most things south east asia and. mediterranean away called a cold water but. it's a warm water computer here. in order to get to the depths of the want to see winter divers first time to break through the frozen sea. the thickness of ice is about forty to fifty centimeters in the diving school. it is hard work so the divers take turns to short intervals. well there are four this device was invented by ancient people it's a type of lever that was taken it a step further and designed an intelligent device for snow deals to lift chunks of ice nothing of the kind anywhere else in the world this original structure does the job of fall barely man to that of the. i starting in the white sea is a serious challenge in winter the water is bitterly cold. several hotspots bonuses are situated near every waterhole pier the divers change and comfort themselves after diving. according to international diving regulations one should be certified by the professional association of diving instructor has before venturing on to the ice because divers must be wearing dry suits to m

the group is moving to deepen economic ties with japan, china and south korea, so peace in east asia is vitally important. asean is likely to continue working with japan, china, the u.s. and other countries to resolve problems involving north korea, while also making use of its friendly ties. the death toll continues to rise from a typhoon that has wreaked havoc in the philippines. more than 1,000 people are confirmed dead or missing after the storm hit the southern island of mindinau on friday. more than 340,000 people have been affected. nhk world's charmaine degrashs has more. >> flash floods and mudslides triggered by the typhoon took away dozens of lives and triggered hundreds of storms. the storms caused floods and landslides on the mountainous island. the northern cities were among the worst affected areas. >> translator: water was circling around, then rocks were coming down from the mountains and hitting houses. that's why the houses were damaged. >> reporter: roads and bridges on the country's second biggest island have been damaged. that makes relief and reconstruction eff

decades and central asia is one of the places but it's not the only place south asia is also a major area of conflict as is east asia as well disturbing picture you're painting there called howling columnist the foreign policy in focus magazine thanks very on the line give us your thoughts. thanks. its forces to shut down an unmanned american spy drone in the east of the country on sunday the largely undamaged cross now reported to be in the possession of the rainy and military let's talk about that and the broader situation around the islamic republic now we're joined from jordan by a nickel or nasser germicide very experience covering the region thank you for being on the line with us run claims this american man drone intruded on to its territory nato said it could be just a surveillance aircraft that went out of control afghanistan do you think it was an unfortunate accident or a well planned mission. good evening to you this. surely is an escalation who is of war the war on the u.s. war on iran is coming for sure but it's not even. this is a grave escalation to the brink of war two and two vitally the hear

last one hundred fifty years of absolutely brutal colonial occupation in the middle east in africa and in south asia and elsewhere and and that's of very often how with perceived and there's been a whole number of different different arguments used to justify the occupation afghanistan liberating women laughably bringing democracy similarly a job improving you know the reconstruction and i was running out to jump in here for a run out of time a very interesting topic and certainly not the last word on afghanistan many thanks my guest today is san francisco washington and in london in banks where viewers for watching us here are to see you next time remember across time. it. if you want to. clinician and free liquid intake should free liquor store charges free range mens free live free live studio type free live.

. >> the united states has consulted its allies in east asia after the death of north korean leader kim jong il. south korea and japan say they are preparing for any unexpected security issues. for nearly two decades kim jong il ruled north korea. his son has been named as a successor. john simpson. >> this is the weird, reclusive figure who ran the most secretive country and did it as if it was his own private property. looking on is his son, who was around 28. he will takeover to regard -- takeover. the old leader died on saturday, but state television only announced its today. the news unleashed a storm of emotion. in north korea you have to mourn a leader as noiselessly as possible, especially if the cameras are on. if you are a member of the political elite, you may be a release sorry he is gone. no one knows what will happen to the nation now. kim jong il leaves behind a country that is appallingly court. this girl was filmed secretly while collecting grass to eat. in an orphanage in the southern part of the country, children are being treated for malnutrition. in the 1990's 3 million people die

everyone good morning and welcome all of my colleagues to this hearing subcommittee on the middle east and south asia -- as has been well-documented the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the regime at damascus or simply horrifying. the report of the internet -- international commission of inquiry on the syrian arab republic document some of the most appalling and widespread human rights abuses that have been witnessed in recent memory. the commission explicitly notes extra-judicial execution, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and perhaps most disturbingly the abuse and murder of children. witnesses interviewed by the commission were reported to have witnessed the torture, rape and murder of children no older than 15 at the hands of syrian security forces. one military defector the report noted, stated that he decided to defect after witnessing the shooting of a 2-year-old girl by an officer who affirmed that he did not want her to grow into a demonstrator. the english language does not have word strong enough to adequately condemn the horrifying abuses that have been committed by t

