the. u.n. says children being increasingly used as fighters and human shields in the syrian crisis by both the rebels and government forces. speaking out in secretly recorded audio from court bradley manning reveals why he sent thousands of u.s. classified documents to wiki leaks you take a look at how it was case good effect whistleblower. china's new leader officially takes the reins of power with priorities to boost defense spending to make the country one of the world's military giants. it's noon in moscow i'm matt trezeguet good to have you with us here on r t our top

story an increasing number of children being recruited by both rebels and pro-government forces in the bloody conflict in syria according to un investigators and charity activists as the bloody crisis in syria is approaching its second anniversary this week the u.n. again warning the conflict is far from a simple fight between rebels and government forces reporter of delamont was eenie has the details from damascus. the conflict is getting more complicated we have seen many many phenomena to guarding the children being involved in this crisis we have seen many children eighteen and. children in the school ages we're going to destroy and they don't have any other thing that we could done sometime paid for paid for that paid in one of the most important example of this was the video that was produced or let's say on you tube something like a month a month two months ago to child of seven years old by having cutting the head of the office in a pool and we have many reports about position position of force especially from

a group in syria they are recruiting people are recruiting children between eleven years old and fifteen years old enough to fight with this extremist group against the government extremist groups getting more control over that evolution we have vetted the mockable. like that in some city and soldiers in iraq and we have also some areas where the extremists are the group trying to implement and. somebody has openly people i'm going to leave and implementing all the all the traditional loads of inside the cities russia says any attempt by foreign governments to arm rebels in the syrian conflict would be illegal the warning came as britain indicated it might be prepared to bypassing the e.u. arms embargo on syria to help the opposition fighting the assad regime as the number of deaths in the civil standoff grows by the day so does foreign involvement

as artie's maría an ocean of reports. the syrian uprising the last of the arab spring sprang up in march two thousand and eleven by august of that year when in another arab spring country libya colonel gadhafi had lost defacto power it was already clear who was next in the firing line this morning president obama called on assad to step aside as the from key many others would soon echo the same rhetoric is time for bashar to go to the message to president assad is it is time for transition it is time for you to go because the regime of bashar al assad must come to an end we ask the regime to step down. has to go through syrian forces fighting assad immediately felt encouraged the train was in motion and a two year journey later had the destabilization on syria has been a us nato project from day one they have lined up all of their allies in

a very ugly effort to overturn the government of syria and to create instability at emory and. so perhaps america did indeed pull the others in to then pull itself out two years on washington is criticised for its failure to bring things to head in syria motor home and abroad we are providing vital humanitarian assistance for my it is terry an assistance doesn't stop bombs the rebels who have suffered losses as heavy as the military now see they feel betrayed by the us we did not get any real action on the ground from the united nation from the united states speculation is brewing that washington is starting to view the assad regime as the lesser of two evils preferable to radical jihadist groups the obama administration although there are levels and levels of what you have what governments do basically it is it has been interested in seeing. there is

a way out of this mess but in reality america is still in it white house decision last month may have ruled out arming the rebels an idea backed by the pentagon cia and state department but the country is doing little to stop others doing just that washington was silent when another made to member turkey asked for the arms embargo to be lifted nor did protest when the arab league gave the go ahead for weapons supplies and more recently when the u.k. said it could veto the use arms ban the us offered no objections everyone knows that. if it were to tell saudi arabia or qatar or turkey or whoever of its friends there that they should stop it well everyone knows that but he would prevail instead the u.s. has decided to watch from a safe distance played a crucial role in starting the americans can't fix this problem syrians have to fix

this problem is genuinely surprising after two years seventy thousand deaths a million people displaced tough sanctions imposed on syria dozens of countries within nato and the arab league condemning our side and urging him to go and after so much money and weaponry invested to achieve this to hear america's ambassador to syria saying that only syrians can fix their problems perhaps there was a time when syrians could have resolved things on their own but pressure from the outside has been relentless and now it could simply be too late for anybody to fix this race national party. it's a story worthy of a hollywood blockbuster featuring a ukrainian journalist held hostage by syrian bandits a fifty million dollar ransom and a daring escape take a listen. at some point i realized that you thought i'd be killed by the army is that was held in a location from where the bandits were firing rockets be killed by the rebels an

