a ceasefire ending eight days of violence between israel and hamas remains intact but critics say the truce is just that calm before the next storm. european union passes a resolution calling for greater military unity but critics say the move could further undermine member states. and bahrain sentences nearly two dozen medics to jail for treating protesters just a day after amnesty international revealed the worsening human rights record. live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is r.t.

i'm carrie johnston. the cease fire agreed between israel and palestinian group hamas late on wednesday has now held firm for more than twenty four hours but the truce had a shaky start with several rockets fired from gaza immediately after the deal was sealed the main question now is whether israel is going to ease its blockade of the palestinian territory as artie's poilus live reports from tel aviv. some of the fiercest fighting we've witnessed in years between israelis and palestinians if indeed the truce holds it will mean that roughly one point seven million gazans will have a spine now from what we've seen eight days of heavy bombardment at the same time it brings with spite to roughly a million israelis who live in the south of israel and who've been on the receiving end of constant barrage of rockets but i say if it holds because it is perceived as being rather fragile it certainly is a truce that came by surprise it followed a day of deadly violence in which some twenty eight israelis were injured in the

first bus bombing in tel aviv since two thousand and six and there were massive israeli air strikes over gaza so the sense on the ground particularly in the hours leading up to the announcement of the cease fire was that israel was going to go ahead with a ground offensive and to know who has said that he is willing to give this truce a chance he says however he does hold open the possibility to reopen the conflict at a later stage he said and i'm quoting i know that there are citizens in israel that expected a more severe military action to be taken and perhaps we will need to do so there is criticism towards netanyahu particularly among people in the south of the country who would have supported a ground offensive and wanted to see a much harsher israeli reaction we've had protests in several cities in the south we still don't have too much information exactly what the terms of the cease fire do in fact say that i can tell you that israel for its side has committed to ending hostilities in gaza and at the same time stopping with its targeted killings and

mass for its side has also said that it will stop firing rockets into southern israel and staging cross border attacks now there's a lot of questions still hanging over the whole issue of whether or not is its blockade on gaza that has been in place for several years now we do understand that is what must begin talks re opening this for the border crossings and lifting the blockade and easing restrictions on the movement of both people and goods while the cease fire the moment is holding basically is a lot of tension on the ground and a lot of questions as to whether or not it will stand the test of time. author and journalist afshin rattansi says the battle was on even as israeli forces had the backing of powerful western allies and was no match for the israeli military backed by britain and the united states to supply them with nuclear weapons of mass destruction and so forth it's important because as a democratically elected government of gaza it's proved to have so many allies from

iran to egypt they have to be part of any peace negotiations for a one party state which will after. scored its victory with the most basic of rockets really these homemade things is a sea change in nature monica the thing to watch is the right in israel and how they reacted to the polling numbers for the coming israeli elections show a swing to the so-called extremist. but israel's deputy foreign minister says that most of the people hit by israeli strikes deserved it claiming there were armed terrorists however happiness tinian health officials and human rights activists say more than two thirds of those killed were civilians and almost half of them children israel though says the ratio is lower lashley perry a former senior advisor for israel's foreign ministry says the casualty figures demonstrate the country's. israel has invested billions of dollars protecting

its people either through more protected rooms so every single rockets which emanated from gaza had the intent to kill in fact it intended to kill many people mass casualties and if we have invested that money in the protection of our people there would have been far greater numbers on the israeli side so i don't think we need to apologize for the problem that we have invested money to protect our citizens where is the opposition the hamas have actually spent millions if not billions of dollars trying to create a system of terror which bears no regard for the treatment of its own civilians well the aggression may have stopped but a deep divisions between israel and hamas remain sparking fears the truce is doomed from the outset lottie's going to church again has more now on the tensions that led to the latest round of violence. this ceasefire deal doesn't even begin to address the root causes of the conflict and as long as they remain the decades long

