time and you were. britain's euro skeptic u.k. independence party makes huge gains in local elections securing over twenty percent of the vote sending a message to warren governing conservative. say you tell america is now considering sending weapons to rebels in syria i made reports of an alleged government led village months ago. and seven i killed in a baghdad bomb blast the latest deaths in iraq which are some pretty wild waves of violence since it was trial of u.s. troops two years ago.

international news and comments live from moscow this is aussie with me you lash from our hello and welcome to the program first britain's governing conservative party is dramatically losing seats in local council elections would be for political outside of the euro skeptic u.k. independence party making impressive gains early results show u.k. about how soap on grabs twenty six percent of the vote while coming second in the by election in south shills pushing the tories into third place. is following a bounce which could have long lasting repercussions for british politics. south shields used to be the seat of former labor foreign minister david miliband and it was seen as a real litmus test for how people are feeling at the moment and labor managed to keep hold of that see if you can ping at their heels so they've come in second under significant because what it shows is a lot of his emerging over the past six months you can't have come second in four

by elections most notably in eastley very recently and it's showing that you can't this was a party that was until very recently seen as marginal one senior conservative minister described it described them as clones only very very recently but it looks like they're having the last last this is a party that's noticeably euro skeptic they want to see britain out of the european union they're not happy with the way that brussels dictates policies for the u.k. how much money the u.k. treasury forks out for the european commission every month and the fact that they've got such gains shows how fed up the british people are with the political status quo in this country look pattern emerging is very clear the ruling coalition parties the conservatives i'm a liberal democrats have sustained losses in council seats quite significant ones in fact labor have made slight gains nothing to write home about this was really the night of the u.k.

independence party quite the count so far looks like they've gained an average of over twenty six percent of the vote in the wards where they were represented in so overnight we've seen a real change to the british political landscape because there are now going to be ukip councillors all over the u.k. some might end up holding quite significant power and it's you know this is a party as i said it was seen as a very marginal until very recently it was the place none of the evolve parties a place where people launched their protest vote because they were so fed up with the established status quo at the lib dems the can. the labor party but that has all changed overnight we've seen nigel farage the leader of the u.k. dependence party appearing on television this morning saying he's delighted with the result so far that he's he says that it really shows that ukip is a long lasting political party their success hasn't been short term and the

chairman of the conservative party this morning had to concede that clearly the party is failing to get their message across and they're going to have a think about what they can do to change that. take a closer look at the early results are we have three main parties and there we go the rising star of the u.k. local elections the u.k. independence party and there we go so far tories tories where are they so they are down two hundred and twenty nine seats there we go their coalition partners the liberal democrats have seen the last of eighty. seats there at the labor party is it much better so they are one hundred and ninety six seats up and then we go the you keep unexpected success so would get nine seats to new council is widely viewed as a sign it could pose a threat to the three traditional parties at the twenty eight fifteen general election in the u.k. and alex stevenson at the u.k.

political news web site politics dot com u.k. says it's too early to predict whether you will when parliamentary seats by touching on issues like immigration is really striking a chord with. although they're getting a decent vote in this year's local elections which are for councils around the country they're not necessarily going to be actually be be running any councils they'll be councillors where there weren't before but they're not actually going to be in charge anywhere in twenty fifteen when we have the westminster elections to to find out who are going to be our next m.p.'s. there's going to be the all matter of who runs the country to decide and there is a strong feeling here that a lot of the support for ukip is because they're the new protest vote. when it comes to actually becomes the general election it's likely that that support could do indoor there's no doubt that ukip are gaining support on the doorstep because of

strong feelings about immigration in this country fears that it's a new wave of arrivals from the european union could put pressure on public services and i don't know i think i'm a general sense of xenophobia which while mainstream politicians don't like to talk about if you could do make it into westminster that would be a real sign that politics in britain is heading firmly towards the right. and with supporters of the three traditional parties away by u.k. but britain's political landscape could be changing we'll be watching there was also warning in france today to keep you updated. meanwhile the ongoing economic woes in europe for some people in the hardest hit countries towards a line of right little details that elating the program. after holding on for two years washington has confirmed it's now considering whether to arm the syrian rebels the dramatic twist comes a week after u.s.

