the syrian divide. >> we are at a tipping point. kofi annan puts bashar al assad on notice. he says the people of syria do not want their future to be one of bloodshed and division. the joint u.n. and arab league

envoy return to damascus to try to value saj the peace plan he brokered urging president assad to follow through on his promises. annan appeals to assad to take bold steps to stop fighting between opposition and government forces. syrian state run news agency quoted the president as saying the frequent terror attacks and foreign military aid to terrorists would have to end. u.n. military observers are in syria to monitor a peace agreement but have been unable to stop the fighting. more than 100 people were killed last week in central syria. members of the u.n. security council were among leaders from around the world who have condemned the assad administration for its role. u.s. officials say iranian official are to blame, too. they say an iranian military unit helped carry out the massacre. state department spokesperson victoria neuland says an officer

of the islamic military guard admitted the elite force supports the military. >> the qods force saying publicly that they were proud of the role that they had played in training and assist in the syrian forces. >> a seen >> france, britain germany, canada australia and other nations have ordered syrian ambassadors and other diplomats to leave. the french president said western nations took the actions together to put more pressure or not syrian government. defense ministers from china and the pill phoenix have both shown a positive stance toward easing tensions over a disputed show in the south china sea.

guanglie met with u.n. counterparts in cambodia. they described the talks as constructive. ahead of the meeting, they met unofficially on monday and agreed to avoid provocative actions and work toward easing tensions. they continued their maritime standoff over territorial claims to the show. armed guards have been positioned in disputed waters since april. investigators in tokyo are accusing a diplomat and former member of china's intelligence services of running a business while on assignment in the japanese capital. they say he illegally obtained a registration card to do that. an international treaty bans diplomats from carrying out private work. police are preparing to charge the 45-year-old man. the suspect was the first secretary at the chinese embassy in japan.

investigators say he applied for foreign residence card in 2008 at a tokyo ward office and that he didn't disclose his status as a diplomat. police asked him to come in r questioning and he rejected the request and returned to china. investigators said the diplomat may have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from japanese companies for what he described as investment in the farming business in china. some of the money was reportedly transferred to a bank account he opened with the illegally obtained alien registration card. he allegedly used the funds to expand his ties to politicians and business leaders. japanese police and other authorities say the chinese diplomat had worked in the second division of the people's liberation army general staff department. the organization is believed to be involved in overseas espionage activities. the diplomat assumed the job of first secretary at the chinese embassy in tokyo in 2007. japanese police began tracking

him at the time. they obtained information on his past work for china's government. some media reports say the diplomat was working as a spy, but the spokesperson for china's embassy in japan is flatly denyg those claims. an embassy spokesperson, yang yu says the diplomat returned to china because his assignment ended. he said the first secretary assumed the post at the economic affairs division in july 2007 at the embassy, and helped promote economic exchange. the japanese foreign minister koichiro gemba isn't prepared to comment on the case at this time. >> translator: i need to gather all of the background information first and then comment. >> gemba studied at the same political institute in japan that the chinese diplomat is said to have attended.

he says he had no memory of him. japanese and european citizens abducted by north korean agents in the late 1970s and early '80s remains a devisive issue. brother of one japanese abductee recently spoke to the european parliament to call for support to resolve the issue. he testified at subcommittee on human rights in brussels. he's the first relative of an abductee to testify at parliament. he said north korea abducted citizens of 12 countries, including romania and france. >> our goal is to rescue all the victims abducted by north korea and for that we need the help and the cooperation of the european governments. >> his sister was taken to north korea in 1978. north korea says she died several years later.

but they have not provided evidence to support the claim. >> to -- members of the european parliament should put in a strong message and signal to the north koreans. >> seven eu members have embassies in pyongyang. japan and the united states have no diplomat tieic ties with north korea. concerns about the country's human rights are growing. the european parliament adopted a resolution in 2010 to urge north korea to improve its human rights situation. yong eung egyptians have protested against a veteran of the country's old regime. protesters are calling for nationwide demonstrations as several hundred people gathered at thatahrir square.

>> translator: it wouldn't be right if he becomes the president. i strongly oppose him. >> on monday protesters set fire to the campaign office in cairo after the election commission announced that he would head into the run-off. muslim brotherhood candidate finished on top in the first round. myanmar'spposition leader aun sang sue chi areferred in bangkok on tuesday. her first trip outside myanmar in 24 years. she will give a speech in the thai capital. she will stay in thailand until the end of this week. she'll meet representatives of other countries at the international conference to explain myanmar's ongoing