cycle of violence is almost assured to continue by now most people lost track of all the previous cease fire agreements and more generally of where it all started and it became for the most part a chicken and egg conversation you have the years long suppression of the palestinians we saw the radical forces among them rising in striking it is well with israel coming back at them so hard that he would most peaceful palestinian started sympathizing with radical forces without going too far back in history in two thousand and six the palestinians in gaza elected hamas that promised a more affirmative response to the story of the occupation in response israel put gaza under blockade the list of import was directions among many many other things including things like cement wood cat all animal medicine musical latest roman's notebooks at one point even lentils pasta tomato paste and chocolate were on the list of items not allowed into gaza it's not easy to gauge what the blockade meant for the people there and all the humiliation that went with it as

well insisted that the purpose of the blockade was to pressure hamas into ending the rocket attacks the attacks did not stop they intensified in two thousand and eight is where launched a major assault on gaza operation cast lead killed more than a thousand palestinians and thirteen israelis did not solve the problem again it got worse. and officials keep repeating the mantra israel has the right to defend itself it sure does but the tragedy is that the palestinians to think they are defending themselves. but spokeswoman for the israeli foreign ministry and on a study says even with such a high civilian death toll in gaza the operation can still be described as the trickle. did the most possible not to hurt the civilians what we did is we pinpointed our operation just to the terrorist leaders and to their army and the ammunition but i do agree that there are a once in

a while there were civilian cattle casualties and we feel very bad about it but as you know this is not an easy operation no military operation is but by any international standard the collateral damage here is pretty minimal the amount of civilians who died it's hard to say it this way it sounds very bad but it could have been much much worse if we weren't so surgical and if our pilots were not given instructions to be very very precise and to aim is specially at the military a terrorist leaders a spokesman for the united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees chris gunness says the people of gaza will never have a decent living conditions unless the blockade is lifted but we have to see what is going to happen as far as the regime is concerned we have always called for the blockade to be looked to be certain it's a collective punishment of one point six one point seven million people it has to end even if all the current upsurge in financing that there was

a crisis almost every aspect of life through their walls crisis over to creation we are in the process of building one hundred new schools because there was acute overcrowding in schools. there is a crisis public health because for example ninety percent of all also in gaza is unthinkable millions of liters of fuel sewage flowing into the city or every day because the sewage system is not functional it's not a functional and the list goes on. well our websites where keeping our finger on the pulse of middle east about it's including the question of who was behind wednesday's television bus. was israel's best of a suspect responsible for the attack that injured twenty eight. which is.

now the european parliament has voted through a resolution calling for european and national militaries to pool their resources and act with greater unity one of the justifications was a shrinking defense budget that's left many states cutting their forces with amy david campbell bannerman from the u.k. conservative party says brussels has encroached on the sovereignty of member states it really does trespass international responsibilities for their friends and it's talking about you looking after it its citizens you know so it's a direct assault on sovereignty as i said this really is about politics rather than the military this is about actually furthering the cause of it the one united states and europe because they want a single army a single defense industry they want control from the you part of their foreign policy and they're actually involved in they want to get in for the high intensity

conflicts in their terminology and that means war in my terminology they want to actually you to be involved in wars and to commit our soldiers and our airmen and our navy people into these kind of conflicts and that is not acceptable. another major battle is underway in brussels of the e.u. budget group eight more gulf between those two million c.d.'s and those who depend on its phones. late in the program. russian activists increase their attempts to sue mcdonough. story after the break. british live demo minister lynne featherstone said that since women have babies it

allows men to pass them up on the letter to power essentially children are a setback for women who want to be successful and equal to men so they want to give men the option of taking maternity leave or would that be paternity leave i don't know i kind of see the logic of her view but my question is featherstone is why exactly is success in the corporate world the primary goal of life for men and women as a feminist i would think you understand that wanting to fight your way up the ladder to buy a big car to replace your shortcomings is a very male way of judging success are women who choose to have families failures or at least unsuccessful in your book even as a man i know that my pocket is really empty after having the first of hopefully many kids but i don't see our child as a financial setback keeping me from buying an x. box guess what success is relative to the goal and maybe a corporate boardroom vision of success isn't for everyone women who have kids are failures in my opinion but then again that's just my opinion.

