human shields by syrian rebels in the golan heights. atop bolshoi theater don so you admitted to ordering and i've tag on the attorneys to director of the company says he didn't know acid a would be used in the assault he will remain in custody until at least mid april. thousands of venezuelans publicly mourner the late lead with the death of charges and leaving behind a political vacuum and uncertainty. its two pm here in a russian capital in moscow you live with r.t. and me to bomb and say it's good to have your company with us. the un is demanding

the immediate release of a group of its peacekeepers taken hostage by syrian rebels in the golan heights the militants to say they are using the observers as human shields and will hold them until syrian government forces pull back from a nearby village artie's middle east correspondent policia has the latest. all twenty one knew in personnel well armed they're all from the philippines and we've heard from the philippines foreign office who has demanded their immediate release the philippines government says that they are being treated well that negotiations are underway to try and secure the release of the militants are admitting that they took these u. n. personnel to try and prevent an attack by assad's loyalists in other words what we're seeing is that the rebel forces are using this you emptying as human shields now the un has of course condemned this act this action we've heard criticism particularly from moscow at the united nations there is no reason at all under any

circumstances any kind of a sick imagination to try to harm harm those people so clearly gross disrespect for united nations gross disrespect of international norms of behavior now the united nations is currently also involved in negotiating their immediate release according to the united nations it's team were on a regular mission in the area we're talking about an area not far from the israeli syrian border that happened earlier on wednesday when they were taken hostage. leading up to the hostage crisis western powers and their arab allies have been stepping up support for the rebels earlier my colleague bill dog spoke to our correspondent about the ramifications of increased foreign backing the opposition. we do know where they get their arms from at least there has been plenty of information to deduce that from we do know that saudi arabia as well as qatar as well as turkey libya and the united states have all offered some sort of aid

financial or military in one way or another to the syrian rebels we don't know exactly how much has been shipped to these countries we do know that for example qatar has offered has made the latest offer to the syrian rebels which amounts to one hundred million dollars and of course there is also talk from the united kingdom where william hague has already said that he thinks the u.k. should step up their aid if the words. towards the syrian rebels as well and he is talking about something in the amount of roughly one thousand in a half million dollars and that would include armored vehicles body armor search and rescue and disease prevention so there's plenty of aid coming to the syrian rebels and really countries do not seem to shy away from offering it to them john kerry he's expressed confidence that weapons are going to the right people so who then of the so-called right people taking u.n.

peacekeepers hostage and that actually should be the first question that should come to mind because obviously when john kerry is talking about the right people he means that he does he hopes that the aid does not go to words that hardline islamic jihad azour of which there are reports show there is plenty off in syria and these are the types of people that the u.s. qatar saudi arabia and the rest of them have been supporting and given them plenty of aid they have offered them basically everything they have on the table and now we can assume that it's safe for them to say that they have in fact created a monster because now these very people are taking hostages international peacekeeping troops which are on the ground and they really have no role in the syrian conflict whatsoever. beirut based analyst chemical was me says countries are arming the rebels should be held accountable for the hostage crisis. this is an issue where you have a kidnapper they've taken hostage those hostage belong to the you and the you

should deal with these countries who have influence of these people who've been given them the money and the weapons and we have to mention turkey also is one of the sponsors yesterday we had a meeting of the outer bleak. clearly they said they cannot supply of money and weapons and they should be held accountable because that weapon and money and this action tragedy action where there you peacekeeper is actually been taken hostage. but as well as in seven days of mourning following the death of the charismatic leader this thousands of throng the streets off to he died and she's day after a long battle with cancer is valen a pretty self is video agency ruptly reports. caracas today is streets a very calm but really very somber basically the coffin of hugo chavez was taken through the streets today and was finally taken to the military academy where

thousands of people have gathered outside the military academy and there's a queue which seems to know no end of people who are waiting to be able to go and see the body of hugo chavez and pay their final respects the people are still very much in a state of shock obviously hugo chavez has been battling with cancer for a very long time at the moment there's a lot of confusion about what kind of coming days and weeks have to bring all of the. projects back chavez that was taken over the last fourteen years that he was in power benefited the most marginal marginalized sections of venezuelan society of course before hugo chavez came into power in one thousand nine hundred nine venezuela was one of the most unequal societies and that gap has been reduced because of a number of social programs that were bought ten by hugo chavez thanks to be immense oil wealth that this country has and prior to. chavez came to power in one thousand nine hundred nine much of that oil wealth was obviously going into the

