wild elephants is illegal in thailand, but experts claim the practice is widespread in neighboring burma, and it threatens the last healthy populations of asian elephants that reside there. baby elephants are particularly sought after. >> it's very attractive to tourists or thai people, so everybody wants baby elephants, and they are worth a lot of money. you don't need any documents, no microchip, so it's super easy. you go into the jungle, you catch an elephant, you train them, and a month later you can get like 600,000 baht, and if you can imagine how much money this is in thailand and how easy it is to do... >> teams of hunters surround herds of elephants, killing the parents and other adults who try to defend their young. investigations have revealed that as many as 5 adults may be slain for every calf captured. the defenseless calves are then smuggled across the border. these rarely seen images show elephants being forced to endure a cruel spirit-breaking ritual known as the fashong. these activities take place in remote camps on the burmese border, far from the public eye. >> in t

the very name, burma, refers actually to only one of these groups.ka, a sunscreen from tree bark that masks many of their faces. at first jarring to see, it quickly becomes something you get used to and take for granted. train picks up speed. at times terrifyingly so. >> if this thing is going to be derail at some point. they have lost how many wheels yesterday? on this one train? so truly it's about being in the right car, the one that keeps its wheels. >> derailments or rail splits as they've referred to more is more benign sounding than rolling off into the rice paddies, which are not uncommon. one can't help wondering what the engineer and conductor are thinking as the train speeds heedlessly on faster and faster. >> all right. it must be like 40, 50 miles per hour at this point. >> i wonder if anyone has ever flown out of their seat out the window. you don't want to be holding a lab dog. >> or baby or anything. >> yeah, try -- in the bathroom and find yourself launched straight up into the ceiling, bringing to a rude conclusion what was already

they're still a great deal of work ahead before burma fully transitions to democracy. the challenge of overcoming ethnic tensions and violence in predicting minorities will require persistent vigilance. if progress continues, by the end of president obama second term, we hope to have help firm or reestablish itself as a regional leader and as a thriving if mason, prospering democracy. cent, prospering democracy. the steady work of political reform presses on in nations across the region. united states will support those working to pry open the doors of democracy, even just a little wider from cambodia to fiji. we will continue to help nations strengthen institutions to uphold justice and the rule of law to meet the basic needs of their people. working with the open government partnership in the community of democracy will help protect civil society and supported to work to shape the region development. we will combat the corruption that makes it so difficult for ordinary citizens running for office start a business or even just send their kids to school. in every regio

there is still a great deal of work ahead before burma fully transitions to democracy. the challenge of overcoming the violence and protecting vulnerable minorities will require persistent vigilance, but the progress continues. by the end of president obama second term, we hope to have help burma reestablish itself as a regional leader and as a driving and nascent prospers democracy. not all countries will achieve progress so dramatically but the steady work of lyrical reform presses on in nations across the region. the united states will support those working to pry open the doors of democracy even just a little wider from cambodia to fuji. to uphold justice and the rule of law to meet the basic needs of their peep hole. working with the open government partnership and the community of democracies will help protect civil society and to port its work to shape the region's development. it will combat the corruption that makes it so difficult for ordinary citizens to run for office, start a business or even just send their kids to school. in every region -- in every count

this is a country that is primarily burma, the burmese people. the ethnic people in the ceasefire groups are a minority, looking for concessions from the central government. the central government needs to make concessions as well for it to maintain credibility. aung san suy kyi doesn't have a prominent role to play. she's the lady, her role is, to some extent, marginal when it comes to ceasefire negotiations because she doesn't have the gravitas, if you like, outside of the central burma. it's problematic from that point of view. it is very interesting to think about what is going to happen. the ceasefire we talk about happening is subject to compromise, because the united army and the war and the shan groups are not signing up to it. >> thank you john blaxland. thank you for talking to al jazeera. >> let's have a check on the weather. >>> well we have a stormy weekend for western europe, not as bad as last weekend. bad enough nevertheless. wind and rain piling in from the atlantic. northern stain, 54mm of rain came down in the space of 24 hours

