or self-expression. gets some truth. for a little late. seven more foreign hostages have reportedly been killed in algeria as the military carries out what's being called the final solved to free the last remaining captives from islamic terrorists. david cameron's accused of fudging the e.u. issue with political rivals seizing on extracts of his address on britain's future in the union which they say threatens the country's democracy. and the both choice leaders artistic director successfully undergoes the first operation to save his eyesight that's after an acid attack that's being linked to his professional.

life from our studios in moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now i want to start with news just in and eleven islamic terrorists and seven foreign civilians have reportedly been killed in algeria after the military launched a final raid to free those hostages held at a gas plant and the exact number of victims in the outcome of the operation are yet to be officially confirmed the remaining captives include british american and japanese nationals the islamists say they took the hostages in retribution for the ongoing french intervention in neighboring mali paris is standing by its campaign and claims the algerian crisis justifies it further but some say the stance could backfire on the french government as polly boy now reports. it's all calm on the

streets of paris but with an escalating military intervention in mali and an algerian hostage crisis in response to it french public opinion is predicted to turn against francois hollande pledged to help the mali government once he's really hit by the the enormity of what they may be taking on in mali there may be a lot of questions then asked about his judgment and a lot of people who are supposedly supporting him now or maybe very quickly turn around and criticize it's already beginning to happen we've spoken to provisions here who lament the fact that they weren't told in advance that the military offensive was set to take place meanwhile voices in the french media complain of a war with no pictures they say that there's a media blackout and accuse the government of making it intentional journalist surprising thing is that. we had no. recourse or information from.

the day after this really started and for most of all that when you see what's happening what has happened in iraq or in afghanistan surely if you will if you read to the region and if he lasts long it's going to be a problem comparisons already being made to the usa is experience in iraq and afghanistan conflicts that were initially supported at home out of a sense of patriotism and support for the troops but it turned into lengthy and costly and deeply unpopular wars at home now if this mission creep becomes only driving on the terrorists as some ministers and even on themselves seem to be saying. that it's going to be a failure because you cannot drive out all the terrorists. and many soldiers die and there are attacks in paris and public opinion will shift the way it has done

for. there was either war started by france or was started by them by the us nevertheless french president francois hollande remains committed to the french military offensive in mali making grand statements that the french intervention way intends until egypt to let off already in the country is restored but what many french people are beginning to wonder is just how long that might take and at what cost playboy k t paris well it is researcher dr younis of where you from columbia university told us that the french intervention in mali has materialistic and geo political motives the konami crisis has shown that the western developed countries have. lost the economic competition against the new. players china russia south africa the brics countries basically and now that tending to militarize this competition they are trying to expel the

chinese from the region the natural resource is very important especially rhenium because it's a very necessary element and resourceful france this is basically a new fight and competition over the resources of the african countries this is going most probably to spread in the region and there's also this new cold war that it's taking place one of its battles being fought in syria as we speak and it's now also in africa we've seen what happened in libya and now the french are coming back again and they're all former colonies to basically play the role of the master especially the deal where snow is more focused on now in asia so it's a big political game and geopolitical game in the region and artie's andrew farmer has been looking into the possible pretext for an international struggle over mali and the rest of africa. potentially has

a wealth of minerals that can be exploited as far as oil is concerned there is zero proven reserves however it is believed major oil fields have been discovered in the north of the country although that still has to be mapped on top of that mali is africa's third largest exporter of gold beaten only by south africa and ghana and there are also some five thousand tons of uranium deposits the french have two major mines in the country already and extract extensive amount from neighboring niger and would not want that jeopardized in any ways they rely almost entirely on uranium for their nuclear energy all this is led some analysts to think that big economic incentives are also fueling the u.s. backed french intervention here's what the author eth william angle had to say the critical strategical goal of u.s. foreign policy of residents is to prevent the core he's expanding your region from russia or china to iran to northern africa and the rest of africa that

could leave the united states has been so simple so according to him the u.s. is fearful of china's increasing economic presence in africa in the figures seem to back up that argument china has increased its investment in africa exponentially over the last decade and they are catching america up fast despite the u.s. investing over one hundred billion dollars over the last two years mali it can't be denied does have significant geo political importance. we have more updates an expert analysis of the crisis in north africa on our web site for you r t v dot com hugh. prime minister david cameron is using the developing hostage crisis in algeria to delay his announcement on britain's future role within the e.u. that's according to the leader of the u.k. independence party nigel farrar well this after the pm was forced to cancel friday's speech on the issue or to sarah firth caught up with the u.k.i.p.

