the philippines. we re going to go as fast as we possibly can and get there as soon as we can to help people in need. we check in with ian williams who s live in manila with the very latest for us. ian, good morning. reporter: good morning, thomas. well, that huge aid effort is now getting under way, but not nearly quick enough for many of those desperate survivors who are pleaing for even the most basic things such as water, shelter, food and medicine. the government in manila here today was on the defensive. the presidential palace saying it is doing everything it can to help and pledging that every filipino that needs help will receive it. officials said airports are reopening, ports are reopening. they re also clearing roads. now, some of the issues, though, some of the logistical problems they face were told to us by one aid agency earlier who said they are flying much-needed aid into one of the worst hit cities but once it gets on the ground they re having a probl
we begin with stunning news concerning the death of plo leader yasir arafat. swiss scientists say the former palestinian leader was poisoned. they found high levels of poison in his ribs and pelvis, and the radioactive material was found in the soil where he was buried. clayton swisher has more from paris. reporter: first they found abnormally high amounts of the poison in his clothes. now they have discovered a high presence of the radioactive substance inside his bones. swiss scientists produced this 108 report after an exhume makes of his body last september. the data clearly favors poisoning of the leader with up to 83% confidence. the family received the results from their lawyer along with analysis from david bar barclay. for widow and daughter it is 100% proof. when they came with the results, they told me he just died. i will not stop. me and my daughter will go to all courts in all over the world to punish who did this crime. now that i have proof that he
good friday morning to you. we start, once again, in iraq. where just days after 300 u.s. special forces troops will arrive to help the iraqi government fight againback agai the isis terrorist assaults tearing apart the country. president obama announced he s sending military advisers to help train iraqi security forces as well as assess the security strength of isis. the president, less than three years ago, trumted the end of america s war in iraq insists he s not sending the military back into combat. i think we have to guard against so let me repeat what i ve said in the past. american combat troops are not going to be fighting in iraq again. let s start with nbc news. over all most weary democrats, some republicans seem to be supporting the president s plan by and large. what is next for the white house as it tries to sell the strategy? reporter: the next step, i think, is going to be the face conversations that secretary of state john kerry has with leaders in t
0 international community and he s looking inward perhaps, but let s talk about, there is always this sort of threat from north korea in terms of its nuclear program. there s new imagery that shows activity at a plant. how worried are you about their nuclear program? i think a nuclear program is something they need to keep, to maintain, to maintain the height end alert for their military, and much of this is for their domestic consumption. their military capability scientifically speaking, is far inadequate to reach the united states and become a real source of threat. so i think it s very important for us not to overreact to what happens to be a rather harsh provocative words. obviously you re looking at them in a way sort of pointing this towards the masses, concerned about the arab spring that something like this could happen in north korea. when you mentioned the execution of kim jong-un s uncle, what is that when you looked at that, a lot of people wondered, my goodness, doe