stories that shaped the week the death of another russian toddler in a t.v. us family leads to allegations he could have been killed stoking anger in russia. fresh 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 palestinian prisoners. at italians head to the polls to choose their 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. seven am in moscow treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week that was here on our t.v. we begin in the u.s.

where police are investigating the death of another russian child in an adopted family u.s. family the twentieth such death since the mid ninety's news that three year old maxime cruz means a bruised body was found near is texas home caused outrage in russia the boy's adoptive mother claims it was an accident but there are some suspicions maxime could have been used and even killed or he's honest i see it you're going to has more. twenty russian children in the last seventeen years died in their adoptive american families most recently here in texas mark simkin meehan known to locals as max shadow just what i heard on the news. just the kid had some scratches. that's all i know three year old mark 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 by russian officials had no knowledge of the incident until almost a month after the boy's death it wasn't 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 they 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 death. unfortunately it's usually months after russian child has died in the u.s. that the american side informs us about it and 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 maxine 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 with the. shown until it was demanded. we're going to. come up 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 brother's destiny is yet to be determined for now he continues living in the adoptive family where his

brother died while the investigation is slow paced 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 its soil as they see churkin r. r. t. actor county texas. kneels who giving from pound pope legacy a group monitoring children placed with new family 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 can and properly executed because adoption itself is performed at the state level in america the federal government has no control over who will actually happens it. 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 is screening but it's not properly done post adoption monitoring is impossible. especially in america it is impossible because a right to privacy. treatment of russian orphans by their adoptive u.s. families and the subsequent a russian adoption ban against the u.s. but with sparking fierce debate argue dot com you'll find more stories from all sides and you can leave your 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 also gathering in the streets in protest israeli officials say the prisoner died of a heart attack palestinians insist he was tortured during interrogation his death

further angering palestinians who have already been a 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 erupting when jewish settlers attacked palestinian demonstrators in the north of the west bank shooting two of them as are his policy reports there may be no end to these confrontations as long as israel continues building on the land considered palestinian its rugged and remarkable landscape largely 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 recognize palestine is a nonmember observer state tel aviv fast track to 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 cannot change facts on the ground israel is doing exactly this while also kicking 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 the syria 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 that palestinians fear it's part of a long term strategy to extend the one and to 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. 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 a hundred and fifty bed ones for whom this has been home for nearly half a century tel aviv complains the bed when 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 ash point. in the way. as always paula closely following west bank developments updating us on the latest by our twitter feed head to. underscore r t for the latest.

euro pulling its breath as austerity hit talionis choose their next parliament from a former comedian to a disgraced former prime minister silvio berlusconi certainly no lack of choice on their ballot but as artie's arraigning delusional reports the outcome may well throw the debt ridden in you 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. i have i think i was . thirteen i. was

given to obey the program lo 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 purview don't feel protected by the state i want to state that is visible so there is no more state in this country just a group or sea of laws that has replaced democracy there isn't anything left among the crowds disillusioned with israelis politics is danny and allison has started small by successfully challenging politicians in his small hometown in the south like many talents he does not trust the current political system the philosophical ideas that are yet here you think that was ok i begin to feel that way he was living 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 they have the wall or home. oh. yes they're finished this right because the the political class has lost in the in the influence on the larger part of the population especially young people. the crisis is 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 italian regions basically italy's huge a 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. while ago i was to our polity doubts that any of the candidates on the bow will be able to handle italy's financial woes. well the problem of your is 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 calls berlusconi is not really the best choice to to drive around these difficult obstacle and the moment he wasn't really so much better despite being well connected with my knowledge of the world has a wonderful words. but very little content and this is a bit worrying because as soon as he gets in and gets in parliament it's not just

italian politics who make politics in the world and frankly for the moment i 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. stay with us here on our t.v. plenty still to come including this. gun so to rob a home in a seat is done about the firing of the four children a day bring weapons to u.k. schools with authorities desperate to end an epidemic of violence more on that still to come. but first the newly minted u.s. secretary of state john kerry's embark on his first foreign tour as the country's top diplomat on the list checking all the boxes with key allies in europe plus delving into the turbulent middle east as porton i reports 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 as 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 peers and stand in georgia kyrgyzstan is the country kerry should

have said but unfortunately his speech was written with a mistake reporting from new york marina r.t. kerry's first steps will be in major european capitals like london paris and berlin u.s. foreign policy expert john rees things kerry's mission there will go beyond courtesy calls on traditional nato allies. it's always been very important for the americans to keep the nato alliance together but they always want to keep it together on their own terms it's always been the case for instance the senior commanding officer in nato is from the american armed forces what the americans constantly want to do is use to shift the burden of all military intervention on to the european powers but to keep political control over the process and i think that the we've seen not a number of times recently especially since the american focus is now beginning to shift towards the pacific to deal with the rising threat of china we are going to is really the europeans now call him

