police detained a renowned ballet soloist in connection with an acid attack on the director of the bolshoi theater here in moscow. a two hundred percent suddenness bankas annual salaries toodle for britain it seems which rejects e.u. plans to executive pay. from the battlefield to the ballot box the taliban could launch a political debate in afghanistan this despite thousands of lives and billions of dollars. to remove them from power. china reins of power to new leaders who are set to defend beijing's military might amid a long standing powerful influence with the us some top stories this hour.

around the world on screen online international news and comment from the new center here in moscow this is. police in moscow have detained a renowned. acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of the bolshoi said you feel it. is the latest suspect in the case and has put the spotlight on infighting at one of the world's biggest and best known theatres well that's now what talk to you know sort of a she's. a number of people have been arrested today actually in connection with the case not just give us the details. yes that's exactly right will ride before. us that there were two more people that were detained in connection to the assoc attack on saturday feeling and in fact police claim that those are the people that helped them get the clues that they needed to find who ordered the attack and then of course we knew that he has been arrested now of course this story has made

headlines around the world because of the nature of the attack now in january the seventeen sygate feeling was going back to his flight in moscow and then someone threw sulphuric acid in his face and he was lying there in agony for twenty minutes by himself before help came and then he's been battling to solve his eyesight ever since then and so this is day he's visiting some of the best medical centers in the world still getting treatment for that the situation is not as bad as it happened but it's still the condition there and the i said he's partially blind so this day now when it comes to what may have caused this of course the bolshoi theatre is famous around the world in this not just famous for its impressive dancers but also for the scandal surrounding it for example there were stories emerging that ballerinas spoiling for the top spot would put substances in the each others trying to make the other one hold on to not be able to perform as well we also know that for example there was another director at the bolshoi theater who we now know that

there was photographic images photographs. footage that emerged that was a pornographic nature and allegedly he is the one in those images and that footage and after that he had to quit and not just shows you all but the sort of career battles that take place at the bolshoi theater and of course again dylan as the artistic director of the bolshoi theater and he had the power to make or break careers so that's why a lot of people are now wondering whether this is yet another case like that because we do know that a couple of days before that attack happened there were death threats on his life through various social media like facebook and twitter so right now investigators are seeking to find who ordered these attacks and why but many people are saying that this is bound to have something to do with all the bolshoi scandals that we're you see hearing in the past couple of years especially in the mystery continues thank you very much indeed marina live in central moscow and of course we'll be

following this story the developments over the next few hours here on will bring you live updates throughout the day. on top. of one of our other stories now a bankers' bonuses can never be too big that's the view of the u.k. authorities who oppose the e.u. plans for curbs brings finance ministers given a resolute no to the blocks plan to prevent bankers from receiving bonuses bigger than their base salaries or reports from london the reaction that. this is a measure that's likely to be quite popular with a lot of the general public because a lot of very hard working people that find it very hard just to get by on their every day wages if we compare the figures in two thousand and two the overall bonuses paid out to bank is in the u.k. were around seven billion pounds whereas most recently that figure has gone up to seen billion pounds and that's something that quite

a great swathes of the general public for a very hard to stomach at a time when wages are forming and the price of the centuries are going after all of the time because of inflation so while george osborne says that this is a way to really save the financial services industry and it would be crippling for britain to have this cap imposed a lot of critics would say that this is the chancellor just trying to protect the bankers that would ultimately then vote for the conservative party at the next general election what many people here in the u.k. are also saying is that this could really be the tipping point for the e.u. and britain that this could be an issue that could really force the britain to think about other potential ways of isolating themselves father and perhaps even a british exit from the european union. or the british conservative m.p. brooks newmark you told me a little earlier one or two that the prospect of bankers leaving london is much

worse than public outrage at the excessive pay packets. we are well aware of the toxicity of this issue and we're well aware of the insensitivity of many bankers some of the big banks in terms of the way they have rewarded themselves given these times of out starting but there is a practical problem which is that the people who are in banks and banks themselves are very mobile so they can go anywhere in the world they don't need to be in london or paris or frankfurt or even zurich for that matter they can go anywhere and do their business because most business is done online or on a telephone or can be done abroad city of london is a hugely important center for us in terms of our expertise it contributes a huge amount to the exchequer and if we damage that by trying to penalise those who actually you know do do

