you're looking at live video of the dipgs capital cairo, ignoring a nighttime curfew, tens of thousands of protesters are still gathered in what's become the political and emotional heart of the city, tahrir square. they are demanding the resignation of mubarak. they say this is the last day of mubarak and his corrupt regime. they are calling it a day of departure. meanwhile mubarak supporters began a counter demonstration in a different part of cairo. they are calling friday a day of allegiance. there are fears of a repeat of

violent clashes that killed at least six people and injured more than 800 earlier this week. but with the army surrounding tahrir square, no major incidents have been reported so far. hello and lcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. in an exclusive interview, egyptian prime minister shared with us his perspective on the situation. first let's listen to the prime minister's reaction to the story in the "new york times." u.s. and egyptian officials are discussing the immediate resignation of president mubarak. >> translator: as far as i know, there is no such move. but i believe the intentions outlined by president mubarak should be convincing both in terms of the dignity of the egyptian people and their demands. >> nhk world also asked the prime minister about pressure from the united states for the resignation of president mubarak.

>> translator: people's perspective over such an issue differ. how they view it is totally up to them. the most important thing right now is egypt's stability. we believe it's necessary for president mubarak to serve until the end of his term. it's also vital to complete the necessary constitutional and legal procedures. >> shafiq said the government wouldn't oppose the demonstrators as long as they remained peaceful. he concluded the interview by saying the military is capable of breaking the deadlock but that the public would not accept such an outcome. the pro-democracy demonstrations spread to egypt

after being sparked by events in the north african country of tunisia. >> reporter: anti-government demonstrations began there last month after a young unemployed man set himself on fire to protest against police mistreatment. he'd been accused of selling vegetables without approval. thousands of people joined the protests, showing their anger over the nation's high unemployment rate and sky-rocketing prices. the movement captured the attention of young people, who shared information about protests via the internet. fighting between riot police and demonstrators resulted in a number of casualties. president zine el aberdine ben ali eventually fled tunisia, ending his 20 year long leadership. the protests in egypt began on january 25 as a call for the end of president hosni mubarak's

30-year rule. the unrest spread across egypt with the help of social networking tools such as facebook and twitter. last friday, nobel laureate mohamed elbaradei, the former head of the u.n.'s nuclear agency, took part in protests, along with opposition members. the egyptian government tried to crack down on the anti-mubarak demonstrations, announcing a curfew across the country. it also mobilized the military and blocked access to the internet and mobile phone networks to prevent information about the protests from spreading. on january 29, president mubarak made his first televised statement since the protests began. in an attempt to ease public dissatisfaction, he announced that he had named a new vice president and new prime minister.

but his opponents did not back down and continued to pressure him to resign immediately. it has reportedly claimed more than 100 lives since the unrest began. widespread looting in the capital became an added security concern. late on tuesday, mubarak made another concession. he said he would serve out his term, but not seek re-election in september. but he failed to bring calm to his country. on the day after the president spoke, egypt fell into more chaos. fighting broke out in cairo's tahrir square between opponents and supporters of mubarak. people threw stones and petrol bombs. as the situation worsened, world leaders voiced their concerns calling for a rapid transition of power.

in a joint statement on thursday, the leaders of five european countries said only a rapid and orderly transition to a broadly representative government will allow egypt to overcome the challenges it faces. the u.s. government has also condemned the violence and pledged to continue diplomatic efforts to help settle the turmoil. >> we pray that the violence in egypt will end and that the rights and aspirations of the egyptian people will be realized. once again, here is yasushi do. what's your take o wt's been happening in cairo? >> president mubarak announced tuesday he wouldn't run for the next presidential election this

fall, but he refused the demonstrators' demand for his immediate resignation. on thursday he told news there will be chaos in egypt if he resigns now. but the situation is already chaotic between pro and anti-mubarak moves playing out in cairo. opposition parties are accusing the government of organizing the pro mubarak attacks on anti-government protesters. >> in addition to the official stance of mubarak, is there any specific reason that you can think of why he did not accept the demands for his resignation? >> having fought in middle east wars, mubarak prides himself as a military hero who ascended to the presidency. he believes he's made a significant contribution to the formation of modern day egypt. if he was to cave in to the demands of protesters and step down, he might not only see his career tarnished, he could also be indicted. mubarak has been accused of

running an authoritarian regime for three decades. in recent days his government has been blamed for encouraging his supporters to attack his opponents. these pro mubarak groups have also been going after foreign journalists and camera crews who have been covering the days of demonstrations. >> is president mubarak alone in his fight to stay in power? what have members of his government been saying recently? >> vice president omar suleiman spoke on state-run television on thursday. he said the country needs time to revise the constitution and ensure a free and fair presidential election. he said he would invite the country's large islamic group, muslim brotherhood, to have dialogue with the government. opposition parties are doubtful of this pledge. this uprising in egypt has started to spread to other arab countries, right? >> huge protests broke out in

