heavy clashes in belfast leave at least sixteen policemen injured with the unrest triggered by the municipal council decision to reduce the days the union flag flies over the city. french troops deployed in mali help government forces wrestled back control over the key city of qana after launching a series of aerial bombardments. and washington says its forces will shift to a support role in afghanistan sparking fears that the u.s. military might linger the withdrawal date.

live from our studios in moscow certainly glad to have you with us at least sixteen police officers have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist to clashes in northern ireland the unrest was triggered more than a month ago following the belfast council's decision to lower the union flag from city hall except for eighteen days a year. who is in the province to what else is feeling under arrest creational rioting that some people a calling it. it has been taking place all across the us in the past weeks many have been peaceful but in pockets violence breaking out in the process 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 the playstation you know young girls are doing a girl's name with young children we've seen on the streets i don't think a fully realised what their actions can result. in some ways having a laugh and yet there's nothing funny about it on the surface and this is being 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 what are the protesters here asking. pays to get off their backs peter robinson least you're not. he was the one to

start. on the street to protest against. a nice banks a very retail aflac it's called was. going out you know but when he wanted also to on the streets for his own actions we can make four do you think the paper says that we think that any kind of compromise when it comes to this could bring the flag of it's the flag down and not said. we know we're not going to get it back up to normal action because it's the majority really. any unionist warns 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 here 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. fell fast artists are firth is a closely monitoring developments in northern ireland on her twitter feed you can find first hand information and pictures of the protests and earlier my colleague kevin owen spoke to jason walsh

a journalist for the christian science monitor who says the unrest is being flared up by the changing demographics. despite the appearance of some groups such as the ulster peoples form no one is entirely sure exactly what it is that the protesters want northern ireland in general and belfast in particular traditionally being protestant unionists loyalists or. the recent census results should northern ireland no longer has a unionist one it's more sort of fifty fifty situation i mean what city hold do is go to 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 the certainly the decision. first or highly unlikely that irish nationalists councillors would be risible are concerned well 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 to block going to use of violence and still ahead of the program by british that is prime minister david cameron's latest message to his country's m.p.'s in an attempt to increase support for the u.k. sailing in textile manufacturers. a french pilot has been killed during fighting in mali where france continues its air offensive after al-qaeda rebels made advances moving further south to the city of qana earlier mali's government troops with the help of the french military succeeded in chasing rebels from the city according to reports over one hundred militants and at least ten civilians including three children have been killed in the days fighting the un security council called for a swift a deployment of foreign troops to battle the rebels who had seized in the north of the country last april and have since made significant advances far inland on friday french president the president francois hollande said france would only help mali within a un framework france based independent journalist robert harness believes that

french foreign policy contradicts itself. i think as long as the french people are to gaza by the consequences of this sort of intervention they generally favorite because there's a great military tradition in france and they've grown accustomed to interfering other people's countries but if you if limited 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 that 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 that mali has requested help and they get it instantly when the central african republic requested help from the french forces

there they were told our no we can't interfere to tell any particular regime were neutral. it to do if 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 in what they do earlier a failed mission to rescue a hostage in southern somalia left two french soldiers hostage and seventeen militants dead the raid in the area began hours after french troops intervened in mali to help government troops battle rebels there currently nine french nationals are being held across held hostage excuse me across northern africa america is to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch to a support role the spring in ousmane comes from u.s. president barack obama after a round of talks with his afghan counterpart and what's being hailed as the last

chapter of the u.s. afghan mission but as you can comment american involvement 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 popes 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 one. for the us if we're able to come to an appropriate agreement now one of the key points of the agreement that the president mentioned there they

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 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's then is 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. brian becker from the answer antiwar coalition says i mean karzai is seen at home as a symbol of collaboration with the foreign occupation. the american government is sort of caught in a paradox it didn't want to give up afghanistan it wanted to use it as a strategic base but can't win a military victory they have to begin to draw down whether they will leave completely i don't think so so now you have cars i hear in washington meeting with obama he is extremely vulnerable but he is seen within the afghan population as nothing but an extension of the power of the occupiers and the afghan people like all occupied people resent the occupiers and they resent those who are their collaborators so karzai i from time to time sounds like

a nationalist he stands up any how is a little bit against american atrocities and again trying to play for domestic consumption but at the end of the day karzai is seen as just that as a collaborator with the occupation a very rich collaborator so he may have a way an exit plan of the jonah scripted out but i think he knows that without foreign occupation his government's days are very very precarious because we have more news for you ahead after a short break right here marty. whether you die from high or to the depths. catch the power of the wind or drift in the beauty of the currents. being well prepared is a must and if you're lucky. you'll never forget your experience we only need

