this is r t tonight loyalist clashes shake northern ireland yet again after belfast council's decision to fly the union flag from city hall for only eighteen days a year. mali government forces chase militants sort of a key city with the help of french military air strikes after president francois stated intervention in the area will continue for as long as necessary. and washington says it will reassign its afghan mission to assisting local forces from the spring sparking speculation that it might be planning to keep up its military muscle in that chaotic country.

and here at the r t new center tonight it's ten pm moscow time now top story at least four police officers have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist clashes in northern ireland tensions been running high for more than a month after belfast council decided to fly the union flag above city hall for only eighteen days a year of further is in the province for us looks into what else is fueling the unrest. recreational rioting that's what some people are calling it. has been taking place all across the past in the past weeks many of them peaceful but in pockets violence breaking out of the crisis is on the other side many of them young their faces covered as police come under attack with rocks and petrol bombs mark easton's the director of the east belfast mission creep is working with

young protesters to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are doing it because it's sexier than a playstation you know young girls are doing a girls even with young children we've seen on the streets i don't think a fully realized what their actions. they're just. having a laugh and yet there's nothing for me. on the surface and this has been about the decision at the beginning of december to limit the number of days the union flag flies at city hall but in what's been the most sustained outbreak of violence since the one nine hundred ninety eight good friday peace agreement and it's clear that the problems run much deeper one of the protesters here asking.

them he was the one to start. on the street to protest against. a nice sentiment banks a very retail flack these callers. bring out you know when he wanted also to on the streets for his own actions we can make for do you think the protesters would put it that any kind of compromise when it comes to this it could bring the flag of rest of play down not said. we know we're not going to get back up to normal action because it's the majority. any unionist horns now to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done there'll be no quick fixes here i don't think there's any silver bullet i think there's so many different things need to happen economic. investment political investment

community investment by and by all the stakeholders in these communities to try to resolve the wide raft of issues that are a blight you say far there's been over one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions of pounds spent in policing these riots and in lost business revenue. they these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching this is a new generation bringing back to the streets of belfast it's a far cry from the darker days of northern ireland's complex that doesn't make it any less troubling. been following the latest developments in belfast where she says there are fresh protests you can see the photo she's posting in read what she's witnessing or following her on twitter. spoke to jason walsh's journals for christian science

monitor he told me the arm rest is being flared up by the changing demographics. the protests. despite the appearance of some groups such as the ulster people's form no one is entirely sure exactly what it is that the protesters want northern ireland in general in belfast in particular have traditionally been protestant unionists loyalists or if you like to put areas and the recent census results showed that northern ireland no longer has a unionist one it's more sort of fifty fifty situation i mean what can city whole do is got itself into a real rock and a hard place isn't it if they overturn the decision it's going to look like more brule taken of potentially cause a flare up on the other side this stuff going to get over this account of they certainly can't undo the decision. first or but it's deep highly unlikely that irish nationalists connoisseurs would vote to raise the flag and second of all even if they could be convinced to do so in the name of public order i think it would look very bad for the council to constitute

a block down of the fears of violence so what's your prognosis which way it's going to go you know over the coming months is it going to come down or was i going to go from bad to worse it's very difficult to say just today we've had and if not months do we get drawn into the into the world when we could get much much worse. obviously also a suspect device so i just wonder if you have viable small explosive was true in light of belfast today no it's not yet clear who planted. these are not good signs . french pilots been killed in fighting in mali as the european nation continues to launch air strikes against islamist militancy comes after mali's government troops chased rebels out of the king central turn of corner aided by the french military the un security council call for a speedy deployment of international forces to battle the rebels could seize the north of the country last april and since made significant advances president alarmed announced friday that the intervention in mali would quote last as long as necessary from space independent journalist robert it believes that the french

foreign policy though contradicts itself. i think that as long as the french people are to gaza by the consequences of this sort of intervention they generally favorite this as a great military tradition in france and they've grown accustomed to interfering other people's countries but if you if the minute it starts to get nasty i think you'll find they'll be a very quick a reversal of public opinion the sort of islamic extremists they're very tough soldiers and they've grown tougher over the last twenty years and if france starts to find these people have been armed as a result of the intervention in libya and all the arms of the swilling about in the in the sahara as a result of that intervention ironically instigated by france then they're going to find it's a very dangerous place to intervene in mali has requested help and they get it

