including officials from hokkaido prefecture. the participants rehearsed how they would collect the information, measure radiation and secure evasion routes. officials conducted a drill to relocate the functions of offsite emergency response facilities. they practiced moving computers and communication equipment. the offsite response center near the fukushima daiichi plant failed to function after the accident last march due to a radiation leak. the arab league has called on the u.n. security council to send a joint peacekeeping mission to syria. members want the u.n. the start a government crackdown on the protesters. the decision came as the league ended its monitoring system to syria. observers suspended their submission last month. the league urged members to sever negotiations with asad. government troops have used more force in recent weeks. the traeks intensified during earlier this month after china failed to reach a u.n. security resolution. kooid kooi says it supports the government. there was a posted stated on website

two sides have been engaged in negotiations over small islands off japan's northern prefecture of hokkaido. a solution is hard to come by. now russia has asked other countries to participate in economic activities on the islands. >> reporter: the four islands are close to japan's northern prefecture of hokkaido. they are surrounded by rich fishing grounds. soviet forces took control of the islands soon after the end of world war ii. japan renounced control of the kuril islands and part of shikotan in the 1951 san francisco peace treaty, but tokyo insists there is no agreement to surrender the four disputed islands. russia has moved to strengthen its territorial claim in recent years. in 0 2010, psi medvedevecam ad o sl projts.asiv psolindment. thits both cntesstnt ss'sla f s eaan thits opedhajot rd erhesldsre cceedbo sit dkp cseislas. bud.ti h ucn pae e qut.acon tuesday to remov thadee dme more than a kilometer upstream and then drained of water. of the 108 students in the school, 70 died in the disaster. four of them are still listed as miing, along with more than 40 other civilians. >> t

sides have been engaged in negotiations over four small islands off japan's northern prefecture of hokkaido, but a solution is hard to come by. russia has other countries to participate in economic activities on the islands.aothe participate in economic activities on the islandsother participate in economic activities on the islandkother o participate in economic activities on the islandeother to participate in economic activities on the islanddother to participate in economic activities on the island other s to participate in economic activities on the islands. >> reporter: the four islands are close to japan's northern prefecture of hokkaido. they are surround soviet forces took control of the islands soon after the end of world war ii. japan renounced control of the kuril islands in the 1951 san francisco peace treaty, but tokyo insists there was no agreement to surrender the four disputed islands. russia has moved to strengthen its territorial claim in recent years. in 2010, president medvedev became the first russian leader to set foot on kunishirri. four months later a seminar was hel

here in hokkaido a low pressure system bringing in snowy conditions. blizzard like conditions will set a significant stage for travel disturbances. a pacific side will be remaining pretty sunny and the weather -- temperature is going to be much warmer. we'll take a look at temperatures a little later on. this is another very different story here in the philippines with chances of thunderstorms with lots of well developed thunderclouds over head. and we've got low pressure system that's a very active one that could dump a lot of coastal heavy rain. manila at 31 degrees. hong kong 22. not too bad there. and not bad at all here in tokyo as well. reaching up to 13 degrees. that's spring like weather and we're going to be seeing some sunny spells so let's enjoy those until we can. now here in europe same old story with that frigid arctic air that has been leaving more than 600 fatalities in all of europe since the coal snap has started. weatherwise this winter storm it's going to be bringing all these wet weather down in towards central portions of the euro

we're expecting more than 20 centimeters from hokkaido down to niigata prefecture. and winds are picking up. so that is leading to blowing snow conditions. and the risk of avalanches are getting extremely high here. but most of the pacific side will remain largely dry today. but the exceptions will be the tokai area. there may be accumulating snow. as for the korean peninsula, the southwestern corner will see snow showers all day today. meanwhile, a high pressure system is in control bringing dry conditions to most of china. but snow showers will be moving in to the inland sections in the next 24 hours. down towards the philippines on monday, a massive earthquake occurred in the central portions of the country. and it caused deadly landslides. however, thundershowers are expected. so that could worsen then situation. today's highs are looking like this. 19 degrees in taipei with light rain showers. and seoul dipping to minus four degrees. and tokyo in at seven degrees for the high. heading to the european countries, arctic chill continues to bring cold air. to give

and western hokkaido could see 40 centimeters of fresh snowfall. as the system moves away things will get drier here tonight. meanwhile, showers are moving into the southern tip of the korean peninsula and western japan. southeastern china will see showers develop over the course of today. down towards the south, we've got a tropical depression over the south china sea so scattered showers will continue in southern vietnam. as for the philippines, scattered thunderstorms will continue across the whole of the nation but heavy rain in luzon is starting to diminish here. now temperaturewise, we're expecting 30 degrees in manila and 33 in bangkok with a chance of thundershowers. and up towards the north, getting up to 7 degrees in seoul d 11 in tokyo. moving on to the european countries, a chain of low pressure systems has been bringing wet and windy weather to northern europe. gusts exceeded 90 kilometers per hour. as those systems push on to the southeast, areas like finland, the baltic states and northern germany will start to see a wintry mix. down

