france's military is guarding one of the biggest iranian mines in. its owners say they want to better mining deal with paris and could be looking for other countries . locals from recently liberated parts of mali claim de france led offensive against islamic militants at a high cost to civilian lives. as america's new top diplomat meets his team we hear of revelations that many in the foreign service for more than just to the country. the opposition in kuwait fails to keep protesting against the country's unelected rooters after another activist is thrown behind bars for criticizing the model.

from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day the president has confirmed that french troops have been guarding one of his country's biggest uranium mines in a bid to avoid a repetition of last month's hostage crisis in neighboring algeria well earlier r.t. shaun thomas spoke to my colleague. the mine in question is the olive facility a location in which the french company a river has a large stake now it's important to know that this is the second mission in africa completely separate from france's mission in mali which has been going on for nearly a month as neighbors mali and the situation there continues to remain unstable the french government is making it clear that they are ready and willing to protect their assets in the region and on the african continent as a whole protecting assets in the region many know the gets most of its energy from nuclear power hence the uranium is very very important indeed so massive economic

concerns are indeed but as you also mention that we've called the french led multinational intervention going in mali now boots on the ground in nigeria it's certainly getting a lot of reaction from critics around the world at the moment certainly has been if you ask france they've pointed to the incident that happened last month in eastern algeria when islam ists took over a gas plant there eventually leading to forty eight people being killed thirty seven of those foreign workers france's predicting that more islamist retaliation to french presence in africa is likely and they say they want to prevent a tragic situation like this from happening again but then again the world's fifth largest producer of uranium a product that is vital to the french economy in fact it's estimated that nearly all or at least seventy five percent of france's electric infrastructure is dependent on nuclear power given this it makes sense that france would want to protect that resource at all costs the president has welcomed the french presence in the country and recognizes the need for the added security but has also stated

that they want to better deal when it comes to uranium exports measures economy is also largely dependent on your radio as well critics have already been wary of french involvement in mali claiming that the real motivation is a return to imperialism economic policy and a stronger control of a region that used to be french territory now with france's expansion into neighboring countries compiled with president expressing his concerns those critics now have a bit more that they can chew on. john laughlin who's the director of studies at the institute of democracy and cooperation in paris believes securing natural resources is not the only goal france has in the region two main factors in this are france's own desire to strengthen the her role on the international stage in particular because of you know european allotments and also the american strict budget plans for africa it's important to know that america which strongly supports france in this mali and intervention has plans for establishing

a military presence in the military control over the whole of the african continent some people speculated that used the phrase that this was america leading from behind that america decided to put forward its european allies to do as it were its dirty work in a continent where as i'm sure many of your you viewers know china has been establishing an economic presence now very successfully for a large number of years so there is a scramble for africa isn't there or is it just to grab the resources yes it is obvious that the securing of energy resources is one of the key factors behind many if not most you get a little bit better. and that's why i say that the of course the issue of hydrocarbons and uranium and other energy sources is a key and may be the decisive factor meanwhile in northeastern mali french jets have carried out

a series of air strikes on the bases and fuel depo is of islamic terrorists with the intervention now heading towards the desert and away from the cities or to report on what's left on the ground after the liberating troops move on. francoise hollande victorious trip to timbuktu marked the declaration that three major cities in northern mali have been declared liberated from rebels although the sharia law and islamic extremism the rebels enforced will not soon be forgotten nevertheless this victory is a partial one the militants have merely retreated and fled and the suffering in this war has seemed disproportionate to the gains made we're learning what happened in battle day by day in the town of kona we heard stories from the fog of war this is small settlement in the mopti region was seized by the more yo tribe they fled to the north when french troops showed up but it's reported that the cost of that victory was high while french planes killed only two rebels the number of civilian

casualties was an estimated fourteen he said i wasn't home when the bombing began i started praying when i learned my house was under attack they ruined everything i had my family and my livelihood my wife's name was i mean she was forty my son ali was eleven when adam was ten and say no good was six they all died. people such as this farmer idris ask themselves if the victory was worth it. we also met the campo family who had suffered badly when the bombing began everyone scatter it the campo lost two of their saunas unable to swim they drowned in the river while fleeing the fighting. we also heard the story of a young mother who died from shelters leaving three children behind a newborn baby. the village was a complete mess it's impossible to describe i'll only discuss things i know for sure and i can say that all we had is god. few people some kids came running up

