today's news and the week's top stories fury rages on in northern ireland with close to thirty policemen injured in heavy loyalist clashes sparked by belfast council's decision to remove the union flag from city hall for most of the year. the world community mourns the death of a prominent defender of internet freedom with his relatives blaming the u.s. criminal justice system for. france gains ground in its a campaign to push out islamist extremists from northern mali while additional international support is confirmed from the united states britain and other european countries. and yes we can't barack obama's promise to close the

guantanamo bay prison continues to go on with the detention facility having its eleventh anniversary with over one hundred sixty captive still being held without charge. and broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with us now a fierce clashes in belfast between loyalists and nationalist on saturday once again ended in street battles leaving twenty nine policemen injured the outrage was sparked six weeks ago by belfast council's decision to reduce the number of days the union flag flies over the city hall the latest violence broke out after about unionists marching on city hall were attacked by locals in a predominantly catholic area police fired water cannons and plastic bullets to

disperse the crowds are. breaking out once again. trying. to crowd. like this becoming all too common other to think going to have been helped by the fact that many feel inflammatory political language has helped to whip up the tension feel the straight. recreational rioting that some people are calling it. you can see the face at the back that just say the back roads of police responding with the worse a concert in the south and these protests have been about the flag but the scale and intensity of the person that really this is about much much more than just that look he students the director of the east belfast mission group 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 it because girls even with young children we've seen on the streets who i don't think a fully realized what their actions can result in but they're just right there in some ways having a laugh and yet there's nothing funny about it what are the protesters here asking for just a one hour flight back up on one hour 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 the announce a nice said on his back save maybe take all the flak he's called was rubbish and skull mannering out you know but when he wanted also to on the streets for his election we can make for do you think the protesters would predict that any kind of

compromise when it comes to this you 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 law of majority rule. any unionist. now to try to reengage politically that we're told will need to be done. quick fix is good as i think there's any silver bullet i think there's so many different things need to happen economic. investment politico 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. but. that damage has already been. this is a new generation putting on to the states. it's a. signal that night is complex that doesn't make it any less.

so. the relatives of internet activists and a programmer in shorts have said his death was a product of the failed u.s. justice system the twenty six year old co-founder of social news website reddit committed suicide facing decades in prison on hacking charges for allegedly stealing and publishing scientific documents online my colleague earlier spoke to a representative of the pirate party from the berlin parliament fabio reinhardt who says the potential punishment for swartz was far too harsh but u.s. attorney's office pursued a spread of charges possibly leading to over thirty years in prison and a million dollars. for downloading and re distributing mit academic papers do you think the punishment is justified. no i definitely don't think this

plan is the same as mine was justified it is completely ridiculous people are being charged with fifty thousand dollars fines for just are not into music from the internet or into what was putting flyers on the internet that should have been on the internet. a long time ago and actually j.-star. where the fire came from and said they wanted to put the fire on the internet anyway and aaron swartz just did a perfectly good job doing it and he actually took a lot of effort from them which would have been there for i think the system of rock in this case whenever it comes to internet freedom whenever it comes to copyright infringement then other senators other people in the house of representatives in the united states on the same side there is no differences. there they are fighting and same side as hollywood does they are actually fighting for hollywood and making the laws for them it's sometimes it's ridiculous what they what they are thinking what would be a good law they should always think what they are but the laws actually have an

effect on society that's carrying a very heavy legacy that will be difficult to fill a footstep but there are a lot of people that fight for the same goals that were tried to go into what he was fighting for and i think there's a political movement that is fighting for a free internet it's the strongest now and with get stronger and there's no risk that this very heavy loss for the internet community will bring a stop to the political movement and you can read the quotes from the original statement by i'm sure. on our website r.t. dot com. at least eleven civilians and over one hundred militants have been killed since the french intervention in mali began on friday government troops with the help of the french military have regained control of the key city of kona which had been captured by islamist rebels earlier this week jets and helicopters have now begun an aerial bombardment on the rebel held town meanwhile the campaign is

