in a powerful reform mand to syria's government, the u.n. again assembly has voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution calling on assad to immediately end all violence against civilians. the general assembly strongly condemned the widespread human rights abuses by syrian authorities. 137 countries voted in favor of the resolution. china and russia along with other ten countries voted against it. but lack veto power in the general assembly. the draft resolution backing the

arab league's efforts for the crackdown was co-sponsored by the united states, the european nation and japan among others. the resolution supports the democratic transfer of power. it requires assad to step down. it asks u.n. secretary general to appoint the special envoy to negotiate with the assad administration. resolutions adopted by the body are not legally behinding. but it sent a message to the assad administration. more than 600 people are believed to be killed in the crackdown. and western leaders are weary of stepping in. we have a report from cairo. >> reporter: protesters across the middle east and north africa got caught up in the moment of the arab spring. western powers got caught up, too. the movement got started in libya.

they came armed with u.n. security council resolution to protect civilians from the use of force. but fallen leaders have had difficulty reaching consensus on syria. they worry about what might happen if they intervene. some fear the turmoil in syria could spill over to the other countries. and lead to a larger conflict. the assad government provides weapons and funding to the shiia militant group hezbollah, a strong enemy of israel. >> translator: the united states and israel will soon establish a new government in syria. and then they'll say what are we getting in return for our efforts? ic they'll want to get rid of us in lebanon.

they'll want to eliminate the resistance in palestine. >> reporter: analysts say hezbollah will join forces with assad regime if any intervention took place. majority sunnis lead the anti-government protest. some analysts cite a clash last week in lebanon between the two groups as a case in point. two days later, al qaeda leaders called for the overthrow of the assad administration. western intelligence officers fear al qaeda members have infiltrated opposition groups.

and they say the militants' presence will only complicate a conflict with few solutions. u.s. government officials say they intend to impose additional sanctions on teheran. they used the agency of sporting terrorism. the u.s. treasury department said on thursday that the iranian ministry is providing support for terrorist networks. it specifically cited al qaeda as well as islamic groups hezbollah and hamas. under the sanctions the u.s. will stop issuing visas to ministry officials and freeze any ministry assets in the united states. the decision comes after a series of bomb attacks this week. on monday a blast in new delhi targeted israeli diplomats. it was followed the next day by three explosions in bangkok. thai authorities arrested suspects one of whom carried an iranian passport.

next we go to bangkok to find out what's going on in the region. >> the leaders of pakistan, afghanistan and iran have met many islamabad amid rising international tex about iran's nuclear program. even so the position of iran at the summit appeared bolstered by its wealth and natural resources. the president of pakistan, karzai from afghanistan and iran's president ahmadinejad issued a statement after their talks on friday. their pledge to increase cooperation in energy, trade and counterterrorism. ahmadinejad promised to continue supporting the energy needs of pakistan and afghanistan. ahmadinejad blamed outside flunss for the problems faced by the region. even though he avoided mentioning any country by name, his remarks were aimed at the united states and its allies. in singapore, asia's largest air show is underway along with tate of the art civilian aircraft,

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lainreve. >> lovely dance. today. many job sookers and employers in fukushima prefecture find themselves in a stngpricent. as the disruption from the nuclear disaster continuesso people want work, but can't find the se business people want workers but can't find employees. in the road ahead tonight we report on businesses who are finding ways to solve the problem. >> reporter: before the disaster struck, this clothing manufacturer employed about workers. but afterwards, more than 20 employees quit and left the precre

the company looked for replacements, but after six months, it had found only one. part of the problem is that a acti ze.n teiaemoys veooaresidents, away for work. the plant owner saysheab shortage is hurting the company. he says that the factory can only make a limited number of garments each day. soe sn bn leo ll his orders. >> translator: with so few employees our situation is getting critical. >> reporter: to solve the obm,e cided on a factory in ab area where there arlo opontl employees. he chose a city in the same prefecture. many evacuees live there and were look for work. last december he put out job

vacancy notices. in just ten days over 30 people applied. he was able to hire 25. so h lt eihos d workplaces to the tsunami. they were keen on rerning to work. >> translator: it's fantastic that a new company has come here. tnsto iho ts wn because a lot of evacuees are here. plus it's in fukushima prefecture and i'm hoping this move helps the prefecture cor. as a business owner, i want to do as much as i can to make that happen. >> reporter: another business is also trying to create jobs to help the disaster victims. a chain of shopping centers have been located in a town not far from the damaged nuclear power plant. after the disaster it had to close all nine stores and laff its 200 workers.

