today's news and the week's top stories in belfast fury clashes in northern ireland illegal at least twenty nine police injured i mean to go over the city council's decision to remove the british one for most of the get. the securities and i learned from some it appears of possible islamist retribution up to paris launched as trikes an al-qaeda linked insurgency in mali. the brother of venezuelan president hugo chavez denies rumors the leader is in a coma and made mounting concerns how the government will somehow without its charismatic leader. direct the development of the notorious gone tunnel by

prison camp marks a eleventh anniversary president obama has failed to keep his promise to the facility prompting an outcry from human rights groups. the latest news and the week's top stories this is the weekly with me you don't. see it thanks for joining us. these parting projects over the flying of the union jack in northern ireland once again and in the street battle between loyalists and nationalists yesterday it's been almost six weeks since about fall city council voted to reduce the number of days the british flag raises played sparking the fury of loyalists twenty nine police officers were injured in saturday's sectarian clashes violence broke out as about a thousand unionists marched on belfast city whole post

a catholic enclave and were touched by locals police used water cannons and plastic bullets to keep the two sides apart sara first reports now from the scene. clashes breaking out once again on the streets of belfast you can see the police are just trying to push back the crowd of protesters that a huge number of police rather sadly sites like this becoming all too common now this isn't going to have been helped by the fact that many feel inflammatory political language is. the tension here on the straight. recreational rioting that's what some people are calling it. you can see the protests in the background that are just right in the back roads of police responding with the worse it comes on the surface and these protests have been about the flag with the sky and the tent city of good fortune that really this is a much much more than just lucky students the director of the east belfast mission

group is working with young protesters to try to calm the tensions are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of to true terms of par in terms of ego. because it's sexier than the playstation you know young girls are doing it because young girls even with young children we've seen on the streets. of fully realized what the russians commercial what they're just. showing we're starving aloft and you know it's not so clear. one of the protesters here asking for just one our flag back up on water and pays to get off their back ses peter robinson least you're not silly not them he was the one that had to start. the day forty thousand they flipped for us to come out on the street to protest against their land and nice said on his back say maybe take all the flak he's called was rubbish and. you know but when he wanted also it on the streets for his election we can

make for anything the protesters would put it that any kind of compromise when it comes to this is the flying the flag of it's the flag turn not said. we know we're not going to get it back up to normal action because it's the law of majority rule . any unionist horns now holds to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done they'll be 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 draft of issues that are a blight here it's a fall there's been a one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions

of pounds spent in policing these riots and in lost business revenue. these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching. this is a new generation putting back onto 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 troubling. sara. and alice and political blog editor make felt things they produce has come from a lack of a consistent opposition in the local politics. what we're seeing here is in northern ireland as a result of the peace process we have a government in which everyone who is elected to the parliament is part of the government that leaves no spheres for parliamentary opposition and so when something like this happens that is seen by certain mostly working class president

suddenly in lower middle class communities to his being provocative there is no political way of actually expressing your opposition so to some extent we're seeing just high difficult it is to manage a popular protest in a situation where there is no option to change the government so to speak because the government includes everyone who ever gets elected. france has stepped up security in the country amid fears of islamist of times due to its ongoing operation in mali it comes after paris helped the government drive out al qaeda linked militants from the key town of qana a french helicopter pilot was killed along with more than one hundred militants and at least ten civilians including three children and west african forces are now set to join the efforts with its troops year to arrive in the country by monday the u.k. also agreed to help transform flowing through to the how to sending any soldiers of their own the african contingent is expected to draw around five hundred soldiers

a trunk broking alphonso unusual and cynical and while french president francois hollande said earth saturday their military support will go on for as long as necessary france based independent journalists who are that han is believes french foreign policy is contradictory. i think that as long as the french people are to buy the consequences of this sort of intervention they generally favorite has 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 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 got into the air to tell any particular regime were neutral. it to do it 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. for insurers have a daughter enjoyed the same success in somalia ways special forces failed in their mission to rescue hostages in the south of the country if here's the botched operation left the captives secret agent dead along with two french soldiers and seventeen militants from al qaeda al shabaab cell currently nine other french nationals are thought to be held hostage across africa. they brought the ailing president hugo chavez has denied rumors they've been his ally literally to

