a friend of hers said, are you the president of asia? apparently i hold that an important title here. anyhow, i wanted to tell you that this branding project has been in the making since 2007, so it has been a long pregnancy.

they don't have the stomach for large ground wars in asia. he stomach for bombing the hell out of people in the air in discreet ways or commando raids. frankly, i think you'll see stepped up drone attacks, stepped up raids on sanctuaries. you might well even see a raid on iran. a strike on the iranian nuclear program. but these things are discreet military operations that the american public can feel good about. and that doesn't get entangled in stuff on the ground. >> and 63% of americans approve of the job obama's doing on terrorism. so he's in pretty strong -- >> he's got cover on it. >> you said something i want to pick up on. discreet military actions such as in iran. do you think that's possible? >> i'm coming to think that is possible. the key would be if the people in the u.s. government, and once was all israelis now. the israelis have been the boy crying wolf on this for years. i am increasingly hearing different people in the u.s. government starting to see things like the israelis, that, gee, we're only a few months off from a crit

, nations in the asia pacific nations in the asia pacific region will face a super aging society like that of japan. we would like to establish a social security system that is sustainable for japan's aging society where birth rates are low. i would like japan to be a role model for other countries in the region. >> about 40 member states meet every four years to discuss employment issues and economic policies. noda also said japan's economic policies in the last decade have focused too much on the market with little regard to their impact on employment. he added the current government led by the democratic party wants to create jobs to counter people's concerns and promote economic growth. >>> christmas season's in full swing in japan and the stars are glittering with festive decorations. these hand-sewn snowmen, hearts and christmas stockings are simple designs but they come with an inspirational story. all the decorations are made by a group of women who lost their jobs to the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. on "the road ahead" we look at how these ornaments helped the women ove

just like you know as well later in the program we're joined by the asia times correspondent in south polar pepe escobar he's got more international reaction to the results of the election as well and we're closely monitoring the situation in moscow throughout the night as both government supporters and protesters continue to take to the streets over two hundred have been detained artie's pedro all of it is in the center of the russian capital but our cameras there reporting live high again peter we saw thousands out of moscow yesterday monday what's been the scene tonight. wolf things are pretty much returned to normal the economy is back here at three in fallujah square. early on tuesday evening just behind me this whole area was filled with thousands of protesters who both for united. sure the ruling party in those against those against accusing the ice russia of making accusations of electorial freule it's now . the people who are out here they managed to put your child down this busy intersection until police were able to section them off into story main parts of this area want t

and in the business bulletin the russian markets are in the red following in asia. find out what's on the indices in about twenty minutes. and online twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. with the final results of russia's parliamentary elections still due the overall picture of a brand new board of lawmakers is already clear united russia party has secured the lead but the ruling group is seeing a significant drop in popularity. reports. with almost one hundred percent of the votes counted the party has garnered just under fifty percent of the vote the communists came in second but third place by russia with liberal democrats on the board to police the three of the parties failed to get the required week per cent of the votes needed to get seats in the duma now though not yet final but the results indicate that the party which has crushing the dominee to the country's politics for years now is on track to lose its two thirds majority in the duma for comparison in the two thousand and seven elections united russia got sixty four percent of the boat and now it

more than half of the global population lives in the asia. to look at our own san francisco bay area, one third of the population are of asian descent. also, a challenging economy offers us the opportunity to take advantage by being bold and taking risks. we need to increase our impact and by doing so, increasing revenue. also, a successful restructuring of our long-term debt. that took place earlier this year and has put the museum on sound financial footing. on that note, i would like to thank the city leaders for leading the effort and working with our newseum team in finding solutions. today, i am particularly happy to say, at this moment in history, we have an asian mayor, asian president of the board of supervisors, and an asian commissioner for budget and finance. [applause] any successful brand always starts with a strong vision, and we do have a vision. with asia as our lands and aren't as our cornerstone, we start connections across cultures and for time. in other words, asia is our focus, but our per view is global. one single impor

a european bison is the symbol of the belle of asia forest the largest population of them in the world can be found here hunting them is prohibited however so leonid kravchuk proposed wild boars instead. of no way to get closer just to be certain. the boar stood there eating. but as we moved. walked away. it. didn't suit it on that day and killed nuffield. in one thousand nine hundred one step. was the morton of the residence he was asked to accommodate russian and ukrainian officials in the government residence and meet boris yeltsin in person yeltsin was the last to arrive in viscously that day in the evening i met him at the entrance it was clear that yeltsin had just come from a social function. visit was carefully prepared for everyone realized that the outcome of the talks as a whole depended very much on his mood. i was standing at the front door to the residence and i held this part of them. came through i greeted him. and he was led to his. there he rested until it was supper time. the verdict on the soviet union was pronounced that same night during a joint supper on the grou

coming up next, the asia prison -- the asia and business report. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global strength to work for a wide range of financial companies. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles. presented by kcet los angeles.