next month, one store will repeanemoyee about 30 workers. as for the other laid off employees, they collect unemployment benefits while wainfothe rest of the stores to re-open. >> translator: it's heartbreaking to think that 80% of our former employees arar wainfor the stores to re-open. >> reporter: the company decided cata ecl amf workers called the temporary housing core. they visit people in temporary housg mmits,ak orders, and deliver good during a trial run, they got a favorable response. soheomnyecedo d people to the core. on this day, the company asked a former employee to join the team.

as he had been reluctant to move ouofhili owo, happily accepted the offer. >> translator: it would hd for me to change jobs at my age. i'm pleased that i will be able to work many the same field as before. >> translator: i'd like to be able to create some sort of job for the 100 or so former employees who still live in our prefecture. as for for the people who evacuated to other prefectures, i will wait until they come back and join us. i hope the number of people who support what we're doing and want to work here will grow rapidly. >> reporter: the nuclear disaster dealt a serious blow to business people in fukushima prefecture. but they've shown ingenuity and perseverance in creating jobs for the disaster victims. by doing so, they help their couny bod.

>> the u.s. federal district court has declined the request for an injunction to prevent anti-whaling activists fm obstructing japan's whaling fleet. the court in the state of washington denied the request by the tokyo based instute. a ruling cannot be decided immediately because it involves several countries voing australia. the judge says the case has a political dimension. the japanese government accuses an anti-whaling oup of obstructing japan's activities in the antarctic since 2005. >> translator: the court's decision doesn't mean our claim has been wholly rejected. we hope this process will result in a ruling that forbids this kindf obstruction. >> companies in japan take a time honored approach to recruiting staff. hire graduates straight out of college then train them for a lifetime job. such mass hiring usually takes place at the start of the financial year, but some

companies are looking for new ways to fill jobs and new qualities in their workers. >> reporter: shopping for work. college students attend a job seminar run by an operator of a clothing chain. the chairman says japanese companies need to change their ways starting with the way they hire employees. >> translator: the new opportunities are overseas. japan's woeful situation is due to our mind set. we've only been thinking about japan. >> reporter: mass hiring of recent graduates is out. from now on, the company will recruit staff throughout the year. the door is open to meet korean job seekers and foreign nationals. the company's busy opening stores around the world. 280 more in this year alone. in three years, overseas

earnings are expected to exceed those in japan. starting in march, english will become the company's official language. that includes head office in japan. 80% of new recruits will be foreigners. >> translator: we plan to set up a lot of stores overseas, so we need to get used to working with people from different countries. we have to get accustomed to that kind of work environment. >> reporter: one of japan's major convenience store chains is also gearing up to hire more foreign employees. this man started working for lawson three years ago. now he's in charge of training new employees. he is from china. he came to study in japan nine years ago. he says lawson's work culture was one reason he decided to work here. >> translator: i was very impressed by the fact that we all have the same opportunity.

