breaking news for you this hour here on r.t. a blaze at a psychiatric facility in the moscow region claims the lives of up to thirty eight people only three surviving many died with dated in their beds. unconfirmed intelligence from the u.s. point to the use of chemical weapons in syria and fuels in washington the kind of war rhetoric seen in the run up to previous conflicts. and the e.u. chief says hundreds of european volunteers are now fighting in syria and could pose a serious security threat when they return from the radicalized.

worldwide news live from moscow this is r t with me welcome to the program let's get first to breaking news for you this hour here on our t.v. a devastating fire at a psychiatric hospital in the moscow region has killed at least thirty eight leaving only three survivors but the blaze reportedly erupted when providing special treatment to patients have more on this now that's across five to watch and he's at the scene of the tragedy tom good to see you though not in the best of circumstances or can you bring us up to date now what's going on where you are there what are the latest numbers. hi there rory yes investigators are combing through the remains of that psychiatric hospital here in the village of about sixty kilometers away from moscow trying to find what

actually happened in the early hours this morning broke out in the building and swept through it killing thirty. the people of fire started around two am say locals in the village and spread quickly lots of people not being able to make it out in time but when the emergency services arrived after an hour it was already too late to save those a side three did escape a nurse who stumbled through the smoke and grab someone on her way out one of the patients and another patient who did manage to escape without her help. talking talk to us about the investigation so far i understand as you said the investigators are there on the scene and what do they know at this point the cause of the fire. in the abyss and in and yes there are contradictory accounts as to what exactly happened in those frantic minutes as the fire swept through the building we've heard various. theories and various

statements of what people consider to be facts but which contradict each other depending on whether they're police or locals in various circumstances one of those is. one of those is the access and the building that the doors say. spokespeople from the emergency services and the police that those that the building was access freeda doors were not locked and that the patient staff could have got out if they had if they had managed to get to those doors and locals however say that those doors needed to be kicked in and for them to try and go and render help to those inside moving on to bars on the windows earlier on it was posited that perhaps bars on the windows stopped people from escaping earlier on the police spokesman said that he only saw bars on one or two windows journalists

are not currently allowed close enough to try and verify how many of those windows are easily accessible or not and then we've got the question of medication this. psychiatric hospital but the locals say that it wasn't the kind of hospital that put people under medication and then nobody was under medication but spokesman again say that as far as they're concerned they think that probably people were under medication there which obviously would have stopped it would have made it much harder for them to escape but we also spoke earlier to a fire safety expert who talked about some of the other complications that may have been. it was an exploding you probably support so. when all preventative measures are taken and constant training and evacuation drills are held out of the amount of victims and material damage goes down dramatically in this situation what limited opportunities for evacuation accounted for the poor response during the fire but it's possible that personnel were unable to deal with so many people in

a state of panic. as regard to causes as well investigators ideas have changed as they've gone through the wreckage they currently think the most likely explanation at the moment is that one of the patients there said by a local to be a recovering drug addict would like to smoke a lot in this hospital left a cigarette burning on the sofa investigators say they're pretty sure that that's where the fire started that has now been upgraded to that theory above a previous theory that it was probably an electrical fault or short circuit that started the fire although investigators are not ruling that else ability out. all right to our tom barton there with the latest on this psychiatric facility inferno thirty eight killed three survivors artie's tom barton thank you very much indeed well this is not the first the blaze in our russian medical facility to claim lives

that's a joint artie's lindsey france not to bring us up to date this has happened before as unfortunately there is a troubling legacy of this sort of thing taking place in this country i must. simply into the nine russia's republic of komi in an elderly care facility it was twenty three people that lost their lives in this blaze was very difficult to get out for many of these people being pensioners and relying on first responders to get out of the building in two thousand and seven in the city of tula at another elderly care home on november fourth thirty two people died now two hundred forty seven were able to escape with their lives in that blaze and then just a year earlier about in december two thousand and six there was a very tragic weekend here in russia actually in siberia on december ninth there was a fire at a mental hospital nine people died in that blaze two hundred fifteen escaped now just twenty four hours prior to this fire there was a loss of life to the tune of about forty five people who died drug treatment

syllabi in moscow and they were gross safety violations in that case many of them dying from smoke inhalation many of the windows were barred and the exits were blocked or locked so unfortunately in some of these cases there are gross safety violations but when you're dealing with medical facilities some of these patients are sedated at night so in order to get them out there need to be huge amounts of first responders to get them out of the building so of course as this investigation proceeds in this this latest fire we're talking about today we'll we'll see if medication had anything to do with it or if they were gross safety violations also an investigation is under way lindsay but what about what about all the fires in russia a lot of lives lost in those as well yes no one can forget the two thousand and nine fire in param at the at the nightclub it was pyrotechnics on stage that ignited the ceiling massive loss of life in this case one hundred fifty people died the video is very shocking to watch it just spread so quickly people could not but you can see the door right there is blocks of people cannot get out fast enough and

of course the january nightclub fire in brazil speaking about a worldwide problem of these of these fires. relations and brazil two hundred forty people lost their lives and there were again pyrotechnics from the band performing on stage and people just could not get out of the building fast enough so obviously as these investigations proceed details come up and you tend to find a lot of these countries may have fire codes and fire safety precautions in place some people just are not following it to the letter of the law and that's where the tragedy starts to occur or at all to use at lindsay fronts thank you. still ahead for you this hour here on our studio a member notorious pussy riot punk band attends a parole hearing in central russia hoping she'll be set free those details are just around the corner for you. and as you said those details of the pussy riot trial.

