stories that shaped the week death of another russian toddler in an adoptive u.s. family leading to allegations that have been killed stoking anger in russia. rallies clashes and hunger strikes in the west bank the death of a palestinian israeli jail further fueling week long protests against the plight of prisoners. italians head to the polls choose their next parliament and one of the most unpredictable votes in the country's history that could see the return of silvio berlusconi or a breakthrough by a former comedian. in moscow bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on our t.v. we begin our show in the u.s.

where police are investigating the death of another russian child who had been adopted by an american family the twentieth such death since the mid ninety's the news that three year old maxime cruz means birth body was found near is texas home caused outrage in russia the boy's adoptive mother claims it was an accident but there are suspicions maxime could have been abused and even killed or he's honest i see a church and it takes a look twenty russian children in the last seven years died in their adoptive american families most recently here in texas much she was mean known to locals as max shadow just what i heard on the news was just the kid had some scratches. that's all i know three year old marquis him and his younger brother keel lived in this house with their adoptive parents in a rather secluded neighborhood it was from here that on the afternoon of january twenty first the boy was taken away by an ambulance never to come back his legs had an internal organs were allegedly severely bruised. it could mean could if this is

confirmed as a result of the investigation that maxime's death was a result of certain violent actions but specific circumstances of his death have yet to be announced i can't get into that because it would be speculative. for the results to come back russian officials had no knowledge of the incident until almost a month after the boy's death it was a little bit later that we started getting some suspicions of what was going on and that all developed from talking to the parents the people that live there it just took a little more time moscow says this is far from the first time it has been left in the dark about an adopted child stuff. even unfortunately it's usually months after a russian child has died in the u.s. that the american side informs us about it in one case it was five years after a boy died. a probe is now being conducted in texas and russia has an ongoing investigation of its own. if as a result of the investigation it is determined that maksim was killed by his mother

for example underscore if this is the conclusion of the investigation naturally those responsible for the death of the russian boy will have to suffer the most severe punishment meanwhile at the u.s. state department we obviously take very seriously the welfare of children particularly children who've been adopted from other countries according to moscow little cooperation was shown until it was demanded. with almost two dozen deaths caused by abuse and even manslaughter russia in a move often criticized recently imposed a ban on american adoption of its kids. i've always believed that russia should stop these adoptions and i hope that they maintain this ban and don't yield to pressure autopsy an investigation results are expected to take weeks if not months to be announced no arrests have yet been made the dead boy's younger brothers destiny is yet to be determined for now he continues living in the adoptive family

where his brother died while the investigation of floor paste and the alleged information on the little boy's life and death extremely scarce one of the questions that demand an answer is why should it take a rigid push from abroad for the us to pay attention to yet another tragic destiny of a hopeless child to whom it promised a better life on a thorough and r.t.e. actor county texas kneels who giving or from pound legacy a group that monitors children plays with new families says the case highlights shortcomings in the u.s. adoption system the united states has a very complex adoption system where the state department has federal responsibilities which it comes properly executed because adoption itself is performed at the state level in america the federal government has no control over who actually happens in you know the options you need to have

a proper system in place that checks. adoptive parents much better before the adoption which has posts option monitoring all that is not really in place there rescreening but it's not properly done post adoption monitoring is impossible . especially in america it is impossible because a right to privacy. and treatment of russian orphans by their adoptive u.s. families and the subsequent russian adoption ban against the u.s. both sparked fierce debate on r.t. dot com you can find more stories from all sides of the issues and leave your own comments to. tensions rising in the west bank where the death of a palestinian and israeli jail triggered a fresh wave of violence thousands of palestinian prisoners are refusing food in a show of solidarity palestinian youngsters have also gathered and protests on the streets israeli officials say the prisoner died of a heart attack palestinians and says he was tortured during interrogation his death