east pakistan in 1971. she is one of the best known women leaders in south asia. dr. dipu moni, welcome to "rendezvous."r country is now 40 years old, so congratulations. it as kind of reached middle- age. >> thank you. [laughter] >> something we all have in common here. and your fellow guest, richard dawkins. obviously, you studied medicine. you are a woman of science. deified any inherent contradiction in that and also being a practicing muslim? >> i have not found in the conflict in being a person of science. i studied medicine, public health, and a lot. but i do not see any conflict between these subjects and my religion. and i think my faith is my birthright, and i am comfortable with it. and my religion also asks me to ask questions, to understand the world, the universe. and i tried to do that. so far, i have not found any conflict. i am happy with it. >> bangladesh is almost a predominantly muslim country. a lot of people use our women are treated in muslim countries as a barometer of how advanced the nation is. what do you say to people in the look at bangladesh and they see that you are a woma

morning and i want to welcome all of my colleagues to this hearing on subcommittee on the middle east and south asia. and the chairman. as has been well-documented, the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the regime in damascus are simply horrifying. the report of the united nations independent national commission of inquiry on this syrian arab republic document some of the most appalling and widespread human rights abuses that have been witnessed in recent memory. the commission explicitly notes that extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and perhaps most disturbingly, the abuse and murder of children. witnesses interviewed by the commission are reported to have witnessed the torture, rape and murder of children no older than 15 at the hands of syrian security forces. one military defector the report noted stated that he decided to defect after witnessing the shooting of it 2-year-old girl by an officer who affirmed that he did not want her to grow into a demonstrator. the english language does not have words strong enough to adequately condemn the horrifying

is the geographical center of asia the mountain ridge of eastern cyan stretches for one thousand kilometers from east to west. secluded need the russian mongolian border south siberia's nature remains pristine and untouched by man. for tourists who braving the nature of the plan is to run snowmobiles for hundreds of kilometers to find a valley studded with hot springs civilizations yet to spread as far as the valley . be anything is that it's surrounded by steep rocks dense forests and pokes. that can be reached only in winter riding in the frozen rivers and lakes. it's not the first time the participants of this expedition have travelled together . each person has a track record of thousands of kilometers covered on snowmobiles in many different parts of russia. traveling along frozen rivers and lakes is extremely dangerous. a snowmobile may fall through the ice it any moment. reducing the risk to minimum the tourists travel in a special formation the first snowmobile plows through in front and is then followed by the rest. i am going into the ski. one series three. is just three hundred kilometers of the crow flies from the starting point to the hot sprin

she has special expertise on the middle east, russia, and south asia and is a feect -- frequent guest on npr and pbs. before joining the inquirer in december of 1983, trudy was the middle east correspondent for the christian science monitor covering israel and the arab world. we're really very gratified and delighted to have trudy rubin lead this lively and timely discussion. thank you, trudy, and thank you, again, all, for joining us in this conversation. [applause] >> well, it's certainly an opportune time as we've heard. the -- in tehran today, the british embassy was taken over by youthful radicals who for two hours went about trashing the building, but apparently the iranians are not going to percent a rehash of the hostage episode, and so it now seems as if the place may be -- police may be stepping in, but this just reminds of us how immediate the issue is, as you all know, eni was recently in israel at a time when the headlines were full of debate over whether prime minister benjamin netanyahu and defense minister were or were not urging the cabinet to have a strike on iran, s

violent extremists attacks have taken place in the middle east an south asia. the regimes in north korea and iran actively repress religious freedom. blasphemy laws fueled discrimination against religious minorities in afghanistan, pakistan, and saudi arabia. other religious minorities like the tibetan buddhist, the uighur muslims, the baha'is face violence in government restrictions. anti-semitism is still prevalent around the world. more than ever, we need the us us commission on international religious freedom to -- u.s. commission on international religious freedom to continue its important to work to practice one's religion freely around the world. this bipartisan bill before us today re-authorizes the commission known as userf for another three years. the bill also contains some sensible reforms that will strengthen's efforts to monitor and report on the status of freedom of religion abroad. these reforms include the process of selecting the chair, term limits for service for members of the commission, travel regulations, and a g.o. study on improving the

