anyway. breaking news and i'll see a blaze at a psychiatric facility in the most cruel region claimed the lives of up to eighty. eight i'm sorry people with only three surviving the tragedy is sold balls on the windows prevented some from escaping in time. and confirmed intelligence from the us points to the use of chemical weapons in syria and fuels war a trick in washington similar to that seen ahead of the invasion of iraq. to terror chief says hundreds of european volunteers that are fighting in syria could pose a serious security threat when they return from the radicalized front. international

news and comments live for this is all see with me you and breaking news story this hour a devastating fire at a psychiatric hospital in the moscow region has killed at least thirty eight people leaving only three survivors the blaze reportedly erupted and a wing provided special treatment to patients and for more let's not cross life to tom barton who's at the scene of the tragedy right now how that tom delay to freeze bring us up to date. hi there yulia yes here in the village of around about two hours drive from moscow smoke is still rising from the burnt out shell of the psychiatric hospital from that fire that started early in the early hours of this morning thirteen bodies have now been recovered according to

a police spokesman we just talked to and now forensics experts are going inside the building to try and recover genetic material that may remain from other bodies consumed by the flames that set fire starting about two to three am by the time emergency crews arrived the flames had already engulfed the one story building much of the construction would fanning the flames only three people were able to escape a nurse and he and she managed to also save two patients. comment why were there so many casualties there well you this this small psychiatric hospital had a special treatment wing in it as well some of the patients there there was considered to be a risk that they might escape so bars were put on the windows in this case though it may have been the case that those bars prevented those patients from taping the

advancing flames it's also not known how many if any of those patients were medicated at the time of the fire which may also have stopped them escaping investigators are following two potential leads as to why this fire may have started one of them is an electrical failure of the circuitry inside the building the other possible cause is a violation of smoking regulations someone smoking and that helping to cause the fire because it is not yet known however the cleanup here is very much ongoing show our tom barton a live from the moscow region tom many thanks indeed will be talking to later again of course. this is no big blaze in a russian medical facility to claim lines and. three of hospital. marina course are in the studio with me hi there marina so this is not the first time of course. has happened before please bring it has happened

a number of times and of course this is something russia is not very proud of but at the same time when it comes to the incidents happening and russia in some cases see that when it comes to what's important when a fire breaks out what's important is to get out of there as quickly as possible but when situations like this take place in other people's homes or in mental institutions or hospitals the problem there is that people sometimes are sedated or sometimes there and isolation so it's harder to rescue them not just to walk through what happened first or just this january alone we know that three people died from a fire that broke out in a hospital in st petersburg now investigators say that the people there they were located in actually the individual isolation wards which is what i was mentioning earlier so that was part of the problem they couldn't get to them soon enough ok so that was what's happened in january this year but if we go back because russia has

had a bit of a track record when it comes to this in two thousand and nine and russia's republic awful komi in fact this was an old people's home and there we know that twenty three people died and three were actually only three were managed to be saved again we're talking about people is what's important is speed in those situations but speed is unfortunately something those people have then we move on to two thousand and seven in the city of tula again this was a home for elderly care and there we had thirty two victims out of the total we had two hundred forty seven people who managed to escape which considering the track record as i said and considering the fact that it was a home for elderly care. in that situation it could have been much much worse but the real issue with what's happening in russia and the problem with fires really came to light in december two thousand and six there was a tragic tragic we can which resulted in a number of fatalities in two completely different cities now if we first of focus

on siberia there was a mental hospital and from a fire we know that nine people died and twelve people were injured now that's out of two hundred patients again since put it in the bigger scope of things but in fact this followed a different fire just twenty four hours prior in moscow at a drug treatment facility the death toll there was forty five people who were killed and that included two staff members and most of them were actually women and there was the problem there for example yes this we women could run out and the scape but the problem there were a lot when those some of the windows had bars on them. that was. more more difficult and that situation grows safety violations were all the same problems all the time people and even though sorties keep talking about beefing up find safety regulations and things really nothing is being what i think this is

very important because now they need to start considering the fact what do you do with patients we're talking about hospitals in particular what do you do with patients that are heavily sedated and you cannot expect all of the staff to be able to individually go wake every single one of them up and make sure they are out of the building of course that is part of their job but they're just simply isn't enough staff members for every single patients so they have to come up with something that will be able. to release that on to other fires to claim a lot of lives here in russia while there was a very prominent incident you can call it that and this actually happens in the city. perm if anyone remembers the lame horse night kolob this happened in two thousand and nine and basically what happened was fireworks were ignited and because the club has such low ceilings the fire spread very quickly and this is actually also something that people forget fires very quickly especially when we're

