it could be the strongest typhoon to hit vietnam at least in a century. >> and sayaka will be joining us later in the program for more in world weather. >>> government troops have taken control of an opposition stronghold south of damascus. opposition feeters have used the town as a base to attack the capital, but the state news agency says the syrian army has retaken the area. an opposition units have reportedly been forced to pull out. activists say hezbollah and fighters from iraq supported the government troops. they have been trying to bring officials from the government and the opposition together for peace talks but they have not been able to work out the details. >>> inspectors overseeing the destruction of syria's arsenal of chemical weapons have just one site left to check. they couldn't get into a couple facilities. the syrian government provided them with video of one of the sites. inspectors wanted to visit 23 sites. the syrian government had declared they were be used for storing and produce chemical agents. but fighting prohibited them from getting into the last two so

here's our meteorologists, sayaka mori. >>> we've been watching a typhoon. clouds from the storm are starting to cover the southern half of the philippines. now things are getting stormy in the philippines. now it is packing sustained winds of over 215 kilometers per hour. it's actually the strongest typhoon on earth this year. now the system will likely hit the mid section of the philippines by friday morning local time as a violent typhoon. wind gusts could be 300 kilometers per hour or even more. a catastrophic wind damage could occur. trees could be uprooted and many houses could be destroyed. power outages to last for weeks and even months. this area was hit by a tropical depression. so the land is really saturated. on top of that last month an earthquake occurred. so still thousands of people in shelters. so catastrophic disaster could happen, i'm afraid. so please evacuate if you haven't. the system will likely move out to sea and then move to the indochina peninsula. it will likely hit sunday morning as a strong typhoon. not good news. this area was

sayaka mori joins us once again with the updates. >> hello there. it's nice weather to end the business week in the tokyo area. plenty of sunshine and warm conditions today. in northern japan you dealt with stormy conditions this morning but things are steadily improving. winds are easing. but cold air is coming in. so that will provide some snow flurries in parts of hokkaido. good news for skiers. and sapporo could see the first snow of the season. there will be icy precipitation for north ireastern china and affect most of japan as we go into sunday. and as the precipitation moves through, temperatures will drop significantly. so your high in seoul on sunday could be in the single digits. now down towards the south, as we have been reporting, a violent typhoon is crossing and is now heading toward vietnam. it could affect central veets number by sunday as a violent typhoon. now over towards the americas, things are looking drier over the northeast coast of the u.s. but back behind it a big high pressure system is dominating, creating calm conditio

let's find out the latest on those two storms in asia from our meteorologist sayaka mori. >> hello, there. november is the month where we usually see the tropics quieting down, but this year is exceptional. we have a couple of developing tropical disturbances. one here is a tropical depression with strong winds and high waves. and this one will become a tropical storm within 24 hours and could hit vietnam by wednesday night local time. and to the north of it is an area of heavy rain which was once a typhoon. lots of heavy rain is on the forecast for much of vietnam for the next couple of days. now, on the right sides of the screen, we have another system. this is a severe tropical storm. and this is currently packing wind gusts of 126 kilometers per hour. and it could intensify to a strong typhoon and probably make landfall in the central parts of the philippines by your friday. so lots of rain, lots of winds are going to be pounding across this location. so the philippines and vietnam are in the path of a series of tropical disturbances this week. different story for the korean peninsula

for the latest, here's our meteorologist sayaka mori. >> hello there. as we have been reporting, there are a couple tropical disturbances in asia. this is a tropical depression, could become a tropical storm in the next 24 hours and projected to make landfall in southern vietnam tonight. heavy winds, are on the way. northern areas could be hit by heavy rainfall. now a more active system is on the way to the philippines. we have a strong typhoon. named haiyan. this is number 30 tropical named storm. we haven't had over 30 tropical storms or typhoons so far this year. excuse me, since 1994. so this year is very active over the tropics. now this one will likely become a violent typhoon by the time it reaches the midsection of the philippines. wind gusts could be 270 kilometers per hour, strong enough to destroy houses and water and electricity could be unavailable for several days. not just winds but also drenching rain is on the way to affect the midsection of the philippines as we go into the latter part of the week. so critical situations are expected t