total recall quest the french say they won't leave mali until islamic extremism is wiped out but already there are voices suggesting alterian motives behind what threatens to become a long war in the african ex colony. going new clear over sanctions north korea announces a slew of been mistaken atomic weapons tests targeted against the u.s. over fresh u.n. impose penalties. catalonia trumpets its right to split from spain despite madrid's problems stations the sturdy crisis and stagnation driving the to restrain sides further apart.

around the world on line on screen life from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with twenty four hours a day. spent a movement has broken away from the al qaeda linked islamist somali saying it wants to fight terrorism and extremism the newly formed group has stated it is ready for peace talks with the government and the french choose forces are currently fighting there france's defense minister meanwhile has said his country is prepared for a long conflict. looks at the reasons behind the french intervention. the french have died headlong into the military operation in mali but the discussion is still ongoing as to exactly why the western nation has put boots on african soil again costing money and people's lives. official rhetoric remains in line with the mantra of the war on terrorism but some statements suggest another layer of france's defense minister has declared

a total recount quest of mali is the main goal with the president echoing french troops twenty five hundred so far will remain in the region for as long as necessary they're attempting to militarize huge sections of africa so that they will to monopolize access to the city to the resources this is the there with seeing this effect become specifically i mean relations do it to states that no one seeing it with problems of the possible european union group of european union troops actually being used i mean some of the money conflict as well which has been relatively rare in the past gold and especially iranian deposits make the country very attractive nearly eighty percent of all france's energy generated by almost sixty nuclear power plants is dependent on african remaining. french companies must go on the offensive and fight the growing influence of rival china for stake in africa's increasingly competitive markets while all this is neocolonialism but with us simply france is far from the only nation to have and defended its interests in

africa the french have intervened around fifty times enough in the last fifteen years since official decolonization protectin regimes from rebels like in djibouti or the central african republic or fighting regimes like in libya france is always driven by its own economic or geopolitical interests this time is no different radical de carlo is asian wasn't actually over apart from economic there is also strategic importance this part of africa opens routes to the red sea and the middle east britain and france have for centuries fought over it before it's like a remake but with many others involved but that doesn't mean the round mutual interests here. if you ask people in mali you'd be surprised they were waiting for somebody to say. of them because their army is not equipped to train to oppose these militants but it was necessary to intervene in mali people see this operation

as a liberation they hardly wanted to live under islamicists misery had that is the philosopher in the former tunisian ambassador to damascus his view on the positive impact for the people of mali is that it is actually a colonial throwback you. know you want to come you resources put then it's logical that locals profit as well those riches go to improve their life but that's not the case this was wild the kind of slavery in mali in one of the richest national resources in africa remains one of the poorest nations in the world for many years this building in paris was the head waters of the country's ministry of colonies their body which administered french territories overseas today that ministry no longer exists and former french colonies are independent but someone that alone no idea is all just part of history and that history may be repeating. now team from paris. a u.s.

senate committee is set to decide on whether democrat john kerry should replace hillary clinton as america's next secretary of state or later this hour we look at the challenges he may be facing if he's given the green light and also still to come. worldwide of which we speak to an embattled businessman and freedom of information activist who claims human rights are ignored in the politically motivated persecution of his colleagues around the globe. and still to come but first north korea is warned it is prepared to carry out a plethora of rocket launches a nuclear test to allowed to compete militarily should words turn to warfare the message comes a day after the u.n. approved more sanctions against pyongyang over a satellite launch in december and brought back here in r.t. he's from the anti war coalition he says that the situation is so volatile conflict could break out of any moment. korea is the most heavily militarized part of the planet the u.s.

won't sign the landmine treaty one of the few countries not to be a signatory to it because they say they may need it in korea there's constant incidence in north korea one of those can blow up and become a major conflagration it's a serious problem every time any country says that they are going to defend themselves from the united states the united states and aggressor and thus we have the new excuse the new pretext to up the ante but i think when you look at the whole picture you can see that north korea's sort of tenacious militancy even if it appears to be bombastic in the west and the way it's presented in the western media it's had the effect of preventing what would have been otherwise i think a war between the united states and its allies south korea in north korea that was a danger that existed in one thousand nine hundred four a very real danger it started again when bush came into office scratching scotching the normalization process that was under way during clinton so i don't think north korea is sort of. impression that it's prepared to fight is actually accelerating