talking about smaller buildings so more than one hundred fifty people died in that fire and this situation is actually very very innocent of something that happened earlier this year in brazil in january when two hundred forty people lost their lives and again from inhaling feelings and again there the blaze broke out because a band that was supposed to be performing in that nightclub decided to start fireworks inside and of course the clubs weren't prepared for example here in russia after that incident in the city of perm and we know that officials will go around all these different cities conducting checks making sure that first of all the clubs are prepared to handle a situation like that even though fireworks should not be allowed by all means inside a building which is something that was spoken about quite a bit in the city of perm so this is definitely shows the need for something to be

found a solution freshly one that comes to medical homes in particular trying to you can devastate here with me in the studio thank you very much indeed for that update thanks appreciate it. let's move on now u.s. officials claim there have intelligence pointing to those small scale use of chemical weapons by the regime in syria the data is said to be sketchy and difficult to verify washington has warned a chemical attack in syria could spark a u.s. intervention and some lawmakers now say that red line has been crossed but as. the drumming up a wall right trick is reminiscent of a previous invasion. u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel said at the white house and has informed members of congress that intelligence officials believe with some degree of varying confidence that syrian president bashar al assad's government has used chemical weapons against members of the opposition specifically sarin gas didn't provide any specific facts on when or where the alleged weapons were used and it was not even

clear what the phrase with some degree of varying confidence even means does that mean that one intelligence official is confident that this is taking place and one is not confident clearly that that language is either convoluted or are bit confusing now secretary hagel said that assad's use of chemical weapons violates every convention of warfare but what's interesting is that on tuesday israel's intelligence officials claim that syria that the syrian government had used lethal lethal chemical weapons against rebels and at that time secretary hagel expressed his doubts about those findings now the u.s. is currently pressing for the united nations to conduct a comprehensive investigation into allegations of damascus is the use of chemical weapons but the united nations secretary general has previously appointed a team of experts but the syrian government has been accused of blocking the team from doing its work now u.s. president barack obama has previously said that the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government would be a game changer in the u.s.

position of intervening in the two year old civil war in a letter sent to two u.s. senators a white house legal official did write that the assessment of likely chemical weapons use in syria will not automatically trigger action including military intervention but the official also referred to a bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in iraq that led to the invasion the us invasion of that country in that case the intelligence was proved wrong everybody can remember just a decade ago when colin powell sat in the chambers of the united nations security council shaking of to try to to try to convince the international. community to go along with america's invasion into iraq and clearly his claims of iraq having weapons of mass destruction were proven wrong but nonetheless u.s. senator john mccain are already calling for action mccain has said that the u.s. now declines to intervene in syria it would send the wrong message to other adversaries in the region working to some experts what is proving positive or

actual here is that the current accusation against the syrian government is eerily similar to the accusations that were made against the iraq government proceeding america's two thousand and three invasion and so many i believe here that all this talk to be leading the u.s. and its western allies to take military action against syria possibly without all the correct facts in place the u.s. and its allies the syrian rebels through the conflict which is not limited. by standing strong damascus high schools to increase the pressure according to independent journalists will be homeless. it's a lot of nonsense and everybody in the diplomatic well knows it but it is intended to create an atmosphere where america and its weston's satellite allies can begin to people who are aggressive in their assistance to the rebels or terrorists or whatever you want to call them syria because the reality at the moment is that the

syrian army is doing rather well on the rebels and doing rather badly despite the thousands of tons of arms to the west and their gulf allies of imported into syria i think john kerry said we must look at ways of quick pressure on fasher our side and he was speaking for wants nothing but the truth. britain and france tried to persuade the european union to ease the arms embargo so they could supply more weapons to the roles that was actually side inside the surprisingly defeated in the european union they weren't able to do that so now as they see that their allies in syria are on the ground beginning to do quite badly they're looking for ways to put pressure on assad i think the way these feelings way they don't know what to do this is last two years they have totally failed to overthrow bashar assad and the nonsense they failed to discredit him as well. we're being closely following the

comical weapons controversy in the syrian conflict and you can find a full account of events as then fold on. the rubble themselves this is late threatens to unleash deadly chemicals on damascus. talks in factory and released a footage of partly demonstrating the use of poisonous gas on rabbits that story and plenty more is available on our website and on the way in just a few minutes here and i'll see you here and back again. such a radical volunteers from europe to the syrian frontlines spock's first fears of a. threat. live pictures from the central russia right now where a member of the notorious pussy riot punk band attends a parole hearing in central russia as i said hoping it will be a set of free the details coming out. of.