exclusive interview with our coach you have a says she had to cross fifteen kilometers of not mr rein on foot before finding shelter more from a journalist account at r t v dot com. it's. seen by many as one of the world's most renowned whistleblowers but an enemy of the state by the u.s. government now soldier bradley manning can be heard in his own words explaining why he sent hundreds of thousands of classified documents to wiki leaks in two thousand and ten and a new lead to audio recording from his court martial manning accuses the u.s. army of not valuing human life and says he wanted to provoke a debate about the country's foreign policy or he's got a cheeky on his more. nobody was allowed to make recordings of bradley manning's pretrial tribunals at the military court in february but someone did it and the

freedom of the press foundation released mr manning's testimony in its entirety in this hour long testimony bradley manning in his own words explains how and why he leaked all those documents many of which revealed how the u.s. government covered up civilian casualties in human rights abuses during the wars in iraq and afghanistan he served as an intelligence analyst in the military and had access to all those documents the biggest leak in history let's take a listen to just one episode where bradley manning explains why he leaked the video of the patchy helicopter gunning down boisterous journalists in baghdad and then targeting those who showed up to rescue the wounded including a van with children and that footage shocked the world. it was i mean that's a. hero. and. it was a very huge. point. for. me

. it seems right now is bradley manning who is the and under the magnifying glass of the government very serious charges lined up against him here is a weapon. he was there at the hearing when bradley manning delivered this testimony you heard him you saw him did you get a sense of what he would have done the same had he known how this would turn out you know i don't think bradley manning or anyone else would have known that by leaking this information of what had been three years of pretrial punishment and detention that's something that i think even the u.s. government saw however i do think that he knew that these documents were very very substantial and in fact in two thousand and ten he said that these were some of the most significant documents of our time last month during his testimony he says he still believes that the iraq war logs and the afghan war logs. are perhaps the two most important documents of our generation let's let's talk about the chilling effect that the whole trial will have on the whistle blower's study happening on

exactly do you think anybody ever is going to do anything like this again having mr manning example in mind i mean faces life in prison people are going to be more hesitant not only does he face life in prison but he could face the death penalty and if the u.s. government said they were going to pursue that other people other people who are going to try to seek for more open transparency are going to be more hesitant because they know that this could mean three years of being put away in a child without ever being taken to trial on the other hand i think i think p.f.c. manning did what he did because he knew that these atrocities need to be exposed and i think other people are going to do that maybe not during our generation but in years to come it's going to happen absolutely thank you thank senator thank you very much bradley manning has been held in u.s. military custody for around three years now and the un special rapporteur on torture has formally accused u.s. government of cold the grading treatment towards bradley manning including but not limited to keeping him locked up for twenty three hours a day in solitary confinement for eleven months in a row bradley manning pleaded guilty to ten out of twenty two charges brought

against him just under those charges he faces twenty years in jail but the prosecution may still pursue the twelve remaining charges including the most serious one one of aiding the enemy and that one carries a punishment of life in prison and the big question for many remains whether it was the enemy that bradley manning aided or the public which has the right to know what their government is doing in their name in washington i'm going to check out. we can be exact of those clark strictly things meringues actions couldn't harm national security. bradley manning has just been nominated for his third nobel peace prize meanwhile he's being charged with aiding the enemy that doesn't look very good for the obama administration or the government anyway obviously was not motivated to aid the enemy to harm the u.s. he made that very clear he chose cables and videos that had no national security concerns and he released them so that we could have this

conversation it's a disgrace every day that he is in jail. it's a disgrace to our military it's a disgrace to the promises the obama promised in two thousand and eight and archie dot com ross what you think about bradley manning's persecution are prosecution and testimony here is how the vote is stacking up so far with those figures half think bradley manning has become a scapegoat in the u.s. why whistleblowers a little more than a third column all martyr for the cause of free speech just seven percent actually think he's guilty of high treason and about the same think he's a naive idealist but what do you think like to hear your opinion log on to r.t. dot com and cast your vote.

china's new leader officially taking the reins of power as beijing completes of the long process of a once in a decade transition the world keeping a close eye on who will lead the rising global player with a new leadership already calling for a boost to military spending this image a battle for influence in asia between china and the u.s. after washington a shift in his priorities to the region and what's been called its asia pivot as we see here the u.s. has been boosting its military presence there but unsurprisingly the strategy is making china increasingly nervous beijing based correspondent shannon fed sat says there's also an ideological rivalry between china and the west. i wouldn't say it's a competition yet militarily but certainly a canonical a and to some extent in terms of ideology and ideas in terms of of how political system should be and liberalization there are a lot of competing ideas right now between the west in between age and china specifically china's economy is growing at a very very impressive rate and the economies of us other brics nations and so