>> reporter: 20% to 30% of new recruits are foreigners. the managers say they need new ideas to deal with the fast changing world. one way to do that is to recruit from outside the traditional labor pool. >> translator: we don't care whether they're japanese or foreigners, we just hire a variety of people who have different ways of thinking and doing things. >> reporter: according to an nhk survey, 90% of leading companies are actively hiring foreigners. of those more than 40% say they are considering taking on more foreign employees in the future. food manufacturer sells products in 130 countries. throwing out the old rule book it has started grooming foreign staff to become executives. the company holds an executive trainee conference once a year. on this day, employees gathered from 13 different countries including thailand, vietnam and

indonesia. most are in their 30s and 40s. in the past these foreign staff would have no chance of being promoted to executive positions. but four years ago the company removed the glass ceiling. ability and work performance were declared as the sole benchmarks for career advancement. the company says the change has been stimulating for both japanese and foreign employees. >> in doing a good job gets me to become a manager, i would be very happy. day-by-day i think it's more possible. >> translator: we want to compete in the global market. so we need the best team in the world. i think it is necessary to find talented people from abroad, train them and use them efficiently. >> the cold snap in europe has

been affected romania since the end of january. record low temperatures and heavy snowfalls have prompted the government to declare a state of emergency. >> reporter: many parts of the danube river are frozen. some 30 ships and barges are stranded in this area alone. >> translator: the river froze for the first time in 26 years. >> reporter: the cold snap has brought record snowfalls to many parts of romania. in this village in the eastern part of the country, cars have disappeared under the snow. the government has declared a state of emergency. police and military forces are participating in a large rescue operation.

>> reporter: this group of 50 soldiers and firefighters walked about three kilometers in the snow to an isolated village. the villagers have been waiting for a week. many are old and unable to shovel the snow. they were running out of food and fuel. >> translator: i live alone so i really appreciate the help. >> translator: we ran out of firewood. we decided to pull down a cabin in order to stay warm. >> reporter: meteorologists say the cold weather was caused by the movement of a mass of cold air from the arctic. temperatures are expected to rise temporarily, but the situation is likely to remain serious over the coming days.

let's turn to weather. >> yes, well, the southeastern europe is still looking at these cold arctic blasts that is very persistent. here in turkey, this whole cloud as you can see that's bringing us widespread snow. let's take a look at some pictures coming out from turkey. heavy snowfall and blizzard continue to paralyze daily life here. the current climate conditions in the country will progressively worsen towards the weekend. and access to more than 1300 villages have been completely severed due to rough weather. looks like this is continuing towards the weekend. here this wet weather and the snow will be tapering off in central portions of europe and the eastern areas as well. that's good news. we have a system comes in towards the northern british isles impacting with wet and

windy weather along with western scandinavian pe fins la. london temperatures sinking down to about out towards the west things are looking very nice. on the other side of this cold stream jet stream paris is looking at double digits looking fine there 11 degrees in london at 10. lisbon at 17 degrees and moscow on the other side looking at minus 7 and turkey at minus 1. let's head over to japan and talk about what's going on here with those heavy snow situation. tokyo has started to see some snow and heavy snow is ongoing. let's take a look at some pictures. here 20 centimeters has accumulated in the last 24

hours. in the same region, 42 centimeters and 40 sen meters has piled up. looks like this is going to be an ongoing story for the weekend. heavy snow around the region. we may see it about 80 centimeters. winds are very strong, too, picking up those high waves and winds and snow combined blizzard conditions as well as blowing snow could reduce visibilities in much of the areas. very dangerous for driving kps. also avalanche is at high risk. fresh snow piling up in very short span of time could lead to surface avalanche which is very dangerous. even down in the south up to 20 centimeters of snowfall is going to be expected into saturday evening and in this region also at 60 centimeters. as i mentioned 80 centimeters here. elsewhere in asia much of the continent is dominated with this high pressure system. it's going to be very cold and calmer, but snow will be

accumulating here in southwestern portion of the korean peninsula. inland china you may see some accumulation up to five centimeters. let's talk about the tropical depression that has formed east of the philippines. this looks like it might become a tropical storm. if it does it's going to be this year's first. nearly winds are picking up and energizing this system and dumping heavy rain in much of the country. in central parts of philippines we're consider vrnd with the further landslides in the quake hit regions. temperaturewise manila at 31. shanghai down to 6. seoul reaching up to minus 2 for the saturday high. tokyo as well at just 5 degrees. we're going to see some snow coming in on saturday night. here's our extended forecast.

that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline." we'll be back with more news in half an hour. thank you for watching. bye-bye.