the nonproliferation treaty stands as one of the most important international agreements ever signed delicious the treaty is under threat from such countries as around do some countries get a free pass well those are punished even though they were complete compliance.

internationally and here in the very heart of moscow. you're watching r.t. live from moscow welcome bog the tower chief was sounding the alarm over the number of young europeans going off to the sea when war hundreds of volunteers are already fighting alongside rebels and could pose a serious security threat when they were to home according to her called and as an artist as a senior of course now europe is increasingly worried about the terror threat from within. if serious to your cause does always seem to spill over some neighboring countries but now it is extended far beyond that it's estimated that hundreds of europeans from fourteen countries mostly young men have joined the red syria to fight against bashar lot but basically national center for the study

verticalization put the tall figure at six hundred. well here and there were built for the media coverage on the radicalization young people as recently focused on one specific story that of a father in search of the son of dimitri wanted saw him sort of radical islam his group had gone to syria to join the fight father had gone all the way they're hoping to bring this somebody. built planes are flying overhead all the time when we are on the streets or inside a building we had a bomb was dropped on us i haven't had a contact with a year and we should meet here in aleppo i we spoke with dimitris lawyer who is in constant contact with him and he says the father is hell bent on finding his eighteen year old son that you and we don't expect that you will send me to syria i think that's that's clear so that's also why i didn't leave until it was most

eager to go and since he said i want to do something for myself a son who started changing about three years ago a problem with to us that at a certain moment he was influenced by some radical list he made contact with some people on the streets and there was also a story about. told love. girlfriend and he didn't he didn't work out and there were some friends who say ok come with us and very slowly started it he was really influenced and really brave to us to that and words of my client to grow beards and. started wearing other clothes. created for every. five times a day things like that so it was a little bit awkward for a son of fifteen sixteen years old so he was really under influence of radical radical people this rupie you had come into contact with shari'a for bishop a radical on his group whose leader told belka some have been arrested for hate

speech and calls justifying the use of violence or if there is a judgement day if you're if you're a muslim you'll you'll go to paradise if you're this believer you will go to hell terrorism expert glowed many cases the rise of radicalized us is alarming many of whom are easy prey the first. question is why they convert and usually they don't convert because dude they convert because of a problem at one moment in their life most of them have no clear political ideas and they go to fight because the fact and their goal is to fight if there were they don't meet its mission to convince them to be conduct on the people who they have just talk writing them and from convincing them that to be a good machine they want to go to syria to sign or to commit another terrorist attack. authorities are paying even closer attention with alert levels heightened

while worried family members of some the youth fighting in syria have been calling for a clampdown on radical groups the best they could do short of going to syria themselves although that may not be completely out of the question does or sylvia r.t. antwerp in belgium. the u.k. is thought to be one of europe's main supply is a volunteer fighters to syria but terror threat is well known in britain where three islamic extremists were jailed on thursday for plotting a series of times and my colleague mattress and discuss the issue with the contributor afshin rattansi it's as if the british government only just realised what's going on that there are these jihadi who were leaving after previous call previous battles in libya and moving in to work with the syrian opposition indeed

which is a name of a name i haven't come across that much in the news even counterterrorism coordinator his comments about homegrown jihad he's from britain and a host of e.u. countries or their britain makes the most of them according to a recent king's college london survey it's as if the british government only just suddenly realised it would william hague writing a letter to british m.p.'s warning about this and we had of the commons foreign select committee here saying with his presumably signalled intervention of a kind because now the british government can make a case for we have to intervene in syria because we have to stop these militants going back to being trained by elements of the free syrian army or whatever opposition movement there is in syria and returning to bomb britain now the suspects in the boston marathon bombings are largely products of self radicalization and the survivor claim that they play in the at. alone without any outside help but were inspired by wars instigated by the west. muslim

communities in countries does this mean you think that the u.s. and european allies should review international policies that we should understand the impact of nato and u.s. foreign policy and the disastrous consequences unleashed in afghanistan iraq libya mali who knows where next just just say that one understands that as a catalyzing effect on people that we must remember in these environments where islamophobia is rife in their media where they are being stopped and searched by police forces and so forth just to say one understand that foreign policy may have an impact seemingly is to be accused you get accused in britain and in the united states of being so patriotic and somehow a threat just by expressing that viewpoint governments within europe they have to start making a much better effort at making their relations realize they are part of this is not some kind of enemy. remember you can always check out all of our news

