the u.s. supreme court recently threw out a lawsuit alleging abuse of prisoners by the contractors. in afghanistan it's reported that human rights violations and it was killings are committed by security firms on a regular basis and to an extent set to undermine call the show forces counterinsurgency efforts they'll start firing at anything that moves they will injure or kill innocent afghans and they'll destroy property. we're getting fairly consistent complaints about them everybody knows somebody who's been shot by the contract. the lack of accountability has forced the united nations working group on mercenaries to push for specific international measures to regulate their activities especially now as u.s. military forces withdraw from iraq and afghanistan the number of contractors is said to grow dramatically u.s. government. source many military and security

functions to these security companies they are not regulated in that they are not control and he says we're extremely concerned that what we are calling is for relation to the national and international level so that. companies are accountable but washington is reluctant to lead an international body regulate their activities saying it will find ways to hold contractors accountable but so far the u.s. justice system has largely failed to do so we're seeing around the world cases of kidnapping rape murder. and we see very very only very rare cases in which case actually a criminal investigation or prosecution or sing out of the boat but experts say further privatization of war is convenient for the american government because among other reasons it doesn't have to justify the deaths of troops at home the

president whoever the president may be can get us involved in conflicts only using uniform forces to do the official fighting and then thousands and thousands of contractors to do the unofficial fighting that's under the radar screen that isn't covered by the media now here is a quote we cannot win a fight for hearts and minds when we outsource critical missions took on a. a noble contractors and of quote that's what senator obama said before he became president but apparently as a president now he thinks differently with the contractors role in america's wars bound to increase and with the victims of their crime still begging for justice i'm going to check out reporting from washington our team. for more on how private armies operate or we can talk to human rights lawyer paul wolf who represents victims of war crimes thought to be committed by private contractors thank you very much mr wulf for joining us now could you please just briefly tell us about the

cases you're involved in. well thanks for having me on i resent people who are in war but private companies the reason i do that is it's very difficult if not impossible to hold governments accountable for these kinds of crimes but bribing companies are different so you're telling me you're in the jungle because one of you have a lawsuit against you cheated out of them and then exporting the company because he was financing the various armed factions in a civil war here both sides are considered terrorist groups and so she is actually responsible for the war crimes that were committed by those groups you know i have another case here i am representing the family of the iraqi woman who was killed in a very tragic but unfortunately very common type of incident by private security contractors like military forces these security contractors have no right at all she is so engaging in these kind of businesses the companies are taking pretty

extreme risks and i see it as my kind of an anti-war activist is expensive for them to mr hall for why is it so hard though to a bring those seven sponsible to justice why is there never a conviction in the trials against private contractors. well i heard your other guest jeremy scahill mention that very few people that. i can think of a single one who has been american anyway who has been put on trial in either iraq or afghanistan and they're just not arresting the putting them on trial. in iraq we actually had to treat the iraqi government called the status of forces agreement in which the u.s. agreed that we would rather rapidly the u.s. requests that u.s. forces are essentially immune from iraqi legal process in afghanistan we don't have any agreement at all to be there at all so this is the fact that no one's been arrested there that this imprints is our turn to opt in the agreement you said it's

u.s. forces we're talking about private contractors are you talk are you putting them in the same category. yes that's right contra i'm sorry contractors are in the same category as regular u.s. military forces to know right and security contractor or no private contractor of any kind. is subject to the iraqi legal system that's a racket if you try my guest and there's no formal agreement at all so the fact is that nobody has been prosecuted for any crime that i'm aware of he tried to sue them in the u.s. people that honest with the last quarter were actually more cases against black border us but i would say that blackwater is really an exception because blackwater is an american company most of the private security companies operating in iraq and afghanistan are not there in places like singapore or the united arab emirates they're said specifically to be very difficult to sue so the u.s. government is not just trying to outsource the dirty so that they can't be directly

blamed for it but they're deliberately doing business with companies that are not subject to courts in any country in the world so that we really insulating those companies from any kind of the want to believe this or we're just very briefly just to clarify the countries that you say also have private contractors there it's not that just the u.s. imagine singapore and what also you mentioned. the other one is the united arab emirates united arab emirates it's very convenient because it's arabic speaking country it's close to here there are very. restaurants a lot of wealthy people go there but they also don't have a functioning legal system so companies are set up there because it's a good place to want money it's a good place to do any kind of criminal activities you know a lot of the grounds nuclear program you know money has been going through banks in their emirates one of the most famous unity in my view when you hear him he is apparently. dubai and so these are the u.s.

