regional to try and reach regional agreements on major issues like transit trade on regional issues like narcotics trafficking and regional issues like nuclear proliferation on issues like trade this is a this is a region that. has tremendous opportunity from an economic standpoint to advance if it could just put placate some of these crises that have been going on for decades india pakistan is one and the afghan conflict is another these are really slowing this region down it's a i think it's again it's a see it's a real tragedy that we can't the international community not just nato can come together at the diplomatic and at the political level and try and get something but that's where i think i agree with christian that's where i believe the failure has been at the political level it's not been there have obviously been some appalling military blunders and certain aspects of the military strategy that i disagree with deeply however on the broad scale i would say this is been a political failure more than anything else ok so you want to jump in there would lie was said there. sol firs

mentioned that the as you keep regional organization to consider security in the region in all its aspects i think i think that this quotation speaks for itself really about security is afghanistan's a session for the c.e.o. still on the agenda are you talking about here considering that within that this year this question is related to what do you as. a couple of minutes ago so the western countries and the united states starting started to reassess the role of this c.e.o. and its potential and the possibility of corporation. as. the seal strength and let self and demonstrated its potential to be a useful. regional platform for cooperation and we welcomed this new assessment in my way we have already had contacts with the americans on the issue of afghanistan in the year two thousand and nine. in moscow we convened a special conference on of denniston were thirty six delegation is going to you know this is this is very good their children why did we attack conference because this was nearly three years ago in moscow and it was attended by the u.s. the european union oversee the g eight na

mob violence twice as likely to occur in mina as other regions. religion-related terrorism happened in nearly every country to some extent. religion-related war affects half of countries in mina compared with 13% of countries worldwide and violence was used to enforce religions in two-thirds of the countries, in the mina region. again, this -- this body of information is providing the context within which these revolutions happen. not saying that restrictions in religion or these hostilities involving religion triggered these events directly but it's a part of the overall package of you could say grievances or restrictions and sensitivities that are happening within the region. so the last point i'll conclude with, and i can't say that anything that i'm providing helps explain why violent -- why the uprisings happened, but there is one particular type of restriction that's very common in the middle east and north africa that occurs in nine out of ten countries in the region, and that's the governments restrict individuals right to convert. the con

state this is important in the region we underestimate the importance of status in the region the reason saddam hussein for example is to not deny the existence of w m d is because it was in his in his interest not to do so so i think you have to be realistic the present policy is a failed and present policy is a heightening tensions what we want is now to pull back from any chance of military conflict and take a fresh look at the situation and adopt a fresh approach which i think should include an implicit recognition or at least the offer of an oppressive condition of iran status as a regional superpower iran's preemption all that oil embargo and sanctions does that mean they've backfired somewhat on britain and france i'm not sure that backfired you don't impose sanctions unless you know that you can see it through i think what they do show there is is that iran is absolutely intent on her nuclear program and her bringing the sanction of the deadlines forward i think is a clear example of that you know i think i think we've got to be very clear. sanctions saber rattling failed i think

security arrangements in the region are emerging besieging american and zionist interests in the region forcing them to step back and eventually they will lose their dominant position as a result the us scientists alliance concentrates on syria in an attempt to wipe out the regional resistance axis we believe the arab and islamic awakening in the middle east will eventually lead to greater democracy security and stability creating prosperity in a region that will enjoy tranquility and constructive relations with the international community with no place for us sign is dominance from with less than a hard part of that and about the problem and the reigning elections marked in not a victory by the conservatives does this mean nothing will change iran's amassed equal foreign policy. well there's a with me on that iranian foreign policy is wise stemming from the dignity and interest of the islamic republic of iran that it works within the parameters of peace and stability in the persian gulf and plays an active role in changes enveloping the region and the world elections have shown once ag

north east asia is a dynamic region to the global economy, regional stability and u.s. national security interests. what's more, the coming year, we'll bring a number of regional leadership transitions for north korea u south korea, china, japan and russia. as some might have forgotten, the korean war is over. it's home to one of the world's most militaristic states. in fact, although the north korean regime is willing to starve its own citizens, it maintains the world's lashlgest army. thousands of artillery systems, tanks aircraft and surface combatants. more than 70% of north korea's combat power is positioned within 90 miles of the demilitarized zone. this puts our citizens of soul, if world's forth largest city easily within the eh raddic jam's racial relation. last month, the regime would stop uranium enrichment and missile testing and allow international inspectors to return to the nuclear facility in exchange for traditional aid. but two weeks ago, north korea said they would launch in april. a clear administration. this is typical behavior shown by their regime

