britain's. elections securing over twenty percent of the vote send a message to a worried governing party. us if you turn america. rebels in syria amid reports of alleged government village massacre we get an opinion on this later this hour in r.t. . seven. deaths in iraq which is one of the waves of violence drawn of u.s. troops years ago top stories this hour.

around the clock around the world international news and comment live from a studio center here in moscow bringing conservative parties dramatically losing seats in local council elections with the form of political outside of the euro skeptic independence party making impressive gains early results show so far grabbed around twenty five percent of the vote well let's take a closer look we have the three main parties and the rising star of the show you keep the u.k. independence party was so far we can see here on screen the tories at three hundred thirty five seats a coalition partners that partners in government the liberal democrats have lost. one hundred twenty four seats so slightly less humiliating the net conservative part of the labor party did much better we can see there with two hundred ninety one seats up. there it is an unexpected success so far it seems one hundred thirty nine councillors. widely getting a place. this is widely viewed as

a sort of that it could pose a threat to the three traditional polish the twenty fifth the general election the cross live to or to go she's forgiven. no this of course this ukip success could have low blasting repercussions all british politics. to the small. it's been a momentous day for the u.k. independence party bill we've seen them come seconds in the south shields by election just behind labor and that's significant because we see a pattern emerging the posix months have seen you can't come second in four by elections some of the more we've had stunning council election results we've seen the ruling coalition parties the liberal democrats on the conservatives very sustained major losses in terms of council seats labor have gained a few seats as you said nothing to write home about it's really you can't that have come out on top now this is

a party that's been seen by many as the protest vote party the people very keen for them if they feel too frustrated with labor conservatives liberal democrats the traditional status quo political parties but i think that a lot of people are going to have to be taking them a lot more seriously now and then a lot of people didn't take them very seriously just a few days ago to be a senior conservative member called them clowns say they might have to have a rethink about that we're going to have you can't councillors across england and wales to the conservative party chairman has said that clearly the tories failed to get their message across and they're going to have to have a rethink about how they can change that now i'm joined by the city spokesman for the you can dependence party stephen wolf stephen chances are all well and good but they're not m.p.'s have as you can actually made significant gains today yesterday what we have done is created a. seismic shift in politics in the united kingdom we have put

a message down to the three political parties that there is a fourth party here on the block we are knocking on the door of parliament for years they have criticized us and said that we're a small party are not worth voting for today with over one hundred eighty four councillors with over four hundred second places and as you said earlier on a second place of great significance in south shields we put down a marker that you can piss here as a particular party that is listening to the people of this country hearing that they have problems and saying we've got the profit policies for them that is why we're being successfully voted for today and that is why we've got these pictures that you could be seen as the protest phase is that enough to make gains and in general election well it's a protest vote for the political elite if you want to put it in those terms they ignored us in the past and said they'd never want to listen to us was a multi one issue party and then they said we were just a one person party now that we've shown that we've got one hundred eighty four

councillors now that we've shown that we've got smily ins of people voting for us they're saying with a party of protest well if one hundred eighty four seats four hundred seconds if we've got significant second places across the country east like to south shields is a protest that is the sort of process that i want and i want to see is expand ourselves because once we've got this success through the door we're going to be working out across the country and knocking on the door to get m.p.'s and show them we can do more in parliament a lot of people see he can't handle here and anti immigration but a lot more people are going to be knocking at your policies with a lot more scrutiny of the party but for that absolutely i mean you already talked about ministers they criticized as by name they've played them in the pool they've also suggested over time that our european policies are weak all right policies are immigration we we're ready for that kind of scrutiny and it's quite right because in a democracy every political party has put down a month of saying here's our policies come on come on have a. and tell us whether you like them or not that is crime we're ready to do that

