hostage as human shields by syrian rebels in the golan heights. i thought bolshoi theater don so you admitted ordering an attack on the road to cigarette to alpha company says he didn't know how acid would be used in the assault he'll remain in custody until at least mid april. and venezuela its late leader or good chavez and considers how to fill the political vacuum and uncertainty he left behind. for international news and analysis this is r.t. i'm 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 are 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 paula slayer has the latest. all twenty one you 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 you and 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 vests you emptying as human shields now the u.n. has of course condemned 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 or 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 its 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 the 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 revocations of increased foreign backing for 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 i 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 the. 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 is 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 all of these 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 aids 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 it really have no role in the syrian conflict whatsoever. they rebase analysts kemel was me says countries all mean 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 have 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 the value peacekeeper is actually been taken hostage. a top dancer from the bolshoi theatre has taken center stage in a moscow courts pawel dimitri chang go attended a pretrial hearing meeting organizing an attack on the company's ballet director but he insisted he had no idea how severe it would be early i got the latest from marty's tom blanton who is at the bolshoi in central moscow. on march the sixteenth pavel dmitrichenko 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 possibly longer 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 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 what could have caused me to change or to actually organize an assault on philip 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 pavel dmitrichenko 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 me to change those girlfriend also a famous dancer at the bolshoi who has been turned down by surrogate fill in more than once for lead roles in ballets there and that that may also may have had something to do with this fallout which resulted in this acid being thrown. flynn's face the trials will take its time to unravel but all of this attention surrounded around these individuals and the bolshoi is making this and everyone

connected with it famous for all the wrong reasons. earlier my colleague meant treasure speak to our tease entertainment expert martin engineers who says that such attacks and threat 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 of management who were dances they were bitter about their faded career it's not an easy world to be in an obviously the the rivalries between companies within 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 in fraud and this isn't the first time we've had these sort of things happen right well this is certainly a very severe there but other kind of scandals what 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 . she was actually said that she was threatened by various people and she's she actually went over to canada in fear of her life in fear of that it would escalate beast and shins 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 cloud that's absolutely what it's like with the black swan film the three portman it really highlights the you know the extremities and the tensions and especially with the with the management with the hiring in the firing it's everyday life for this sometimes it can seem like a wonderful place to work but at the reality is somewhat different then as well as seven days of mourning following the death of its charismatic leader chavez throng

to the streets after he died on tuesday after a long battle with cancer isn't fallon a producer for artie's video agency ruptly reports. caracas today is the 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 literally thousands of people have gathered outside the military academy and visit 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 that chavez it 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 and his way that was one of the most unequal societies are now that gap has been reduced because of a number of social programs that were born 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 was a big 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 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 the death of as will bring to an end

a constant stream of criticism however professor of latin american studies miguel take us a lot of 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 they 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 embassador 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 either from bush or obama. coming up later this hour on a changing time the british public place a wary of its old school political leaders going to support at the polls for the so-called none of the above parties. been living this way since the seventeenth century. during choosing strict. their communities on the silicon. they clearly distinguish between their own and the alien.

and guard their families and think treasure. we speak your language as anybody will and out of the. news programs and documentaries and spanish matters to you breaking news a little turn to angles couldn't stories. for you here to. enjoy it all to spanish find out more visit i two on the all tito it's called. welcome back you're watching our team it egypt protesters have said streets aflame

in port and battle security forces and a challenge to the state's authority they demanded the release of prisoners six people including three police men have died since unrest erupted at the weekend is the latest from egypt from all correspondent belching. the battles raged through the night said largely focused around these key buildings these key government buildings in poor sayit with protesters hireling mullets office security forces the army again to try to intervene to assist the police force and haven't been able to quell with the sense that this is all a heads all for saturday's very contentious verdicts in the courts are you but will disasters happened last february basically we're going to see the betting on the final defendants in this trial imports are either very angry as twenty questions to death in the first round of this verdict we have the second round coming out with a lot of dissent we 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 course i eat off there this five days of fighting on the streets they are placed in by with the deputy and they also president mohamed morsi is supposedly being money military taking over for saeed and it would draw at least as i'm guessing very much between protesters and the police themselves the police are actually very angry as well by saying there that the situation for them is extremely violent and that maybe have good working conditions eight thousand police officers are currently reporter being on strike in sinai in suicide they are actually calling for the current minister of interior to to step down which is a lot of pressure on the current administration the u.s. is dodging accusations is showing skills up to nine people last month in pakistan same pakistan's military could be to blame phantom strikes on becoming