the conflict if anything i think it could lead to new negotiations brought back a talking to to learn enough if you haven't needed a reminder of why you should strap yourself in on treacherous roads this video was surely it in a shocking accident that could have been so much worse. the iraqi lives not once but twice i'll give you the story of a one year old girl who fled by there. that's still to come for you but first a u.s. senate committee is set to the side of whether john kerry should become the head of the u.s. state department the democrat senator was nominated by president obama to replace hillary clinton as the country's top diplomat will talk more on the potential challenges kerry may face we're joined now by gareth porter historian and investigative journalist on u.s. national security policy well kind of legacy is hillary clinton leaving for her successor. well the clinton legacy is pretty much i

think the legacy of american wars and a counterterrorism policy that has usurped the the usual prerogatives of the state department she has gone along with this fundamental shift in american national security policy which has started really of course after nine eleven in the bush administration but has continued under president obama and what. hillary clinton did which was more important than anything else during her four years as secretary of state was to be part of the coalition the phalanx if you will of pro-war people which included general mcchrystal. admiral. the admiral mullen and bob gates the secretary of defense she was part of that coalition which really left president obama no choice but to go along with the forty thousand troops that the military was demanding that the crystal was

demanding for afghanistan and that was the beginning of this long term trend which usurped the power over u.s. national security policy and in fact over u.s. foreign policy as well because that has dominated everything else the united states has done abroad so i think really the most important part of her legacy was to be an empowering factor in the war in afghanistan so will john kerry continue with that legacy will we see a change in direction. oh absolutely i think we can expect that john kerry will. perforce will wilma must follow in the footsteps of hillary clinton in this regard that he will not be able to fundamentally change the course of u.s. foreign policy which is again set in motion set in stone if you will because of the power that the cia and the military really wield over the

direction of u.s. relations with so much of the of the world particularly the middle east and now increasingly in africa as well as well as of course south asia so every virtually every important issue that he's going to deal with. you know in those parts of the world will be. issues which has a good century preempted already the policy set by the military and by the cia and i think that there is very little chance that john kerry will challenge any of the fundamental directions of u.s. policy such as for example the drone war in pakistan but what about relations there you are in washington i'm here in moscow is senator kerry has criticised u.s. policy towards russia and russian diplomats have said that the reset proposed by hillary clinton four years ago simply isn't working anymore do you perhaps think it could be a reset of the reset with this new secular state. well i mean of course the possibility

of trying to improve relations with russia is always something that the secretary of state is is attempting and that is one of the areas which is perhaps less subject to the logic that i've just talked about because obviously we're not talking here about a u.s. military role in regard to russia there is there is no imminent threat of conflict or anything like that so it is more of a purely diplomatic problem that is not directly affected by by the policies elsewhere in the in the world but i would add that for example on an issue like iran. the secretary of state is going to have to deal with the russians over issues that relate to sanctions against the iranians and this is an

area where a very active and innovative secretary of state would indeed try to change the present policy in the direction of. trying to make a deal with iran i'm not at all convinced that we we would expect that we should expect that from john kerry he wasn't the first choice they was a u.n. ambassador susan rice she was really the the number one choice because she withdrew her candidacy for the role after what happened in benghazi in libya do you think she would have been a better option. not really no because susan rice was identified. and i think with some justification with a policy that favored intervention in places for humanitarian or human rights reasons she was part of that coalition within the administration that was very enthusiastic about the u.s. the idea of us supporting the war the intervention in libya and i think that that

was turned out to be an absolute disaster so i don't think that she certainly would have been a better choice she might have been a worst choice and of course the republicans played a key role in derailing her chances and we have much from the republicans concerning kerry would be happy with him i don't know if they'll be happy but i don't think there's going to be any real issue here that they can exploit to deny him his nomination i think it's a sure thing but he will be nominated as briefly for a lot of experience kerry as a diplomat he's been on missions before we've talked about a lot of issues he's going to be challenging because syria is number one at the moment in many respects what about him having talks with president assad he's held talks in the past would you say that his diplomacy could perhaps bring a breakthrough with the situation that just briefly. well again specifically with regard to syria there's a possibility there that the the worry that the obama administration has about this

situation in syria being out of control. could lead to an effort to promote. a new initiative and that should be hopeful no i don't think. initiative is is necessarily going to be coming from john kerry personally but i think that the. that the state department would be the place where you're going to have the greatest thinking about what needs to be done to prevent the continued slide of syria into chaos which is certain to cause more and more problems for the region and for the united states ok gareth porter thank you very much indeed investigative story and journalist and us national security policy critic get your perspective on that thank you. fresh deadly violence flares up in jordan as the election results emerge one person is killed in clashes as pro-government candidates dominate the new parliament amid claims the king the hijack the election that's still ahead for you here in r.t.

