yasushi kudo, nhk world, tokyo. >>> the u.s. space shuttle "discovery" has lifted off on its 39th and final mission. it first launched in 1984. >> two, one, booster ignition, and the final liftoff of "discovery." >> the shuttle blasted off from the kennedy space center in florida at 21:53 utc on thursday. it has six astronauts on board. "discovery" separated from its external fuel tank about nine minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 150 kilometers. "discovery" is set to become the first of the three surviving space shuttles to be retired at by the end of this year. the shuttle is transporting water, food and other supplies, including a remote-controlled humanoid robot called r2 to the space station. >>> a british court has allowed the extradition of wikileaks' founder julian assange to sweden. he's accused of sex crimes in the nordic country. assange says he will appeal the ruling. the court ruled on thursday that assange should be extradited to sweden and rejected his claim that the move would breach his rights. assange is a

. >>> earlier shery ahn spoke with yasushi kudo who has been covering the unrest in egypt. >> let me start by asking you, more attention is being folksed by recent moves of the muslim brotherhood. why is the group seen as so important? >> the muslim brotherhood is egypt's largest islamist group. it was formed more than 80 years ago. its slogan is, "islam is a solution." it preaches islam and helps egypt's poor by educating the illiterate and setting up hospitals. needless to say the brotherhood has strong support from poor egyptians. it receives the second highest number of votes in the 2005 parliamentary election and is now the largest opposition group in the country. however, the government has banned its activities. the brotherhood has been accused of being fundamentalists and part of a matrix of the middle east islamic groups that fund or carry out terrorism. >> but it did start talks with the government on sunday. >> um-hum. it was a first time in a three-decade-long history of the mubarak regime, that dialogue happened between these two sides. that means the government admitted

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 calculated in 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

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 in