govement of aiding syrian president asad. the militants posted a statement online. investors are wonder how high they can take the index. >> they are wondering when a correction might be taking place. the dow has refreshed historical highs for five straight sessions. it's gained for seven straight sessions. it ended the day up a third of a percent higher at 14,447. now stocks in new york have been climbing and last week's jobs data added to optimism that the u.s. is on path to recovery. here in tokyo we've been seeing a run of our own to see how stocks are performing. good morning. the dow extendsing gains. what are we seeing? >> the nikkei continuing higher this morning. that's up for eight trading days in a row. it's been up 790 points so far in march. let's have a look at the opening levels today for the nikkei and the topix. both are gaining. 12,446 for the nikkei and 1,049 where the topix is. bank ofapan officials have been talking up this policy on a daily basis. it was just yesterday as well that another member of the policy board came out with words to that

the league suspended syria's membership two years ago to protest president asad. he said there is a ne mplts the united nations has chosen a swedish scientist to lead its investigation into allegations of chemical weapons use in syria. he is an expert in disarmament and international security. okai selstrom is an expert in disarmament and international security. selstrom has worked as a u.n. inspector before. he helped search for weapons of mass destruction in iraq. the syrian government and opposition forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons. members of assad's administration say opposition forces launched a chemical attack last week near the northern city of aleppo. opposition forces say the assad administration launched two chemical attacks. one in aleppo and another near damascus. they say government forces used chemical weapons in december in the central city of homs. officials from france and britain have asked the u.n. to investigate the allegations. u.n. spokesperson martin nasarke says selstrom will not be conducting a criminal investigati

increasingly clear and europeans are realizing that any embargo they pose on syria does not affect asad. it affects the opposition. >> when the talk about weapons is over tonight then the official agenda will begin and that is talking about money, isn't it? >> yes. the topics, arms. new we heard all of that before. it is a surprisingly general invitation letter that was sent to leaders before they came to brussels. the european union will take stock of the current economic situation and discuss ways to foster growth. and that is surprising the general wording of the invitation if you look at the situation that we are in. we are in the middle of the economic crisis. no decisions are planned. they will sit down and talk about the situation in cyprus but no decision is being made today and a possible decision tomorrow is not clear yet. the finance ministers would have to decide it. and there are very big concerns when it comes to huh gary. huh gary earlier in the week had amendments to the constitution. it is the political situation in member states that will have to be discussed but it is

provide direct aid to the syrian opposition and help push forward the two year push to topple president asad well opposition groups despite not being united are already getting plenty of cash in arms and training from friends in the region especially gulf states like saudi arabia and qatar well not only were the rebels disappointed the u.s. isn't being more hands on so to say they're having a bit of a laugh check out this video that has emerged on facebook fighters on the ground trying to survive on so-called non lethal weapons closer look great models being used. coming up a little later it seems they take a chair to be used as a weapon in defense you can hear actually shelly it's seen in the background another spray bottle they're. there. and if you look closely you can hear them laughing in the background certainly many of the civilians on the ground won't find this funny especially with the international community countries like germany germany finally it seems seeing how serious this crisis is in the fact that. sending more arms or any kind of lethal weapons could worsen an already dire

hopes can lead a coalition to house bashir al asad. >> the simple fact is assad cannot shoot his way out of this. >> reporter: while the rebels have been gaining on damascus, they're still outgunned by the regime's air power, including a devastating attack on aleppo last friday. the opposition leader spoke directly to assad. >> translator: i'm saying here and now, bashar assad, you have to behave for once as a human being. stop killing and massacring these people. >> reporter: the white house still won't provide weapons, fearing they could fall into the hands of more radical elements fighting alongside the rebels. but britain and france are expected to fill the gaps with military equipment. u.s. officials don't deny a "new york times" report that the u.s. is already secretly training small units of rebel fighters at a military base in the region. >> we can't risk letting this country in the heart of the middle east be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hi jacked by the extremists. >> reporter: still, many say the administration needs to do a lot more. >> assad has air sue superior y s