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news continues here in catalonia has adopted a declaration of sovereignty a proclamation that gives it the right to hold a referendum on breaking away from spain but madrid is unswayed citing illegality and maintaining it's not up to katmandu alone to decide if they want to leave but a matter for all spaniards the culture still close sees a sociologist at the pump in fabry university says that's little more than an excuse. well it's definitely unlawful i mean it's a lawful against the constitution the question is also how many people in spain

right now. are really behind this constitution and when when does this constitution actually mean anything the constitution also guaranteed a right for instance to to decent housing and yet we find that you know hundreds of people are being are being kicked out of their homes today and being left out in the street all over spain and in catalonia so the constitution a lot of the times serves to i guess is about to validate an argument or to legitimize an argument whenever it's convenient for whoever is governing at the time. catalonia has adopted the declaration of sovereignty in the hope of gaining legal grounds to hold a referendum on breaking away from spain madrid remains unswayed saying it's not up to the catalans alone to decide if they want to leave but a matter for all spaniards and an article spokesperson from the european partnership for independence says that catalonia leaving would benefit both madrid and barcelona does so declare a should do what he has and it's just

a foreign money is something the democrats are running now and that is that catalonia is the suffering nation we just declared the us are formally this popular really we all know that's the case but formally don't we have political and legal software instruction it's no way to stoop to progress when you are glad to be something that you are not and it was fine of three young cats and then you have nations by doing that we are not the spanish so it's a would be in progress and it would be united when we are separate in good times. but try to top story now the situation in mali where france is leading an intervention against islamist extremist let's talk to middle east blogger coal shero for more on this cole porter today that one of the rebel groups is now actually split away and says it's ready for peace talks is that evidence of the militants now wavering under this for an offensive. yeah that's on sort of the in

which has at best but if you look at the history of both cargo groups and an aide to start a group says been lots of listens and i think it's part of the notcher the dynamics of the politics and region and i don't necessarily see. the impact of the french intervention and towards pushing them towards a political settlement because they might be able to control a certain part of the forces over there but they're definitely have unleashed other forces don't have really good gosh that's a gross west africa or north africa so i don't think that's unfortunately it's not just signed this situation is about to quiet with that there is a political solution when russia's president putin he said earlier that the unrest in mali is a result of the libyan people and the uncontrolled spread of weapons that cause you talked about but what attila t. being in in respects then this ethnic split that we've seen as been haunting mali

for a long time and and what has happened in the be as definitely been a catalyst for this or could have happened anyway. i mean one cons be certain but let's put it this way there was a certain. sort of precision and order dance provided let's say for the last ten years which was able to contain the stain attentions and thanks tend to which things can go out of control but unfortunately the western intervention in libya i think was very shortsighted and it was a push a mistake and wanted to have a quick and out and didn't even consider what was going to happen afterwards so i see a chain of events from that and attack on the american consulate in benghazi to the hostage taking in nigeria and the further destabilize ation in money sometimes so where is so why be a quick in and out money because the french and said well it's just going to be a matter of weeks some haven't she said they're now being prepared for a prolonged operation but it's going to be longer than we think then do you think

proximity that's interest for that game so quickly that nobody can refute it and the fact that the blowback happened respond so quickly nobody was prepared for it and that shows you the extent to shortsightedness those kinds of interventions their own very question istic but they're not any kind of proper frame for understanding how do you deal with the geopolitics of the area so unfortunately they're becoming more and more destructive and i think we should brace ourselves for a long protracted situation between the northern spaces in libya algeria and even within libya and then further into mali and only it might extend its went to nigeria so you have all these interconnected dynamics that. britain and u.s. and france primarily are intervening in arming certain people with no necessarily checking would they are without checking that they're not going to turn against them and they don't want to call it but that the mahdi government is actually also for help didn't they from france although many people are saying france is only

colonial drive their money but it's their intervention justified because they were requested by the legitimate government. well yes i've heard that argument a lot the first of all it's not that intimate government let's remember that there's a situation over there and many people are jumping search of. the balls to say that ninety six percent of muslims or whatever are supporting the intervention where the mere fact that people there says as i've asked for it or opinion polls shows that they're inclined towards it doesn't necessarily explain the fact what are the political the political dynamics at play how do you explain the complete collapse of the malayan army i mean if there is such a strong bust into your own sea in favor of the government in mali why did i recall our so quickly how can such a handful of this time it was so much trouble so they're older certain other complex dynamics that people are trying to whitewash by saying there is a willingness among the people in mali twice for intervention then again the other question you want to ask since when was kind of. western governments going and

