the u.n. says the children are being used as fighters by both government and opposition forces in syria while calls are to arms or rebels are from abroad grows louder despite international involvement. is more into austerity rage in the euro with a bloc why did day all the action aimed at stamping out a budget cuts that are blamed for an epidemic of unemployment these are live pictures coming to us from our video crews who are filming the protests. to boldly say what no one has said before bradley manning is heard claiming he became a whistleblower because of the u.s. army's blood loss on leaked audio from his court hearing. also a new a leader comes to paul in china beijing and washington struggle for dominance in

asia and in looks set to heat up. at six pm here in the russian capital you lie with us on r.t. i'm to one with say it's good to have you with us child soldiers are fighting on both sides of the bloody conflict in syria that's according to un investigators and charities as a crisis in syria approaches its second anniversary this week the u.n. is warning that this is not a simple battle between good rebels and an evil regime reporter. has this update from tabasco sauce. the conflict is getting more complicated we have seen many many phenomena regarding the children being involved in this crisis we have seen many

children like eighteen and these children in the school ages where their school they were destroyed and they don't have any other thing they've done some time paid for paid for their paid and 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 month two months ago for a child of seven years old by heading cutting the head of military officers in an airport 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 in order to fight with their with this extremist group or against the government extremist groups getting more control over that evolution we have a very remarkable report by al qaida of attacking some syrian soldiers in iraq and we have also some areas where the extremist group under guard the group trying to

implement ischemic should be our laws in some areas of and indeed live and implementing all the all the traditional laws of al-qaeda inside the cities. russia says any attempt by foreign governments to arm rebels in the conflict would be a breach of international law that follows britain's admission that it's ready to ignore the e.u. arms embargo to help the rebels find president assad and as artie's maria financial explains foreign involvement is increasing all the time. 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 in 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 if one key many others would soon echoed the same rhetoric is time for bashar to go to the message to president assad

is it is time for transition it is totally 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 in syria has been a u.s. 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 every and. so perhaps america did indeed pull the others in to then pull itself out two years on washington is criticized for its failure to bring things to head in syria motor home and abroad we are providing vital humanitarian assistance for my it is here in assistance doesn't stop bombs the

rebels who have suffered losses as heavy as the military now see they feel betrayed by the u.s. 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 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 countries do 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 of a 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 we 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 condemn in assad 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. now it's a story worthy of a hollywood blockbuster it features a ukrainian journalist held hostage by bandits in syria a fifteen million fifty million dollars ransom and a daring escape. at some point i realized that you thought i'd be killed by the army as i was held in a location from where the bandits were firing rockets or be killed by the rebels in an exclusive interview with r.t. on hot across navarre said she had to cross fifteen kilometers up mountainous terrain on foot before finding shelter find a role for the journalist only account at our teeth. a day of action involving some of the largest trade unions in europa has begun in

brussels coinciding with a two day e.u. summit the protesters want to see real action to tackle drastic jumpshot edges across the bloc a situation made worse by deep all-star c. cuts let's not talk to polaroid forney founder of the brussels a base a c. i.p.i. foundation a think tank mr a foreigner we have protesters demanding one thing and governments insisting on the opposite why is there such a disconnect between the people and the authorities where the problem arises with the creation of the euro zone so the euro as a common currency which was the son. of the master treaty should in the. digest. lead by the public to the point that today we see this disconnect in fact the treaty came out as a sort of. a sort of

financial driven. since it's a. the public european forces and the interest of the population have been widened to a point of no return as we see today hear opinions have been protesting for more than two years now what's the protests the rallies today what are they going to achieve certainly the brothers. the governments to change some of their policies but governments are not. the same line so we see that the reason tendency from some interest including france for instance in others that would like to see. a sort of more softer up the cation of the rooms governing the euro on

the other hand we have germany doesn't want to listen to this so therefore. the situation will the continue to worsen with increasing protests from the population and there is. quite a lot of young people who are taking part in this protest today saying that they are unemployed and they want that to change we have heard concerns that an employment has that continues and the instability that it might cause my dramatic allies the public how much danger is that from happening. unemployment for the young people is increasing very high because of the austerity measures the measures not only take the measure that is know by. governments or to maintain the euro zone as a tease with the current. the danger is that the

discontent of the younger population with transformed into political opposition to europe in some cases we already see it in the sovereign countries but it is open starting with germany as we know there is a new biography that is strongly against the euro zone so. the rules governing the common currency have to be changed. those rooms were issued twenty years ago you could talk to different contests and today he says to be revised at most there are forty you've watched the eurozone crisis evolve and i'm fold from the beginning why does europe stand now wait do do you think is it going to get better before it gets worse so is this is this the worst he can ever get. i do not see yes the light at the end of the parable as somebody shoots were saying

in the past months. the european central man he's doing the outmost under the current rules to maintain the situation in a sort of stable a boot of the other hand. i do not see the possibility of changing the euro rooms without a clear political majority of the congress out of the major member states for the time being we are quite far. poller a foreigner analyst and founder of the brussels braises sepia foundation a think tank thank you very much now just to remind our viewers at home that what you're watching here is actually live pictures of some of that brussels much right now you can see a live stream all over there those pictures from our. news agency ruptly on our website and our t.v. dot com you can follow that live stream there. now and

already a recording of bradley manning's court testimony has been leaked by his supporters the u.s. soldier is heard saying he became a whistleblower to provoke debate about u.s. foreign policy and accuses the american army of bloodlust he faces life behind bars for handling thousands of classified documents to wiki leaks in two thousand and ten and he's gannett she can has been following the story and has more for us. nobody was allowed to make recordings of bradley manning's pretrial tribunals of the military court in february but someone did 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 apache helicopter gunning down boisterous journalists in baghdad and then targeting those who showed up to rescue the wounded including a band with children and that footage shocked the world. it was i mean that's a. hero. and. it was a very huge not. just. for. you know. 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 in the song 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 would have been three years of pretrial punishment and detention that's something that i think even the u.s. government thought 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 just talk about the chilling effect that the whole trial will have on the whistle blower's story happening on exactly do you think anybody ever is going to do anything like this again having many 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 we're 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 chair without ever being taken to trial on the other hand i think i think you have seen 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 sandra 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 called the grating 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 churches 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. find still