. >> anything that supports president asad is problematic.ry clear to the prime minister that the overflights from iraq are in fact, helping to sustain president assad and his regime. >> the unite is asking iraq to force the planes to land in iraq for inspections but so far only a few planes have been checked. the united nations estimate 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in syria two years ago. >>> in other news of the world tonight, ciphers reached an 11 hour sale. the agreement is designed to -- the move was necessary to allow cypress to qualify for $13 billion in international aid. >>> in mali this weekend, rebels attacked the town of gauge. children dodged bullets to bring supplies to french forces fighting the rebels. this was the third major offensive by islamics since the town was retaken by a french led military operation in late january at least four rebels were killed. >>> and in paris, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against a bill that would allow same- sex couples to marry and adopt children. the bill has

the fact that hezbollah's allies, the asad regime has stockpiled chemical weapons only heightens the urgency. we will continue to cooperate closely to guard against that danger. i've made it clear to alassad and all who follow his orders we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the southeastern people or the transfer of those weapons. the world is watching. e will hold you accountable. the syrian people have the right to be freed from the grips of a dit takor who would rather kill his own people than relinquish power. assad must go so the serious future can begin. because true stability in syria begins upon establishing a government that is responsible to its people. one that protects all communities within its borders while making peace with countries beyond them. these are the things i think about when i think about israel's security. when i consider israel's security i also think about a people who have a living memory of the holocaust. faced with the prospect of a nuclear-armed iranian government that has called for israel's destruction. it's no wonder israelis vi

others are going to be supplying more lethal arms it to the opposition under this rubric of changing asad's calculus. and there's going to be a move to set up a provisional government inside syria in the territory that's been liberated from the regime. and i think that they use chemical weaponsing we'll see if that's true. but if they did, they used it as a test, in my view, to see-- that this means, i think it's true. but we'll see. we need the evidence but if they did it would be to test whether their assumption of military intervention is still correct. >> rose: and what do you think they read, let's assume they did, and it was a test wa, do you think the results are in their mind? >> so far so good from their point of view. the president said last year, use of chemical weapons would be a red line for me. now you said use of chemical weapons would be a game changer for the international community. they would read something different to what i think he meant. he was quite robust in saying they're not going to be allowed. >> the other thing you said is that i think they did. you just said

[applause] when the asad regime began committing atrocities in syria two years ago. immediately began documenting the crime on the internet and reporting them to international media. the government accused her of being a foreign agent and she was forced into hiding and she did not stop working. today even though she has been in hiding for 22 months, she is a leading voice in the syrian revolution working with the local coordinating committees and the syrian human rights information link to expose violations, her web site is the international community's main source of information about the killings and the torture of civilians and security forces within syria, so for bringing light, and the human rights abuses carried out by the regime, for continuing to raise awareness of the crisis among international community and for supporting a free and democratic government for the greater good of the country, regardless of the threats to her own person, she is a woman of courage. [applause] >> elena milashina has built a career investigating drug trafficking, terrorism, disas

bringing very significant pressure to bear on syrian president asad. in part because of the fillation of al qaeda activities in iraq. some things have changed and some haven't. hezbollah is entrenched in the lebanese government. it hasn't changed as much as our focus has diminished. lebanon in a way has been since 2009 intoord nateed to the syrian issue. on syria we have come full circle going from engagement and pressure perhaps even greater pressure on asad than we had in 2008. and he is probably regretting the support for al qaeda and iraq which is coming back to bite him. when it comes to iran, you know, i was reading an article recently in preparation for a different speech about the iran negotiation. it was the president saying how the last offer we made meeting with a relatively response from the iranians. we were feeling optimistic. we to give them time and space while keeping all our option on the table. the article is from 2006, which tells you a little bit how the issue has or hasn't changed. the fact is that this is the issue which feels th

offering an alternative to al asad. bad person. a we want to see him go. by choosing an information technology executive who lives in texas -- it goes on, but it said he is of kurdish decent and with the council, may have seen a plus. syria'ss a choice of group brotherhoo,d, agroup that had been banned. he advocatedo say, for americans on islamic relations. that was slightly concerning particularly since i have had all of these different families of all different denominations of faith all tell me they concern -- they are concerned about what ticks place currently in syria. >> new headquarters. the need for new fbi headquarters has been in the news lately. hasderstand that the gsa received 35 proposals from developers and communities in the metro area. can you bring us up-to-date with the circumstances and then the status of the effort including an estimated timeframe for decisions and the timing of an actual move. >> the reason for the new headquarters is because -- our headquarters on pennsylvania avenue. it isn't -- the most architecturally pleasing bui

