today's news on the week's top stories here in israel suggest it was behind this week's. attempts to mediate peace in a meeting with the syrian opposition. president claims french troops will stay as long as necessary to root out the insurgency that's amid mounting accusations of war crimes by forces. there's no sign of compromise looming between the government and the opposition in egypt where protests demanding the resignation of the president turn violent and rage on for another week. the u.s. . says john kerry secretary of state with chuck hagel expected to get the post of defense secretary but neither appointment is expected to change much in

america's foreign policy. with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. the syrian president bashar assad says his army is able to confront any aggression aimed against his nation he also says israel is trying to destabilize the country that's off the comments made by the israeli defense minister today hinting for the first time that his forces were behind this week's attack on its northern neighbor. has the details. it does come from the israeli defense minister it would be iraq and he has said that it is proof that when israel says something it means that he did stop short of actually a third being israel's involvement now u.s.

officials have said that the strike targeted an arms convoy that was carrying anti aircraft weapons from syria to lebanon according to the israeli defense minister ehud barak he said that we do not think and i'm quoting that syria should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into live unarmed it is important to make the point that his comments does not constitute acknowledgement of israel's involvement in the strike but it certainly does suggest the possibility that it took place and it was responsible for it but also said that the syrian president bashar assad's fall is imminent and that it would serve as a major blow to his villa and iran need to look at this israeli strategy and it's a strategy that israel has employed in the past and that is namely a strategy of silence it is strategic it doesn't give any kind of confirmation or any kind of denial what israel has done in the past is norwegian attack then leave and that really its response has been a no comment which really leaves the question in office of as minds it is a culture lated moves because the silence allows israel's enemies to save face and

thus reduce the risk of reprisal and its collation against the jewish state of course the international fall out from any kind of israeli strike in syria would create immense arguments in the international community we've heard for example from moscow who says that if indeed israel did carry out the strike it was an attack on a sovereign state and as such it breached international law the arab league has also condemned the strike saying it is in violation of international law and it is purported against a nother sovereign state so israel of course will not want to come out publicly and acknowledge that it carried out such a strike because it would not want to have the kind of diplomatic complications and diplomatic fallout that would follow from such an admission. meanwhile hopes of ending the own going conflict in syria have received a slight boost on the sidelines of a key security conference in munich russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov held his first direct negotiations with the leader of syria's main opposition group he

called on them to be realistic and begin peace talks with president assad while restricting that any use of force is unacceptable the editor of politics first magazine law. thinks diplomacy still has a long way to go before any real success can be achieved the meeting between the leader of the so claims syrian national coalition and the foreign ministers of russia and the wrong an acknowledgement by the leader of the syrian national coalition that the syrian government it's not going to be defeated on the military battlefield and it is acknowledgement that thousands of syrian civilians have died unnecessarily and because outside players in the region turkey saudi arabia qatar at being hunted and weapons and cash to the militants in syria i think circulator of the russian foreign minister said last year how surprised he was by the way he did say the form of a syrian opposition in calling perceptual kristen's. to go from power to resign to

step down except that's not the way diplomacy works that's not the way peace process. hillary clinton about a year ago accused the russian government of having blood on its hands oh unfortunately it's more the country saudi arabia its own saudi arabia who have the blood of thousands upon thousands of syrian civilians on their hands because of their own geo strategic ambitions to see that removal of presence is sad and the syrian government's. france's military has reportedly carried out major air strikes on the training and logistic centers of islamic insurgents in northeast money but the ongoing military campaign in the country has been marred by alleged human rights abuses with activists reporting civilian deaths torture and ethnic reprisals by the local army well r.t. has an exclusive report now exposing the realities on the ground in some of the most battle scarred areas. i mean in this mop the area we've discovered

