anywhere. in the u.n. after a syrian militant group kidnaps for its peacekeepers secretary general ban ki moon demands the hostages immediate really. cracks at the heart of europe is france rejects the stereotype while in britain the queen gets of pay rises her subjects further tighten their belts. and central asia royals in a violent wave of his largest unrest leaving nearby states hammering out plans to contain what is being the talibanization of the region. and i welcome you watching r.t. with me andrey farmer. the u.n.

is calling for the immediate release of four of its peacekeepers the troops were taken hostage by syrian rebel fighters in the golan heights the demilitarized zone between syria and israel we cannot go live to our middle east correspondent paula. paula thank you for joining us now we've heard reports that the u.n. mission could even withdraw from the region following these kidnappings do you think that's likely. well i don't think it's likely i've just gotten off the phone with the deputy chief of staff for the united nations peacekeeping force in the area and he says that they are definitely remaining there this follows the kidnapping of four filipino un peacekeepers who are being held in the ceasefire between syria and the israeli side of the golan heights now that is almost a no man's land not the israeli nor syrian forces can go operate in that area what we do know is that they were abducted while on patrol the u.n. does say that efforts are under way to secure their release and according to the

u.n. chief banking moon he has strongly condemned the abductions and he has called for the immediate release of these peacekeepers a syrian group by the name of the martyrs of published a photo that is the portuguese showing the four may have been held they also say that they're being held to quote for their own safety now according to the screenplay look clashes and heavy shelling in the yarmouk valley which is in the south of the separation zone it is important to make the point that back in march it was the same group that detained twenty one un up a service from the philippines before releasing them three days later now all of this comes just days after israel conducted airstrikes on sunday outside of the capital city of damascus and that is structures just forty eight hours after an airstrike conducted by the israelis late on thursday into the early hours of friday morning and do you think that the timing of this is significant because there have been accusations have been there which definitely undermine the reputation of the

opposition forces do you think there may be a link. there might be a link i mean certainly the timing is interesting this is not the first time that forces have been kidnapped in this area now the rebels' crimes are going beyond just the internal syrian conflict and what we've seen now is that this is merely adding to tensions in the area and there is reportedly a buildup of forces around the golan heights between the israeli and syrian side in this off to the israeli strikes on syrian territory last week the kidnappings could potentially see the rebels losing their overwhelming support or could even harm their reputation i mean one just has to look at washington which seems to be taking now a much more moderate position washington is a green that both sides should sit down at the negotiation table and this is not a position that they've had in the past of course it is a position that moscow has always held that there is a need for the damascus regime in the rebels to sit around

a negotiating table and hammer out their differences it also comes in light of an independent commission report that stated that the syrian rebels could have used did the nerve gas in the civil war so we certainly see the rebels coming under more pressure and losing face increasingly in the international arena and among former allies ok thank you paula that is our tease paul asli live from tel aviv thank you . next hour on r.t. crosstalk does examine the many unanswered questions thrown up by the syrian drawn out conflict and here's a taste of what is coming up. i disagree that there's any solution in which assad is going to remain in power that's simply not going to happen we need to be thinking about a post assad syria here's where i think actually russia has an important role to weigh to play they have been trying to do that and the americans have been saying no because obama i know what one of the one of the first obama lines is assad had to go and now they're both the ministration say look after two years he's not going

the only possible solution i agree from the beginning that's right he was proposing that let's sit down there are you there all the players as you are including all the regional players that includes hater iran says well is that in addition to them i mean saying no. we receive them. france and germany are more divided than ever on how to escape the financial crisis engulfing the european union as finance ministers met in berlin france rejected the slash and burn policy of hysterically saying public spending cuts need to happen more slowly but germany where jobless levels are at their lowest in nearly two decades is giving its neighbor no room to maneuver saying fiscal discipline is

still the way forward but across the english channel as the british tighten their belts another notch the royal family is a bank to get a five million pound pay rise as police reports from london. prime ministers first priority will be to reduce the deficit and restore economic stability at the same time the creed is set to get a five billion pound pay rise this year thirty six point one million pounds from the u.k. taxpayer will go towards the queen and her residence says her royal chefs and first men cost an estimated ten million pounds a year but the thirty six million is divided into money which runs the royal household of the queen and the duke of edinburgh most of it goes on salaries also on the upkeep of royal palaces such as buckingham palace windsor castle and all more royal trouble at home and abroad the british monarchy has become synonymous

