still even in burma. and we see this is a problem of human trafficking and of course the majority of people trafficed are women and girls. so this shows that there's a lot still to be done for women and girls in burma as in africa and other places in the world. >> rose: look at the arab spring does it resonate you because of the struggle you have made for dignity and democracy and changing the opportunity for people to control their own destiny? >> yes, of course. vements like the ones that are happening in the arab countries means something people all over the world struggling for their own freedom. manyeople remember what happenedn 1982348 burma when our people rose up to ask for democracy. of course our societies are very different but in the end they're all human beings and i think we can all understand each other's hope and fear and aspirations. we would like the arab countries to be as happy and proerous and secure as we would want our country to be. >> rose: i'm going to give you another opportunit

burma has been under military dictatorships since 1962. in 1988, the people rose up to demand democracy nationwide. the military regime brutally crushed the uprising by firing at unarmed students and demonstrators. in 1990, the regime held an election in which the night -- a national league for democracy won a victory defeating the back party. however, the regime never relinquished power. instead, they placed her under house arrest and terrorized her supporters. there are more than 2000 political prisoners in burma and the united states officially recognizes them as their legitimate representative of the burmese people as determined by the election according to the freedom and democracy act of 2003. 16 countries including the united states have so far supported the call for a commission of inquiry on burma. i want to recognize that today. that will be on august 8th, next week. i also want to ask that we adjourn in the memory of the tenderloin activists today, darwin diaz. he died with his best friend and still made of the last 36 years, ho

it is reported -- normal angle on burma and how it is reported.did not go there as journalists to report what is happening. we went to show how people are living day to day. there are all intrigued by our skateboards. we tried our best to explain. such simple experiences really make you realize how fortunate we are in the west. >> one thing that we found really interesting was that a lot of the skateboarders when mat had watched the same videos that we had watched -- we met had watched the same videos that we had watched. it is interesting to know that they know the same things we knew. ♪ i think one of the great things the film highlights is that we as westerners take a lot of things for granted. they just want to have fun and grow up as kids. it was a really fantastic experience. >> that is what i call "cultural diplomacy." it looks like a fascinating documentary, "altered focus." that brings today's show to a close. you can get constant updates on our website. you can also visit our pais page -- facebook page. thank you for watching. we will se

. >> nothing can quite match the excitement when she made her first appearance at her home in burma last november after being released from house arrest. now french director better known for action pictures has captured some of the drama in her life in the film called "the lady" with about ress michelle yeoh portraying her. >> i hope it will raise more awareness. she has always been the hope, the shining light to all of these people who still look up to her and believe that they should have freedom. they should be able to enjoy the basic human rights that we all do. >> she was under house arrest in burma for a total of almost 15 years. the film does cover political developments. they decided to concentrate more on lesser known aspects of her private life. >> i could see there was a window of emotion. i had to basically go and approach close friends and family and try and persuade them to talk and to share the story that i realize hasn't been told before. >> michelle yeoh met her last december and tried to visit burma again in june but was turned away at the airport. she has not yet seen

burma's president orders a halt to a controversial dam project. he says it's contrary to the will of the people. hello and welcome to "bbc world news" with me, david eades. also coming up in this program -- spain works towards building the first-ever old people's home for gay pensioners where occupants can feel free to be themselves. and how do you deliver the mail in a city without a map and without any street names? well, we're out with the postman of kabul to find out. >> thanks for being with us. we're going to start with that news, which has just come to us, that the defense ministry in yemen has told journalists that anwar al-awlaki, an american-born clerwhoik became one of al qaeda's most influential figures, has been killed. this report has not yet been independently confirmed. nonetheless, we obviously are working hard on it, in particular with our security correspondent, who's with me now. gordon, how much can we be sure? >> well, we can't be sure yet. this news appears to have to come in the last half-hour in a message from the yemen de

wants to create a tsunami along the coast realizes that this will affect the earthquake faults from burma to the himalayas. now a days when we see the sequence of earthquakes and see quakes for instance in china sea region we think of these events unconnected. to look under the seas surface down in the depths of the earth's crust there are lines connecting these points. for the people familiar with this military piece of hardware is considered a sort of structure it's a point of reference. there are methods to materially generate to alter weather conditions. these come from important research made in the course of time to improve living conditions. if someone uses the same tools for the purpose to completely parchin area. unimaginable consequences. these scientists affirm that cuba. were caused by haarp. big into university project from a scientific perspective shouldn't have any link to the military for usage of these technologies. studies high and low frequency waves but. the most recent applications concerns the high frequency. it was born as a scientific project but there is a small i

every year we pass these burma sanctions unanimously. no one opposes them. the only reason that anyone mighting holding up this bill today, this burma sanctions bill, is because may friends on the other side of the aisle, the republicans, don't want to allow the senate to vote on disaster assistance. why do we need to do that? how much more specific do i need snob we need to help committees hit hard by acts of god. i would think twice if i were one of my republican friends. i've gone over some of the areas where these tornadoes and these fires and other natural disasters have occurred, and this is our only hope of getting help to these states. the house is indicating they're going to send us a bill, but they're playing around the edges of what repeally needs -- of what really needs to be done. we have a bill that was reported basically out of the senate appropriations committee, democrats and republicans supporting it. what is needed is about $9 billion. we, because we want to be in keeping with the budget deficit-reduction act, because in there we're allowe

