the battle of south carolina. u.s. republican hopefuls campaign in a contest that could determine the nominee for president. mitt romney has taken great strides in the race to become the u.s. republican party's presidential nominee. the former massachusetts governor won the iowa caucuses and then the new hampshire primary. now he enters a critical stage. the primary next week in the state of south carolina. romney garnered 39% of the vote in tuesday's primary in new hampshire following his win last week in iowa.

he's a moderate. conservative congressman ron paul is an advocate for small government. he won 23%. former speaker of the house of representatives, newt gingrich and former senator, rick santorum tied with 9%. south carolina is a conservative state. republicans there will hold their primary on january 21st. over the past 30 years, the winner of this primary ended up clinching the party's nomination every time. romney is the frontrunner. he'll close in on the nomination with another win. iranian authorities see it as an ominous pattern and say foreign agents are to blame. the government says a car bomb wednesday killed another of the country's nuclear scientists. nhk world has this report from the capital of tehran. >> reporter: this area was the sight of a huge explosion today. iranian security authorities say a moving car suddenly blew up.

a 32-year-old university professor and another man died. a third person was hurt. investigators say a motorcyclist placed the bomb. >> translator: after a huge blast, i saw black smoke coming from a car. and a man was lying on the street, bleeding. >> reporter: the dead professor wasn't just a university lecturer, he was also a nuclear scientist. he'd worked at iran's natanz uranium enrichment facility. investigators blame israeli intelligence agencies for the attack. this isn't the first time iranian nuclear scientists have been targeted. a car bomb killed a university professor and nuclear expert in november of 2010. at the time, the iranian government blamed agents from countries opposed to its nuclear

program. the united states and israel denied the allegations. nhk world tehran. chinese leaders have rejected the idea of taking part in new u.s. sanctions against iran. >> translator: problems not be solved by applying pressure or imposing sanctions. dialogue is the only way to solve them peacefully. we oppose sanctions. >> he said iran is a major oil supplier to china and he said his country hopes it will not be affected by the sanctions. his remarks come as american and eu leaders increase pressure on tie ran over the nuclear program trying to ban imports of crude oil. members of a south korean think tank say that they expect north korea will test a nuclear or long-range missile. they say the north will conduct

the test sometime over the next year and a half in an attempt to solidify the rule of new leader kim jong un. the south korean institute of foreign affairs and national security made the prediction in a report. the think tank is affiliated with the government. the report says north korea will likely carry out another provocation by the end of the year or early next year and the military launched an artillery attack in 2010 on a south korean island. the north has historically allowed tensions to rise at times of uncertainty within the regime. the report says the nuclear or missile test could be timed to coincide with a presidential elections later this year in the u.s. and south korea. the north may test a more sophisticated uranium-type nuclear weapon to stress leadership abilities of kim jong un. the report says that the north will try to consolidate the new

regime by re-opening dialogue with the u.s. and returning to the six-party talks on its nuclear development. but it predicts the stalemate between the two koreas will continue as the north increases criticism of the government of president bach. the u.s. has offered to send vitamin but the north has asked for rice and corn. some experts say kim jong un doesn't want people to know the foot shipments are foreign aid. the north korean industry issued a statement saying u.s. offered to resume food shipments and they have suspended assistance to north korea for more than two years. but the statement said that the u.s. has drastically changed the types of food being sent. analysts say the ministry aims to underscore a promise made by by the u.s. to deliver the remaining 300,000 tons of grain.

japan's leading economic data shows a slowing global demand. we have the business report. >> imports are up. japan managed a surplus and in the surplus fell for a ninth straight month. the finance ministry said in a preliminary report on thursday the current account balance fell 85.5% in yen terms from a year earlier to 1.8 billion. the trade balance was in the red for a second straight month, exports fell 3.1% while imports were up 14%, that's due largely to a price hike in crude oil and natural gas. the income surplus, however, grew 13%, helping the overall accoun balance to stay in the positive. the surplus has shown a steady increase for eight consecutive months. tokyo share prices are slightly lower on thursday morning as