mission. critic ations free storage free range chickens free. free stews priest. moon freeboard just wanted video for your media project a free media dog our teeth on top. of a war lords will give him a note so we have a lot of. groups of the colors of the sluices also argues in the whole movie

right enough to my mind it was like many of them out h. it wasn't just the smadi when i was fifteen years old you can liberate other women and you certainly can't do it through the barrel of a gun salute to the social changes can be the afghans themselves as gay and men and women we believe i'm going to stun them not to across. the part of the patient it's coming up on the shelf and at a construction stop people in the obama administration talking about how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan.

welcome to the program now in bahrain twenty three doctors have been sentenced to three months in prison for treating protesters and taking part in last demonstrations they were arrested during the uprising last year along with more than ninety five other health care workers or those directly affected they have told us what happened during her detention i was involved in treating the injured patients to us her sisters are not it doesn't really matter. as a punishment for not being the authorities to abandon these patients all the doctors who were involved in treating the kid gestures they were arrested myself personally i was at a state of ducted from my house at three in the morning and i was badly mistreated

i was tortured unfortunately as long as his dictatorship the genes are backed up by international forces and power and they're protecting them and their allies with the united states in britain who do see any chance for us and if there's a change in the policy of this isn't of these countries. the age old conflict between rich and poor was out in the open in brussels where european leaders gather to hammer out a budget deal aside from disagreeing on whether to increase decrease or freeze the budget leaders are also threatening vetoes over what to cut what to fund parties or smith reports on the dumbing down. the scene was set for this battle over the use polluted budgets two years ago when angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy desperately needing british backing for a euro rescue fund promised stated cameron they would rein in brussels cash trough

now it's payback time and the brussels mandarins who control the e.u. is one thousand billion euros budgets are about to feel the pinch years of deal making is supposed to yield a budget to twenty twenty covering infrastructure education research and development but after three years of economic turmoil in the e.u. and weakening political ties stark divisions are emerging david cameron is heading to brussels or more many are calling mission impossible he's under intense pressure at home to cut a new budget contributions and has threatened to veto anything beyond a spending greens a promise that goes down well at home where popularity is at an all time low but his hands are tied by what's gone before tony blair as the new deals mean the u.k.'s contribution to brussels is likely to go up in real terms and its cash rebates will be reduced by two billion pounds

a year unless cameron can get more budget cuts from brussels he may face more rebellion in his own party and germany's angela merkel desperate for a deal to so focus can back to saving the euro but the brussels budget tension has opened and angry new divides on the one side northern european countries like the u.k. which are demanding huge cuts in spending to match this all sterile home that's making countries to the south and east who are dependent on cash from brussels very uneasy it suggests the to tear europe solo. long demonized and denied by jose manuel barroso the brussels p.r. is becoming a reality. independence party for the central services spokesman stephen wolfe doesn't believe real growth can come from brussels. this is a battle between the rich and the poor but actually it's the rich who are the

brussels mandarins demanding more for themselves more money for them to spend and it's the poor people of europe the fifty percent unemployed youth in spain those starving in greece people rioting in france and portugal are the ones that are suffering for the greed of the brussels mandarin but what is changing is actually the people of europe are finally waking up that this is a huge battle between them and this political elites who are demanding more from them every single day whilst protecting their own interests we are not helping the public of greece and we're not helping the jobs being lost in the u.k. by defending a system that has palpably failed and will has no real way of actually achieving growth for the european continent in the future. west check out some other news making headlines around the world this hour. rebels in eastern syria claim they've seized a key military base containing a large part to stockpiles on a three week standoff some human rights organizations say the facility is the last stronghold of pro us forces in the oil rich region it follows the rebels capture of

a military airport in the same area last week forty thousand people have been killed in the civil conflict which started in the wake of arab spring protests last year. nicolas sarkozy has been questioned by a border court house magistrate i think ations or have you seen in the can do nations former accountant of. the betancourt revealed that hundred fifty thousand euros were sent by the french billionaire to sarkozy's treasure. presidential election under french law individual campaign contributions cannot exceed four thousand six hundred euros despite is a step back from politics so he is rumored to be a possible candidate in the twenty seventeen presidential race. rebels from the militant group twenty three in the democratic republic of congo. they're ready to seize the country's capital the statement was made in this if you go to

