they were so dedicated to kirkuk, helping kirkuk get back on its feet.d a great sense of humor, very talented, very well educated and i was thinking why are you guys in the military? it really, really surprised me. >> and do you feel that, you know, when you were there, were you feeling, this is fascinating, i'm part of history or feeling, this is dangerous and, you know, my god, i have to get back to england to rainy, wet england? >> for me, i was there working so hard day in and day out didn't think, gosh, this is history, just thought, my goodness. you know, what to do each day. how to try to make the situation a bit better. every day it was about breaking even and trying to balance all the different dynamics. i mean, kirkuk we had kurds and there were christians, there was sunni arabs shia arabs and such a rich tapestry of different peoples and different cultures and speaking different and just retaining their cultures. one of the most fascinating places i have ever come across. >> when you left iraq, did you feel, you know, success? did you feel sad

they were so dedicated to kirkuk, helping kirkuk get back on its feet, they had a great sense of humor talented, very well educated. i was thinking, why are you guys in the military? it really, really surprised me. >> and did you feel that, you know, when you were there, were you feeling fascinating on the part of history or were you feeling this was dangerous? my god, i have to get back to england? >> for me, when i was there, i was working so hard day in and day out, i didn't think, gosh, this is history. just thought, my goodness. you know? what to do each day. how to try to make the situation a bit better. every day, it was about breaking even. trying to battle a balance all e different dynamics. in kirkuk, we had kurds, christians, sunni arabs,tia arabs. such a rich tapestry of different people, different cultures, speaking different languages intermarried. that was the most fascinating places i have ever gone. >> when you left iraq, did you feel, you know, success? did you feel sad? what were you thoughts? >> always mixed emotions. because at one level, my time in iraq had been t

is it worth it to have these daily attacks this violence one man that we spoke to in the city of kirkukjust today said yes i'm free to go out of my house today the question is whether i will return alive and i think that says quite a lot about the situation in iraq faces today and yeah i mean when president bush announced that we would invade iraq one of the reasons justification was to liberate the people there but i mean ten years later do you think people there feel any safer i think that unfortunately people don't feel much safer and people feel that they're dealing with a different set of problems they have exchanged this is one comment that i've heard as we have exchanged one yoke of oppression for another one they're not necessarily happy with the direction that the government is taking they're not necessarily happy with the services and the employment situation nearly forty percent of all iraq. of a job a quarter of the families live below the world bank's poverty line these are statistics that aren't much better than what we saw under the crippling u.n. sanctions of the one nin

place you go and while i feel safe here i certainly do we did spend most of the day in the city of kirkuknow this city is a very good sort of microcosm of iraq as a whole there's all different types of sectarian and ethnic populations there that have lived largely in peace for many years but unfortunately they're seeing an uptick in surge in violence as well and where we went i mean it was it did feel quite dangerous not because of the people but because of the growth in the potential of terrorist attacks and in fact some of the forces that we were with who had escorted us for safety had said that there was to expose explosions small explosions in the city of kirkuk which really shows that almost no place that you go in iraq except for a purpose and at the moment is quite safe now can you describe you guys i know you just mentioned you were traveling around some of these air other areas of iraq what the conditions are like there does it still look like a war zone. you know it's interesting having not been to iraq before you think iraq war it must be a terrible situation of conflict and wh

we continue towards the east and kirkuk the former capital of kurdistan today on iraqi territory. so what if that god be praised i'm not scared when the region was under american control i was afraid about it but as soon as the iraqi police and army took over things got much better if the americans didn't know the region they were afraid and trigger happy that they didn't hesitate to fire at anyone who approached them like the passenger foreigner anyone. on this road has seen a lot of drama how many times do the americans shut down iraqis here for no reason gotta go. through the windscreen the first iraqi checkpoint appears it's time to lower the camera and film on discreetly. that. the soldiers here are regularly targeted by armed groups and are also quick to shoot out about the attacks and kidnappings are frequent in the area. and there is no checking our identity an itinerary takes too long hours. for the last who can hit the road again a road that is more than dangerous. to be honest no one took this road before the al qaeda basically all the terrorists control the region and