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that's the latest in business for this hour. no bk to katrina rthin > e clr power plant that malfunctioned sp despread concern. the ste stopped operating due to poor maintenance. e erncreon a system failed to transmit day too to terminal seet nueaan industrial safety agency for more than 24ou from december 30th. the agency also failed to na mo hour. the system monitors pressure, mpate,ndther real-time conditions of reactors at nuclear power pntrod the country as well as radiation levels inurunng ars. an investigation by the government affiliated rpatn at maghe syem revealed that the data procesng fctns malfunctioned because of poor innae. e cpotiay it will increase its maintenance of the system by rebooting its sve

software twice a year and introducinan automate add largest system. people in taiwan head to the llth weend. the island is holding its presidential election. an testou affect relations with china and regional security. ren "newsline," we'll tell you more about the main candidates and the iue at play. nhk world raja rorts from taipei. as election day approaches many ralli aei hd throughout the city. and it seems to be a fierce battle between the cre president and his rival from the largestopsion the three candidates vying for the presidency are incumbent presidentay think-jeou. and the leading democratic prreivfothe and james soong of the people first party. acrdg pli opinion surveys conducted by taiwanese dia outlets it's a close race

between ma and ou explored the su. y jeou is supposed to appear anmite thenrero is waiting to hear his voe. thprident says that better regularses with china under his mistration, haveed to economic growth. >> translator: the peopl o taiwan need a governmenting that bring stability to the island. the ony, pitsnd ties with china. if you want such stability, vote for may jeou. >> reporter: half of the visitors visitor s taipei i01 are from mainland, china. under ma, the government has

allowed morehise tourists in. there were 1.of million tourists in 2010. >> i think the open policy, if they continueo vehis policy and, i think they will have more and mochinese tris here. >> stronger economic ties have helped the taiwanese businesses expand their operations in china and such opportunities have osd e pulion of taiwanese living in china to more than 1 million. one such pso iua shchlt i. he went to china 20 years ago and runs a factory that produces belt buckles. he thinks that if the president is re-elected, businesses such as his, will continue to receive favorable treatment from the chinese government. he has organized a meeting of 1,300 employees of taiwanese companies.

>> translator: china is taiwan's kbratestarer right now. let's elect ma. >>epte and vying to be taiwan's first female president. she claims only a limited few have benefitted from ecomi grthreed by closer ties with china, leaving many people dissatisfied. >> translator: our incomes have dropped while the wealth gap has widened. sociy's resources are not being districted fairly. >> reporter: in taiwan, unemployment among young people is high, exceeding 10% for didus aged 20 to 24. this is a 24-year-old graduate of national taiwan university, a

top scol although jobs were available in his industry, he felt the salaries were too low. he's working a parttime job with irrelarur >> i don't expect much from ma, our government. i think we should have another party to run the government. oever the party is. but we should change who runs the government. >> now i'd like to bring our taipei bureau chief into the conversation. so, tell me, president ma and opponent have different positions. >> in 20 taiwan's economy grew. the president said this is a result of his policies regarding china. however, since then, polls have not been so favorable for the president. europe's credit crisis which has affected the global economy is beginning to impact taiwan. many people do not feel the

benefits of the deepening ties with china. and that a change in government is necessary. >> and how does the chinese government view this election? >> well, saying publicly that it will not interfere in the direction. the chinese government is keeping a close eye on it. beijing is believed to favor the ma re-election has he's worked toward improved relations with the mainland. if ma wins the election, taiwan's relationship with china is expected to deepen further. by contrast, there is concern in taiwan's business community that if she wins china will take i'm second look at its expanded relationship with taiwan and this could adversely affect taiwan's economy. this election year is in the spotlight because the outcome may change the relations between china and taiwan. if this happens, it will have, impact on the economy and the

security issues in the eastern region. >> thank you for your analysis. that the our taipei bureau chief. next we go to bangkok to find out what's making headlines in the region. we start off in pakistan, where the tense relationship with the united states looked at risk once again. the government in islamabad says the u.s. has resumed its controversial drone strikes on pakistani soil for the first time in almost two months. nhk world has the report on the potential fallout. [ chanting ] >> anti-youth demonstrations in pakistan, scenes like this have become increasingly common over recent months. these people are demanding an end to u.s. drone attacks on pakistani soil. u.s. government agencies,

