welcome to "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. egypt's president and opponents are locked in a draft constitution. his opponents say a constitutional committee approved it because most members were morsi supporters. they rejected morsi's offer of dialogue and again have flooded into the streets to show their anger. nhk world reports from cairo. >> reporter: protesters here in tahrir square are showing no signs they will give up on their dispute with president morsi.

young people in secular groups led the demonstration. they are angry because morsi refused on thursday to refer on a referendum on a draft constitution. morsi said he was going ahead with plans to hold the referendum next weekend. morsi's opponents are denouncing morsi for cutting short the debate on the draft constitution. they say he's trying to use the new constitution to get more power. morsi's opponents and supporters fought on wednesday. six people were killed, and more than 700 wounded. >> translator: morsi should quit. i don't want dialogue, because he has spilled blood and divided the country, just like mubarak. >> reporter: morsi's opponents are piling on the pressure. he may end up with no option but to compromise.

nhk world, cairo. the leader of the palestinian militant group hamas has made his first ever visit to gaza. he hadn't stepped foot in the palestinian territories for decades. he made the trip after a cease-fire between hamas members and the israeli military. he entered gaza from egypt and got a warm welcome from hamas supporters. he survived an israeli assassination attempt in 1997. he since lived in syria and qatar. >> translator: this is the first time i'm honored to visit gaza and to meet its people. i thank god this happened after a great victory. >> he called his visit to gaza his third birth. he said his first was his actual birth and his second the day he survived the assassination attempt. he said his fourth birth will be the moment when all of palestine is liberated. hamas has close ties to the muslim brotherhood.

analysts say meshaal may have visited gaza because the muslim brotherhood came to power in egypt. meshaal plans to attend a rally this weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of hamas. an official in seoul says north korea may begin loading fuel ahead of a suspected launch of what the country calls a satellite carrying rocket. north korea announced the launch will take place sometime between december 10th and 22th. the south korean official cited increased activity along the launch site in northwestern north korea. earlier reports said all three stages of the rocket had been assembled. south korea's news agency quotes a government officials as saying the fuel of the rocket could begin on saturday after the storage tank has been filled. chinese travel agencies have been informed that foreign tourists won't be allowed into north korea between the 5th and

20th of this month. analysts say the decision could be linked to events marking the first anniversary of kim jon-il's december on december 17th. the latest employment data from the united states may encourage job seekers and president obama. officials at the labor department issued their first report since obama's re-election. they say the unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level in nearly four years. the jobless rate edged down to 7.7% from 7.9% in october. it's been under 8% for 3 straight months. employers added 146,000 non-farm jobs. economists had forecast about 90,000. employers created jobs in retail, ledger, hospitality and health care. they shed jobs in construction and manufacturing. officials at the labor department say hurricane sandy did not substantially impact their estimates. some analysts expected the job

situation to improve but can't predict how bad the fiscal cliff will affect economic growth. here is dean maki at barclays capital. >> we had 146,000 jobs created. that are pretty much in line with the last two months and right in line with where we think the trend is right now. president obama's re-election clearly reduced one set of uncertainties which was who's going to win the election. we now know that he did win, but it hasn't reduced the uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff and what's going to happen there. if the full fiscal cliff were to occur, we'd expect a much worse outcome. probably a contraction in the 1% to 2% range in the first half of 2013. this is a very important issue. the economy was performing reasonably well in the months leading up to the potential fiscal cliff. we saw that in the job numbers for november. we've also seen it in the gdp

numbers for the third quarter which rose 2.7% annualized. that doesn't ensure us against a downturn if the fiscal cliff does occur. parliamentary endorsement of the plan will likely pave the way for eindia to push ahead wih more economic reforms. the house vote, lawmakers of a party outside the government helped the governor coalition win 123-109 victory over motion from opposition parties to block retail reform. the lower house rejected opposition to liberalization two days earlier. when the indian government announced the plan in september, it faced strong opposition out of fear that it will make it difficult for smaller retailers to continue in business. one of the government coalition parties left in protest. india is experiencing an

economic slowdown this year. its economic growth has been at the 5% level for 3 straight quarters. prime minister sinh intends to reinvigorate the indian economy by easing regulation to attract foreign investors. japan's ruling party promised change when it took power in 2009, but it faced challenges. a natural disaster and nuclear accident, an economy dogged by uncertainty. and disputes with neighbors over territory. voters now face a choice. who will they trust to guide their country forward? join us december 16th for "japan decides." here's the three day world weather forecast.

finally, we'll show you how

japanese and indian pyrotechnicians marked the 60th anniversary of the countries' diplomatic relations. 5,000 people gathered to watch the spectacle at the india gate in new delhi. the gate was lit up with images of the seasons in japan and well-known places in india. huge multicolor ed fireworks capped the celebration. they're a rare sight in india. the pyrotechnicians spent six months creating the display. that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. thank you for watching.