tonight, certificates of honor will be presented by honorable hydra mendoza, the council general, and executive kai rodriguez. >> one filipino-american publication has stood the test of time. 50 years of committed service by delivering the news and documenting our history. ladies and gentlemen, philippine news. [applause] ♪ >> truth, integrity, and bold journalism. in 1961, the philippine news was founded in the garage. its vision was to create a community newspaper to tell the stories of the growing filipino community in the united states and to advocate on its behalf. the family took over philippine news in 1996 and propelled into the digital age, linking over 7 million worldwide sites with their journalism of engagement. celebrating its 50th year, the philippine news published its 2,600th issue on the fourth week of august, holding true and continuing to celebrate their culture. the filipino-american in committee sees this milestone. a legacy of 50 years of chronicling the filipino- american story. >> our next guests are representing philippine news. [applause] [applause] >> our se

you may join the council general, and please, the honorable hydra mendoza, president of our board of, and of course, kyra rodriguez from our filipino channel. please take this problematic -- proclamation declaring this is a filipino-american history month in san francisco. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the highest ranking and only filipino-american elected official in the city and county of san francisco, president of the board of education and education adviser to mayor edwin lee, honorable hydra mendoza. [applause] thank you. it still saddens me when you saw the only in the first filipino ever elected in san francisco, but it is always such an honor to be here with my community, and i want to thank you all for this celebration. we really have so much to celebrate, and i wanted to make sure we acknowledge this month alone and some of the things we have been able to accomplish. as the council general mentioned, ab 199 finally acknowledges the work and the tremendous bravery of our soldiers in world war ii, who will be written into our history books. we're going t

and if i may, i would like to present the council general this message of hope and our cranes. pplause] >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. thank you, mayor ed lee. actually, this is my second time to take part in the city of hope celebration. i would really like to extend my thanks to reno world fund and the mayor and the people who are coming to join today's celebration. so many things come to mind when we approach the idea of hope. some of the first that strike me our hope during troubled times and hope for the future. and all time hoped-for our societies, for our children, and for the world. everyone of us might have hope that the time of the beginning of this year to see a better world to live in, more peaceful, more prosperous, more cheerful. but as he mentioned, we did have many, many large scale natural disasters this year, starting with the puree -- in penury and in march 11 in japan. here in the united states, we have many tornadoes and flooding and cyclones, wildfires. in bangkok, thailand, again, floodings. to the contrary, in east africa, drought and famine. so i

i would like you to join with me the fantastic group of council generals here. can call up to join me -- the council generals from canada, china, japan, korea -- please join me. please come up. if i may, i would like each share of our apa volunteer committee to please come up and board president david chiu. and our new police chief, please come on up, chief greg suhr. please join us. [applause] >> just take a picture. together -- thank you very much everyone. [applause]

i would like you to join with me the fantastic group of council generals here. can call up to join me -- the council generals from canada, china, japan, korea -- please join me. please come up. if i may, i would like each share of our apa volunteer committee to please come up and board president david chiu. and our new police chief, please come on up, chief greg suhr. please join us. [applause] >> just take a picture. together -- thank you very much everyone. [applause] mayor lee: thank you. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> the mayor wants to know if he can keep his hat? [laughter] [unintelligible] thank you very very much. next, someone who represents another first in our city's history. three years ago, district 3 elected the first chinese- american to the board of supervisors, and immediately after he was sworn in, history was made again as he was sworn in as the board president. please welcome supervisor david to come here on behalf of the sentences go board of supervisors -- david chiu. >> a

the panel can come forward. i'd like to introduce our second panel of witnesses. david hiemann is the general council of netflix. mr. heimann has sieve e nmpn ha last decade and has seen the company grow. he was the general council of webvan an internet based grocery deliver service. bill mcgevran is a professor in university of law in minnesota. before joining the u, he was a resident fellow at harvard's berkman internet for internet and society and a litigator in boston. professor mcgevern received his ba from nyu. finally i should add that he was a staffer for senator shumer, mark rode enburg, he chairs the american bar association committee on privacy and information protection, and has edited several privacy law textbooks prior to founding epic that is again, electric privacy information center, he was council to senator leahy where he advised the senator on the act we are considering today. he received his jd from stanford law school. christopher wolfe is the director of the privacy and information practice here in washington. and he also the founder and cochair of the future of privacy forum.