the security situation which can soon used to be quite on say for them as we were driving through kirkuk one thing that i noticed though was you know daily life does continue despite the levels of violence we saw children out on the streets people out in cafes we actually arrived to cook just as the news of that massive series of car explosions and shootings and bombings came out that took place in baghdad people were aware of that and yet they didn't really let that stop them from carrying out their daily life at the same time what we heard from iraq after rocky is that their daily routine is determined by fear of the security situation they can't necessarily go to certain markets because those might be considered unsafe neighborhoods have become much more fractured whereas at one point iraq used to live together in a more harmony now the sectarian divisions the ethnic divisions the religious divisions are much more prominent people are much more suspicious of their neighbors which is something that didn't used to be the case at least that is what we heard from the iraqis that we spoke

several shi'a mosques were hit in bagdhad and kirkuk. in recent months, sunni militants of al-qaeda increased attacks. chinese state reports that a landslide trapped miners in tibet, over 4 kilometers. the missing miners were working for a state-owned gold company. the u.n. security council called for a force to carry out democratic offenses in z-- they voted in favor of the congolese brigade. nelson mandela spends his second full day in hospital for a recurring lung infections. south africans follow it with baited breath. jacob zuma says mr. mandela is in good spirits and is making progress. our report from johanessburg. >> no sense of alarm here. but nelson mandela's health is on many minds in south africa. the man seen as the father of the nation will send the weekend in hospital. >> i hope god will give him strength and courage to be an icon for the country. >> the 94 year old liberation hero was taken to hospital wednesday night with another lung infection, but the latest news is encouraging. >> former president mandela is in good s

. >> at least three people were lled and 47 injured in a kirkuk explosion. the president of cyprus says they will not be leaving the currency. nicholas says the situation is now contained afternoon a tough bailout deal with the e.u. banks have resumed normal -- ng hours but restrixes restrictions are proving. more. >> here people are still worried. they are somewhat reassured by yesterday's reopening of the banks but it at least gives the impression that all is not lost. but there are analytical voices from around the world saying the erm, the outlook for financial substitution today said there's a real possibility cyprus leaving the euro and medium term because island enjoys none of the benefits but all the costs in order to bring back and boost development here. and the general view is between the european commission and institutions like the i.a.f., but there's going to be a massive recession over here. as much as 20% over the past two years, so you get how ifficult the in the democratic republic of congo. and to protect civilians. it's the first time the

in kirkuk to baghdad. dozens were injured when the bomb went off during friday prayers. sectarian violence killed 106 people during the 10th anniversary of the u.s. invasion. doctors say the former south african president nelson mandela is making steady progress in hospital. treating him for a recurring ung infection. >> he's responding very well to treatment. we thank the media for giving us space and respecting the privacy of the family. we're very, very grateful to you . >> we have more now from victoria. >> nelson mandela is spending his third night in hospital. the office of the presidency issued a statement saying he's responding well to treatment. he's in good spirits and he ate a full breakfast, which obviously is a good sign when get your appetite back. south african president jacob zuma called on the nation not to panic. in fact he's not panicking. he's gone up to celebrate the easter weekend. look, he's old. he's 94 years old. he's been to hospital three times this year. he suffers from a very bad lung infection, picked up from his 18 years in robin island wor

is it worth it to have these daily attacks this violence one man that we spoke to in the city of kirkuk just today said yes i'm free to go out of my house today the question is whether i will return alive and i think that says quite a lot about the situation in iraq faces today nearly forty percent of all iraq the adults at the moment don't have a job a quarter of the families live below the world bank's poverty line these statistics that aren't much better than what we saw under the crippling u.n. sanctions of the one nine hundred ninety s. for iraq the future really remains uncertain at the moment well motos military campaign in iraq was supposed to overthrow the regime of saddam hussein the world from his alleged weapons of mass destruction saddam was toppled below w m d's were never found. whether the means could justify the end in the iraqi war. what for the thinking then and what do they think now those are the questions that many people want to ask those in power who made the decision to invade iraq ten years ago r.t. did just that pose in several uncomfortable questions to those