intervening is jewish and just because they were just i mean they were asked in syria where a lot of people didn't do that although they've been meddling but that's not a license to kind of justify any considered interventions and meddling that would further destabilize as bad as they are stable relationship at the end of the day ultimately you should leave for the people of the region to determine the outcome of those struggles and situations culture live in london thank you very much indeed for joining us here in r.t. thank you. at least one person has been killed in jordan as fewer supporters of the islamist opposition clashed with those loyal to the king after a partial parliamentary election results were made public and showed the pro-government candidates will occupy ninety percent of the seat or he's really coming off as more in the first parliamentary vote in jordan since the arab spring kicked off two years ago. despite a boycott by the muslim brotherhood and other opposition groups and jordan's first

parliamentary election since the start of the arab spring turnout was quite high according to election officials more than fifty six percent of the country's two point three million registered voters came out to cast their ballots this is higher than in the last parliamentary elections in this country the muslim brotherhood and opposition activists meanwhile dismissed the results as illegitimate saying that voter turnout was actually much lower than officials describe now jordanian officials want credit for what they claim are successful if cautious democratic reforms this is the first time that outside election observers were invited to watch over the polls and the new parliament for the first time will be able to elect the country's new prime minister the parliament will alpha have more of a say over day to day affairs but the king will continue to retain authority over the security services and foreign policy moreover the new parliament can still be dismissed at any moment by a royal to cream which has caused some jordanians to say that the new reforms are

simply too little and too late now the opposition groups also claim that the new parliament is illegitimate because of the country's new election law which they say is tilted towards favoring candidates from rural tribal organizations that are largely seen as being supportive of the monarchy and the muslim brotherhood they will continue to dismiss the results as illegitimate and are likely to try to ferment more street protests to boycott to continue their boycott of the new poll now jordan's new parliament will have to push through even more abiding austerity reforms which could severely undermined stability here in jordan the future of the arab spring may in the end depend on the economic situation and not politics you see caffein of r t amman jordan. two british activists from the hacker group anonymous have been sentenced to eighteen seven months in jail respectively for attacks on websites and. visa master card and pay pal one of the attacks cost the

victim three and a half billion pounds internet activism is what we discussed with kim dot com a web businessman known for his now banned file sharing service until last year his mega upload site was one of the most visited sites in the world where he was offering access to millions of users to exchange content freely well here's what comes up if you now go onto the mega upload site it's banned by u.s. authorities has become a landmark case in the persecution of internet activists but kim dotcom has already started a new service and is determined to keep free file sharing alive and he spoke exclusively to r.t. is andrew blake about why he's being hounded across the globe. here's a guy who grew up on the internet was a guy who made millions off the internet and here's a guy who designed mega upload at one site one of the most popular websites in the entire world with over one hundred million users is in the top five most trafficked websites and you know that's kind of why the f.b.i.

wanted to shut it down i'm not. this my hero he was selfless he is completely the opposite of me but i'm a businessman i'm driven by the success of achieving something in the business world ok that's not a crime there's nothing wrong with that big raid on the mega mansion the dot com mansion happened january twentieth two thousand and twelve it was the middle of the night kim was at his guest house on this how in the mansion all of a sudden the authorities the local police showed up on helicopters came into his house with guns drawn arrested him arrested his colleagues hauled him off to prison froze his assets shut down his website essentially they put his entire life on hold him dot com is still waiting a eventual extradition hearing to the u.s. at this point though it seems like every single passing day the justice department's case against him just crumbles more and more and more so sooner or later the u.s. government is going to have to prove that kim dotcom is worthy of the extra us and

at that point if he's convicted he could spend decades in prison and you can see the full interview with kim dotcom later on friday here. in the closest secrets about anyone in the world at all if you don't call me read up about how intelligence agencies and governments are becoming google's favorite clients as the number of requests for private data rockets. and also true of russia's most wanted minute since have been killed by special forces in that counter terror operation you can find out more about their crimes. in the dead of winter it pays to be careful on russia's roads and shocking footage is gone viral of what can happen if you lost ortiz takes us through the drama the road is clear he decides to overtake his celebs on the road the truck coming

back she's on to him they go something falls out there you see why don't your left corner is the baby who's just literally out of the moving car into oncoming traffic now what's more surprising about this is that the father comes out luckily this driver is quietly you know is pretty much aware of what's going on around him he picks up the kid goes back into the car his wife comes out picks up what is what's left of everything in the now this video has gone literally viral people are going crazy over it and it's only natural that they would because so many questions are being asked on why was this baby not properly settled in this car there was no baby seat obviously seen that the baby fell out of the car and it's unacceptable that they just nonchalantly just went about their business but now the question that everybody should be asking is rather who was filming this video where all of this was happy.