allegations of war crimes information about them is under the control of mali's military government. i think it's getting more and more the she called to talk to people a lot of. human rights activists who are trying to identify witnesses off saying that people. are feeling the heat they are scared to speak a lot of people here. are very sure fool the malian army seems to be doing whatever it can to prevent people from speaking to openly. and this government took advantage of the media's interest in all and for the first time visited the city's worst affected by hostilities today in the town of qana we were surprised by the arrival of mamadou c.v. bear the minister for humanitarian action and solidarity this was an attempt to bring the bomb a call government closer to people who regard the capital as remote from them with

this visit in this event staged by politicians coincided with the publication of reports by international organizations such as amnesty international and human rights watch alleging atrocities crimes and violence on both sides for instance in qana several civilians were reportedly killed in french air force shelling we tried to interview the injured however were unable to obtain evidence in a community that has until now been strictly regulated by the military authorities he said. and the ministry says an investigation is underway so far no evidence has been provided so let the judicial system do its job in this all of these government its people and military are well aware of current events and we know that we cannot play this game with. the government has been attempting to assert political power despite very poor infrastructure today we spoke to an army private on his way back from them he told us he. hadn't been paid or even properly for fifteen days and if

this war continues there will be a need for justice after a comprehensive internal investigation rather than heartfelt celebrations and demonstrations of power. during his visit to mali president forceful land claimed french troops will remain in the west african state and to lead complete reinstatement of its sovereignty former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament a load of the news says that considering the current political state in mali violence is inevitable. what i hear now is how this surprises me i mean that first of all the million army does hold a grudge against people who are stemmed from the northern part of the country and secondly the soldiers very low grade and have very little to armaments at such as a they're not really a regular army in that sense there's only. hardly a state apparatus functioning how can your adjusted people and examine what they do

you can't you just ground in a country like that so the only thing you can do correctly is if you think people might be terrorist is hold them and arrest them and detain them what you should not do is say this is kind of extra judicial executions but it hardly surprises me that this is going on right now this country needs support yes this country needs are well why is it that this help only comes in the form of military invasions that's a basic question usually we should ask ourselves deepening divisions in egypt society continued to grow this week as an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests failed to silence calls for president morsi to quit some of the latest violence saw one person shot dead and many others injured when security forces tried to disperse angry crowds which attacked the presidential palace is any worse than the political and social stalemate the opposition yet again refused to join a national dialogue involved to step up their protests the president warned of decisive measures in dealing with the unrest and the tree currently has increased powers due to

a month long state of emergency imposed last week opposition activist ahmed you know we claims that the government's actions are heavily influenced by the army. the surface interpretation of what's happening definitely that there are groups who are willing to sabotage anything and try to embarrass the government specifically morsi and the military. on the surface however they are deeper into potations of what's going on some of the interpretation goes that the military council or the military is behind all of this so that they can have. the grip over this waste canal and intensify their presence militarily over there probably really don't want to see an economic development of this specific strategic area because it would hand over to civilian oversight of the canal rather than military oversight of the canal according to the new constitution something called the national defense council this council in most countries and previously had an advisory stature now

it has more of an exact it has more military members on this board than civilians which outnumbers the civilians including be commander in chief the president which means they can force the president to take certain decisions which we have just seen in the past couple of days when they had the commander in chief say that he will declare martial law or emergency emergency law in those specific areas. you're watching a weekly here in r.t. coming up this hour a final say before going behind bars we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become. the former cia officer turned whistle blower of america's torture program he's now serving two and a whole few years in prison. and great protesters clashed with police outside the

labor ministry in central athens with the public growing ever more weary of the government spending cuts all that still to come after this break. is he. we speak your language anybody will or not at the end of the music programs in documentaries and spanish matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angola's kid stories. for you here.

in troy altie spanish find out more visit. all tito's calm. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the huge you're covered. the two.

