east asia, the south china sea as the demonic d east asia, the south china sea as the demonic defenseof postmodernism. in a sense of warships, fifth generation fighter jets, cyberwarfare, ballistic missiles. >> why am i not reassured? >> i'm going to reassure you. the south china sea as a maritime clima the south china sea as a maritime climate and were central europe was a land climate and a claustrophobic land climate where armies came into contact with to and fro with a lot of civilians killed back in forth into two world wars. the south china sea conflict will show us they were anxious, nervous, complicated world but not necessarily a military cataclysm. its air and sea with very few civilians involved. they are fighting not over densely packed territories, the geographical features in many cases. >> how did you explore these geographical features? how did she go about it? >> what i've been increasingly as they get older and travel, the first time you get very vivid impressions. the longer you are there, the more you realize you've been partially deceived. they are more long lasti

the blue water of the south china sea. they want to the dominance that we had in the caribbean they instituted the cow's tongue where they claim control most of the south china sea. but the vietnamese do not agree at all. the filipinos do not agree at all. malaysia had some problems. taiwan basically agrees with china but it is not china because we are the real china essentials the. [laughter] this puts the united states air force and navy in a difficult position because it is the united states air and sea power e essentially betting is mature in the west has to not allow china to undermine the sovereignty of all these countries. at the same time not let the nationalism of the philippines or be a non or the united states with vietnam. >> host: they say there is nothing wrong or aggressive it is the same as the americans did. but american dominance led to a huge role in the world. should united states be concerned about a larger chinese rule of the south china sea? >> they see it as on locking the door to break out the first

known is they'll help in the modernization programme of philippine military facilities facing the south china sea. a lot wonder whether an increased presence in the region, may mean that the philippines is a bigger target for china, in the south china sea. >> thank you. that report from manila in the philippines. >> south sudan's government is expected to resume peace talks with rebels. they are being held in the capital of ethiopia. and negotiations have failed to advance since the signing of a ceasefire, and it never took hold. while fighting broke out in december between pro-government forces loyal to the president and those that back riek machar, the former vice president. he was accused of plotting a coup, which he denied. let's cross to juba, speaking to anna cavel, covering the story for us. these talks are expected to take place, and are expected to resume, but the situation on the ground where you are is dire. >> reporter: yes, that's right. i mean, as you mentioned there, the peace talks have been happening for months now. the signing of the cessation of hostilities happened in janu

china's game plan. yoji koda is a former commander in chief of the japan maritime self-defense force fleet. he's tracked chinese maritime strategy for years and gave us his insight. >> for china, the south china sea has various significance. this is not well known subject, but chinese future posture of the strategy nuclear. so china really wants to increase its strategic nuclear capability. one, on the ground. its development on icbms. and secondly, the chinese development on the maritime strategic nuclear. china is building a new submarine base in the hainan islands. and if this -- the new base is completed and eight or ten nuclear submarines will be operational, chinese flexibility to deploy those submarines would spread from the south china sea to the indian ocean and pacific ocean. >> reporter: china is implementing a two-stage defensive strategy called a2/ad or anti-access/area denial. the point of anti-access is to block the u.s. military from entering distant waters off china. to achieve this, chinese forces would deploy missiles and fighter jets. if this line is broken, china's defensive implement area denial. this tactic is aimed at denying intruders room to maneuver. koda says

and as territorial tensions of the south china sea. he got. vietnam is looking to the us and japan for support. voters are going to the polls to select three hundred twenty members of parliament amid tight security is the country's first national election since u s combat troops withdrew in two thousand and eleven prime minister nuri al maliki is seeking a third term he is stressing his role in postwar reconstruction and calling for tougher security measures he said. here's hoping the election will be a success and terrorism will be defeated. but opposition leaders have described him as an authoritarian ruler. iraqi troops and police have been on high alert aggies possible attacks. two people were killed on wednesday by a roadside bomb near a polling station in the northern city of kirkuk. iraq's electoral committee has postponed voting in some parts of the western province of anbar sectarian violence across the country is now at its worst level since us troops left. it's influenced by the civil war in neighboring syria. the ballot boxes clothe

the philippines is one of a number of countries involved in territory disputes with china. the claims focus on parts of the south, in 2012 ships from china and the philippines were involved in a long standoff at the scarborough shoal which both claim and the second shoal and beijing says vast parts of the south china sea and parts by taiwan, malaysia and vietnam and we have more from manila. >> reporter: increased presence of soldiers and fortification and up grading of u.s. military facilities in the west philippines and the area facing the south china sea. washington said this does not mean the return of the u.s. bases. they were taken off and forced out of the philippines in the 1990s although in reality the u.s. soldiers never left. right now there is more than 600 of them involved in counter terrorism operations particularly in the southern philippines and the president said this agreement is not just a military one, it's improving people to people ties between the two countries, a lot of skeptics wonder if increased military presence in the region and the philippines means the philippines becomes a much bi