the nonproliferation treaty stands as one of the most important international agreements ever signed phyllis's the treaty is under threat from such countries as iran do some countries get a free pass while others are punished even though they were complete compliance.

with the international airport in the very heart of the sco. good to have you with us here on arts here i'm rule re sushi in moscow a parole hearing for a member of the notorious punk band pussy riot is now under way in central russia last august and. was sentenced along with two other women to two years in prison and they were found guilty of hooliganism following a stunt in the country's main orthodox cathedral the latest now from. the biggest question of course is whether an idea of the law of 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 also 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 parole especially given the fact that she's already spent half of her conviction of a prison term behind bars all ready 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 it is the last attempt of the idea of the newcomer to walk free before her prison term expires next year because the next time she would be able to file an appeal the plea for parole if she gets a negative decision today will be only in six months told crazy she writes saga started an affair between two twelve when the band performed a political protest a so-called punk prayer in russia's main cathedral the crisis savior cathedral in

moscow. later that year on twenty twelve they were convicted to two years in prison for. 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 them defending 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 huge interest worldwide and it's interesting to see whether this new twist will bring a rather unexpected deliverance and in the long run. there

he's out the court you can follow his twitter feed to get the latest updates from there and you can continue watching the life footage from the hearing on our web site. now u.s. officials claim they have intelligence pointing to the small scale use of chemical weapons by the regime in syria the data here is said to be sketchy and difficult to verify and watch and has warned that a chemical attack in syria could spark a u.s. intervention and some lawmakers now say that red line has already been crossed but as our teams marina portnoy reports the drumming up of war rhetoric is reminiscent of a previous invasion. the 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 that it was not even clear what freeze with some degree of varying confidence even means does that mean one intelligence official is confident that this is taking place and one is not confident clearly that that language is either convoluted or 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 use of chemical weapons but the united nations secretary general has previously appointed it seem 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 on 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 a vial to try to to try to convince the in. national community to go along with america's invasion into iraq and a clearly his claims of iraq having weapons of mass destruction were proven wrong but nonetheless u.s. senators like john mccain are already calling for action mccain has said that if the u.s. now declines to intervene in syria it would send the wrong message to other adversaries

in the region or to some experts what is proving positive or optional here is that the current accusations 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 experts believe here that all this talk can be leading the u.s. and its western allies to take military action against syria possibly without all the correct facts in place. right now they use antiterrorist chief is sounding the alarm over the number of young europeans going off to join the syrian war hundreds of volunteers already fighting alongside rebels and could pose a serious security threat when they return home that's according to at least one official as aunties tester australia reports europe is increasingly worried about the terror threat from within. if syria's two year old concert is already

seen spillover some neighboring countries but now it has turned into far beyond that it's estimated that hundreds of europeans from fourteen countries mostly young men join the rebels in syria fighting against sharia law sought london based international center for the study verticalization put the tall figure at six hundred. we'll hear an outward belch of the media coverage on the radicalization of young people has recently focused on one specific story that of a father in search of the son dimitriy want to soften for the radical islam is a group that had gone to syria to join the fight father had got all the way they are hoping to bring the somebody he built planes are flying overhead all the time when we are on the streets or inside a building we have a bomb was dropped on us i haven't had a contact with youyou can we shoot him he's here in aleppo we spoke with dimitris lawyer who's in constant contact with him and he says the father is hell bent on

finding his eighteen year old son you and we don't expect that you will send me to syria i think that's that's clear so that's what we'll also why didn't he. was eager to go yourself he said i want to do something for myself a son who started changing about three years ago the problem with to us that certain moment he was influenced by some radicalized he made contact on people on the streets and there was also a story about. you know i'm told love you have a girlfriend and he didn't you 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 break to us that that are the words of my client to grow beards and. started going to loads of preaching for every. five times a day things like that so it was

a little bit awkward for some of fifteen sixteen years also he was really under influence of radical. radical people this groupie who had come into contact with shari'a for belgium a radical islamism group whose leader followed belka some have been arrested for hate speech and calls justifying the use of violence over there is judgement day if you're if you're a muslim you will go to paradise if you are this believer you will go to hell terrorism expert glowed many cases the rise of radicalized this is alarming many of whom are easy prey the first question is why they convert and usually they don't convert because do they convert because of a problem at one moment in their life most of them have no political ideas and they go to fight because the fact. and their goal is to fight if. they don't meet

this can you convince them. they could be insect you could have trapped in the net of people who have just talking them and from the convincing them that to be good in the scene they want to go to so you have to sign or to commit another terrorist attack. authorities are paying even closer attention with alert levels heightened while worried family members of some of 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. or let's get some reaction now from our john eve come move specialist on extremism with the institute of international answer teacher relations so good to see you today thanks for joining us here on r t the french government has been one of the strongest supporters of the syrian rebels even saying that it wants to all move them directly is paris not worried at all do you think about the threat of

