there has often been tension in afghanistan between sunnis and shias. this kind of violence is fairly unprecedented. another bomb went off in the north of the country, again attacking shia. this appears to have been a coordinated attack across afghanistan. >> let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. european leaders are feeling the heat. timothy geithner has arrived in germany for crisis talks with the german minister there. meanwhile, the ratings aided short -- ratings agency, standard and course, has put all of the european countries on credit watch. the six countries with a aaa rating have a 50% chance for seen their ratings downgraded. what does this mean for the euro zone? and poor's said that they want european leaders to understand the severity of their situation, but others say that this threatens to destabilize the euro zone in an orderly way. >> u.s. treasury secretary, on his way to meet the people that run the u.s. -- european central bank. timothy geithner goes to the most important heads of st

perp or -- people were sunni married shia.ere was no sense of divide in that way at one of the things that worries me about syria is when people say oh we can't have it here. we are so different and no one ever expected to happen in baghdadi there. no one expected it to happen in beirut and no one expected it to happen in sarajevo. it can happen anywhere. this was the sector leadership in iraq who found a system of governance that said this many shia, this many sunni, this many kurds work to their advantage. i don't think there was a broadband support for the lebanon the station of the iraqi political system which is why i say that our use of sectarianism undercuts the push to democracy and brother played into the sort of created warlords out of sectarian leaders. >> okay, please. >> microphone. >> the uphold and i'm talking about, october 2003, less than one in five iraqi's sol religion as having any role to play in governance as i recall back then. today you would get some very different numbers. >> thank you. i am from the

before that he led shia militants against u.s. and iraqi forces. the latest conflict between shia and sunnis started this month after judicial authorities issued an arrest warrant for tareq al hashemi, who was accused of terrorism. baghdad has been hit by a series of bombings in the past week. sunni militants are believed to be behind the attacks. >>> the people in charge of tokyo electric power company say the utility needs more money. they've asked for an additional $8.8 billion from a government-backed fund. the request follows the government's decision to offer compensation to people who voluntarily left their homes because of the crisis at tepco's fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the utility has received $11.5 billion in public money. the government will review tepco's restructuring efforts before deciding on whether to give additional funds. >>> one of the joys of winter is playing in the snow. but in fukushima prefecture this year, worries about radiation are keeping many kids indoors. to remedy that, about 30 children from iwaki city trofle

many protesters from the shia but many do not.ing hamad has told the bbc that he plans to invite personal advisers from all of the political parties, including the opposition. but most remain skeptical. bahrain's government was hoping that report would draw in the violence. but political grievances remain. this bill state is now deeply divided between the shia opposition and those who support the government. >> it was hard enough giving thousands of troops and equipment -- getting thousands of troops and equipment into afghanistan. it may be even tougher to get them out. >> an angle of the u.s. war effort that outsiders do not see. logistics' high in the sky. this is how the u.s. fuels' the fight, literally pumping fuel into fighter jets. this is pretty incredible. these fighter jets get really close at high speeds. at any given moment, day or night, there's always a fuelling plane above afghanistan. once done, we had back. -- we head back. it does not make the headlines, but it is crucial to the fight. not only fuel -- nearly eve

iraqis overall 60% with shia more highly supportive of withdrawal.nd kurds though in the majority still saying that it was positive. what emotions do you feel about? here, the convergence of attitude you have between iraqis and americans that a withdrawal is posix breaks then we see how do you feel about the withdrawal. americans very happy, overall democrats overwhelming happy. republicans almost 60% happy. but iraqis, the plurality worried. worried about the outcome, of what will happen now that american forces are leading. with sunni arabs in the majority being worried about the outcome. why are they worried? asked what their concerns are. almost 60% say they're worried about a civil war, worried the country being split into parts, worried about terrorism, worried about almost every instance, the questions we asked about what are you worried about, coming up in the future, almost 60% say that they are worried. and that goes across the border between sunni, shia and arabs on one side, and kurds on the other. optimism and pessimism about the next fo

hold on, hold on. >> sunni or shia? >> he says we are all muslims. >> reporter: some muslims are sunni, some muslims are shia. >> he said it's not a nice question to ask, we hate that question. >> reporter: i apologize, okay. >> reporter: their clear discomfort may in fact be because of my bad manners in raising a sensitive issue in such an incensesensitive way. but if saddam hussein senior officials were almost all sunni, prime minister maliki has made sure that the ministry of interior -- that's the police -- and the ministry of defense -- that's the military -- that those are both controlled by his fellow shia. and then there's the corruption. i've never seen that piece of equipment before. where does it come from? >> he sects that you know about the device. >> reporter: actually, general atta is dead right. i had heard about it. this little gizmo is supposed to detect explosives. the iraqi government brought roughly $100 million worth. the ade-651, which certainly sound as though it ought to work was produced at $25