china provides leadership in a certain way and china as well as their trade relationships with brazil with i'm african nations with russia and india it's very very important and so i think it'll be very interesting to see going forward china of course right now in some ways this feeling the world's economy and if it's going to continue to do that it has to make this transition from an economy based on many facts to an economy based on consumption that's one of the biggest challenges for china's new leadership in the years ahead. well the u.s. and china are in just sizing each other sizing up to each other militarily the two powers also moving closer to a digital conflict after president obama promised beijing tough talk over alleged cyber attacks is the u.s. military is creating special units to launch offenses in cyberspace in response to further attacks or. reports on the digital conflict. a bigger threat than al qaeda this is how washington officials now describe the legit cyber

attacks coming from china u.s. stop it delegates officials now rank the threat of computer large foreign of sorts higher than terrorism transnational organized crime and weapons of mass destruction for the first time since nine eleven washington has long accuse china of stealing military secrets and intellectual property from hacking president obama's facebook page to cyber attacks against u.s. flagship media like the new york times but a recent u.s. congress report warns of going beyond online vandalism chinese penetration of defense system threaten the u.s. military's readiness and ability to operate it said that could include u.s. satellites weapons start getting systems navigation computers and many more but are the chinese really the aggressors here as washington wants everyone to believe and is the united states really an innocent victim china's ministry of national defense claims sixty three percent of the one hundred forty four thousand monthly cyber attacks that it recorded last year came from the u.s. based be addresses while washington claims its military cyber programs are there

only to defend the country's borders but the stuxnet virus signaled a new aggression experts have no doubt it was created by israel and the united states to derail iran's nuclear program both american and chinese leaders continue to shake hands and speak of fruitful cooperation at official meetings such real world optimism is undermined if not totally negated when it comes to cyberspace and given reports of mutual cyber attacks intensifying in the last six seven months as well as beijing changing the man at the wheel it seems that only in competition between the superpowers will remain fractious if not downright dangerous stay with us here on our team or still to come after a short break. he is he believes it's. easy.

to meet. its. victims multiply here each day. it's very profitable to invest in colombia with the very profitable also it is a very high return on investment. in good knowing that he has said that i've been working in this area for thirty years and i've always had to pay the armed groups that when they bought me to buy this i knew that not a manager's or change their name and strategy but just tell the same murderous. high ranking suspects give no comment very upset on that mr president goes to. the president today and. both the media. and i won't give an interview

i'm sorry but no. investigation is a dead. man up and says stick and stop your bullshit and keep quiet or else you'll suffer the consequences. believe that nutshell your bodyguards to watch themselves because the same goes for them. blood rivers from gold cinch i've never heard of such a case as ours are so much money and gold has been stolen for so many years. for all the gold in colombia on our t.v. . do we speak your language. not a day in. these programs and documentaries in spanish as to you. use a little tuna to angle keep these stories. spanish

. visit. technology innovation. developments around russia we. covered. the catholic church has a new leader argentine cardinal jorge mario bergoglio has become the first pope ever from the americas and the first from outside europe for more than a thousand years the election was greeted by tens of thousands gathered at st

peter's square in the vatican take a look. right crime scene after cardinals voted for a fifth round during the second day of the conclave will be remembered as one of the fastest in years the group had to choose a new leader for more than a billion catholics worldwide after the previous pope benedict the sixteenth step down but he's peter all over has more on the new pontiff and what his leadership might bring for the church. seventy six year old told him out he. wasn't one of the main names that were at the top of the list because there simply wasn't any names at the top of the list going into this conclave for the first time in a while quite a while ago but he really knew who was the front runners but he came out is the man who took two thirds of the vote by the cardinals and it's taken the name of francis the first now in his own country of argentina he has been referred to as

a modernizer but then you have to really look at the church in argentina which is one of the most conservative in that part of the world of latin america and anywhere else you would certainly put francis into the category of a catholic conservative on the subject of gay marriage and adoption by gay parents he has been incredibly outspoken in the past certainly these are testing times for the church of rome there are a series of sexual abuse scandals that are rumbling on just as celebrations are taking place right now in st peter's square we're looking particularly at one of the most senior catholics the head of the catholic church in scotland in fact who resigned and didn't turn up for calm conclave not to want to draw attention to himself after accusations of. an appropriate sexual behavior were leveled against him there's also scandals in the united states that have come out regarding the payment of money to victims of abuse of sexual abuse by catholic priests in the