including the cia, have repeatedly used unmanned drone aircraft to attack the suspected terrorist and the islamic extremists. but pakistani said those operations have also caused many civilian deaths. the they became angrier in pakistan when the american held come and fighter jets in afghanistan, attacked border positions in northwest pakistan, killing 24 soldiers. the operations wereuspended in an apparent effort by the obama administration to stop ties with islamabad from worsening further. but on wednesday, pakistani government officials told nhk that the united states carried out its first drone attack in about two months. it took place in northwest pakistan. at least three people were killed. resuming the drone attacks threatens the region and the

anti-u.s. sentiment in pakistan. it may also delay pakistani's reopening of separate routes for international forces in afghanistan which have been closed since the border incident in november. nhk world. >> and turning to india, of two decades of rapid economic growth, the country still suffers widespread poverty with all its associated problems and one of those is malnutrition. and the prime minister has been to so far as to call the problem shameful. being said in new delhi on tuesday, asia's third-biggest economy had failed to provide its children with enough to eat. >> the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame.

despite an impressive growth in our gdp, the level of undernutrition in the country is unacceptably high. >> the prime minister was speaking at the launch of the 2011 hunger and malnutrition survey. the report says 42% of indian children age 5 or younger are underweight and that's almost double the rate in africa. the survey compiled by an indian charity also suggests that malnutrition is a factor in as much as half of all child deaths in india. unicef has said that 1 of 3 malnourished children in the world lives in india. the government is planning to put its national food security bill into full effect within two years and the law will provide subsidized grain to 5% of people

in rural areas who are deemed too poor to eat properly. and that's going to wrap up our bulletin from bangkok. a big storm moving through australia. more on that and the rest of the world weather picture. welcome back to your weather update. let's look as what's happening across the southern hemisphere. we see distinctive clouds right here. this is a tropical cyclone heidi. hit the coast to the east at the port earlier and is moving south-southwest over the inland area. it's now a category two system, packing wind gusts of 130 kilometers per hour but is expected to weak on the a low pressure system within the next 12 hours.

destructive winds are impacting the areas near the center of the storm and gail force winds within this yellow circle. as for precipitation, because heidi has to be moving very slowly. rainfall total could be significant. more than 100 millimeters of rain are possible across these yoem low zonyellow zones but sos could see rainfall total of 250. it's weakening track so the winds may die down but heavy rain will likely continue so the threat of flooding should remain for the next few days here. heading over to east asia, the southern philippines and much of the peninsula will continue to see thunderstorms as well as heavy rain that's raising their risk of flooding as well as happened slides. meanwhile, monsoonal rain continues in vietnam and it looks like some of the precipitation will spread to southern china as well as taiwan in the next 24 hours. to the north, we've got a very

dry air and weather across most of northern china as well as the korean peninsula and as for japan, the pacific side is still enjoying gorgeous, plu skies. a different story for the opposite side of the country. the western side will come to see heavier snow and, in fact, snow could intensify starting tonight. temperaturewise, we're expecting 1 degree in seoul and 8 degrees in shanghai. very cold areas blanketing much of japan and expecting only 6 for the high in tokyo. across the south, 31 in manila. heading to the americas, mostly dry and calm across the west. but very stormy in the east. a couple of systems have been bringing very heavy precipitation and thunderstorms for much of the eastern u.s. and blowing snow conditions from eastern canada all the way down to the central plains and the

eastern carolinas will see severe thunderstorms and large hail, damaging winds and even tornados, throughout tonight. but as those systems push on to the northeast, much of the great lakes and northeastern states will start to see a wintry mix in the next 24 hours. we've got a lot of warnings and advisories in effect for much of the eastern u.s. sweemp winter storm conditions are impacting much of the plid western states which means a huge amount of snow as well as gusty winds. and new england will start to see the same kind of situation starting late tonight. and across the plains, we've got lots of wind advisories in effect. very cold and northerly winds blowing across this region, pushing down temperatures. we are expecting 3 degrees in oklahoma city, which is about 10 degrees lower than wednesday. but the eastern seaboard is on the warmer side at 13 in d.c.

and 17 in atlanta. all right, here's your extended forecast 37. forecast. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

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