hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm ross mihara in tokyo with the stories at this hour. syrian state television says a suicide bomber killed 25 people in the capital damascus on friday. the tv station says the dead include police officers and civilians and that 44 people were wounded. anti-government activists say the government staged the bombing to justify its crackdown on protesters.

a hundred arab league monitors have been in syria since last month to try to limit government violence against protesters. but security forces killed 50 people on thursday and friday, it is said. the arab league is expected to meet soon to discuss for the council to take action. u.s. employment figures for december are better than analysts had expected. the department of labor says the jobless rate fell to 8.5% from 8.7% the month before. analysts had been expecting 8.7% again. the new figure means u.s. unemployment was the lowest since february 2009. employers created 200,000 nonfarm jobs. 50,000 of the new jobs were in transportation and warehousing. most were in the courier and messenger sector. for a look on the job market, we spoke with a chief economist

michael moran. >> the u.s. economy has had several head winds that have been slowing the economy down and preventing strong job growth. but those are diminishing. because they're starting to diminish, we should continue to see improved in the market. deleveraging in the household sector. households are making more progress in fixing their balance sheets. in addition, bank credit is starting to grow now. another factor of this is that the budget problems are becoming less severe. they have made good progress in fixing their problems. even the housing market which is the weakest area of the united states is starting to show signs of improvement. there are some downside risks such as problems in europe, but i think if we can avoid a meltdown in europe, the u.s. will remain on the solid growth track. >> meantime, the unemployment rate in eurozone nations

remained at a record high of 10.3% in november. it shows that the region's spreading credit worries are still having a negative impact. the eu statistics office released the data friday. it covers the 17 nations that use the euro. joblessness was unchanged from october. that's when the eurozone recorded its highest unemployment rate. people looking for work in spain are having the toughest go of it. they marked the highest ever among member states at 22.9%. unemployment in spain was particularly high among people 25 years old and under. it hit 49.6%. the lowest among eurozone states was in austria at 4.0%.

britain's foreign secretary william hague has continued his talks with leaders in myanmar. he's demanded the government release all political prisoners. hague is the first british minister to visit myanmar in years. he met the pro-democracy leader suu kyi on friday. hague follows the visit on wednesday of 30 of an estimated thousand or more of political prisoners. >> what has happened so far is not sufficient, because there are still political prisoners who are being held. and so it's very important that we do not relax the pressure prematurely. >> suu kyi said she hopes elections in april will be free and fair and that her party will

win. the chinese communist party says it punished 422,000 civil officials for civil violations last year. the communist party's disciplinary watch dogs punished minute 130,000 people for the second year in a row. communist party official in charge of discipline said rooting out corruption will take time because the system for dealing with it is flawed. japan says sea shepherd has harassed a ship in the antarctic for the second time this season. japan's fishery agencies said people on a sea shepherd boat through smoking canisters at the ship and ropes in the water. they obstructed the ship for five and a half hours. neither the ship or the crew were harmed.

sea shepherd's ship is based in australia. the japanese fishery's agency asked the australian government to take action. japan and the united states have reaffirmed that they'll work together along with china and south korea to be ready for any emergency on the korean peninsula. u.s. assistant secretary of state kirk campbell is in tokyo after visiting china and south korea. he spoke with japanese political leaders about the situation in north korea since the death of its leader kim jong-il. they agreed it's vital to prevent north korea from taking provocative action. they also agreed that japan, the united states, south korea and china should share information and work closely together to be ready for emergencies on the korean peninsula. >> we talked extensively about our mutual desire to see a peace

and stability. and to share information with all the key players including china. three men were found drifting in the sea of japan on friday. they say they are from north korea and want to return home. the men were rescued near the oki islands off western japan. the japan coast guard also found a dead body on the boat which has korean script on the hull. the coast guard says the men seems afraid at first but after four hours of persuasion, they boarded the patrol vessel. they say they went out to fish in mid-december and began drifting when their vessel's engine failed. they deny they were trying to defect. the japanese government is seeking to pass a law that would set a 40-year limit for nuclear reactors. if enacted, it would be the first such legislation. the call for a review of safety regulations on friday was made

by nuclear crisis minister goshi hosono. >> translator: the government wants to make radical changes. nuclear power will only be used when it's confirmed to be safe. >> under the plan, the working life of reactors would be limited to 40 years in principle. subject to government checks on the -- of the 54 reactors in japan, three have been in operation for more than 40 years including the number one react ir at the fukushima daiichi plant. over the next five years, nine more will reach the 40-year mark. >> translator: we'll never let it happen again. it's highly significant that a 40-year limit has been decided on and stipulated in legislation. >> the government plans to

submit a bill by the end of this month. here is the world weather forecast.

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