. >> assyrian president bashir assad is expressing confidence he can ride on deadly chaos in his wore torn country. 13,000 people have been killed so far since the widespread fighting between assad ace g's government and riots began. thousands are being killed every week in that country. they are predicting 100,000 more could be killed. 3,000 are killed every day. what about assad and his future and the future of his nation. joining us a former ambassador of the united nations john volt. >> glad to be with you. >> there seems to be a stalemate. what in your view do you think will finally tip this? which way? >> i am not sure it's going to be tipped one way or the other any time soon. assad has been cleared for quite sometime he does not intend to relinquish power voluntarily. and he has reason to think that he can hang on as long as russia and iran continue to finance and supply him. they have been the bedrock of his offenses and the opposition while it made gains has not been able to shatter his regime has not been able to push him out. i think the prospect of this going on as it is

syrian president bashir al assad has rejected international calls to step down. he says he'll continue his fight against rebel forces. he also prosed what he called a new peace plan that the u.s. state department said was detached from reality. >>> in a new interview britain's prince charles discussed the responsibility he feels as his son prince william and his wife kate prepare to make him a grandfather. take a listen. >> i don't want to be confronted by my future grandchildren. so clearly now there's a grandchild it makes it even more obvious, you know, to try and make sure we have them, leave them something that's not a poison chalice. >> prince charles also said he worries every night about his son prince harry who is fighting with british troops in afghanistan. >>> this is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. mountain vesuvius. nasa released this image showing just how close the active volcano is to more than 3 million people in the city of naples close by. in australia a stray kangaroo led officers on a wild chase through an airport parking ga

a senior government official told afp news agency the victims were supporters of president bashir al assadnd had been kidnapped by terrorists. but the human rights activists says militia supporting assad abducted the victims. the united nations and arab league envoy to syria warns the country is breaking up before everybody's eyes. lakhdar brahimi is urging the security council to do something now. >> syrian has been destroyed bit by bit. and in destroying syria, the region is being pushed into a situation that is extremely bad and extremely important for the entire world. >> brahimi wants the council to take concrete action. security council has been divided on this conflict. the united states and other western countries have demanded president assad step down. russia and china have close ties with his administration. their leaders oppose international intervention in syria's domestic affairs. >>> a new survey suggests even people in countries considered to have a free press shouldn't take it for granted. reporters without borders released its annual survey assessing the commitment by gov

president bashir assad gave a rare address from damascus earlier today.anie gosk is joining us from cairo with the latest on that. good evening, your time, stephanie. what exactly did president assad say, and how is that being received in the region? >> alex, it has been rare to see assad in recent months. this is a momentous occasion, but he didn't really say anything all that new. he did propose a new potential political solution, talking about a new government and reconciliation talks and possibly a new constitution. but it seemed the bulk of what he had to say really proved how almost impossible it would be to reach that end given his other points that he made, including the fact that he called all of the opposition fighters terrorists. he said they are made up mostly of al qaeda. he gave little or no mention to the fact that syrians themselves had picked up arms against his country. and he said he would not negotiate until countries in the region have agreed not to find and give them money. the other interesting point he made is that the west is real

officials very critical of bashir al-assad's speech. >> a broken record is exactly what he resemblesright now. in his speech that the u.s. officials and others believe is meaningless dialogue and criticizing the rebels as criminals and terrorists. despite the fact that the u.n. now reports 60,000 syrians have died in the ongoing civil war are there' peers to be no change in -- there appears to be no change in u.s. policy. >> i don't want to get into a numbers game. it is a horrible brutal tragedy what is going on in syria but it is the assad regime that bears fundamental responsibility which speaks to the callous attitude he showed in th speech. he could silence his own guns and change the situation. >> the hope that he could silence his own guns when shows absolutely no inclination to do so. >> shepard: similar reaction from the united nations and in addition the israelis in the middle of a political season but benjamin netanyahu says they are going to put a fence up. >> they are concerned about a potential flood of refugees and flash points on their border saying they are are going

but while calling for bashir al-assad to step down, a war continues. >> overall, president obama's legacy toward the middle-east is one of limited american activism. that is carcaturd by how we handled egypt, libya, syria, iraq. >>. >> there are unanswered questions about the investigation into the 9/11 aparticular on the -- attack on the benghazi complex that killed a u.s. ambassador and three others. we have yet to hear from the survivors. secretary clinton will testify on capitol hill, wednesday. there are not a lot of changes in direction, policywides, perhaps less inclination for american intervention. senator john kerry isine as a shoo-in to replace secretary clinton. the president's pick of chuck hagel sends a similar message -- he's a republican, but his past statements on israel and iran and his opposition to the troop surge in iraq will likely make for a heated confirmation process. if confirmed, hagel will likely lead major budgetary belt tightening at the pentagon. in the second term, many look for one last big push -- immigration reform. >> the second term offers the presiden

president bashir al assad is expected to speak on sunday. >>> and state media reports that the french dep parred due has arrived in russia after announcing he has accepted citizenship there. wow. the movie star recently fled his native france in a high profile protest of french tax hikes on the rich. he is expected to meet with president vladimir putin. i guess that's a perk you get when you change. >>> we've got a disturbing incident on a flight from iceland to new york. it was on a flight yesterday, but nothing like this happened. iceland airline spokesperson says the man started hitting, screaming and spitting at other passengers while yelling profanities. so what happened next? cnn international anchor jonathan mann joins us with this story that i mean we've all been aggravated passengers but this goes to the extreme. >> fellow passengers say this guy got on the plane with his duty-free bottle of liquor and consumed the whole thing. that means we can guess we're talking about 34 ounces of alcohol in a two-hour period. do the math, ten shots an hour for two hours? it's a lot of liq

let's be clear, the responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in syria lies with bashir al-assad and his regime. every day the regime's hold on power weakens, territory slips from its grasp and the opposition becomes more capable and confidence -- confident. the syrians are taking back their dignity and the united states will continue to lead international efforts to assist the syrian people and to provide the kind of humanitarian aid that we have thus far. >> i have a foreign policy question but first i wanted to ask, for the administration's response, the house has now passed the three-month suspension of the u.s. debt ceiling. what's your comments? >> it's the same as it was yesterday. the president believes that we need to, as a country, do the responsible thing and without drama or delay pay our bills. meet our commitments. ideally we would extend a raise -- or raise the debt ceiling for a long period of time so that this is not a question, so that the uncertainty that has surrounded this issue of late because of the political strategy that house republicans have taken will be r