we still have options in the region. by and large we see a tension. the trajectory of events forcing hamas and others to be more defiant at least in the access that use to be less -- the arab spraining, iran's influence and message receive ability, this has not changed iran's military capabilities or its military options or any of these issues, but it has allowed some of the arab leaders to counter hamas's influence in a more for giving way with public opinion. talk about finding a similar lining in this cloud, i would say right now hamas's influence is reduced and easier from counter-intelligence terrorism point of view to counter some of hamas's effects in the region. i go back to where i started. i'll conclude with this. this is a snapshot. a very fluid situation. if things remain the way they are today, yes, iran's influence is use, better way of managing ideological -- many things could change this outcome. what happened in syria is essential. if the regime survives we will see a possibility of resurgence of this iranian capability to influence.

the region has seen again. they we can't sport with bright red. well welcome to sport an artsy hour month cause for a band the following are just some of the stories that are in for this hour. comeback heroes dunkel laws of the equalizes as russian league leaders it needs battle back to detroit holds a combined one all. while wayne the great rooney banks abrasive protel manchester united it's of itself the english premier league for title rivals city in flow. flying high pole vaulter world record holder get a symbiote captures her fourth world enjoy title and the three year major title drought. let's get the ball rolling with football and zanies have dropped points against qubani after a done colossal which struck the south asia one all draw for the russian premier league leaders going into the match is a need for looking to break away after a title chase or say sky and saddam also drew one one on friday but alex a iana made no mistake from the spots against his former side opened for combine on the forty minut

interesting, this region of l.a. is also very latino. in fact, it's crate ld by a majority of latino districts. state assembly districts 51 to the west, 58 and 57 to the south and 48 to the east. so establishing it as a protected district and demonstrating how it could be drawn was a major achievement. growth in latino population over the past decade also prevented new opportunities for greater latino influence. one area in which advocates were exploring possibilities was in the central valley where you see on your screen, where adjacent section two and section five seals for latinos were already in place. so while advocates here were looking to protect the voting rights of growing latino communities among americans in fresno were looking to maintain the integrity of their community which you see outlined in green there. sorry, rather small. i wanted to make sure you got the big picture here. the community argued it shared much in common with the latino community, similar poverty rates, unemployment, educational attainment, language barr

we look at the countries within the region. we're focused on this region as well.ther countries in latin america as well as the community are also bringing their capacities and i see a lot of different efforts to focus your and others efforts in the united states government to coordinate those efforts, so this is a work in progress, and it is improving. maybe not as fast as i would like to see it but we are moving into taking very positive steps forward, and that needs to continue to be our focus and i get the sense from everyone i talk with that that is the key focus and we will remain engaged in that manner. yes, here with the mustache. >> [inaudible] >> if you mentioned in passing the caribbean. can you comment on puerto rico, which is rapidly increasing and drug-related violence is approaching at the level in the economic crisis is beginning to look like a collapse. islamic the trafficking organizations are looking for any opportunity. they have looking for those areas. today on an overall basis the traffic through the committee in this much less than it is in

term threat to regional stability. and then i'm skipping here. again, i thought interesting perspective. maybe we missed in all the timult in the region. there is only one state in our aor actively seeking to destabilize the region and that is iran. i think that helps us put things in context. let me go back to something that senator mccain touched on. i want to ask you to go into it in a little more detail which is this is about syria. can you describe in more detail what is the extent of both iranian and russian assistance to the military assistance to the outside government at this time? >> senator, the russians provided very advanced integrated air defense capabilities. missiles, radars, that sort of thing that would make impositions of any no fly zone challenging. if we were to go that direction. in terms of iran, they're working earnestly to keep assad in power. they have flown in experts. they're flying if weapons. it is a full throated effort by iran to keep assad there and oppressing his own people. >> so the

the muslim community is small in the region, makes up about 4% of the region, they are deliberately advocating though. in the situations and the conditions that enable that are ones that you see in many of the countries in the region and that is poverty rates, it's income inequality, it's the corruption that is there and it's in the -- in some of those cases, it's an anti-u.s. perspective. >> it bears watching and hopefully the lessons we have learned in other part s of the world we can apply, south america has had its violent pieces in its history but it has little terrorism of any kind so this shows that it's a worldwide issue that we have to respond to wherever it paying great attenn to this, we do not see great success in their efforts along these lines. >> general jacoby, if i can turn back to you, our good friend general renwar, when he stepped down, he talked about concerns about the aging air defense systems. we know that he talked about temporary fixes to take us forward, what is your opinion about the modernization in this area? >> we eager to have the f-35 come on line and we are ea