the philippines is one of a number of countries involved in territorial disputes with china. the claims focus on parts of the south china sea, ships from china and the philippines were involved in a long standoff which both countries claim. more recently china surrounded a contested territory. beijing claims a vast area of the south china sea, parts of which are claimed by at the end of the day wrarn, brunei, malaysia and vietnam. we have more from manila. >> reporter: this agreement would many an increased perhaps of u.s. soldiers, the fortification and upgrading of u.s. military facilities also in the we were philippines, particularly the area facing the south china sea. washington said, though, that this does not mean the return of the u.s. bases. they were taken off and forced out of the philippines in the 1990s. in reality the u.s. soldiers never left. there's more than 600 of them supposedly involved in counterterror. >> operations, particularly in the southern philippines, now the president added - president aquino said this agreement is not just military, but improving and bolstering people to people ties.

territorial disputes in the south china sea. crews looking for the missing malaysia airlines jet will enter a new phase in their search for more than a month planes have scoured the ocean looking for any signs of debris. but authorities now say they will focus their hunt for an age three seventy in an expanded area under water and a few rules chameleon home also has the latest details the passenger jet disappear too much lead with two hundred thirty nine people aboard. a multi national search that has been set up the military. but the force of the total could be traced from the scene play the month of trying to score by australian prime minister tony abbott to report it is still high in the unlikely that any degree to be flown from the auction through this the premise is as planes from japan china and new zealand was still conducting usual to choose. olivier craft of writing as close to the limit. all sensible inside. pulverized them. if all we are moving from the current fridays. two i fridays which is quite pissed on searching

the face of heights and regional tensions. tensions between china and the philippines over ownership of certain areas in the south china sea had escalated in recent years. in the philippines has since been upgrading its military hardware. largely with american assistance. united states whoever has maintained it doesn't take sides in territorial disputes that of a cat. they took their toll on the show them not to believe that the us is going to be right then and there in what ever incident happens. we don't expect us to start crawling the south china sea but the database and sees that the us. try to build the people that use of the bins so that it does the job itself. anti american groups say it is beginning to sound more and more like a return to the days when united states have bases in the country the game to be speeding up to bomb us visit. he'd been taken to the streets to protest but they're calling us intrusion into philippine sovereignty. a number of lawmakers have also threatened to challenge the legality of the military agreement. we believe that the agreement in the south east of the baby on course to push them out.

the naval ones that seem to be still at issue. why is that? >> that's because what china wants to do eventually to the south and east china seas is what the unitedstates did to the caribbean in the 19th and early 20th century. dilute american influence in west asia so that china could expand its continental land mass into the adjacent blue waters. the south china sea has the potential to make china into a great military power in the way the caribbean gave the united states domination of the western hemisphere. >> then you have the east china seas which is the area between china and japan, basically. >> yes. >> to me this is the most dangerous because it involves two very big, rich countries, the second and third largest economies in the world. and countries with huge defense budgets. we saw one version of what could happen. a ship captain takes his boat into these waters. play out for us what you think could happen. >> the east china sea is a more acute problem for the united states because, frankly speaking, the united states will probably not go to the war to defend the philippines. it's a poor country but not a serious one like japan is. japa

a senior us official with responsibility the east asia has voiced concern over china's increasing instead of the south china sea to the last ten countries and china had the backing claims of sovereignty in the region it was actually on tuesday daniel ross the step right in front of the senate foreign relations committee on thursday he specifically mentioned second time a shawl indication controlled by. in china. and there's a particular focus by the chinese who are deployed in large numbers of course current of vessels on to the areas of the second time ritual where the philippines has since nineteen eighty nine making them helpless the government says china's coast not intended to kill its shapes on two occasions last month. the philippine vessels one on the plantations to lead the outskirts of the disputed child. so is president barack obama stick and anti is pressing for east asia he said china should note the united states is prepared to defend its allies the president of united states met with our present she jean king of china in the heat. earlier this month he has had up something on the order

you know, when they started looking for debris, the first place they looked was the south china sea, to the east of the malaysian peninsula. now at this late hour, we're actually learning -- they're saying they sent planes out to the south china sea to first look for the plane also. the story there keeps changing, and it's a little bit contradictory, jeff. >> well, yeah, indeed. if they, in fact, were searching over the malacca straits at 8:00 a.m. that morn, it implies they were aware of the track, that they figured that into their calculations, that they were really on the ball in all the places that they needed to be. were they really? i mean, this is coming out really, really late in the game. is it true? is it just put out there to burnish their own reputation? you know, and a part of this reporting is that even though they went out there to search, they didn't tell the other civil authorities about it. i mean, it boggles the imagination. >> it does. mary, today we learned for the first time from these same malaysian officials they believe it was the pilot who spoke the last word