he accuses the shia leaders of wanting to monopolize power. today, this warning from the government of the former prime minister. >> we have warned that long ago that terrorism will continue to be acting in iraq against the iraqi people unless the political landscape is corrected and the political process is correct it and becomes an inclusive political process. >> the attacks come just four days since the last american combat troops left iraq, after an assertion by their president of -- that even then sound like a hostage of fortune. >> all of that has led to this moment. iraq is not a perfect place. it has many challenges ahead. but we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, self-reliant iraq. >> the attacks were described as an attempt to be real progress, which called on iraqi politicians to come together. but that would take a will of compromise that has so far been absent. there is not a very real sense of foreboding in. -- there is now a very real sense of foreboding. if and cut u.s. military has admitted the response -- responsibility

is the threat of danger we must be afraid of it and we saw a lot of it in iraq of course the sunni shia thing of that created a near civil war in iraq it's terribly dangerous and one would have thought of course in lebanon also earlier one would have thought that people would say look the last thing we want is another sunni versus shia military civil war going on in one of the major arab countries they should be doing all they can to try and stop it and i'm saying that assad has made many many mistakes he should have not used for so much at the beginning he should have offered more serious dialogue at the beginning his offers were quite flimsy and probably deceptive deliberately and you know he has been very hardline but the other side is now being equally hard line in the situation is becoming polarized what's the worst case scenario should syria completely collapse into civil war well the worst case scenario is massive. snick cleansing with the eye lowered majority from whom the assad family comes from the ruling elite being forced to flee the christians who brought to at least ten pe

i mean and then i missed that point you know this is shouldn't be surprised at all i mean the the shia in the south have totally you know hand over fist had partnered with the iranians and prime minister maliki he and macdowell solder as well as the iranian special operations forces should pat themselves on the back because they hoodwinked would winked the united states and this is this situation and it wasn't obama that did it this was an agreement that the bush administration screwed up again so now i'm not i'm not surprised by this and it's it's it is just a sad sad tragedy and i think it's a thank god that the things over with though we can say that much michael you're sitting here nodding your head that in that jake said that that sort of resonated with you agreeing with everything jake said and all i can do is add more to what he said both his first segment and the one that the just ended look at the the disparity top of the list is is iran's at the very bottom of the list with four percent is the iraqi people the iraqi people are the ones without a doubt that suffered the most u

the return of american forces to iraq experts fear is likely to ignite sectarian tensions between shia and sunni muslims or for this cause there's a lot of people who are and who served as a diplomat for the u.s. foreign service for over twenty three years and many thanks for joining us this evening now the vice president's reaction can be understood can't he has got a lot to lose in this situation but on the other hand there are some who actually think that his accusations do hold water all through the is the prime minister's closest rival and in an anti american sentiment is policy. do you think. absolutely politics in iraq is a full context sport and what we're seeing now is nothing more than the continuation of the tensions between the sunni shia and the kurds that have been in place since the election of march two thousand and ten however what's very significant about this is the timing moloch he waited almost while twenty four hours after the last american soldier left iraq before he released this latest series of attacks and i think it's the timing of this that's most significan

kurds having a largely autonomy as region in the in the north and then a divide between sunni and shia with the minority groups the christians and others being essential be written out of the question the us backed the shia majority in a way that almost guaranteed that the sunni the sunni minority a large minority was going to feel that they were being excluded from political power and that set the stage for this kind of sectarian battle that we've been seeing for so long now. so with the u.s. presence in the region providing a kind of stabilization keeping sunis and shias from going at each other do you think it would make sense for a u.s. presence to continue or return to iraq do you think that would be preferable to a current situation that could lead to possible down the line something like civil war. i think that the worst thing that could happen would be a return to u.s. occupation that's what led to this level of of of sectarian divide in the first place that is the wrong approach i think that what is needed is a full withdrawal of the u.s. troops not only from iraqi territory b