they would care you need the morning after those festivities to faraway burma, myanmar which would lead to much writing. they would take me to thailand for a lovely trip up the river where i could wave happily at the people that smiled back when they were smiled upon. they would take me to gaza and writing about the palestine israel impact. from the west bank to indiana to all kinds of amazing places. like for instance petra in jordan. who knew? i would find myself raising a nation of chickens in between travel and business to all the people in oakland, where baker. might cushion on the fountain of peace because of my attention to some of the deep suffering in the world sometimes seemed far away. i felt torn. the condition i didn't like or recommend. and then in a dream that came to me there was a long asphalt highway like the one that passed by my grandparents place when i lived with them as an eight and nine year old. my grandfather and i said on the porch in the heat and count the cars as they whiz by. he chose red cars and i would choose blue or black. it was a sitting on cushions s

when japan invaded burma in world war ii, elephants were taken off timber duties and turned to rescue missions. in one instance, 110 elephants helped evacuate 67 british women and children from central myanmar to north east india. >> in another remarkable feat, elephants were sent from neighboring assam in india to rescue refugees fleeing the japanese invasion. >> when these mountain rivers rise, elephants are the only way across. it is easy to see how valuable these animals are, in this challenging environment. it has taken us two days to reach this timber camp in the arakan yoma, the arakan mountains to get to this spot, a remote logging camp where six elephants and six oozies live and work here through the monsoon months. out here the oozies live simply, relying on nature. they shower in the open using rainwater, and food is brought in around once a month. temporary huts are built from the surroundings, using rattan, cane and bamboo. life out here can be harsh. malaria is a constant concern. zaw win lost his father when he developed a fever deep in the forest. he was too far from h

the very name burma refers actually to only one of these groups. but they all seem to have in common, however, is tonica, a face paint and sun block made from tree bark that masks many of their faces. it's ubiquitous here. at first jarring to see, it quickly becomes something you get used to and take for granted. the gravitational pull broken, and with darkness falling, the train picks up speed. at times, terrifyingly so. >> this thing is going to derail at some point. they have lost how many wheels yesterday on this one train. so truly, it's about being in the right car. the one that keeps its wheel. >> derailments, or rail slips, as they are referred to here, a somewhat more benign sounding occurrence than say rolling off the tracks into a rice patty, are not uncommon. one can't help wondering what the engineer and conductor are thinking as the train speeds heedlessly on faster and faster. >> i wonder if anyone has flown right out of their seat into the window. you don't want to be, like, holding a lap dog. >> or a baby or anything. >> try pissin

i believe freedom and human rights in burma are incredibly important.they are incredibly important in places like cuba. that has not been our reality. application of the effort and promotion of democracy will be global in nature at the end of the day. choose, weand diminish our capacity and ourtanding in the -- and standing in the world. that me ask you about your many portfolios. the area of war crimes. the undersecretary for civilian security oversees the office of global criminal justice, which was formally the office of war crimes. mym my if -- from perspective, president assad in syria continues to commit war crimes. it is a big part of the president being in the position assad's chemical weapons. it does not undermine the fact that he is indiscriminately killing his own people. how have you been engaged in your preparation with a state department? how is the state department working with it syrian partners in exile to document, verified, and collect data to develop a case against assad. i would like to hear what those observations are. if you have

an historic opening with burma. coalition to remove moammar gadhafi, although her critics claim that was overshadowed by the killing of the american ambassador to libya and three other americans. so whose scorecard looks better? nicklaus burns says they're both successful in different ways. >> he is a deal maker in the best sense of that word. he's thrown himself into the toughest negotiations that the united states can face. she took a longer range view of the job as well, and she did emphasize development and the ties between development and diplomacy and the role of women, which is a very important issue that had not received the attention it deserves. >>> so jill, having watched kerry at work a couple times in the last couple months in geneva, first on the chemical weapons deal and now on iran. it's because he's not running for president and hillary is thinking about running for president. is it all about politics? is that a fair story? >> it's a legitimate issue. there could be, let's say, kerry not really feel