officials claimed to have unconfirmed intelligence pointing to the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government washington's possible new approach came amid reports that president assad's forces have carried out an alleged massacre in a village he's going to work on. so far the administration has been reluctant to arm the rebels directly old though its allies have been doing that for the past two years there have been persistent reports of increasing radicalization of anti assad forces you have an al qaeda affiliated group operating there and the opposition generally welcomes their efforts of the concerns are there now the administration says it's rethinking arming syrian opposition fighters secretary hagel said he'd musician is considering a range of options he also said he's personally has not decided whether it would be wise to provide words to the rebels so there is nothing definitive in those remarks at this stage but the context of recent events has created a certain momentum and this kind of momentum may end up bolstering those forces on

the ground and actually result in more violence because those fighters want weapons and they want heavy weapons now president obama said there is proof that assad government also forces have used chemical weapons in syria that would be quote a game changer again he says the u.s. had evidence that the weapons were used but had no conclusive evidence to tie it to the assad government right now both the rebels and assad. forces blamed each other for the alleged chemical attack in the middle of march in aleppo the syrian government requested the un to send a mission to investigate the incident the u.n. fact finding team has been on standby and ready to deploy but then the u.n. chief appears to have changed his plans for the investigation there's russia's foreign minister with more on the syrian government asked the secretary general to deploy a team to investigate this particular situation the secretary general stated that he is ready to do this but a couple of days later he sent

a letter to the syrian government demanding a nexus for the international experts to alter the entire its director of syria as well as access to in his sight and any person this team would like to talk to or to visit and this is something which really defeats the purpose of immediate. investigation into a specific reported case of the use of chemical substances to have. in your sights to any person in syria. resembles very much the security council resolutions regarding iraq and we all remember the end of that story so now instead of investigating a concrete incident the one wants access to all sites and this inquiry has once again for off the united nations into the center of a possible plan for weapons of mass destruction where he faces the growth. the fear again is that politics may get ahead of fact. iraqi authorities say

a bomb blast at a sunni mosque north of the capital baghdad has cold seven people during friday prayers the country's suffering some up there was the violence as there was draw of u.s. troops in twenty lebanon the u.n. says more than seven hundred people were killed in iraq last month alone clashes between security forces and sunni protests that started in care curve sparking a wave of violence that quickly spread many iraqis accuse the government of corruption and political unrest and when the prime minister to resign are also now fears that sectarian tensions could escalate and see a return to full blown war he's losing confidence explains now the impact of national struggles on everyday life. and. bombs may still haunt baghdad but these young men are more concerned with burning the rubber in a country where daily life is based on trying to avoid the dangers these iraqis are turning to danger as

a way to avoid reality tasting the thrill of speed testing the authorities it's an unexpected sight in post-war relief fund a grim statistic half of the country's growing youth population is on able to find work. the biggest problem is financial support day everyone is constantly trying to find work but in baghdad there are very few jobs and myself i'm unemployed. ten years after the war a lie but iraq is full of contradictions but breaking bad like omar the motorcycle is one way to escape the daily preservations of life here in iraq and reading about . and taking on uncertain future. adrenaline may be one way of coping with that certainty but not for salva hasan hussein she now spends most of her days at home with her daughters trying to rebuild a life shattered by corruption in the household chores are a far cry from her former career as a journalist but she. too scared to return to work she had been investigating

corruption and prison abuses when she herself was detained and thrown behind bars the charges have been dropped but the family had to sell nearly everything they own is just to cover the thousands of dollars and bribes to secure her release. in this country money can buy you can buy your high position and this can buy you freedom and if you get accused of something in iraq you could be executed just because you can't afford to pay to save your life. it was a year long ordeal that by her account involved beatings and sexual assault she says that she's become a victim of the same corruption she once tried to expose. from victims to victors in a country better known for violence and divisions this youth football school is one of the few bright spots that stands out sunni shia christian kids play here on the same field and that's exactly why the school was opened for eighteen year old ali doesn't like to talk about the day his father was killed instead he senses time

training on the field hoping to one day play on iraq's national football game but for now a more pressing desire. so i wondered i want the security situation to become peaceful elsewhere maybe one or two people are killed each day him many people are killed every day by explosions and even bad things so i want to iraq to become safe like other countries. it's a wish that's undoubtedly echoed all across iraq the past decade left nearly everyone with a tragic story to tell and yet somehow life goes on you see catherine of r t. four years iran has been divided by road blocks and points that meant to make the lives of rockets say could also trap thousands and seemingly and with in terms of little to no web page.