. >> in burma, a pro-democracy leader has welcomed the government's decision to halt -- a halt construction of a controversial dam. the chinese backed project, forcing 12,000 people to leave their homes. there has been public opposition to the dam, leaving the president to tell parliament that the project went against the will of the people. you are watching "bbc world news america." understanding your city like never before, and new project is prompting president to stop and take notice. -- residents to stop and take notice. in australia, thousands of passengers faced delay as qantas baggage handlers stage their second strike in just over a week. the airline is facing industrial action from all three of the unions following the announcement of a restructuring. >> of the strikes only last one hour, but the effects are felt for most of the day. >> you have to stop everything. >> of 39 flights delayed and to canceled -- two canceled. >> i do not know where my dog is. -- bag is. >> the baggage handlers are unhappy with their new contracts. their dispute is one of several inside qantas as it lo

there are three types of determinations -- we recently developed a new checklist form required for any burma -- any permit application. that provides us with the documentation we need to make that determination. the next level would be a negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration. then, a full environmental impact report if the project so merits. the california environmental quality act provides the legal framework by which historical resources are identified and given consideration during the planning process. there are two steps in the process. first, a determination whether the property is a historic resources. any building 50 years or older is a potential historic resources and we need to review it as such. second is whether not the proposed changes would cause a substantial adverse impact to that resource. you can imagine quite a bit of the buildings in san francisco are 50 years or older. historic preservation is a strategy for conserving press specific elements to retain a tangible physical connection to the past. article 10 of the planning code addresses landmarks and his

. >> democracy activists in burma protested by gathering in rangoon. almost 60 yellow shirt did protesters staged a peaceful vigil to commemorate the 2006 crackdown on protests by buddhist monks. truckloads of riot police parked nearby, but authorities did not interfere with the protest. a civilian government backed by the military took power earlier this year. tributes have been pouring in for the first african woman to win the nobel peace prize. she passed away in nairobi after a long battle with cancer. she founded a kenyan movement to stop deforestation. she also fought for women's rights and more democracy in africa. >> kenyans call her the mother of the trees. for more than three decades, she worked to protect the environment. her green belt movement planted 40 million trees. early encouragement came from germany. >> [unintelligible] i got very inspired by the way they were working to protect the environment. i eventually connected the environmental rights with human rights. >> in the 1980's and 90's, she was beaten by police and imprisoned for l

had been debating the burma sanctions act, i would also be for burma sanctions. but in this debate on disasters, missouri's played an unfortunate leading role in disasters this year of all kinds. we have had floods along the mississippi river, we have had floods along the missouri river. joplin, missouri, one of the bigger cities in our state, was hit by a tornado. we have evacuated a place in southeast missouri, a floodway called bird's point where for the first time since 1937 the corps of engineers decided that that 130,000 or so acres had to be used as a floodway, all the crops that were planted up and destroyed. i was in that floodway for a couple of different days in august, and i will say the resilience of missouri farmers to get about 80% of that floodway back in soybeans means the economic loss, crop loss opponent be what it was, but the recovery loss is as substantial as is the cost of rebuilding that levee back to the level it was before the corps exercised the long plan that hadn't been used to take it down. tornadoes struck st. louis at the airport a

only political nothing to do at all with finance well as you mentioned obama experts say going to burma who will have to make a very hard maybe an impossible even choice right now what should be his economic priority tackling tackling the sovereign debt or unemployment he should of course tackle unemployment his policy is to increase unemployment his objective is to lower wages by ten to twenty percent because he believes the neo liberal myth he actually believes that a race to the bottom is how to win that if you cut back living standards if you lower wages that will make the economy more competitive well actually it makes the economy less competitive but his loyalty really is with wall street he believes that wall street is necessary to make the industrial economy work when in reality it's just the opposite of the liberal myth americans have been calling the liberal myth all along but it's been alive. the decay. it's why is the why do you still call it a myth the what do you mean by that it. just means you don't have bama believe the liberal a neo liberal media it's been alive because