the malaysian airlines did not fly over indonesia or its air space after making a left turn in the south china sea. according to this senior government source in kuala lumpur, the boeing 777 may have been deliberately flown along a route designed to the avoid radar detection. rather astonishing information that we just received within the past hour. but it's not the only dramatic news we have for you. right now, we've learned in the past few hours search planes and ships are heading for an area where chinese searchers have now twice detected electronic pulse signals in the southern indian ocean. that word came from australian authorities who said the australian ship ocean shield has picked up some kind of acoustic noise. here is part of the announcement made by australia's head of search operations. >> this morning, we were contacted by the chinese authorities and advised the haixun 01 had yesterday afternoon redetected the signals for 90 seconds within just two kilometer thes of the original dethe tekz. this is an important and encouraging lead. but one which i urge you to continue to treat c

the association of southeast asian nations in hawaii. analysts say his remarks were seen as indirect criticism of china's increased maritime activities in the south china sea. hagel dismissed the view that inviting asean defense ministers to hawaii was aimed at containing china. it's the first time that the united states has hosted such a meeting. hagel will soon visit japan and china. >>> japan is opening its doors a bit wider for migrant workers. ron madison has the latest from the business desk. >> yeah, that's right. the japanese government will take temporary measures to secure more foreign workers for construction. the industry is facing a labor shortage ahead of the 2020 tokyo olympic games. cabinet ministers approved a set of policies friday. one measure allows foreign workers to extend their stay for up to two years. that would be under a government-sponsored technical internship program. other steps include granting re-entry permits to them for up to three years. government officials say these changes will secure about 70,000 workers. >> translator: it's vital to quickly respond to construction needs. the government will do its utmost t

that the country has entered a new era in its defense, particularly in these troubled times in the south china seas. al jazeera, manila. >> bangladesh. also causing chaos russiad by the internet explorer. that in the headlines in a moment. >> you convicted the wrong person >> i find that extraordinarily disappointing... >> to keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate. >> the evidence was inaccurate >> they still refuse the dna >> somebody can push you in a death chamber >> it's not a joke >> award winning producer and director joe berlinger exposes the truth. from the inside... >> a justice system rum by human beings, can run off the rails. >> some say there's justice for all, but they're not in the system.. >> it shouldn't be easy to just lock somebody up and throw away the key >> ...nightmarish [ ] of reality, sometimes you can't win... >> an original investigative series. al jazeera america presents the system with joe beringer with joe beringer >> back with another look at the headlines here on al jazeera. relatives are reacting with dismay and anger after an egyptian court sentenc

on - at sea, i should say, really, will this make to the balance of milt - military balance in the south china sea. >> well if it means anything, it means the fortification of defense forces in the western philippines, in the area of the islands. the agreement as clarified, washington will return - the rush of the u.s. base, and increased soldiers rotating around asia. the activists, those against these visits of president obama, those who are opposing what they call u.s. imperialism says the question is sovereignty really. the u.s. bases may have left officially in the '90s, but there is a number of soldiers stationed here. the philippine military admits more than 600 are stationed across the country. not sure what it is, but they help out encounter-terrorism operations, particularly in the southern philippines. the question of sovereignty, during the judicial process, if you remember, a few years ago, five soldiers were convicted of rape after raping a filipino in the northern philippines, and they were sentenced to gaol, life in prison to be spent in the philippines gaol. it was overturned

both locations face the south china sea where china's increasing its maritime activities. the philippines once served as a major military outpost for the united states. but american troops withdrew from the country more than 20 years ago. and the defense ministers of japan and australia have agreed to speed up talks to bolster bilateral security. it follows japan's new principles on the transfer of defense equipment to ease its arms export ban. japanese defense minister itsunori onodera and his australian counterpart david johnson met in perth. >> translator: i want us to have an exchange of views so that we can strengthen ties between japan and australia. >> johnson said australia wants to work with japan to develop defense equipment for regional stability. he has shown a strong interest in japan's submarine technology. the ministers say they will improve joint drills by japan's self-defense forces and the australian military. they also confirmed the importance of trilateral exercises involving the u.s. they both agreed they cannot accept any attempt to change the status q

the philippines is building facilities on coral to defend its claim. >> translator: our government is weak. it cannot defend us against china. that's why we really need america's help. >> reporter: out here in the southea, these filipino fishermen face the reality of chinese power. small countries like philippines with barely a navy to speak of has no way to face china's power itself. that's why it's turning back to united states for help. this is 50 miles north of manila. it was once the biggest american air base outside the united states. relics of the cold war era are now a site of picnicking. at the height of the cold war, 15,000 americans lived here. not everyone is happy about the idea of them coming back. in the nearby village, farmers from the left wing peasant group are meeting. they think the u.s. is using the china threat as an excuse. >> u.s. is trying to create an issue so that they can go back to philippines. they would like to go back here in the philippines to use philippines as their base and get all resources here and even all the asian countries. they use us base. >> reporter: there are many in the philippines who will welcome the americans back with open arms. those that campaigne