process of democratization. she's also scheduled to visit a refugee camp near the border with myanmar. aung san suu kyi returned top myanmar from britain in 1988 and became a leader of the democracy movement. she was camped under house arrest for many years by the military government. she had refused to leave myanmar because she feared she would not be allowed back into the country. but the recent democratic changes in myanmar encouraged her to travel abroad. a powerful earthquake has struck northern italy leaving at least 16 people dead and roughly 350 injured. the same area was also hit by a magnitude 6.0 quake last week. u.s. geological survey says the magnitude 5.8 quake occurred on tuesday, roughly 40 kilometers northwest of bologna at around 9:00 a.m. local time. italian disaster relief authorities say buildings have collapsed causing casualties and

injuries. the prime minister said the government will immediately investigate the damage and quickly restore essential services. another strong earthquake that hit the region last week killed seven people. the two quakes have forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate their homes. investors aren't liking facebook going public. those who bought a piece of the social networking giant aren't watching their shares -- well they are watching them but they are watching them slide. we have more on that. >> you know it's been about two weeks since that hyped up ipo. but trading has been, at best, lackluster lackluster. facebook shares continue to fall since the company went public just about ten days ago on the nasdaq. the stock closed at $28.84n tuesday. that is down over 9% from last friday. the u.s. stock markets were closed for a holiday on monday. now facebook stocks went above

the initial public offering price of $38 on the first day of tradeing but have been on a decline ever since. investors are cautious about the business outlook of the world's largest social networking site. investment banks that led the ipo revised down the outlook for facebook just before its debut but they told this reportedly to only som investors. this also brought about concerns among market players. as for other stocks on wall street though both ended in the positive. let's see how japanese stocks performed. economic data out of the u.s. looking mixed but what about european concerns? easing a bit there? >> very good morning to you. exactly. a lot of know cuss on europe as well. but europe markets playing catch-up, if you will. some jitters coming out of the

eurozone economy which investors are focusing on. opening levels for this wednesday with the nikkei and topix, both trading a little bit lower. some of the jitters there translating into the market open here. with greek elections coming up in june markets are very cautious about developments in europe but despite some of the worry for investors, u.s. economic data should really provide a major focus this week with the jobs data coming up on friday. that's going to prode further evidence for the federal reserve about u.s. economy and also may provide further evidence for other central banks as well as to their monetary policy including the bank of japan which is keeping a close eye both on eurozone economies as well as the u.s. economy and any growth prospects for the world's biggest economy which is crucial for japan's exporters. here in japan, another focus may also be on trading houses. one said yesterday they will be

buying a stake -- or buying the third biggest u.s. grain producer for around $3.6 billion. that's going to be making it one of the biggest or the biggest deal of that sort for japanese company this year. a lot of japanese trading houses are trying to procure overseas investments or tie-ups in the energy and commodity sectors. let's look at currency levels as well. that's played a big part in our stocks are trading here yt yen continuing to strengthen. now 79.52. the euro lost ground both against the dollar and the yen. it is weakened to near two-year low against the dollar, while falling below 98 level against the yen. that's the first time in about four months that we've seen the euro yen at those levels. >> staying on the topic of currencies, on friday we'll be seeing a new currency pair trade put into place. >> yeah that's going to be very

exciting in the currency markets. the announcement by japan's finance minister that direct trading between the yen and the yuan will kick off on friday which means you don't haveo convert the yen into -- yuan into dollars in between those two currencies. so direct trading and the three mega banks will be trading with chinese banks from friday. that's going to be very exciting and we're going to see how that pans out in the currency markets. japan obviously trying to create an offshore market for that pairing to beat off competition from other centers such as london. the topix opening just a touch lower ismorning. >> thanks a lot for that from the tokyo stock exchange. the ousted president of olympus says he has reached a settlement with the company over his dismissal. michael woodford told reporters in london on tuesday about the agreement with the japanese

optical equipment maker. >> it is a positive thing in the interest of both parties. it has to be ratified by the main board of the olympus corporation on the board meeting on friday, the 8th of june. >> no details of the settlement are available, but sources say olympus will pay 10 million pounds or more than $1015 million to the former president. the amount takes into account the compensation he would have received had he served as president until the end of his contract. woodford filed a lawsuit against olympus in london. he claimed for damages aring that he was unfairly dismissed last october after blowing the whistle on the company's accounting irregularities. olympus acknowledges that it is in the final phase of negotiion for a settlement. that's the latest from me this hour. i'll leave you with a check on the markets.

a former mayor of beijing says the 1989 tee enman square incident could have been avoided if the student-led democracy protest had been handled properly. he says china's leaders are partly responsible for the tragedy. he makes the claim in his recently published memoirs. chen reportedly played a major role in ending the protest 23 years ago when he was the mayor of beijing.

