the zeb eckert. shares in qantas. we will stick with aviation. return to profit. paul allen. a long time coming. they are saying they are turnaround but are they really? here in qantas has been turning the corner for a very long time. this is certainly encouraging. a first-time profit of $350 million. if it happens, it would be the best result since december 2010. an impressive turnaround. just a few months ago, we were talking about a four-year loss of $2 billion. mainly due to a write-down of valuation of the fleet. at the time, the ceo described it as an understatement. now he is saying the strategy to transform our business is working and certainly the share prices responded very favorably. news qantas shares are up strongly. although course of the year, up pretty well. a plan to trim $2 billion in cost is quite harsh. you are cutting 5000 jobs and a freeze on salaries and no new ventures. and even stripped out life rafts. raftill understand a life is not something you need. there are fuel savings to have their. joyce, time to deliver. he has been in charge fi

zeb eckert is here with more. all directional. >> and it is given you lived to a market that has been in a downward direction -- giving a gift to a downward direction. we saw this on friday, that is when the london benchmark, coming up the five-year low, the aberdeen market and caused consternation own investors in the european market in the u.s.. top.s what you see on the brent crude traded in london which serves the european market. story is that crude is rising following a disastrous year for the asian market. interesting to see the politics coming to this because opec, we are being qatari energy minister pointing the finger -- we have qatari energy minister pointing the finger at non-oil-producing countries. last month, opec did not change production photos. it is pumping 30 million barrels a day bloomberg has its own analysis -- day. bloomberg has its own analysis showing that there is overproduction. we have oil coming online in the united states from cheryl, -- shale. the sha were these markets and as we se

we have paul eckert for thomas and reuters who spent over 20 years working on korea and japan. on east asia. we have chad o'carroll who is the director and founder of nk news. we have mr. ikang duk, or kang duk lee who is the washington correspondent for the korean broadcasting system, kbs. and we have dr. supko shin who is the washington correspondent for the daily newspaper. we're going to start -- i'm going to ask each of you to, in three or four minutes, just make an opening statement describing what you think are the -- how you perceive these -- what are, for you, the greatest challenges to reporting, to it writing on north korea. so what -- you know, what are the challenges, the pitfalls and the problems then, rourti irepo north korea. j jean? >> well, first, i'd like to commend the university and the wilson center for including this topic in today's forum.today's . i imagine most of us here today either disseminate information about neurologic or get information about north korea. so it's good to step back and look at the coverage. so i'll just make a couple of points to

zeb eckert, thanks for that.g kong's highest profile corruption case, the trial of raymond. and the former chief secretary. the jury is expected to begin deliberations today. we have rosalyn chen outside the high court. what can you tell us about what can we expect? well, this has been a long-running trial, over 100 days. with fill you in on the details. -- let me fill you in on the details. one of the highest openings and government, the chief secretary, is accused of taking bribes from rich businessman. theformer officials two businessman, two brothers were cochairmen of properties, worth $10.5 billion each. that is the biggest property developer in hong kong by revenue. you can see the scale of the company. there are charges that the men face including co-conspiracy to compare to estimate misconduct in public office, related to millions of dollars in unsecured loans and payments and also rent-free housing from kwok. and raymond they testified that they evaded and spent more than they earned, some of it going o

with the exception of the detailed readout of what had been pretreating the commander in chief and eckert area of defense. outcome of those conversations is something that has been discussed extensively by the president himself, by the secretary of defense, and certainly by me on a number of occasions. aboutk there is no doubt secretary hagel's commitment to the job that he has filled a very ably over the last two years. air is no doubting his commitment to serving this country. there is no doubting his strong support for ash carter to be in the secretary of defense. think that certainly is indicative of what continues to be a strong personal relationship between the president of the united states and secretary hagel. of [inaudible] >> i would not anticipate that any ongoing reviews would face a dramatic change as a result of this new leadership in the building. for an update on the process i would refer you to the pentagon. >> you talk about an ongoing review but the pentagon says no order has been -- review has been ordered. >> we can try to get you more details if w you like. i do not