regions. the regional commissioners and staff reported directly to their regional administrators with input from the commissioner, who report in turn to the administrator's office. my primary role as the deputy commissioner is dealing with the office of management and budget, congress, and other federal agencies on critical projects and policy issues. i am not a contracting officer and i do not have a warrant to approve expenditures. i have spent the last 15 years of my career working for gsa and i believe strongly in the agency's mission and the values it provides to other agencies and our country. i am truly sorry for my comments and apologize to this committee, the administration, my fellow gsa employees, and most importantly the american taxpayers. at this point i'm willing to take any questions you may have. >> thank you. let me start, mr. tangherlini. i know there's going to be a number of questions about what you're implementing today and the reassurances you can give to the american pu

that is the regional problem with iran. taliban have a regional approach. have you noticed that the tal ban have gone to iran to conferences, they have meetings in central asia. the taliban has a very, very strong regional strategy i would say. the regional countries themselves, their regional interest is to be at the table because somebody said in one of these conferences a brazilian author's code, if you're not on the table, you're on the menu. there's this kind of feeling might as well as be at heart of conference, because if they're going to discuss something without us, it's going to be against us. this is what iran engages in a lot of these meetings because everybody's surprised. of course, 24e89d come because otherwise they would be on the menu. so for my first plea or kind of argument, is that we have to at least separate the regional problem within afghanistan which is the sub national problem which is the ethnic problem, which is the problem national reconciliation and the regional problem outside of afghanistan which has to do with a region, a la

region nine? and are you, in light of what you see in region nine, are you looking at other parts of the gsa at this time? >> we have continuing investigations into other conferences and other districts. we are looking at at least one other conference in another sdis trikt. district. but region nine say spending was part of the culture in region nine. we do have plenty of evidence regarding region nine. >> are you continuing their investigations into region nine? >> .yes, wre, we are. into many issues in region nine. other conferences. and we are looking at other conferences outside of region nine as well. >> the -- ms. dune, now, your title as chief financial officer of the general services administration. the cfo for region nine apparently did speak up about the excessive spending. did any of his concerns or -- i don't know if it's a he or a she, reach your office? >> no, they did not. >> well, how could you be called the cfo of the gsa. i don't understand what your function is. >> the regional

there is no eastern region, northern region, southern region. they don't as far as i know have these conferences. as you identified -- >> i don't want to just dwell on the conferences. >> i know. >> because if there are people who are cheaters and there are people who are bad actors, they're going to figure out another way to steal. forget the conferences. >> right. >> so my point is, you're telling me there is ten regions plus d.c. i understand there's 12,000 employees. is that correct? >> over 12,000. and i guess willy sutton was asked why do you rob banks? he said, that's where the money is. part of the reason there's a lot of crime and fraud, waste and abuse at gsa is a lot of money flows through gsa. you know, it handles money on behalf of other agencies. it has millions of dollars flowing through it. and it has over 12,000 employees. in any town that you have in the united states of 12,000 or more, you always have a jail. so that you will always have people doing criminal things and dumb things and silly things. and it's no different, unfo

i also -- she mentioned the regional administrator was appointed in region 9. in august of 2011 i personally briefed the regional administrator about this, shared the interim report, and i advised her to get a handle on the regional commissioner's travel. have the financial officer take a look. >> 25 more seconds. i ask you quickly, maybe the chairman will indulge your answer. one of the critiques of gsa, too much autonomy for these ten regional offices. and not enough top down management. i wonder briefly if the two of you would address that. >> in light of this incident i would agree there was and therefore there needed to be more central control of the financial structures. yes. >> i agree as well. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> would the gentleman yield. >> absolutely. >> what's the highest ranking, highest paid person in each of these ten areas, in other words, when we talk about decentralized control, are we -- we're talking about relatively large amounts of people in these regions. what would be the highest paid, for example, mr. neely, what was his pay