and threaten regional stability. unrest in syria has already greatly weakened iran's position in the region. and it is clear that iran only stands to lose further as assad is weakened further. as groups such as hamas distance themselves from the assad regime, iran is quickly becoming the assad regime's lone backer. this shows the world the hypocracy of tehran. i cannot predict how the volatile situation in syria will unfold. but the united states made clear we are on the side of the syrian people. they must know that the international community has not under estimated either their suffering or impatience. we all wish there was a clear and unambiguous way forward to directly influence the events in syria. that, unfortunately, is not the case. that is not an excuse. that is reality. only our clear path, our only clear path is to keep moving in a resolute manner to find a way to return syria to the syrian people. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. general dempsey? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator mccai

the region or can we not conclude that? >> one of the reasons -- the arab league is banding together is a force for initiating operations in libya. and concerns about damascus, this whole region is becoming aware of this sort of effort on iran's part. it had a fear the soviet union and their forces -- >> significant parallel. >> thank you for taking time to come in. senator levin referenced the after local police program and an opportunity and honored to observe as a soldier this summer and go out and visit with special forces. i see that program at work and visit villages and speak with tribal leaders and also the soldiers that were there and to me this is the program we should have implemented from day one. the value for the dollar is incredible. the amount of cooperation between the tribal leaders and people of the villages and special forces is unheard of. it never happened like it is happening now. the check and balance when one village is coming to the aid of another village when being attacked or harassed. it never h

it's immediating up with the four agencies, regional -- it's meeting up with the four agencies, regional agencies. now implementing, trying to figure out how we can implement the bay plan that was just approved by vcdc to figure out how we can implement the plan. in addition to that they are looking at climate change and disaster preparedness too. we do have some regional activity that's taking place in addition to that work. >> there is something to be said in bringing together resilience. economic resilience, climate change resilience. it's really all about being resilient. i think if we can put those into one conversation we can be stronger. >> i want to thank all very much for doing a great job as our moderator and for the entire panel, i had the opportunity to work with barbara garcia for 16 years at the health department and heard her very compelling story about the response to loma prieta. so really happy that you were here and each and every one of you were able to provide very unique perspectives that began to give us the whole picture of what a full community response looks lik

interests in the region. give us your sense on the current view from baghdad as far as syria goes. >> let me first start with something that you said. i mentioned but i think it's very important the arab league summit is scheduled to take place in baghdad. that's a remarkable development. march 29th. it's a summit that baghdad was up next in the rotation, it had been put off for a couple of years. this, assuming it goes forward, is a profound sign, a symbol as well as practical manifestcation of iraq in the region. they have government fears that they could see sectarian spillover, that this could agitate the sunni population in iraq and create sectarian tension in iraq so they are very concerned about it. as we've said on numerous occasions to iraqi leaders, the cause of the instability in syria and twhaus creates the greatest potential for the spill over is assad. once the silence stops and he's gone there is a much greater potential to avoid exactly what iraq hopes to avoid. iraq has supported the arab lea

central command region. i have submitted a written statement and request it to be accepted into the record. >> it will be. >> it's my privilege to appear today alongside an admired leader and good friend, admiral bill mccraven. no two commands work more closely together than u.s. special operations command and central command. let me begin with what i see today in the region. the arab awakening is manifesting differently in each country. while we may hope for and certainly we firmly support all efforts for more democratic governments in the region, the awakening's origins are not necessarily a rush for democracy. rather, this awakening stems from a breakdown in the social contract between governments and their people. unjust or unresponsive regimes have fallen or are in the throws throes of falling as is the case in syria. however, the transition to a democratic government is never easy, as we see in egypt. further, it is not clear what the resulting governments will look like. challenges remain, beyond the

a mber of cities could claim toe cad near the center of the thriving asian region.n the end, hewlett-packard chose the tiny island statsingap. soin: one of the main reasons we are in singapore is because of the infrastructure. singapore is very centrally located in asia. in addition, we have very good air, sea, rail and port facilities that allow us to bring things in and take things out very quickly and very efficiently. narrator: singapore has the largest container-handling seaport in the world-- number one in sheer tonnage moved and second only to hong kong in container traffic. singapore's location on the strait of malacca puts it on one of the most important transport routes in the world. woman: singapore sits right at the tip of the peninsula of malaysia. it's kind of in between the south china sea as well as the indian ocean. a lot of ships that want to go from the pacific ocean to the indian ocean, they all have to come down through singapore and then cross over the other... to the other side. in that sense, its location is favorable. but it also has a natur

