it is a rare opportunity to meet the people who want to overthrow syrian president bashir al assad. >ee people. look at him. 32 years only because -- >> who killed him? who's responsible? >> the government is responsible but bashir al assad is responsible only because we are like you. >> i'm afraid to talk to you right now. why? because i'm going to lift this scarf and i'm going into my home and i'm not 100% sure that i'm going to be safe. because if not today, if not tomorrow, they will arrest me. >> reporter: the defiance possible because two orange arab leagues are here. >> if you are here, you don't -- you will never going to see any protests out. >> reporter: even so, protesters told us they didn't trust the arab league mission. the monitors tell us that this is one of the most dangerous situations for them. people are angry. the crowd is volatile. everyone wants and the most important thing that they can do at this time is be neutral, take down all of the information and show that they are completely impartial. everyone here has something to say. many push forward to show injuri

group to syria may or may not have teeth, but is it is infuriating to the government of president bashir al-assad. domestics said -- damascus says and accusing the arabs of conspiracy for what happens beyond the strong words, can anyone do anything to stop the violence which killed more than 5000 people in the past 10 months? joining me now is the foreign minister of jordan, currently at the carnegie endowment for international peace. these monitors were in syria for months. do you think they achieved anything? >> not much. they were very few in number and could not visit all kinds of places they wanted to. they were under attack right from the beginning from opposition groups who did not feel they went far enough. at any rate, they were not equipped with what they needed in order to make a fair and objective assessment. >> they have come up for a plan for unity, calling for the president to step down. however effective they may or may not have been, the syrian government does not like what they have suggested. >> certainly not. is is a regime that has no interest in performing. the arab league w

the syrian president bashir al-assad is giving a very rare address. this is the first address he has made since late last month when the arab league sent in observers to monitor a peace plan in syria. let's listen in to the syrian president. >> translator: i have been longing for all these meetings and direct meeting with the citizens, but i've always been following events and anything that i have seen. brothers and sisters, i greet you with the arab greetings which we belong. we will always be hard, and i salute you with the -- i salute your resilience for syria will remain the castle of endurance. i salute you now after ten months of events that have affected our beloved country. these events that can be confronted by hard work, with believing in god and trusting our people throughout history. these events have cost us lots, very dearly, and which made my heart cry, but it was imposed on the syrian people and those syrians will seek wisdom in confronting these events. to live out the challenges for our national problems, this is our destiny and this

president bashir al assad's government is under pressure to stop a month-long crackdown on the anti-government rising that began last year. >>> egyptians are voting for the upper house of parliament. today's voting comes after the muslim brotherhood won a majority of seats in egypt's lower house late last year. those are your top stories. "reliable sources" is at the top of the hour. now back to fareed zakaria, "gps." >>> i'm here in davos, and we are joined by neil ferguson, the professor at harvard and author of many, many books, the dean of the lequann youth school of public policy and the director general of al jazeera and is now running a kind of version of davos in qatar. let me start with you, neil. when you look at the global economy, is it fair to say that the american economy's prospects seem relatively speaking better than a lot of the other ones and that one of the reasons -- you get a feeling that president obama is feeling a little bit more confident these days is that there is some good news coming out of america. >> some good news did come out in the last quarter of 2011. thoug

that they would be willing to intervene does show a coalescing of arab world opinion against bashir al assadell, there's no doubt about that. that the arab world has taken some strong measures, really unprecedented. you know, this is the first time the arab league has sent a fact-finding medication of this sort into a country. that is one, two, the sanctioning being imposed on syria including the economic sanctions have really started to take a toll on the syrian government and the people here if financial transactions, limited. imports and exports have affected the unemployment market here. so there's no dough that the arab league that the arab league has been the forefront of this, if you will, action against the arab league, but many people feel that is not sufficient, because it has not slowed down the pace of the killing. now they want the arab league to refer the nation to the security council, and many are afraid that doing so could pave the way for international intervention, like we saw in libya and that is something that angers a lot of arabs all across the arab world. >> aymandama