week's top stories here in r.t. this is the weekly the first man convicted for blowing the whistle on america's prison torture program has begun to turn a half year prison sentence cia veteran john kiriakou was convicted of exposing washington secret interrogation tactics in one of his final interviews before being locked away he told r.t. exactly what he thinks he's being punished for. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of

last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime and have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have

been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development senator john kerry was sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of state this week while defense chief nominee chuck hagel was grilled by the senate kerry took over from hillary clinton but as international studies professor stephen zunes told r.t. he's likely to be very old school in his approach. as an outspoken supporter of the iraq war and not being among the you know right wing minority of democrats on capitol hill that voted to authorize the war but. not only. making up the stance of tales about massive biological chemical weapons stockpiles and nuclear program i'm going to see a literary systems that are. going to clear that that was all wrong so called weapons of mass destruction you said you were. in the way because saddam hussein

was a terrible dictator and they have to pass the of making this kind of weapon sometimes mention of course i back right here together we're going to thirty countries. that have military. unconventional weapons and kerry was essentially they can reopen certain lines that hey we have a right. to criticize the moral and legal arguments no iraqi sastre is going now in libya we're seeing all those consequences in terms of two hundred thousand men under arms. and these militias not controlled by the government you see the false threat from mali to algeria elsewhere is the same part of shortsightedness that badly we've seen so many other politicians in washington. may be about to pull the plug on the construction of a new nuclear power plant which is being financed by russia that's despite a national referendum voting in favor of the project last weekend result was a null due to low turnout the country's ruling party is now expected to use its

majority in parliament to hold the plant to the high cost but some experts believe it's the result of pressure from bulgaria is allies who are concerned the country could become dependent on russian local and pete woman of jobs says that the government went out of its way to discourage people from supporting the project. you have to take into account that we are using clear nuclear power for approximately forty years and the sort of city in the country also boats that were using very safe and very reliable nuclear power plants in this situation bulgarian beaulieu and so on are usually supporting nuclear power just did a lot more with this. approximately twenty percent just because of the efforts of the ruling majority but they have created special means special commissions in the

parliament just so the orders just go there is the people not devolved not to support the new purple one but three even in these conditions bulgarian favored. child abuse scandals and alleged cases of sexual harassment have dealt a serious blow to the reputation of the german catholic church and has resulted in more and more worshippers turning their backs on it you may find somebody tells him peter out of his report on their lack of faith disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol and he asked me what i thought of his penis which was a wrecked then the priest made me perform oral sex on him. the catholic church in germany is facing

a crisis attendances dropped significantly over the past few years according to the central committee of german catholics one hundred eighty thousand parishioners stopped going to mass in twenty ten alone many citing church hierarchy unwillingness to do enough about claims of abuse like the ones made by wilfred the priest at the center of this particular scandal is now being moved to a different parish while this church where its alleged abuses took place remains closed to worshippers but just how difficult is it to bring a criminal prosecution in cases like this if those people go to court now it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the richness is sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get to have a trial usually fail christine pfeiffer had been in charge of an extensive study into abuse in the german catholic church dating back as far as nineteen forty five

his research claims that the church destroyed files on priests involved in abuse up to ten years also that twelve hundred victims were paid hush money not to reveal what happened to them he was dismissed after a dispute with a senior cleric over what information would be made public the scandal that this research is no not going to be finished. it's causing problems to them as well now they're losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency of lapsed catholics but to be brought back into the flock. and when we do not make things clear there will always be an aftertaste that something has been covered up this will harm attempts to get people into church because it is a bad foundation for trust and all belief is based on trust. and one for jaime for

wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot in a church again he's committed to getting compensation for himself and those others who claim they were abused by people who are supposed to be in a position of responsibility peter all over r.t. germany has plenty of fallout in france this week following comments from the country's labor minister he said his nation was totally bankrupt michel sampat later corrected himself claiming it was a joke but executive director d.v. advisors patrick young doesn't see the funny side. the problem is the french government is the biggest economic october in france it stands the equivalent of fifty six point five percent of all of the economic activity the only other countries that spent more apart from sweden and the european union are places like north korea and we all know those are not the world's most prosperous nations there is absolutely no question the french need incredible radical economic reform it was