with the image of britain because it is the world's most high profile maliki the queen of ages seven and a consul the duke of edinburgh at ninety one are remarkable examples of public service and of national unity but the costs to the public purse rises steadily as austerity sets in the five million pound increase in the queen's expenses from the state represents a fifteen percent rise vital services are being lost while the queen. it's this big pay rise and i think it's very unfair given that she is personally one of the wealthiest people in britain where the personal wealth of an excess of three hundred million pounds the royal family has over seven hundred servants six palaces they can quite clearly afford themselves to cover any increased costs they shouldn't be begging for the state it's

a royal spectacle such as the daily changing of the guards at buckingham palace the droves are terrorists from around the globe but in these times of austerity some of beginning to question why the windsors haven't tighten their belts along with the rest of the queen's subjects' last month the guardian poll found that eighty eight percent of brits weren't happy with the pay rise think this should give more to the poor not to get too much money to be sure not overly impressed to be honest i'm sure she's got more than enough money to survive. ok she brings in quite a bit on the toys some whatever but where does it go where where does it come people that i miss because i work i'm ok where caring you know they're being kept well where does it our progression of a moment i think elsewhere in europe royals have had to raid best spending in the face of public opinion the spanish royal family's budget has been reduced for a third year in a row the british monarchy actually stands out around the world it's completely

different to almost every other molecule that you can think of in the sense that they are still surrounded by so much home and circumstance and all the marching bands and the. horses why the long side the fancy carriages the published figures suggest that the royal family the queen and everybody else toss around something close to forty million pounds a year but doesn't take into account all the extra security all the police work for that that's involved in protecting her and the rest of the family and it doesn't take into account the money that she lost to the sticker because she. and prince charles in particular get lots of time to privileges that the rest of us on to entitle to and while the government has pushed through budget cuts to the national health service and slashed welfare as part of an unprecedented austerity drive there are those that say that prime minister david cameron's promise that britain is all in it together doesn't include the queen of england.

not being out of a job disabled or homeless they are no excuse against being jailed by some u.s. courts for failing to pay even the smallest debt on time an american civil liberties union report has revealed its fairly common practice in the state of ohio despite claims that it violates the constitution report investigates a midwestern us state. internationally recognized for being the battleground where america's next president is decided let's talk about the importance of ohio and in the battle for ohio state eighteen electoral votes mean so much elbows paying a lot of attention ohio ohio. you're probably going to decide the next president of the united states for the past thirty six years no candidate has entered the white house without winning this swing state while ohio undoubtedly wields an enormous influence in the arena of u.s.

presidential politics the state is currently garnering headlines for its prisons specifically the medieval type punishment being imposed on countless citizens who are drowning in debt according to a report released by the a.c.l.u. of ohio thousands of citizens are being locked behind bars because they are too poor to pay their debt and we saw some really troubling numbers one case that we looked at out of mansfield ohio there was a gentleman whose crime against the community was he let his dog walk in his mobile home park. without a lease he was fined thirty dollars and he ended up being found in contempt of court and was sent to jail for not paying for a thirty dollars fine fifty five year old jack jolley was incarcerated three times for failing to pay nine hundred dollars in fines every ninety days you had a jail date. and if you weren't working well you're going to jail debt prisons

violate the u.s. and ohio constitutions according to the a.c.l.u. most of the defendants weren't given hearings before being jailed for outstanding fines if the court had taken any time to ask whether or not they couldn't afford to pay that they would see that these were people who just simply cannot pay they were individuals who are homeless many who haven't worked for months if not years people who are disabled people who are taking care of disabled family members these are people who are working and just don't feel like spending the money these are people who literally have no money people like dante stiles who is unemployed and says he often has to choose between feeding his two children or paying his fines a promise so back and forth back and forth in court back before of constancio ten days here fifteen days here and while the cash strapped citizens are incarcerated in getters prisons. there are fines keep growing like credit card interest it's

described as a vicious circle it was seven hundred thirty thirty seven dollars ok at the levin days when i went back to court at the core course and paranoid the public defended it went up actually two hundred dollars more than one point eight million ohioans reportedly live in poverty and i want to get it behind me dolly lost his job last year after missing work for a ten day sentence in debtors prison just started the job i was probably there not quite a month. i was expecting a paycheck so i'd gone in early to get a paycheck so i could go in and pay on my flying. my release was terminated from my job dolly has received a fifty dollars credit for each of the sixteen days he was illegally imprisoned but most like styles have not and the state revered for predicting america's presidents has garnered a new reputation for how it punishes the poor. artsy ohio it is

just coming up to a quarter past so you here in moscow and i'll be back with a quick breath. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charging welcome to the big picture. place. to. play mission free accreditation free in-store charges free arrangement the free. free. free. download free blog plug in video for your media projects a free media our teeth on tom.