i don't think should be doing business with companies that can't be sued anywhere it's like switzerland switzerland used to be a big money laundering center because they would anyone to get banking information . and you know i just don't think we should be doing business with companies that we can. thank you very much there mr paul wolf was a human rights lawyer representing claims seven crimes allegedly committed by private contractors thank you thank you. the mayor of the volatile afghan city of kandahar has been assassinated after a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden in his turban is the latest of a series of killings targeting the country's top officials and earlier this month that president karzai is half brother and to see her a bit were gunned down in separate attacks former afghan m.p. del would sort out as always says nato is possibly withdrawing troops prematurely. the scale of transfer of security of one's abilities to the afghan forces and these

these incidents are making one thing very vividly. visible and that is how does this transition take hold and whether the afghan security forces and the afghan sponsible units would be ready to take over i think there's no guarantee that this trend of nato transfer will will continue smoothly i can see. reversals and some time in the future perhaps certain provinces are so volatile and so critical that they may have to delay some of their transfers we should not operate on schedule of they should operate on realities on the ground here and in washington and in europe should be secondary to the civilian population and population is ignored by war and by civilian

reconstruction and that's what counts but unfortunately priorities every time there's a war is where a priority is during wars or on success not on civilian people who are really. the main thing that we should pay attention to. all in a short while on our team or in kids where they're keeping the faith leaders from former soviet states gathered together to mark russia adoption of christianity. i would have associate of convicted oil tycoon me and how they're called ski has been denied parole and will stay in custody at a hearing in northern russia wife and daughter made an emotional plea for his early release but the judge ruled that eleven have is not eligible to be let out of prison that he was at the hearing. it was up to the small local court to decide the fate of one of russia's best known prisoners up to two days of hearings and in town

to face between prosecutors. the judge ruled against granted you told. me how about were found guilty in two separate cases in two thousand and five and twenty times they were found guilty of tax evasion and money laundering or what some seventeen billion rubles that equivalent of over half a billion dollars the defense team managed to reduce that by one year and now the two will be released by twenty six now under russian law though those economic crimes can qualify for parole after serving more than humble best sentence but they may be depressed been behind bars for over eight years now and they must condition for him to be released that he demonstrates good behavior and also. the lottery has never been the case with blood. and as for his personal records the reference which was cried out by administration of the prison where he is now serving he ruled against granting him parole citing the prison full to behave or the reference also

sought but they did not find it reasonable to grant him. force the crucial facts which the judge's decision. norway's intelligence service says there is no evidence of anders breivik is connected to far right extremists in the way or elsewhere well the thirty two year old who admits of killing seventy six people last friday claims he is part of a wider mission his lawyer though insists it is insane and didn't know what he was doing but as our reports his anti immigration message is one that has chilling echoes across europe. and ethnic hatred that led to the slaughter of scores of innocent young people to anders breivik the massacre to which he freely admits was a justified strike against the political left for supporting open borders and multiculturalism and even though the staunchest of hardliners condemned brave fix

horrific actions anti immigration sentiment is growing across europe other groups express their condolences and then are quick and separate themselves from are also quick to lay blame left wing politicians which they say are responsible because they allowed immigration happen and effectively pushed the sky to the edge it's a cry that many feel is not being heard by european governments as people show their discontent voting increasingly for previously marginal anti immigration parties and joining street movements like the anti islamic english defense league. of course you will have groups who are satisfied and you will have other groups who say that the governments are not doing enough they are not discussing the issues enough. in this going forward in the future i think there's no way attacks it will bring this topic into the center of the attention again and they will force.

officials as a public focus on these issues again the move towards nationalism is pan-european as well as the b.n.p. making gains in the u.k. holland's controversial good builders now leads the country's third largest political party running on an anti islam platform nationalists the truth pins redrew the political landscape this year when they won nearly twenty percent of the vote the danish people's party has also embraced anti immigration policies successfully lobbying for denmark to close its previously open borders with germany and. there's grassroots support for brief it to disturbingly depicted on the internet by some extremists as a hero three thousand people voted for his video manifesto one you cheap and his group knights templar became a popular search topic on google on point concerned that there are

a lot of individuals. writing in his manifesto will resonate with. i'm very concerned you will see other people copycatting these types of attacks in the coming months or years politicians including germany's angela merkel and britain's david cameron have already said multiculturalism has failed now the leaders of western europe have to stop the disenfranchised cities becoming a breeding ground for far right. who lit the fuse and those brave it claims to have been involved with the english defense league which pledges to protect england from what it calls a wave of islamic the case said the e.t.l. denies but political analysts are saying if the attacks in norway don't prompt an honest appraisal of the issues surrounding immigration that could frustrate the european public and create more space for potentially violent far right groups to