conflict began as a rebellion against president asad in march of 2011. those are headlines.s: thank you. canada's minister of natural resources heading south to u.s. to drum up support for the keystone pipeline. rich? >> well, here at this oil refinery in houston, they clean the heavy crude and distill it and it would be the same type of oil and they could have an extension built here from the keystone pipeline so folks here as well as in canada are looking for that approval process that's taking place in washington right now with the state department. the latest on that, an environmental review, a preliminary report from the state department, there's 45 days of a public comment period and then soon, we should be possibly this summer getting the obama administration's call as to whether or not we can go ahead and build the keystone pipeline. the canadian natural resources minister down here in houston today pushing for the financing, pushing for the approval process and also caught up with him so take a listen. >> i think there's a lot of people in business, particularly peo

kerry says the hope is to convince syrian president asad to, quote, change his current calculation.expected to vote on new sanctions against north korea on thursday. according to china's u.n. envoy, both the u.s. and china have reportedly reached agreement to punish north korea following the country's february 12 nuclear test. north korea is vowing to cancel the 1953 cease fire that ended the korean war. venezuelan state tv is reporting that top officials and military officers are meeting as president chavez's health has worsened. he's having trouble breathing and said to be in a delicate state. 58-year-old returned to his country from cuba following cancer and chemotherapy treatments and those are your headlines. now back to dennis. dennis: could a merger of the mortgage bond visit the two giants, fannie mae and freddie mac, end up raising mortgage rates for you? >> it could and do you know what? the word on the street is half a percentage point at least is what the mortgage rates could go up. here's the plan right now. here is what the government at the market was saying about mer

it is providing money to the asad regime.n fact, because the syrian army was very poorly trained and very poorly equipped to undertake the kind of urban warfare that has increasingly come to define the syrian conflict, the iranian government sent a number of its revolutionary guard commanders and siege commanders, its most militant radical forces, into syria to train the militia in how to conduct this warfare. enormouslyying an important role. without iranian support, the assad regime would likely have fallen a long time ago. host: secretary of state kerry met with the iraqi prime minister and talk to them about the use of their airspace. what is happening there in that conflict? what role is iraq playing? a veryiraq is in difficult position. the government, which is led by a shia political party under aliki leakey -- nouri al-m , has been very quiet in its support of the assad regime, but it does so with some considerable risks. iraq's sunni population tends to support the opposition, as does the kurdish population. if the m

yemen would be out of the power and asad challenged together with gadhafi and the cruelest so it was the worst year for bad guys and before jumping into the year which is 2012 and released at all from the closet and becomes a kind of mainstream knowledge. before that most of the people were looking at it and we can see the harvard professor, columbia professor looking at how this works and then of course they were looking at this thing and they knew a little bit about it and for the first time the common people started what is this thing we call people power. one thing we know as we speak and shakes the world. it's everywhere. it used to be all around the united states and its kept them in venezuela and is starting in syria as a non-violent uprising. yemen, bob naim probably 15 years now and the pet for burma up dramatically as we speak. whenever you look at the globe even in my own neighborhood under the pressure of the popular movement, the government resigns and as a new collections are named the system is changing. so one big thing is if there is so much around us how much do we

[applause] when the asad regime began committing atrocities in syria two years ago. immediately began documenting the crime on the internet and reporting them to international media. the government accused her of being a foreign agent and she was forced into hiding and she did not stop working. today even though she has been in hiding for 22 months, she is a leading voice in the syrian revolution working with the local coordinating committees and the syrian human rights information link to expose violations, her web site is the international community's main source of information about the killings and the torture of civilians and security forces within syria, so for bringing light, and the human rights abuses carried out by the regime, for continuing to raise awareness of the crisis among international community and for supporting a free and democratic government for the greater good of the country, regardless of the threats to her own person, she is a woman of courage. [applause] >> elena milashina has built a career investigating drug trafficking, terrorism, disas

iran provides weapons and training to baashar al-asad, to use the weapons to murder his own people. .on't believe it either. let me tell you what happens if iran gets a nuclear weapon. there will most certainly be an arms race in the middle east. because the sunni arab countries won't allow the shia persians to have a nuclear weapon, and less they have the very same capability. and a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region would be like lighting a match and the tinderbox. and here's my biggest fear of all. it's not that iran will put a nuclear weapon on the end of a missile. my biggest fear is that they will give this nuclear technology to a terrorist organization. [applause] and what have we seen from the obama administration? the obama administration is sending the worst signal to the ayatollahs, at a most critical time. we talk, they enrich. they don't take us seriously. and this leading from behind strategy, it isn't working. think about the message that we are sending. in iraq, the president ignores the advice of his commanders, his own commanders, and rushed to the