western hokkaido could be more snow and strong winds of 70 kilometers per hour. as t system moves away things will get clearer by tonight here. and then we also have the showers moving into the southern tip of the korean peninsula and western japan. southeastern china will see showers develop over the course of today and down toward tropical depression hovering over the south china sea and scattered showers will continue in southern vietnam and it will stay largely wet across the philippines but heavy rain will ease today. temperaturewise we're looking at 30 degrees in manila and 3 in bangkok with a chance of thunder showers and up toward the north, warming up to 7 in seoul and 11 in tokyo. heading to the americas, a pacific storm will be moving into british columbia and the pacific northwest and that will bring coastal rain, mountain snow and strong winds. we have another system to watch out for in the central plains. northern minnesota and southern parts of manitoba and ontario may be seeing more than 20 centimeters of snow in the next 24 hours. and then, the s

so blizzard conditions are expected in hokkaido and tohoku area tonight and tuesday. gusts could exceed 70 kilometers per hour and waves 6 meters. once again, stormy conditions are in the forecast in japan. the southeastern corner of china will see rain in the next 24 hours. towards southeast asia, a tropical depression over the south china sea. bringing on and off showers in vietnam and strong winds as well. as for the philippines, it is largely wet and thundershowers develop. today's highs still looking like this. getting up to 17 degrees in taipei. seoul, 5 degrees, 9 degrees in tokyo with plenty of sunshine. moving to the americas. a new pacific storm moving to british columbia and pacific northwest, bringing coastal rain and mountains on monday. then we have an active low pressure system sitting over the central rockies as it moves eastward. snow will change over to a wintry mix monday. and that will impact the central plains. we also have thundershowers and also mountain snow in the southeastern corner of the u.s. that will move out to sea monday. temperatures a

midday, another two su-24 surveillance planes approached japanese airspace between hokuriku and hokkaido in northern japan. they stay over the sea of japan for several hours. none of the planes intruded into japanese airspace, but the ministry says it's unusual for russian military aircraft to fly in such numbers so close to the country. the ministry says it's the first time russian planes equipped with early warning systems have been spotted near japan. it says the russian air force may have been conducting sophisticated surveillance drills. >>> next, let's go to bangkok to find out what is making headlines in the region. >> thailand has begun a crackdown on the prison drugs trade. some of the most hardened dealers were transferred to a new maximum security jail on wednesday. thailand is known to be a major drug trafficking route, and the problem even extends behind bars. the first batch of 45 drug criminals was transferred from riong prison to the newly built prison. it includes prisoners who built drugs even while behind bars. the new facility is in an isolated location 160 kilometers

. >> the business in distress is in eastern hokkaido. okudo is the company's president. he built it from scratch 20 years ago. >> the tsunami knocked out the plant's power unit and destroyed almost all of the machinery including the refrigerator. they had to get creative to keep his company going. >> this is the nozzle of a futon compressor. >> with this vacuum out of action, he made some adjustments to this home appliance. it's a clever work around, but no match for the proper machine. output fell sharply after the tsunami. >> translator: our production capacity is at 20th or a 30th of what it was before the disaster. >> these men may be able to help. they work for an investment fund for businesses that were hit during the disaster. he asked the fund to visit his factory. after checking the facilities they presented a contract. kudo signed up immediately. >> i can't give up. if it was just me it would be okay to give up, but i have my customers. >> the next step was to recruit investors. the company set up a meeting in tokyo. the fund offers a number of projects, indivi

most of the heavy stuff is going to be coming down across parts of hokkaido. an extra half meter of snow. very strong winds with this system as well. waves will be high at the northwestern coast. much of the southern half of the country enjoyed sunshine and dry weather. it is going to be changing as showers move in from eastern china. these aren't going to be too heavy, it will be bringing wet weather. it will be bringing in some warmer winds from the south. that will mean temperatures rising into the next couple of days. it's not looking too bad at all temperaturewise. we see more wet weather down across tie wand and the philippines. some of this is going to be quite heavy into the overnight hours monday to tuesday. some pretty intense thunderstorms to be hitting the philippines. we should see that begin to subside by tuesday morning. we're looking for 31 degrees in manila on tuesday. 21 another warm day in taipei. 12 in shanghai. we'll see that rising further as well. 12 for tokyo and 7 in seoul. we usually see about 4. that's a few degrees above average and

we are expecting more than 20 centimeters from hokkaido all the way down to northern kuju. nigata may be seeing as much as 70 centimeters. the risk of avalanches will become extremely high again. but the pacific side will stay largely dry here. as for the korean peninsula, snow showers will continue in the southwestern corner of the region. as we pull back, it's mostly dry in china, but snow showers will be moving into inland area in the next 24 hours. down towards the philippines on monday, a deadly earthquake hit the central portions, but it looks like it's going to stay rainy here, so that could trigger further flooding or landslides here. that could worsen the situation. today's highs are looking like this, with lingering showers in seoul, as we mentioned, cooler than yesterday. heading over to the americas, it's mostly dry across the u.s. and canada, but it's a different story for the western areas. a new pacific system will move into british columbia and the pacific northwest bringing stormy conditions later tonight. across california, it's dealing with torrential rai

