french troops secure one of the biggest uranium mines after the country's president confirms he requested paris help fearing islamist attacks this is he pushes for a better deal for the nuclear dependent friends. while in neighboring mali eyewitnesses reported a number of civilian casualties as french led troops battle islam as militants for control of the country. as john kerry starts his term as the us secretary of state a new study finds some foreign service personnel paying for the privilege to serve by donating millions for the top jobs. in kuwait yet another activist thrown in jail for criticizing the emir over twitter sparking protests against the country's rulers.

five am in moscow i met a good to have you with us here on r.t. we begin our broadcast in new areas the president there confirms the presence of french troops at one of the country's biggest uranium mines arlott he said special forces were asked to come in to avoid a repeat of last month's hostage crisis in neighboring algeria the art of mining site has itself been the scene of a kidnapping two years ago some of those taken at the time have not yet been freed thomas has more. 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 well 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 there is 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 cost the president of has welcomed the french presence in the country and recognizes the need for the have and security but has also stated that they want to better deal when it comes to uranium exports meijers 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 lachlan from instead of for democracy and cooperation think securing natural resources isn't the only goal france has in the region and the two main players is in this trying this isn't just to strengthen the role of the international stage in particular because of being a european. and also the american. strick egypt plans for africa it's important to know that america which strongly supports france in this mali and intervention has plans full 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 it's just like in a continent where as i'm sure many of your youth 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 political developments today 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 french forces have seen action in neighboring mali with fighter jets targeting muslim terrorist strongholds in the northeast of the country while president alon declared his troops are victorious in the northern cities the campaign is now heading to the desert that's a minute increasing reports of civilians killed in the fighting. 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 of the rebels and forced 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 seems disproportionate to the gains made as 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 mall 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 you mean adam was tanned and say no god 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 some of those unable to swim they drowned in the river in 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 any discuss things i know for sure but i can say that all we had is god. there's old few poor we get some kids came running up to us and said their mums had donated i brought them to our house their mother died after an hour of clinging to life the children have nobody else but us

. screaming as they get 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 which is about that yes probably without guns our wants. for our tea. their president a lot has acted decisively in mali at home the french are growing impatient for action particularly they say on the economy as it is where if an ocean reports from paris unemployment continues growing despite a long promising to create more than one hundred thousand new jobs. well president on land is welcomed as a liberator in mali have to france's military operation against the islamists occupation back at home crowds are also gathered but with a starkly different mood where people are fired up over the continued decline of

europe's second largest economy despite the president's promises to create at least one hundred thousand new jobs the nation is shedding them at an alarming rate last november about a thousand every day the worst figures in years the country's unemployment is approaching a shocking eleven percent with more than three million jobless the french daily lives and claims that the exact situation could be even worse if official statistics included youngsters never registered for the unemployment program or those who left it and those stuck with part time work the paper says the rate would then triple but there are certain. people expected to have a strong president and they understand that on doesn't have enough experience or competence to improve things the last two weeks as we see friends. who are so you know believes the strategic mistake was to rectify the e.u.

so-called three percent treaty force in france to reduce its budget deficit down from four point five percent by hiking taxes and cutting spending. but while harsh criticism expected from the opposition disapprovals also been growing from like minded left wingers or complain but i think the president especially of a country like france one of six e.u. founders should be strong enough to say stop to others and say hey i have my nation behind me and they elected me to make changes instead he surrendered because he's more worried about the country's debt and the ratings agencies make. in a short video french communists put together some of the lawns major presidential campaign vows none of which they say came true. but what that's all that if you know the value added tax increase. i think it's an appropriate and unjustified and unreasonable and too hasty. what happened to well that's to remind the president do you remember you promised to review the

european treaty you didn't do that your german bring said a three percent deficit isn't real but now only say it's possible etc etc you can't not do what you promised meanwhile recent polls show a little rise in the french you disapprove eighteen twenty four percent january to december is forty percent the lowest since we launched an office in may. every week that is a new subject to discuss in the french media and to draw people's attention from the real problems like gay monitor day project are now molly this strategy may work but not for long. after all land won the french election last year some analysts described his victory as a victory against his predecessor started causing trouble for months now being seen many feel the past of the team that. can never was months of a long presidency have been anything but sunny and even his one staunch supporters predict even harder times lie ahead for the leader of the country's municipal

elections in two thousand and fourteen have historically held great significance and will show whether the voters can forget and forgive. me for things from paris. still to come here on r t one getting the royal treatment is unwelcome we report on how the wait is willing to put behind bars simply for criticizing the monarch plus. the artistic director of moscow's bolshoi ballet heads to germany for treatment after he announces he knows who was behind the acid attack on him a little more than two weeks ago that's all still to go. as john kerry begins his new term is the u.s. secretary of state many of the ambassadors serving under him were major donors to the president's campaign a new report this year says that the competition among big money backers to land plum spots was especially tight or he's gotten it has more. as you can imagine the