california area and there's also on the very first day of the conclave was taking place anti mafia police in italy while they raided. properties belonging to some of those who were taking place in the conclave because corruption scandals have dogged the vatican in recent times thinking particularly about the just who the vatican bank is being dealing with asians that they were certainly. from some of the clients of the vatican's bank there so corruption sexual abuse also the issue of mold nice thing to church there have been campaign is still talking about the church accepting gay marriage accepting perhaps a change only celibacy laws for priests and perhaps even welcoming women priests into the catholic church however as i said as a well dyed in the world could serve to when it comes to matters of the catholic church i very much don't think we're going to be seeing too many of those issues

regarding huge sweeping changes of how the church of rome deals with the everyday life of those who apostle of the it's ministry rebuilding the churches reputation after the recent scandals certainly not the only challenge pope francis has ahead of him the church now facing aggressive competition from islam as you can see here the faith spreading across europe much faster than the christian church gets new members the number of muslims has grown by an estimated ninety percent in recent years the number of christians are growing by a mere five percent by two thousand and thirty the growth of the muslim population expected to surpass one hundred fifty percent winning back there and it will be one of the most daunting tasks for the new pontiff we've got more on the church crisis on our website including all the theories as to why pope benedict the sixteenth step down and the vatican leak scandal all that and more a click away on our t.v. dot com. right now to some other stories making headlines across the globe furious

clashes between protesters and police and multiple arrests mark the night in the new york district of brooklyn for a third consecutive evening more than one hundred rallied in the streets voicing anger over police brutality after the killing of a black sixteen year old by police officers authorities maintain the dead teenager was the one who pointed a gun at the officers protesters accuse the police of murder. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is like could party and its to negotiating partners have reached a deal on a new government now yahoo emerged victorious but weak in different january's parliamentary vote and had to concede on several points with the centrist yes the tea party and the pro settler jewish home party coalition signing ceremony is expected later today with a new government likely to take office next week before a president before a visit by u.s. president barack obama. militant group the kurdistan workers' party is releasing six turkish soldiers along with a police officer and

a local official after holding them captive for two years the move came as part of renewed peace talks aimed at ending three decades of us still a deal between the p.k. k. and author of the movement demands turkey recognize kurdish identity and its new constitution and release hundreds of imprison activists more than forty thousand people have been killed in fighting between the two sides so far. the rally broke out in brussels prior to a meeting of the european household a group of demonstrators stormed the offices of several banks and unsuccessfully tried to enter a european commission building twenty seven e.u. heads of state as gathered in belgium's capital to strike a balance between the need for austerity cuts but also public investment in the union's member states. and after a break a look at the far from glittering side of gold in colombia stay with us here on r.t. . a

un investigator ben emmerson has decided to not let the sins of the recent past go he's demanding that the u.s. government release documents about the cia's program over addition and secret detention of suspected terrorists and recent believe that there is now credible evidence that shows that cia black sites were used to extradite suspected terrorists with neither charges nor access to a lawyer you know nothing says protect a democracy like snagging people in foreign countries even charging them with a crime this huge investigator may have good intentions but the thing is that no matter how much he and his u.n. pals urge the u.s. to prosecute officials connected with torture or expose classified information they really have no power to do anything if you haven't noticed the un is very happy to section and punish certain countries bernie if you out there naive enough to think

that they'll sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop the human rights violators in washington not a chance the un really has no business meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries but they do it all the time but there is a zero percent chance that the un will stand up to the bad behavior from the us government no matter how much its investigators whine and plead and beg but that's just my opinion. choose your language. make it with know if the material presented a still some other. treatments that is the consensus you can. choose the opinions that invigorating two of mine. choose the stories that in high life choose the access to your office.

for the past ten years colombia has welcomed foreign capital with open arms in his turn the new president juan manuel santos places mining at the center of his development model in bogota be independent expert coolio fiero denounces an incestuous relationship between the multinationals and the colombian political class. no i thought about it it isn't just an impression it's a reality that there exists a very strong link between these companies and the political elite that they serve the interests of the big multinationals that marked in red on the map of the country the land requested for mining concessions of vast area the multinationals bag the major part of the mining rights about seventy percent of the andes is tenure and all covered by requests from mining concessions well you know if they

when we see that it's easy to imagine that we're all going to find ourselves expropriated where are we going to grow the economy and people's food yet what's going to happen to our regions if that's so that it's a completely irrational gamble that. the mining permits are already allocated but the big companies aren't yet mining beyond east gold. the largest reserves lie in the heart of the cordillera mountains where the revolutionary armed forces of colombia the fark operate at war with the colombian government for over fifty years no one can penetrate this region without their authorisation with the help of divers go betweens we've established contact with the four guerrilla fighters they've authorized us to travel through their zone while waiting to receive us. the local economy is based on cocoa plant growing these small green leaves.