the dense bill of asia forest where belarus borders poland in soviet times people would come here and excursions from all over the us as. a bell a recent t.v. journalist was the only one lucky enough to shoot the moment of signing the documents that entered history as the belle of asia accords we were fairly we were left on the military airfield so i approached a k.g.b. officer and said what do we do to prove look we're missing such an important meeting or like. i said it's ok given i'll take you for. several minutes later but i didn't get son and he was being driven to a secret place named the school in the central part of the belle of asia forest it was in this place at the edge of b.l.o. rose stein is left shushkevich and decided to invite his counterparts from russia and ukraine under the pretext of addressing joint economic problems. i knew yeltsin was a normal man because jimmy sheridan on minister said would you have a good relationship with him taking here to believe as your for hunting persuade him it was enough time and opportunity forward so i invited him. thank the plot of

myanmar has been a closed country and is one of the poorest in the southeast asia region. myanmar has a lot of resources including natural gas as well as a cheap labor force. for the government of myanmar democratic is a means of getting sanctions lifted. on friday, clinton is planning to meet with pro-democracy leadi leading aung sun suu kyi. she will likely want to move in step with the united states to put pressure on the myanmar government to continue the reforms. the momentum toward democracy is being driven by both international and domestic forces. and it is becoming increasingly irreversib irreversible. >> that was jun kobayashi reporting from nepito. to lift sanctions against myanmar. it has close ties with the southeast asian country. foreign ministry spokesperson commented on clinton's visit to myanmar. >> translator: all countries concerned should lift sanctions against myanmar and try to promote its stability and development. >> hong lei also maintained the importance of strengthening relations. >> translator: both china and myanmar want to increase their strat

the russian markets are lower at noon in sympathy with asia and europe the r.t.s. is shedding more than one and a third of a percent then my six is down three quarters of a percent. and a quick look at some individual share moves on the my six most energy majors a down and weaker of crude with was nasty losing more than one percent financials are also under pressure with the t.v. down almost two percent bucking the trend is poor is gold as precious metal stocks are often used as a safe haven in times of uncertainty. russia's biggest mobile phone retailer eurostar is planning to buy one of its main rivals all telecom commerce on daily says this seventy million dollars deal would help euro set five hundred twenty stores to its chain the total number of the outlets would then top five thousand. russians insurance companies seem to be resilient against the global economic downturn research by consultants all over wyman shows that most insurers expect their business to have grown thirteen percent this year and up to twenty percent next year they also forecast. more cons

thank the plot of land called viscously is known as the highest place in belle of asia forest in nine hundred fifty seven following an instruction from nikita just a big mention of the hunters was built after which it became a favorite place for soviet leaders on december seventh one thousand nine hundred ninety one hunting party was organized for the ukrainian leader leonid kravchuk. it was already getting. said he wanted to go hunting so we all got into the car with the guards went closer to his coolly where there was a. european bison is the symbol of the belle of asia forest the largest population of them in the world can be found here hunting them is prohibited however so leonid kravchuk proposed wild boars instead. said to me it. is no way to get closer just to be certain. but as we moved. walked away. i didn't even shoot it it. didn't suit me on that day and killed nuffield. in one thousand nine hundred one stepan martis york was the morton of the residence he was asked to accommodate russian and ukrainian officials in the government residence and meet boris yeltsin in person y

myanmar has been a close country and has been one of the poorest in the south asia region. they have resources like natural gas and a cheap labor force. for the government of myanmar, democratization is the means of getting sanctions lifted and encouraging investment from overseas. on friday clinton is planning to meet with pro-democracy leader. the meeting will be high profile chan chance, she will want to move in step with united states to put pressure on the myanmar government to continue the reforms. the momentum towards democracy is being driven by international and domestic forces and is becoming increasingly irreversible. >>> china has been urmging the united states to lift sanctions against myanmar. if has close ties with the southeast asian country. foreign ministry spokesperson commented on clinton's visit to myanmar. >> translator: all countries concerned should lift sanctions against myanmar and try to promote its stability and development. >> he also stressed the importance of map taintaining relations. >> translator: both myanmar and china want to strengthen th

