welcome to nhk world "newsline." in egypt anti-government protests have ended, but workers in the public and private sectors are still rallying for pay increases. the military ruling the country is calling for restraint. thousands of police gathered in front of the ministry of interior in the capital of cairo on monday. hundreds of civil servants in the transportation section marched at the state-run television station. they are calling on the government to raise their

salaries. the military announced on monday that such demonstrations will destabilize the country and have a negative impact on the economy. it's hoping to first restore security and stability. the interim government reportedly told youth groups that a constitutional referendum will be held in two months to pave the way for democratic elections. those groups have been major players in the protests. anti-government protests are spreading in other middle east countries. people in bahrain and yemen continue their demonstrations. shia muslims in bahrain called for demonstrations through the internet on monday. a sunni minority rules the gulf country, which is 70% shia. thousands of people marched throughout the country. reuters reported in the village of new waidrat riot police used

tear gas to disperse a crowd of 2,000 people. in yemen protests have been under way for four days in response to calls by opposition groups. thousands gathered in the capital sanaa. they're demanding the immediate resignation of president ali abdullah saleh. his supporters clashed with demonstrators, and more than ten people were reportedly injured. meanwhile, thousands of iranian reformists took to the streets on monday following the success of anti-government protests in egypt and tunisia. reports say dozens have been arrested. witnesses say thousands of people gathered in squares in central tehran chanting "death to the dictator" among other slogans. riot police used teargas to disperse the demonstrators. the iranian leadership has praised the uprising in egypt which ousted pro-u.s. president hosni mubarak as an event comparable to the 1979 revolution in iran. but the leadership is cracking down on domestic dissent. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has expressed support for opposition protesters

rallying in iran. >> we stood for political change that would result in positive outcomes that would give the egyptian people a better economic and political future. we believe the same for iran. what we see happening in iran today is a testament to the courage of the iranian people and an indictment of the hypocrisy of the iranian regime. >> amid the political turmoil seen in the region, leaders of arab nations held an emergency meeting in cairo on monday. they agreed to increase economic cooperation to help stabilize the situation. the members of the arab league admitted that citizens' movements calling for democratization have grown substantially across the middle east. they expressed concern that the rapid fall of another government could destabilize the region and agreed that it's imperative to improve their economies. the arab league plans to hold a summit meeting in baghdad in

march to discuss detailed responses to the issue. during the recent unrest in egypt protesters came from all walks of life and from different generations. the young shared information and discussed what was happening through the internet. that sort of net activism is being seen as a new weapon against authoritarian regimes. >> reporter: following the collapse of mubarak's regime, protest continues throughout the arab world. over the weekend, people took to the streets in algeria and yemen. >> translator: i hope algeria will become liberal and democratic. this is my greatest wish. >> reporter: the pro-democracy demonstrations began in tunisia last month and then spread across the region. the movement captured the attention of the young, who

shared information online. in egypt a key figure was wael ghonim, a marketing manager for the internet search engine google. he was detained by the authorities for two weeks after calling on the public via the net to join protest rallies. after his release ghonim spoke to the crowd at tahrir square, giving momentum to the demonstrators. trf trfrg. >> translator: the country doesn't belong to mubarak, and i invite you to continue fighting to take back the country." >> reporter: in an internet entry ghonim writes that "the mubarak administration is making a big mistake." he continues to protest on the internet, becoming a symbol of the anti-government movement. when he appeared on television, ghonim said the real heroes were the ones taking part in the rallies and those who died

there. >> translator: it is not me and my group but those who cling to power who have made mistakes. >> reporter: after the collapse of the mubarak regime, ghonim tweeted his reaction. "congratulations, egypt. the criminal has left cairo. the real heroes are young protesters across the nation." it is not just arab governments that are concerned about the internet. china's social problems are similar to many arab countries, soaring prices and a lack of jobs for young people. the government is very sensitive about the possible spread of sedition through the internet. on social networking sites users are banned from accessing information about the egypt

protests. but some chinese slip through the restrictions and send messages to twitter, saying they are looking forward to the same thing happening in their country. experts say the internet is not just a protester's tool. it also can be used by repressive regimes to manipulate, censor or monitor the protesters. after egypt battles between government and protesters may spread to cyberspace. the clock is ticking for japan's prime minister, naoto kan. less than a year in office, and he might soon be facing a difficult decision. quit or call an election. an nhk poll shows kan approval has plunged to 21%, the lowest

it's been since last june, when he took power. to put this in perspective, that's how bad things were for former prime minister yumio hatoyama before he resigned last year. cannes's approval rating has fallen eight points since nhk's survey last month. that helped his disapproval rating rise to 64%. of those surveyed 40% said they have no faith in the prime minister's policies and another 40% said they have no faith in his ability to implement them. with japan's diet divided, it's difficult for kan's administration to get bills passed on its own without the support of the opposition. 45% of those surveyed say the prime minister should deal with this situation by dissolving the lower house and calling an election. 32% said his ruling democratic party should cooperate with opposition parties on policies where they can find common ground. when asked about the timing of a possible general election, 25% said it should be this spring.