to profits from the oil that's been found in this region but less than an hour away in the city of kirkuk where we went a completely different picture checkpoint after checkpoint blast wall surrounding the city it was quite dangerous for us to move around without a military escort and most of the residents complained of potentials of security attacks almost at any moment so this is something that's really been reflected across the country and it's quite symbolic of course that on the anniversary of the ten year invasion iraq close that painful chapter much the same way that it began with bombs across baghdad but as for whether the people feel better off or not it really depends on fortunately on their experience their. ethnic affiliations their religion and what they've suffered during the past ten years. the situation in the country is better than we do have a problem that is violence there are lots of explosions everything is. the way things are today. groups are fracturing this democracy. we would feel free to go out and return safely. but there's no guarantee that i'll come home so as

struck a rock show worshippers were targeted by the suicide car bombings of mosques in baghdad and kirkuk attacks government political strife in the country with the embattled prime minister struggling with peter's opponents several politicians have also been targeted by al-qaeda linked terrorist cells security fears of force the government disposed local elections in two provinces former m i five agent told us in the week that iraq's unable to shake off the disastrous legacy of the american occupy occupation. did nothing a massive destabilization of the old structures and no real meaningful new structures put in place so it's not just the politicians who are under threat but for segments of other areas of society to things like proper hospitals schools even just water and sewage from things like that have been decimated and not rebuilt appropriately it's great that people are stepping forward and they want to represent their constituencies but if you can't guarantee that democracy will be democratically elected you can't guarantee that people are not afraid to go and vote you can't guara

at home and wait for this instability to be all right and so you know when we were driving through kirkuk we still saw schoolchildren getting out of their classes whistlestop people on the street but these people operate knowing that this kind of attack could happen at any point and we heard interesting ways of coping for example one man told us that he drives with all of his windows down now in case he is near a suicide attacks that the glass wouldn't necessarily shatter and harness and hurt his family another man who was actually injured in an attack that took happens to place several months ago said that he actually stopped going outside he says that you know we have democracy i can go outside but there's no guarantee that i will come home come back to my family and so in some ways it has been normalized to this violence because they have to cope with it somehow in other ways it really has changed their ways of functioning you know you don't go to for example to big bazaars you try not to gather in large groups i mean it's it's by no means is this life as normal. full deborah swede's d

speak to here say that they feel like they've grown desensitized to the situation we were actually in kirkuk when that blast took place but what we saw despite the fact that actually three more smaller blasts happened in the city when we were there people were still out on the streets we saw school children people in cafes people going about their business despite the fact that they know that a blast can go off any time and at any place. rock of course is a country that sees temperatures up to one hundred thirty degrees when you're looking at the infrastructure now are there basic services like clean running water and electricity throughout the main areas of the city and what about the reuters as well it's pretty bad the power outages here are estimated to be and there's power for about eight hours on average a day but people say it's actually a lot worse maybe two to three hours in some areas there's about two hours of vail ability of potable drinking water many cities have don't even have paved roads the infrastructure is quite bad and in baghdad the biggest thing i mean aside from the fac

into this and three, she was the government's director in kirkuk. was best known for serving as the political adviser for general odierno. instead of asking our panelists to deliver a long opening statements, i will ask them to be ready to tackle three questions at the outset before we launch into what i hope will be a robust discussion. the three questions which i will address our to talk about the state of iraq's domestic politics, iraq's role in the region and iraq's relationship with the united states. let's start off with domestic politics. iraq today is a tinderbox with red-hot embers inside, disputes about political power. it seems the government is crumbling. notfinance minister will leave the anbar province for fear of being arrested. another has been boycotting government meetings in the capital and remaining in the kurdish-controlled north. and ministers have also to foist that they will boycott the government in recent days. i would like the panel to give their assessment of the domestic situation, and let me start with ambassador crocke

four of the attacks were in the capital, baghdad, and one took place in the northern city of kirkuk. they struck as worshippers left friday prayers. the bombings bore the hallmarks of al-qaeda in iraq, but no one claimed responsibility. prosecutors in colorado are refusing to let james holmes plead guilty in the aurora movie theater shootings last summer. holmes made the offer this week, and agreed to accept life in prison to avoid the death penalty. but prosecutors said thursday there's no deal because the defense has refused to hand over key information. holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding up to 70 in the july 20th shootings. president obama pushed plans today to attract private funds for rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure. he said it would help create construction jobs. the president flew to the port of miami, undergoing $2 billion in public and private upgrades. >> we still have all kinds of we still have too many ports that aren't equipped for today's world commerce, we've still got too many rail lines that are too slow and clogged up. we've still