\s newline hello and welcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo with the latest at this hour. demonstrators are protesting in cities across egypt friday following noon prayer. they are demanding the end of hosni mubarak's 30-year rule. in giza, mohamed el baradei, nobel peace prize winner, joined the rally. he intends to run in the presidential elections this fall. thousands of protesters shouted

down with mubarak. egyptian police used water canons and fired tear gas on the demonstration. egyptian authorities deployed security forces nationwide. they have also sealed off major roads leading to government and governing party buildings. access to the internet and mobile phone networks has been disrupted since friday morning. these pro democrat cease demonstrations spread into egypt after being sparked by events in the north african country of tunisia. last month, an unemployed tunisian man who was selling vegetables without permission committed suicide by setting himself on fire. he was protesting against a police crackdown. that prompted a large number of young people to take to the streets and demonstrate against the government. protesters shared information on the internet and their gatherings turned violent in many parts of the country.

clashes between protesters and security forces led to many deaths and injuries. the unrest caused the president, zine el aberdeen ben ali to flee the country after 23 years of heavy-handed rule. authoritarian leaders of other arab countries in the region feared the chaos was spread, so they quickly announced emergency economic measures to deal with the anger at rising prices and unemployment. but prompted by events in tunisia, a number of people in egypt and algeria set themselves on fire, during anti-government demonstrations. crowds also took to the streets in yemen and jordan to protest against their governments. and on tuesday, young people in egypt used the internet to organize nationwide demonstrations. opposition groups joined in and protests on an unprecedented scale broke out. in a square in downtown cairo, more than 10,000 people called for the resignation of president mubarak, who has been in power

for nearly three decades. they fought with security forces, and a number of people were either killed or injured. the egyptian government tried to stem the spread of the unrest by putting restrictions on the use of mobile phones and the internet, but the demonstrations have continued. leading to violence between dissenters and security forces across the country. and joining us now in the studio our reporter who covers middle east issues. is the situation in egypt unprecedented? >> yes. in egypt large scale anti-government demonstrations are rare. when a rally occurs the government normally stops it using overwhelming force. several days, very unusual for the country. >> will the mubarak administration be able to contain the unrest this time? >> even if president mubarak gets through this hard time uses security forces, this unprecedented protest will likely affect the next presidential election scheduled

for this fall. >> and what impact would this have on other arab nations? >> egypt has the largest population in the arab world and has been very influential in the region. for example, it plays an important role in middle east peace talks. in the case of tunisia, a secular protest involving a wide demographic of the general public was able to remove the president. experts point out it was a western-style movement, the very first in the arab world. they describe it literally as a revolution. if the same thing happens in egypt, the political impact in other arab nations might be enormous. >> thanks. people in southwestern japan are keeping a close eye on an active volcano. mt. shinmoe erupted again friday, spewing huge amounts of

smoke and ash. the latest eruption sent smoke rising up to 1,000 meters into the sky. mt. shinmoe is part of the kirishima mountain range which straddles kagoshima and miyazaki prefectures. it rumbled to life on thursday after being dormant for 52 years. a local weather observatory says winds over the crater are scattering ash across a wide area from kirishima city south of the volcano to miyazaki city, about 15 kilometers to the east. it warns massive amounts of ash will likely fall on the southeastern side of the mountain as the wind direction changes. volcanic ash is seriously affecting daily life in various parts of the region. in miyazaki city, falling ash is greatly reducing visibility. many people could be seen carrying umbrellas. the city is located southeast of mount shin-moe, now the harvest season for cabbages. farmers were busy washing their

produce. they fear the ash may hurt market prices. at miyazaki airport a decision was made to close all the runways. airlines decided to cancel all flights for the rest of the day out of fear the ash might be sucked into aircraft engines and cause an accident. schools were closed down in several cities. those that remained open held physical education classes inside their gymnasiums. to protect students from breathing in the fine ash particles. so what triggered the eruption and how long will this volcanic activity continue?

the university of tokyo's earthquake research institute says after the eruption a large lava dome formed in the crater. this phenomenon occurs when lava extrudes from a volcanic event. they also found traces of minor pyroplastic flow on the volcano. the authority has estimated the volume of magma based on gps data estimates since may last year about 1 million cubic meters of magma have accumulated about three kilometers below the crater. that is enough to fill 400 olympic-size swimming pools. it also says that 6 million cubic meters of magma had accumulated ten kilometers west northwest of the crater at a depth of 6 kilometers. the authority has said the mountain has shrunk in size slightly since wednesday probably due to the large eruption. they will continue watching to see whether the ground will begin swelling again.