competition for diplomatic post is tough especially in safe and wealthy country somewhere in western europe and asia a recent study by two professors of international relations at pennsylvania state university looked at available information on president obama's donors direct political contributions and the positions that they received and they concluded that those whose political connections to president obama were measured in dollars for the 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 sub-saharan 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 unlikely to be considered so what is the quote unquote price tag for the highly sought diplomatic posts according to this study friends and monaco topped the list with a level of personal contributions at six point two million dollars quote unquote

the price for a position in the u.k. the authors find appears to lie between six hundred fifty thousand dollars and two point three million dollars a posting in luxembourg is valued as three point one million dollars and appointment to portugal was predicted to 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 posts while seventy percent of the posts go to career diplomats so judging by this research career diplomats go to places like yemen while big donors go to monaco nobody of course calls it bribery here these are just respectable donors who get what they want when they pay the price more news after a short break stay with us.

technology innovation all the developments from russia we. covered.

thanks for staying with us here on our team quarter past the hour now the bolshoi ballet's artistic director will get treatment in germany in the hopes of saving his sight this comes after a feeling had acid thrown in his face a little more than two weeks ago feeling claims he knows exactly who is behind the attack no one's been arrested yet. reports. it 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 space and he said he's full of hope for full recovery and he's 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 quite his road to recovery did 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. he did every see threats before but he also mentioned and this is important according to the gate feeling himself 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's changing. performances and everything about the theater will be carrying on as before. in kuwait an opposition activists reportedly been sentenced to five years of prison for criticizing the country's ruler on twitter it's the third time a person has been convicted on such charges in the country in the last two months and mr national recently washed out a commodity for increasing restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression

protests have been raging against the government since two thousand and eleven resulting crackdowns on demonstrators have only fuel dissent the tension flared after the summer's parliamentary vote that was boycotted by the opposition for the former and claims democracy in the country has been undermined. and if. we refute claims that the national assembly represents the people of kuwait around seventy percent of the people of the election and they simply. self was elected thanks to an unconstitutional decree by the governments which wanted to parliament control and its lawmakers have failed to address widespread allegations of corruption so democracy so that's taken a twisted form and it is the only democracy which is seeing an increase of corruption and if we will continue to hold peaceful marches on peaceful rallies and we will continue to gather and protest we get about one third of it i'm on the qui more on line if you would r.t. dot com including how president obama could start a cyber war with the push of

a button and to our website by doubt about the executive already allowing him to launch a preemptive cyber strike on any country plus. a city in pakistan or osama bin ladin was killed due to get a fun make over to improve its image click on r.t. dot com to find out what islam a bad has in store for the former home of the world's most wanted terrorists. britain's police using identities of dead children as a cover for its officers that according to an investigation by the guardian newspaper parents of the children weren't asked for approval or even informed best of it of journalist tony gosling says the niger pollen police methods are completely unacceptable. it's just the latest chapter isn't it of police corruption here in britain i mean i'm pinching myself today wondering if i live in a democracy or not we're talking about the identities of eighty dead children stolen by the police i mean you do want to tell you where else these infiltrations

have been taking place as well do they have police agents within our political parties where are the lines being drawn because it doesn't seem like there are any loans being drawn are absolutely behind the former director of public prosecutions lord mcdonald who is now saying there must be a public inquiry into these kinds of police practices let's not forget these are crown servants does her majesty know that they're up to this does she approve and i mean there has to be really deep in choir here the guardian of real can of worms and there's absolutely no accountability it seems why these things that have been all through us through through scotland yard the idea that people haven't complained about it therefore it's ok well of course i'm not going to complain about it if they don't know about it it's almost like the scotland yard is being run like some kind of secret cult we've got to break that cult if we're going to have justice. south korea and the us have started a joint three day naval training exercise in the east sea we knew it was coming due to rising tensions with the north after pyongyang for him to conduct another

nuclear test or it's iraq and co-founder of the national campaign to end the korean war thinks the saber rattling mail the make things worse. the worst thing you can do under these circumstances is to inflame volatile situation to conduct these military exercises that always inflame that use live ammunition up and down the border with the north korea this is inflammatory on a lot of levels and we need to step back from these naval exercises it's like a race to the bottom if you will when are we going to get more creative in the way that we resolve conflict in this world this conflict gives us such an opportunity with a new secretary of state new leader in south korea we should be pushing for peace suspend these naval exercises and go from there yes there should be non proliferation of nuclear weapons on the korean peninsula but we don't even recognize north korea as a nation have a peace treaty or formal relations to deal with these matters what do we expect to

turn him out of some other stories making global headlines bahrain's government set a new date for a long delayed talks with the country's opposition a call for dialogue aimed at resolving the political crisis came amid a new wave of violent clashes between anti regime protesters and police across the country in the capital security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds who are hurling fire bombs the golf game has been cracking down on pro-reform demonstrators for two years arresting thousands including many prominent activists. a skeleton discovered under a car park in the city of leicester in the u.k. has been confirmed is that of king richard the third the monarch was a lasting lish king to be killed in battle back and forth in eighty five but his grave was lost in the sixteenth century after the demolition of the church next to which he was buried remains will be reinterred in leicester cathedral with the details of the raid burial ceremony yet to be released.