or so much more to come here on r.t. including a hunger for change the force feeding of inmates who refused to eat at guantanamo bay meester an outcry from the u.n. . on the council the lawyer has visited his hunger strike inclined at the prison. and also had a majestic gonna opening of a new stage of st petersburg's renowned marine skiffy as a silence of the doubt. his and its mission to rival the biggest and best venues around the world i'll see peeps through the catchment and brings the special coverage of the new and interesting. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from

around russia we've gone to the future or covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. welcome to the big picture. it is.

this is coming to life from moscow welcome bok lawyers say more than two thirds of the days he's had gone tunnel they are taking part in the hunger strike which has now lost almost three months dozens of extra medics were sent this week to capture the prisoners twenty three a which i shall cold and force fed through the nose twice a day a tiny of ten of cattle barry when god who recently visited his client that says there's no indication of the u.s. is trying to resolve the crisis. my clients and actually very. he's been forced to help for about two weeks is finding passages are inspected. before more and more painful every time. they reach. for it afflicted trying to resolve the hunger strike here i feel it is. performed in fact.

prisoners reported. during solitary confinement no effort whatsoever to keep on staff at the men who are suffering well i guess that's why you have an offshore prison so you can pretty much do what you want to release to the media whatever you want it to be between my clients and here let me in a half years. charged with a crime we're going to get a trial you want to hold me forever you won't let me live in. peace what do you think you don't really need for that what kind of country do you come from and how many even the people were split. and some use in a race for you this hour on the wild eyed u.s. military a refueling plane crashed after takeoff near baker gets in kansas on board a in central asia and there is so is on no he's on the crew the plane reportedly broke into three pieces and it went down in an inhabited area shortly after leaving

monarchs apple which was used by nato and its one tearing up government start with a look at it this week an american congressman question afghanistan killing seven people and build. winds up pushing a mutha wildfire covering a thousand acres in southern california who was not a blues almost one thousand firefighters are battling the blaze which broke out early sunday morning is full of the evacuation of the side of the school again assesses the end currently threatens of the two thousand homes and businesses. charlie dri because the top prosecutor investigating investigating the murder of an expert on minister benazir bhutto has been pushed out of the capital islamabad charges have been brought against ex-president pervez musharraf in relations to bhutto's death and others said no one has yet claimed responsibility for friday's a time meanwhile in karachi an election candidate and his three year old son were shot dead on their way home from friday prayer.

meeting agers and china could smell a rat in the daily meals online will tell you how hundreds of people have been arrested in china the involvement in meat made climbs including the production of fake beef and mutton from animals such as rodents minix and foxes all the details at all to you. and also click away sell or sell or influence one of the thousand bottles of wine from the presidential palace all to god for sale and could fetch up to a quarter of a million euros with some of the money is said to prop up the country's struggling finances go to aussie dot com to find out how much you'd need to splash to a super sum and he's a promise why. after months of sound checks and acoustical tweaks st petersburg's marine skill set or darling opening on its ambitious new stage the seven hundred million dollars high

tech venue is the first new russian opera house to aspire to global significance since the time of the. live to. say who was there to see it how to bang so yesterday right this that's the world's eyes watch this seamless opening but only v.i.p.'s can see that right today murray's cue to opens its doors to everyone for the first performances tell us more please. yes crew. takes away as simon state yes we're on thursday actually had the great open a present of luck of it butin was yet as one of the guests and that it sure was a star studded event and i must say that everybody was not even for us to buy the performances but there were also impressed by the inside of of the marines the advantage to now today of course that it is open to the public with