leader to discuss the released extracts from the would be address. key to the ongoing hostage crisis in algeria involving a number of british nationals amongst others the prime minister had to postpone that long awaited for a speech on europe but nonetheless some extracts of what he was expected to say in that speech have been revealed to us more about that we're outside you are a powerhouse in london to talk to the leader of the u.k. independence party nigel farage the party that says we're better off out the. some of the excerpts that reveal quite a positive thing to that did that surprise you well positive in the sense of you know he's using you're a skeptic language to pursue a year of agenda she exactly what harold wilson did forty years ago this speech is happening because of the rise of using it and the rise of you could has led to massive discontent on the backbenchers in the house of commons and amongst the conservative party in the whole country that's what he's responding to so that's

why he talked tough and says he was renegotiating but the reality of what he says if you read the subtext is that the e.u. is very good for us but it serves our interests and i promise i promise god to do my best over the next five years to do everything i can to keep britain a member of that union this issue is a key constitutional issue it is need about economics it's about who governs britain it's about are we dependent nation as a democracy and determine their own future or not and i want to referendum now more of a promise ok i want to ask there's a lot of concern that if a person left the this is massively affect our relationships our trade relationships certainly have a hit on the economy as a result of that what do you say to those concerns a classic scare tactics always employed by the status quo whether they're defending slavery all the called laws or e.u. membership you know transparent everybody with a whole series of shocks you know three million british jobs would be lost if we left the european union really really we import massively more from the you than we

sell to them would mislead is stop selling cars. we have the e.u. well i think we all know the answer and you think the person should be looking to trade outside the well you know what i'm saying is this that europe is aging europe as a percentage of the world economy is now below a fifth and falling quite sharply it is gripped by eurozone crisis which is likely because of their fanaticism to keep it together to last for up to a decade and yeah ok europe is thirty percent of our overseas exports and it's an important market place but the rest of the world is more important to us and we're impotent because we're stuck inside this old fashioned nineteenth century concept of a customs union we cannot make our own trade deals anywhere else in the world let's have a free trade deal with europe like the swiss do and let's reengage with the rest of the world we've always seen this latest postponement to take understandable reasons they don't see seen a number of delays already what do you think about that the fact that this is such a huge issue and we just had

a. you know i've been waiting for years for this speech another couple weeks doesn't matter too much thank you very much for joining us nigel for us and the clear information about when exactly that big speech in europe will be delivered there something is that it could be as early as next week and of course the latest postponement making that big speech on europe no less controversial. archies sarraf earth reporting there and this month is payback time for the fun and frolics of christmas and new year. so close. you know it's a magical russian winter zone could alter your very existence. i could tell you i'm feeling very exhilarated right now it's a pity for orthodox christians which means of freezing dip into ice cold waters and maps join our correspondent for some soul cleansing later this hour. and britain's flora saying slave trade human trafficking is on the rise despite

efforts to stamp out the exploitation of immigrants are reports just ahead. well with. science technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future of covered. choose your language. call if we could with oh in federal prison officials some of the. treatments that the consensus can. choose to give us the degrading to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to. if you're. going to take three. three.

three. three. three. download free volunteer video for your media project free media r.t. dot com. it's thirty minutes past the hour here in moscow your with archie now it's thought up to twenty seven million people in the world today are caught in some form of slavery about eight hundred thousand are being trafficked across borders each year what might surprise you though is that one magnet for those exploited others for sex or forced labor is britain laura smith investigates why. it wasn't allowed to her and. i was in london with a claim for cooking looking after the children. but i was never allowed to take the

kids to school i was locked inside the house when i was nowhere in the door side it sounds like something from an eighteenth century workhouse but it's britain today so it was trafficked to this country aged twelve now nineteen she's still too afraid to talk about her experience but the fact that she's played here by an actor doesn't make her horrific story any less real. i was slapped and right i kept getting the right. things i was like a slave never time i kept playing i kept trying to clean myself up and i kept getting called and she was shouting asking me to keep playing even the house is clean i still have to keep playing. eventually sarah's female employer threw her out of the house aged just fourteen with no way of contacting relatives at home she lived on the street for nine months begging until she eventually found help through