to us and said their mother had date i brought them to our house their mother died after an hour of clinging to life the children have nobody else but us. it's a disaster visited every house in the town people reject anything the military claims about victory and say war crimes must be prosecuted under the geneva convention towns like qana want more than just compassion people who suffered at the hands of terrorist groups and drug traffickers are now facing the misery inflicted by warfare. already without gonzalo one molly for r.t. with john kerry being sworn in as the new us secretary of state last week the white house may have been hoping for some favorable coverage of its diplomatic efforts but revelations that you have to pay to play a role in the foreign service brought clouds over capitol hill or not he's going to

teach karl joins me now from washington to shed some light on this guy we're hearing that perhaps there might be a price tag attached to top diplomatic jobs in the u.s. . well bill as you can imagine the competition for diplomatic posts is tough especially in wealthy unsafe countries somewhere in western europe and asia a recent study by two professors of international relations at pennsylvania state university looked at available information on donors direct political contributions and the positions that they received and they concluded that those whose political connections to mr obama where measured in dollars rather than administration service had an increased chance of representing the united states in western europe and a smaller chance of serving in say central asia or subsaharan africa donors and advisers involved in the diplomatic selection process say the competition this year has been so tight that those who have raised less than

a million dollars are for the most part on likely to be considered so what is the price tag for the highly sought diplomatic posts according to this study friends in monaco topped the list with the level of personal contributions that six point two million dollars the price for the price will quote unquote of course they don't call it a price tag exactly the price for a position in the u.k. the authors say appears to lie between six hundred fifty thousand dollars and two point three million dollars posting it looks on board that tiny but very wealthy european country for example is valued at three point one million dollars in direct contributions and appointment to portugal was predicted it true have a value of around six hundred thousand dollars like all modern presidents before him president obama has appointed friends and donors to about thirty percent of diplomatic post while seventy percent of the posts go to career diplomats so

judging by this word research career diplomats go to places like yemen while big donors go to monaco. nobody of course calls it by barry here these are just respectable donors who get what they want when they pay the price or rather than john kerry he's just come into office and lots of these recent findings i guess there will be those wondering if he whipped out his book. well bill we don't know how much and whether john kerry paid for his position probably not he's in no position to be envied really these are challenging times for u.s. foreign service u.s. embassies have come under attack in a number of muslim countries just within the last year the u.s. ambassador to libya was killed in september shortly after the u.s. helped carry out regime change there and there's a sense of denial in washington that this rage against the americans in the muslim world has something to do or with washington's policies in those countries and the

u.s. is very has been very much invested in the middle east and north africa from what we heard during john kerry's confirmation hearing at the moment the administration is reluctant to get involved militarily in syria and it's also trying to play down the drum drums of war with iran but that may change very quickly because the u.s. still continues to threaten war with iran and it's unclear whether john kerry's what john kerry's wall will be as secretary of state supporting or stopping the war he likes to present himself as this. war politician but he's the same politician who voted to authorize the use back invasion was no evidence at hand that iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction so john kerry has a mixed record and certainly big challenges ahead a lot from washington go to john thanks very much indeed. well coming up a little later in the program dissolving the mystery the artistic director of

moscow's world famous bolshoi ballet heads to germany for specialist treatment after saying he knows who's behind the violent acid attack on two weeks ago that just ahead on r.t. . there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids

lives within a year. to two percent of. those 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 there were really good public health campaigns people really focused on this problem you certainly should be able to have a lot less a lot less human suffering. these continues here in r.t. israel is reportedly considering building a buffer zone with a high tech security fence along its border with syria it's designed to prevent threats from radicals if the assad regime is overthrown let's find out more on this from international relations expert dr king who joins me live from beirut now if the assad regime does collapse then surely israel does have the right to fear what