a voice at hand that was to get a seat into that auditorium and it's packing up as you can see right behind me right now because of the talk is all about the building fight it still resonates in that question that everybody's austin sigg modernistic classical cities rather the building modern buildings now yesterday i spoke to jack the diamonds here is that the architect of money used to this and this is what he had to say when some are sixty two. people thought it was terrible in two schools were in charge close people for his first kind of the construction company the point about simply just one of the most beautiful cities was amazing continuity over the streets so in order to make you move. into. the to the ways. in analogous. comparable would just. stand in controls to the streets

soon or to moria stands and controls to its enclosure extends through like the church. and it's good to get importance in the owners because it's really the holy of holies are. trying to do it to me is off holes out of area and martin and this is going to share some of the glitz and glamour some of the day before taking off today because not all people filing opportunity to monsanto what do you make of this the main buzz today so i'm not sure people are here for the building at all to see the competition between the shoes. addresses i think i when i think that it was only one other than one occasion it's been ten years in the major got a course of twenty one billion rubles and i'm fine with this ground building with this with it's full on explore behind is is a good and well takes i really do think that this is rather forget about the controversy but obviously i do this all the aesthetics art let's talk about the

artistic side the amazing technical piece that will be achieved on the sage now tonight and for the decades to come you know advance and i think everybody who is the public is definitely going to enjoy the program of money you need to see it to chide it's all valid and bellow read up on stage on this new stage so to stay with us we'll have mostly you in a while of course will will thank you very much enjoy the evening as well thank you ted i'm outside and mansion and is that you saying get his bags various k. fed said thank you while some citizens living in europe's most debt ridden countries have been resorting to increasingly desperate measures he's petone of about one such man who turns to crime after three decades of honest labor in order to make ends meet. well it's certainly beautiful but its current financial woes are making it a living hell for some with one portuguese man claiming that the crisis has driven him to crying. for over thirty years in construction before being laid off today

he's a convicted. no money. i needed a few hundred euros for medication also we had no food at home this is what i bought for the money that was stolen i think about a thousand euros. turn to crime after he couldn't afford to pay the medical bills for his now ex-wife who suffers from m.s. . by own branch because of what they did to me he gave me loans are crazy interest resource have to take more loans to pay for this they robbed me so i robbed i'm not pride but i think the state forced me into this recession so what's going through your head as you're walking down here knowing that you're about to commit a crime. and i had a small plastic toy guns at the moment as i was approaching the bank i saw a policeman nearby there was a bag near the street so i said to the caucus should check it out i hope this would be obstruction then i went into the bank and did what i did it was all over in five minutes. he bored what he needed then turned himself into the police after spending

a year behind bars part of the conditions of his release that he maintains a twenty meter distance from the bank remains angry with the portuguese government who he says are encouraging this type of behavior with an unfair welfare system saying. it's so disgusting their mentality the game thing when i needed it most in the now that i've broken the law and i'm on their radar they give me help they don't know the people unless they get into trouble. with concerns echoed by those who represent the rights of workers in portugal. the government worries more about pleasing germany than looking after its own people there is a lot of anger out there and the more people think they aren't getting a fair deal the more the same. nobles this is the danger of keeping people in the limits of poverty. portugal has high unemployment and crippling debts of one hundred eighty billion euro around one hundred twenty percent of

yearly production the end of the crisis is certainly nowhere in sight asked if he feels remorse for his crime i do still it's very clear some of them are so i feel remorse for what i did to the bank workers and really scared the hell out of them so forgetting what i needed anyway or could not have all the blocks i don't feel the slightest bit sorry for taking from peter all of the arty lisbon. and they have him in the south he talks to former us ambassador james jones about the treatment of detainees at guantanamo bay the u.s. drone policy and natural just. famous american political figure ron paul has decided to create his own liberty oriented homeschooling curriculum at ron paul curriculum to give parents not turn

it into standard public education you know when i was a kid homeschooling was only for like the kids of wacko's and cultus if you met someone who was homeschooled you always look at them with some sort of suspicion like what's with that kid with what's with his parents i mean who would home school their kids well let's look at it this way who would grow their own food when american supermarkets are stocked with pure healthy and natural food the problem is that food in stores is now loaded up with all sorts of mystery chemicals and g m o's and it makes perfect sense that nowadays people are in droves starting to grow their own food and this logic applies to education too when public education becomes so dismal it's perfectly logical and reasonable to try to educate your kids yourself the no child left behind program did a fine job of making the american education system lower the bar the very basement of the lowest common denominator i mean if you think there should be more in the high school graduates had besides reading right now to richmond did that homeschooling might be for you as art sports and music and science programs all across the nation back to the lack of funding is ron paul's libertarian curriculum