instantly when the central african republic requested help from the french forces there they were told are no we can't interfere to tell any particular regime were neutral. it to do even if you had wanted to destroy the credibility of france and the western countries over the last five or ten years you couldn't have done a better job by the absurd contradictions of what they do. meanwhile two french soldiers have died in somalia during a failed mission to rescue a hostage who's also been killed right in the area began hours after french troops intervened in mali to help government troops battle rebels there are currently nine french people held hostage across northern africa. there's no existential threat that's breeding real panic right now very soon tonight about the war frenzy in israel where citizens are stocking up on supplies and fear of a nuclear strike by iran that's after the break.

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from the streets of canada. operations. america's to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch to a support role this spring the announcement came from u.s. president barack obama for a round of talks with his afghan counterpart on what's being hailed as the last chapter in the u.s. afghan mission but is going to each account reports american involved in the country looks set to rumble on during his election campaign president obama may have sounded very resolute to leave afghanistan in two thousand and fourteen but the white house is now negotiating terms to stay there the president said if u.s. forces stayed their role will be different but critics argue it's an attempt to

rebrand a military presence which both the majority of americans and afghans oppose take a listen to what president obama said about the mission after twenty fourteen i think. you know although obviously we're still. two years away. i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission and a very different task and a very different. for the u.s. if we are able to come to an appropriate agreement now one of the key points of the agreement that the president mentioned there on that key point probably is immunity from prosecution for u.s. troops so that the afghans cannot prosecute any american soldier if they commit a crime that's the deal that the white house couldn't get from the iraqi government the u.s. wanted to keep some troops there but couldn't because of how we opposed the iraqis were to allowing the u.s. to further operate there with impunity but with homemade karzai it could be different he indicated that he is willing to give that immunity and that he's

willing to bargain besides he knows that he's in power because of the americans and many experts believe his government will collapse in no time after americans leave but whatever post twenty fourteen deal comes out of their negotiations it might not be easy for washington to sell it to the american people because despite the administration trying to present of ghana sent as a success story in many ways they see it as a failure and don't understand why their troops should stay any further policymakers in washington can't really come out and say that they don't want to walk away and just just pack up and leave from such an important geopolitical position now that they've spent billions and billions of dollars to have a presence there but such chill political calculations may not sound very appealing to the american people at a time when the country's head over heels in debt well despite the latest events of the come forces are in no position to take full control of the war torn country says for this but if she's from the washington based institute for policy studies

she spoke from a bit unusual. we're talking about an official acknowledgement by the two governments that now the afghan military is in control what that means is anybody's guess but what it does not mean is that the u.s. troops are going to be pulled out early there's a huge occupation force in the country that's not going to be brought out in twenty thirteen in the spring what we're talking about is a claim that as of that time the afghan people the afghan military the afghan government will officially be in charge they will be in charge of the military now the idea that the u.s. forces still there or the nato forces still there are going to take their orders from the the afghan military i think is rather spurious that's certainly not going to happen i don't think the afghan government has the capacity to survive without massive u.s. support that means both economic support and crucially military support but his reliance on that support leads to one massive corruption which is widely hated

throughout the country karzai has very little public support in in the country and militarily his his very large army isn't capable of standing up to the other militias it's one more militia the u.s. leaving will leave his government and his own position in a very and in a very precarious moment and he may well not survive that politically. well now that the president's washington trips done and dusted for the people in new york what they think of their country's campaign in afghanistan. the reason over here is because of the wonderful oil that you know it's all about money as one thought at least the views of the decade long invasion from the streets the big apple coming your way through the program. crumbling roads and bridges a flickering electrical grid america's infrastructure is creaking and this becoming a big problem to even the mother nature's wrecking supplies recently the government

is earmarking money for almost everything other than energy is one of frothy over the past decade america has spent hundreds of billions in the name of national security wars military intervention fighting terrorists and hunting online hackers meantime getting much less attention is a domestic danger lurking in and lighting up every corner of the country the u.s. power grid in recent months federal officials have warned that america's electric cables substations and transformers are not sufficiently secured and are vulnerable to attack by anyone with a weapon and some basic know how experts say the energy grid is also outdated and antiquated unable to prevent outages from cascading in october superstorm sandy hit twenty four states causing some sixty three billion dollars in damage more than