in the region. does -- is an issue for the region. because there is quite a lot of lack of clarity about the content of that partnership with afghanistan and because of the less than good releases between u.s. and iran, the question is for at least the central asian countries about how much there's going to be negotiations with iran using the basis that are in other places. so the question about is it going to be the u.s. presence in the region going to be ben nev lant in terms of raining, capacity and equipment and hardware and money which is what everybody wants or is it going to be more aggressive in terms of violations of sovereignty, et cetera, et cetera. this is the question that they're asking themselves. and fourth, who is the actor who can actually create these kinds of conditions for a regional approach? so far it's been the u.s. because it is the u.s. the most efficient, largest actor that has the most at stake in all this. but the question is how muchlet sit could have he it has its own war going on, as well. therefore, th

that is the regional problem. taliban has a regional approach. have you noticed the taliban has gone to iran to conferences? they have -- they have meetings in central asia. the taliban has a very strong regional strategy, actually, i would say. the regional countries themselves, their regional interest is to be at a table because somebody said in one of these conferences the brazilian author, if you are not at the table you are on the menu. there is this feeling that, well, might as well be at the conference, the process is, et cetera, because if they're going to discuss something without us it's going to be against us. this is why iran engages in a lot of these meetings which everybody is surprised. of course they would come, otherwise they would be on the menu. so my first plea or my first kind of argument did -- excuse me -- we have to at least separate the regional problem within afghanistan, which is the subnational problem, which is the ethnic problem, which is the problem of national reconciliation and outside of afghanistan which has to

>> they have regional council in region nine, and regional coup sill was consulted at least once about the possession of the -- >> and who -- what did regional council say? >> i believe that regional council provided an opinion that the regional commissioner requested was not in writing and if you can hold on a minute -- they provided unwritten opinion about bicycles. when the charity -- >> because there was an inquiry about the bicycles, but not about other things? >> well -- >> who was -- >> the regional commissioner asked about the bicycles because of the disposal of federal property. >> yes. did he have the power or authority on the matters, for example, just described by the authority or reported on matters of the time that have just been described? >> can i clarify mrs. norton's point? they asked for legal opinion on the bicycles; correct? >> yes, they did. >> and what was the legal opinion? >> the legal opinion was that if the charity maintained the bicycles, it would not be disposable of federal property. >> was that in writing? >> no, it was not in writing. >> is it normally i

>> they have regional counsel in region nine and regional counsel was consulted at least once about the possession -- >> who? what did regional counsel say? >> i believe that regional counsel provided an opinion that the regional commissioner requested was not in writing, and if you can hold on a minute -- they provided an unwritten opinion about bicycles. when the charity -- >> because there was an inquiry about the base calls but not about other things? well, the regional commissioner asked about the bicycles. >> yes. >> because it would involve disposal of federal property. >> yes. mr. neely is not here. did he have the final authority on the matters, for example, just described by the chairman, or was there someone above him who had some authority and to whom he reported on matters of the kind that have just been described? >> well, at the time -- >> can i clarify mrs. norton's point. point? they asked for legal opinion on the bicycles, correct? >>y, they do. >> and fwhafs legal opinion? >> the legal opinion was if the charity owned the bicycles, it would not be federal property. >>

which region is kansas city in? >> six. >> so it's a different region here. an ig report that dates back to 2010, and i think i quote here, the inspector general includes regional commissioner's office of providing misleading information, damage to gsa's credibility in an audit of health and safety conditions. there's a con sen there, are some of you aware of what's being reported here? it was again last night on wusa about the health risks that are being reported by gsa members and it troubled me deaf deeply, were they squashed like bug, too, when they brought this concern forward? apparently this was a big enough concern for the commissioner there that she spent $234,000 oaf taxpayer money to get a pr firm, i quote, respond to questions regarding toxic substance exposure instead of dealing with that. mr. miller, can you tell me about this? is this out of your rel .of responsibility? how familiar are you with this -- >> i read the report. and we did a report of the federal building in kansas city, missouri, at the request of senator bond and other senators a