a good job within their banking institutions we're going to drive that business away i do not want to see the business driven away and a lot of this decision making is being done by those countries that do not have as large a financial center as we've got a deep dive into the finances of the e.u. and elsewhere across the globe in the latest edition of marty's chis report that's coming up very shortly here's a preview of the program that's coming up later. why brokers on drugs why did stockbrokers start so much cocaine why do the brokers and bankers at j.p. morgan and government saxon barclays royal bank of scotland why are they sniff their weight and coke every morning just to get started to begin their day rampaging through the markets stealing people's wealth because they are being treated like rats by the pharmaceutical companies to get them into a state of perpetual larceny and it's working.

because a report coming away very shortly here on our t.v. with the afghan presidential election approaching next year the taliban says it's seriously considering entering politics the former official in the militia said the group could launch a political party but that doesn't necessarily mean an end to the insurgency of course one of the original goals of the u.s. led war in afghanistan was to remove the taliban from power so let's have a look at what this has cost both countries well since the launch of the military operation in two thousand and one more than two thousand u.s. soldiers have been killed total coalition losses have topped three thousand lives the number of americans injured in the line of duty exceeds seventeen thousand and the death toll among afghan civilians is staggering more than thirty thousand lives lost in the war and from the human factor to the financial burden as far as america is concerned the price tag of the decade long effort is a massive seven hundred billion dollars now if the taliban return to power all

these sacrifices could turn out to be in vain and a taliban victory could easily become reality that's according to a former afghan m.p. node sultanzoy. this government has so much so many problems that western world have lost their credibility and this government has no credibility so in that sort of a situation that taliban had been smart they would have scored big in the political front but i think the taliban can take advantage of this void in fill that vacuum it is up to the taliban to show their real face not the face that is pushed by the british intelligence or the pakistani intelligence the west is is confused the west is looking for an exit a very speedy exit and there i'm afraid that they will probably do whatever is possible whatever is convenient to put up a very very tedious. and very temporary fix and leave

and then things will go back to where airhead started that's the problem in the region has to realize that we have to find sustainable fixes for this problem not a temporary face saving thing for the nato to leave and then leave a big problem for afghanistan for the neighborhood and of course we're always interested in your views on the stories we cover and today we're asking you to vote on whether you believe the afghan taliban can transform itself from an armed insurgency into a credible political force had to r.t. dot com and take part in our on line poll.

maybe one of the world's most reclusive states but it seems the power of the web is slowly lifting the veil of secrecy on north korea instagram and twitter in the country and there are even claims that the pirate bay was preparing to drop and. spoke to my colleague lucy coming off about this. started with a tweet by the bureau chief of the associated press in korea ms jane leavy who on february twenty fifth tweeted that this is my first tweet using career links new mobile internet service hello world from center in pyongyang this tweet hasn't gone to like millions of retreats but definite did open the floodgates in some way that after that we've seen instagram pictures facebook tags check ins all coming from one of the world's most closed countries and definitely this is a breakthrough and nothing we have experienced before well certainly exciting stuff

but i mean this is actually translate to the locals the people on the ground are they running around posting instagram photos and tweets well the korea link is the only internet provider in korea you know a phrase like that would have been think about three years ago it launched this service the mobile internet service but now for now it's only available to visiting guests it's not available to the local population but they can already send text messages to each other and even make a video calls to each other which is already a breakthrough for a country where having curtains and windows is outlawed because then it would mean you have something to hide so which is not something i heard about before and i'm curious is this something to you personally would have ever imagined seeing in north korea i mean you've been to the country what's it been like when you visited well i saw the curtains part i saw them all windows were open when i was there some seven years ago that the change in about them in a way when i came there i was shocked because my cell phone was confiscated at passport control and the only one time i could use internet i could go online was