pipeline through which al qaeda moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the middle east to south asia, including al qaeda's operational commander and tehran is providing key support to the regime in damascus, another state sponsor of terrorism, that is of proliferation concern and which is currently engaged in the violent repression of the people of syria. iran is also directly responsible for the deaths of many americans. it continues to sponsor violent extremist groups in iraq and afghanistan that have killed our men and women in uniform. and just last week, a federal judge found that the iranian regime provided material aid and support for al qaeda's 1998 attack on u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania. just imagine what an emboldened iran would do if allowed to obtain nuclear weapons an the means by which to deliver them. remember what the regime has already said it wants to do. ahmadinejad had openly proclaimed that iran seeks a world without america and zionism and iran's so-called supreme leader has stated iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and techling in of

start in eastern asia where things are once again going to be dry and cold across much of the east asian continent. a few snow showers down towards the southwest of china and then further south we will find continuing rain showers over eastern indochina. mostly vietnam getting hit with those, and the then the philippines continuing to see heavy rain, particularly up here for northern luzon. as for japan, well, wintry precipitation coming to northern portions then actually quite far down the sea of japan side of the country. meanwhile, it will be nice and dry and sunny also for the pacific edge. temperaturewise, 9 forecast for tokyo on saturday. 2 in seoul with 5 in beijing. now, 5 is also forecast in shanghai. temperatures are really dipping down here in eastern china. also seeing a chilly day comparatively. hong kong at 16 degrees. a little cooler than usually seen this time of year. all right. into north america we go. another reach than is going to be pretty much calm and sunny. not necessarily warm, though. i'll show you what's happening. especially towards the north. we're going to see the northern plains as well as upper midwest really getting swept by a large area, ma

north korea's nuclear arsenal forces our allies in east asia, especially south korea and japan, to put a premium on the u.s. nuclear deterrent. pakistan's nuclear weapons greatly complicate the security situation in central asia and create a serious risk of nuclear proliferation. and the emergence of these two nuclear powers is a cautionary tale about the unpredictable ripple effects of new players in the nuclear game and a strong reason why reductions to u.s. strategic forces should only be made with the greatest caution. third, nuclear proliferation will remain one of our foremost security challenges in the wor world. the iaea throorts iran has been researching -- throorts iran has been researching and developing nuclear weapons and expressed serious concerns about the military dimensions of iran's nuclear program. syria was so serious about developing a nuclear weapon, probably with the help of north korea and iran, that in 2007 israel had to destroy a syrian nuclear site. terrorist groups and other rogue actors also seek the development or the acquisition of nuclear arms. and, ofan

start in eastern asia where things are once again going to be dry and cold across much of the east asian continent. a few snow showers down towards the southwest of china and then further south we will find continuing rain showers over eastern indochina. mostly vietnam getting hit with those, and the then the philippines continuing to see heavy rain, particularly up here for northern luzon. as for japan, well, wintry precipitation coming to northern portions then actually quite far down the sea of japan side of the country. meanwhile, it will be nice and dry and sunny also for the pacific edge. temperaturewise, 9 forecast for tokyo on saturday. 2 in seoul with 5 in beijing. now, 5 is also forecast in shanghai. temperatures are really dipping down here in eastern china. also seeing a chilly day comparatively. hong kong at 16 degrees. a little cooler than usually seen this time of year. all right. into north america we go. another reach than is going to be pretty much calm and sunny. not necessarily warm, though. i'll show you what's happening. especially towards the north. we're going to see the northern plains as well as upper midwest really getting swept by a large area, ma

east asia to slow from 7.5% this year to 7.2% next year. that's for these eight countries and territories first off asean-4, plus china, hong kong, taiwan as well as southutside pressure from europe and the u.s. policies and events within the region have definitely been slowing down growth, for example, china, tightened its monetary policies like raising those bank reserve requirements to fight inflatio , gdp has since slowed and the floods that caused many factories to close now it's forecast to be 1.5% down from a 4% expectation and also in hong kong as well as singapore they're seeing slower global trade pull down numbers. in the report as of the third quarter, as of the third quarter kind's gdp was the highest at 9.1, the asean-4 are 5.1 and ashake's four were here at 3.8. the takeaway here is that early 2010 these gdp growth numbers have been falling across the board. if europe doesn't solve its debt crisis we should expect steeper d gdp drops. >> given the asian growth remains tied to the u.s. and europe, how bad could it get for asia. >> good question. if you live in these places in hong kong, china, singapore and taiwan today's report says your