>> they have regional council in region 9. and regional council was consulted at least once about the possession of the -- >> and what did regional council say? >> i believe that regional council provided an opinion that the regional commissioner requested was not in writing and if you could hold on a minute. they provide an unwritten opinion about bicycles. when the charity -- >> because there was an inquiry about the bicycles but not about other things. >> the regional commissioner asked about the bicycles because it would involve disposal of federal property. >> yes. mr. neeley is not here. did he have the final authority

reviews of the regional commissioners. so they were not toothless. they weren't just figure heads. they gave performance reviews to the regional commissioners. the regional administrator had to review the commissioners. they signed off on it. they got input, but they signed off. >> so what did they have to do with budget? what did they have to do with function? >> this is the matrix. because they would receive their budgets from their and the shifts that happened was

cooperation in the region. otherwise the central asian countries will at this point to play their bilateral game, bilateral interests, which would be not regional interests and they would concentrate on community issues, et cetera, or insulation. which then in the long run i actually believe that we need to have a lot more regional approach than a bilateral approach because in the long run they will not have their benefits. they will have more competition and more conflict within each other within themselves if we actually promote the bilateral approach as opposed to the multilateral one. but at the same token for the afghanistan and the big region, i do recommend more of a bilateral approach to the big countries where i think that the recommendation to actually have a third party negotiator do bilateral discussions with all the neighbors about the different problems, why there is this confidence building measures that are ongoing and the confidence building measures could be extremely small and mr. siddique ta

>> restrictions by the regions. the regions are made up of the two divisions, the federal acquisition service and the public buildings service. the public building service budgets were allocated out of the central public building service office to the regions and so that portion of the regional budget was managed by the region and reported back into the federal -- the central office of public building service. the federal acquisition service has a different process. they have a different fund that they work from, and their reporting structures are highly centralized and are -- are highly centralized. >> so how do you approve the budgets? >> i approve the budgets -- i met with the commissioners weekly and on a quarterly basis we reviewed their financial performance. in terms of approving their budgets, as we went through the budget cycle every year, thinking about what was -- well, in the public building service, there was going to be a budget request. all of that was related to me and we met and discussed it. on the

in region 9, witnesses told us that it became a running joke with the region nine regional commissioner. even in staff meetings he would say, we're going to have a meeting in another location and we're going to have food, so we have to do what? and his senior staff said to us, give out awards. so, according to witnesses that we have interviewed, it was a running joke in region 9 that in order to get food, you had to give out awards. many of these awards were silly awards. one of our witnesses characterized them as fake awards and jackass awards -- things of that nature. getting back to the western region conference, they gave out awards for theatrical performances. we do not consider that a proper award. the award has to be for contributions to the work of the agency. >> how might they also get around the lodge and per diem? how would you get a 2200 sq. ft. sweet or several 2200 sq. ft. suites at every conference? how would multiple suites be given when it is only $93? >> well, swedes are provided by the hotel, sometimes -- suites are provided by the hotel, sometimes as part of the hote

is a part, which is in the southwestern region, region seven. secondly, the scandal is distracting from the urgent gsa pending project in new mexico, the columbus land port of entry. columbus, new mexico, is a border town, across from palomas, mexico. gsa had a $60 million new land port of entry facility in its 2012 budget. in december, this committee approved a resolution, authorizing construction. this facility is extremely important to security, u.s./mexico trade and economic development in southwest new mexico. i was in columbus last week and heard about the importance of this project. we need to root out the waste and abuse at gsa and get back to the work that taxpayers want us to do, like economic development and border security. so, mr. miller, you've talked a lot about the reports your office did regarding this wasteful conference in 2010. i would like to hear some more about your other works on wasteful spending so that we can put this current controversy into context and into perspective. here are a number of figures from your most rec

