it will be very important that they see the protests, places like homs, hama, and deraa.'re really able to go there and talk to protesters, to be in demonstrations, that would encourage, obviously, more people to turn out against the regime and to go to the streets. this is not in the interests of the regime. at the same time, they will listen to a lot of stories they're not supposed to hear. until now, the regime and the president denies that there is any systematic violence from the side of security forces against peaceful protesters. >> whether the consequences if syria does not comply with the agreement -- for instance, if it does not withdraw its troops? >> the regime could withdraw its troops from the city, but the violence could still continue to this secret services or that the militias of the regime. if this mission of the observers see this, it is very dramatic. everybody talks about the humanitarian corridor, the protection zone. protection zones at the regime does not really allow these observers to work properly. this means that in the end, whoever wants to p

there was similar scenes in deraa. the pictures are hard to verify but in a northern suburb of damascus, monitors were visiting city hall when security forces were said to have opened fire on demonstrators. how am partial candies arab league monitors be when some of their own governments are also cracking down on similar popular uprisings? >> the forces are reliant for their safety and freedom of movements on the very people they're supposed to be monitoring. the arab league represents 22 arab states. their mission is led by a sudanese general, himself accused of gross human rights abuses in our for -- in darfur. amnesty international says that he is responsible for overseeing torture in his own country. the observers were confronted by the unmistakable rage on the streets. the regime has cut off electricity to the anti-assad neighborhoods. he said that they are sending tanks. we want you to record it all with your camera is. as families continue to bury the dead, the monitoring mission must try to ensure that the regi

there were similar scenes in deraa. even in a northern suburb of the mask its itself, monitors were visiting the city hall when security forces were said to open fire on demonstrators. how impartial candies arab league monitors be when some of their own governments are also cracking down on similar popular uprisings? -- how impartial can these arab league monitors be. the arab league represents 22 arab states. there monitor mission is led by a sudanese general. he is accused of gross human rights abuses in darfur. amnesty international says he is responsible for overseeing torture and disappearances in his own country. even so, the observers were confronted by the unmistakable raid on the streets. the regime has cut off electricity to the anti-assad neighborhoods. the army is placing its tanks to attack the neighborhoods. we want you to record this and uncover it all. as families continue to bury their dead, the monitor mission has tried to ensure that the regime complies with an arab league plan to end the crackdown. i

there was similar scenes in deraa. the pictures are hard to verify but in a northern suburbs of damascus, the monitors were visiting city hall when security forces were set to open fire on demonstrators. how impartial candies munch's be when some of their own governments are cracking down on similar popular uprisings? the monitor's are accompanied everywhere by security forces. -- how impartial can these monitors beat when some of their own governments are cracking down. the monitor mission is led by the sudanese general, himself accused of gross human rights abuses and are for. amnesty international has said that they are responsible for overseeing torture and disappearances in his own country. even so, the confront jurors were confronted by the unmistakeable reached on the streets. the regime has cut off electricity to the anti-assad neighborhoods. this man says that the army is placing its tanks and too -- its takes to attack the neighborhoods. we want you to record it all. as families continue to bury the dead, the

cities such as hama, deraa, and homs. >> and mass turnout of anti- government protesters across the country after friday prayers. as has been the case all week, violence. this is a suburb of the capital damascus. demonstrators fought running battles with security forces. people did the best they could to help the injured. nearby, there appeared to be a large number of arrests. what happened to these men is not known. we cannot verify these pictures, but across syria, activists say dozens were killed today. and all this under the eyes of the arab league observers, surrounded by people desperate to tell their story. since the observers started work four days ago, activists say there were over 150 people killed. protesters have reported clashes across the country. more than 60 monitors on the ground have managed to visit a few of these places. exactly what they saw and what they said were not clear. whatever they say is unlikely to be agreed on by both sides. many opposition activists have fled here to lebanon, and they don't believe the observers are doing their job. >> the arab league's stat

there also protests in deraa, another opposition city. it was the worst nuclear accidents since chernobyl, and it has taken nine months to get it under control. but japan says it has not finally achieved what is called a cold shutdown at the fukushima nuclear power plant. that is not the end of the story. tens of thousands of stories -- of the people from the local area are still homeless, and many will never be able to return. >> the first winter snow has fallen outside, and inside the container that serves as their temporary home, fukushima evacuees are watching the prime minister, nine months up to the nuclear disaster, he tells than the emergency is over. >> the temperature in the reactor is constantly under 100 degrees celsius. they have now reached cold shutdown. the situation has stabilized. >> the term cold shutdown is misleading. it usually refers to a controlled process in an intact reactor. after the meltdowns experienced in fukushima, this becomes impossible. critics of his eyes that the reactor still cannot be considered safe

in the south, they are going to deraa, which is where the uprising began in march and continues to be one of the focal points of the unrest. there's a lot of violence that has been going on down there and it remains one of the hotspots in the country. >> jim muir, thank you very much. aaron is with me now with the business news. we are focusing on >> >. -- we are focusing on italy. >> you hit the nail on the head with this one. really testing investors' confidence. italy will try to raise $26 billion by selling its debt basically. today, it was short -- today, it was selling short-term debt. the interest-rate really dropped the last month, they held a very similar auction. the interest they paid was 6.5%, an outstanding level. today, investors only demanded 3.25%, which bodes well in the sense that investors are somewhat confident in the austerity measures. on top of the european central bank, basically pumping out cheap money for the troubled eurozone economies. i was just talking to an expert in milan who said not to get excited about this. the big test is tomorrow, the long-term de

were while most eyes are on the north this was deraa today.s where the arab league delegation is headed tomorrow. in a gesture of good will, state run syrian tv announced the release of 755 prisoners detained on the government crackdown. but the rebels remain defiant at the end of a day that's claimed >> sreenivasan: amnesty international estimated that up to 15,000 syrians remain in detention. human rights watch said hundreds of them are hidden at military sites, where arab league observers will not see them. the supreme court of nigeria ruled today that president goodluck jonathan's election victory will stand. his closest challenger had demanded a recount of last april's vote in the oil-rich african state. also today, authorities said attackers hurling homemade bombs wounded seven children at an islamic school in southern nigeria yesterday. that followed christmas day bombings on christian churches that killed at least 39 people. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: with less than a week to go until the

in deraa, they awaited a vit, too. but the clashes continued. women who came out to the street to protest were confronted by security forces and one was arrested. meanwhile, a soldier aims his gun at a boy. the protesters are getting increasingly frustrated. they don't think the monitors are being given proper access to assess what's going on in syria and the death toll keeps rising. >> sreenivasan: the syrian opposition claimed at least 26 people were killed nationwide today. kim jong un was officially declared north korea's new supreme leader today. the announcement came at a massive public memorial service for his late father kim jong-il who died of a heart attack nearly two weeks ago. huge crowds turned out in pyongyang's main square for the ceremonies. kim jong un who is in his late twenties looked on from a nearby balcony, along with top party and military officials. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to ray. >> suarez: one of the main issues of the election season under way is the sluggish state of the economy. things ar