a greater share of burden in respect of policing the arab world and north africa what we're seeing here is an attempt to convince the nato allies that they should pay more but have no more influence afghan president hamid karzai has ordered u.s. special forces to leave the country's wardak province within two weeks that is may do the allegations of murder and torture of civilians the move comes as nato is preparing to hand responsibility for security to local forces by next year patricia de janeiro adjunct professor of politics at new york university says even though it looks like afghanistan is willing to go it alone the path is likely to be rocky. no 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 out of people's houses that are and comment cards like president karzai needs to take care of his own seeds definitely president karzai is trying to make a statement and fact they haven't come to an agreement yet 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 and within the south there. syrian rebels out a new batch of heavy weaponry from outside sponsors across the jordanian border to fight president assad this according to arab and rebel officials and comes as renewed efforts to promote peace talks in this syrian conflict appear to be stalled the main opposition group syria's national coalition and its pulling out of the upcoming international talks aimed at helping end the bloodshed group will skip scheduled meetings in russia and the u.s. over what it says is a lack of international condemnation of the assad government also boycotting the gathering the friends of syria alliance syria's pro-reform activists are wilcox

says the western powers could be losing their influence over the opposition and rebels aren't interested in negotiations. and they do not want to have any dialogue with the syrian government because only a strategy east peace 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 zero to look east for the rebel east rather than the political elite cooled the national council which received the national commission so all they're interested in is for the government to fall 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 to them and they think that they could probably make a stand here and it with regards to what the c.e.o. policy this is a bit funny because now if he choose to get out of these sort of the international the friends of syria meeting then the western communities really will have no leverage what so live in the syrian crisis. with there being no wait in sight for

this stalemate in syria women are taking up arms head to our website to find out why for the first time ever in the country hundred fifty kurdish women have 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 health of the nation the government. millions of people could get life threatening diseases due to pollution from factories near by. germany's value to renew stalled talks on turkey joining the e.u. as chancellor angela merkel heads there on an official visit on her increasingly frustrated over a lack of progress in negotiations with the prime minister calling the delay unforgettable manwell oxon writer though a political analyst says the current economic situation in the e.u. could leave turkish citizens without any desire to enter the block. 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 want to to head the euro for example fifteen years ago a huge majority of the people who were against getting that europe 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 turkish you membership because i can imagine that for a turkish citizen to see how the you repeat the whole of the european union does elopes now in the states is doesn't seem very attractive to become a member of that club reading writing and arithmetic what students are supposed to be studying in school but across the u.k. many students end up learning what's considered the trait of an average criminal knives even firearms increasingly found in backpacks of more and more pupils with

violence in school seeing a sharp rise or the sarah firth reports on how the problems being handled. teaches lots of things 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 going to say anything about a stark insight into the reality facing some of britain's schoolchildren 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 remember we're always searching the school and. gone to the school almost gone. and i see his first 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 a number of violent incidents on the rise the reality for many schools across the bay is that your classmate can quickly become your enemy and the school playground can be a dangerous place it becomes normal to you. you get sucked into this last thing to violence is the best approach. is it's just waking up in the morning and going for run yeah after a while it becomes normal to you stephen is now working with these charity x l p thirty nine hundred ninety six after school stabbing found apache gregan has been helping young people tackle gun culture and violence to 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 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 a keats in the country's deprived in a city. 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 well they teach it can now say it's people as if they suspect they're carrying a weapon many politicians the still failing. 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 finally.

turning out as some other stories making headlines across the globe at least six people have been killed in a militant attack in northeastern nigeria according to the country's military no suspects have been arrested the region is frequently targeted by muslim extremists with local residents putting the blame for the attack on the radical sect boko haram. chaddy and soldiers killed in armed clashes with rebels in northern mali it's the second incident resulting in chaldean 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 islamist rebels since january despite ongoing clashes france claims the operation has entered its final stage with paris announcing its readiness to withdraw military presence from the country . will castro reelected as president by cuba's national assembly

for another five year term castro announced this term will be his final one due to his age and said he's ready to start transferring power to a younger generation in two thousand and six for all castro took over the presidency from his elder brother fidel who'd been the country's leader for more than thirty years. south korea's first female president has been sworn in part going high is the daughter of the country's former dictator after being inaugurated as the new leader she demanded north korea dropped its nuclear ambitions recently tension between the neighboring cities of neighboring countries rather has been stoked as pyongyang's atomic test once again but any possibility of reconciliation into question. the biggest today because the event of the year for the movie world has kicked off in los angeles the eighty fifth annual academy awards expected to be less predictable than the gala is usually but predicts think the best picture on is could go to spy story argo steven

spielberg and daniel day lewis could also join the list of the exclusive list of three time oscar winners this year and the best actress nomination could go to either the youngest or oldest winner ever with an eighty six year old actress up against a nine year old. coming up a special report on an unusual place some people choose to ring in the new year aboard a train that's still to come here on our stay with us.