a problem because it means people are being killed and no one knows who's to blame not his marrying up on land 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 islamorada 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 lending itself 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 and dangerous impacts of the liberation of the use of drones and there has the united states government has led her way and negative around a lot of the terms of normalizing the use of drone attacks 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 authorize lethal drone strikes on americans on american soil without trying 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. around the world to fight the war on terror according to new york bring up or not partake. and alitalia pilot has told controllers he recently spotted an unmanned aide to as he came into land at j.f.k. international airport in new york author and academic mark mason says now more drones are never all available they pose new dangers and add great risk of being misused. the report was made at this point as the information is not available as to it was a data model airplane was it a surveillance drone it was reported to be relatively small three four five six feet didn't really to be small in terms of drones so this point we don't have the information but what we do know with certainty is that drugs which you need before and to be available not only to governments but to individuals and they will

diversify in terms of their search mission in size are going to be made us air forces already you know this is going to be making drones that are the size of the insect that can assassinate people so these technology is here. right some news just in from it's a view where a court has sentence of former prime minister silvio berlusconi to one year in prison he's been charged with leaking the tape continence of a confidential phone call related to a banking scandal back in two thousand and five we'll have more details on the story as soon as we get it here on our team for more news on from around the world now north korea is threatening the u.s. with a preemptive nuclear strike the stronger rhetoric that comes from pyongyang foreign ministry i head of the u.n. security council vote on possible new sanctions against the republic the united nations is reacting 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 ceasefire with the philippine militants laying claim to resolder rich territories in the country's east over fifty people have died at least men among them since the conflict erupted last month when an armed group arrived from nearby philippines to take control of the area the incident strained relations between the southeast asian neighbors and could delay plans for a national election late to this month. the shape of british politics is shifting with swathes of the public growing disillusioned a 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 seat in parliament and until now has been dismissed as a fringe of movement. has the 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 turnitin 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 as not looking. last week by election in eastley so not three or four not five but full team differing candidates of all shapes sizes and colors and all of them willing to take on the mainstream party to recourse government in britain. structure 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 is a big issue for many members of the german public puts can certainly be a hard bunch to please it used to be that fed up voters whipped through 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 has had to go somewhere else and the one of the above party have a moment as you keep many of the parties. using the sea change in public opinion is a blank canvas on which to stamp their mark. but let's face it there's a lot to. why. you keep 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 and the respect party had a sensational win when george galloway one 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 a general election not say far off and with some polls putting almost half of the recent support the ukip is coming from former conservative voters well you can perhaps understand why the prime minister's not the picture of happiness right now third party. given to the international space station could now take just six hours new thoughts a flight plan may become standard for all missions by the end of the yeah. he has the details the thirty fifth mission to the isis flying off to space in about three

weeks time in an unprecedented flight which will take eight times less usually does and the man to talk us through this flight is one of the members of the crew chris cassidy from the united states the american astronaut many thanks for joining us and star so you know if it's my center here my first question to you this is the first flight which would take six hours instead of two days as it usually has been for for many years now how is this technically possible for you tell us well you know practically our actions are essentially the same as what we do. today profile normally will go to. we haven't had a period of time on that second day where we just monitor the vehicle and sort of do a few burns that we call them to set us up for a run over the next day today and i mean on our mission i'll happen in a tight sequence of six hours we have here is about forty five minutes or so in between these maneuvers where there's a little bit of a downtime but technically that's how it's possible we just have to launch there's

tighter constraints on where the space station can be on launch time on it and on a typical profile the space station has a little more leeway and where it can be at the time of the launch we work tremendously well as a crew impossibles tremendous experience like you just alluded to and he shares that experience with the two of us and together as a crew we really work well and and particularly with this short profile you need to be in sync and. making sure all the actions are happening in when they need to and we back each other up and make sure that often happens when appropriate time so i'm really happy to be with them a very big pro program there six months or up there there is for expression spacewalks will have probably to us spacewalks and many visiting vehicles delivering cargo will be arriving i personally involved with several medical experiments particularly those associated with bone health and bone how to prevent bone loss thank you very much. next up with abby martin with breaking the set.

did you see darth vader and stormtroopers trying to make their way into the ukrainian justice ministry as part of a protest well 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 probably not that many trust me i just did that 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 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. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous. i mean. i know that i'm. really not so. very so closely. worst for the. white house or for the. radio guy and four minutes from a click. away what we're about to give you never seen anything like this i'm cold.