other places towards the north toward hokkaido may be about 50 centimeters, but half a meter of fresh snow is possible. also very windy here, so snow drifts and avalanches are going to be high risk. and then along the pacific edge, staying dry here. that cold blast of air will keep things pretty chilly, even after the winds die down in the next 24 to 48 hours. through the weekend it is going to be a little bit cold, a little bit below average for this time of year. as we head down towards the south, this precipitation, of course, is going to be rain. very moist flow whipping up the side of the high pressure. showers across taiwan as well as eastern indochina, heavier rain for the philippines. we're seeing that northeastern monsoon really getting a little bit stronger into the next couple of days. so rough seas as well as high waves are going to be possible. all right. temperatures then. shanghai, five degrees. you may see snow by the end of the week. seven by tokyo. minus one in seoul. so still way above -- way below average here. very chilly, indeed. and four in beijing. as we head n

however, for hokkaido, lingering snow showers and gusts. now, back in towards northeastern china, we will see some dry conditions also here. however, there will be lingering showers in the southeast for the next couple of days. looking fairly calm across the philippines, some scattered thunderstorms, but nothing of the very heavy rain that we were seeing the beginning of the week. and in the last couple of weeks preceding that. hong kong you're looking for 21 degrees. probably morning fog and rainy patches. ten degrees in shanghai. a hot day in taipei at 25. rain all day in tokyo. and eight degrees in seoul. you should be a bit dryer across the korean peninsula. okay. as we head on into north america we've got a couple of low pressures along the front here in the west. this is bringing winter weather for you in the intermountain west and canadian rockies and near whiteout conditions in the mountain passes. it is going to start to improve from the west. we've got high pressure moving in from behind the system. that will help to clear things

rain could become heavy at times, and then that will expand to northern japan, hokkaido could be seeing some snow starting thursday afternoon. as we pull back, the same system will continue to produce light to moderate precipitation in southern china. down towards the south, a tropical depression has brought a lot of rain in southern vietnam. but it looks like it's going to ge drier here, so that's good news. as for the philippines, min dan ow will see showers over the course of the day. 33 in bangkok. up to 20 in hong kong with some light showers. 10 and 9 degrees ditches in expected in tokyo. heading over to the americas. mostly sunny and settled over most of the southern half of the u.s., but there are a few storms through the north. a slow moving system is moving into british columbia and the northwestern states are producing winter storm conditions. heavy mountain snow can be found in many locations, but exceptions are going to be the cascade and olympic mountains where we're looking at flooding rain rather than snow. so that could lead to avalanches. as i said, it's a very slow mo

especially in hokkaido, as much as 50 centimeters and winds are also strong here too. and rare risk of sea ice movement will be very violent up in the north of japan. tokyo here, as i mentioned, 6 degrees for the high on thursday. and 1 for seoul. manila, 31 degrees. let's head over to the americas. the pacific northwest is still surging with lots of moisture here. so development of snow clouds are going to be in southern california as well as nevada, especially in the mountain regions. up to about 20 centimeters of snow could pile up. in the four corners, we have a low developing very rapidly and moving towards the gulf states. addition to that gulf state is surging moisture from the gulf of mexico, so this is where you will be seeing some severe activity that could be potential. large hail, damaging winds, even tornadic activity could be seen here and thunderstorm chances are in a lot of areas. great lakes region, you may see snow, but main precipitation in the midwest will be rain. chicago at 4 degrees temperaturewise. a pair of 16s in oklahoma city and los angeles.

up in hokkaido record break snowfall here as well. down towards the south, 2 1/2 meters, more than 2 1/2 in daisen, 153 centimeters there also. so we'll be looking at some extremely heavy snowfall this winter and not even really into february. the 1st of february, so a few weeks left to go of potentially heavy snowfall. now as you can see the next 24 hours shows more precipitation here, even coming across into the pacific side. we have been staying dry in tokyo. that will continue. the temperature will drop, though, into tomorrow, about 12 degrees today ahead of that system. tomorrow, down to about 6 once again. now, along with that heavy snowfall we have been experiencing some very strong winds. now, waves could reach 8 meters. winds up to about 80 kilometers an hour. that's what it is going to be doing. blowing all the snow around, potential for avalanches as well as those injuries people have been sustaining trying to move the snow themselves off of roofs and such. anywhere you're seeing in the red here up to 80 centimeters of addi

we have a low pressure system over hokkaido now, and some strong northwesterly winds.that's going to spell snow. some of that could be reblown about as well. so blizzard conditions potentially into tonight. the good news is that high pressure moves in as we head into tuesday, so clearing up to the north. but meanwhile, rain will come into western japan. and is coming in from the southeast of china. in fact, we have a long rain band stretching from northern indochina, right up into towards western japan. this is going to get a little intense as well. a few showers scattered across the philippines. mostly light. 14 degrees in taipei and hong kong. a little chilean wet. you can see the green descending to the south of china. 4 degrees in seoul. expect temperatures to rise by middle of the week, up to 9 degrees, 10 on thursday, 8 in tokyo, and staying dry. all right as we head into north america, out towards the west things are settled. we have a low pressure system on the u.s., canada border, bringing significant snowfall, about 20 centimeters in parts of southern ontario