and i just think it would be good it came along at the time i was couldn't grow as well didn't do burma when the famine was on the very good example when clinton took in forces available this is one of the to do it in the beginning. i mean i think these things are completely random it's difficult to see how you orchestrate a foreign policy based upon these random interventions as for nature and what is it to do with nato and it is an overblown to alliance against the russians it's a it is a i repeat it's like a mercenary force roaming the world looking for things to do completely stuck in afghanistan may yet get stuck in libya can intervention work that the principle works if it works. it sort of as a. punishment and talking books how should they support her house of living and i just a little look at. syria or. yemen or the i mean right libya is not turning your back on oppressive regimes killing civilians. back there in the first place when. i don't understand the argument. turning our back on somalia. i mean are we turning our back on the beach on our back on the congo congo in somal

you wanted to sing but i just think if you came along at the time i was quite rare as well didn't do burma when the family was on and that were very good example for the . total forces available i was in there to do it and everything and i mean i think these things are completely random and it's difficult to to see how you august. a foreign policy based upon these random interventions as for nature and what is it to do with nature when it is know when to alliance against the russians it isn't i repeat it's like a mercenary force roaming the world looking for things to do completely stuck in afghanistan he may yet get stuck in libya can intervention work that principle works if it works and it may be toppled saddam hussein. punished or taliban home would topple gadhafi works how should they something hand house a living thing i just a little we have syria or we've. we've left let yemen why libya is this not turning your back on oppressive regimes killing civilians who are you where you took your back there in the first place when. i don't understand the argument and. turning our back on som

be people noticing and i just think it came along at the time i was going to grow as well didn't do burma when the famine was on the very good example when clinton was a total force is available we should have been there to do it again. i mean i think these things are completely random now it's difficult to see how you orchestra. a foreign policy based upon these random interventions and as for nature and what is it to do in nature and it is an overt lending alliance against the russians it is it i repeat it's like from a mercenary force roaming the world looking for things to do completely stuck in afghanistan he may yet get stuck in libya can intervention work that the principle of it works if it works or it may topple saddam hussein. punish the taliban on top of that i think it works how should this have been handled how some of them think i was a little bit we've left syria or. we've left let yemen alone why libya is this not turning your back on oppressive regimes killing civilians where you were you to was your back there in the first place. i don't understand the argument would. be

i just think it would be it came along at the time i was couldn't realise why they didn't do burma when the famine was on the very good example where you could get into the total forces available. to do it and education. i mean i think these things are completely random now it's difficult to see how you orchestra. wait a foreign policy based upon these random interventions as for nature and what is it to do with native natives that learn to alliance against the russians it's i repeat it's like a false roaming the world looking for things to do completely stuck in afghanistan you may yet get stuck in libya can intervention work that the principle of it works if it works you could topple saddam hussein. punish the taliban and topple gadhafi works how should the subpoena handle how suddenly you think i just a little we've left syria or bahrain we've left let yemen in why libya is not turning over calm oppressive regimes killing civilians where you were you to was your back there in the first place i mean what i don't understand the argument to. be turning our back on somalia. i mean are we

clear the independence in july officials say soldiers attacked several parts of the state capital burma's in including a government residential building about two hundred thousand people have fled their homes the neighboring south called off and region the decades long war for south sudan's independence has claimed thousands of lives. militants have kidnapped around thirty pakistani boys who mistakenly cross the unmarked afghan border making in their tribal border region the incident took place on thursday where the children aged twelve to eighteen had been celebrating the second day of the muslim holiday some of the group managed to escape and ran back to alert local authorities both sides face the challenges securing the disputed two thousand four hundred kilometer stretch of border between the two countries. u.s. federal agencies were parents of a multibillion dollar lawsuit against leading banks to misrepresenting the quality of mortgages soldier in the housing crisis that led to the subprime debt scandal which last home loan giants fannie mae and freddie mac. more than thirty billion

i just think of it if it came along at the time i was couldn't realise why didn't do burma when the famine was on and that was a very good example where you could have. total forces available in there to do it in a cave. i mean i think these things are completely random now it's difficult to see how you orchestra. great a foreign policy based upon these random interventions as the nature of what is it to do with nato native north atlantic alliance against the russians it is i repeat it's like kind of a mercenary force roaming the world looking for things to do completely stuck in afghanistan he may yet get stuck in libya it can intervention work that the principle works if it works. it toppled saddam is a. it punished the taliban it's topple gadhafi it works how should this it being handled how should libya i just a little listen we've left syria earlier with bahrain allied with let's let yemen or than why libya is not turning your back on oppressive regimes killing civilians where are you were you to watch your back there in the first place and why i don't understand the argument with. me