the local observatory warns large rocks could fall up to two kilometers away from the crater and is urging people not to enter the danger zone. prime minister kan's back is against the wall. he's trying to get the country's opposition to cooperate with his ruling coalition and pass the budget for fiscal 2011, but instead of help, he's getting a hard time. the opposition parties are calling for a general election. after the prime minister's policy speech, opposition parties asked questions on thursday and friday in the diet. the opposition camp is criticizing the dpj-led government for practically counseling its pledges. it says calling for the election

is a precondition for starting the budget debate. the prime minister said he may review the campaign pledges but he maintained no promises have been broken. he emphasized his priority is to pass the budget and start talks on tax reform and free trade in the asia pacific region. the opposition also criticized kan for his comments on the fact that japan's long-term government bond rating was downgraded for the first time in eight years. he said in his words, i'm not very familiar with those issues.

when reporters asked him to respond to the drop in the country's credit status. the opposition says kan's qualifications as a leader are questionable. let's now bring in our political commentator for some analysis. why does kan have to ask the opposition for help so much? >> well, the prime minister is afraid that he may not be able to pass the budget for fiscal 2011 by the deadline, which is the end of march. and then he has to take responsibility for that failure. and that means he'll be forced to call a general election or resign. the ruling democratic party led coalition has an overwhelming majority in the lower house of japan's diet, but it is in a minority in the upper house. the dpj lost the last upper house election under kan in july. >> and kan has not been

successful in winning cooperation from the opposition, at least so far. >> not yet. but the ruling coalition needs to get at least one of the three opposition parties on its side, the liberal democrats or the social democrats. so far, all three parties are refusing to help kan, they say the prime minister won't admit that the campaign manifesto that helped the dpj win that 2009 lower house election is flawed. the fact is the democrats have so far been unable to fulfill their promises, such as cutting enough wasteful government spending, implementing full-scale child benefits, toll-free expressways and so forth. but it seems that kan is afraid of being called a liar. >> and coming back to the most pressing issue, what does kan need to do to get his government's budget passed? >> eventually the prime minister may have to admit that some of its party's campaign promises missed the mark and he'll have

to apologize for that. which means the prime minister has to take responsibility for that failure and apologize for that. and at least he has to resign in order to win cooperation from the opposition to pass the budget. the main opposition is demanding kan call a general election, but the dpj knows very well that it will be defeated if a national election or vote is held in the near future. because of the unpopularity of the party and its leader, kan. the democrats don't want to lose power, so they may eventually choose to change leaders. that means japan may have to have another, yet another new prime minister. that would mean we have to have six prime minister in just four years. >> thank you for your analysis.

a u.n. human rights envoy has criticized north korea for denying human rights of its citizens. he urged the north to improve its record on issues including abduction of foreign nationals. the after meeting with seiji maehara and families of japanese nationals who were abducted by north korea, he held a news conference on friday in tokyo. on the abduction issue he expressed regret as only five abduct he's have rushed home and no progress has been made since. he emphasized the abduction issue is an international concern and also referred to abduction victims from south korea and lebanon.

>> i stress that the question of abduction is not only a bilateral issue between japan and dprk but one that concerns the international community at large and one that has strong links to the human rights situation in the dprk. >> prime minister kan has reject ed a court settlement with people seeking damages for fatal side effects linked to the cancer drug iressa. plaintiffs sued the government and pharmaceutical company for about $2.2 million in damages. kan said the lawsuit made him seriously consider how to balance the dangers of side effects against the demands of cancer patients wishing to try new remedies that could carry certain risks.

he suggested he wants time to study a new program to provide general compensation to families of cancer patients who die from drug side effects. the tokyo an osaka district courts proposed in early january the two sides settle in the lawsuit. the plaintiffs have accepted the offer. japan approved the use of iressa ahead of any other country and -- in 2002. the drug has been administered to 9,000 new lung cancer patients annually. but more than 800 have died because of side effects. the seasonal flu is rapidly spreading across japan. last week, nearly 1.5 million patients went to see doctors for treatment.