malaysian sources told cnn, headed for the strait of malaca and the south china sea. officials had initially focused the search on the south china sea. there were indications that the plane suddenly turned westward from its original course. the malaysian government denied in a tweet that any malaysian air force aircraft were scrambled. >> i'm suspicious of the information that they've provided. i think the most likely scenario is that they detected them on military radar. they scrambled the jets. and either couldn't locate it or some other problem developed. >> reporter: our source says the air force did not inform the rest of the malaysian government until three days later, march 11st. a source involved in the investigation told cnn. joe johns, cnn, kuala lumpur, malaysia. >>> over the past month the weather in the many search areas has gone from treacherous and difficult to quite serene. let's brick in meteorologist samantha mohr on the weather continues now. >> this is the time of year we see plenty of cyclone activity across the indian ocean. a couple of close call

more than eight million us dollars in the fourth week of the search and rescue operations in the south china sea. besides all the search and rescue cough the malaysian government representing malaysia airlines has paid a total one point two million us dollars will fall to the families of all the two hundred twenty seven passengers. and earlier we spoke to our reporter james shall in kuala lumpur will he tell us what the malaysian prime minister has gone after coming back to the country and the current situation of the families that when you go back to haunt them. what about midnight local time that's about eight hours a day he scanned the beginning a press conference all sources tell us. i then did a bit of dust in many many things in real or waking to see where the pullback reaffirmation all but symbolism from us at hawaii's we became two of payoff for the fourth he went to the us he wants to try to read a spell on that seeking all the stuff to read the british had already said they can to someone about the gritty on its way but at the same time we talk about the sectors that easy to forget

obama will also travel to malaysia which also has maritime claims in the south china sea to be the first american president to visit in almost fifty years. i love the way. us president barack obama is expected to top up the tent pacific partnership. it's a great trade agreement currently under negotiation but stalled between united states and japan over access to japan at the cultural and automobile markets. jessica's down cctv washington. pacific nations will abide by new table protocol aimed at avoiding this calculations and misunderstandings. that's the kind of conduct which was heavily backed by china was approved on tuesday at the western pacific navy symposium in the chinese city of qingdao. condon report some amazing which concludes today the handshake can mean a lot. in this case. it symbolizes the end of each month between navies in the pacific region. china's vice chairman of the central military commission general fund and will custom make we did all the devotees imbibing the fourteenth the western pacific neighbors and cozy and eighteen dollars. this year's host china was cal

but they did searches in the south china sea. they started the search off in the wrong direction. >> completely wrong body of water. >> right from there i think you have a whole different direction where it would have gone, where it would have saved days. and they would have gotten to the south indian ocean a lot faster. >> and david, where does the communication protocol start? >> if they're local, it translates locally. when you say this is the aircraft, and you say good night, and call ahead and talk to the receiving tower and you say there is an airplane heading your way. they then wait for that airplane to come in. if the airplane doesn't show up that is when they start asking questions. and in this case, it was hours and hours and hours after. if there was an airplane not communicating they may have had the wrong frequency, so in this case, they start to raise questions about whether or not other planes can hear them. so it does take a bit of time. so six or seven hours, i can't understand that. >> bizarre, indeed. miles ho

first the south china sea, southern indian ocean 700 miles north, to the southern indian ocean, a few hundred miles east to the australian coastline. what is going on? >> well, they're not dealing with hard facts. they're dealing with supposit n suppositions and they're dealing with very difficult mathematical equations. and they're trying the best they can but they don't have the hard data to zero in on the smaller sized area. they're shooting in the fdark. >> they haven't found any wreckage whatsoever. it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in what's going on. >> no. i think they'll keep moving the search zone around until they maybe find something and have a better chance. but, you know, it just seems like they're throwing darts in the wind right now. >> if they say this is a criminal investigation, as you reported, pamela, why are they not ruling out mechanical failure? how can it either be criminal, someone did this deliberately, an individual, or catastrophic mechanical failure that just happens because of maybe the boeing 777 wasn't working properly? >> i think that's a questi

the u.s. is genuinely committed to countering an increasingly assertive china in the region? will the u.s. protect the philippines in case a territorial dispute with china in the west philippines sea or the southhina sea become an armed china. and how do you think china will react to the enhanced defense cooperation agreement? china has so far refused to participate in arbitration proceedings. and what are you going to do with this that is consistent with your position to have the territorial disputes resolved in arbitration? thank you. >> well, i've been consistent throughout my travels in asia. we welcome china's peaceful rise. we have a constructive relationship with china. there's enormous trade, enormous business that's done between the united -- [ audio difficulty ] a range of issues on the international stage in which cooperation between the u.s. and china are vital. our goal is not to counter china. our goal is not to contain china. our goal to is make sure that international rules and norms are respected. and that includes in the area of maritime disputes. we do not have claims in this area territorially where an asia pacific nation and our primary interest is the peaceful resolution