these days are the best days of the chinese council general. ing all kinds of celebrations at the local asian and chinese communities. in all these parties, the topic of china-u.s. relations is the most talked-about topic. everybody was happy to see that last year progress has been made in china-u.s. relationship. we saw a frequent exchange of high-level visits. the president of china, mr. hu jintao, visited america. the and the vice president of this country, mr. biden, visited china in august. this was a very important visit. there is another next week. we saw last year a record growth of our people to people exchange. according to that temporary statistic, in the first nine months of last year, 1.0 7 million chinese tourists visited this country, the biggest increase of 27.7%. more than 2 million american people visited china, which means on average, every day, more than 9000 people are crossing the pacific. nowadays, about 160,000 chinese students are studying here. you have more than 20,000 american boys and girls studying in china. we saw

the leadership up here. so again, thank you very much council general. thank you tort dutch team for engaging ourselveses the next two days. i look forward to these recommendations and if i may i'd like to introduce a very, very fine council general who is excited to be here, that will lead the way and begin the discussion. council general, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. it's indeed to -- exciting to be here as council general of san francisco in this beautiful city, especially on a day like today. it's really great. you've been in amsterdam. in 1969 i learned and have reason for you to come back to that beautiful city soon. i'd love to work with you on a relationship between amsterdam and san francisco because there's so much in common between the two cities. and a lot of things that san francisco can learn from san francisco and the other way around. and my hope for these two days is that we will have something out of it as well and i'm sure we will have something out of it as well. and you probably will not remember

i've had the pleasure of serving in india previously from 1992 through 1995 as the council general and minister counselor for political affairs. i enjoyed my time in india where i had the opportunity to participate in the early efforts to expand our bilateral relations. india is becoming a economic power house, having averaged 7% economic growth over the last decade. lifting 10s of millions its citizens out of poverty. india will be a leading security partner with the united states in the 21st century. and number kinds of interactions is staggering at it's depth. the people to people links are at the heart, along with the three million strong community. at the government to government level, our relations are firmly grounded in a set of shared democratic values and an increasingly shared vision of both the opportunities that can promote those values and the threats that can under mine them. if confirmed i'll be working with an agency team at the embas especially b especialmbassspeciallmbassy embassy, and among ourp -- our top priorities will be supporting our trade and investment. our

calling for an immediate step down by the ruling military council but the generals are clinging on to power which they refused to give up until at least june. people of greece have marched on the streets in anger over a new set of cuts as the government struggles to keep the country's economy afloat parliament is now due to the beta draft bill. demanded by the e.u. . and russian civil society take center stage in politics as a group public figure steps up to monitor the upcoming presidential vote with backing from all of the candidates the goal of the so-called voters league is to ensure a fair transparent election. where the top stories and sport is next with paul. hello welcome to the sports headlines here on alex he is good to have you company here's what's coming up. making a racket russia going in there in that davis cup tie with austria old roger federer switzerland the whitewash by the usa. perfectly poised tiger woods is four shots behind me to cheer on the way going into the final round of the having drinks national in california. and mission impossible underdogs on the prepa

the appointments process. he also served as consultant and general council -- to the general council of the public company accounting oversight board, and it's private council in presenting briefs in the 2009 case, free enterprise fund, which was another appointments case, he has been a specialist, as i said, in american public law with the american law division of the congressional research service and was in congressional practice and procedure and labor law. and in problems raised by the enter face of congress and the executive branch. in 2004, i'm sorry, in 2005, he was the recipient of the 2004/2005 mary c.lauten award. mort, the floor is yours. >> thank you, i want to thank ai and peter and wayne for affording me this opportunity to share my views on this extraordinarily important and urgent constitutional issue with this knowledgeable audience and this very distinguished panel of legal experts. i feel trepedation of a court argument but i'll plow ahead. i would like to add 1 or two facts to the background that peter gave you. the resolution that put the senate into pro forma session as it is called, said that

according to our statistics, last year, more than 13 chinese enterprises had great success with the chinese council general to erect in this area. that is double of the year before. last year, it was also a remarkable milestone for the local asian community in san francisco. mayor lee was elected as the first chinese american mayor of san francisco. [applause] a round of applause, again. san francisco is well known for its cultural diversity, which makes this city so dynamic. we are very glad to see the chinese communities in san francisco have gotten along with other ethnic groups, taking part in the economic and social life of this city. they have made a great contribution. the have also made contributions to the friendship between china and the united states. on this occasion, i would like to extend my warm congratulations to the great people of san francisco. i appreciate what you have achieved in the past year. i believe that under the ministry of the dragon mayor, edwin lee, and the support of the first chinese american president of the board of supervisors, mr. david chiu, san francisco will maintai

china with their vetoes twelve days ago when the security council underscored the fact that the united nations be it the separate the security council or the general assembly should be used as a tool to enforce regime change in countries in sovereign countries instead in particular in this case is the syrian people that should be deciding the future of their country having said that though seventy countries at the least are co-sponsoring this draft resolution that ultimately condemns syrian authorities for what's taking place right now but so an arab country has rejected the amendments proposed by russia what are the concerns that russia has over this draft of the resolution. well the concerns the same concerns that russia has been voicing over the past weeks and months is that it's not balance the text in the general assembly draft and previously in the security council draft is not balanced because it holds one side responsible whereas in russia's opinion there are the opposition groups there are many that are armed and are participating in the violence and acting out against syrian authorities who according to russia have also fallen victim to

