaea said on state television that all

nuclear facilities are running under the surveillance of the agency. u.s. leaders are strongly condemning iran, state department spokesperson brushed off tehran's position that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes. >> when you enrich to 20% there's no reason for that if you're talking about a peaceful program. it generally tends to indicate that you are enriching to a level that takes you to a different kind of nuclear program. >> she said this is further violation of u.n. security council resolutions. they obligate the country to stop its enrichment program. she called on iran to cooperate with iaea inspections. japanese optical equipment maker olympus is suing some of its former and currents executives. this is for their role in a scandal that covered up losses

over many years. olympus announced on tuesday it had filed the lawsuit against 19 people at the tokyo district court. it is seeking up to $47 million in damaged compensation. the move came after a third-party panel of lawyers conclude ad probe into current and former board members in connection with the accounting fraud. the panel said former president, former auditor and former vice president all played a key role in hiding investment losses worth over 100 billion yen. the legal panel also criticized current president and five other directors for failing to detect the fraud. olympus also announced that the current executives who are accused of fraud are to resign their posts by march or april. and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.