from a russian embassy because they had a contract with a chinese satellite provider and i was the only way i could actually go online to do to post something to post some pictures from inside the north korean country so definitely the situation has changed now compared to what it was like seven years ago when i was there then piers of course it's hard for us just speculate as to why these changes are happening since it's a fairly closed country but do you believe that this is a new day with a change in leadership by younger. perhaps more aware of things like three g. for example absolutely when kim jong il the late korean leader said that the country needs to embrace the new high tech technology the new high tech era probably his son who is now in charge of the country took these words very seriously recently saw a visit of one of the google stop executives to the country something unthinkable again which is crazy if you think about it three four years ago then we saw visit over from boy in the n.b.a. player former n.b.a. player dennis rodman who actually said kim jong un his friend for life so all this

shows that that north korea wants to open up to the world the question is certainly to what extent the country will open itself up of course and i'm really curious i would say this whole pirate bay story what exactly is going on there i think it's about that well first we heard a statement published on pirate base web site that i quote today we can reveal that we have been invited by the leader of the republic of korea to fight our battles from the network it is ironic in many ways because pirate bay as we know has always been prosecuted globally and north korea is also in a very difficult situation let's put it this way. they even changed their logo for a short period of time the typical pirate ship was replaced with a ship having north korean flags on it later we contacted people from the pirate bay who said this was a joke which was aimed at directing attention to their problems that they are being prosecuted but certainly as we know all jokes have some truth behind them. poor but

sexy no longer than a few minutes report on how the new emerging stylish face of burden makes them feel the city's soul is being stolen class. stock domestic opposition to the euro and severe austerity in europe appear not to be enough to force latvia to rethink joining the eurozone in twenty fourteen later in the program we tell you whether we could prove to be a fatal move stay with us this is r.t. live in moscow. as paul was the envy of amber as. he never put his trust in anyone and rightly so. his body was found on the floor of his shoes and towels. but did he die of natural causes. the mystery of stomach stuck. on r.t.e. documentary.

these children are in me. they're serving a certain. just like their mother. little ones born in prison. now must be for the crimes committed by their parents. jailed babies on our cheek. he continues here on r t china's prime minister has opened the national people's congress in beijing the event is especially significant this year due to the handover of power to. new generation of communist party leaders which only occurs

once a decade among the reigns as a double digit boost to defense spending something which may worry china's main rival the us where recent spending cuts have meant a big blow for the military professor steve saying from the university of nottingham in the u.k. says that washington so-called pivot to asia prompted beijing's defensive stance the new chinese president xi jinping is a much more self-confident confident assertive and nationalistic person that at their core we are likely to see a china much more assertive in the next ten years in terms of what is described as the american pivot back to asia the chinese see these as a major change in american policy that is directed against china as a less than friendly act and therefore the chinese are trying to. undermine american rebalancing and it is also the reasons for the double digit

increases in china means military spending. at the moment the elite military wing of hamas has shared some of its secrets with us r.t. . the screws of inside scoop on how the group conducts its operations and on who gains access to the mass in the circle. plus a group of men dressed as the evil darth vader of the storm troopers have raided a shop in ukraine apparently for good cause. one spot. of the dark side.

fear has set its sights on joining the eurozone in twenty fourteen that's despite the currency bloc shaky outlook with the sturdy carts and gaping holes in the country's budgets the decision also clashes with public opinion in latvia where two thirds are against euro membership but we spoke to one member of the european parliament who believes the timing couldn't be worse. lead if you want to be a member of nato or of the e.u. of the eurozone so want to be a member of a bigger bloc now we need to i can imagine the e.u. i can imagine the eurozone at the moment is not the right club to join because lead of you came out of the crisis in two thousand and ten and the economic recovery started shortly after actually led of years doing quite well so one could wonder why latvia want to enter the euro zone if ever an economic crisis would come back to latvia lead of the year in the euro zone cannot leave value and will have to

stay in it like agrees is doing now and greece's go towards a lot of suffering and that is the economic downside to perhaps the political advantage to have member of a bigger club the remains of the german capital's notorious landmark the berlin wall could soon make way for a fourteen story luxury apartment block and it seems the trend for reshaping berlin is gaining momentum with more new buildings emerging as fast as the real estate prices keep growing on the piece or all of the reports and how this is affecting the lives of the city's lifelong residents who are both sexy that so. lovingly described his city. now some berliners feel this way of life is coming and the threat isn't here that if you keep your increase growth we've seen big changes over the past ten years more and more apartment buildings have been built in areas where people traditionally used to rent what we're seeing is people being forced from their homes. real estate prices in berlin have shot up by thirty two