what's best for your kids hey i can't say but it's definitely worth taking a look at other alternatives given the d. minus quality of public education nowadays but that's just my opinion. a legal research and advocacy group called the constitution project has produced a sweeping six hundred page report on u.s. interrogation and detention practices in the years after nine eleven the task force concluded that quote it is indisputable that the u.s. engages the in the practice of torture and that the nation's highest officials bore

ultimate responsibility for that they also found no quote no for more persuasive evidence that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other beings present and former u.s. government officials who are part of the task force with me today is ambassador james jones who co-chaired the group who is also a former pastor to mexico sir thank you so much for coming good to be with you thank you president obama at the very beginning of his presidency signed an executive order to stop torture but human rights organizations say indefinite detention itself is torture is it fair to say that the obama administration is engaged in torture now i don't think so i think he made a lot of good moves when he came into office and arks our situation our conclusion is doing things by executive order can be changed by the next president very easily and so the kinds of protections human rights protections that we're talking about

should be done by the congress and should be part of the statutory. part of the you know laws of the united states not just executive order but yes it's much better than it was we still have some concerns about policy on the drones for example but the kinds of abuses that we've found over the years since the nine eleven do not seem to be practiced these days what about indefinite detention without is this one where the where the. task force was unanimous we. just do not believe that it fits into the laws and the ethics and the values of america. to have indefinite detention and to not allow a court of law and adjudication of the charges against a person to be to go through an orderly process more than half of those detainees in guantanamo currently have already been cleared by the u.s.

government that means all the intelligence the military the law enforcement and all the agencies involved have said there's no reason to hold these people and they still are indefinitely being detained in guantanamo we feel very strongly that they ought to be released and they are and that should be done immediately and the president we've called on the president to tell his secretary of defense to issue that exact that order to release the defense lawyers argue that even with the transfer restrictions in place the law even now allows that the administration can use waivers to release some of these men and get started out being used why probably politics comes into that. everything that. the loyal opposition wants to criticize the administration for being soft on terrorism or things like that so i think all those things go into the decision i don't know personally about being soft on the rule of law no i agree with it and that's our

position that we should we should meticulously follow the rule of law that's what we preach all over the world we preach our values and we have actually prosecuted similar cases. against other countries who have not followed what we say we ought to do and we're not practiced we're not following and practicing what we're preaching and i think that that should be stopped but what i'm saying is this is a highly political thing and the only reason i can figure out why you are the administration is not ruling those for which they have no case whatsoever. is that it's politics or politics in what sense can you explain it. well sometimes politics doesn't make any sense that it's the charge that well the fear that if you release some of these prisoners that have been accused of being

terrorist in the past and and they do something else or you find them going into terrorist organizations you pay a heavy political price for that and i think that's that has to be the only only reason why there are not released so many of these men have fallen victim not just to their wonderful capture but now to u.s. politicians assumptions of what they may or may not do do you think the u.s. is acting on fears in a song rather than what's lawful or not well i don't want to comment on. what do i believe the administration is or isn't doing for what reason but what we try to do in our panel in our task force was to find those things that we could either by interviews or public information ascertain is accurate and what we found is that and what we concluded was indefinite detention for these people more than

half of those that want on a mo should not continue but do you think it's a form of torture indefinite detention it's why i think they're i don't know that there's a legal definition of that but i think there's been expressed by many ethicist that to to have. indefinite detention with no prospects for being released is is a form of torture and does lead to things like the hunger strikes and things like that . currently to the defense lawyers it seems like an impasse and what will change the status quo in your opinion well i think the. there are a couple of things number one there are still legal processes that they can go through and i think that some of the. legal defenses are are being prepared to present time the other is is just politics itself the appeal to the better