suggesting a sunni insurgent group could be to blame long fractious relations between iraq's senior shia and sunni political leaders are now close to complete meltdown. the prime minister nouri al maliki, a shia, this week accused the country sunni vice president, of organizing bomb attacks against political targets and using his bodyguards in hit squads. >> reporter: the vice president's bodyguards have be politicized. he should face just at this time-- justice, either will refute the case or he will be convicted. we will not bargain in this case. >> the president's bodyguards have a pair-- appeared on state television where they allegedly confessed to a series of assassinations saying their former boss was behind them. >> taric e tariq al hashemi himself, has now fled to the semi-autonomous kurdish region. in his own defiant press conference, he denied all the charges. in turn, he has accused mr. al maliki of being behind the trumped up trial-by-television confessions this crisis erupted >> brown: the latest violence and political infighting adds new sparks to a long debate about what

there are tensions between afghanistan sunni and shias.ut this kind of sectarian violence on this scale is unprecedented. >> which is the first time on such an important religious day that and afghanistan terrorism that horrible is taken place. have patience to the families of those who have lost their dear ones. >> as the injured were treated, the taliban issued a statement, saying they had not carried out the attack. the government says they are lying. these attacks turned this moslem day of mourning into a day of terrible loss, bringing a new kind of suffering into this already fractured country. >> there has been a tense standoff in the russian capital moscow with opposition demonstrators. police have arrested two hundred 50 people during the second day 250 peoples -- to 5 during the second day of protests. >> driving through the crowds of the main shopping street, there is the intimidating right. more than 1000 people are protesting once more against what they say is a fixed election and against the prime minister vladimir putin. "rus

it was iraqi against al sadr, a radical shia. he came into the iraqi government and basically is maliki's partner, the prime minister of iraq. so, when john mccain and general keen talk about this type of rhetoric, i would just ask them, why was i just in iraq? what did we fight for? what did all these americans die for? why do we have 30,000 wounded americans and 4500 dead troops? i thought it was to build iraqi democracy. they are guaranteeing defeat because the only way americans can be defeated in iraq is to stay one day after the iraqis don't want us there. that is, 31 december 2011. an agreement signed by president obama's predecessor, george w. bush. why did we fight for democracy if we don't respect what it wants? >> john, as military expert among us, i want to ask you, strategically, what other option existed at this point in time? >> well, i don't think -- i mean, this is our only option because the iraqi government wants us to leave. when you look at the fragile political agreement we have in iraq, the leading iraqi pa

against the minority shia community. >> thank you for your encouraging words, but the, and condolence for the victims of the terrorist action today in kabul and in was our easter recess, which was the first time on such a religious day in afghanistan back terrorism of such horrible nature is taking place. >> the injured are rest of the hospital and the taliban are suspected. but analysts say this level of brutality against afghans could be a sign they are losing support. >> our correspondent in kabul said that exploded in the capital seemed to be part of a series of coordinated attacks. >> it's a place at a shrine not far from where i am standing. there have been ambulances and security forces. at least 30 bodies at the scene. it seems that they have targeted the ashoura festival. there's been an explosion also in the north of the country in mazar-i-sharif in a mosque. >> this comes as the meeting in the city of bonn in germany is looking at the future of afghanistan. much international focus on the country. >> that's right. president karzai trying to find a roadmap, defined a future

it is observed by shia muslims around the world. day is spent mourning the death of a shia martyr 1,300 years ago. an anxious time for authorities in tehran. protests erupted two years ago. during the festival. >>> hi there. time to get you another update. we head into the middle of the week and eastern asia, we will continue to see wet weather for eastern china here. now, it isn't going to be snow. is going to stay rain, but cooling down from shanghai in towards the south. you'll see those temperatures drop by a few degrees. i'll show you the figures in a second. look at all of this headed up in towards japan. the korean peninsula seeing wintry precipitation and southern and central japan, chilly rain. as we head into the north, maybe about 30 centimeters are snow for parts of western hokkaido. in behind that, things looking dry and settled for much of mongolia as well as china, although very cool to say the least. manila, the philippines, still seeing heavy showers and winds coming in from the northeast and will also see lingering

it's sunni versus shia, arab versus kurd.e various fault lines that are existing are crumbling apart. there are so many points percolating that at any given moment in time could erupt into war along any sort of sectarian or ethnic line. >> bob, building on what arwa is saying, iran has long been talked about as the real power player potentially in iraq. what are your sources telling you in terms of how the iranians are involved in this and the ç relationship with maliki? >> there is a power vacuum there and you'll see three powers being sucked into this conflict if it turns bad, and that would be iran, it would include turkey and saudi arabia. saudi arabia has said it will defend the sunni. i think it will. i think it will send it arms, it will send it money. the iranians can't avoid getting involved. as much as they may want to. they worry about the kurdish north as well. >> bob baer, thank you so much. arwa damon, please stay safe. >>> there's a lot more going on. isha sesay joins us with a news break. >> sanjay, we're get