we talk about regional solution, but what is the regional problem? i'm not sure if there's a regional problem for a lot of these countries. iran's problem in afghanistan is that the united states has a presence in afghanistan. the solution is for the united states to get out and not have, you know, long-term crisis. that for us is not a solution. that is not in u.s. interests but in iranian interests. as long as afghanistan is going to be divided and have a relatively weak central government, i think to a large extent it is at the mercy of its much more powerful neighbors, especially give than a lot of its neighbors are undemocratic countries that are willing to use force to achieve their means. >> thank you. we have a question here. >> thank you. i have a question. you talked about a region solution. if you remember in 1996 era, there were, like, six plus two farm laws, meetings in tajikistan, pakistan. i would think afghans see the regional -- the region country not as a solution but the problem. and also, you discussed the economy, the pashtun eco

the regional administrator had to review the regional commissioners. they signed off on it. they got input from the commissioners, but they signed off. >> so what did they have to do with budget? what did they have to do with function? you know, this is where you understand line authority. >> this is the matrix, yes. this is the matrix because they would receive their budgets from their commissioners, but their performance review would come from their regional administrators who had the ultimate signoff with input from the commissioners. and the shift, as i understand it, the shift that happened was that the contracting authority, the head of contracting authority was moved from the ra to the regional commissioners and that was the change under paul prouty. should i have changed that back? i believe it's something we should have reviewed thoroughly. it had been in place for a couple years. frankly, there were so many other things that we were undertaking. it wasn't at the top of my list. perhaps it should have been. >> look what mr. prouty did. as acting administrator, he ch

commissioner or regional administrator. i think he's working on having control over their i.t. systems as well. but as you said, redundancies, controls, checks and balances. those are all things that can help check excesses, bad judgment, criminal activities of others. and we always rely on people to tell us when they see something wrong. that's why the administrator and i reminded all gsa employees recently to call our office if they see anything on. because we do rely on people telling us about this. and i, too, commend susan brita for bringing this so our attention. >> whould the i.g. have been able to figure out the way things are in place without her coming forward? >> that's a difficult question. we're told by witnesses the culture in region nine was a culture that put down anyone that complained. witnesses said the regional commissioner would put people down and the witnesses -- and he knew how to put people down. one witness said there was somebody who tried to raise an objection and the witness said, quote, he squa

these are the only two regional small start care is in the region. mtc assumes a conservative member, $2.5 billion for additional new and small start projects. page 27, we did very well. the two new priorities are in the second phase of bart to san jose and the transit from the center downtown extension. i will not say much about this. the deputy director with talk about in next agenda item. they also added another ac transit part of the project and another additional funding for van ness brt. in addition, $660 million reserve for other newer small start projects. we have asked that there be somewhere in writing a discussion at the mtc about the timing and process to decide which projects we will be able to compete here we have projects such as the geneva and geary brt that would compete well for these funds. we want to make sure those funds go to top performer projects. the last one -- this is the big strategy. mtc has had in the early investment strategy for the high-speed rail corridor in the bay area. that includes two projects, both of which are

first of all, i put a regional administrator into region 9. supervising immediately mr. neely. he did not have an immediate supervisor in the region and we appointed a regional administrator in june. relieving him of his second job and putting direct supervision in there. we also immediately appointed a new general counsel for the region when that person retired. so that i wanted to be sure we had a good team in the region that i could trust around him. we also did a number of things management controls and conference management i can get into. but it was very important to me not to in any way interfere in a way that would upset the investigation that the inspector general is doing. you have to understand i did not think it would take nine more months to complete. i thought it looked pretty complete from what i was hearing and i wasn't expecting to wait that much longer. so that those were the circumstances under which -- >> thank you. my staff has asked me to make sure one thing is clear. earlier you said under oath that you ordered the investigation, then late every you said

jones knows that economic conditions vary greatly om region region in mexico.e suspects that some places drive ou- or "push"-- manyore migrants to the u.s. than others. his investigation begins ly90s aris hom inanoniotes. jones believes many secrets are stored in i.n.s. files like tse. can ey reveal where most migrants come om? can the answers help both countries keep more ople at home? cjones sampless every tenth record, writing down the area of origin within mexico. back in his office at the university of texas, he enters the values into a map of mexico. jones marks in blue the wnships that sd an above-arage number of migrantso e u.s. jonea pattern emerges that reveals much about thchanng econoce numbed social condition.s. of mexico's diverse geograic regions. on the west coast, townships marked in blue migrantnoh. swe boegnsare economicly dic a strong pum iyorousmagriculre amir source. nes: ected find reti w anrom e sout and we did, because this is an area of close-kni indigenous communies, and economic and social barriers fothose people make it difficult fo

