. >> kazakhstan's president is in berlin for talks with the german chancellor.ngela merkel has called for a wider investigation into a police crackdown ordered by his government in december, but despite human rights concerns in the former soviet republic, they have agreed to tighter economic ties. >> the strategic deal worth 3 billion euros was signed in the chancellor's office. the agreement will allow german companies to search for raw materials in the mineral-rich central asian nation. merkel said the cooperation did not only benefit german industry. >> we will not just profit from exploiting important resources. germany will also make its technological expertise and industrial capabilities available to kazakhstan. >> the country is thought to have massive deposits of the highly sought after rare earth elements needed for modern technology products. until now, china has in effect had a monopoly on the market with its huge reserves. >> on the subject of human rights in kazakhstan, the president shrugged off german media criticism. >> the country is on the path

dmitri of the shy program from kazakhstan is the focus of attention his cause is completely unfit to offer aid exploits yet he has travelled four thousand kilometers to join the band of adventurous. unfazed by winds of course i've never dared to go to such a place on my own. but going with a group is a different thing. besides the experience guys took a look at the route beforehand and said we should be able to make you believe. dimitri ran into problems assumes the cars left the highway and the next five hours were very hard however his fellow travelers tell him it's the only way a rally across tiger is a real test but for the driver and for the vehicle. adrenaline is pumping the car is stuck the wheels are spinning and the terrain is getting more and more difficult now the participants will all experience the hardships of traveling off road through the siberian tiger the crews will help each other out if not many of these cars will end up abandoned in the swamps at the by the time the convoy rives it is already late but the drivers for go exhaustion and start repairing their vehicl

so long ago was in the thick of things in egypt during the arab spring; before that, he was in kazakhstannot necessarily the friendliest place in the world; he's been in afghanistan on various missions; and before that, behind the iron curtain in eastern europe, he was dodging kgb agents. not a boring life, and yet he does it in the intellectual pursuit of convincing people about freedom, libertarianism, and free markets. here is tom palmer of the atlas foundation. tom palmer, i'm all in favour of free enterprise, and when i read about you, initially i thought, "well, i'm going to start a travel agency and handle his travel arrangements, and of course i'll make a lot of money". but then i read further, and let me quote for the viewers here so they get a sense of it: "i was up all night uploading video to our colleagues for editing and posting on the internet. then the gunfire and attacks by the army and riot police right outside the hotel made it impossible to sleep." so you lead, really, a very adventurous life, and even though you're an intellectual warrior, you're almost a guerrilla wa

new american military bases may soon be set up in kazakhstan. turkmenistan and tajikistan. about once russia has been encircled by military bases a new geo political reality will emerge we need to take this reality into account already today but take measures to control potential threats to our security. meanwhile the view that the missile defense shield is too expensive is getting increasing currency inside the united states itself it provides financial backing to the armed forces moreover the project is making millions of dollars from nato subcontractors inferiors countries. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine the us has spent fifteen billion dollars and the price paid for the entire program that we are dealing with right now here in two thousand and eleven is another hundred fifty billion dollars that's larger than many country's entire military budgets. some of the funding for the missile defense system in europe is being put to use in poland and north the small village of rijeka is home to a high security installation. the base used to be manned by

the first one is presumably from kazakhstan, and this will make for a tough day on the job. >> look likea factory. >> don't know if this is demolition or lunch time. bob, you might want to back away from that tower on the left because she's coming down. these guys run away. it falls really, really slow. >> good thing, too, because it looks like those guys were not prepared for it. >> maybe it was a demolition and they anticipated it to go a different direction and it came back the other way? >> i think you might be right on that one. let's get your thoughts on this one. >> this video is apparently in russia. you see a bunch of cranes holding this big blue pipe. it looks like they're trying to put that pole in this ditch. >> you'll never believe what happens here. how these cranes are working together. i don't know whose idea this was. they are starting to move this big pipe into the ditch. something goes horribly wrong. these things come down like a bunch of dominos. they got the pipe in the hole but i don't think this is the way they planned. >> every single one of those cranes flipped

during world war ii, the entire chechen nation was deported to siberia and to the northern part of kazakhstan, where somewhere between a third and a half of the people died. therefore, the chechen bitterness is much greater. another thing is the chechens were not permitted to return to their homes, whereas the dagestanis are living in their traditional homes. narrator: so centrifugal forces, pushing the caucasians away from moscow, were stronger among the chechens than among the dagestanis. still, dagestani culture had to go underground. ( speaking native language ) translator: our national traditions were oppressed under socialism, but the people succeeded in keeping their habits and traditions alive. many of these were almost forgotten. narrator: then, as the soviet system was collapsing, they were betrayed again. wixman: because many chechens say that gorbachev promised that if the north caucasians helped russia in the war against georgia in abkhazia, when many chechens fought and died, that they would create a north caucasian republic in the same way that they had been promised with lenin