. >> it was part of a coordinated assault against shias. another bomb exploded, but the one in kabul was much bigger, near the shrine near the presidential palace. people here are angry. there has long been tensions between the sunnis and shias, but this violence is unprecedented. the president was due to leave for a summit in britain, and said he will be returning. >> this is the first time that on such aid important religious stay in afghanistan that terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place. we all wish the best for those injured. >> as the injured were being treated, the taliban issued a statement, saying they had not carried out the attack. the government says they are lying. these attacks turned to this day of mourning into a day of terrible loss, bringing a new kind of suffering to this already fractured country. >> so, what do the attacks mean for afghanistan and its ability to secure itself? why now? there have been sectarian tensions in afghanistan for a long time, but why do we see it emerging now? >> i would say two thin

prime minister malia, shia issued arrest warrant for his vice president who is sunni.using him of backing terror attacks ordering assassinations using sunni hit squads. this is a very dangerous situation, because what malia has done, he has opened up the political space because of his sectarian political maneuvers he is making. in that political space, now moving extremists, al-qaeda sunni extremists decided to take advantage of the situation. next we will see the shia militia doing the same thing. >> yesterday, the iraqi vice president who fled to the kurdish north issued a scathing phone issue to "washington post" about president obama's praise for malia and iraqi democracy. "either there was an unreliable report coming from baghdad to the white house or mr. obama just overlooked all the facts on the ground in iraq." >> virtually, every military person i talked to agreed things would get worse. simply because of the vacuum, simply because of this void that the u.s. military forces used to fill between the iraqi military, and the political powers in iraq. that is gone

with the distribution of the oil wealth, because the sunnis don't have very much of it, the kurds and shia do, but the distribution of political wealth as well. influence, they're not going to have very much of it and they're going to get annoyed and blow stuff up to demonstrate what they're missing. >> for the troops that are sitting there in the crowd as we see from the live pictures in baghdad and the troops at home, the military families who have sacrificed as well, one, two, three, four deployments in some cases, how do you think they feel about this end of mission ceremony today? >> well, you know, it's a very interesting question. i got the same question asked of me when i was in vietnam as one of the last combat troops in vietnam. the president of the united states decided in january 1973 -- i was with the vietnamese airborne division fighting up in the northern part of what was south vietnam -- how do i feel about all this sacrifice, i had been there twice before, been wounded, how do i feel about leaving now? the mission was not complete or only partially complete. my comrades ha

but also because the very nature of it, the fact that it was the shia community who generally rub along quite well with the sunni brother. it was then that they were attacked. they were attacked here in cab and you will a few minutes later, they were attacked in the north of the country. >> sue's here now. let's start with quite an achievement, to be fair, to chelsea. there were doubters rather they'd get through into the champions league knockout stage at all. >> i know, it was a fantastic performance last night. didier was really outstanding, really back to form we were so used to seeing. they won 3-0. they bought their place in the champions league. afterward, they were clearly really irked by the way they've been treated by the press. he prefaced it by saying i'm not picking a fight with you guys, and then pked a fight. have a look at this. >> i think today is a win of human values, solidarity, responsibility, strength of character, ability to take criticism, resilience, and this is a great win for chelsea players. it is respect they don't get. we've been continually chased by diffe

shias and sunnis both in high positions they are as they have been for me are an american citizen see this is common especially in urban areas in small towns that there was only one mosque in the same seals work together about the united states and some of them other than an act of the policy the rule. exacerbated the sectarian differences in the united states some followers the vast by some resentment society that is the iraqi armed forces and most of the iraqi civil service so the armed forces is now a collection in the militias that are probably more loyal to their particular party or character unity and they are to the state and probably the single server depending on the department has something to the fiefdoms there and it is competing . sectarian groups and it is it is not even a as much the cerium conflict as it is around because because within that both sunni and shia communities you have both nationalist and sectarian is which are also. struggling against each other but in many ways parallels northern ireland where the conflict was not its positives versus catholics per se b