is a part, which is in the southwest region, region seven. secondly, the scandal is distracting from the urgent gsa pending project in new mexico, the columbus land port of entry. columbus, new mexico, is a border town, across from palomas, mexico. gsa included a $60 million new land port of entry facility in its 2012 budget. in december, this committee approved a resolution, authorizing construction. this facility is extremely important to security, u.s./mexico trade and economic development in southwest new mexico. i was in columbus last week and heard about the importance of this project. we need to root out the waste and abuse at gsa and get back to the work that taxpayers want us to do, like economic development and border security. so, mr. miller, you've talked a lot about the reports your office did regarding this wasteful conference in 2010. i would like to hear some more about your other works on wasteful spending so that we can put this current controversy into context and into perspective. here are a number of figures from your mos

the any peace instead pretty the region. i think. where we were comfortable let's talk about syria what's india's position towards the situation in syria would you admit any for our foreign intervention intervention say to secure the humanitarian corridor if the coffee and then plan doesn't work well just just about an old bag you know are you talking to. a master of course here in iran i think. the world must. be thankful that. mr kofi annan agreed to be the special envoy and he's looking into bringing about a cease fire and coffee and iran would be a huge a petition that he has and the track record which he has been he has i think we should. try speace to succeed in syria i think. he would be doing good it's obvious to this region as a whole and the world as a whole if he succeeds in bringing a meaningful cease fire immediately and then working out to a lasting solution. bringing in all the stakeholders to discussion and then consultations well what we've been talking about is of course needs but i started this program by saying th

northeast asia is a dynamic region of key strategic importance to the global economy, regional stability and u.s. national security interests. what's more, the coming year will bring a number of regional leadership transitions for north korea, south korea, china, japan and russia. and some may have forgotten the korean war isn't officially over. the peninsula remains divided. its them to one of our strongest allies and weren't of the world's most militaristic states. in fact, although north korean, the north korean regime is willing to starve its own citizens, it maintains the world's fourth largest army. north korea has more than 1 million active duty personnel and thousands of artillery systems, tanks, armored personnel carrier, aircraft and surface combatants. more than 70% of north korea's combat power is positioned within 90 miles of the demilitarized zone. this puts our 280,000 troops and 24 million citizens of seoul, the world's fourth largest city, easily within the erratic regime's lethal reach. last month the united states and north korea announced that the regime would stop ur

military forces to serve as advisers to the regional forces pursuing the lra. the president announced yesterday that the united states will continue this deployment. my colleagues from the department of defense will go into more detail on this work of the advisers. we are coordinating closely with the united nations peacekeeping missions in the region especially to promote civilian protection. we have encouraged the u.n. to scale up its efforts when possible. we are also working very closely with the african union to increase efforts to address the lra. last month the au officially launched the regional cooperation initiative for the elimination of the lra. united together, these is new initiatives is offer real promise. as the chairman kerry wrote earlier this month, the lra operates in very small groups across krs vast territories roughly the size of california. and very heavily forested. mr. chairman, effectively ending the threat requires simultaneously removing the top leadership from the battlefield and addressing the conditions that leave the community s

region. the regional commissioners and their staff reported directly to the regional administrators who in turn report to the administrator's office. my primary role as the deputy commissioner is dealing with omb, congress and other federal agencies on critical projects and policy issues. i am not a contracting officer and i do not have a warrant to approve expenditures. i attended two of the receptions cited in the i.g. report, one hosted by the commissioner and i understood that he would be