was cut i'm i'm. i'm . hello welcome back with international forces packing up in afghanistan the region's big powerhouses china and india are getting very worried about the spread of radicalism so much so that the two sides usually don't see eye to eye abroad brainstorming over how to contain afghanistan's especially virulent brand of extremism and it should be and explains what the region's places have to face. the u.s. prepares to withdraw the bulk of its forces from afghanistan by the end of two thousand and fourteen karzai stepping down with the elections coming up also in two

thousand and fourteen what's next the possibility of a power vacuum in afghanistan and the question what demons can emerge from that vacuum is of great concern to the whole region a vacuum in afghanistan seems to be nobody's interest here's a brief and very rough breakdown of what players regional and non regional are trying to achieve in afghanistan you ren despite the rivalry with the us has forty years supported the karzai government because having a completely chaotic and unstable afghanistan is a neighbor is obviously not good for them washington is of course interested in keeping the more or less centralized structure of the government in afghanistan for that the u.s. isn't ready to engage the taliban in talks and maybe see them as part of the government in the future that's right having fought the taliban for over ten years the u.s. is now talking about a political solution pakistan is the middleman here the message that they want pakistan to deliver to the taliban is that the allies are ready for talks on leave the taliban make on him big public break with global jihad is the telephone have

a strong pakistan although the pakistani government denies having much influence on them but pakistan's motives have been mixed to say the least on the one hand the help that you western the allies and pakistan it suffered greatly from the extremism that spilled over the border after the u.s. invasion in of ghana's then on the other hand they were accused of helping the taliban to keep leverage with them in case they get in power also as a hedge against indian influence so they have that rivalry going so as far as pakistan's interests it's been complicated russia possibly the greatest threat to russia faces now from afghanistan is the flow of afghan heroin that kills thousands of russians every year so russia has a state it has stated a clear interesting afghanistan that would be under control of a responsible government not plagued with corruption. a government that would help and this drug plague but what if global powers are on able to avoid

a power vacuum in afghanistan what could happen then if we don't work comes to the stage where we have to deploy our forces or support somewhere you may have to believe the only problem is in the past in the one nine hundred ninety s. after the soviet withdrawal described us external proxies led to a major civil war with. positive outcome one thousand nine hundred ninety six so we want to avoid that kind of civil war like situation now as far as the taliban the talks with them stalled last year after their failure to agree on the terms for the release of five afghan insurgent commanders held at guantanamo it's not really clear how far those talks will go because the taliban are not homogenous either part of them seems to think that once nato pulls out they'll be able to take over anyway so why negotiate in washington i'm going to check out across in bangladesh a senior cleric and almost two hundred others have been arrested for inciting the

mass unrest that quickly turned deadly early this week police are more than two hundred thousand hard line islamists there have been mired in running battles for days over violent demands to make blasphemy a crime punishable by death the government's refusing to budge though with police reportedly deploying live ammunition islamist factions are also demanding twelve other amendments that would ensure principles into law we know. mark a scholar on commonwealth country says it signals the gradual talibanization of bangladesh. but there's always been a movement actually in terms of allegiance or some common ground if you like between the groups in bangladesh and those in stone and then subsequently enough to understand what we tend to see that they have their own indigenous qualities as well but there's no question about it that there is in spiration. for them if you

like taliban days station of this and this is something we should keep an eye out for after the. attacks of two thousand the ones from berlin in two thousand and one the nationalist parties certainly opposed violently those are actually the use of pakistan as a means of attack on the storm certainly but with u.s. forces. there is a possibility that in future this might case. that it is provide some kind of means but it remains to be seen whether that will develop and i'm optimistic that it won't be quite as extreme in that sense but the signs are definitely there for potential. in pakistan violence and fiery rhetoric of reaching a peak with just days to go before the general election a mass rally was held in karachi where u.s. airstrikes and meddling were blamed for the for much of the unrest gripping the country there i may soon fall on britain after london and it had carried out its

first range strike in afghanistan operated by a british pilot he sat safely in the english countryside but is there a further reports the young man that milestone is no guarantee of the country's drain future. well the world's military drones used to be directed from a small u.s. base in a vase a bit knowing more after the cake carried out its first joint strike in afghanistan launched from u.k. soil in an area based in lincolnshire not many official details have been released about the drone strike in norway many likely to be given the level of secrecy surrounding the ministry of defense have confirmed that one of their reproduction is controlled by pilots from thirteen squadron at aria fording to an in lincolnshire fired a weapon supporting u.k. treats only ground in afghanistan. concern among campaign is at a recent protests here in the cave the organizers had said that they see this is