home grown terror. paris is of course aware of the try to farm grown terror and we should be more shootings last year which theory proved that this was not as some say than realistic that a young radicalized muslim may go out to the streets and to show to youngsters in a jewish school on the altar and the french government is also aware that youngsters from the muslim community are going to syria as they used to go to your rock or concluded to all the places of the global jihad in order to train. the fighters all the millikan so they're aware of that in a radio security services have arrested several of them before they traveled to syria or even on their return for you i mean so ok well that's i suppose that's

a good move there you're saying the french government is aware of certain home grown fundamentalists who are looking to perhaps to to move to syria but why is it we're seeing hundreds of europeans from england and france and other parts of europe going to syria to join the rebels what why are we seeing this trend. this trend is balt off a more global dissatisfaction of a growing number of young males when people are living in europe with. their way of life in the way islam is an accepted on not insulting contraries we have in europe today some kind of a backlash against the motive going to royal society we used to be. or indeed seventy's in a days and no we realize that the multicultural society also has a lot of drawbacks so there is a movement within europe and societies today to go back to

a more conservative approach to going to round them in all sorts of questions about big place obviously in europe and society but to put israelis but taking a more conservative approach by taking a more conservative approach to that to that of the islamic communities in france is taking the conservative approach the right way to do it we are we i mean viva french state and most of the native french people we know where the more conservative approach of the moment to go to a society in the sense that we feel we have maybe not been conservative enough saying to those young muslim people you are living in france and you should have by by the nose of course but also by the codes of the mainstream culture. all right fair enough you're saying you take a more conservative approach but very very briefly mr comey i'm running low on time

would you think or do you think western interventions in muslim countries over the past decade have affective radicalism across europe. yes of course today when you go on to be internet you can watch a lot of videos of the global jihad from again you stand in iraq syria or any other place in the world saw a young mostly some young muslim people spend their day beyond a computer deck just looking at those video when they feel some kind of sorry dorothy which is the young muslims in a in other parts of the world and this is what this is one of the reasons why you can be grown terrorists today even these are traveling to combat zones you can do it by yourself or to live in paris a specialist on extremism of the institute of international and strategic relations a pleasure to have you one seats a day thank you. iraqi authorities say troops backed by

tanks of retaken control of a sunni town north of the capital baghdad a gunman seized the air on thursday after a firefight with security forces more than one hundred fifty people have been killed across the northern part of the country since tuesday after the storming of a protest by soldiers led to one arrest that spread quickly is the worst spate of violence since u.s. forces pulled out in twenty two you eleven and there were fears the situation could worsen a deepening political turmoil has left the government deadlocked in its efforts to rule a country made up of radically different groups. who just returned from iraq gave my colleague take on the escalating violence in. iraq is a country that is divided into three major areas you have for example over here this is the largely sunni provinces over here is the semi autonomous kurdish region below which are certain disputed areas and this is a largely shia area of iraq now the incidents the latest wave of violence really

began new york your kook this is close to the town of who we are where demonstrators have been camped out for several months now on tuesday things came to a bloody boiling point when the government forces had raided the area the government says that the protesters had opened fire the demonstrators meanwhile say that these security officials are the ones who opened fire first the result of which was at least fifty people killed and hundreds wounded now why the protesters were in here and all these areas the sunni areas that sit back down now they've basically been protesting against the government based say that the policies of prime minister nouri al maliki this is the shiite led government has resulted in their oppression this is what they say and news of the attacks there and how we had spread very quickly and that's what's behind this latest spate of violence we saw attacks and rosell. in other areas north of baghdad in the anbar province and people feel that this was perhaps retribution perhaps basically just

the straw that broke the camel's back with essentially largely peaceful demonstrations turning into now violent escalations and expressions of outrage in order for things to essentially deescalate there has to be changes in policies that we were in fallujah talking to the protesters they feel that the way the very structure of the government this is a sectarian government this is part of the constitution that has been written in large part with the help of the u.s. that divides iraq i mean it divides iraq constitutionally and these protesters say that unless there's a change in policies they're not going to stop coming out they're not going to go back to their homes and stop these demonstrations and the impetus for this violence right now has been the physical clashes that took place and i don't really see a situation where the protesters will just say ok we're done we're going to go home now they want massive change. our time for a few head butts and heated debates on cross talk in just a second. this

is 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 you might ask well the reporting showed that ammonia and other rough chemicals were doused on to the meat to kill e-coli bacteria and make it safe for consumption although this product is for some reason legal the films have power to create public backlash and many companies gave up

ordering the mysteriously and finally took should be ok while the mainstream media for once actually did something valuable for society and what did they get in return sued yeah the pink slime crew decided to sue a.b.c. news and force them not to divulge their company's secrets as well as punish them for defamation against their product which led to profit losses and guess what they won the lawsuit well defaming products that on mass could destroy the health of millions of americans is no blasphemy in my book but that's just my opinion.