castro s revolution. we had an ambassador who worked very hard in 1959 and 1960 to see if he could findñi common ground for co-existence. that didn t work. bonds were broken. after the missile crises there was an opportunity because the cubans were upset with the soviet union and president kennedy opened secret channels to see if there was a possibility of normalization. that dialogue ended with kennedy s assassination. rose: mike rogers, william leogrande and peter kombluh when we continue. rose: additional funding provided by: and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services world wide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. rose: joining me now from washington is mike rogers. since 2001 he has represented michigan s 8th congressional district, chair of the house intelligence committee for the last four years. in that role he séqis over swea broad sweep of investigation to some
castro s revolution. we had an ambassador who worked very hard in 1959 and 1960 to see if he could findñi common ground for co-existence. that didn t work. bonds were broken. after the missile crises there was an opportunity because the cubans were upset with the soviet union and president kennedy opened secret channels to see if there was a possibility of normalization. that dialogue ended with kennedy s assassination. rose: mike rogers, william leogrande and peter kombluh when we continue. rose: additional funding provided by: and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services world wide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. rose: joining me now from washington is mike rogers. since 2001 he has represented michigan s 8th congressional district, chair of the house intelligence committee for the last four years. in that role he séqis over swea broad sweep of investigation to some
good evening. four out of five americans alive today have never known a free cuba, and while that didn t change today, a lot of history seems to fall down at once. it s been over half a century of tension, fear, cold war and frigid relations. the u.s. and cuba are moving to now restore diplomatic relations effective today. that will change a lot between the two countries, separated by 90 miles of ocean and several decades in terms of economic advancement. the day started with the homecoming of an imprisoned american and a prisoner swap and it then went quickly from there. before we get reaction from cuba to south florida tonight, our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell starts us off from the state department this evening. andrea, good evening. reporter: good evening, brian. that half-century change with relations began with the release of one man from a cuban prison and his dramatic homecoming. the drama began early this morning when state department contrac
phase, loading components of the highly-toxic sarin gas. syria doesn t even acknowledge that it has chemical weapons. they ve said that they would never use them against their own people. but one top official warned this summer that they would only be used against what he called external aggression. and that sarin gas that alex just mentioned, it is extremely toxic. a single drop can kill a person in a matter of moments. of course, the u.s. has been worried about syria using chemical weapons for quite some time, now. abc s tahman bradley has that part of the story. reporter: a senior official tells abc news, the use of chemical weapons could trigger retaliatory action from the united states. monday, president obama warned the syrian regime. i want to make it clear to assad and those under his command, the world is watching. the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. reporter: obama administration and military officials say they believe preside
good evening. we begin with another big bulletin about the record-breaking heat and the melting at the north pole. a new study shows a global thaw under way, affecting everyone on the planet. and it comes today as we learn how little snow there is here in the united states. as the temperatures here keep rising and the records keep falling. abc abc s meteorologist ginger zee tells us what s going on. reporter: nearly snowless in december. right now, only 7% of the united states is covered in snow. that s even less than this time last year, when 32% of the nation was laced in winter white. not enough snow means no skiing. yet. this resort in washington state has had to wait. impatiently. to get our show on the road here. reporter: less snow helped make it even warmer this past week. almost 700 record high temperatures have been set in the past five days. all of that will contribute to 2012 likely becoming the warmest on record in the lower 48. while one week or one season