-- [inaudible] >> and brazil and also the far east but given the decline of european unions that we need to ensure robust relationships with asia and southrica as much with the declining powers in the eu. >> i think my right honorable friend is right. we want to have the best of both worlds where we use that single market to drive free trade deals with countries in south and central america and in the far east to actually we maximize trade for britain and europe and for the world. >> is it more likely than not that the 26 member states will agree amongst themselves courses of maximum financial services matters and that britain -- even if it has the right to oppose them in the full eu will not be able to stand out against the 26 who have agreed on their position amongst themselves? >> what i say to the honorable gentleman is that the new organization outside the eu cannot draw or implement things in terms of financial services or other things that impact the single markets. those things have to be done through the single market council. of course, there would always be difficulties in that single market council where, frankly, my right ho

south asia, and is a frequent guest on npr and pbs. before joining the inquirer in december of 1983, true u.s. the middle eastcorrespondent for the "christian science monitor" covering israel and the arab world. we are really very gratified and delighted to have trudy lead this lively and very, very timely discussion. thank you, trudy. and thank you all again for joining us today and participate in the conversation. [applause] >> well, it certainly is an opportune time as we heard. in tehran today the british embassy was taken over by youthful radicals who, for two hours, went about trashing the building, but apparently the iranians were not going to permit a rehash of the hostage episode, and so it now seems as if the police may be stepping in. but this just reminds us about the immediate the issue is, as you all know, and i was recently in israel at a time when the headlines were full of debate over whether prime minister netanyahu and defense minister barack were or were not really urging the cabinet to okay a strike on iran. so it's a great privilege for me to introduce the to guess which i will do briefl

-- [inaudible] >> and brazil and also the far east but given the decline of european unions that we need to ensure robust relationships with asia and south america as much with the declining powers in the eu. >> i think my right honorable friend is right. we want to have the best of both worlds where we use that single market to drive free trade deals with countries in south and central america and in the far east to actually we maximize trade for britain and europe and for the world. >> is it more likely than not that the 26 member states will agree amongst themselves courses of maximum financial services matters and that britain -- even if it has the right to oppose them in the full eu will not be able to stand out against the 26 who have agreed on their position amongst themselves? >> what i say to the honorable gentleman is that the new organization outside the eu cannot draw or implement things in terms of financial services or other things that impact the single markets. those things have to be done through the single market council. of course, there would always be difficulties in that single market council where, frankly, my righ

a senior director of for near east and south asian affairs at the nsc during the clinton administration. he was an advisor to the obama presidential campaign on south asia and shared an inneragency review of u.s. policy toward afghanistan and pakistan during the early months of the obama administration. he is the author of his own recent book on pakistan entitled, "deadly embrace, pakistan, america and the future of the global jihad". on my far left is joshua white, the youngster of our panel. he is a ph.d candidate at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies in the jennings randolph peace scholar at the u.s. institute of peace. he spent extensive time in pakistan doing research and has presented his findings in numerous academic and policy forums and in testimony before the congress. he is also an active participant in several high-level u.s.-pakistani track to strategic dialogues. his current doctoral work focuses on digs-making in islamic parties in pakistan. and last but certainly not least to my right is marvin weinbaum who is a scholar in residence at the middle east institute and professor emeritus of political science at univer

establishment of the special envoy to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in the near east and south central asia. h.r. 3012, an act to amend the immigration and nationality act to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation or employment-based immigrants and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: i now ask for a second reading and object to both of these measures at this time. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bills will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the notwithstanding the senate's recess, the committees be authorized to report legislative and executive matters on friday, january 13, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcome recess or adjournment of the senate, the president of the senate, president pro tempore, and the majority and minority leaders be aut