the american sailor was hard at work on the ship patrolling the south china sea. the crews spied a leaky boat and there were refugees inside hoping to get to america. they sent a launch to bring the ship in to safety. as they went through the choppy seas, one saw the sailor on deck and looked up to him as the sail sailor held out a hand and he yelled, hello american sailor, hello freedom man. imagine that. this boat person, at that moment, he is more than a boat person. he is the spokesperson for freedom. as reagan was at that moment. you have a symbol here that is more profound and deeper than the south china sea. he doesn't look up and say hello military man, or sir, but hello american sailor, hello freedom man. he is the freedom man. reagan, a small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor who wrote it in a letter couldn't get that out of his mind and i could not stop it. that is what it meant to be an american in the '80s: we stood for freedom. freedom has many manifestations and you will hear this freedom mantra but freedom can mean regulations. it is ea

it is almost uncanny that there analogy because the whole fear of china among keeps drawinghina lines on the map saying this is of the south china sea ours, those rocks, japan has them 50 yearsring but they are ours and there is an analogy you can't get away it.m even though the administration has been saying this is not is about our t positive relationships with these other people. says it is not about china, it is about china. the big point the president made in japan -- this is really very -- the unitedeaty states has a security treaty with the japan. these islands and president obama said the treaty covers it even though he said it is just a rock and we don't want anybody to go to war. a he was trying to lean little bit on both sides telling quick.anese don't gwen: there was supposed to be a trade treaty signed. happened? >> that was supposed to be the cornerstone of this and it got bolixed up in traditional u.s.-japanese staredown. obama administration said we made so much progress it was a breakthrough. he japanese were not saying it is a breakthrough. their negotiator said i wish i never took this job. to talk about

accidental or deliberate act someone shot off the planes communication systems as it was flying over the south china sea. malaysian officials are also investigating the possibility of an accident. some experts say if there was a plan or system failure. the pilots may have cut off a communication systems investigators had come up with four possible scenarios the hijacking sabotage an insurance claim or another personal reason and psychological problems among the plane's crew. they are not expected to come up with any answers any time soon even if stagecoach find the plane's voice recorder they believe the jetliner could have kept crying for hours. mother the quarter only keeps the last two hours of comp the conversations and investigators don't believe bill every cue the conversations they're interested in. any missiles inside going to the polls in parliamentary elections that lasted more than a month the elections will be the world's largest with more than eight hundred million eligible voters. the voting begins on monday in the northeast and stated that from and health plan. polling will take place

protect the very valuable assets of people on the plane. >> as the families press for answers -- >> china has deployed two ships to search the south>> investigators are scouring the seas. the problem is, they don't know where to look. first they concentrate towards the malaysia peninsula, but then they expand east towards vietnam. >> and west towards the endeman islands. but there's another problem. >> the way the international investigators have been working together is kind of like a bunch of teenage girls running around a locker room all trying not to show each other what they've got. the. >> the u.s. is there, the uk is there, australia is there. but who is in charge? it has to be managed better than it is in order to get those answers. >> the answers begin to come fast and furious with the discovery of several satellite pings sent from the plane, referred to as hand shakes. >> there is a box on the plane that gets you the satellite. that box was still alive. so it's not unlike your cell phone. if your cell phone is on, even wh when you're not making a call, the cell tower is saying hey, i'm here. >> those hand shakes give the

>> if you knew it was a commercial airline then why did you spend a week looking in the south china seaize though it was a commercial airline, we didn't know it was mh 370. all that will come out in inquiries any way. >> the point is with the black box signal fading, that week may be quite important. >> the air france took two years to find. more than 30 days. so they found the black box after two years. so this battery life will not hold water with me when it comes to looking at it. all these other speculations with regards to scrambling aircraft and military airplanes and trying to portion that to malaysia's capability. i'll leave it for later to answer. right now, i think we have done well to be where we are right now. >> do you think we will ever fully know what happened on board? >> i hope so. i hope so. at the end of the day, if we do not stray from the focus, we'll find out. >> you believe there will be answers in the end? >> i know there will be answers. i know we will find the plane. it's just a matter of when. >> malaysia's acting transport minister talking to jonah fisher. >>