is in a coma they sampled thousands of his supporters rallied on the day when he should have been sworn in full and not to tell them they even as a supreme court has postponed the you know here ration indefinitely while chavez recovers from counsel said drinking and your political analyst eric draitser these forces from abroad could try to take advantage of chavez's arms. the opposition despite all of their posturing and despite the fact that the private corporate media inside of venezuela and around the world is very much squarely behind them and us imperialism they lack a very real base of support on the ground they have some support but as we saw in the results of the recent elections that opposition is still very much in the minority now in terms of an international destabilization using this opposition this is very much a very real possibility of course we've seen much of the destabilization campaign emanating out of the u.s. embassy out of the institutions that's why we saw us a id and other international

organizations that are controlled by the state department booted out of that country or at the very least minimized so this is a standard tactic that is very much part of the playbook of twenty first century imperialism of the united states but again the danger here is that without chavez and without the power of his personality that they'll be able to attack those institutions inside the country the question will be how strong are the boulevard and institutions and how really is that base of support to come out into the streets in support of the revolution and against what could only be called counter-revolutionaries of the opposition representing wall street and washington. cation without trial eleven is only in from this gun turn of a prison remains open for business as despite human rights groups for the facility to be shot down but bringing along the public reaction a long way in fact from former detainees that they too late. while

the u.n. peace envoy says the military will not leave syria out of civil war the country is now hiding nuclear weapons more on that in just a few minutes. joining me on a journey to the heart of the kremlin to a place is hidden from the tourists you're going to meet some real kremlin insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. . look. at least.

the. mission is. pretty tasty free. for charges free. free. free. you free. gold free blog video for your media project a free media oh god r.t. dot com. people shall see welcome bonnke president obama said u.s. forces will end most combat operations in afghanistan by the spring as wish to maintain a support role as a meeting in washington between the president and i have been leader hamid karzai it was agreed that in this new capacity american forces could remain beyond the

twenty four chain pull out and phyllis bennis from the washington based institute for policy studies the knees it's still a long way off the for local forces take full control 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 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 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. the notorious here as the tension facility had gone time a bay in cuba marked its eleventh anniversary this week despite president obama's four year old promise to close the camp human rights groups are calling for freedom for those cleared for release and for a fair trial for others meanwhile as outing is gonna take our polls polls show the majority of americans have moved on. president obama's call to look forward not

backward has resulted in attempts to sweep the past under the rug including some of his own promises i'm going to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that colonel morris davis was a chief prosecutor at guantanamo under george w. bush he later became a vocal critic of the practices there and strongly supported president obama's pledge to shut down the president he says the perception of guantanamo in the u.s. has come a long way since two thousand and eight when he was a burning and highly controversial issue with a nation demanding action he gets a free pass on i mean the public largely could care less the mainstream media now here in the u.s. . you know is more interested in car dash and then they are and what happens at guantanamo. so who's going to challenge it if we're looking for the biggest threat to america right now she's right there her name is jim cardassian. america has moved on and so has its perception of torture polls by the american red cross show

the majority of americans now find torture acceptable sixty percent of young people agree whereas four years ago torture was largely condemned in the us. hollywood has arguably contributed to that evolution of public opinion in the movie zero dark thirty day or trade the information that led to the capture and killing of osama bin laden was obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques or torture and in fact that is simply not true actual information was obtained through a report based interrogation techniques the government classified everything related to its torture practices which allows politicians pundits and filmmakers the freedom to perpetuate all kinds of myths although a slew of washington insiders including the senate intelligence committee point out how torture has proved to be ineffective but in america it's often fiction not