i'm working on our tax policies and i broke policies and pensions policies we have parties and looking at issues of planning which we've given out to people we armed forces policy which is very successful education policy with grammar schools in every town that we'd like to have is something that is seen as very important for the people of this country and yes we're going to have to work. we're going to have to show that we can afford it in a time of austerity but i believe the want to such a policy how we're going to pay for it and we've got the right people try to deliver it we're going to be moving forward at an even greater speed than you've seen today stephen city spokesman for the u.k. independence party thank you very much for your comments although you have it much seismic shifts taking place in british politics today david cameron's already said that he's going to have to work very hard to try and win back the support will there is that a very tit for you can't say for the past two days ali thanks very much indeed for that artie's pretty boy can live in central london so talking to be

a member of ukip stephen wolf what with the more supporters of the three traditional parties lured away by ukip britain's political landscape could be changing as we just heard there will be watching results rolling in throughout the day still more to come out believe and of course we'll keep you updated. after holding back for two years washington has confirmed it is now considering whether to arm the syrian rebels the dramatic twist comes a week off to u.s. officials claim to have unconfirmed intelligence pointing to the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government washington's possible new approach came amid reports the president assad's forces have carried out an alleged massacre in the village what is going to come and has the details. so far the administration has been reluctant to arm the rebels directly although 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 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 ministration is considering a range of options he also said he personally has not decided whether it would be wise to provide weapons 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 blame each other for the alleged chemical attack in the middle of march in aleppo the syrian government requested the u.n. 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 that syrian government because the germans will deploy achieved in this to get this particular situation the secretary general state to use ready to do this but couple of days later she sent a letter to the syrian government demanding the next is for the international experts to alter it to read to the into its utility of syria as well as. the steam would like to do it. and this is something which reads if it's the. of immediate investigation into a specific report the case of the use of chemical substances in syria syria much of the security council resolutions regarding iraq and we all remember the end of that sort so now instead of investigating a concrete incident the u.n.

wants access to all sites and this inquiry has once again thought the united nations seem to the center of a possible plan for weapons of mass production where he faces the goals. that fear again if that politics may get ahead of fact just when you've got some graphic images of this alleged atrocities it's believed at least fifty people have been killed including women and children with guns and knives in a syrian village massacre several boys and men wearing civilian clothes could be seen lying in front of a house to save dozens of. ports as the u.s. confirmed it was taking a fresh look at whether to provide weapons to syria's rebels after holding back for two years the dramatic twist came a week after u.s. officials claim two of them confirmed intelligence pointing to the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government. iraqi authorities say a bomb blast at a sunni mosque north of the capital baghdad has killed seven people during friday prayers the country's suffering some of the worst fallen since the withdrawal of

u.s. troops in two thousand and eleven the u.n. says more than seven hundred people were killed in iraq last month alone clashes between security forces and so the protest was started in kind of cook sparking a wave of violence that quickly spread when iraqis accuse a government of corruption and political unrest and what the prime minister to resign there also no foods that sectarian tensions could escalate and see a return to full blown. couple of examines the impact of national struggles every day night. 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 to avoid reality tasting the thrill of speed and testing the authorities it's an unexpected sight in post-war iraq for the fun 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 i'm myself i'm unemployed. ten years after the war a lie but iraq is full of contradictions but for young men like omar the motorcycle is one way to escape the daily preservations of life here in iraq the reading of the. adrenaline may be one way of coping with uncertainty but not for such a 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's 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 in bribes to secure her release. in this country money can buy you can buy your high position and his 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 and her kids play here on the same field and that's exactly why the school was opened. fourteen year old ali doesn't like to talk about the day his father was killed instead he spent his time training on the field hoping to one day play on iraq's national football team but for now a more pressing desire. so i want the security situation to become

peaceful elsewhere maybe one or two people are killed each day to him many people are killed every day by explosions and even bad things so i want to become safe like other countries. it's a wish that's undoubtedly echoed all across iraq but the past decade left nearly everyone with a tragic story to tell and yet somehow life goes on. our t.v. . for years iraq has been divided by roadblocks and checkpoints they're meant to make the lives of iraqis safer but also trapped thousands in seemingly endless traffic jams you can see that report. page right now . with you twenty four hours a day much more to come here this hour including

a hunger for change the force feeding of inmates who refuse to eat at guantanamo bay leads to i don't cry from the you where you go first hand accounts of a boy who's visited his hunger strike in the prison. also ahead for you. the news a just a. risky fear to write sonnets is the deltas and his mission to rival the best venues around the world. brings you special coverage of just a few moments when we go lloyd. science technology innovation all the developments from around russia we. covered. 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. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. if he.