expanded all over europe. r.t. london. britain now officially recognizes libya's rebels as the legitimate government and has expelled colonel gadhafi is diplomats and it's also one freezing one hundred fifty million dollars of libyan oil assets to help fund the rebels tripoli insists it will not enter peace talks to end the a four month long civil war until nato stops its airstrikes well you want talks with the rebels in benghazi also making little progress towards a cease fire professor mark elmer from oxford university thinks there won't be the dramatic collapse of gadhafi regime. nato expects. additionally britain has recognized governments not on the basis of whether we like them or not but on what will they control the territory of the state colonel gadhafi running lost control of parts of the but clearly the rebels don't control it yet so this is a study in a new precedent after all the dangerous one the other problem is that the rebels on

the ground soon to stall even with the nato bombing raids and if you remember when this started more than four months ago we were told it would be a matter of weeks rather months and so i suspect really what we have hope british warship which is doing is really having a symbolic act to try to show that somehow or other we're still in charge of the situation in the situation is increasingly unpredictable in practice the symbolic decision to recognize rebels kick out cut off his diplomats from london. and indeed a strategic crisis or the nato countries but. russia has harshly criticized america's decision to impose travel restrictions on a group of russian officials well into the case of a lawyer who died in jail sergei magnitsky died after spending almost a year in a russian prison while awaiting trial for tax evasion and he got the skin of his across the story for r.t. . washington says that this so-called blacklist is a consequence of what it says was

a violation of city marking its keys writes just to remind you magnitsky was a lawyer who worked with the lawyers for an investment fund here in russia he was accused of organizing a huge money laundering scheme was arrested but died before the court could make a decision on his case now he's a family blames the police and doctors for his death and later several human rights groups put together a list of people who they say are connected to his death it's not clear whether the blacklist is exactly the same as that one but it is reported that around sixty people are all dead including some senior russian police officials agents of the federal security service a lawyer some of doctors and others washington says that it has the full right to deny access to the united states to people who are connected to human rights violations while there's been a fierce reaction of trauma a russian foreign ministry here in moscow they say first of all washington is

informed of all of the steps and measures being taken to investigate the circumstances also human needs these deaths there are actually several investigations being held at the moment they are monitored by president need to be just also the foreign ministry says that none of the people all of this a list have been found guilty by a court of any human rights violations but most importantly moscow says that this is an unfriendly act which may imagine to believe f.x. the trust between a russia and the united states and has also promised an adequate reaction from moscow will follow. i'll have to r.t. dot com for more on the news you need around the clock and on live right now actually investigates the rise in suicide posts about which it happened as thousands find it too much. to cope with the aftermath of the disaster. the

rush of bad for husbands with. millions of port and you feel that. it's at our dot com. iran is praising russia's efforts to diplomatically solve the dispute over its nuclear program well the country's foreign minister is in moscow for talks with this russian counterpart iran is under un added u.s. scrutiny over allegations it wants to produce nuclear weapons but iran insists its program is purely peaceful and has no intentions to use it in harmful purposes marty caught up with the iranian foreign minister in moscow and he told our rabbit sister channel that washington's a political game. when you come home only international body that has the authority to judge our activities is the i.a.e.a. state is allowed to cues in iran over its nuclear program i confirm that iran has

made its intentions regarding its nuclear program and why it's clear and proven that it is peaceful minnis for our intentions how can the u.s. accuse us of. their intentions and if america itself was the first state every three years atomic weapons killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in japan this is why we have no faith in america's intentions as history shows it can't be trusted with think that it's a political game you don't do iran's nuclear program and allegations that it wants to produce nuclear weapons have become instruments of exerting pressure on ourselves we don't see any problem in reaching a solution that will suit and benefit all parties and allow iran to go ahead with its nuclear program under the supervision of the international agency. well you can watch the whole interview here on thursday right here on r.t. . religious leaders from post soviet nations are uniting in ukraine to celebrate

the christianization of ancient russia ukraine's capital kiev used to be the center of the ancient state when exactly one thousand and twenty three years ago this part of the world adopted orthodox christianity russia's patriarch kirill is meeting his georgian adam craig and counterparts to take part in the festivities tens of thousands of people attended a liturgy at the monument to prince video who christianized ancient russian in the center of cue the celebrations are expected to continue for the next couple of days not just in kids but across the whole soviet area. over a few minutes away from meeting the man who inspired the most movement to save the planet from the berlin wall first corina joins us with a business news. welcome to business here in r.t. russia is planning to put fifteen percent of its all champion roll snapped up for