the shia muslim populations there and the sunni's but if i may just from a domestic issue now to more an external issue the national transitional council in tripoli has been asking the u.n. to to make available frozen assets that were blocked during the campaign that it would seem that perhaps maybe to some of the west is dragging its feet when it comes to bringing out this much needed it casts in the west by any chance having second thoughts on the. will course of the west and central banks to try to instill money leaves the terrorists the movement the european states in particular all very sheltered money sustain billions of dollars euros build flow which is one issue the only question is who's it going to lose this complete lack of transparency the formation of the national transitional council who its members were why they changed the new government all these things become very secretly and so there is the question of responsibility of the promise of the central banks along to paris and rome to even the people who are giving the money to this it would be going to actually do this

other members of the arab league are taking such a hard line but i think it's this cancer of the sunni shia thing which is as a separate civil war between the gulf arabs are mainly solely against the iranian regime which is causing the cancer and i'm afraid it's been united states of pushing this line is the threat of danger we must be afraid of it and we saw a lot of it in iraq of course the solution you're seeing of that created a near civil war in iraq it's terribly dangerous men would have thought of course in lebanon also earlier one would have thought that people would say look the last thing we want is another sunni versus shia military civil war going on in one of the major countries they should be doing all they can to try and stop it and i'm saying that assad has made many many mistakes he should have not used for so much at the beginning he should have offered more serious dialogue at the beginning his office but quite flimsy and probably deceptive deliberately and you know he has been very hardline but the other side is now being equally hardline in the situation is becoming pol

but in these countries you have endless amount of fault lines so contradictions between sunni and shia for instance more than fifty of us and certainly between kurds and a say and the i love is related to the shia would be about thirteen percent then you have christians you might or might soon have jews the minority is very much afraid. three day out afraid of that and the i love is kind of protective hand over them so there you have the thing going on inside. going back to the u.n. how likely do you think is it that the resolution could provide an incentive for the and security council to respond. i think it is very relevant i'm not sure it will succeed i mean quite obviously what should have been would be to step down some type of coalition government could be the case years ago and almost put in your argument is minorities and the de centralization of the country not splitting into four folk trees which may be what the western powers want but the centralized in other words if it was rationed keeping syria to good but not as a unitary state. now you understood lucian is in that direc

into three parts and i think it will be very difficult very difficult to persuade for example the shia part of the iraqi society who have got strong links to iran to relinquish part of the wealth and power in the southern and middle part of iraq so i think. after the american left iraq withdrawal from iraq we could see straight away in two days not in maliki has started a kind of like dictatorship he kicked out his partners from government and i think we are descending down a kind of at least a noose for the duration between the three parts of iraq ok if i go back to you i mean it's very interesting to me is that as as the departure of the u.s. officially leaves we see all of these events unfolding very quickly i mean is there really any kind of democracy in on iraq or is it just been a fiction for americans to feel that they've done something right. to be honest with you i think until until the americans were there they rock is it seems to me that there is to choose to have some kind of a backup that they could build institutions and if it all went wrong they could count on u.s. secur

and three the most significant of which was the ethnic and religious tensions between the sunni the shias and the kurds that was an issue that plagued the american occupation for all of its long desperate nine years and even though the united states troops have pulled out last week that doesn't change the equation whose tensions still exist in iraq and will have to resolve themselves one way or the other i'm afraid that. the resolution will likely involve violence hopefully not at the levels that we saw in two thousand and five and two thousand and six but politics in iraq is very much a full context sport it's a dangerous game to play there and people often do die in the course of political resolutions. and it's a good to have you with us on this day and now as promised we continue our look back at the past twelve months without these ten reports on the events that shaped two thousand and eleven today it's egypt a country where a million a man uprising became a springboard for a tide of riots and protests. what she went through reporting at the center of the arab spring. i think my bigge

hidden explosives while no one has claimed responsibility the bombings that come as tensions between shia and sunni muslims reaches a boiling point so as have been less than a week since u.s. forces in the country leaving behind an air of uncertainty peter monica van buren who served as a diplomat for the u.s. foreign service for over two decades believes that this is one of the consequences of the foreign occupation. because it states unleashed a lot of demons in iraq when we invaded in two thousand and three the most significant of which was the ethnic and religious tensions between the sunni the shias and the kurds that was an issue that plagued the american occupation for all of its long desperate nine years and even though the united states troops have pulled out last week that doesn't change the equation those tensions still exist in iraq and will have to resolve themselves one way or the other i'm afraid that. the resolution will likely involve violence hopefully not at the levels that we saw in two thousand and five and two thousand and six but politics in iraq is very much a full