for an immediate step down by the ruling military council of the generals are going on to power which they refused to give up till at least june. the people of greece have marched on the streets in anger over a new set of cards as the government struggles to keep the country's economy afloat parliament is now due to debate a draft bill on is there any measures demanded by the e.u. and i.m.f. . russian civil society takes center stage in politics as a public figure steps up to monitor the upcoming presidential vote with backing from all of the candidates the goal of the so-called voters sure a fair and transparent election. that's who are the top stories of the week sports next. how i welcome to the world of sport here good to have you company coming up. making a racket russia given a lifeline in the davis cup tie with austria. switzerland a whitewash by the usa. mission impossible underdog zambia prepared to face overwhelming favorite in the final of the twenty twelve africa cup of nations . perfectly poised tiger woods is four shots behind leader charlie way into the final round of t

the council meeting. the pennies could generate millions of dollars to fix crumbling school buildings, business owners say the extra cents make no sense. >> the $0.02 tax really hit us hard. now they want to go to $0.05. it's going double the impact. >> our kids deserve better. sometimes it takes tough decisions to provide a way forward. >> if approved estimates project the increase would generate $10 million a year. the city council will have the final say. >>> turning to the weather there is very little to come plain about this afternoon. taking a live look outside on a sunny, seasonally cool day with a little bit of a breeze and lots of blue sky. we have complete first warning weather coverage. marty bass in the outback with a jacket on, bernadette woods in the first warning weather center. good afternoon. >> yes, another gorgeous one. we cooled down from yesterday. look at the temperatures out there. we are already up to 49 degrees in baltimore. that is our average high. we will rise this afternoon. look at the 40s around the region. 40s in the mountains. along the water today, a little bit cooler bec

clearly, i was own on saturday that the resolutions vetoed and the security council. general assembly resolution does not have the same weight as the security council resolution. but it can illustrate the strength of numbers behind a particular proposition. so we're discussing that now. whether that is a feasible way forward, we are discussing with the arab league and with our other partners on the security council as well i therefore can't give him a time line yet. but it is a possibility. suggest that the regrettable decision to veto was at least in part caused by russia and china believing western pow hers exceeded their mandate under u.n. resolution in 1973 when pursuing regime change in libya as they themselves made clear at the time? >> this is not an excuse for russia and china. as i pointed out earlier, there were other nation that's were very critical of our voted for resolution appreciating that it put forward on behalf of the arab league, it put forward a different proposition in how we proceeded in libya because the situation is entirely different. so i don't thin

the disputed islands. in cairo thousands of people joined a general strike in protest against a young going military rule exactly a year after president obama stepped down demonstrators want the supreme council of the armed forces to cede power to a civilian government they are unhappy with how the generals have been running the country with the reforms made and escalated repression of the opposition dozens of protesters were killed over the past months in the clashes with police across the country and you parliament's been elected and is drawing up a constitution while the military says it won't step down before the end of june but freelance journalist bill truce has a gyptian expect the deadline to be broken. unsure about whether the transfer. so you follow the military and the ruling military council has yet to fulfill any of its promises also just generally on the streets we're seeing massive human rights violations towards protesters where people are expressing their freedom of speech and we've seeing excessive use of tear gas and cartouche they call it here which is short and maiming protesters has been absolutely no reform of the police as it exemplified by the. disaster a few weeks a

mubarak's ousting with thousands of protesters calling for an immediate step down by the ruling military council other generals are clinging on to power which they refused to give up until at least june. the people of greece have marched on the streets in anger over a new set of cards as a government struggles to keep the country's economy afloat parliament is now due to debate a draft bill on a stair any measures demanded by the e.u. and the i.m.f. . and the russian civil society take center stage in politics as a group of public figure steps up to monitor the upcoming presidential vote with backing from all of the candidates the goal of the so-called voters league is to ensure a fair and transparent election. and now we talked to pakistan's foreign minister here were buying har who tells us why the united states' war on terror is actually doing more harm than good. she's the youngest foreign minister and of all that has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he not rabani khar pakistan's foreign minister is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time minister it's been more than t

the secretary general of the league of arab states was a dear colleague. objected to requests by members of this council to in the fight general -- invite general davi to this meeting. the report of arab observers was not sent to you. as part of the document that was dispatched from the headquarters of the league of arab states. mr. president, the decision by the league of arab states to go to the council is the attempt to bypass the success of the task of arab observers and an attempt to ignore its report. the report came against the plan by some arab and non arab parties who falsely claim attachment to the arab world in settling the syrian crisis and a time when they worked by doing things to avoid the mission of the observers and they wage a political and media war against some arab officials and some europeans have doubted the meaningful less -- meaningful less of the mission including the ambassador who visited new york, washington and other capitals only two week 7 the beginning of the work of the mission making statements that the continuation of the mission of observers is useless and ask the sy