sale next year it could become the biggest profit as ation deal in the nation's history a current market conditions the stake is valued at fourteen billion dollars the government says it's also weighing plans to sell its entire state of seventy five percent by two thousand and seventeen and also plans to divest holdings in time and produce. and raising around thirty six billion dollars. russia's leading goal produce supporters gold has been taken over by the law its london based subsidiary cousin called the new company under the name of porters called international started trading in the london stock exchange on wednesday and large love from e t x capital says the unusual reverse takeover could impact the new group share value. this is a reverse. gold which is a limited company has gone and bought out his parents which is fairly unusual and it looks like he wants to continue doing that as

a process to expand going forward this kind of reverse takeover can dampen shareholder value in the in the near term and shareholder performance as well and having looked at the recent performance of. gold has been the performers royal's fairly considerably despite the price of gold increasing on the upside. now gold is trading lower this hour however price is still high as investors are looking for a safe haven do you tell uncertainty over u.s. debt resolution sobers trading at around forty dollars per ounce. meanwhile wrangling over the u.s. debt ceiling all in the red light sweet is losing one dollar sixty five cents this hour and brands it is losing sixty cents now stocks in the u.s. are falling as lawmakers remain at odds over how to avoid a debt default decline in orders for manufactured goods is also pushing stocks lower energy stocks retreat with the broader equities markets but shares of conoco

phillips southern and exelon stood their ground after earnings updates. markets in europe finished in the red the footsie fell one point two percent on the dax said one point three percent banking stocks led the four c. lower lloyds banking group barclays and world bank of scotland fell between four and three percent after goldman sachs downgraded the european banking sector and of russia's dogs retreated for a fourth day as well fell after a u.s. government report showed an unexpected increase in inventories my sixty eight point nine percent its biggest loss since july eighteenth and now let's take a look at some individual moves on them isaac's oil producers and in the red on lower crude to look oil fell over one and a quarter of a percent precious metal miners were among the main gainers held by stronger than gold. poly metal finished almost two percent and black banking stocks were also high have a t.v. gain around half a percent on news it may soon acquire another twenty percent of bank of moscow that

are from dirty banks sums up the. serial work or foot markets nothing is going on the market is rather boring but at the reasons for this first of all seasonal factor and the second factor is the universe to take with us to position and to wait for us the issue to be resolved but what are some individual stocks for which was first of all. why i told the sun so to the division of silver i'm moving higher and there will still be months growth even such talk as probably my apple also gave the ball to three percent on when you can still see. the positive and also mistaken moral clarity and monetize results and the probably views that. that's all the business up there for now i'll be back in about forty five minutes with more meanwhile stay with us the headlines are next.

the official location on the phone called touch from the jumps to. life on the go. video on demand cheese and wine gold coast's an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. questions on the dot com. in india oh geez available in the movie join the hotel rooms the villains the

gateway to the grand imperial truly told us to. you can a letter tell the close of the show to saddam did to go and proclaim from the since the colonel was her job as a treat. welcome back now here's a recap of the top stories here on our t.v. the tortoise american security firm blackwater goes on trial for overbilling the government and not for killing civilians the law that despite claims of atrocities against innocent people if you last resorts to losing more contract person. for admission. intelligence says that the far right suspect who admitted deadly terrorist attacks that claim seventy six lives acted alone but europe's growing

nationalistic mood is feeding fears of more violence elsewhere. britain is officially recognizing libya's opposition as the country's legitimate leaders and the stuff in our diplomatic offensive against colonel gadhafi it's also on a freezing one hundred fifty billion dollars of libyan oil assets to help the rebels. well next meet one of the first men to ever get up close and personal with the boom but it's nasa astronaut bill anders celebrated photo of earth which inspired people to protect the planet as our team discovers now. i understand you very much for being with us today it's a great pleasure and an honor nice to be with you soldiers all right so apollo

eight commander frank berman and common command module pilot jim lovell had flown more hours than any other. when they tap on you well i was the rookie. but it turns out that none of us had ridden on the saturn five so we were all right rookies for saturn five and we were all rookies for a trip away from the earth with a lot of screaming and shouting during the six and a half days no not the screaming and shouting you didn't half through when the spacecraft to reach at our jobs level was basically the navigator and i was the systems engineer and copilot looked at the shot actually frank borman no. i think it's. definitely proven that i took the shot but i think find more remote have taken the first one but unfortunately he didn't use color film and didn't use a long lens so i gets the credit what's the earthrise mean to you.