percent since two thousand and seven well ahead of the german average this is resulted in some tenants of the and victim as their rented flat so sold for underneath them from to demonstrations from those who see the city's identity being sold to the highest bidder this in. our problem here is that berlin is turning into a city split between the haves and have nots rising prices of forced people who have lived here for years to move out and those who have come makes. this year has seen an increase in the amount of protests against the gentrification of lynn as well as growing resentment towards other germans and foreigners moving into the city for the most part the public image of this still poor but sexy however times are changing the new a major in face of perlin is certainly stylish however it's

also becoming increasingly an affordable due to the demand from people wanting to live in a desirable location economically viable and politically secure in is becoming the place of choice for southern europeans to invest in during turbulent times in their own countries at least post count trend sales and rents property to italians. the town. in one of the main reasons our customers are buying here is that there is no trust in their telling economy or at the banks people see an apartment in berlin as a good way to preserve the value of their savings thought was about the claims that the real estate boom is stealing them in sold as invigorate the building this is progress berlin is developing pretty sure it presents some challenges but this is just the same as when the wall came down and people moved into our areas if anything this creates the march

a cultural. makes program what it is this new housing developments are being built all around the city to try and accommodate demand all over with rental prices having risen by ninety percent in the last decade it does seem that the writing is on the wall for the dream of an affordable life in the german capital peter all of a r.t. . fresh clashes of broken up between protesters and police in egypt restive portside the city's been locked in a cycle of violence for several days now ever since demonstrators began calling for justice in the trial over a deadly soccer riot that took place last year walters billed true as following the developments from cairo for us caches continue in port saïd for the third day between to cover protesters and police what we've just heard is president mohamed morsi is actually considering a minute three takeover of this restive city on the coast there seems to be a lot of anger between this civilians and the police force this comes after the

national security agency was torched this morning yesterday who had security directorate partially burnt as well as the governor headquarters with hundreds of ended i mean least five killed. well true there in egypt now time for a brief update for the syrian rebels claim to captured the governor of the rock of problems when they took over the city and overnight battle with government forces this comes after days of heavy clashes with the syrian army for teachers emerge showing fighters destroying a statue of the former syrian president hafez al assad. supporters of venezuelan president hugo chavez as well as opposition members are demanding to know the full truth about the socialist leader state of health that's after the communication minister revealed that the president is having difficulty breathing following a severe responder tree infection she has not been seen in public since he underwent cancer surgery in cuba almost three months ago. and now back to our

breaking news this hour police have detained a renowned ballet soloist over an acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of moscow's bolshoi ballet sergei filin. suspected of being the mastermind of the attack earlier police also detained two other men who they believe may have perpetrated the assault said if elin was badly burned when a master sailing through saw fury cast it in his face outside his moscow apartment as he returned home late on january the seventeenth he's now in germany undergoing treatment to save his sight. so that's our breaking news this hour and of course will follow those developments over the next few hours here on t.v. coming up we investigate the mysterious death of joseph stalin and i'll be back with more news in the five years from now.

john kerry made his first major verbal gaffe as secretary of state by mixing the nonexistent country of courage to stand in one of his speeches of course it is funny when politicians misspeak george bush was pretty good at that but i can say that we all make mistakes when we speak trust me it is very easy to butcher the pronunciation of some place on earth like course to loathe of all or walla walla washington the thing is that he didn't just misspeak his speech was written correctly and if you look at his eyes as he said it he wasn't really looking at notes or something he was reading it off of a teleprompter right now i am reading off a teleprompter but i put every word there myself which is probably why john kerry is spelled with a q but my question is would kerry and prompter mr obama just read anything put in front of them to they even really know the realities of the tiriel they're reading

in their speeches if you were deeply versed on some subject that you should need to read word for word from the teleprompter to give a speech just try writing some notes and speaking with your brain and maybe your heart like in the good old days but that's just my opinion. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom part of the big picture.