not present on the sarkozy administration and frankly the feckless and incompetence of mr hall on the president has resulted in the situation we have now i must of pouring sort of cash these two three billion euros that's the equivalent of about two percent of the entire economy left the country just during october and november last year let's face it the last time the french government balance their books was in the middle of the nineteenth seventy's france is in a not fall in prices barely half the country are paying income tax you've got a situation where in fact public opinion is not starting to realize that france is bankrupt. twenty three minutes past the hour here in the russian capital more news from around the world a bloody terrorist attack has killed at least thirty three people and injured many more in northern iraq a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a police headquarters in kirkuk it was followed by heavy gunfire and grenades norge

by men dressed in police uniforms the assault occurred in an ethnically divided city deeply embroiled in a sectarian conflict between sheer kurdish and sunni factions. a roadside bomb attack in southern afghanistan has killed a family of five two of the victims were small children the car they'd been travelling ran over a device buried in the road such bombs are commonly used by taliban militants in attacks aimed at putting pressure on the western backed afghan government. this is the weekly altie still to come this hour america's secret prisons uncovered we take a closer look at what went on behind closed doors of the so-called cia black sites in eastern europe plus. with a member of the family directly sponsible off my tortured she was beating me she took to true to me medical workers in bahrain claim they are constantly targeted by the authorities for treating those hurt in anti government demos more

on that story and plenty of all this after the break. the news secret laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and world events this is why you should care only. the first baby steps are joint. folds and bones are not a big deal. but they can cause terrible trauma. for children can be broken by bare touch. and only the

will of life can make old. i'm source way. fragile people on r.t. . the touch.

we continue with weekly here naughty hundreds of greek protesters clashed with police on wednesday the building of the labor minister's office and activists were demonstrating against reforms to pay and pensions out of the latest spending cuts announced by the government thirty people were arrested following the protest george says the authorities response was part of a new approach to the strikes which of crippled the country. the government has decided to follow up all the c. of zero dollar us as it says ideas that is distance to their stated measures so we have steam the government to take in medicine measures that they are unconstitutional against the very center strikes it now we have seen the order it

will release very violently against a generally peaceful and kind of the most recent when it seemed the last three or four weeks a campaign of for propaganda try to convince us that now the worst has become best there is i don't believe that this is true is exactly because we are following this same set of policies of was thirteen measures that for three years has condemned greece to us five of slow death that this recession of the economy went back and of the economy under thorough social measures followed by a vote on season of the population and also at that the source writes i think that as far as what we're following this said that of course is there's no call for us from greece to the u.k. now economists that have warned recent heavy snowfall in britain could push the country into a triple dip recession now that's bad news for retailers and especially local

independent stores who are going to the warning greater numbers than ever but that is pretty boy discovered there's one traditional business which has managed to turn the tide it's older than buckingham palace and tower bridge and it's been a local store in the heart of rural easting land for three hundred and seventy yes this is you stumble across the altering and village shop in this remote region of norfolk say that it's like you know way south in the middle of the desert. it was faced with going out of business and till twenty five villages stepped in raise five thousand pounds to keep it open and off but so what that for free i couldn't live in this village without. the community nature of literally the free workforce allows it to stay open and breakeven i think people are happy in their lives by working for free. to come in and do something knowing that your

contribution has a meaning or purpose. isn't. it just heritage and we want to make sure it does continue for the next generation volunteers here say that there are two secrets to success the locally sourced produce means that the propping up the local economy take for example your free range eggs delivered from a nearby village there's a second secret alerts the famous chocolate biscuits customers travel far and wide for this homemade treat but even with volunteers staying open is hard the onslaught of major national chains whose immense buying power tempts with food sold for next to nothing has killed off thousands of independent british shops leaving villages and now wake up against supermarkets and we all use supermarkets but to be able to have a local store which does local produce and is something where you can chat to people everybody. hears amazing it would be dreadful if we get because once you