chen says the factional rivalry within the chinese communist party was partly to plame for the failure to properly deal with the protests. he says this failure made the crackdown inevitable. after the tiananmen protest, chen was promoted to secretary of the communist party's bain jing muse pal committee, later dismissed from the post on corruption and other charges, sentenced to 16 years in jail but was later granted medical parole. chinese government says 319 people died when troops moved in to break up the protests. but others maintain that thousands died. chinese leaders are trying to keep things calm as they head toward a leadership shuffle this fall. protesters in guangdong province

started earning concessions. now xhin . >> reporter: last december protesters took to the street in the eastern part of guangdong province. some protest rsers attacked the local government building and clashed with police. the residents were -- protesters say the local officials seized 1,300 hectors of farmland. they add that the government sold it legally to developers. one of the protest leaders died in custody. locals say he died from police

violence, that this intensified the protests. the police reported the event on internet. the protest shook the communist party in guangdong. this man heads the party there. he has been promoting economic reforms. he is likely to become one of china's top leaders this fall. he orders the public to pick new leader leader. the full media report.

premier winen jiabao supported the demonstrations. >> translator: the election in the village was a success. >> reporter: wen kept a low profile and did not take credit for what he did. >> translator: i didn't do anything special. no. nothing whatsoever. all i did, and i emphasize is was simply abide by the law. >> consequences of the election

spread out all over the province demonstrations broke out. they demanded elections but the government mostly ignored the protests protests. >> translator: police took my fellow protesters into custody and beat them. the authorities are trying to crack down. >> reporter: the party chief, wang and other leaders say that they will arrange similar leaks in other parts of guangdong. whom come no election in our village? locals say they keep petitioning government officials, but they get no response. our observer in hong kong says that political reform can only come with dramatic social changes, so that means the leaders will not be keen to change the status quo.

>> translator: at times, responding to public complaints helps chinese politicians grab higher posts. but at other times the leaders oppress dissent to achieve the same purpose. it's a mistake to assume one case will bring out political reform in other regions. >> reporter: china's leaders have reached a critical stage. they face a tough question -- how far should they go in responding to public demands for political reform? rachel ferguson joins us now with the world weather forecast. that's what happens, we get the warm suns with it often pop up thunderstorms as well. but after a couple of days of unsettled weather across parts of japan, it looks like wednesday will be clearing up nicely. a few thunderstorms left towards the north, but as this low pulls

away it will make way for much clearer weather. to the south through the evening hours we will see a return of wet weather. it will come off this front line. very heavy rain has been impacting southern and central parts of xhin overchina over the last couple of days. shanghai still get a couple millimeters of rainfall. down towards the coast you can see heavy rain as well. any rain is going to be very unwelcome. we've had flooding and landslide down towards the south. in guangdong province saw some deadly landslides just a couple of days ago. unfortunately, this kind of year we will see more of this kind of heavy rain. southwest monsoon is just getting started. today particularly heavy rain for northeastern parts of vietnam and also the western coast of indochina will be seeing heavier rain too. temperatures then 35 in bangkok.

24 in chongqing. as the rain moves out, it is going to get hotter. 23 in shanghai. rain showers keeping it cool. 24 and a clear day in tokyo. once again a little bit chilly in ulan bator, 53 for the high. in america, let's check on beryl. it made landfall on jacksonville, florida on monday morning as a tropical storm, quickly downgraded to a tropical depression. has since u-turned and is moving out toward the atlantic once again. but it has to move through georgia and south carolina first. winds have died down. 45 kilometer-an-hour winds. these are not storm-force winds though it will feel very gusty near the system. however, the rain has been ongoing and will be ongoingor the next several days. as this system moves out over the water been it is likely to be invigorated by warmer waters getting out of the rough terrain of the land and become a tropical storm once again. keeping a very keen eye on this one.

certainly in the next 24 hours you can see 80 to 100 millimeters of rain in places like south carolina. totals we are talking about from this system. maybe even reaching 400 millimeters. that's enough to cause significant flooding. if we look towards the east things are looking very wet from quebec right down into texas. thunderstorms along that front. we are getting plenty of energy supplied by beryl picking up all that moisture from the gulf of mexico and atlantic and feeding it into this front. particularly from nebraska say down into northern parts of texas, some of those thunderstorms could turn quite nasty. we have yet another low pressure system heading down into the northern plains bringing more thunderstorms. it is cooler up towards the north as that front passes. and that's going to result in frost advisories for central, as well as -- central parts of canada that is as well as the northern plains.

our lead story this hour -- kofi annan has returned to damascus to try to salvage his peace plan. he urged president assad to stop the violence between government and opposition forces. syrian state run news agency quoted the president as saying that the frequent terror attacks and foreign military aid to terrorists would have to end. u.n. observers are in syria to monitor a peace agreement that they've been unable to stop the fighting. more than 100 people were killed last week in the village of hola in central syria.

members of the u.n. security council were among leaders from around the world who have condemned the assad administration for its role. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm katherine kobayashi in tokyo. that thanks for joining us.