instincts of the united states the peel to our sense of values to our sense of ethical has to appeal well i think you are have to develop a constituency for this one of the reasons we put out this report and have. disseminated quite widely is for those organizations or people or leaders or politicians or public officials who believe as we do that we have a value system that has to be upheld they will get active in this and they will start creating a sense of. we have to do what's right and that leads to political decisions that go in the right direction up until this point. it's been sort of covered up we haven't talked about it all we've talked about or that is the terrorism itself. those who have been detained we assume and this is again against our principles and against our legal eagle legal. history we are presuming that they're guilty of

something even though we can't prove it and that's just the opposite of what our rule of law says that you're presumed innocent until proven guilty. this hunger strike do you think it will make a difference. well it might. i i obviously wish they didn't have the hunger strike i think it's not only bad and has permanent damage to those who are participating in it it damages the united states. around the world and our reputation. but. i don't know if it's going to make a difference or not. what if someone dies i think it's terrible it's terrible particularly if it's someone who has been precluded by all of our government agencies and should have been released i think that's a terrible time for united states. the new york times has recently published the

plea over yemeni national who's been imprisoned at guantanamo without charges of any kind for more than eleven years and cares what he writes no one seriously thinks i'm a threat but still i'm here years ago the military said i was a guard for osama bin laden but this was nonsense like something out of the american movies i used to watch they don't even seem to believe it anymore but they don't seem to care how long i sit here either the only reason i'm still here is that president obama refuses to send any detainees back to give and this makes no sense i'm a human being not a passport and i deserve to be treated like one this is the yemeni. the new york times of course deserves credit for probably this letter of despair of this many but it seems unless it's on t.v. unless it's part of a national discussion national conversation few will actually know and care about that why is it not part of the national conversation well nobody's to get it on

that's happened in the civil rights legislation i was in the johnson white house and it took. many years before we were able to get a constituency is as we have done wrong by our african american the whole americans and we need to they were here they were in their face and they want detainees are there and nobody seems to care about understand that but. the undocumented immigrants they were here but nobody seemed to care about them until just recently we're going to get an immigration bill i think that's going to be fair to the immigrants who are here both legally and illegally all i'm saying is when you when you're asked they need to win votes and those are gone kind of the detainees foreign nationals who will not go away for a political victory or political scores it seems so they just nobody seems to be interested in that that's. thing is until you highlight and publicize and put

spotlight on the kinds of treatments they're getting you're not going to have anything done and it's happened in every movement in the united states history where there have been injustices then you first of all have to acknowledge the injustice you then have to start developing a dialogue of the people of the united states who then demand political action be taken to correct those injustices and then i think that's what's going to happen here but you but first of all you have to. you have to show what what we have done was wrong as far as renditions a number of countries like canada apologized offered compensations to former detainee faced lawsuits had to settle for millions of dollars for their secret service involvement in the renditions of those detainees think u.k. is an example why wouldn't the u.s. do that. as i understand it we suspended some of the international treaties

that president reagan had actually proposed twenty five years ago the un convention against torture. inhumane treatment degrading treatment etc. and in those particular legal documents you do have means of redressing the wrongs that were made if we restore our our here to those particular laws treaties there will be an ability to have injustices redressed with with damages what have you and something i found very interesting after all these rendition cases the u.k. court of appeals ruled that the government could not assert state secrets or use state secret evidence in its defense stating that quote allegations of wrongdoing had to be heard in public but that's the u.k. and i want to ask you about the whys. what kind of a message does it send when you pull out the state secrets card to shut down all.

this related lawsuits but you sent to jail the person hopeful that was a long torture well we addressed that in the report to a certain degree because for example lithuania and poland both were initiating investigations as to the black sites that were that were in those two countries and whether there was torture and treatment maltreatment of prisoners there or detainees there and the united states has not cooperated with that under the so-called state secrets. and we have suggested that they are that we should cooperate with our countries there. and that's one of the recommendations that our report. not to use the states now and there are ways to to cooperate and to give information without harming either personnel.

under the state secrets doctrine or particular treaty relationship with other countries but we're not cooperating at all assigned to stand thank you thank you very much mr ok thank you. wealthy british style.

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