resolution urging syria's president bashir al assad to step aside. >>> meanwhile, a developing storyn connecticut at this hour. a wild police chase came to a remark only end. a suspect's suv crashed into the bedroom of this house right there, landing on top of a sleeping man. the bmw went through the wall. as you can see, actually trapped man from beneath the vehicle for more than an hour. he suffered burns but is expected to survive. the driver ran from the scene. >>> meanwhile, in florida, the governor launching an investigation as to why the highway patrol reopened interstate 75 on sunday shortly before that massive pileup that killed ten people. newly released 911 calls show drivers in a state of absolute panic. >> okay. >> oh, my gosh. >> what just happened? tell me what happened. >> another accident. another accident. oh, my goodness, that was a truck. >> drivers were blinded by fog and smoke from a nearby brush fire. >>> and this morning, authorities in italy have ended their under water search for 16 people still missing in that capsized cruise ship off the coast. a couple fr

. >> the fall of syrian president bashir ocelot -- bashar al assad is evident. according to the secretary. violence is only growing. the bbc's bridget kendall reports. >> the sound of gunfire echoing through a residential area. maybe not yet civil war in syria, but the battle has reached the outskirts of damascus. government tanks and other heavy weaponry reasserted control over areas that had been in the hands of the opposition, like this street in one suburb. according to this unverified footage, now littered with debris. the contrast with last week when the bbc visited is startling. opposition forces were then manning checkpoints. now, they have apparently pulled back for strategic reasons. meanwhile, the arab league mission had been suspended. they had retreated to a hotel, saying it is too dangerous to continue, and the discussion has shifted to new york, where they are seeking security council support for the peace plan. as the violence get worse, the stakes intensified for the president there. they want to increase pressure on him to step down voluntarily

children among them chanting "god help us, save us from assad," meaning bashir al-assad.t's the president of that country. he is under increasing pressure to step down. from arab league nations, international nations meeting. arwa damon is on the phone with the latest. arwa, all eyes are on this country. these protesters may think they're safer with their message out on the street? >> reporter: you know, from the onset the protesters have been telling us that they fully believe they were the ones that were going to have it because they've always had very little safety in the initiative or in the united nations or international community coming to somehow save them. but all eyes are on syria. also because of this critical resolution that is going to be debated. you have the u.s., european nations, and the arab league, some countries part of the arab league, basically backing this resolution that doesn't call or sanction or any sort of military action, nor does it threaten, but what it does do is push forward the arab league that would keep president bashir event chewly cav

>>> security council began considering a resolution today that would ask the syrian leader bashir al-assadep down and hand power over to his vice president. unlikely at this point for this to go very far given opposition from russia and others. >>> an opposition group says soldiers and security forces killed 135 people yesterday and today. thousands have died in the government's crackdown on the anti-regime protests. arwa damon is in syria for us, and after a dangerous journey just outside the capital of damascus she made a stunning discovery. >> reporter: follow us the armed and masked men say. they are members of the free syrian army. we drive past the opposition's fury flsyrian flag. parts of the capital are no longer in full control of the government. a group of us journalists had banded together to see how far we could get. we heard of a funeral in a neighborhood, few expected the free syrian army to control this much territory around it. we deserted and took our wes with it, this fighter who defected from the army says. we have rocket-propelled grenades and rockets. they say their mi

month-old uprising that's reportedly claimed thousands of lives much the plan calls president bashir al assadmonths. syrian officials say they consider it a violation of its sovereignty and a flagrant interference. >>> egypt's parliament meeting today for the first time since former president mubarak was ousted last year. >>> the jailed founder of the file sharing site megaupload appearing in court in new zealand this morning asking for bail. the u.s. government is trying to extradite company officials on criminal charges. the site was shut down last week. u.s. authorities claims it was part of a $175 copyright infringement scheme. >>> a lot going on this week. the health of the u.s. economy in focus with new reports on housing, growth of the overall economy, corporate earnings, the federal reserve is meeting on interest rates too, all happening this week. check on the markets right now, u.s. stocks are up. the markets gained about 2% last week. >>> on the 39th anniversary much the roe versus wade division, rick santorum wants to make one thing perfectly clear. he's the real anti-abortion can