these days are the best days of the chinese council general. g all kinds of celebrations at the local asian and chinese communities. in all these parties, the topic of china-u.s. relations is the most talked-about topic. everybody was happy to see that last year progress has been made in china-u.s. relationship. we saw a frequent exchange of high-level visits. the president of china, mr. hu jintao, visited america. the and the vice president of this

the u.n. general assembly there now for some of our your viewers this may seem like deja vu because we have already had this go on during the search the council and now this is coming before the general assembly what's the difference between those two groups when it comes to those voting. well the major difference here is that a general assembly resolution is nonbinding it doesn't have the same legal implications as they would have if the security council had adopted a resolution which we saw did not happen twelve days ago now it is likely that this draft text will be adopted by the general assembly and there was a previous draft resolution resolution in december condemning syria by the general assembly that was adopted but at the very most it sends a very strong symbolic message on the international stage against the assad government and it puts pressure on the assad government so while it doesn't have any binding implications does send a strong symbolic message and of course as you mentioned matt this the general assembly is gathering in the hall right now of when they cast a vote if and when this draft resolution is adopted we will of cour

the u.n. general assembly is preparing its members for an upcoming vote over a new draft resolution on syria the document apparently echoes one vetoed by moscow and beijing at the security council in early february at a general assembly meeting on monday the u.n. human rights chief said inability the. of the body to take action the syrian crisis have handed president cart blanche to execute an all out assault and all those decisions at the u.n. g.a. are not legally binding some believe the vote could be used in an attempt to put pressure on both russia and china is an associate turn in the fall of the latest gathering your. we've been hearing speeches from dozens of countries that started early in the morning and of course this comes only a week after a double veto from russia and china blocked in the arab and western backed resolution on syria at the security council so what we saw as an attempt from the saudi arabia and qatar to go to another body of the united nations an attempt to find some kind of decision there even though the general assembly does consist of over one hundred ninety members we have to keep in mind that it's not nearly as powerful as the security council b

the disc. balkan islands. in cairo thousands of people joined a general strike in protest against the ongoing military rule exactly a year after president mubarak stepped down demonstrators want the supreme council of the armed forces to cede power to civilian government they are unhappy with how the generals have been running the country with fewer forms made and escalated repression of the opposition dozens of protesters were killed over the past few months in clashes with police across the country and the parliament's been elected and is drawing up a constitution while the military says it won't step down before the end of june but why arab experts told r.t. that gyptian people have already made it to. what you see is more or less pressures on the street. very much reflects the frustration of the protesters with the mismanagement or the management of the transitional period by the i think the supreme council is willing to be followed in the and but with very strict conditions conditions that ensure that it has reserved a means of power in terms of national security policy in terms of foreign policy in terms of legal and constitutional immunity for its leaders and in terms of the economic inte

the u.n. general assembly the u.n. security council what's the point then i mean if the u.n. g.a. despite having a lot more members has a lot less tower one of the actual points of today's meeting are they just trying to send a message are they trying to put pressure on russia and china what do you gathering is the point of all this. the luckless scene from what we understand the message the point of this really is to send a symbolic message to the syrian government more so that russia and china because we've been hearing all these countries make speeches today see a thing that's the syrian government is committing atrocities so really this is another opportunity for those who do support regime change on the ground to send out criticism towards the syrian government but many experts are saying really but the fact that under this symbolic diplomatic gestures being attempted to united nations does not really mean much because any sort of document is not going to help stop the crisis on the ground unless it pushes for a cease fire so many are saying that should be priority or priorit

nations human rights chief has accused the security council of emboldening the syrian government to launch an all-out assault to crush the opposition. she told the general assembly the recent failure of the security council to pass a resolution on syria had encouraged the authorities to attack the city of homs. our middle east editor reports now from cairo. >> as more evidence of the killing of civilians by regime forces emerges, this was homs today. people around the world want to stop it and cannot. regime in damascus insists that the force it is using is a legitimate response to terrorists directed by foreign conspirators. at the u.n. in new york, diplomacy stalled in the security council after russia and china vetoed a resolution backing a call by the arab league. the syrian president to step down. the general assembly is trying. >> the failure of the security council to agree on firm collective action appears to have emboldened the syrian government to launch an all-out assault in an effort to crush defense. >> the ambassador kept to the line that they are battling a conspiracy by foreign extremists. >> we are sad, but we lay this at the doors of t