we saw that with burma. it took time for the burmese to though their decision. they wanted to, indeed, engage. i think it's important to keep things in perspective as well. this is very much a first step. it is very focused on the nuclear issue. in the past it was iran who wanted to include all sorts of topics in the agenda of talks and the u.s. said new york city we want to stick to the nuclear agreement. but things have changed. you see what's going on in syria, hezbollah still involved there. you see iran backing president assad. the situation, context for these talks has changed. i made the argument on the bbc website that it's important to widen the conversation because time is of the essence. >> robin, time is of the essence, that's the zarif argument. what if this is all another game, they don't have to give up centrifuges. they are freezing but the plutonium reactor is there that can be fueled and started up at any time. they can break out. that is the concern in saudi arabia. it's a concern in israel. >> of course there's a danger they could break out.

. >> look, i think there were some smaller accomplishments, certainly opening things up in burma, if look at the iran sanctions she worked on as secretary of state, they're now obviously opening up a door to possible negotiations with iran, a new s.t.a.r.t. treaty with russia. there are things at the margins, certainly not a middle east peace deal. anyone who struck a peace deal in the past has seen it fall apart maybe not as secretary but at some point. there isn't a start of a marquee peace deal like the balance kins or anything like a middle east deal for her to hang her hat on and that's something she's going to have to talk about on the campaign trail. >> richard, republicans are saying she was overestimated as a candidate the first time she ran and got knocked off by the new guy and she's being overestimated again. >> can i just pick up on this question? you know, the gang that brought us the war in iraq and america's being, you know, this loath superpower in the world, you know, recovering from that was no small diplomatic feat. you don't have a date in peace accords but clean

. >> i'm reminded of the cyclone that hit burma. for many outlying areas it took an extraordinarily long period of time to reach areas that had been laid to waste. is there any estimate of how long it will take for help to arrive. also trauma on the ground, people looting stores desperate for food and water. can you give us an update on that? >> well, the head of the philippine red cross described the aftermath of the typhoon as absolute bedlam. by that he meant the sheer problem in trying to get access to some of these areas but also the threat to order as well. there has been looting. people are desperate. there's an enormous shortage of water, basic supplies. the fear is unless they can get those supplies in there and get them quickly, they will have a situation where people become desperate and we see more of this. the president of the philippines has hinted that he might have declared a state of emergency. i don't think he wants to do that because he thinks that would aggravate the situation. has he called it a state of calamit

the commission has called, which the secretary of state has asked to designate countries of north , burmairan, korea, saudi arabia, uzbekistan uzbekistan and china. try going a week without buying something made in china. moreover the condition also identified other countries who are on the threshold of such status and these include, iraq, igeria, and vietnam. mr. speaker, there is a large minority community where i live in linchingon, nebraska, made up of persons who come from the country of iraq, who fled that country due to persecution and made their home where i have made my home and they contribute greatly to the well-being of our society. there is one minority faith group there in lincoln, an old religious tradition and one of the elders came to see me because they have traditionally lived very quietly in iraq. they have not created the conditions in which they should be targeted by anyone else, but the community came under great distress and also under persecution and attack and one of the elders of his community said to me, congressman, we protected the christians, now we ask the

in asia there were really limited to burma and china,o those two theaters. interestingly enough, macarthur, commander of the southwestcm pacific theater did not want toh have a part of donovan's forced the effect, banned him from his. theater.ave any use but he would have no use for him. admiral chester nimitz, commander of the northerner pacific forest also did not butv -- take much of donovan.e. his most extensive operations came in france, northern francer and southern france. they mounted -- they had a goodd bit of research into targets inn france and germany, the air force. they also infiltrated and parachuting commandos during that operation. donovan also like to go in on landings, the beach landings. he went in on the landings inn sicily and italy. and it really started to worry is that because they thought acu spy chief corantos is chief with all those secrets in his headigf off, the last place you want hii is at the front where you might be captured in the value will target.y george marshall, the chief ofmah staff of the army thought he ha done been