continues here on r.t. lawyers say more than two thirds of the detainees at guantanamo bay are taking part in the hunger strike which is now lost at almost three months dozens of extra medics were sent this week to care for the prisoners twenty three of which are shackled and force fed through the nose twice a day attorney lieutenant colonel barry ween god who recently visited his club says there's no indication the u.s. is trying to resolve the crisis. my client's and actually very bad he's been forced on it now for about his final passages are infected forced to use more and more people every time. i come to guantanamo bay i read in the street . for a different. trying to resolve the hunger strike one here i. performed in fact. prisoners report. happening in three solitary confinement and no effort whatsoever to keep on staff or 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 to but. a client said hey i've been here eleven after years. charged with a crime i'm never going to get a trial you want to hold me forever you won't let me live in peace you won't let me . in the funny thing you don't dispute the need for that kind of country you come from how naive on the people were split. we will muslims in main in america say they're facing increasing levels of prejudice all these i'll be militant examine some instances of discrimination based on religion in the latest edition of breaking the set now here's a quick preview for you. burstein are ramping up of hate crimes and hate speech against muslim americans in the wake of boston bombings most recently about anger was directed to mohammad saleem somali an american cab driver who was assaulted by a man he had picked up moments earlier before this attack salim sensed

a man temper and recorded the entire alter cation on his cell phone take a listen i don't judge you know your. people are all over the world oh me yes and you know if you read your how i. saw. your mom you have you know that's why your bunch of very sad especially considering asylum is the furthest thing from the muslim extremist here's what he had to say in response. of a sergeant serves. a social life. i'm not an artist. i'm a muslim american. to get the full story much more from breaking the sit stay tune to auntie it's coming up it's a whole pulse midnight g.m.t. and the entire program is also available on

a website. called. news in brief around the world with all welled up days u.s. military refueling plane has crashed off the seiko near the. border in central asia so far no news of the crew the plane reportedly broke into three pieces as it went down in an uninhabited area shortly after leaving with us airport which is used by nato in its war on terror in afghanistan earlier this week an american college plane crashed in afghanistan killing all seven people on board. firefighters in california say only ten percent of a massive wildfire sweeping its way towards menabilly was under control the brush fire which is been raging since thursday morning has already destroyed an area whole for the size of manhattan and forced evacuation of four thousand homes when the dry weather continued to stoke the forty square kilometer blaze as nine hundred firefighters and water tanker planes trying desperately to put it out. clashes have

broken out in the west bank between israeli soldiers and palestinians protesting against israel's ongoing land confiscation policy and settlement expansion tear gas and bulldozers were used against demonstrators in a village near nablus meanwhile there were further clashes between police palestinians and settlers near ramallah. and also pakistan's top prosecutor. who was investigating the murder of the ex prime minister benazir bhutto. has been ambushed and shot dead in the capital islamabad you've been looking into the two thousand and seven assassination bhutto which charges brought against president pervez musharraf no one has yet claimed responsibility for friday's attack. election and he was shot dead on their way home from friday prayers. well after months of checks and acoustical tweaks petersburg's the fitter has held it there is a link opening goal on his ambitious new stage the seven hundred million dollars