and that means a regional arms race. the constant threat of armed conflict, and crippling fuel prices here at home due to the instability. the most powerful and influential nation in the world cannot ask smaller, more vulnerable nations to take risks while we stand on the sidelines. we have to lead, because the rewards of effective leadership are so great. forming and leading a coalition with turkey and the arab league nations to assist the opposition by creating a safe haven and equipping the opposition with food, medicine, communication tools and potentially weapons will not only weaken iran, it will ultimately increase our ability to influence the political environment of a post-assad syria. the spread success of political and economic freedom in the middle east is the in our vital interesting and will certainly present challenges as newly enfranchised societies elect leaders whose views and purposes oppose and even offend ours. but in the long term, because governments that rule by the consent of the government must

at the regional level, we are as a region engaging with discussions as to what the future of the region will be, when it will look like, it is at the forefront of that discussion, that the housing and transportation are the two biggest sources of the expense for the family, and he looked at the difference that is being considered at the regional level, those requiring a low- income family spend up to 85% of their income on both housing and transportation. unless we do some thing to address that issue, but-income people -- but low-income people won't be able to live here. we request that the budget and legislative analyst conduct a very comprehensive audit on the city's affordable housing objectives and whether or not those objectives are being met. including oversight, the effectiveness of meeting the housing needs. and the implementation of housing development projects as well as the ability to implement regional housing plans and looking at transit- oriented housing. it makes the case for why we need to pay better attention to this housing crisis and provide some context for the magni

for the bay area, our regional council of governments takes the state allocation for the region and further distributes it among the jurisdictions within the region. the reason this is happening at the state level and trickling down is that there has been raided the state has recognized the availability of housing is important. we cannot leave it up to the state to decide we will not grow. it has to happen for the state to prosper and move forward. our allocation has always been something we have striven to produce. the way the allocation is used at the state level, it is not a mandate we must construct our allocations around. that is the amount your targeted to produce by 2014. the state's interest is that east jurisdiction does not adopt policies or zoning measures that would prevent housing from happening. we need to prove to the state we have done zoning and measurements to allow the market and other forces to allow housing to happen and that we do not burden those as a government. we do not have to go back and illustrate we have produced the numbers. we do our best, particularly on aff

and then to make an amendment to indicate we are talking about regional -- it does not bump up a regional partner. supervisor chiu: when you say regional, you are referring to the nine bay area counties. do you have a sense of what regional means? supervisor chu: i'm open to that, but the region being the employer generally who would live in san francisco. it is possible we have employers, individuals or residents that are being serviced by those way outside of the area. i am open to that definition. supervisor chiu: are you thinking l.a.? i want a good understanding as remove ford. supervisor chu: i do not have an answer. supervisor avalos: i kind of like the nine bay area counties. that makes sense. willing to throw in sacramento. they are a major player in the region as well. that is just off and what i am thinking. i was thinking more regional government. looking at in nine bay area counties, like the abag. supervisor chu: perhaps we can make an amendment -- supervisor chiu: why don't we generally stayed the amendment and american mark and the language. that will be put on the board o

that is possible on the regional trains. there are some rooms in the trains, which is space for the bicycles, even during rush hour. you could say that the voters in copenhagen are very positive about this. last election, it was partly run up by some of the politicians, and one of those was our mayor. the politicians now, they say there is something for everyone. the issues which are the most important to accommodate -- they choose which were the most important to accommodate, and those are pedestrians and cyclists. i think

across the region and the way i see it is this is the prime imperative in saudi arabia's. attitude towards syria they are not seriously interested in a dialogue that will leave that will lead to the little form with the syrian government still in place they want a government destroyed because that secular government has a partial government and because a government wish. to play a dominant role and that is imperative so i know there have been some people who are drawing comparisons between what happened in libya and what could happen in syria and libya of course we had un resolution one thousand seven three create a humanitarian corridor or there are many question at the end of the day what was the purpose and in libya you're talking about a grander scale here you're talking about geo strategic politics at play with some western media networks just creating a smokescreen in kofi annan perhaps being used as a pawn or a puppet well i wouldn't say that kofi annan would see himself in that role but he is a nice just one element in a very large game because there is the there i