pat an international group campaigning against child trafficking it's a story that all too common and it's not just about domestic slavery according to experts many people are trafficked to work on cannabis farms in the u.k. and they're often kept in a perpetual cycle of debt or through fear of repercussions for their families but another sector that says is rife with trafficking victims particularly from asia is high street nail bars so next time you go for a manicure pedicure ask yourself who serving you and is the solo that sells figures from the into departmental ministerial group on human trafficking show it's risen by thirty three percent compared to last year and victims come from all over the world africa europe and the far east. more than two. thousand victims there's

a retreat. victims say they were just ten percent to. twenty thousand. trafficked into this country huge business. for. criminal gangs this is the second most profitable thing to drugs and a lot less chance of getting caught that rice could be because more cases of being reported but chloe setter who works with trafficking victims including sara says it's partly down to a lack of police awareness only eight cases of trafficking were successfully prosecuted last year trafficking is seen not just in the u.k. but worldwide as a low risk high profit crime those criminals who previously been smuggling drugs arms. may now be looking to. children and people because a child can be recycled a human can be recycled the drugs that they have a one off crime so there's a number of ways of controlling and once that happens they are literally sort of

assigned to the traffickers for a hospital time unless the authorities do something to intervene antony steen founder of the parliamentary group on trafficking is leading the biggest ever conference on the subject held in britain slavery. a modern day slavery is alive and well and ten times the size of what it was when it was abolished two hundred years ago but prosecution relies heavily on his say evidence and testimony and huge numbers of victims like sarah never want to talk about their experiences again laura smith r.t. london. they're just there director of the historic bolshoi theater has successfully undergone an initial operation to save his sight following a gruesome acid attack in central moscow over doctors say it's too early to predict whether surrogate feeding will fully manage to regain his vision let's not get the latest on the story from marty's medina caution about she joins us live from just

outside the bolshoi theater medina tell us bring us up to date on what exactly is third gay feelings condition at this point. well a surrogate fillin is saying now in a satisfactory condition that's what the doctors say he is a currently at one of moscow's burn center and he's not in intensive care anymore and he has already been questioned by you the investigators i know. he underwent a surgery and the doctors now say that it's going to take up to seven days to to determine whether the true true was successful now throughout the first twenty four hours off through the attack the dog true so we're really battling to save sergei filin eyesight and now they say there's going to take up to two weeks to determine whether through a lens with a lens vision could be a sieved now the artistic director suffered severe burns to three degree

burns should too he's face in and now there is also a big chance that he will need plastic surgery in the future a gruesome in time attack indeed and certainly his loved ones hoping that he will regain full eyesight but take us through how the attack initially happened. well of the attack happened late on thursday surrogate filling was coming back home and as he stepped out of his court an unidentified man wearing a mask called him so he turned around to response and at that time the man threw a ball. right. face. but the belly industry of course is extremely competitive certainly hollywood has shown us that many believe or at least are talking about the fact that this could be due to his profession to some rivalry what are investigators saying. well in point shane deeds from the art apart from the beauty of the art of done so the world of the big

valley is really very tough in space their first down stops and since their first dance steps of the life of a dancer involved really are worse and. punishing trainings and we have seen the odds for instance in the oscar winning movie black swan how the life of the professional ballet is really full off in fighting an entry and disturbingly for the people of the. theater yvonne's out taking a sinister and dramatic twist now some colleagues that how been working with the surrogate fell in shoulder to shoulder for so many years they say that though he was he became of the artistic director of the theater just in march twenty seventh but still most the average thing at the theater was pundits was dependent upon his decisions. hard on people who promoted them he distributes

the roles decides who gets to go on tours abroad compiles the rehearsal schedules and so forth he's the head of the collective who influences every decision within the company and his opinion carries a lot of weight through. film was also known for his passion towards contemporary performances and he introduced some on the stage of the theater and now some of his colleagues think that perhaps the disapproval of some of his actions may have also been one of the reasons behind this attack. these locus of evil in this because we've been having a lot of contemporary performances recently maybe somebody didn't approve of them but others really did people receive multiple awards for the productions but nobody should be reacting to something they don't like with such inhumane cruelty. so so far investigators believe that the primary cause behind this attack is feelings

professional excessive itchy write medina course and a live from outside the bolshoi theater bringing us the latest on this horrific attack of course on the top man i think it's fair to say the main decision maker at that historic theater thanks for that well let's take a look now at some other world news for you this hour gunmen have blown up an important oil pipeline in a yemen the blast some explosives reportedly planted overnight cause serious damage and halted oil transportation in the southern child one province the pipeline operated by the korean national oil company transfers crude oil to export terminals in the gulf of aden al-qaeda which the government blamed for the blast has frequently attacked oil routes since the ousting of yemen's veteran president. early last year. more afghan taliban fighters being held in custody in pakistan are being released according to pakistani