pockets of a very small elite in venezuela. and which. supporters today say form the backbone essentially of the opposition that if that opposition they get into power then essentially the country would robust back to pre-one thousand nine eleven stream inequality obviously we know that there's going to be elections in the next thirty days and among chavez's supporters who are the people who have been out in the streets today that are very confident that the vice president nicolas maduro is going so comfortably win the next elections but of course you know that remains to be seen. for washington of the death of a good chavez will bring to an end a constant stream of criticism however professor of latin american studies miguel tinker believes while venezuela chooses a new leader it's in america's best interest to keep a low profile washington that would be we will advise to not get involved in venezuela the least i can say at this point is the better this is

a process we're going to see a very heated election and any intervention on the part of the u.s. even a misstep on obama would be taken as as hostility towards venezuela and would play into the into the elections in venezuela in this context but after the election of a new president i think that there are good conditions for an effort to reestablish relationships but i think we should understand that it's not just venezuela that had a has had difficulty with washington also ecuador has no ambassador from the u.s. bolivia has no investor from the u.s. and the wiki leaks reports really indicate how u.s. attempted to maneuver and to play country against country in latin america and it really provide a revealing look about u.s. foreign policy and how little it has changed are there from bush or obama. and top johnson from the bolshoi theatre has taken center stage in

a moscow court pawel dmitri chen girl attended a pretrial hearing now after admitting organizing an attack on the company's ballet director but he insisted he had no idea how severe it would be artie's tom botton is outside the bolshoi theater joining us now tom what came out of this hearing this morning. hi there it's a buying a well if you put it this way on march the sixteenth to meet you chain co was due in the bolshoi theater behind me to take part in another great performance there he will not be there he will be staying in detention and least until april the eighteenth a judge has ordered that's when the investigation will wrap up into this case of this acid attack. that was ordered by a pretrial at a pretrial detention hearing today and that was after mr ricci chain

co had said that he did admit a path. that he had committed a crime but he had to collude with his two accomplices and pay them about one and a half thousand dollars but he did not plead guilty to ordering them to throw acid in the face of surrogate fill in the direct the artistic director of the bolshoi theater i suppose many one day in answer to this question to what could have caused me to change or to actually organize an assault on fill in. yes there is a cloud of rumor circling around this case and there will be as long as it is as long as it goes on all of this stuff sort of starts to fall away from hard facts and it's a lot more based around rumor the police have said that as far as their

statement goes that there was a lot of animosity between surrogate filin and pavol demitra cenk over and that the this attack was likely due to tensions at work beyond that though there is widespread rumors that it may have to do with with. pavel dmitrichenko girlfriend also a famous dunster at the bolshoi. who has been turned down by surrogate fill in more than once for lead roles in ballets there and that may also may have had something to do with this with this fallout which resulted in this acid being thrown in surrogate fill ins face and tom do we do we know what is the state of sergei filin right now. at the moment in hospital in germany it was thought after the attack on january the seventeenth

when he received third degree burns to his face it was also thought that he may lose the sight in one of his eyes but has partially returned and it's hope that it will return fully he had previously said from hospital that he knew who his attacker who was behind this attack but didn't at that time mention that it has been established now that it was puzzled me to change that he was talking about . the cases clearly there's not even the trial is not even properly started yet at the moment that will take its time to unravel but all of this attention surrounded around these individuals and the bolshoi is making this theater and everyone connected with it famous for all the wrong reasons indeed they keeping us updated on that story outside the bolshoi theater. my belly and my colleague metra suspect

to our g.'s into the mendax heard martin andrews you says that such attacks and threats as sad reality show business. in the front of the feet you see a beautiful production but really the drama backstage is i think it's everyday life in a production house and that's what it is it's a factory from from the problems with the understudies from the problems because thing from the problems of of management who were dancers who are bitter about their faded career it's not an easy world to be in an obviously the the rivalries between companies with moscow and with the mets and the skull and they all want to be at the top of their game and tensions are always high and fraud and this is the first time we've had these sort of things happen right well this is certainly a very severe but there been other kind of scandals well this is this it's called drama for a reason if a year ago stravinsky's rite of spring was postponed and in fact one of the dances