right after the diet passes the budget bills for the next fiscal year. 22% said the vote should happen after the diet wraps up for the summer. and about 1/4 of the respondents don't want an election until 2013, when the current lower house members' terms are up. earlier my colleague michio kijima spoke to nhk world's political commentator masao yak jooema. >> walk us through. why is prime minister kan's public support so low? >> the survey indicates the japanese people are disappointed with kan's leadership in solving problems and managing policies. in the divided diet kan has been struggling for a long time to find ways to pass the upcoming budget bills, but he keeps coming up short. people will lose even more faith in kan's leadership if he get the budget bill through the diet. kan's indication to break his

party's 2009 campaign promises has also made a bad impression on voters. in order to win cooperation from the opposition the prime minister recently started talking about changing the dpj's pledges such as abandoning full-scale child benefits and pension reform. he basically admitted that his body miscalculated and couldn't afford to finance it. >> voters seem unsatisfied with the way kan handled his party's power broker, ichiro ozawa, who is allegedly involved in a political funding scandal. could you tell us about this? >> on monican finally decided to suspend ozawa's party membership as a penalty. but many people it took too long for him to come to that decision. plus many believe that the

punishment is not as strong as kan wanted it to be. he hoped ozawa would leave the democratic party, but he failed to persuade him to do that. people now have doubts about kan's leadership and do not believe in his promise to bring about clean politics in japan. >> now, with your crystal ball, what do you think will happen to prime minister kan in the coming months? >> the survey suggests that more japanese people want to have a general election rather than wait for him to do a better job. seeing that kan is losing more support or kan is becoming even more unpopular, the opposition parties will be less -- even less motivated to cooperate with him. the survey also suggests that liberal democrats are slightly more favorable to voters than the democrats. the dpj's popularity has gone down to 20.2% while the ldp's is sitting at 21.7%. so the ldp could do better in an

election. the reality is if kan fails to pass the budget bills before april he'll have to make a decision either to resign or call a general election. the prospect of a march crisis has increased. >> we'll wait and see what happens, then. nhk world's senior political commentator masayo nakajima. masayo, thanks. in biz news, japan's cabinet decided on tuesday to sign an economic partnership agreement, or epa, with india. japanese foreign minister seiji maehara and visiting indian commerce and industry minister anand sharma will sign the document on wednesday. the two countries originally agreed to conclude an epa at their summit meeting held last october. under the epa japan would gradually eliminate tariffs imposed on most indian goods including curry ingredients and industrial products.

india would gradually abolish a 10% tariff being imposed on some automobile goods and a 5% tariff on steel products. with these efforts tariffs on 94% of the total value of bilateral trade will be eliminated within ten years. the japanese government hopes to put the agreement into effect this summer. when it does, india will become the 12th country for japan to conclude such an agreement. u.s. president barack obama has unveiled a budget plan that aims to trim the nation's deficit by $1.1 trillion over a decade. the budget proposal for fiscal 2012 was sent to congress on monday. the budget year begins on october 1st. the plan forecasts the u.s. deficit will rise to a record 1,645,000,000 for the current fiscal year. spending on defense will also be

rolled back. instead money will be shifted to spending on education, infrastructure, and innovation in growth industries aimed to boost the country's competitiveness. >> what we've done here is make a down payment. but there's going to be more work that needs to be done and it's going to require democrats and republicans coming together to make it happen. >> obama maintains that the spending cuts would allow him to honor his pledge to cut the budget deficit by half during his four-year term. but republicans say the president has not gone far curb. china's trade surplus in january fell almost 54% from a year ago due to a surge in imports. it's the first time in nine months the figure has fallen below $10 billion. chinese customs authorities said on monday total exports in january wrup 38% from a year earlier to more than $150 billion. imports also jumped by more than

50% to nearly $145 billion. officials attribute the rise to increased imports of raw materials and grain and their rising prices. as a result the surplus shrank significantly by about 54% to roughly $6.5 billion. it has been on the decline since last july, when it was close to 30 billion. china has been criticized by the united states and other countries of deliberately undervaluing the yuan to help its exporters. it's expected that china will take advantage of the latest statistics to defuse such criticism. truck maker isuzu motors say it will build a plant in saudi arabia and begin production next year. it would be the first japanese automaker to open a production base in the middle east country. isuzu made the announcement on monday. the company said the factory will be in the gulf city of dammam. it will assemble mid-size trucks using engines and other key parts from japan. isuzu hopes to expand

manufacturing operations to small and large trucks in the future. it has set a production target of 25,000 units a year to be exported throughout the middle east. the automaker says that the saudi arabian government leased the land as it's trying to create new industries in the country. saudi arabia's economy is forecast to expand as the country's a major crude oil producer. with the country's growth the demand for trucks is expected do rise as crude oil revenue spurs infrastructure development. the chairman of japan's leading business lobby and indonesia's president called for more free trade with member countries of the association of southeast asian nations. hiromasa yonekura of nippon keidanren met indonesian president susilo bambang yud yoenio on monday. he is touring three countries including thailand and singapore. yonekura said he wants further liberalization of trade and investment between japan and

asean members. yudhoyono said he welcomes the initiatives aimed at economic integration. he also said he aims to see more open trade in the region. yonekura also met with asean secretary-general surin pitsuwan. surin said asean countries are aiming to enhance economic integration. he called on japan to assist by investing in infrastructure such as roads and railway in the region. and here are the latest market figures. ♪