the russian markets are lower in sympathy with asia and europe the r.t.s. is shedding just under one and three quarters of a percent then why sex is down around half percent. and let's now have a look at some individual share moves on the my six most energy majors and down in the weaker crude with gals probably losing more than one for sound banking shares are also under pressure with d.t.b. down almost two percent bucking the trend is point of gold though as precious metal stocks are often seen. the as a see pavement times about certainty. poorly motivated staff cost russian companies more than two hundred billion dollars a year consultancy ass's management estimates that only sixty percent of russian employees willingly make an effort to achieve results so just to compare the share of enthusiastic workers makes up eighty percent of your asses management called seventy thousand employees from around forty russian firms. bush's biggest mobile phone retailer euro set is buying one of its main rivals out telecom commerce on daily says the seventy million doll

japan needs to do studies on the northeast asia situation. with more forsight. >> he said japan's intelligence services need more money and personnel to do their jobs properly. >>> the families of japanese people abducted by north korea want the government to take advantage of the change of leadership. they want the government to get their relatives back. the relatives and supporters held a rally in tokyo as north koreans attended kim's funeral. representing the families, he says that the government should act now instead of just watching the situation. >> translator: this is a time of great change and should be taken as an opportunity. >> his daughter was abducted in 1977 at age of 13. >> translator: i believe that japan needs to identify the stance of north korea under its new leader. only then will the government be able to restart negotiations, which might create an opening to resolve the problem. >> his wife said japan should tell north korea to ensure the abducties safety. there is express optimism about the change in leadership. others

asia's middle class numbers are set to soar at the turn of the century asia accounted for just about population, middle class consumption. by 2030, right here, the organization for economic cooperation and development says that could rise to as much as 40%, and by 2050, asia's middle class could actually make up even more than that. it could make up as much as 60% of the world's middle class consumption. by then asia's middle class will likely have a much greater affect on what's sold around the world. for instance, in 2004 general motors, for example, sold one car in china for every ten it sold in the united states. but five years later, in 2009, that ratio had actually reached one to one. in the future, if you think about this, if this number skews more towards chinese preference, those tastes could determine the design of gm cars that actually americans buy instead. looking at real money terms, in 2009 the middle class here in asia spent this much, just under $5 trillion. but by 2030, just 18 years away, that could rise to nearly $33 trillion. so there's a lot of money and definit

the region. both in central asia and in the south in south asia that essentially is going to cut pakistan out of the formula and i don't think united states cares very much what's going to happen after withdraws its troops in two thousand and fourteen and i think they would rather not withdraw their troops which is the nub of the problem because just on november second russia china iran and pakistan had a meeting in istanbul which they all agree that they would pressure the united states not to leave troops in afghanistan and i find it very difficult to imagine if this fallout in relations between pakistan and the united states is not somehow tried to that position i think this i think this chessboard is much broader than we then we imagine it to be and that it includes really multiple zones some of them worldwide short of those pakistan being in a nuclear state it's a bit of the be on the side of the u.s. isn't it. well it has been but you know it's always been it's always basically saw the relationship the united states as being in its interests i'm not sure it's ccs relationship with the unite

now, the adb played out three scenarios for asia. recession just within the euro-zone itself that could reduce growth by as much as 2% next year. the second involveds a deep recession in the euro-zone and that could drag the u.s. into recession and reduce growth by up to 2.5% by 2012 and third looks at a drop in european and u.s. gdp to 2009 levels, worst case scenario. there is a silver lining to all these and shows less fallout in asia than during the 2008 global financial crisis. the adb finally adds this, east asia should be able to weather another global financial crisis. that is if the region's policymakers respond promptly, decisively and collectively so the adb is keeping a cautiously optimistic outlook into 2012. >> all relative and certainly asia looks pretty good when you compare it with europe and the u.s. thanks, ramy inocencio. charles? >> coming up on "world business today," china is shaking things up at this year's u.n. climate change summit in south africa and could mean big changes for countries around the world. we

this is what happened to the asia techs here. the announcement from intel, big knock-off effect as it does from this part of the world. samsung down by more than 3%. tokyo electron down by 1.3. acor and add venn sent down 2.5%. when intel coughs, the rest of the tech sector at least in asia gets a cold, nina. >> indeed, andrew. we saw the nasdaq fell about 1.3% in yesterday's session when i was showing the closing numbers of wall street. let's have a look at how u.s. futures are pointing at the moment. broadly speaking what we're expecting is a mix to higher open later today. investors will be keeping an eye on the fastball meeting in washington. that will be happening later on tuesday. the fed is expected to refrain from new stimulus measures because of encouraging news out of europe over the last couple yee weeks. the nasdaq is up to about .5%, the other two, broadly speaking, flat. >>> the british prime minister david cameron may have kicked up quite a fuss last week when he refused to sign britain up to a fiscal code which is