many children have been affected, and the number of schools and public facilities closing down is increasing dramatically. the national institute of infectious diseases surveyed about 5,000 medical institutions nationwide. it estimates 1.49 million patients sought hospital treatment for influenza during the week through january 23rd. the average number of patients per medical institution doubled from the previous week. by age, 29% of patients were 9 years old or younger, followed by teenagers at about 22%. about 2600 child care centers, kindergartens and schools were either partly or completely closed last week. that's over 17 times more than the previous week. an expert warns that the influenza season will peak next week. the united nations environment program has wrapped up a five-day meeting in japan

aimed at establishing a legally binding international treaty on mercury. delegates discussed ways to regulate the use and exports of the metal. of the metal. participants from around 130 countries continued their discussions on friday, on a draft treaty which would help prevent mercury damage. right w,he plan is to restrict the produion usedn tradof mcu. e metal is mainlused in limits on mercy'relee in th all the participatincotrs the environmt,utmein e

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hi there. let's check in with our intens this bianca. it's impacting the western coastaairs of australia. it's asyemou can see at the edg of the screen. looks like it's moving away. watch what happens over the weekend, it's going to be head truthwestern parts of the a ve strong system, a category tse gusts with winds up to 230 near the center. of course, not are the wind and waves a concern but the rainfall will be quite intend as well ma. areas like perth, albany, should be watching for the system. of course we'll keep aye o on this as well." onto east asia, things across northern china still very quiet in terms of precipitation. we are looking at light snow in reinlautea snows will be impacting japan over the next couple of days.

so a lot of winter precipitation herefinigog to be quite heavy. tch out for travel delays of course, but also avalanches, blowing snow and blizzard-like conditions. across eastern china, calm and ie wd e amounts of sleet as well as snow in the southwest and more heavy rainor partsf the malay benefits la down through indonesia as well as southern areas of philippines. manila looks like a fairly dry day as we head into saturday. 30 degrees will be the high, a chilly one as a lot of cold air spills down across much of china. st hkong, n ip a oy deeein chongqing. not much better in beijing, a high of minus 1 and minus8 in ulan bator on saturday for your high. that is cold. across the united states and toana wt you to watch what happens with their jet stream. this is where the major weather events are going to happen as we head into the weekend.

we'vgoa t sw li aoss parts of manitoba down into the great lakes, a clipper system also going to be dropping some light snow showers into the northeast, especially in areas in the tri-state area. we just saw a lot of snowfall in and around new york city, for instance. the southeast, high and dry, also calm for the south of the s.s ll fairly warm as well. also across the northwest, coastal rain will be a problem, i imagine it's going to be snow as it falls in the upper elatnsikthmotas, and let's take a look at temperatures. much warmer in l.a. 24 degrees for your high. but what a difference. with rain we head to vancouver, 8 there. 9 in seattle. minus 2 in winnipeg. minus 1 in chicago. ilchlyn w rknd washington but we'reeeing a very nice day in houston, texas, 21 for your high. let's move over toure. look at all this mess across scandinavia. underneath it will be just blizzard conditions, very strong winds, very cold as well, and a lot of snow. t sthf atthough, high pressure over much of the

british isles all the way into continental europe. soaiy iehe. could be breezy near the baltic states, but the most intense stormy weather will be across the mediterranean and iberian peninsula. you can just see the series lo he. that's really going to be affecting much of the weather here. watch out for some stormy conditions. it will einupn e balkan peninsula, but rough -- but it will be moving into turkey and aotf rgh weather across southern france and into northern italy. temperatures are also very low. look at this. pair of 3s in london and paris, minus 2 in vienna, 1 in berlin, just zero at stockholm and barelyn eoue digits in athe athens. here's your extended forect. ♪

visited a buddhist temple on friday to pay respects to the nation's statue shown to the public only once a year. the statue of fudo myo, a buddhist deity dates back centuries and is an important national asset. it's enshrined on a cave on a cliff on the back of the temple. the stone statue is displayed once a year on january 28th. the date of the festival. >> i prayed to the statue and lit a candle.

i hope to live safely over the coming years. that's all we have for this addition of "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. we'll be back in 30 minutes. thanks for joining us on nhk world.