that. she was actually said that she was threatened by various people and she she actually went over to canada in fear of her life in fear of that it would escalate and she was between the theatrical ballet world would escalate into violence and obviously as we see with the result. that happened in january it happens and this may reduce it down to a level of a cliche but we have this blockbuster movie black swan that claim that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan films nothing portman really highlights the you know the extremities and the tensions and especially with the with the management with the hiring in the firing its everyday life and sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but they reality is somewhat different. coming up later this hour a changing ta age of the british public grey's where we are those old school political leaders with growing supports at the polls for the so-called none of the

above qualities. and egyptian authorities struggle to control the city of faults aida away under arrest and nonstop anti-government protests of taking lives on the story after the break. and. these children are in that. they're serving a sentence just like their mother. or the ones born in prison. known must be for the crimes committed

by their parents. to babies on our teeth. download the official application to your cell phone choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch r.t. anytime anywhere. welcome back you're watching our team. eighty chips protesters have said streets of flame and ports and battle security forces and a challenge to the state's authority there demanding the release of prisoners six

people including three police men have died since the empress erupted at the weekend here's the latest from egypt from our correspondent belching the bottles raged through the night said largely focused around these key buildings these key government buildings in poor signage with protesters hireling mona talks to security forces the army again to try to intervene to assist the police force haven't been able to cry over dissent that is all i had to offer saturday's very contentious verdicts in the courts are you but full disasters happened last february basically we're going to see the betting on the final defendants in this trial in points i.e. they're very angry and trying to questions to death in the first round of this verdict we have the second round coming out with a lot of dissent will go to get hit also in cairo so we wait to see what's going to happen the government sure used to change the head of security in force are you off there this five days of fighting on the streets they are placing about with your

deputy and they all say president mohamed morsi is a board meeting money are used for military taking a course i need that it would draw police and i'm going to be very much between protesters and the police themselves the police actually very angry i was saying there that the situation for them is extremely violent and that maybe have good working conditions eight thousand police officers are currently reported being on strike in sinai in suicide they are actually calling for the current minister of interior to step down which is a lot of pressure on the current administration. the u.s. is dodging accusations and strains and killed up to nine people last month in pakistan saying pakistan's own military could be to blame phantom strikes are becoming a problem because it means people are being killed and no one knows who's to blame artie's marina but by reports. america has long been considered the leader of drone

warfare dominating the skies in the middle east africa and most recently here in the u.s. in pakistan the cia has reportedly carried out some three hundred thirty drone strikes since two thousand and four but a new problem involving the unmanned aerial weapon is emerging the problem of anonymous drones when two drone strikes killed nine people in pakistan's tribal belt last month is long was filed an official protest with the american embassy however u.s. officials say that washington has not carried out any attacks in pakistan since january instead u.s. officials have pointed their fingers to pakistan's air force it is impossible to know who executed the strikes but some experts believe that the situation can soon open up a pandora's box of anonymous drone strikes around the world it's letting us so to have an image of why the very nature of the knowledge that there are zero control

hundreds are often thousands of miles away this is one of the corrosive the dangers . of the liberation of the use of drones and there has. has led her way negative around whether the terms of normalising be used. across international borders as of last month at least fifty countries are reportedly using drones in the united states a new revelation has come to light the attorney general says that washington can offer lethal drone strikes on americans on american soil without trial and it testimony before the senate judiciary committee eric holder says that under extraordinary circumstances like september eleventh the president could order strikes to protect the homeland the same type of drone strikes that have been used around the world to fight the war on terror reporting from new york. party.