the relationship has to be in service of our national issues emma whether it is nuclear or burma, or whatever it is. >> i would like to come back to business briefly, this about americans. i completely agree that we need to be more confident perhaps. that can be sometimes disagreeing with americans when we have to. can i dig down into more detail military role our capabilities play in the relationship? we know the special relationship is based on a variety of factors , two nations sharing military capability. to what extent is there concern cut into itss military capability? can you give us any more feelings on that?you listed it as one of the , but can you be more graphic? can you give us any more detail as to the extent about the cuts to our military capability. -- our military capability? statess in the united and one of those involved in protecting the government's thetion when we published strategic defense and security review in october of 2010. remarks, in my opening the administration at that time, although there were some underlying concerns, they were persuaded that we were

now, the nationalists in these countries had often in burma collaborated with the japanese quite understandably because they saw that as their chance to liberate themselves from their european colonial masters. but after the war in europe, these nationalists were depicted as collaborators; collaborators with fascism. so who was sent -- and north africa and algeria. so who was sent there as soldiers to put down the anti-colonial nationalist rebellions with brute and often atrocious force if people -- force? people who'd fought against the resistance against the nazis. my point is that human behavior including the propensity for atrocity and extreme violence is not a matter of character or of culture, it's a matter of circumstances. the same people who can behave like heroes in certain circumstances can behave like animals in others. >> yes. and that ooh finding -- that finding that if someone, if you find yourself -- if you find you have someone cleat -- completely at your mercy, the human thought that comes next is torture. although we should make note in general of stephen pinker's book the be

terms of absolute numbers or per capita numbers and when you get more people in prison per capita than burma i mean you know like you know the north korea we have more people in prison per capita than north korea and they're proud to be a police state we have one hundred one million five hundred seventy thousand inmates we all we have in. country one million high school teachers we got more inmates than high school teachers we only have fifteen million five hundred. five hundred thirty thousand engineers we have eight hundred eight hundred fifteen thousand construction workers it being an inmate was a job right now it would be the number one job in america how can this be right anybody i'm afraid i can't i can't argue for that we do have a problem when i think we do need to rethink how we. can decriminalization. and cetera because what we do is remain your factory in criminals because what happens you know we. look at what's happening in the african-american community looking at how people have you know with tiny just a tiny bit of marijuana on them you know stuck in prison felons and they'r

an opening with burma.ibya's dictator, moammar gadhafi, although his critics claim it was overshadowed by the killing of the ambassador to libya and three other americans. so whose scorecard looks better? former secretary of state nickla nicklaus burn said they're both successful in different ways. >> he's a deal maker. he has thrown himself into the toughest negotiations that the united states can face. she took a longer-range view of the jaw, and she did emphasis development. and the ties between development and diplomacy, and the role of women, which was a very important issue that had not received the attention it deserved. >> diplomats says history deals each secretary their own hand of cards. for example, this iran deal wouldn't have taken place if iranians hadn't elected their own new president. and there's another new factor at play. secretary kerry has no plans to run for president again. hillary clinton could be a candidate in 2016. jim. >> two very high-profile secretaries of state, no question.

course of the month and in the case of the solar plant, we are able to do is marry that technology with burma storage. the heat of the sun and use that to produce electricity when the sun goes down. and this is actually going to be a combination. we can create that and we think of this as solar steam and we can use this with other applications like reducing the carbon intensity of natural gas plants and coal fired plants and using this port as part is part of the world where they need it as well as enhanced oil recovery as we have already demonstrated as i would say the future of clean energy is supported of solar steam and that will complement what happens as well. >> host: a tweet from our viewers. what is the yearly maintenance burden and you talk about expected lifetime. but if your hardware from me to replace and upgrade? >> and we fabricated and we install those 173,000 on average at the rate of over the course of construction we have that. but this is steel and it is standard mirrors that you expect to use. and that includes quitting those facilities. in the number of workers in constr