coming up a new post old problems the sex abuse scandals corruption within the catholic church and shrinking congregations are just some of the challenges the first latin american pontiff will have to cope with. and palestinian president mahmoud paces for his visit to russia says u.n. recognition has been the stalled middle east peace. can get a new lease of life one that after the break. choose your language. fully recover though if you're going to. choose the consensus. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories but in. truth access to.

download. location so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television or it just doesn't work so now with your mobile device you can watch your t.v. anytime anywhere. welcome back you're watching our t.v. read the new live in to us stole the middle east peace process is the order of the

day in moscow where vladimir putin has met his palestinian come to putte mahmoud abbas is on his first official visit to russia since becoming president of the palestinian states in the wake of a u.n. vote late last yeah it we are going to what has been following the meeting. this is mahmoud abbas his first visit to moscow since last november the united nations general assembly voted to offer a few years of our time to that of a non member observer state of the movie essentially recognize palestine is right for statehood and has widely been considered as part of the basis for a permanent peace settlement and of course this is going to be one of the major issues to be discussed between the palestinian and russian leader this is coming ahead of the forthcoming visit by president obama to palestine and there's also happening on the backdrop of a notable coolness inhalations between washington and tel aviv of course president obama has brought you a new fresh faces into his new administration during his second term and some of

these faces have been notably if not at this empty israel then definitely not quite as friendly as the previous administrations have been for example john kerry on his first trip abroad in his capacity as secretary of state has not paid a visit to israel that was noted by many and of course there's also chuck hagel who has openly spoken about israel has said that israel is on its way to create apartheid and was generally regarded as an anti israeli official in the u.s. administration so it's these issues which are obviously dominating the israel palestine possible a peaceful settlement in china. has big been formally con for him does the new president completing a lengthy transition process is already announces first priorities as leader tackling corruption then narrowing the wealth gap at home and boosting the military budget the plans come amid you as efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia a tendency that has pulled beijing on urge washington has been expanding its

military reach in the region as you can see there on the map beijing based correspondent shannon vend send some insight on the rivalry between the two powers . i wouldn't say it's a competition yet militarily but certainly i can honestly and to some extent in terms of ideology and ideas in terms of how political system should be and liberalization there are a lot of competing ideas right now between the west and between nation and china specifically china's economy is growing at a very very impressive rate and the economies of these other brics nations and so trying to provide leadership in a certain way and china as well as their trade relationships with brazil with african nations with russia and india is very very important and so i think it'll be very interesting to see going forward china of course right now in some ways is fueling 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 fracturing to an economy based on

consumption that's one of the biggest challenges for china's new leadership in the years ahead. while the poet games between the u.s. and china are also playing out in the digital world washington has left out of beijing accusing chinese hackers of most of minding attacks on american cyber security. investigated whether the us is really the victim here. 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 accused 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 systems threaten the u.s. military's readiness and ability to operate it said that could include u.s. satellites weapons start getting systems never gave 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. roman catholics have a new leader. now pope francis has become the first pontiff abba from the americas and the first from outside europe in a thousand a year as the seventy thinks eight year old was elected by a conclave of cardinals after five rounds of vote. the search for a man to lead more than a billion catholics worldwide began when benedict the sixteenth resigned one of the main goals for the new pope will be rebuilding the church's reputation following a spate of scandals now a string of child sex abuse cases where the most damaging let's look at just some of the numbers here the largest number of reported cases of children being abused by priests in the united states on allegations were made against more than four thousand priests and deacons and more than a billion dollars has been paid out to the victims in settlements in ireland which

comes a second in these grim statistics the church had been turning a blind eye to the allegations for over thirteen yes and in germany two thirds of the diocese aware legibly involved in sex abuse scandals and austria an example of how these scandals have led to people's disillusionment with the church almost ninety ninety thousand students have deserted the church in just one yeah now italian journalist from call livia an expert in vatican affairs and he says that a reaching out to believers in europe at a time of economic crisis will be one of the greatest challenges for the new pope. problem is the. poverty nobody going to comes from south america or this very sensitive area before this for no progress but. there's a late lunch of germs from europe friction. a moral crisis.

there are many many people especially in europe they are getting away from the church didn't find their way through. the church in the region. this is going to be to be problem if the world did you know are they the richer to the through you know. and we've been asking online to what do you think the next attendee has a hold for the catholic church with the election of a new job now almost half of you think that the church will never fully recover from the scandals that closely tied to the other three outcomes that of the church will grow in influence because of and sentiment the divisions i inevitable leading to a loss of the vatican's power and loss of all that the church will successfully form

and emerge stronger now of course go to our website to cost you and tell us what you think. right right now we're going to show you live pictures of from brussels where that macho is going on right now we have a team out there are teams roughing it is i'll be taking those live stream pictures now of course those who use saws of them have gathered they also that the authorities see that there is a quote no problem a within the eurozone unemployment is high in the u.s. saying this has to stop if you want to watch live are all of the life which is all that stream you can go into dot com for that. was a break i'm all on the dockside of gold production in colombia you're watching 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 for addition and secret detention of suspected terrorists everson believes 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 protecting democracy like snagging people in foreign countries even charging them with a crime this year an 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 connect 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 i even have 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 and over how much its investigators whine and plead and beg but that's just my opinion.