four and a half million people lost power and new york was left crippled by massive floods leaving much of the city including half of the big apple plunged into darkness. two months after the storm the streets of downtown manhattan remain clogged with coops wires and heavy equipment because dozens of the city's iconic skyscrapers still rely on generators for power things like this going to months with major buildings . that does not occur in hong kong in shanghai. amsterdam because they have built systems designed to deal with the reality of nature so what is this cutting corners feeling to invest in you know most you know what are you reckon economy when it comes to america's electricity ninety percent of the grid is privately owned by utility companies beholden to investors heat energy sector in the united states is law actually.

operated and. therefore. only by regulation own the federal government amend that law it regulation state and local governments though it possible to call. the grids to gather that he is saying there are ninety recent not only financial and also policy reasons where really changes have to come about if we want to change our safety and livelihood the changes aren't just limited to the grid engineers have warned that many of america's bridges roads dams levees and power plants are in danger of crumbling if not repaired especially as sea levels continue rising even one bomb is nothing compared to what hurricane

sandy did across the northeast a thousand miles of destruction there was a very very big natural event. and you know to have congress not funding the year. repair of the basic industry infrastructure. is just staggering shortsighted a broken foundation that risks the chance of becoming the nation's biggest homegrown danger marina portnoy r.t. new york. checking our web site right now stories will be interested in hundreds of aboriginal rights activists have staged a mass rally in notice trailer but candidate pledging to bring the country's economy to its knees we'll find out more about that and can got the lowdown online also would rage the flaying economy the piers griggs of declared war mainstream media we're talking with a lot of the week if you want to get up to speed on it so the artsy dog com. bust

for the first time in georgia's modern history the country's law makers overturn president billy's veto and set free two hundred political prisoners again it's a lot to. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says stopping iran from making a nuclear bomb will be his top priority if he wins the upcoming parliamentary vote the threat of an attack seems so real in fact to many israelis these days that they're already snapping up gas masks and renovating bomb shelters as are things paula slee of. mushroom clouds confusion hysteria this is israel's last day according to a young filmmaker who wants to shock his country into taking action i've created with to share my thoughts and my fears with the world about the potential threat that is coming from iran if you ask me this same question two years ago i will think that people don't think about it so much but today it is different

we can see that the majority here of israel are preparing themselves i think most. mentally mornings grandparents are holocaust survivors from a mania a foreshadow he fears of what could come it took hitler six series to kill six million jews and it will take. all a six minutes that's why and maybe some or many israelis are already uneasy fearing iran might be building a nuclear bomb and tehran isn't mincing its words threatening tel aviv it will teach it a listen if it tries to attack first warning is waning and missiles will make sure israel does not survive the center of israel is a problem and that's where we have to move forward not only that we haven't got enough voters it's very very populated so everything that is falling in this area can cause casualties in two thousand and six during the second lebanon war rachel

bomber also and her family hid here from the katyusha rockets raining down from across the border she never imagined she'd be restocking her shelter again so soon and for potentially more deadly consequences of course i'm afraid from the war from with iran because nobody wants war and peace. and now i have also some rain children five grandchildren and i'm afraid i'm afraid because my cells will go to the army there are soldiers in the air i don't want it the recent war with gaza was a chance for tel aviv to test its iron dome missile defense system but israelis are anxious in part because of widespread media coverage of just how unprepared for war the country is many bomb shelters and residential buildings are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms while most of israel's arab

citizens about a twenty percent of the population lacks shelters altogether as the chances of war start looking all too real the army says four times as many israelis are collecting state funded gas masks then they were several months ago i'm a big concern it's not like i think they're going to be aware of. just. the side my fear is thinking and with impending doomsday predictions circling the country no one wants to be caught unprepared police fear r.t. television british clothing manufacturers are calling for support from the prime minister and government to be growing concerns over the lack of products made in the united kingdom but with more and more close being imported from overseas that task could prove tricky that is laura smith reports. it's got the british flag on it but all these clothes made in britain a quick look at the label shows they're not made in china or made in vietnam