facts that make history this is more important than reality this is the movies where americans learn their history and today the history in the making is the drone strikes this amounts to the administration executing people without due process often in absolute secrecy in foreign lands with a remote control but will obama's drones generate as much of a backlash as one tunnel did for george w. bush and we've now got have a generation that only knows the post nine eleven hero. where things like guantanamo and the warrantless wiretapping that's all they've ever known for a decade now and i think it has become an accepted part of life unfortunately judging by how the guantanamo controversy evolved here is what may transpire with regard to drone the urgency of the issue will subside in the u.s. because there will be no american troops dying there will be no public movement.

there may even be a movie or two touting the technological capabilities of drones and once the controversy dies down it will become the new normal and america will move on in washington i'm going to stick around. and a film gone turn i'm a prison is have show painful memories with aussie saying more attention has to be drawn to the funks they present still operating despite the condemnation. i don't know why i was released and others are not ok i mean like especially when you know that people. are not involved in anything and want to know more people who have been cleared ok at the time i don't know what i was really so i don't know if i was cleared or not i really don't remember but today there are people who have been cleared and they're not out of guantanamo and i think want but i feel uncomfortable and you feel that's guilt like lingering in yourself that's why am i out there still and the memories of one thousand of course the very clear because of what

happened in. the mistreatment doesn't go away easily i think it's. it could've i think in those create. a deep wound that will last a long years in the memories are very clear and when we talk about them kind of these things do come back the people might have forgotten looks and i'm still exists. you know it's very difficult to get the media interested into their story the way they speak just the same existing you're hearing is important because every individual that is locked up in one town can't the family can't see the messages that come from a sense to the world is a very disturbing and very serious message that has to be has to be. has to be like you know opposed and spoken against. our league peace envoy to syria said there can be no military solution to the conflict mosca has voiced support for the political

transition in syria but says president assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the crisis washington says the leader must step down with the pentagon now saying the u.s. could provide forces to secure the country's chemical weapons if assad agrees to a peaceful transition and there are fears they also could fall into the wrong hands u.s. in the middle east experts are also saying the conflict is pushing the country's new raney and stockpiles at risk she reportedly has up to fifty times and reached uranium and after great nuclear bombs but political analyst on a shopping as western states present only one side of the conflict. there's a lot of noise about it there was a bombing in two thousand and seven the israeli jets bombed the site in syria claiming that it is a nuclear site there was no indication yes the i.a.e.a. visited the site. said that there were traces of you or a norm of depleted uranium but they did not confirm that there was any quantity or

at least you know this huge quantity that is being publicized i mean they're saying fifty tons of uranium this is this is i don't know where they come up with the number. obviously i did some research and it appears that they came up with a number because they. are coming up with the story that this site that was there that was bombed in two thousand and seven would actually require fifty tons that doesn't mean that the syrians actually have fifty tons and that doesn't mean that the site is actually for a nuclear program the syrian central government was able to control more. past six months there's an advance of the syrian army and the syrian official police and they are controlling most of the country there are only some areas in the country where rebel fighters in some areas in the countryside where the syrian army withdrew from these areas because they thought that these areas were not important strategically. but over all this is central government under the leadership of president assad controls most of the syrian territory obviously it's difficult

because there are many fighters infiltrating from outside syria there are many a lot of money being infiltrated being pumped into syria to these rebel groups by neighboring country especially by by turkey by qatar by other european and by the united states there is a sponsorship of these terror groups well the syrian rebels back by both western and arab states there are more questions of who exactly is fighting in their ranks the masters claims and mercenaries from abroad are bringing radicalism which is only intensifying the conflict. looks now at how they stand opposite tracks incompetence from far beyond the country's borders. she keeps her son's room exactly the way he left it last spring his clothes and art supplies are the only reminders she has of twenty one year old son. sami told his mother he was going to a conference in libya you couldn't stay more than one week to ten days he went in for the whole week that he stayed there he called home every day he called in the