and i got a call from a reporter about why are you sponsoring, you know, something relating to kazakhstan, and it was actually a great opportunity because we got to educate this reporter about what this department does and how this is an international epidemic and how people around the world look to san francisco for leadership and expertise in fighting hiv/aids and the reporter said to me afterwards, wow, i had no idea how much brilliance is in this department. so this is an exciting department and i want to congratulate everyone. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor wiener, for your ongoing support. i'm next going to introduce our director of public health, barbara garcia. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i am so honored and i'm so proud of the department's staff. i get a lot of travel requests and it's to peru and mozambique and tanzania and at the bottom it says how much it costs and it's usually zero and those are the ones i like to sign but it really does. and i want to just acknowledge the d.p.h. aids office staff, please raise your hands, because you clearly -- [app

grass as hitler's army approached the volga during world war two counted sheep herds were taken to kazakhstan as a result the county kurds had to be restored with a different breed after the war. battle belying is a long time sheep herder and is very familiar with another factor that is causing the desert if occasion of comic. one of the fine fleece merino brie came from grozny. unfortunately greed ended up replacing the cull make three and we ended up with over three million in grozny she. cope with that it's got a very small shop who damage the crown of. bad choices in crop planting intense cattle posturing and unfavorable weather conditions of all brought about an ecological catastrophe these winds that blow over contributed to the disaster they carry solid particles of dust and salt from the drying sea. vast lush pastures have been all that robbed of them. alexander remembers all too well how it started thirty years ago. and the. countering desert invasion was put together. when an emergency state was introduced in the republic almost all farmers schoolchildren and students were involved

new american military bases may soon be set up in kazakhstan go to stun turkmenistan and tajikistan. about i see a boy once russia has been encircled by a military base there is a new geopolitical reality will emerge we need to take this reality into account already today but and take measures to control potential threats to our security is up. meanwhile the view that the missile defense shield is too expensive is getting increasing currency inside the united states itself to provide financial backing to the armed forces moreover the project is making millions of dollars from nato subcontractors in various countries.

while kazakhstan cycling same stand now have announced their lineup for the new season that includes promising young cyclists alongside their seasoned leader alexander vinokourov he's back fit after breaking a leg during last year's tour de france besides this will probably be his last season and he will have to be a lympics. action after the n.b.a. with the boston celtics have beaten the cleveland cavaliers ninety three points to ninety and so restoring a bit of pride against the side which beat them tim days paul pierce the man the main man for boston with twenty eight points he helped them head off a late challenge from cleveland driving him to the basket that gave his side an eleven point lead in the final quarter and they needed it to because antoine jamieson and then kind of vying for cutting the deficit to two minutes a start two points in the dying minutes but boston made sure of the way and thanks to kevin garnett and. gang's biggest bucket the visit is holding at then for a ninety three ninety victory. now the clock ticking down to sunday's super bowl the new england patrio

they're the best and that's why there's such a large contingency of russians and ukrainians and kazakhstan is in search of a world wide in this show specifically the coming home so they're excited so since so the russian circus it's sort of law like the bolshoi ballet i mean it's a brand and some of them some somebody from from the moscow circus cook and you can just walk into a circus whatever the reason that we did we had military all say here i am and then they have the yard and it's not that simple i mean it's not that easy there's a huge database and there's lots of culture lots of competition but in general the russians are superior talent too because of this other because of the sporting background or where they are mature as circus i think it's a combination i think it's a sporting background and i think it's the discipline i think it's their ability to always continue to get better and once like enter sort of so they move from sports to artists and so it's the blend of the two which is being a sportsman and an artist that's what the really really was special really great i'll be f

they welcomed our work with them as in kazakhstan and ukraine and other countries. at this time there is no permissive environment. but we're going to stay very focused on the potential dangers posed by any store house or depot of such weapons. >> thank you very much, madam secretary for your time. mr. smith from new jersey, the chairman of the subcommittee on africa, global health and human rights is recognized. >> thank you very much. welcome, madam secretary. let me associate myself with the remarks of our distinguished chairwoman on cuba. we had a hearing a couple weeks ago with dr. oscar bichet who had a 25 year sentence. he is out of prison but he's not out of prison. he spoke via telephone right here. and the man is unbelievably brave. he is calling for freedom, human rights and we've got to be very hard lined, i believe, but also very prudent. i would hope that the gentle lady made a very important point about not attending and i hope that will be the case. let me ask with you regards to the iranian person. we'll have a resolution on the floor later on today