federales que le corresponderá el sistema de transporte al metro tiene furiosos a políticos de la regiónía así traer consecuencias graves. >> reportera: el gobierno federal anunció recortes presupuestales que reducirían en 15 millones de dólares la suma de dinero que le corresponde al sistema de transporte del metro y las críticas no se hicieron esperar. >> estoy muy preocupado en una década esto significaría 150 millones de dólares y es que el gobierno del presidente barack obama ha contribuido con 150 millones de dólares anuales por 10 años para el sistema de transporte capitalino cante aquello era cubrir los costos de la reparación y las mejores que se realizan actualmente pero no sería sí y que reduciría esa cifra en un 10% este año. la noticia que me preocupa los usuarios que esto puede empeorar la situación o ser ellos los más afectados. >> el servicio es malo todos los días le suben al pasaje y las escaleras no funcionen, necesitamos un mejor servicio para lo que pagamos. >> reportera: voceros de gobiernos locales enviaron una carta al congreso pidiendo que no será el recorte adem

but as i look around the region, thank you, as i look around the region and i look at latin america ieally look at the western hemisphere with large, for central, south america, the grieving. i don't see an external military threat. as i look within the region, there are some issues, some concerns between some of the country. but again i don't see an internal military conflict anytime in the near future either. governments, institutions have worked through diplomatic avenues and through international venues to address the issues that they are concerned about. i see that trend continuing. so, the issue, the security issue that i see throughout the region is transnational organized crime and the impact it is having on security throughout. and i'll talk a little bit more about this very specifically. i see it in my terms as a 21st century threat. and it's a 21st century threat again because in my terms i see in two different landscapes. i see it as on a regional basis as one that doesn't start and end in one country. it doesn't start and end in one subregion. if i would look at cocaine s

"interface region" means... okay, means we have...licon valley is a socioeconomic space, and china is another one. okay, and taiwan just overlapped these two regions. narrator: in this triangular space connecting silicon valley, taiwan and china lies the prospect of a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and know-how. and taiwanese firms are uniquely qualified to facilitate that exchange. hsu: we have a long experience of business transaction with silicon valley, and we know the lure of the market, lure about how to run a high-tech business. we learned from silicon valley. and we have so dense social network in the technical community between these two regions, silicon valley and taiwan. we know china's market much better than those western companies. so i think, for taiwan, the way we can play is to play as an agent between the silicon valley firm technology and the china market-- try to connect these two together. narrator: with their silicon valley backgrounds and chinese culture, taiwanese firms have a unique opportuni to play a

arctic forum to see if the polar region may contain what remains of the world's oil deposits stay with us. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. of. how all the underworld from two squads like the interview show on policy i'll bring all the way i guess on the program is stephan whether. american scientists have calculated that law then twenty percent of the world's oil and natural gas could be found below the arctic are its expiration there is more challenging than anywhere else but as we are running out of more sensible sources many countries are turning to the north the us and canada the european union and russia all want their share and are safe and so is the arts a becoming the scene how the future great again we're asking the secretary general of the european union arctic for steffan work. with increases in technology and high oil prices arctic is becoming more

that one has the attention of all of our friends in the region. as far as how they protect against that. the third threat is the maritime threat. and so we're going to have to be prepared to keep the sea lanes open. and the fourth threat is what we call the kuds force, their secret service, they're surrogates, proxies like lebanese hezbollah and other terrorists that they fund. and on that one it's largely a police and intelligence driven effort as we try to contain that but also our special forces work that issue very, very closely. so four basic threats and we look to how we can check each one of those working alongside some of the most enduring, long-term partnerships we've had in some of the countries out there. >> well, since this is a budget hearing, in your opinion, does the current budget proposal deal sufficiently with the kinds of threats and the responses that we are now providing to those threats? >> it absolutely does, senator nelson. i can say this though because i'm first among equals when it comes to the combatant commanders. basic

so i speak to her nafta region. so, i think ron paul is a fascinating study of our political reality right now. these people out there can't even talk about what is right in front of our eyes. so how long will this go on? i don't know. >> host: norman solomon is running for congress in california. one of 11 candidates seeking to seek the coastal district in california. a wide-open race triggered by democratic lynn woolsey's decision to retire this year and looking to replace congresswoman woolsey. tell us about what he supported specifically? >> will first of all, he is the son my mother wanted to have. he is very, very agitated about things. he brings to his freshman year congress more foreign policy experience than any rookie could possibly have. he is then to afghanistan. he has been to iraq more than one. and he is also taking no corporate tax money. imagine this. no corporate tax money. and that is tough. i mean, they have to worry about paying for alongside. and i admire him for this grassroots effort. he met