twenty second of march and said he's coming back to tunisia but never arrived at the beginning of april i got a skype call telling me my son was captured on the border as he was crossing from turkey to syria in a group of fighters. further proof came with the syrian t.v. report in which sami was featured among the captured rebel fighters he talked about coming from tunisia to fight for the syrian people still explanation wasn't enough to ease the minds of his parents if anything it made matters worse these simply can't understand how intimidating man transformed into a jihadist. but they do have this. began training and i was very happy because i'm a muslim and i thought it was a good thing. maybe after that he started going to the mosque and heard something that made me go off to syria official reports claim some four hundred out of the five thousand mosques. controlled by radical islamists who call in their followers

to take part in jihad in foreign countries the exact number of tunisians fighting in syria or libya or rock is not known but the families and friends of those who went off to fight in a foreign land are saying that even one death is already one too many especially for those who are fighting for a leader in a different country the government says that they're watching the situation closely but relatives of those who have died are not convinced they believe that the government's silence is as good as a green light for the impressionable youngsters. it's known that for the last ten years most terrorist groups have tunisians in their midst the officials know about these things but don't say anything and these fighters went to libya then they went to syria by way of turkey we're talking about more than one hundred tunisians already killed in fighting in syria. this statement is supported by united nations

human rights and the supporters this report published at the end of two thousand and twelve more of an increasing number of fighters pouring into syria investigator said people from at least twenty nine different countries are fighting alongside syrian rebels most of them are sunni's hailing from neighboring countries but some have come to syria from this far away as america and europe they get called in for supposedly higher purpose but once they're on the ground the situation proves far more mundane died a big it's impossible for any arab combat some fighting in syria to get treated whoever gets injured dies i dare them to worry me a single arab who got injured and treated in a field hospital we are being treated as cannon fodder we have the grease used to love brigade that using a syrian blood for them a city got to see despite such warnings many young men in tunisia still choose to go abroad to battle infidels in the name of allah it only goes go r.t. in tunisia. and the world some people suffer from bloody conflicts other literally

make fun out of them a more well developed way in the u.k. is again allowing players to take part in this year in war with the ultimate goal of bringing down president assad and read more about it at r.t. dot com. also online for you after georgia's alter government was wrong to buy a prisoner abuse scandal the country's parliament sets free two hundred political prisoners overturning a presidential veto for the first time in the country's modern history for more that had to ati's website. so let's not try some other world news in brief this hour israel has forcibly evicted palestinian and international grotesqueness from a tent camp that they had erected in the west bank to prevent the building of jewish settlements there several people have also been arrested their building plans are illegal under international law and will split palestinians from lands they claim in east jerusalem prime minister binyamin netanyahu has ordered the area

or the so-called tent city to be declared a closed military zone and shut off axes despite the high court earlier ruling that they can could staple sig's dates. get off the family of the internet freedom. schwartz have accused the u.s. criminal justice system boy's death the twenty six year old co-founder of social news website reddit committed suicide on friday by hanging himself face criminal how king charges which carried over to our shores sentence of more than thirty years jail for downloading and publishing academic papers and lying in the open later letter his relatives claim the harsher way of charges contributed to his death saying that young how to best was driven to the edge by the government's handling of the case. the turkish prime minister tayyip erdogan one has demanded an explanation from french president francois hollande as to why he's purposely met with one of three kurdish activists shot dead in paris on fares. the

murders of the kurdish independence party members sparked outrage with around fifteen thousand demonstrators staging a protest in paris retaliation against a big hill is found i do want to request upon a statement from a learned that he knew one of the dead k.k.k. members personally and often held meetings despite the group being branded a terrorist organization by crime. and coming out is part of the kremlin hate and from public view that's not the right. use of 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 poor gold is 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 fifteen's and full swat are to 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 so many guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just to check people's id 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 arm thug of their id just to go buy milk but that's just.