online by heading to r.t. dot com and here's was there for you right now. massive protests turned violent the space where the unemployment level reaches a record of more than twenty seven percent the food is all right. and the alleged boston mass and bombers were reportedly planning to carry out a terrorist attack in new york's times square get all the updates on our web site. a parole hearing for a member of the notorious punk band pussy riot is underway in central russia last august nadezhda tolokonnikova was sentenced along with two other women to two years in prison they were found guilty of hooliganism following a stunt in the country's main orthodox cathedral and let's now get more from alexei get

a shot of ski who is standing by in this in central russia say hello that other of the three jailed pussy riot members has been free since october also the chances teller konica will get to paul it's a very interesting developing story right now a lot of international international media attention right now that. well the parole hearing has commenced and it's going now as we speak of the biggest question of course is whether an idea of the law going to go the member of the pussy riot band will be able to walk free following this hearing her defending lois points to the fact that first of all her behavior since the conviction well she's been spending her prison time here in central russia has been relatively good there have been no complaints about her behavior also one of the facts pointed by the defining lawyer is that she has a five year old child and also she has already received several job offers while being in detention while being in prison which from the legal point of view makes her eligible for

a parole especially given the fact that she's already spent half of her conviction of a prison term behind bars already now as you mentioned the one of the other members of the. band has already been released on parole some would say that the hearing of the other members parole plea will be reviewed later in may of course now the whole attention is on whether an idea little according to a will get a positive decision here which nobody can rule out of course and we're expecting this hearing to be a rather short one as it usually happens in such cases and we are definitely expecting a decision today it's also worth mentioning that it is the last attempt of an idea of the newcomer to walk free before her prison term expires next year because the next time she would be able to file. the plea for if she gets a negative decision today will be only in six months could you also remind us why they convict said paul. well this whole crazy pussy riot saga started in february

twentieth when the band performed a political broadcast a so-called punk prayer in russia's main cathedral the crisis savior cathedral in moscow. twenty twelve they were convicted to two years in prison for hooliganism ever since this story has been making huge ways both in russia domestically and internationally with many of those saying in the streets that these women do differ in fact deserve their prison term for offending religious views of many in russia and violating the law while many others have been protecting their funding them saying that such a long prison sentence was completely unjustified the band also received support from idols like madonna rock bands like red hot chili peppers worldwide so it's been definitely causing huge media attention as well in this court building which i'm standing right now here almost three hundred journalists have crammed in

despite that it's only able to fit about one hundred people so this all shows that this saga is definitely causing a huge interest worldwide and it's interesting to see whether this new twist will bring a rather unexpected deliverance and in the long run it will certainly be following all the development of probably in our next bulletin when we come live we'll be able to deliver you decision one way or another whether to be a positive or negative one looking forward to say thank you very much indeed for that update. our correspondent alex i get a shot at the court smaller his twitter to get the latest updates from there and to watch live thirty's from the hearing head to our web site you know that dress and there's some more news and greivis out five people have been killed in pakistan after a bomb exploded outside the election office of one of the country's main political parties the bomb in the city of karachi which was planted on a motorcycle left at least nine more people injured the taliban has claimed responsibility for that time they have previously announced their plans to target

three political parties attacks on politicians are on the rise as the nation has towards the general election in may. and of people in ukraine turned out to mark the twenty seventh anniversary of the noble nuclear disaster they gathered for a midnight vigil to pay tribute to those killed by the initial blast and the fallout which followed the reaction explosion in one thousand nine hundred eighty six released a radioactive cloud across ukraine and europe more than four thousand people who are not in the hasty cleanup efforts lost their lives but the actual dust always believed to be much higher. coming up next opinions clash and hate to debate in close talk about.

misty's see. him no this is not a fifty's beside fi movie slogan it is what a.b.c. news is trying to find out when they investigated how lean finally textured beef is produced this type of quote beef has become very widespread throughout fast food restaurants and supermarkets in the usa and has led to its south dakota based manufacturer posting profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars but so what's wrong with some processed before might ask well the reporting showed that ammonia and other rough chemicals were doused on to the meat to kill equal i bacteria and make it safe for consumption although this product is for some reason legal.