gaining support from the west as the united states and britain and other european countries are offering logistics support political light and a journalist lando plants will have to negotiate. if the country was really ready to come apart has. seemed to feel that perhaps it was i think the problem is that it's totally open ended. given no i probably don't know exactly what they're at your tips are what is their tolerance is going to go on you're talking about a country just north of our morality which is twice the size of france you track down these rebels these different groups who know who's there is how do you deal with them with a few hundred troops there is a way. potentially a huge involvement a very long task in the end what they're going to want to do is i mean to negotiate with these people that's the only way i think it's going to come to an end. if you

fell a lot of. mercenaries who had been paid to fight for him and who had a lot of be arms took off and came south and some of them originally from northern mali decided it was now time to establish their claim to want to do for a long time. having their own homeland in northern mali these were twice as they were joined by radical more radical islamic groups and. that now been tossed out and it's really the radical islamic groups that run things but i don't think anyone really knows what's going on there. 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 government troops battled rebels there currently nine french nationals are being held hostage across north america and north africa excuse me

a fresh round of diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the crisis in syria has been held this week in moscow the u.n. and arab league peace envoy to syria reiterated that there can be no military solution to the conflict and moscow has urged the opposition to propose its own peace plan stressing that assad's removal cannot be a precondition for peace talks. we are united in our view that the crisis is becoming increasingly menacing not only for syria which for the region as a whole in this situation the only wants the benefit of the radicals and extremists connected to terror groups like al qaida were convinced the solution lies in following the geneva agreements without any preconditions because preconditions will make it impossible to start a dialogue it's necessary to force all sides including the opposition that's now refusing the talks to come to the negotiating table meanwhile on the ground the

rebels have invaded the largest military air base in the north while syrian military warplanes have bombed damascus suburbs forcing the opposition out of the strategic area earlier western experts stated that the syrian government might be storing up to fifty tons of raw uranium enough to build five nuclear bombs fears are mounting that the arsenal could fall into the wrong hands however political analyst says that the west isn't drawing a full picture of the conflict. 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 the i.a.e.a. said that there were traces of fuel rain 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. well obviously i did some research and it appears that they came up with

a number because they they feel 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 than 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 countryside where rebel fighters are 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 overall the syrian 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. and later in the hour a dark anniversary for the notorious want on a mobile bay. after the break we have an eyewitness account of what's been happening behind the prison walls while barack obama continues to prolong closing the facility this story and much more.

and live from moscow this is our team glad to have you back with us america is a most infamous prison camp has marked its eleventh anniversary this week with over one hundred sixty captives still being held there without charge or trial obama has been promising to close the facility since his two thousand and eight presidential campaign but has since failed to stand up to his word what's more calls to stop indefinite detention have largely died down in the u.s.

where reportedly even torture is gaining acceptability artes advantage that you can comment. 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. but he later became a vocal critic of the practices there and strongly supported president obama's pledge to shut down the prison 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 us. 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 kim carr does she and her 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 that 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's 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 it 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 era. where things like guantanamo and the. warrantless wiretapping that's all they've ever known you know for a decade now and i think it's just become an accepted part of life unfortunately judging by how the guantanamo controversy evolved here is what may transpire with regards

to drones the urgency of the issue will subside in the west because there will be no american troops dying there will be no strong public movement to oppose the program there may even be a movie or two out of the top of the logical capabilities of drones and once the controversy dies down it will become the new normal and america will move on. in washington on venice talking. earlier my colleague kevin owen who spoke with a moron is a former prisoner at guantanamo who was serving a sentence for what turned out to be groundless accusations he was released after the u.s. military failed to get him to confess to crimes he never committed but he says that others were not so lucky if you are not a terrorist they want life to try to make you or terrorists i should example. that i did fight with taliban together against american soldiers between the war.

and going to sign papers they forced me to sign papers that i should agree that i'm be a member of al qaeda because because they didn't have anything against me in their hands and you're saying force you have they force you say what were they doing to shoot to do that. they used torture techniques like waterboarding and electroshocks they sought after this i'm going to sign and agree that i'm being a member of al qaeda and every time i refused to sign they tried another kind of torture they saw i walked one time can you tell us the worst

thing one of a better word that you saw going on there. example i saw. i had neighbors that used to be just nine or twelve years or childs and. i think it was the worst i saw over there. there was not treating him better than us i didn't saw that they getting tortured but. to see children in the same camp it was bad enough for me and also i saw people they got killed on the torture the bigger portion of the. kill so. i mean i have seen many things during this five years many thinks this is just a couple of those how do you feel after what you've been through in guantanamo through no fault of your own how does it make you feel as a human being. of course nobody can be happy after after