demonstrators gathered outside german germany's parliament to protest against the visit of spain's prime minister mariano rajoy is in berlin to discuss a loan deals economists say are vital to reviving his country's economy during the trip roy once again denied corruption allegations that sparked protests in madrid last week these video coming from a ruptly artie's recently found international video news agency. in the u.s. thousands of people forced to undergo lie detector tests every year that includes answering some very intimate questions that may have nothing to do with national security or he's a marine important met with a former cia employee for more on what's behind the polygraph. for more than three decades john sullivan worked as a polygraph examiner for america's central intelligence agency today the retired cia employee is offering some strong opinions about the nation's lie detector policy too many honest people are too many people who should be passing their tests aren't and there's no there's no accountability for that.

last year more than seventy three thousand americans were reportedly required to undergo polygraph tests in order to get or keep jobs with the federal government according to an investigation by mcclatchy newspapers a growing number of u.s. agencies are asking employees and applicants intimate questions that extend way beyond the realm of national security probing matters such as sexual conduct financial matters and past personal relationships a woman was pressured to talk about her experience being molested as a child and when the polar bear for said that he refused to go on with the interrogation he alleges that he was pressured to go back and continue interrogating or a decade ago the national academies an organization advising washington on scientific matters urged the feds to stop using polygraphs as

a screening technique scientists found that polygraphs aren't reliable enough to prevent innocent people from failing and deceptive candidates from passing i think it's important to understand that the polygraph is not just. for screening it's an interrogation tool lisa ribicoff is an independent polygraph examiner and investigator who uses the polygraph program designed by homeland security she contends that it's ninety eight percent accurate i do think that there are some questions pertaining to some emotional aspects and personal situations should not be included. but i do understand why they're included on the basis of that the government needs to see how exactly what their breaking point is what are they willing to discuss what are they not willing to discuss however applicants who are denied a coveted position after failing a polygraph are prohibited from accessing the records of their interrogation and are often barred from contesting the results were filing complaints in federal

court in two thousand and four the cia veteran who conducted lie detector interrogations for thirty one years failed his own screening there was absolutely no question in my mind the test was wrong you know it's this was a terrible test sullivan lost his security clearance and was denied a job with a federal contracting agency he claims his examiner falsified the results possible retribution for solving his book detailing america's polygraph system sub's a come in for a polygraph test now are guilty until proven innocent and i think that's a. corruption and an abuse of the process the obama administration is now promising to draft a new national polygraph policy that would prevent agencies from pushing legal or ethical boundaries during screenings but at the moment the program has no oversight or accountability meaning tens of thousands of u.s. citizens will continue getting personally probes in the name of national security

bring up or nine r.t. new york. partridge is up next with all the latest from the world of sports stay with us here are today. wealthy british soil. sometimes surprise.

markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cars or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on r g. hello welcome to the r.t.e. sports show with me take thought george and here are the stories hitting the headlines. ice breaker russia warm up for their first international match of the

year a friendly against iceland in spain as coach fabio capello targets a place at next year's world cup. last time. skara planned hotel regular season champions with three games to go after beating pig waddles another must go three one point is back. and making mountains the stars of alpine skiing fall to the last stage of the world cup before this week's world championships the venue wasn't the arnolds of the russian capital. but first a football where the russian national team are preparing for a friendly against iceland in the spanish city of ma they are on a wednesday does much of van pool think reports this year will be key for coach fabio capello who's aiming to guide russia to their first world cup since two thousand and. five year capello has enjoyed a dream start as russia's head coach they took their world cup group with a perfect record of four wins from four games however it's two thousand and

thirteen which really counts for russia will be looking to ensure van passage to brazil the following year and a friendly with iceland will give capello a good chance to look at some of his fringe players something italian intends to do you're going to see though the most important things from this training camp which is a bit longer than usual is that the new players especially those who are young get the chance to feel at home within the squad but also very so they get to understand what i want from them and also what the other players expect of them if you believe that they're good for being with training camps are nothing new for the russian national team they were first introduced on the guus hiddink who took his side to turkey capello has decided on marbury and spain is his destination and if sixty six year old already has one eye on next month's crucial world cup qualifier with northern ireland but the tally of the mates the game against iceland bundjalung to play against him are opponents their games used in the.