further angered palestinians have already been rallying for a week against conditions in israeli prisons and in support of hunger strikers protests repeatedly ended in fierce clashes with soldiers who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. the prisoner issue wasn't the only one causing divisions this week more clashes erupted when jewish settlers attacked palestinian demonstrators in the north of the west bank shooting too and its policy reports there may be no end to the confrontation as long as israel continues building on the land considered to be palestinian its rugged and remarkable landscape knowledge of the empty but full of meaning this is one of the west bank's most sensitive pieces of real estate for fourteen years plans to build here have existed but were kept on hold but all of that changed last november less than twenty four hours after the u.n. general assembly wicked nice palestine is a nonmember observer state tel aviv fast tracked construction plans here prompting

the palestinian government to call it a slap in the face of the entire world will have of. this plan to build here is not legal according to international law which states that when one country occupies another it can really change facts on the ground israel is doing exactly that will also get people out of their lands soley for the benefit of the settlers. known as the one this controversial patch of earth exists between east jerusalem where palestinians aspire to establish the capital of a future palestinian state and the huge israeli settlement of ma'ale adumim it is the last remaining corridor between the large palestinian cities in the west bank and if plans go ahead in the israelis extend this area it would cut into a big chunk of the west bank effectively driving a wedge into the middle of any potential palestinian state critics have warned that filling the space with jewish homes amounts to a doomsday scenario effectively striking a fatal heart attack to the two state solution but for now the plan is to build

a garbage dump in this valley with the waste that comes from jerusalem and then in about twenty to thirty years when it's full to build a park on top of us here you can see mark palestinians fear it's part of a long term strategy to extend the one and build new israeli settlements it's not surprising this is not the first time that such a plan is submitted it is a ongoing policy that has been growing for years now in that and to grab palestinian lands but first the israelis need to get rid of the people who live here among them around three arab jerusalem neighborhoods and one hundred fifty bedouins for whom this has been home for nearly half a century tel aviv complains the bedwyn camps were set up eagerly without permits and stand in the way of urban planning but critics say this is just an excuse for a land grab it makes me furious this dump site is going to harm the environment and it's going to harm the health of the people and they make it harder and harder to

find a solution for the situation demolition orders have already been issued threatening to destroy the last remnants of bedwyn life in these hills and while israeli officials say the construction anyone if it happens at all is many years away it cuts to the heart of the israeli palestinian conflict which fundamentally is about the land. the fate of the people who live on point. in the way. all those closely following developments on the west bank updating us on the latest via her twitter feed you can head over to paula slee or underscore r t for the latest.

europe is holding its breath as austerity headed talionis choose their next parliament from a former comedian to the disgraced ex prime minister silvio berlusconi certainly no lack of choice on the ballot but as artie's arena reports the outcome may well throw the debt ridden into even more uncertainty. the streets of rome aligned with posters from various political parties and candidates all smiles and bright colors offering the best future possible for italian voters. since i. was a candidate i was. thirteen . i. was i. was given.

a low is not the leader but the face of a movement whose plan is simple to do away with the politics that italy has been used to for the past couple of decades and bring about a new type of rule the number saved on my part i don't feel protected by the state i want to stay that is visible there is no more state in this country just the bureaucracy of laws that has replaced democracy there isn't anything left among the crowds disillusioned with italy's politics is done the analysis he started small by successfully challenging politicians in his small hometown in the south like many talents he does not trust the current political system if it were possible to feel i believe that yes there will be a vote was ok i begin to feel. like you live off the wall. but it is time for a change at least one hundred thousand people showed up to support close movement in the center of rome the biggest political gathering in half

a century people say popular because it speaks clearly and they say it's one of the main thing to say so they have to go or home whole hall where they're finished and this right because they're the political class as lost in the in the influence on the line trip out to the population especially young people. the crisis in which we have a political class absolutely unable to cope with the situation and the situation is a desperate one the longest recession in twenty years more than one third of the country's youth are without a job corruption that feeds organized crime and manages to siphon off as much as sixty billion euro a year by some estimates and declaring wealth divide between various a tally and regions basically italy's hooter parliament will have a mouthful to chew to avoid choking on the problems which have accumulated over the years perhaps doing away with the old men in suits no matter how respectable they