it says daily rocket and mortar track attacks from across the border. i don't believe the this is a tangible threat to israel this is a pretext for nearly two years now. at the time of the surge in c. there were no attacks against israel by the insurgents not by the regime itself so this is a mere pretext israel knows. wants to take advantage of. weakening regime in syria to improve its strategic position specially in defense of its claim to the golan heights we know that the golan heights. occupied by israel in one thousand sixty seven now imposing a buffer zone will make israel in the future. negotiate over withdrawing from this buffer of their own zone rather than withdrawing from the golan in addition this is

very similar to the attempt of israel in one thousand seven hundred eight to ok by and impose a buffer zone in south lebanon when it was the same claim that it wanted to defend its northern border. but i don't think this claim by israel stands the real objective is to take advantage of the weakening. regime or of the situation now in order to hold on to the golan heights and also interesting the fact that this buffer zone will reach some what seventeen kilometers inside syria so this is a pretext as you say not just to assert its. presence there in the region but also perhaps to annex more territory more build more settlements a land grab definitely. definitely this is an attempt to annex more territories and it's at the same time and at them to threaten. the massacres itself

because the we know that the syrian army has built its military doctrine based on the soviet strategy of in-depth defense so if israel expands its domain by another seventeen kilometers this will make it reach close very close to the mass because this is very dangerous to the stability of the regime i don't know much about all of that surely and surely israel that you say used to threaten damascus and also threaten stability of the regime but is it really in israel's interest to have and in stable next door neighbor because if assad does go as i said at the start then surely it will be more vulnerable and even a buffer zone with a security fence will be enough to protect it if a rogue state. government takes hold. well for israel it's trying to destabilize the regime and it knows very well that the collapse of

the regime will lead to a probable division of syria which runs in the interest of israel because we know very well that the regime has played the syrian regime has been able to hold on to power by keeping a tight grip on the massacres and the attempts of the insurgents to break this tight control train for nearly two years now so the intervention of israel under the pretext of expanding and expanding its zone of influence or control this will weaken the regime try and with it will give the insurgents like free zone and free base a secure base to launch attacks against the syrian regime ok let's oh this is a direct entanglement of israel and syrian affairs let's talk about the water implications for the region now just briefly the head of iran's national security council says that israel will regret its little recent strike on syria that alleged strike it took out took place

a couple of days ago he issued some grim words there how likely are we to see tehran getting involved in the syrian conflict. will definitely. participate to support the syrian regime in any war against israel. we know very well that the relations between iran and syria has been strong sense one thousand nine hundred it's unlikely for iran to let israel lead an attack against israel against syria without any in iranian intervention we need also to know that the collapse of the regime in syria will mean the isolation of the iranian revolution or the iranian regime and its eventual collapse because if we go back in history we know very well that iran has always tended to implode whenever it's isolated from any influence in the region so this is partially.

the attempt by the united states the west and israel to. to attack the syrian regime destabilize it and eventually make a good call ups will not pass without an iranian read a reaction international relations expert dr jamal wakim thank you very much indeed for your thoughts live here on r.t. . in kuwait an opposition activist has reportedly been sentenced to five years in prison for criticizing the country's unelected ruler on twitter is the third time a person has been convicted on such charges in the country in the last two months speaking out against the emir of kuwait is considered a state security charge and international recently head out of the market for increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly protests have been raging against the government and its crackdown in the sense since two thousand and eleven tension flared even more after december's parliamentary poll which was boycotted by the opposition on former m.p. claims the country's democracy has been disfigured. and.

we refute claims that the national assembly represents the people of kuwait around seventy percent of the people boycotted the election and the assembly itself was elected thanks to an unconstitutional decree passed by the government which wanted a parliament it could control its lawmakers have failed to address widespread allegations of corruption democracy in kuwait has taken a twisted form it is the only democracy which is seeing an increase of corruption we will continue to hold peaceful marches peaceful rallies and we will continue to gather and protest. and. the artistic director of moscow's bolshoi ballet is traveling to germany for specialist treatment after a violent acid attack against him just over two weeks ago doctors there will be trying to help save said to fill ins eyesight artie said in a clinical reports from the hospital where he was taken immediately after the attack. he is doing rather well surprisingly well actually he did thank the doctors