a sign that there will be further civilian casualties as a result of drone use and also the politicians would make it easier for them to be able to carry out military intervention now certainly many have seen this is a sign that this use in control of advanced train technology has now spread far beyond the u.s. indeed person alone has invested more than three billion dollars that's about three billion pounds in drawing developments and there are plans to further expand is trying arsenals now the control the sea surrounding these situations is highlighted again as the beginning of this year when the u.n. launched an investigation looking at the extent of civilian casualties. at the legality surrounding drone use now research team for the london university are assisting them in that investigation and their findings are going to be presented to the un general assembly in the also and based on what they find they could then

recommend that further action be taken as we're seeing this increase during usage with the u.k. having launched its first strike is proving ever more important to many campaign is that the legality and the questions a video needs an hour just properly in a clear and apron arena. the man known as russia's great cardinal has resigned as vice premier after more than a decade in the hallways of power like this are circle of departure is reportedly related to a slew of corruption scandals stemming from a high tech project he designed and i was still with for morning and his resignation let's talk to r.t. news editor i've across the ivor departure the reason well yes the great seems to take his own life as it were. operating his deputy prime minister in his cabinet and after what seems to have been a particularly he's a cabinet meeting yesterday where president putin expressed some of the happiness

with the cabinets failure to carry out instructions from the presidential office. his resignation shortly afterwards and that seems to have been accepted by putin without without any difficulty he was quite a character he was called the great cardinal explain why he got that eminence griese you know he. had come through a number of interesting p.r. positions in russia during the ninety's in particular he'd worked. it worked at alpha bank and then was picked up by the the television state national television group before being brought into the kremlin in one thousand nine hundred nine. part of the presidential administration of the chief of staff if i'm not mistaken he was the concept architect behind what we know is sovereign democracy behind the political ideological platform which shaped that amir putin and. particularly

putin's. putin's early presidencies two thousand two thousand through two thousand and eight and to some extent to be made videos afterwards so he was quite a notorious figure certainly to russia watchers and to correspondents based here he was always very very interesting mountain. watch and someone who's ever got for once was always dissected and discussed by local journalism correspondents alike and can you give us a flavor of what sort of thing he was responsible for the particular area sure. well i think most famous to right now he was behind the draw that was most significant part of to me presidential ministration to liberalize and to introduce the innovation culture into russia's economy particularly the. flagship project the. innovation campus now school.

science of major deals with some major international tech players but has been roiled in some corruption allegations right now where there's a allegations of some half million dollars being misappropriated in that sort of became involved in a public exchange of views with the prosecutors through the newspapers recently on that and it seems that maybe he. also well he also expressed recently the old school of economics at a speech he gave last week that he might be looking at a return to the business world where he worked quite successfully. and perhaps he's got a little bit too much for him in the presidential ministration and he thought it time to get out sounds like the still might be a void to fill that quite a character yes yes indeed. you never know where he might turn up next i can't thank you very much that's the party's. coming out we go beyond the mainstream headlines in our private graham things fina.

every detail. every piece of metal. and every one of those who wrote step on red square on the ninth of may are ready. for the victory day parade. watch the live coverage on our t.v. . download. the creation so you like stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television well it just doesn't work so well with your mobile device you can watch your t.v.

anytime anywhere. good afternoon and welcome the prime interest i'm pairing and boring here in washington d.c. and here's the stories that we're tracking today. the marketplace fairness act passed the senate yesterday and is headed for pushback in the republican controlled house the bill would require amazon a and other online retailers to collect taxes on all sales and send the proceeds to your state we'll have our own debate on this bill in just a bit also litigation a little bank of america has settled yet another lawsuit this one is with financial insurance giant m.b.i.a. which owes merrill lynch three billion dollars for insurance claims on bad mortgages that countrywide wrote but bank of america now owns both country why they want to settle the brother against brother sued bank of america is buying stock in

m.b.i.a. and giving them one point seven billion dollars they're just one big happy family. give us more money and that's the message the ses the chairwoman delivered to the house appropriations committee today we talk a lot about mary jo white here and today is going to be no different we have a special profile of her later in the show she's been up to a lot recently taking on jobs act implementation in mind in money market reform so it stands to reason that as he she will need a bigger budget right all right let's get to what's in your time and jurist. they'll lead.