the fighters captured tuesday after ousting the union backed government forces local come on the only people of the city to join the march on insurance or to topple president couldn't the u.n. security council earlier agreed to sanctions against the rebel leadership introducing a travel ban and asset freeze. around one hundred forty cars collided the u.s. state of texas printing a massive thanksgiving day pile up two people are dead and eighty more injured as medicine has turned this search for an instant trap to vehicles these are the only accidental dents from. one of the world's most provocative pop stars is once again in the spotlight russian activists who are trying to drag madonna to court for what they claim is gay propaganda also accuse the entertainer of breaching state security. he has more details. not only

according to these activists madonna poses great danger to the family institution in russia not only she has offended the feelings of many by openly supporting the gay community in russia during her concert concert in st petersburg this summer but also these activists believe that she in fact poses a threat to the defense capabilities of russia they say that people who believe what madonna's told them during the concert will be involving themselves in all different sorts of good and thus they will not be willing to serve in the army and protect their country these activists were determined to go to the end with a case they were determined to receive ten million dollars of compensation for moral damages but now the case has been turned down by the judge of the st petersburg court and now in fact these activists will have to pay a certain sum of money for the services of the defending lawyers of the company which was organizing the tour of the american pop star now certainly madonna has been no stranger to different sorts of controversies all throughout her career for

instance she exposed nipple during her concert in instils also she supported the. controversial punk band pussy riot during her concert in moscow and the biggest intrigue in the biggest question was whether she would turn up for the hearings in the st petersburg court for now definitely this would not happen but definitely the story has been a very interesting one and if we have any developments on it and your reactions from the pop star we'll certainly deliver those news right away. online you can check out a new style explosion in the heart of russia this big that is even a result of a massive military invasion some negligence in the volatile substances. a dog a certainly is man's best friend especially when you steal a cleanup of japan's fukushima nuclear plant that story on our web site. coming up in a few minutes we explore the hardships and trials faced daily by the women of afghanistan stay with us.

it is easy to. see. you know how sometimes you see

a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. get in sorrow. and hope for escape.

barely surviving longing for a godsend. they live in a search for goals. why doesn't it bring them wealth.

we see. many. ask why we have been beaten who want to leave their abusive husband there is one story that was the worst story which is a girl who had been sold off by her family and she was beaten by the older man who she was forced to marry and she tried to escape and they caught her and brought her back and because she had tried to escape she had to be punished her husband then cut off and cut off her nose their reason is that it's a big example for others. mark

how we're. going to reach him i'll tell you a story of a young woman i met i find inspiring i'm not going to promise a happy outcome but at least it was an inspiring story she was a young woman who was forced into marriage in a very conservative part of the country in the south east she was forced into marriage at the age of around thirteen and from somewhere she was getting a lot of abuse in this home and she was very unhappy and she found it in his up to run away which when you're coming from an area of the country where women are not seen on the streets alone imagine if she was now fourteen or fifteen making her way from the southeast of the country away to a couple and then she found shelter and she was lucky. that she then found that have husbands family rose up against a they called upon a lot of the tribal elders that area they were furious they felt like she brought shame upon had they got the support of parliament they got the support of the

minister of interior is an indication of quite how conservative those views are even in the heart of government and in the end this girl faced the president's office the minister of interior parliamentarians and they said to her you must go home you brought shame on it and she said no if you send me back to that village there is not one that will hear my death cries kill me here kill me now i'd rather that than go back to this village so defiance was extraordinary this courage in a girl so young and eventually the government backed down and they let her stay in the safe hands she's getting an education she's much happier now she may someday soon get a divorce she's been trying for several years to get a separation. and so i can't claim that she's yet happy she's still having to be very much protected because the husband's family frankly still want to kill her or at least take her back and there she might get real risk but she is trying to forge a life.