venue is the first new russian opera to aspire to global significance since the time of the zones was. to be able to say who is there to see it all the doors are open to the general public for the very first time in the marine ski to. know your suitably taught or glamorous looking they're enjoying that first lot for the general public tell us more about it. yes it was in the thirty's it's dollar opening was just spectacular but today it is a pin up for the public the marines. they've waited ten years to get a seat at a ticket inside this auditorium inside this space indeed tickets range from about twenty five u.s. dollars to about one hundred u.s. a so if you take it then you're missing only on a wonderful with the former ambassador the us ambassador rather are finland bonnie

she told me about what makes the space so spectacular and so different to the ones around the world. stability and and the facade is magnificent and so i think the most important thing is that the moment you know that it's something unique and fashionable and it's like a little jewel and think it is for and let's face it think peter's it's a jewel in and of itself is all about. the ballet absolutely going to be sure to readjust and off and i'm waiting for. these and. the bride obviously but i need a very excited to be here just as we are and of course i'm not but myself. on with our very own martin andrews yes martin bonney spoke about this being the jewel of st petersburg is that once you got from of the last a couple of days that we've been found i would say that many people before it was

unveiled many chorus many upset people they thought it was that golden potato that i was if they showed the rumor going that was going around that this would be a possible failure it was over the budget people were stressed with the technics over the elaborate stagings what but it certainly has the critics have been silence during his last ride tonight are just gobsmacked what this theater holds i want by saying before i was just flabbergasted sensational absolutely sensational now of course martin was a backstage early on and we saw just it was a whole production made for russian audiences and of russia celebrating art and culture here in russia i think that to the public you know walks away today just feeling absolutely just that it was an amazing amazing so of course we will bring you as much detail as we can throughout the evening so do stay with our id with me to vomit there from st petersburg at the marines be at the sea thanks very much

indeed to be a moat and then live in st petersburg. one zero in a few minutes from now here. we'll be talking to the former u.s. ambassador james jones about the treatment of detainees at guantanamo bay the u.s. drone policy and much more stay with us for that. famous american political figure ron paul has decided to create critical at ron paul curriculum back 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 cultists 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 mr 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 is 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 down to the very basement of the lowest common denominator i mean if you think there should be more in a high school graduates had besides reading right now to richmond to that homeschooling might be for you as art sports and music and science programs all across the nation bad total lack of funding is wrong post 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 holidays 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 method it's produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means present and former u.s. government officials were part of the task force with me today is invested and james jones who co-chaired the group who's also

a former pastor to mexico sir thank you so much for coming in 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 are 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 you'd 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 the where the where the our 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 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 for the administration to use waivers to some of these men and get those waivers are not 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 it'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 one of the administration is not releasing those for which they have no case whatsoever. is that it's politics politics in what sense can't explain it. well sometimes politics doesn't make any sense 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 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 the only reason why there are not released so many of these men have fallen victim not

just to 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 and 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 tried 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 were than half of those that want on a mo should not continue but do you think it's a form of torture indefinite detention itself while i think there 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 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 obviously 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 there but 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 black eye for the united states. the new york times has recently published the plea over yemeni national who's been in prison that kuantan of all without charges of any kind for more than eleven years and here's 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 yemen this makes no sense i'm a human being not a passport and i deserve to be treated like one this is 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. on less it's part of a national discussion national conversation few will actually know and care about the. why is it not part of the national conversation well nobody's taking 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 fellow americans and we need to hear they were in 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 detainees foreign nationals who will not go away for political victory or any political scores it seems so they just nobody thinks to be interested in that well there that's what i'm saying is until you highlight and publicize put spotlights on the kinds of treatments they're getting you're not going to have anything done in it's happening 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 it is 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 treaties there will

be an ability to have justice redressed with with them just 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 allegation of wrongdoing had to be heard in public but that's the u.k. and i want to ask you about that here was 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. in those two countries and whether

there was torture and treatment this maltreatment of prisoners there are detainees there and you know states has not cooperated with that under the so-called state secrets. and we have suggested that we should cooperate with our countries there. and that's one of the recommendations of our report. not to use the states. and their way. 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 are not co-operating at all signed or standing thank you thank you mr o'keefe thank you.

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