they would carry me the morning after those festivities to faraway burma myanmar which would lead to much writing about ang san suu kyi. they would take me to thailand for a lovely trip up the river where i could waive happily and that people would smile back when smiled upon. they would take me to gaza and much writing about the palestine israel impasse. to the west bank, to india, to all kinds of amazing places like for instance had tried in jordan. who knew? i would find myself raising a nation of chickens in between travels and visits to holy people to oakland would take her and -- my cushion the fountain that piece because of my attention to some of the deepest suffering in the world. sometimes staying far away. i felt torn. a condition i do not like and i do not recommend. and then in a dream came to me. there was a long asphalt highway , like the one that passed by my grandparents place when i lived with them as an eight and 9-year-old. my grandfather and i sat on the porch and the still of georgia heat and count the cars as they by. he would choose the red cars. i would choos

serving our national interests on the issues in which we're talking about, whatever it is, nuclear or burmamiddle east, whatever it is. >> sir nigel, i'd like to come back just very briefly, the end about the business about -- [inaudible] just before that, sir nigel, i completely agree with you. sometimes went to disagree with the americans women have to. but can i just dig down more detail about the role our military plays and we know the special relationship is based on a friday of factors, intelligence, shared values, et cetera. to what extent is there concern about the uk cutting military capability? can you give us any more feel on that but this is one of those special factors, the bedrock of this situation. can you be more graphic? can you give us more detail about the cuts to our military? >> i think, i was in the united states and one of those involved in projecting the government's position. when we published the strategic review in october 2010. and as i said in my opening remarks, the administration at that time, although there was some underlying concerns a were persuaded that w

they're supposed to be in burma. they were brought here as pets. why anybody would want to have as a pet an animal that gets to be 20 feet long and is carnivorous, i don't know. but a lot of people brought -- and then at some point they ran out of crack. wow, we're living with a giant -- so they lit the python go, and the pythons turn out to really like south florida. they're kind of like the people from new york. they just like it here. they're comfortable here. and they reproduce like crazy. a known fact, pythons use to form of protection. that's one thing they're known for. they have no natural enemies at all. they can eat anything. knock can really kill them. the estimate now is there's in the hundreds of thousand of them in the everglades. so we had -- the state of florida, our state motto in florida, you can't spell it without du of -- duh. had to come up with peninsula. we don't have drone so they came up with the idea, the python challenge, which, again, made national news. basically invited anybody who wanted to, to come down to kill our p

. >> the tasty technology behind it all, the aptly named burma sheen. the founder and chief barista robin sue fisher. >> the gist behind is it used liquid nitrogen because it's super cold. actually negative 321 degrees fahrenheit, and a super cold freezing process has the ability to make a smaller ice crystal. a smaller ice crystal means a really, really smooth product. you can't buy a burr off the shelf. it took five years of engineering and development, sixty-seven e seven engineers and three patents to build these machines. each order takes about 90 seconds to make, and apparently, plenty of customers are smitten with the taste. >> this summer, we served over 20,000 people a month. that's a pretty good number for us. >> thanks so much. have a great day. >> you know, even the video, which we have not seen -- >> i'm zoraida along with john. we're live from new york. brooke baldwin is off today. the city of toronto is holding its first council meeting since mayor rob ford's admission he smoked crack. >> he repeatedly said he would not take a leave of ab

they are not supposed to be here, they're supposed to be in burma. [laughter] whatever that is. and they were brought here as pets and why anyone would want to have one of these widgets to be 20 feet long and is carnivorous, i just don't know. the people brought a lot of them here and at some point, they ran out of crack. and it's like, okay, so they let the pythons go for escape and they turned out to really like south florida and, like the people from new york. it is like to hear it come in their comfortable here. and they reproduce like crazy. they use no form of protection. and they have no natural enemies all. nothing can really kill them and they are now in the hundreds of thousands and so the state of florida, our state motto. you cannot spell it without duh. so they came up with this idea. [laughter] the python challenge. which again made national news for me basically invited anyone to come down from anyone who wanted to come down and kill her pythons. although we did make them pay a 25-dollar fee and that rules out your lightweights. and you have to take a short online