lose something like this you can never get it back again and they're not alone in getting together to save their small shop from extinction there are three hundred other communities stores in some of the u.k.'s most rural pockets winning customers by knowing that retail means detail. in really difficult economic times but they're really punching above their weight community shops are offering something. very often quite different from what a supermarket is. is offering for example they offer cafes they're offering postal services they're offering somewhere to go in and talk to your neighbors and your friends and if working for free is what it takes to keep it hearing and shop open and so be it well you know. i really do it's the kind of spirit that could see this tiny store whether the wost and hopefully stay open for another three hundred years. r t north norfolk u.k.

washington's infamous rendition regime was one of the key issues raised during a week of pretrial hearings for the alleged mastermind of the nine eleven attacks and his four accomplices in guantanamo bay we wanted us to go into america's so-called black sites abroad have revealed little so far and as ortiz alina good reports even if facts were forthcoming justice might not be. guantanamo may hold all the headlines but all the interested it means people are moving their focus elsewhere so-called black sites secret prisons were established by the cia during its well publicized war on terror unlike the cause however these secret facilities were never publicly discussed by the authorities the us claimed they could hold prisoners outside the us because then they wouldn't be subject to the geneva conventions to international law and humanitarian law reports suggest such prisons

were in existence from two thousand to basically not long after the events of nine eleven the u.s. government denied the existence of these prisons until two thousand and six now the only country in europe which has acknowledged the presence of a secret cia facility on its territory is lithuania and if you were to look at it you will see something almost a deliberate site except for the imposing fences surrounding it likewise a suspected secret prison in poland is believed to be located here apparently in one of the most beautiful spots in the country according to various reports mostly from journalists or human rights organizations so-called high value detainees were flown in by the cia for interrogation at these polish facilities. i managed to get records from the airport in germany where it's clear that they have learned an aircraft used by the cia very important evidence because until then everyone denied bs landings and reported different destinations of these flights to europe

controlled however just like their american counterparts the authorities in warsaw have been extremely frugal with the details and investigation into the secret prisons has been dragging on for almost five years now but what is on earth during its course remains unknown therefore the extent of the investigations progress just like any information about the torture of prisoners regarding who what where when and how all of it remains a mystery and the investigation is rumored to conclude next month by the looks of it whatever its outcome it may also be a state secrets and swept under the carpet the senior counterterrorism council in the human rights watch and reprisals says that those responsible for administering torture in guantanamo and the so-called black sites were never really punished. one of the issues that have raised there were they want to. preserve they consider them to be themes and crimes which i do it while the men were tortured there and they

think that that's where we're going to and i mean to have a very strong argument that they were secret unicode detention plates where people were tortured in violation of u.s. and international law so there was never any reader program president obama closed down but the reality is the real concern in the us who know senior official has ever been her accountable the only people who can prosecute in critiquing if you have been first of all very limited number of people and always low level people who are never going to be in your official who created the regime of torture and ordered it and. those human rights watch and then there are grounds for a criminal investigation into the congo and senior officials are all the way to the top of the former president george bush and other. wild reportedly being held hostage for eight months by russian mafia real estate tycoon who claims he was given a punishment he'd never forget what was carved into the man's forehead and up with

some. of the moment the russian premier league's dog and. said to be the third most expensive transfer in the country's history discovery he said to join some friends of the club. but it will work as in bahrain said that being targeted by the authorities for treating injured protest is to say the retribution has been severe while the government insists it's now investigating the allegations. looks at those at risk for trying to help. nada dhaif was among a group of doctors who were trying to help the injured during a protest in bahrain she claims that after violently crushing the dissent the earth or at least turned their attention to her and her colleagues who were providing first aid they deny. health care to the patients