all this happened. i myself i'm trying to support human rights organizations to fight against torture around the world not just going to normal. around the world exists more that more than twenty one secret prisons where people getting tortured and guantanamo is just one of course. and of course we have more stories for you on our web site including a new collection of clothes designed to hide the wearer drones and other means of detection and they are scheduled to be unveiled in london soon. to read how man could do big brother. and seven letters with. robert burns have been discovered by a private researcher more than two hundred years since the beloved bards death the full story on our website r.t. dot com. thousands have marched in moscow protesting against

a law banning u.s. citizens from adopting russian children the march was organized by russian opposition activists our correspondent you got a piece going off was at the. the protesters are demanding that the e.u. the authorities abolish all walked past me slowly which bans americans from adopting russian children now this button is part of the russian lawmakers response to the magnitsky act passed recently in the united states which gives the green light for sanctioning russian officials suspected there in the states of violating human rights of the reason why russian lawmakers chose to balamory against from adopting russian children is due to the meaning cases of abuse and sometimes even deaths of russian kids after they were adopted and brought to the united states in fact the whole issue adoption has been quite a problem between russia and the united states for several years now and officials

in moscow say it's not only the cases of abuse themselves but also the lack of a proper legal reaction from american of gordie's including the lack of heavy jail sentences which could have prevented these cases from happening again so authorities say that banning americans from adopting russian kids is actually aimed at protecting them and it's fair to say that they do have quite a large number of supporters in society in russia just recently about why the russian girl in her blog online wrote a personal letter to president putin for the signs the bill in the end asking him to change his mind to abolish this law she explained it by saying that in many cases the orphans which are being adopted by americans and many foreigners what americans in this case they are disabled and they are simply not able to receive the proper medical attention here in russia. from the part of the president's press secretary that he was going to say that about the budget we will review this walk

of all this even though it's not an official request but also right before the end of last year one of russia's newspapers managed to gather around one hundred thousand signatures now protesting the slaughter and under the degree heat off of the president the parliament also has to review this protest but it's also needed to point out that to do to the current agreement between moscow and washington on adoption all those people who have already been able to find the children who are going to be adopted and brought to the united states they're going to be able to finalize the process so these kids who are already sort of approved to be adopted the will be able to go to the united states all the way until two thousand and fourteen. world news in brief for you this hour. hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to paris from all over france to

protest against same sex marriage and adoption by gay couples three large rallies were held before the crowds marched through the streets to meet in the capital the center's at capital the center of the capital rather president francois hollande project dubbed marriage for everyone has faced criticism ever since he was elected last may. over one hundred thousand opposition supporters that took to the streets of the taipei to protest against taiwan's approach china president demonstrators have also urged the country's prime minister to step down over the country's a stagnating economy the opposition claims the president's china oriented policies are gradually eroding the island's independence from beijing. six men have been arrested and one that declared it wanted after allegedly committing a gang rape in the northern indian state of punjab the twenty nine year old victim is believed to have been traveling alone on a bus when the driver took her to a desolate location and called friends the incident occurred just weeks after

a gang rape in new delhi which provoked massive protests throughout the country. seven civilians have been killed after an explosion hit a village in eastern afghanistan the blast occurred as the villagers were trying to pull out the dead from a collapsed mosque destroyed during overnight fighting between nato troops and the taleban police say a suicide vest on one of the dead insurgents might have caused the explosion. germany's finance minister wolfgang schauble is set to meet greece's top anti bailout politician alexis tsipras the leader of the leftist sarees a party the meeting is seen as a chance to convince the strong critic that he needs to back harsh austerity measures imposed on athens yanis varoufakis a political economist and author says germany wants to establish a dialogue with the greek opposition as they could win the next election when i was

in opposition fronts mrs merkel if you talk to him and then find it much harder to a. relationship with him once he became kristen of the french public similarly mrs may well be in government and after the next election in the future in greece germany needs to have a mode of communicating not in order to be either. conventionally so clear about that i wrong. thinking but that would be some kind of communication. and coming up by t. towards parts of the moscow kremlin hidden from public view.

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