yemen following the unrest in egypt. in jordan, the king replaced the the country's prime minister and in algeria, they have decided to lower basic food prices. however, people are also demanding for speech and political freedom. the united states is deeply involved in the middle east. u.s. officials hope a wave of democratization will wash over the middle east but there are concerns about new regimes being anti-u.s. or islamist. the outcome of the situation in egt is being watched closely, because it will likely set a precedent in the region and it could spark revolution or reform. >> thanks very much, yasushi. nhk world's yasushi kudo. unemployment in the united states came down last month. the labor department says it

fell 0.4 of a point to 9%. the u.s. economy created 36,000 nonfarm jobs last month. the market had been expecting 150,000. with the u.s. unemployment rate down to 9%, january was the second straight month of improvement. japan's major oil developer says its net jumped more than 10% in the first months of the business year. the company reported on friday net between april and december climbed about 12% year on year when calculatedn yen to $1.1 billion. sales went up at just about the same pace by 11% to 1.8 billion dollars. rising oil and natural gas helped improve its performance and notes the average price of the benchmark brent oil was up nearly 20% from the year

earlier. as oil prices rise, impacts earnings for the whole year. a net profit of $1.5 billion higher than a previous projection of $1.2 billion. a senior official of the international energy said rising crude an unrest in egypt are behind the surge in prices. >> some blame this rapid increase on speculation. recent data for the final quarter of 2010 suggested it was good old supply and demand. with fear over political unrest in the mideast thrown in in the past few weeks. >> the iea made the remarks at a u.s. senate hearing as oil futures topped $100 a barrel in new york and other markets. jones expressed hope that oil producing countries would respond to rising prices pointdipoint pointing out that opec has ample

production capacity. indonesia central banks raised interest rates for the first time in a few years in order to tame inflation. bank of flesh decided to push up this year. consumer prices continued to climb. in january the consumer price index rose 7.02% from a year earlier. central bank has been trying to hold down interest rates. that's because of concern that an increase could trigger a rapid influx of capital into the country and a later outflow could deal a blow to the economy. bank indonesia last raised the key rate in october 2008. this week we saw positive trends in economic data as well as gains in the stock market. buhow able is the global economy. our port spoke with the professor at the university and

a foormer -- former advice finance minister to get his outlook. >> recent economic data have been pointing to the possibility data may be finding stable ground. this week we kicked off with positive production figures in japan follow by positive manufacturing data from the united states. do you think we are, indeed, headed toward a stable global economic recovery? >> well, the recovery is going on. i think easy monetary policy and a very aggressive fiscal policies on most of the developed countries has contributed to this recovery. given the status of their fiscal deficit in every part of the developed area, i don't think they can sustain this fiscal stimulus for long. so they have got to suspend that sometime this year or next year.

sohis policy sustained recovery, i don't think will really last that long. i think, you know, most of the developed countries have structural problems. europe, united states, as well as japan. so it is very difficult to have sustainable, stable recovery. >> now, on the monetary side, do you think the federal reserve will continue this current round of quantitativeasi past the expiration date in june? >> well, it's very difficult to predict. of course federal reserve like to sort of, you know, hold qe in june. whether that would be possible or not depends how robust the u.s. recovery is. if they are concerned about infrastructure they cannot continue quantitative easing. if they are more inclined to

sustain recovery, then have to continue quantitative easing, that would not be a good choice. >> he also warns of the recent advance in commodity prices fueled further by the recent political unrest in egypt. >> i think this may spread to the less developed countries. if that happens, that would have an impact on oil prices. but aside from oil prices, most of their commodity prices has been rising. so i think this is a trend. you know, enormous demand from china and india would come during the next five, ten years. that will push out the commodity prices. this is a serious problem. that would increase the prices of inputs and will generate

pressures everywhere. >> and over in europe, should sovereign debt concerns become magnified again, what can we expect in the currency markets? >> in europe and euro seems to be recovering at this moment. euro has strengthened during the course of last couple of weeks, but the fact still remains that europe has a structural problem. so it might pop up any time. those weak sort of peripheral countries like greece, hungary, latvia, or even spain and portugal are now running a huge fiscal deficits. they have got to tighten their fiscal positions. even germany is talking about ghteng tir fcal policy. that will probably imply a general slowdown of the european economy for some time to come.