over islands in the south china sea i eye. people in japan are lining up on either side of the political debate over key government priority prime minister she is on at once the country to be able to exercise the right to collective self defense or the ability to defend allies that come under attack nhk surveyed more than one thousand people by phone over the weekend. respondents were aged twenty and older sixty seven percent said they are interested in the debate twenty four percent said they believe in japan and they believe that japan should be able to exercise the right to collective self defense. twenty two percent said they do nots forty five percent said neither japanese leaders have traditionally maintain the country as the right to collective self defense but that the constitution doesn't allow them to exercise that right. prime minister of the ones to change that interpretation. twenty one percent said they agree with his plan thirty percent said they disagree forty four percent said neither in age heroes like bomba

they do not have to go along the south china sea. goingre not necessarily to be serving the rebalance all the time anyway. that is why i say 10 billion a year is upward bound. spending twowere hundred 50 billion a year on the asia-pacific previously. there is no good way to come up with a good number. now maybe it is going to be 260 billion. that is in the context of the overall pie getting smaller. if we could even sustain that modest increase, i do not know. that will be a question for the future. justice of the fire may overall sincere, we can get it back. it is good the president is going to asia this week. it is good has plans to go to asia later in the year. his big trade initiative is in trouble for the asian pacific. theink in terms of diplomatic attention we can get it back. even if we put modest numbers of ground troops in eastern nato asntries in future months might be appropriate under the circumstances with ukraine, it is not going to deprive us of the ability to shift more of the navy in the air force as we are already d

the average philippine citizen. >> reporter: anti-china sentiments run higher here. the philippines are locked in a territorial dispute with china in the south china sea, and the president aquino wants america's help. >> at the end of the day we are not a threat militarily to any country. we don't even have a single aircraft. i think we have legitimate needs. i think no country should begrudge us our rights to be able to defend our concerns. >> our goal is not to counter china. our goal is not to contain china. our goal is to make sure that international rules and norms are respected. we don't even take a specific position on the disputes between nations. >> the deal also means that the u.s. will play a bigger role during any future humanitarian crisis. the u.s.-led emergency efforts durinlast september. many are skeptical as to the extent of u.s. involvement on the grouped. what sort of facilities will the u.s. military be building and what will it mean for the country's sovereignty. obama's visit is significant. being able to return to the united states once again means that the country has entered a new era in its defense relatio relation

. >> reporter: captain tim mcelverey has been everywhere from the south china seas and now thousands miles off the coast. >> this is the distance we've flown for two and a half hours from station and climb out now. >> reporter: this new zealand crew in a p3 orioorion, classif system made for hunting and staring at screens at the sea, flying sometimes just 200 feet above the water. the plane's wing span 100 feet. they spot just about everything. >> that's the nature of the game. we're looking for absolutely anything that could possibly be mh370. >> reporter: in the past they've seen four. for example, what's this, a tangled fishing net or tangle of straps from an airplane cargohold. this crew the first to see an item and successfully direct a ship to pluck it from the ocean >> we detected a small red object we believed to be not more than one meter by one meter. >> reporter: they launched a team, imflatable raft and they had enough fuel to direct them to the object. >> it was a large bred basket, the kind you'd find in a supermarket holding 20 loaves of bread. >> reporter: not from mh

. >> and looking in the south china sea, a completely different body of water. david is it possible that the plane is buried in so much silt after a month, or more than a month under water. and if that is possible would that pose problems for detecting it? >> actually, what i have heard so far is that it would not because of the fact that if it is in the silt, it is probably more flat area so that the sonar coming back would not give false indications of rocks or things like that. it would be a man made thing and the water would stand out more. and plus, the sonar does reach through thin layers of silt, as well. so i don't think it will cause problems, actually. >> david, tim, stick around, we'll come back, and using every shred of data, how are analysts looking at the information as they never have before to pinpoint the exact location of missing flight 370. >>> plus, he is described as a shy, quiet teen, so what on earth drove this sophomore to bring two knives to school and stab two dozen students, seemingly at random. new information on the suspect and we'll

sea and in the south china sea. the territorial disputes with the ageing and causes comes amid signs that the ageing is becoming increasingly aggressive suddenly in terms of its naval maneuvers supper the same time as a very difficult balancing act to carry off while he is a particularly in japan. he needs to reassure to come to the us cents with its ministers territorial disputes with china. he also needs to avoid doing or saying anything. that aggravates tensions between china and the us but the minute we had a lot about the us commitment to hold the asia pacific away from europe in the middle east news will be obama's towns it demonstrates is japanese and south korea on this. it is more than an aspiration but that the us will cause diplomatic economic and even a cause of the ministry engagement at the forefront if necessary. dysentery thank you very much for thinking they're from tokyo. big up on news in britain this tuesday this change at the top at manchester united's owners the glazer family have fired manager