then we have a new appointee, ruth cox, regional administrator for region nine. she's advised, get a handle on the regional commission. then in october of last year, and there are a number of other trips. i've looked at all the different trips that he has taken, and we are going to continue to investigate that as a separate issue because you didn't take care of it. but in october, a nine-day trip to hawaii. in november, a five-day trip to atlanta for a nontraining conference. in december ms. brita is alerted to this 17-day junket to the south pacific. she alerts mr. miller. mr. miller alerts you. and yet he's still allowed to go on it and his wife, their birthday trip? you don't see a pattern here? a pattern that you've been aware of for the last year and a half. but you took immediate action. that doesn't sound like immediate action to me. they went on a 17-day trip to hawaii, guam, saipon. and then in march this year, last month, a four-day visit to hawaii again, four-day trip to napa for the executive team meeting. $40,000, excluding travel expenses. and you t

from everywhere in the region. when i say activists, almost every one of them had been arrested. they all had a huge state and belief and commitment in transforming the realities in the region and to changing what was the authoritarian situations they found themselves in. and at one point i asked the question, how soon do you think change could come? and 30 of them, and they were from morocco, tunisia, egypt, yemen, bahrain. meaning they covered the whole breadth of the region. not one of them thought change could come soon. this is six weeks before mohammed azizy sets himself on fire. it's not a criticism of them. they looked at the situation like many of us did anded is as we look at this in the abstract we say this is not a sustainable reality. but when they looked at the reality of changing the government on the means of violence, no hesitancy to use it, a determination to keep themselves in power, a sense that they themselves were not organized in a way that would necessarily produce change, they drew the conc

off iran which is becoming a regional superpower so in this case. syria remains the largest gateway of these land powers to have access to or more to the specially that it's on the shores of the mediterranean if we see the global map we see that these powers have lost all axis through levy or through yemen and through other places these were mortars and all that remains for them is syria that's what that's what we can understand the federation simply the american attack on the syrian regime it's not a little emotional and. professor of the lebanese international university certainly if indeed your right with what you say those are some disturbing angles you bring to the story thank you very much for coming on art's hates it i thank you. but the u.k. and japan have agreed to develop defensive weapons together as britain seeks to boost its military presence in asia part of that cooperation or could see a possible royal navy submarine deployment in the region but u.k. is joining the american buildup in asia pacific a strategy critics say is aimed at ch

many see as mirroring washington's recent drive to boost its military presence in the asia pacific region. also russia and poland remember the victims of the tragic plane crash near smolensk that killed the polish president and most of the country's political elite two years ago. a man who's from thirty years on death row for a crime many believe he did not commit america's most famous prisoner a movie aboud ramon talks exclusively to our t.v. and his first t.v. interview since his sentence was commuted to life behind bars. thanks for joining our team with me karen tara and international envoy on syria kofi annan non says it's too early to bury the u.n. peace plan in the country his comments came amid loud criticism in some western and arab states over the syrian government's commitment to the cease fire agreement archies peter all over has been following the developments. kofi annan said that said there was still time for his six point peace plan to be put in place he said that the the deadline of six am on the twelfth of april was still a viable deadline he appealed to twofold sides bot

it's immediating up with the four agencies, regional -- it's meeting up with the four agencies, regional agencies. now implementing, trying to figure out how we can implement the bay plan that was just approved by vcdc to figure out how we can implement the plan. in addition to that they are looking at climate change and disaster preparedness too. we do have some regional activity that's taking place in addition to that work. >> there is something to be said in bringing together resilience. economic resilience, climate change resilience. it's really all about being resilient. i think if we can put those into one conversation we can be stronger. >> i want to thank all very much for doing a great job as our moderator and for the entire panel, i had the opportunity to work with barbara garcia for 16 years at the health department and heard her very compelling story about the response to loma prieta. so really happy that you were here and each and every one of you were able to provide very unique perspectives that began to give us the whole picture of what a full community response looks lik