may appear in favor of a foul mouth but seemingly honest comedian may be just the thing to put an end to italy's political drama in rome it in a ghost. political analyst alessandro polity doubts any of the candidates on the ballot will be able to handle italy's financial woes. the problem of euro's not the problem of public debts this is a financial assault that has been concerted by private entities to milk money from the eurozone that said of course berlusconi is not really the best choice to to drive around these difficult obstacles and the moment he was really so much better despite being well connected with the financial world has a wonderful words but very little continent and this is a bit worrying because as soon as he gets in it gets in parliament and it's not

just italian politics you know who make politics in the world and frankly for the moment they don't feel he is really well equipped i hope he will make up because anyhow he will come up with a sizable number of parliamentarian's but they have really to study very hard and very fast to come up with something credible. all stay with us here on our t.v. still ahead. i have. gone. on about the firing of two four children a day bringing weapons into schools in the u.k. with authorities desperate to end an epidemic of violence or after a break. it was america's new top diplomat john kerry setting off on a marathon four and tore his first as secretary of state and now we look at where he's going and why.

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mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. thanks for staying with us here on r t sixteen minutes past the hour now america's newly minted secretary of state john kerry's embarking on his first foreign tour as the country's top diplomat is checklist hitting all the key allies in europe plus delving into the turbulent middle east we're in a port i reports from new york. america's new secretary of state john kerry is on his first official overseas trip visiting nine countries in western europe and the middle east over the course of ten days hillary clinton's replacement will reportedly consult with allies on topics including iran the up peoples in the arab spring countries and serious civil war secretary kerry is also scheduled to meet with members of syria's opposition according to the state department the top u.s.

diplomat thinks of this trip as a quote listening tour meanwhile in his first speaking engagement as u.s. secretary of state mr kerry ran into some geography problems when referring to democratic reforms in the non existant country of cures ixtapa they fight corruption in nigeria they support the rule of law. they support democratic institutions and george kyrgyzstan is the country kerry should have said but unfortunately his speech was written with the mistake reporting from new york marina r.t. . president hamid karzai has ordered u.s. special forces out of the country's wardak province within two weeks this edition was made after allegations of murder and torture of civilians the move coming as nato is reading to handle responsibility for security to local forces by twenty fourteen patricia de janeiro and a professor of politics at new york university says even though it seems like

afghanistan is willing to go it alone the path is unlikely to be smooth. the wardak province is you know the family is strong the place isn't volatile and i think they're kind of tired as well as most afghans having u.s. forces going in that people's houses that are and comment cards like president karzai needs to take care of his own constituents that cedes definitely president karzai is trying to make a statement and fact they haven't come to an agreement yet they you know there is there's still a little i'm sure power play going on between the u.s. and the president as to who's going to stay who's going to be in charge you know what kind of numbers they want and how they're going to work but absolutely you know an afghan leader is going to have to show that he has a little bit more support throughout the nation and then just his region within the south there. syrian rebels got a new batch of heavy weaponry from outside sponsors across the border in jordan to fight the president assad's regime this according to arab and rebel officials and

coming as renewed efforts to promote peace talks in the syrian conflict appear to have stalled the main opposition group syria's national coalition saying it's pulling out of upcoming international talks aimed at helping and the bloodshed ripples scheduled meetings in russia and the us of what it sees as a lack of international condemnation of the assad government also boycotting the gathering of the friends of syria alliance syrian pro-reform activist omar were coughing western groups could be losing their influence over the opposition and rebels may not be interested in negotiation. and they do not want to have any dialogue with the syrian government because only a strategy based in a sense on the syrian government falling and them coming as a substitute they do not have a lot of liquidity on the ground the also the east for their beliefs one of them the political elite the cooled the national council which received the national commission so all they're interested in is for the government to feel they know that the society the list and countries have invested

a lot in them both in money and time and so on in old denies them and they think that they could probably make a stand here and it with regards to what they see east policy this is a bit funny because now if he choose to get out of these sort of international friends of syria meeting then the list of committees we do you will have no leverage what so live in the syrian crisis. with there being no end in sight for the stalemate in syria women are taking up arms head over to our website to find out why for the first time ever in the country one hundred fifty kurdish women set up a female only battalion in the heart of the conflict. also online at r t dot com china's economic boom taking its toll on the nation's health government admits millions. people could get life threatening diseases due to pollution from nearby factories. germany's vowing to renew stalled talks on turkey joining the e.u.