the east china sea clear-cut. very it is the queen japan and china. acknowledges to there is a dispute. in the southea bear are several sovereignty disputes. the philippines is one of them, perhaps because philippines is military only ily week. it is important in the security domain for both the philip means and the rest of southeast asia. >> that is the last leg of his four nation tour. eight days here in asia. thank you for joining us this morning. perhaps some criticism as well. we have some breaking news out of japan. retail sales in march rose from the previous year. expected a 10.8% gain. that was a heat gain. -- that was a big game. figure to important note. these are marked retail figures ahead of the april sales tax showing some weakening of the retail sales ahead. looking ahead to the opening just a few moments from now, the nikkei 225 last closed up. checking the singapore traded ing to a it is point lower open. the yen is strengthening. ukraine/russian tensions continue to increase despite the treaty signed last week. coming up next, i will be joined by the rest of the game by what could

china entered a claim for them. this could go to a shooting war. if you go to the philippines and malaysia, both of those places have islands in the south china sea. the philippines are in a conflict with china and they want the american military support behind them. >> in the philippines. >> south korea has a treaty with the united states to defend it against north korea or to fight on its behalf and the japanese and the south koreaens have a conflict over islands, john. but the point here is, united states has commitments to go to war for south korea and for japan and for the philippines that date back 60 years to the early and mid 1950s. what has happened to america at the end of the cold war, we made a terrible mistake. we failed to review all these security treaties and war commitments as lord solsbury said, one of the great failings in politics is to remain to the carcasses of dead policies. >> to deter china's expansion ambitions, that's one reason and an important reason why he went. do you agree with that and his exposition of that? >> i think the administration views china as a friendly economic rival. i think they do see it as a rising p

increasingly aggressive behavior are the chinese navy, both in the east china sea where it is involved in a territorial dispute with japan, and the south china sea where it is involved in a similar row with the philippines. >> the first lady may have traveled there recently, but barack obama will not be taking a nature to china on this trip. but authorities are -- but the authorities there are said to be monitoring this tour carefully. they have said that the chinese will not be taking much notice of the visit in japan. that is not the case at all. they will be watching closely what he says during his visit, and specifically tomorrow when shinzo abe and obama are expected to issue a joint statement. he has a balancing act to carry off. he needs to reassure japan that the u.s. has got its back, if you like, in his disputes with china. the u.s. hasn't taken sides over the issue, but has said that if those islands were to be invaded by china, for example, the u.s. is duty bound by its security treaty with japan to come to japan date. and he also needs to do something to break the diplomatic deadlock between japan and south korea. they are

on the south china sea, president obama and i both stress earlier the importance of upholding universallyecognized principles of international law including united nations convention on the law of the sea. we agreed that the full implementation of the deck lo declaration on the parties was vital and that it would enhance mutual trust. the president and i have agreed to malaysian\english teaching program. i am happy to note that we have agreed on an agreement for partners of diplomats and i would like to thank you president obama for agreeing malaysian's participation in the visa waiver program. i'm glad the u.s. is now committed to provide technical briefing and information sharing for this purpose. for centuries our people have done business across the pacific. today we continue to do brisk trade. our trade has averaged at least $35 million annually from 2010 to 2013. last year the u.s. has malaysian's lastest source of foreign invest investing $1.9 billion in malaysia and creating over 8,000 jobs. president oe batrade deals are s complex but our countries are committed to resolving the

remember the release of those chinese satellite images early on in the search of that debris in the south china sea. that came out of a government web site from the chinese satellite research center here in beijing. the ministry of foreign affairs said they were not aware of those images. so it caused a lot of confusion and in the end the -- shouldn't have gone out there and it turns out the debris was not debris from the planes. so that may at least give one reason to why, perhaps in this instance, the information was allowed through beijing and through the chinese media. >> well, yes, overall it has been an incredible international effort. and maybe, just maybe, there could be a break through. you've been talking with the families and their agony there and no doubt everyone is waiting to see what is going to come of this. thank you so much. >> you can read more about the day's breaking news that has just occurred here from australia about an hour and a half ago and we'll continue bringing you live reports and more analysis of what we are learning and we also want to point out, too, that china

the american sailor was hard at work on the ship patrolling the south china sea. the crews spied a leaky boat and there were refugees inside hoping to get to america. they sent a launch to bring the ship in to safety. as they went through the choppy seas, one saw the sailor on deck and looked up to him as the sail sailor held out a hand and he yelled, hello american sailor, hello freedom man. imagine that. this boat person, at that moment, he is more than a boat person. he is the spokesperson for freedom. as reagan was at that moment. you have a symbol here that is more profound and deeper than the south china sea. he doesn't look up and say hello military man, or sir, but hello american sailor, hello freedom man. he is the freedom man. reagan, a small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor who wrote it in a letter couldn't get that out of his mind and i could not stop it. that is what it meant to be an american in the '80s: we stood for freedom. freedom has many manifestations and you will hear this freedom mantra but freedom can mean regulations. it is ea