the european concerns the main concern. banks in asiaetting a hit from the weakness in european banks. also we've got the long-term italian debt auction, the ten-year bonds will be sold later this day. also a little profit taking before the beginning of the new year. i wanted to point out there in japan, the nikkei down nearly .3% as the yen hits a ten-year high against the euro. the your roe has been falling quite sharply over the past few days. charles? >> traders in the united states. they saw red in wednesday's session. alison kosik brings us the latest from wall street. >> stocks fell wednesday with the tech and financial sectors among the hardest hit. trading volume was light as expected, but the losses weren't. the dow lost 139 points closing at 12,151. the nasdaq dropped 1.3% and the s&p 500 fell as well slipping back into negative territory for the year. the nasdaq and s&p 500 have just two sessions left to make up their losses. with no major corporate or u.s. economic data in the mix, investors turned their focus back to europe

the cloud of uncertainty descends on eastern asia as the death of north korean leader kim jong il leaves neighbors on the edge of growing fears of violent conflict could follow its demise. and israel pushes for more settlements announcing over a thousand new houses in east jerusalem in the west bank in response to palestine progress toward statehood. live from moscow this is r.t. welcome it's nine pm here now my name is kevin owen and first eleven bodies have now been pulled out of freezing sea off russia's far east coast to an oil rig capsized and sank on sunday crews are working to try to recover possible victims seen in the water now earlier a life raft was spotted which was initially thought to be carrying fifteen people but sadly it turned out to be empty fourteen were rescued from the sea shortly after the rig collapsed but several dozen are still missing tonight jacob greaves is in your skin the coastal region where the disaster happened. is looking increasingly unlikely that any war survivors will be found search and rescue teams have made contact with lifeboats and life rafts th

a mediator for peace on the peninsula by pushing for negotiations if you were to live or work in the asia pacific region this serious potential for conflict and there's no alternative but to set up a dialogue and improve understanding between this saw you go in twenty ten new cars blew up around the north with talk of the possible next leader that's when kim john on became a four star general and first moved into my mind to take over for his father oversaw tensions reached its highest point in decades after the north launched an artillery strike that left four dead south korea continue to hunt war games with the u.s. and japan and want to conflict would break out if another attack was launched now kim jong un a young and inexperienced leader is at the helm who either open the door or continue to keep it shut this were a way station was built in two thousand and two with hopes of connecting seoul and palin yang but the north korean regime backed out at the last minute making this the last stop train heading back into the south now with kim jong il that there is new hope that perhaps soon w

the foreign minister said settling affairs in the asia-pacific region requires china's full participationhe added that japan has no plans to encircle or exclude china and that it is important to make joint efforts to secure peace and prosperity of the region. >>> the visit of a japanese ship serves as a sign of those efforts. a destroyer will make a port call in china next week, the first in three years. the visit is part of military exchanges between the two countries. defense ministry officials say the destroyer "kirisame" will arrive in the northern city of qingdao on monday and will stay for five days. the ship's crew members will make a courtesy visit to a chinese warship whose crew will then visit the "kirisame." the two sides will also conduct communications exercises. japan and china began holding naval exchanges in 2007 to improve relations in order to offset any unexpected incidents. the exchange was not held last year. in september a chinese trawler collided with two japanese patrol ships off japan's senkaku islands in the east china sea. relations between the two countries sou

for the for europe the recession or the economic policy makers in asia already. in. recession even though europe is the largest market for asian exports but of course we're suffering like this something in a recession like this and you have to depend on the much less you have to. intervene no demand tried to boost the mystical assumption and to take the weight of the decline in exports to europe so i think most of asia is doing. well enough coping with the decline of europe now we're hearing the noise is that germany is also on the line here and what's this going to do to germany's status as the de facto leader of the eurozone i suppose. well this is difficult or impossible to see germany being downgraded actually germany's been been dragged down by euro partly because their five nations in their lack of five now showed this template they'd like italy and greece to get themselves into so heavily that there's no way to out of it and then if germany would have to bail out of this country stand germany's credit on credit rating. and of course. if you want to play hardbal

the u.s. is going to basically cool date owned us bought china but also russia and central asia is the same same. that was a asia times correspondent pepe escobar and speaking of double standards u.s. leaders now urging governments abroad to embrace internet freedom today secretary of state hillary clinton was at the hague to advocate internet freedom and today as people increasingly turn to the internet to conduct important aspects of their lives we have to make sure that human rights are as respected on line as offline and in the past president obama has also urged other countries to open up freedom of speech on the web the more freely information flows the stronger the society becomes because then citizens. countries around the world. they're all governments accountable but at the same time the u.s. is making moves to try and internet security right here at home federal law enforcement and national security aiming to get new regulations that would make it easier for them to wiretap internet communications so that includes email facebook skype and other sites the mandate what allowed the u.s.