for doing everything in their power to pull him out of a very difficult situation that he found himself in. third degree burns and those are very severe to his face and he said he's full of hope for a full recovery and he is full of willpower and he actually looked very enthusiastic and upbeat about the whole situation of course considering his circumstances actually he did appear to be quiet on his road to. speak about. who is who has been supposedly behind the attack he did say that he knows exactly who it was on this particular day today did not want to talk about the investigation at all so as not to interfere with the investigation he did however mention. received threats before but he also mentioned and this is important. he didn't mention that he's continuing to work with everybody who has

been left in charge. he said that nothing about the boy changing. performances and everything about the theater will be carrying on as before. the u.k. is reportedly preparing to test out a brand new drone which could. you know craft is designed to be undetectable by radar and can even select targets by itself. taking the killing machines to a whole new level let's get all the details now from joining me live in london but despite having a record of causing massive collateral damage in war zones drones are still controlled by people and so why then all the panic over this new british development. all the turandot this is named after the celtic god of thunder it can fly faster than the speed of sound it can deploy its own weapons and it can go deep into enemy territory now this is the ne british super drone as it's known in

the trenches has been under development for many many years now costing hundreds of millions of pounds already but it's thought that this revolutionary new secret is going to be taking is maiden voyage over the next couple of weeks that's what's expected now military chiefs has said that the transit will pave the way for a whole new generation of these new drones and it's being billed as the future of the air force but experts have warned that this could open the doors to a whole new type of warfare there's concerns about robo wolf air where machines that are able to launch their own attacks could attack humans and of course a lot of control the sea that always surrounds the use of drones as well as deal then with the here and now because the controversy surrounding drone warfare has been highlighted recently when the u.n. launched an investigation in to civilian deaths caused by these drones now

assisting the u.n. in their research is a team from goldsmiths university of london and i'm joined by one of thirteen now professor. and i thank you very much for joining us this new technology a lot of talk about a lot of excitement but a huge number of unanswered questions to go along with these developments you're taking part in this investigation now we haven't even really got questions answered eight of the legality of these attacks and yet we're seeing technology sort of leapfrogging aver the law at this point i think that what. we are seeing a de facto legislation by practice. or warfare actually creating the law for the problem of the law of war because it always larry. behind the technologies are for of course technology moves much faster than the laws of war and if technology changed the way in which we conduct our wars when we speaking about drone warfare we're not really speaking about area bombing we're speaking

about targeted attacks and especially the kind of a new type of attack that we've been seeing in the last decade that is called the extra duty juridical assassination these really are based on kill ists and they're compiled by somebody they're authorized by other people with there is no transparency and we do not know how that process is undertaken furthermore we have very bad experience with the kind of drone warfare that we have money toward and that is the wardrobe of warfare in gaza strip where since the beginning of the second intifada in two thousand the end of the year two thousand israel has conducted a very substantial use of drone warfare and they have conducted of hundreds of targeted assassinations there and this is a kind of a bad experience that we have because we'll go israel claimed that these are targeted at these limit the number of civilian casualties we see

a lot of civilian casualties including many children and. also figures coming out of pakistan showing a little tidbit like you know that i think it's because you're talking about the deaths of children as the billion death tolls kill list these are things that i'll mention saying much when we're talking about the launch of this need simply jay and of course this is really what your investigation singeing on is gathering that all important data is that absolutely in the forensic architecture project at goldsmiths what we look at is the nature of war in an urban area now most strong attacks are launched on inhabited areas areas with a lot of civilians with civilians and militants are entangled. and the numbers are very difficult to establish because both israel and the united states would consider every man over a certain age sometimes sixteen sometimes eighteen is a militant by definition we know we can is not true therefore if. that mode of

violence within the city is incredibly quickly exiting that that's going to have to end that is he said the details of that investigation the results are expected towards the end of the year old tabor thank you for joining us today to talk about britain's the state going on of course all the i don't see questions that go along with that thanks very much indeed. for us live in london. well up about the news team with more news for in about half an hour from now and meantime next. partridge will be bringing you the best sports headlines of the past week that will be after this brief break stay with us this is all to.