♪ bigger countries are not always better off when it comes to communicating across a vast land area. until recently russia used to have 11 time zones. so when it was 8:00 a.m. in moscow it was already 5:00 p.m. at the eastern border, a nine-hour difference. now, to make the country run smoother, the government has started cutting the number of time zones, but in at least one region the locals aren't happy. nhk world's yelena solodkaya has more. >> reporter: over 1,000 people protested against russia's government last december in kamchatka, a region in the far east.

last spring the government reduced the nine-hour time difference between kamchatka and moscow by one hour. and it plans to subtract another. the locals are angry with government decisions. >> translator: it's a human rights violation because it messes up the natural rhythm of our daily lives. >> translator: it's not going to be good for our physical well-being. that much is clear to me. >> reporter: authorities are trying to calibrate the country's time zones. this is not the first time russia's government has imposed changes.

>> reporter: kamchatka switched to the new time zone last year. now winter darkness falls around 4:00 p.m. people are still going about their daily routine. svetlana ivachenko strongly opposes the government edict. with darkness arriving much sooner she has to keep the lights on longer than before. >> translator: the electricity bill doubled. it's terrible. >> reporter: her children now get out of school after dark. so ivanchenko needs to interrupt

her work to pick them up. >> translator: i'm really worried about my children. the government just made a top-down decision, and it causes trouble for all of us. >> reporter: an incident last november heightened her fears. an 11-year-old girl walking home from school in the dark went missing. locals still search for her, but they have no leads. so many residents are distressed about the side effects of the extra darkness. >> translator: the crime rate will rise, and children will be in danger. i'm against the government altering our time zone. >> reporter: the government

attempt to reduce the nation's time differences is under way. but it could meet more opposition from the people. elena solodkaya, nhk world, vladivostok. hello and let's get a look at your world weather now. in east asia we're seeing the snow move away from japan. the system here is going to be heading on out. it will look a lot dryer really across the country. so welcome sunshine for a lot of places here. similarly, dry for the korean peninsula and across much of northern china. just a little bit of rain in inland areas here. but that's not going to last much longer. however, in the south we are seeing that rain along the coastal areas really start spreading in toward central sections of china even. so it looks like that will be spreading further over the next

few days. for the philippines as well scattered showers will continue its pattern. 31 in manila today. 13 in hong kong. 10 for chongqing. and then 5 in beijing. we're looking at double digits for tokyo today. a little bit milder than yesterday. now, for north america we are looking at winds still continuing to impact the mid-atlantic states and up in toward eastern canada. this system is heading out. so the snow is going to just last a little bit longer tonight before pulling away. but those strong winds could last a little while longer. out west two things are looking pretty stormy from british columbia all the way to northern california. there's going to be coastal rain in upper elevations, snow with some heavier precipitation possible for parts of oregon and in towards northern california. that snow also for canada spreads all the way across the central slice of canada as well. so looking at widespread snow

over the next day or so. 4 degrees in winnipeg is your high today. we've got 18 expected in denver and 6 for chicago. minus 3 in toronto. and just at 0 for new york. and finally, here a look at europe, where it's going to stay calm and dry for a lot of the east here. this large area of high pressure blocking that rain. and we're keeping it over toward the western and central sections of europe. so it's going to stay wet for you, those of you here. winds are going to be on the gusty side. and we're talking about both rain and snow possible in this area. look pretty wet, especially across the iberian peninsula with some heavier rain possibly in the southern end of spain. another mass area continues to be turkey. a little bit more rain and even some snow will impact those of you here throughout the evening as we head into tuesday. as for highs, we're still on the mild side out west. 10 in madrid and even 14 degrees for lisbon, but still very, very

cold out east. minus 10 in kiev and minus 5 for warsaw. finally, giving you a look at madagascar, that tropical cyclone made landfall, it has since been dissipated, it's right now a tropical low, but forecasters are calling for this system to restrengthen, possibly make a second landfall. now, already quite a bit of rain has been reported across the area. over 100 millimeters, in fact, in just the past 24 hours. and we will be talking about much, much more rain in the days to come. upwards of 250 millimeters or more possible for coastal areas, both on the west and the east side of the island. so do watch out. there's a lot more rain headed your way. all right. so that's a look at your weather for now. and here is your three-day outlook. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ our lead story in egypt, anti-government protests have ended. but workers in the public and private sectors are still rallying for pay increases. the military ruling the country is calling for restraint. thousands of police gathered in front of the ministry of interior in the capital of cairo on monday. hundreds of civil servants in the transportation section marched at the state-run television station. they're calling on the government to raise their salaries. the military announced on monday that such demonstrations would destabilize the country and have a negative impact on the economy. it's hoping to first restore security and stability. the interim government reportedly told youth groups a constitutional referendum will be held in two months to pave the way for democratic elections. those groups have been major players in the protests. we'll be back with more news in 30 minutes. i'm gene otani in tokyo. jj