as chancellor angela merkel heads there on an official visit increasingly frustrated over a lack of progress in negotiations with the prime minister calling the delay unforgivable but men were oxen writer a political analyst says that the current economic situation in the e.u. was turkish citizens without any desire to enter the bloc. to see that european union is no democratic pro-choice its political approach a sort of ideological approach because when you ask the people in germany if they wanted to head the euro for example fifteen years ago a huge majority of the people who were against the euro i asked the people if they want to send troops to the turkish syrian border they say no the european union is a construct with out democratic base it's an ideological base and so maybe hopefully we can hope for for the church's people that they will have the right to

take part in the referendum a vote a petitio membership because i can imagine that for the turkish citizen to see how the you repeat the whole of the european union to the lopes now in the states is doesn't seem very attractive to become a member of that club turning out of some other stories making global headlines at least six people have been killed in a militant attack in northeast nigeria it's according to the country's military no suspects have been arrested yet the region's frequently targeted by islamic extremists with local residents putting the blame for the attack on a radical sect of boko haram. ten chaddy in soldiers killed in armed clashes with rebels in northern mali it's the second incident resulting in chad in casualties since friday when thirteen troops died in battle in the same region allied troops from france and african nations have been fighting al-qaeda linked islam is rebels since january despite ongoing clashes friends claims the operation has entered its final stage with paris announcing its readiness to withdraw

military presence from the country. raul castro reelected as president by cuba's national assembly for another five year term pastor announced that will be his final term today his age and said he'll be to start transferring power to the younger generation in two thousand and six castro took over the presidency from his elder brother fidel the country's leader more than thirty years. knobs and even firearms tools of the trade for many an average criminal but these items also increasingly found in the backpacks of more and more pupils across britain with violence at schools seeing a sharp rise or he says our furthur reports on how the problem is being handled. settlings you probably end up in a dead end job or in prison you'll be lucky to be alive when you're sixteen. you know our parent is gone our carrot is now for no for teaching them to say anything about a stark insight into the reality facing some of pushed and school children despite

having one of the best education systems in the world the latest research estimates that up to four peoples a day a court with weapons in british schools guns knives and knuckle dusters just some of the items confiscated by police are men who are always searching the school and . gun to the. gun. and i see this first shot gun about to fire or schools are supposed to be a safe secure environment where the focus is on education the figures have revealed that hundreds of weapons are being seized in schools every year with the number of violent incidents on the rise the reality for many schools across the is that your classmate can quickly become your enemy and the school playground can be a dangerous place it becomes normal to you and you you get sucked into this last

thing to violence is the best approach. is it's just that waking up in the morning and going for run yeah after a while it becomes normal to you stephen is now working with us charity x l p set up in nine hundred ninety six after a school stabbing found apache gregan has been helping young people tackle gun culture and violence a member a kid coming up to me when a bullet proof vest underneath his school uniform he said i'll be dead by thursday according to patrick it's early intervention which is key prison is forty thousand pounds a year a young person's secure unit is one hundred sixty five thousand pounds a year a murder can be a million pounds a year to investigate. so actually you know if we intervene earlier keep kids in education keep that sense of a safe place an environment where they can grow and flourish the problem of violence in schools is nothing new one but it's not something you're likely to read

about in a school prospectus and it's particularly acute in the country's deprived in a city or schools on the whole do not want the public to know that they have a problem with children bringing weapons into the premises so they do not readily give the information so i guess the problem is significant all they teach is can now search people's if they suspect that carrying a weapon many theel politicians are still failing to sit up and take notice and until more it's done to address the problem the children who attend these schools will continue to learn these lessons in violence. r.t. . and after the break continuing our in-depth look at the lives a rebel militancy in the delta when our special report stay with us you are today.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture. we are facing a lot of problem. because no one thought to drink no good school. no meds when you visit. other local what's not enough job is a law in the local needs you want a community l.n.g. motion will be used. at all and you would.