anywhere but here and down on the high streets the stories no different you'd be hard to find anything with a made in britain label on it in any shop a recent survey by a daily mail journalist found just one item in sixty three with a british made label but now david cameron and his ministers are being urged to back british from their hats to their socks and wear only british made clothes it's not impossible there are companies that still make clothes in the u.k. including the firm that's doing the urging private white p.c. but the vast majority of what we were ninety percent at the last count and including everything i'm wearing today is made abroad since two thousand and fifty two percent has jobs in the textile industry have disappeared and we imported twelve and a half billion pounds worth more clothing than we export it last year even some

companies that trade on their very british n'est don't manufacture here so even if david cameron and his colleagues did pledge only to buy british it's unlikely to revive britain's ailing textile industry. for smith has washington been bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and was the entire mission justify the first place big questions to try to get a bigger sense of his residents hits the streets of new york. the obama administration has recently said that it's considering having no troops in afghanistan after december of two thousand and fourteen is that a good thing a bad day or totally made up thing designed for political shenanigans this week let's talk about that do you even think he's going to do it he said that's

a years ago and it didn't happen so i don't buy it so why does he keep saying it if he doesn't mean it. to get people like their families will be happy with hopefully you know you finish what you started what did we start and what do we have to finish what is finishing mean. to capture or. do you think that we've defined what it means it's tough because you know we don't know everything i think we need to have a world presence to maintain the why is it up to us to maintain a world presence why don't we just get out of everyone's business well that's a good idea too but if no if we don't do it nobody will and otherwise the world's going to go to war and we were in his stabilizing factor and until now and time it's been us but we're the ones causing all the wars. it depends on your perspective i guess i'm sort board more defending than attacking but don't you think that there are some people in the world that feel like america imposes its

will on their countries yes but america's will lose its freedom and democracy at its heart it's not a fanatical you don't think it's its own might be money and imperialism a little bit too i don't believe that it is imperialism. and what about money do you think that money might drive some of our reasons for paul of course but money is going to help everybody i don't think it's happening i i just came back from afghanistan so oh so you don't believe he's really going to pull the troops away. entirely i think that i think that there are presence there is important and this war sustaining what we've done so far my opinion is the reason we are over there is because of the wonderful oil and i don't have it's all about money and i. bet the marine as someone who puts your life on the line doesn't that make you mad it makes me really upset because we have a lot of marines that are dying each and every day in afghanistan you know and you

know for god's sakes i can be next you know so it does make me pretty upset that he's promising something that he's not owning up to the bottom line is we're so used to having us troops all over the world up in everyone's business that we probably can't imagine us pulling out of anywhere and that makes americans the world's bullies whether we like it or not. so there was the streets of new york to the northwest of russia very shortly a fascinating trip lined up on the shores of the white sea after the break.

because of recent events guns have a game become a big issue all over the usa both sides are throwing their talking point ammunition back and forth and we hear a lot of conflicting stories well in australia they got tough on guns and crime went down but then again others say in the u.k. they got rid of all their guns and all hell broke loose i've heard stories that you are way more likely to be killed by a deer in your headlights than get taken out by a maniac with a tech nine but then again i've heard that soon deaths from guns will exceed even deaths from car accidents japan is safe because it has no guns but switzerland is even safer because automatic weapons are all over the place the information is all very contradictory but ultimately it doesn't matter what facts and reports you throw at the other side the gun question is a philosophical one some people would rather at least feel like they have their fate in their own hands even if there is a chance they will shoot their own dog in the middle of the night and other people are so concerned with safety and are so full of fear for their fellow man that they'd rather disarm everyone and leave all the weapons in the hands of the

criminals or have them legal or not anyways and in the hands of the government who was seems pretty happy to use force at home and abroad i don't know i'd rather risk the unpredictable actions of some idiots out there in society but at least have the ability defend myself and have some control over my life and a means to resist oppression but that's just my opinion. whether you die from high or to the death. touch the power of the wind or drift in the beauty of the currents. the well prepared is a must and if you're lucky. you'll never forget your experience we only need a screen that's going to be heaven.