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with us now spending billions of dollars on its defense industry america keeps turning a blind eye to its creaking infrastructure and if a country's government ignores addressing their crumbling roads and flickering electrical grid us is going to face major trouble artie's marina explains. over the past decade america has spent hundreds of billions in the name of national security wars military intervention fighting terrorist 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 tubes wires and heavy equipment because dozens of the city's iconic skyscrapers still rely on generators for power things like this. major building. that does not occur in hong kong and shanghai. because they have built systems designed to deal with the reality of nature. that is this kind corners. reckon economy when it comes to america's electricity ninety percent of the grid is

privately owned by utility companies beholden to investors. energy sector. lashley. and. only by regulation only the federal government meant that why regulation state local governments though it is possible to call our grids to gather that he is saying there are many reasons not only financial but also policy reasons where really changes have to. 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 it was a very very big natural event. and you know to have congress not funding the. repair of the basic industry infrastructure. is just staggeringly shortsighted a broken foundation that risks the chance of becoming the nation's biggest homegrown danger marina portnoy r.t. new york. and of course we've got more stories that for you on our website including washington bureaucrats decided not to join the dark side by rejecting a public petition to build a death star find out why on our two dot com. for the first

time in georgia's modern history the country's lawmakers overturned president saakashvili veto and said free two hundred political prisoners you can find out all the details that are true dot com. 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 high to many israelis that they are already snapping up gas masks and renovating bomb shelters as artie's policy has been discovered. 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 this morning 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 say 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 that so i think most men chile one inch grandparents are holocaust survivors from a mania a foreshadow he fears of what could come it took hitler six years to kill six million jews and it will take. only 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 rainy 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 balmer ors 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 these radios are anxious in part because of widespread media coverage of just how unprepared for war their country has many bomb shelters in residential buildings are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms while most of israel's arab

citizens about to twenty percent of the population lack 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 am a big concern it's not like i think they're going to be a war. just. the side my fear this thing came from and with impending doomsday predictions circling the country no one wants to be caught and prepared police fear our t.v. television. on to some more world news in brief for you now hundreds of shia muslims took to the. largest city of karachi urging the government to take extra safety measures this comes after a string of insurgent attacks claimed at least one hundred twenty lives in kent protesters have blocked a major road with some fifty coffins refusing to bury the victims until their

demands are met pakistan has a long history of sectarian violence with the shia minority frequently being targeted by sunni extremists. at least thirty people are dead after a bus veered off a mountain road during fix fog in western nepal the vehicle flipped on its side after rolling for about three hundred meters according to reports twelve people have been taken to hospital with serious injuries. and at least twenty five people have been injured after several masked attackers fired at protesters camped outside egypt the presidential palace in cairo witnesses say attackers also threw molotov cocktails at setting some of them on fire you tube has been plunged into political turmoil since president mohamed morsi granted himself sweeping powers in late november. british clothing manufacturers are calling for support from the prime minister and government amid growing concerns over the lack of products made

in the u.k. but with more and more clothing being imported from overseas the task could prove tricky as artie's last month 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 pushed 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 north 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 has that washington been bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and was of the entire mission justified in the first place is resident in the streets of new york to gauge public opinion.

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 thing or a 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 to 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 to like it 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 i guess 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. 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 imposing its will on their countries just put 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 a bowl 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 for the bottom line is

we're so used to having u.s. 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. well from the streets of new york to the northwest of russia r t takes a fascinating trip to the shores of the white sea shortbread stay with us. crime is a plague of the big cities but in

a tiny arkansas town of twenty five thousand it is really getting out of hand pure gold is a property crime index of more than double the national average and rape burglary and assault are also way above average poor pergolas a dangerous place to live in but what's the answer to living in constant fear of criminals well the mayor thinks that the answer to that problem is to live in constant fear of the government how logical the mayor and police chief have a doorstop plan to send out police patrols with a ar fifteen that full swat are too i guess intimidate the local population into submission well actually the plan is for them to stand around it ask people an important question ask them to show id the answer to crime isn't a police state sending guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just to check people's i.d.'s like it's the berlin wall or something won't do anything a guy who breaks into your house for crystal meth money isn't going to be affected by this only the good average citizens will have to show an armed thug of their id

just to go buy milk but that's just my opinion. the white sea its surface remains true with ice for nearly seven months a year. the chilly breath of the arctic ocean keeps the water freezing cold. near the coast however the high winds and bitter cold recede. that even in winter also can be seen through holes in the ice. squeals and cracking sounds can often be heard around the ring. this is how so-called canaries of the sea communicate. during.