and protesters. the doctors did not obey the orders for such. decided to punish those doctors i was taken to a place for ten days that i didn't know where it was. all that time i was blindfolded and handcuffed i was in a solitary confinement for back to twenty one days. and they would just open the door of the cell and beat me up and there was a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my torture she she was beating me and she looked cute to me almost two dozen doctors were arrested back then this for the fuel the anger of the protesters and turned the hospitals grounds into the scene of the rally the sound money hospital is bahrain's leading medical institution and that's where most of the arrests have been made after those events it now looks like a fortress guarded heavily by the right police and not everybody can get

a human rights activist say if you had suffered for speaking out against the regime and decided to come here for treatment you could make matters even worse for yourself anyone who was injured from the protests they cannot go to the hospital because they will be arrested in the gated beaten and taking to the jail last year many protester and in jail where tortured insults and money we have a story and testimony of people and protester being tortured and the jail but in my country protests there were tortured inside. britain not who was charged with treason and sentenced to fifteen years in prison before being acquitted because of what she believed to be international pressure on bahrain's government the fate of many other doctors remains unclear the person who allegedly tortured not and others princes. has been officially charged by police she denies all allegations against

her meanwhile the guy. woman stands recently that the action it took against the hospital was the right thing to do. these doctors managed to control the emergency unit in the first floor of the hospital and started to perform political acts when a hospital is turned into a base for political ethic work this is a real disaster we had an unbiased committee investigating the hospital eight condemn the acts of these doctors as. the case against one of the members of the world family may seem as an indication that bahrain's government has bowed to the negative global reaction with the doctor scandal being far from the only torture accusation c.c.t.v. cameras have been installed at all prisons in a move to become more transparent according to the authorities but with protests in the gulf states still continuing and accusations of human rights violations intensifying the opposition is still wondering what happens in the places where the cameras cannot see. reporting from the kingdom of bahrain.

to be much in the weekly or naughty i'll be back with more from twenty minutes from now in the meantime coming away the master of hollywood psychological thrillers director brown diploma talks to r.t. about real life spawns invasion and the military america that's next. rep or loopy fiasco actually caused a fiasco by singing a song highly critical of president obama ironically at a concert in honor of his second inauguration according to the huffington post he was thrown off stage by security for insulting the dear leader the sounds really

bad like something out of one thousand nine hundred four where thought. come out of nowhere the second you say something out of line about the party. to the song loop it was singing had been going on for thirty minutes at that point this rant was more like a hip hop filibuster stopping the whole show and dragging on and on and on the so i think security just wanted to silence him in general not silence his anti obama opinions so you know loopy next time when you want to bring up obama's drone usage or total disregard for the constitution then keep it under three minutes and everything will be just fine but that's just my opinion. there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids lives within a year of a diagnosis of. over sixty two percent. i diagnosed with aids this is a problem that frankly is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in the room and nobody wanted to talk about it there were really good public health

campaigns if people were really focused on this problem you certainly should be able have a lot less h i feel a lot less human suffering. a little bit. older . look look look look look look look look look. good speed. limits good. we. just see. run of

me a little. wealthy british style. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy live mikes cars are a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports on r.g.p. .

mission impossible director brian de palma it's great to have you with us. this all of our stone who wrote the script to one of your best known films scarface said in an interview with our teeth that americans are living in an orwellian state it might not be oppressive on the surface but there's no place to hide so eventually some parts of you is going to end up in the database somewhere because into

historian peter course nick the us government intercepts over one point seven billion messages a day i you know well that will likely understood dollars per annuity because i like myself a very strong. views about what our american foreign policy is and so needless to say i've probably been followed around since the sixty's because i made very political antiwar pictures of me in the sixty's. so i sort of accepted basically. and my last pitch political purchase redacted was not received from our my country because i was criticizing our foreign policy and the fact of what the hell are we doing in iraq and these terrible things happen when you put these young boys in these worlds where they don't understand what they're fighting for why that they are.