now here is a check on the latest market figures. in other news, myanmar's parliament elected a close ally of the country's leadership as the country's new president. prime minister thein sein was chosen for the election in november, the first in 25 years. he's a 65-year-old retired

general and a leader of the newly formed union solidarity and development party. cabinet members will be appointed next week as part of what myanmar's leaders are calling a serbian government. the military has ruled the country for 23 years. more than 80% of lawmakers are from usdp or are military officers themselves. united states has criticized the november election as unfair on the grounds it effectively excluded pro democracy leader aung san suu kyi and other opposition groups. people in haiti finally' have the word on who will be in the run up election to replace president preval. the two candidates are both critics of the government. the country's provisional lector council or cep saidirst ld

mirlande manigat and mich. h martelly. the cep initially placed celestin in second. they routed against the result in december. the organization of american states and other international groups investigated widespread fraud and irrelarities. they preured cep to cnge its posion. anotr confrontation is looming in haiti. president preval's five-year term is supposed to end next monday. different parties are divided on who should run the government until his successor is elected. now let's look at some of the news we've gathered from broadcasting stations across asia. we begin with this item from

mcot, thailand. thai and cambodian armies clashed near a disputed hindu temple. four soldiers were hurt. they suggest two cambodian soldiers were killed. a spokesperson for thailand's military said fighting broke out at 3:00 p.m. local time and has continued sporadically since then. hundreds of thai villagers from the province where the temple is located fled their homes or took schetter in bunkers. it took place hours after they met and decided to solve the border dispute through dialogue. flooding killed three people in the last days, 40,000 others affected. some men's of a navy rescue team are missing after trying to save people stranded by an overflowing river. the rescuers vote boat was hit by currents when they returned to safety. an operation has been launched to locate the missing people.

>> consumers in india are struggling with rising food prices a new index shows that wholesale prices of agricultural and dairy products rose about 17% for the week that ended on january 22. that's nearly 1.5 percentage points higher than the previous week. the government has banned exports of lentils and edible oils and has decided to import onions. from pakistan. the price of onions, a staple in the local cuisine has surged 130% in the past week. hello again, time for a check on the world's weather. let's head to australia. as people head to their homes and businesses across queensland they are likely to run into scenes like this. this was missions beach in queensland. you can see absolute devastation. people's homes have had their

roofs ripped off, walls tumbling in. we're looking at the harbor, boats piled up on top of one another. it is definitely going to be a very, very difficult cleanup and will take people some time to get back to their normal lives. the system is not a cyclone anymore, it's a low pressure system. it sti reay hoing its she he. you can see in the clouds as it progresses toward the northern territory. the wind is not going to be much of a problem but the rain is. have a look and see. 24 hours and we see another 100 millimeters plus through parts like northern territory. that will be heavy on saturday. on sunday, heavy in south australia. i also want to tell you about what's been going on today in the southeast. places like melbourne had 40 millimeters of rain in the space of one hour. those severe storms went on for sometime and led to flash flooding. it really has been an absolutely desperate season right across eastern australia this season. as we head into eastern asia, it's going to be very dry for

the weekend. more heavy rain, though, unfortunately down towards the south where we see this low pressure system just sitting over southern parts of the philippines. yet more drenching rains coming into central and southern locations, so there will be a continuing high risk of flooding and landslides as we head to saturday and sunday. here are saturday highs across eastern asia really looking like spring, pretty warm. 15 in shanghai, 13 chongqing, 21 in taipei. also in hong kong. a hot day in bangkok, 34, 12 in tokyo and 6 in beijing. all right. now let's head to north america. winter storm yet again. this one is focused out in the southeast. we've got extremely cold air plummeting all the way down here to the south. that mixes with all this moisture coming from the south as well. and it's going to result in some very wintry precipitation across areas like texas pushing up in towards the mid-atlantic you'll see snow, you'll see ice, maybe a slushy, sleety kind of mix.

that's all going to be heading right up into the northeast. so yet another round of snow coming to you in parts of new england. anywhere from northern pennsylvania up into new england. you're looking at about another 15 centimeters additional snowfall friday into saturday. more snow coming down the rockies. this will be coupled with strong gusts up to about 145 kilometers an hour. that makes for dangerous driving, certainly and whiteout conditions. be aware of that. 20 degrees and sunshine in los angeles, 2 degrees in houston. that's your high and you're going to have some snow. let's go to europe lastly. a big storm raging across the north here. you'll have plenty of precipitation. mostly rain as it is quite warm here. just be careful because the wind is going to be extreme especially in places like southern norway. we're talking about violent storm force winds. south of that keeping high and dry and pretty pleasant in terms of temperatures as well. take a look.

11 berlin, vienna, 12, 16 in rome, 12 in athens, 18 in lisbon, 12 in london and out in moscow degrees for your high. ll lve y with your exteed forecas

recapping our top story. thousands of protesters are ignoring the nighttime curfew. they are gathering at what has become the political and emotional heart of the city, tahrir square. people are demanding the resignation of hosni mubarak and calling for protesting across egypt on friday. they say this is the last day of mubarak and his corrupt regime. they are calling it a day of departure. meanwhile mubarak supporters began a counter demonstration in a different part of cairo. they are calling friday the day of allegiance. there are fears of a repeat of clashes that killed six people and injured more than 800 earlier this week but with the army surrounding tahrir square, no major incidents have been reported so far. with that we wrap up this edition of "newsline."

i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. we'll be back in half an hour. thanks for joining us on nhk world.