>> china is the most important factor in the northeast asia. ina is the biggest supplier of aid, food, and energy. china is one of the most important status quo powers in this situation. most of thehe couries that form the six-country talks are status quo powers. nobody wants to really big change on the korean peninsula because they all have an interest in stabilizing the regime on a level maybe below the nuclear threat. >> do you think relations between the west and north korea will improve? >> there are signs that kim jong il tried to sort of get some new contacts to moscow this year. he tried to have some energy supplies in from russia. this might lead to a kind of policy -- kinder policy toward the south. a gas pipeline to north korea would be a very interesting project, even for seoul. >> thank you very much for the analysis. that was our "in depth." thanks for watching.

kamel, the emerging markets in asia -- on the whole, the emerging markets in asia is going to be sheltered. the banking system we have in asia is very strong. at the same time, we're going to drive our economy with domestic. this will compensate. the spending to rebuild thailand and to better manage the training system is a blessing in disguise in the face of the head winds coming from europe and even the u.s. >> gradually come up the water has drained away. the rubbish has been removed. it will take a long time and a lot of money before homes and businesses are fully restored. >> there is a new team in charge in spain. >> many people are asking the same questions. it is the hope of the new prime minister, he has announced a cabinet. some of his choices have been controversial. in particular, the crucial role of the economy minister. that has gone to a former executive from lehman brothers. >> every christmas, strikes in spain. the annual festival lottery is a long standing tradition with some 400,000 euros scooped up by the lucky winner. this year, there is added incentive. with spain's e

and minus one as discontent over washington's actions mounts up across the middle asia the new president vows to shut down america's military base and his country. islamic parties have reportedly taken an overwhelming lead in the opening round of egypt's first parliamentary elections since one barak's fall the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party gained forty percent of the vote with fundamentalists all newer party clay me around twenty five percent however the results are in finals most parties are set to go through to further election rounds over the next two months but as our reports from cairo many of the streets feel their votes will carry little weight in their troubled country. vote. and a record turnout a real sign of political interest in a country of dictatorship. the power of the ballot the face of the candidate smiled on the one for the most you street corner and wanting to persons all excited to be both teams in the real mix and these smiles say maybe hold nothing but hold on. iran to boot. down. there were tens of thousands like this mohammed young unemployed and

the cloud of uncertainty descends on eastern asia as the death of north korean leader kim jong il leaves neighbors on the edge with growing fears of violent conflict could follow his demise. and israel pushes for more settlements announcing over a thousand new homes in east jerusalem the west bank in response to palestine suppose.

canadian crude would be, quote, lost from the usa going instead to asia. there they would displace the world's balancing crude oil, middle eastern and african predominantly which would move to the usa. the net effect would be substantially higher u.s. dependency on crude oil from those sources versus the scenarios where the capacity to move canadian crude to asia was limited. so, we have. and i would ask you do you share this analysis that the canadian oil in these words could be lost to china? that is there quote. >> that is a concern, and again from our broad concern has to be can we better control our energy future and the resources we have available to us from canada? it is one of the critical paths we have to take going forward to again retain that control. spinet used in your testimony we have a simple twist before us. it is pretty straightforward. i go to mr. chairman mao. thank you. >> mr. durbin, with keystone be willing to build the pipeline if the law prohibited the export of the petroleum there was brought to us by the pipeline? >> i obviously c

the foreign minister said settling affairs in the asia-pacific region requires china's full participation. he added that japan has no plans to encircle or exclude china and that it is important to make joint efforts to secure peace and prosperity of the region. >>> the visit of a japanese ship serves as a sign of those efforts. a destroyer will make a port call in china next week, the first in three years. the visit is part of military exchanges between the two countries. the defense ministry says the destroyer "kirisame" will arrive in the northern city of qingdao on monday and will stay for five days. the ship's crew members will make a courtesy visit to a chinese warship. the ship's crew will then visit "the kirisame." the two sides will also conduct communications exercises. japan and china began holding naval exchanges in 2007 to improve relations in order to offset any unexpected incidents. the exchange was not held last year. in september a chinese trawler collided with two japanese patrol ships off japan's senkaku islands in the east china sea. relations between the two countries