but don't forget, we were a week in the south china sea, then a week and a bit well south of this location on the initial analysis done from the satellite pings. this particular search area, the ocean shield has only actually been in this area for eight days. so the oceanographers that i speak to, the crash investigators that i speak to, suggest that, you know, any wreckage, any floating wreckage would have been -- would have sunk now through this tropical cyclone that came through about 10, 12 days ago. and that's why they're not sort of picking up something instantly, if you like. >> you know, tom fuentes, you're a former assistant director of the fbi. you used to work closely with other international law enforcement types including that malaysia. even if they find these black boxes and they twin to tbegin t determine what was going on inside the cockpit, are we any closer right now to knowing why these plane supposedly wound up where it did, the southern indian ocean over there? >> well, if the voice cockpit recorder is blank and written over, there's nothing new on that, it's still goi

speaking during a visit to tokyo, he said a group of disputed islands in the south china sea are protected under the defense treaty with japan. china is not so happy. >> president obama was welcomed to the imperial palace in tokyo. filled with all of the pomp and ceremony would expect. the most potent ally and friend. astain thinks of itself having a very special relationship with the u.s.. something deeper and stronger. issident obama's visit reaffirming that friendship, but reassuring japan that the special relationship is not weakening in face of a rising china. the prime minister wanted most from president obama is a clear commitment that america will defend all of japan's territory. that includes a tiny group of islands in the east china sea. china says it belongs to it. that our reiterate treaty commands are absolute. article five covers all territories under japan's thenistration including islands. >> he had a message for the prime minister. it is time to tone down the rhetoric. revoking china. >> in our discussions, i emphasized with the prime minister the importance of resolving t

and this isn't counting those up around the malacca strait, those in the south china sea, into europeout early on in the process. right now they're focused on this area right here. this is where the underwater search is going involving the bluefin, which has really uncovered several dozen square miles underwater so far. this is where the surface search is going on with planes and ships out there looking for any debring on the surface. but again, each of the areas we've seen at each step hs been the most promising thing out there. and not one of them has paid off. and now this is the new plan, if that all fails. they will go back along that arc described by the satellite data. they will use the pings as sort of a nexus around which to work here. and then you can open up an area of around 11,000 square miles and start scouring this area to see if that might produce any results. they're calling it plan b, but they may as well call it plan x, y, or z. we've seen a lot of plans. six weeks in, not one thing found yet firmly linked to that plane. >> well, six weeks exactly right now. thanks

the president pushing his trans pacific partnership, opening up markets across east and southeast asia. also, china looming over this visit as it has over the first two legs and japan and south korea principally because malaysia is among those countries that is involved in a territory y'all dispute in the south china sea with no fewer than 6 other nations in that region. on the agenda, although the president isn't likely to bring this up in a very obvious way, the human rights situation in malaysia, the opposition leader there has been jailed twice on what many believe are trumped up charges. international human rights organizations say there is an epidemic of police brutality in that country and sensorship although the president's national security susan rice is expected to meet with opposition leaders. so, the president continuing his journey around east and southeast asia kuala lim poor. back to you. >> not everyone is happy about the president's trip. protests took place outside the em piece in quala limpur some saying he is an enemy of islam and a plan to lower trade and investment restrictions inside the country. the u.s. is allowing malaysia and 11 other countries to

in our journey from the south china sea to the straits of malacca to the sea of andaman down to northern -- up to the northern corridor down to the southern corridor. it's always been a question of narrowing the search. and as more information comes in and details -- and feedback that comes back that needs to be analyzed, verified, and corroborated, i fully agree with prime minister albert when he says that there will come a time that we need to regroup and reconsider, but in any event the search will always continue. it's just a matter of approach. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> all right. we're listening there to malaysia's transport minister, hishamuddin hussein. not a lot coming out of that really, but just getting in front of the media to talk to them. >> it sounds like he's responding to an interview which the australian prime minister tony abbott gave to the "wall street journal" essentially saying that if no debris is found then they will have to regroup and refocus this search in the next week or so, maybe the next couple of weeks. and the transport ministers saying he agr

the news. china is a big problem in the region. they are doubling military spending and they seized islands off the philippines. and they have declared the south a core interest. this is a major trading route. so the president -- this kind of strong rhetoric is very welcomed. >> what about the trade treaty with japan, mary, because that was something also the president wanted to take away, but that looks like it stalled. this is the transpacific talks with 12 specific nations, not including china but very much including japan. >> the transpacific partnership, if established, it will make up about 40% of total world trade. it is very important to japan, which has had an economy in the slump for two decades now. i lay this one square ly becaus everyone has known in the trade community for several years now that none of these countries are going to the table and talking about really serious agricultural products like rice. >> producing their tariffs on imports. >> right. until the president has fast-track negotiating from congress. and the president has not lifted a if i think tore try to get that. and his biggest opponent are in his own party. f