the attorney general's admission that a drone strikes could be used inside america angered some members of the senate republican rand paul launched an old school thirteen hour filibuster demanding they obama administration promise not to target its own people as a result democrats who control the chamber withholds today a vote on john brennan's nomination as new head of the cia. and the pilot has told controllers he recently sported an unmanned aircraft as he came in to land at j.f.k. international day of k international airport in new york author and academic moscow mason says there are now more drones than ever all available they pose new dangers and greater risk of being misused. report was made at this point is the information is not available as to it was it a model airplane was it a surveillance drone it was reported to be relatively small three four five six

feet in relatively small in terms of drones so at this point we don't have the information but what we do know with certainty is that the drugs which are it's a big point to be available not only to governments but to individuals and they will diversify in terms of their cheekiness and size are going to be made the u.s. air force has already announced is going to be making drones that are the size of an intercept that can assassinate people so these just technology is here. more news from around the world north korea is threatening the u.s. with a preemptive nuclear strike struck before a good comes from an unidentified official in pyongyang foreign ministry ahead of a u.n. security council vote on possible new sanctions against the republic the united nations is reaction to a nuclear test carried out by north korea in violation of international agreements tensions on the peninsula have been driven up by military drills announced by both

south and north korea. the prime minister of malaysia has rejected a cease fire with the with the philippine militants laying claim to a resource rich territories in the country's east but these twenty seven people have died at least men among them since the conflict erupted last friday when an armed group arrived from nearby philippines to take control of the area the incident has strained relations between the south east asian neighbors and prompt and speculation of a possible delay to the national election june later this month. the shape of british politics is shifting with the swathes of public a growing disillusioned with the policies of mainstream parties a recent by election saw the governing conservatives beaten to second place by you keep a party which has never held a student parliament and until now has been dismissed as a fringe movement artie's sorry for it as

a story. britain's political landscape is changing the stranglehold of the old three party system appears to be listening and it's opened the door to some colorful eternity with all the polls and percentages and opinions from politicians and pundits it can be hard to get a clear picture of exactly what's happening in british politics right now. looking . last week by election in eastley slow not three or four not five but team different candidates. shapes sizes and colors and all of them willing to take on the mainstream party to government in britain. and to turn it from. parading this democracy to bottom up genuine democracy where the larger all forces have to obey the will of the people they to disillusionment it seems is an all time high something that's backed up by recent polls and there's

certainly a bit of a perception that maybe the traditional parties aren't concentrating on some issues particularly around immigration that we know research is a big issue for many members of the german public puts can certainly be a hard punch to please it used to be that fed up voters would throw their backing behind the liberal democrats but not anymore. possibly for us as a party which is good but it doesn't mean the protest vote has had to go somewhere else and the one of the above party has the moment as you could many other parties using the sea change in public opinion as a blank canvas on which to stamp their mark. a protest vote. well let's face it that's a lot to protest why. you kept beating the conservatives to second place in eastley last week might have come as a shock to some but it's not the first time

a small party's stolen the show in a byelection last year in the respect party you had a sensational win when george galloway one of the profits from the labor of course gaining a bit of media coverage is one thing turning that attention into votes in a ballot box and winning seats is quite another something few of the smaller parties have yet been able to day but with the general election not say far off and with some polls putting almost half of the recent support the u.k. . it is coming from film a conservative eight is well you can perhaps understand why the prime minister's the kitchen at happiness right now sarah. london. up next an insight into how women and russia's prisons a struggle to maintain their families while serving time you know watching our t.v. station.

did any of you see darth vader is stormtroopers trying to make their way into the ukrainian justice ministry as part of a protest or probably a lot of you saw this fun viral video but how many people remember what exactly they wanted and what their protest demands were all about and probably not that many trust me i understand it using wacky protest tactics gets media attention and if you are pushing a cause that media attention is critical but when no one even gets what you want or why you're in that wacky costume it doesn't help there seems to be like almost a protest a culture and language like you see people protesting there so satisfied with themselves in their costumes and silly gimmicks but if your protest is actually

aimed at people in power then the how is it going to cure cost of goods with the opinion of heartless bureaucrats sitting in some soulless office again media attention is great but if you want to be taken seriously wearing a rainbow wig and thawing while fighting for your rights doesn't seem to send the right message but that's just my opinion. well i wouldn't say that his life is difficult that he's deprived of something he has everything that he needs he gets medical care and he's given an upbringing he's studied well and what's more his mother is with him i haven't robbed him in.