security council expected to draft as are lugs this week that calls on syrian president bashir al-assad down and transfer power as the arab league suspended its mission in syria after a dramatic increase in violence over the weekend. opposition groups blame government forces for more than 160 deaths. >>> a month after the last troops left iraq u.s. drones are still patrolling the skies over iraq. iraq is angry about it. the state department says it's operating a small fleet of unarmed drones to protect the u.s. embassy and american personnel still there. senior iraqi officials have expressed outrage calling the presence of the aircraft an of front to iraqi sovereignty. >>> florida may be slip ag way to newt gingrich according to new polls but still trying to rally the troops. gingrich and mitt romney have both been on the attack against president barack obama. but the rnc chairman compared the president to the captain of that doomed costa concordia. >> in the end, in a few months this is all going to be ancient history and we're going to talk about our own little captain she tin no whic

defiant syrian president bashir al-assad is blaming western elements for the growing unrest in the countryalls protesters against his regime terrorists but denied that syrian security forces have opened fire on them. >>> the family of robert champion, that florida a&m drum mayor who was hazed to death, his family says they'll share more information about his death at a news conference this morning. they sued the university claiming school officials did nothing to prevent a culture of hazing there. >>> a new concern this morning about a cargo ship that ran aground on a reef off the coast of new zealand last year. the stern of that ship has slipped further under water spewing an additional ten tons of oil right into the water. >>> and three men were rescued from a west virginia cave late last night. they went missing saturday after heading into a 13-mile long cave complex. one of the cavers says they had quite a scare. >> 7:00 rolls around and we're like, hey, there's people, there's people. >> do not underestimate the cave and do not over estimate their abilities. and that's typical college

today to press the security council on a resolution condemning syrian president bashir al-assad and callingim him to step down. clinton says it could destabilize the region more. >>> this as the u.n. says more than 5,000 people killed in syria over the last ten months. security council will hear from the head of the arab league about their monitoring mission in syria. >>> we're hearing for the first time dramatic 911 calls from the scene of that horrific chain reaction pile-up on i-75 in gainesville, florida. ten people were killed after heavy smoke from a brush fire left drivers with zero visibility. listen. >> okay. do you see any fire? do you see anything like that? >> no fire. we can't see. you can hardly even see your hazards. here comes another one. he's coming too fast. here comes another one. yep, see, there he goes. oh [ bleep ] that one is a bad one. i'm hearing people crying. on the other side that is northbound. >> investigators are now trying to figure out if that fire was arson. >>> a pardoned mississippi killer may be coming back to face authorities in mississippi after polic

assad militarily. in libya welcomed sudan's president omar al bashir wanted internationally on genocide charges over the state visits drawn outrage from human rights groups with high profile figures questioning the n.t. sees commitment to the rule of law. about with a summary of those stories when about fifteen minutes from now the mean time we have a special moscow out from italy yes from the italian capital as artie's martin andrews explores the cultural connections between rome and russia. hello and welcome to the program from architecture to music russians have been fascinated with italian culture for centuries and today they come here in the tens of thousands in search of everything from fabulous fashion to the world of italian cuisine so joining a lot of andrews as we explore various locations connected with russia one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world right. is one of the main symbols of the roman empire it stands proud in the city after almost two thousand years actually called fluffy to be fitter it was given the name of a colossal statue of nero that was later destroyed. b

assad militarily. libya welcomed sudan's president omar al bashir wanted internationally on genocide charges over the state visits drawn out.