officials islam about hopes the move will boast or cobbles out for its to bring the militants closer to the negotiating table ahead of the looming nato troop withdrawal from afghanistan over the number of detainees to be freed and where they'll be released remains unclear. venezuelan president hugo chavez has reportedly been moved from the hospital in cuba where he was receiving cancer treatment to a secret location is rumored to now be in a bunker specially built for former cuban leader fidel castro it's imperative partly to avoid leaks to the media about travis's house and in preparation for a return home now the leader has not been seen since his latest cancer surgery in mid december and later missed his own inauguration ceremony. activists in syria say fear's battles are being far between rebels and government

forces in the country's north east opposition fighters are said to be trying to seize two army bases and block roads that supply them this as a u.n. delegation is visiting the war ravaged towns and villages to assess the need for humanitarian aid more than sixty thousand people have been killed in syria in nearly two years of war. now how better to atone for the excesses of the holidays than a naked plunge into ice cold water it's a pity for orthodox christians in a day for a breathtaking dip in line with centuries old tradition our very own cars one of peter all over has been enjoying the full experience let's have a look. winter temperatures commonly fall below minus fifteen celsius in the russian capital perfect conditions for a swim say this lot they are part of a group who refer to themselves as a walrus club and they believe in the health benefits of taking

a few subzero laps here to show them i was quite prange khaled's all my life until i turned sixty when i took up i swimming and i've never had any kind of a cold since then who knows i was acquitted i used to have terrible back pain but it's gone now i'm healed there were surely a natural part after i took up i swimming i regain my flexibility i could even do a proper like split and that's how it works i recommended to everyone it's the only existing cure to all illnesses and maybe this isn't a new activity in the tradition of the russian orthodox church will ship his mark the feast of the with a late night submergence into the icy waters symbolizing the baptism of jesus to anyone thinking that they would like to give it a go i do have these woods from my own experience the stove and clothes. that say i did provided that the first day i put that when i rode mission so the russian legs are girls i did your their exit there so. i could say i'm standing very exhilarated

right now. the head walrus at this swimming hole is blood in you could of being can he's the chairman of the russian i swimming in cold water treatment federation and insists that no i'm genuine in medical benefits. if you're the main way i swimming works for you is good with blood circulation driven by cold and struggling to stay warm your body contracts his blood vessels so there's less blood pumped around the system so where does the excess blood go it goes to the vital organs that is why it's good for the kidneys and liver they are constantly cleansed. to me it has also trained thrill seekers who want to push the abilities of the human body to the limits. day of holds the record for time spent in icy water i mean could. spend sixty minutes in there and i helped him get out of that condition when he could hardly talk he couldn't even say mama he couldn't walk his arms wouldn't move

but thirty five minutes later he was recovered and can talk to the press. the russian ice swimming federation has one and a half million members across the country and blah to me it does his best to drum up more support with his own personal guarantee for years for a little i jumped into a nice hole for the first time thirty four years ago i saw that people who did it are never sick and so i decided to give it a try now look at me fit as a butcher's dog. well it might not be everybody's idea of a good time but be it for health reasons or for spiritual reasons there's no shortage of people willing to take the plunge peter all of a r.t. moscow. and that wraps up our main news block coming up for you the tough journey for a russian man left to care for his children after the death of his wife needed to dad is after this break here on r.t. .

congress' approval rating has hit an all time low never has american record history been so disappointed with the lawmaking body the united states even former arkansas governor mike huckabee said that their approval ratings are just barely above a pedophile so i guess that's good news for the disgusting pedophiles out there soon you won't be the most hated group in america anymore but i don't think this statistic reflects the quality of government but so much the quality of the governed in some small country with a hard to pronounce name if the government became that unpopular the country would simply collapse but no matter how many wars congress gets involved in and no matter how many jobs are shipped overseas or no matter how much the american dream gets stamped out everyone still relish round obama and votes democrat and republican

this popularity rating doesn't show how effective the government is it shows how arrogant they are because they seem to have no fear whatsoever of getting reelected or being punished in any way for their bad behavior so you know congress i have to save us keep up the good work go for one percent popularity and maybe someone will actually do something about you but that's just my opinion.