you know me but i really really. heavy clashes in belfast leave at least sixteen policemen injured with the unrest triggered by the municipal councils decision to reduce the days the union flag flies over city hall. 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 the us military might linger beyond the withdrawal day.

to live from our studios in central moscow this is certainly glad to have you with us at least sixteen police officers have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist clashes in northern ireland 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 looks into what else is fueling the unrest recreational rioting that some people a calling it. has been taking place all of hostile force in the past week 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 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 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. peter robinson. he was the one to start.

on the street to protest against. a nice send it back to say maybe take all the flak he's called was rubbish and. you know but when he wanted also to on the streets for his own actions we can make for do you think the paper says that we think that any kind of compromise when it comes to this when the flag of it's the flag not said. we know we're not going to get a little action because it's the majority. 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. there 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 conflicts that doesn't make it any less trouble. so. fast and of course our trees are first is closely monitoring the developments in northern ireland on our twitter feed you can find first hand information and pictures about the protest 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 challenging and changing demographics. the protests. despite the appearance of some groups such as the ulster people form no one is entirely sure exactly what it is that the protesters want northern ireland in general and belfast in particular have traditionally being protestant unionist loyalist 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 a 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 take it over potentially cause a flare up on the other side this stuff up they are going to get over this account of they certainly can't undo the decision. first of its 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 competent to back down to fears of the islands.

and still ahead in the program by british that is prime minister david cameron's the latest message to his country's m.p.'s in an attempt to increase support for the u.k. the ailing a 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 of the city of qana earlier mali's government troops within 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 is calling for a swift deployment of foreign troops to battle the rebels who have been seized in the north of the country last april and have since made significant advances far in one on friday french president francois hollande said france would only help mali within a un framework but france based independent journalist robert honeys believes that

the french foreign policy actually contradicts itself don't look it's been a shock that actually 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 the many 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 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 no no we can't interfere to any particular regime were neutral . if you had one to do 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 absurdity contradiction of what they do earlier a failed mission to rescue a hostage in southern somalia left two french soldiers the hostage and seventeen militants dead the raid in the area began hours after french troops intervened in mali to help the government troops battle rebels there currently nine french nationals are being held hostage across northern africa america is to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch to a support role this spring you know it's been comes from u.s. president barack obama after a round of talks with his afghan counterpart on what's being hailed as the last

chapter of the u.s. afghan mission there can comment american involvement in the country looks set to ramble 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 stay their role will be different but critics argue it's an attempt to end the 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 when. i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission. and different tasks and a very different footprint 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 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 the oppose 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 bourg it 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 brian becker from the answer anti-war coalitions has karzai 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 from time to time sounds like a nationalist he stands up any howls a little bit against american atrocities again trying to play for domestic consumption and 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 his own scripted out but i think he knows that without foreign occupation his government's days are very very precarious well more news ahead after this short break right here are to. join me on a journey to the heart of the family to places hidden from the terrorists he's going to meet some real kremlin insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. .

you know 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 i'm sorry is a big issue. and

a lie from our studios in moscow this is articulate headed back with us now spending billions of dollars on it's a defense industry america keeps turning a blind eye to its creaking infrastructure and if the country's government ignores addressing their crumbling roads and a flickering electrical grid us is going to face major trouble. explains. 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 if. that does not occur in hong kong in shanghai. 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. energy sector in the united states is law actually. operated and. therefore. only by regulation own the federal government meant that law it regulation to state local governments though it possible to haul. the grids to gather that he is saying there are many reasons not only financial and also policy reasons really changes hands. 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. 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. we've got more stories for you on our website including washington bureaucrats who decided not to join the dark side by rejecting a public petition to build

a star wars death star find out why on our to dot com. and for the first time in georgia's modern history the country's lawmakers overturn president saakashvili veto and set free two hundred political prisoners you can find all the details that are to dot com. israel's prime minister binyamin 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 here has been discovering. 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 more be 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 the the majority here of israel are preparing that so i think most mentally 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 he will take. on the sixty minutes. that's why and maybe some or many israelis are really 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 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 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 and. 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 his raids 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 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 and 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 here just in case and with impending doomsday predictions circling the country no one wants to be caught unprepared. r.t.e. television another some more news making headlines around the world for you this hour hundreds of the shia muslims took to the streets of pakistan's 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 quetta 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 its share minorities frequent way being targeted by sunni extremists. at least thirty people are dead after a bus veered off a mountain road during fick 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. at least twenty five people have been injured after several masked attackers fired at protesters camped outside egypt's presidential palace in cairo where this is a attackers also threw molotov cocktails at tents setting some of them on fire egypt has been plunged into a political turmoil since president mohamed morsi granted himself sweeping powers in late november. israeli security forces have begun forcing palestinian protesters from a tent camp in the west bank the activists earlier claimed that they would resist

any attempts to make them move out the so called a tent city was constructed in the location where israel had been planning to build new settlements israel's decision to go ahead with the building of thousands of settler homes was widely condemned by the international community. relatives of the late prominent internet freedom activist aaron swartz are blaming the u.s. criminal justice system for his death the twenty six year old co-founder of social news website.

the british flag on it but all of 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 whites b 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 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 washington been bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and was the entire mission justified in the first place artie's resident hit 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's years ago and it didn't happen so i don't buy it so why does he keep saying it. to get people like and their families will be happy. factor and until now in time it's been us but we're the ones causing all the wars.

depends on your perspective i think as i am 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 yes but america's will lose its freedom and democracy at its heart it's not a fanatic you don't think it is you know 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 the reasons for both of course but money is going to help everybody i don't think it's happening i i just came back from afghanistan so so you don't believe he's really going to pull the troops away. entirely i think that i think that their presence there is important and therefore 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 bully whether we

like it or not. well coming up parts of the moscow kremlin hidden from public view that's after a short break right here on our. because of recent events guns have a 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. now 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 who will 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.