the top story this hour a massive blast kills at least fifteen people including children outside a hospital in the libyan city of benghazi. police in the u.s. hunting for a group of gunman who went on a shooting rampage during a mother's day parade in new orleans injuring nineteen. the pressure on the syrian government support for the opposition leaders of britain and the u.s. present vision for ending the country's civil. spyware made by a british firm has allegedly been used to snoop on activists in bahrain we hear from a rights campaigner who is raising the alarm over the intrusive surveillance methods being deployed in the country up top stories this hour.

screen international news and comment live from our studio center here in moscow a car bomb has exploded in libya's second largest city benghazi the blast went off in a crowded area outside a hospital a middle east correspondent has more on this. as many as seventeen people have been killed and dozens wounded including children there are of course fears of the death toll wolf sort of the rise what we do understand is that the car bomb exploded in the call talk of the main emergency out jalil hospital in the eastern libyan city of the ghazi according to the libyan deputy interior minister he totally destroyed a restaurant and seriously damaged nearby buildings now doctors inside that hospital say that it is there was only one body that arrived in texas and that

makes it almost impossible to needed to establish than establish the number of people who have been killed i witness or say that people were hysterical beggared running about people were literally kicking body parts up off the streets now people are angry and there's a lot of calls within the social media for libyans to take to the streets and express their anger and march and demonstrate but they're almost just as many cause for libyans to stay at home because the situation outside is not safe at all what libyans are also tweeting is that while we have seen a string of attacks on local police stations over the past few days in benghazi this is something completely different to attacking embalming a crowded hospital which is of course a public place now the security situation in libya has remained precarious ever since the former libyan leader moammar gadhafi was overthrown on sunday they were two bombs targeting benghazi police stations there have also been a five attacks in total over the last month on benghazi police stations this comes

amid an increase in foreign stocks withdrawals on sunday the b.p. oil giant announced that it was pulling all non essential stuff from its libyan operations and this was based on the advice of the u.k. foreign office on friday evening washington announce that it was pulling some of its non-essential indices staff out of the country and it was also pushing e.u. based rapid intervention troops who are currently based in germany on high alert the u.k. foreign office is also announced that its removal. some nonessential diplomatic stuff because of security concerns and political uncertainty over the last few weeks we have seen is that investors both in company and also libyan ministries has been blocked by militia who have been demanding a no banning gadhafi officials from government. as we just heard a spate of attacks and growing instability continues to plague libya and shit but it's cool i know it's patrick henningsen from twenty first century watch dot com

says the u.s. strategy to align itself with radical groups is backfiring in libya and across the region there's been i have read i'm out of active by western intelligence agencies during the. course that culminated with what we saw on benghazi last fall when the u.s. had gone in trying to eliminate some but potential leadership in the. libyan government it's a broken off militias basically. over the last few years so it's a recipe for chaos and you know it's really sad because libya is going to. challenge and or have some semblance of law and order in the government in that country right now the whole north african region is awash with various islamist

radical groups and i'm sorry to say that this is a u.s. administration that is allied itself with the islamicists and they're having trouble training the monsters to be created. and you can track all the latest developments in benghazi on our website r.t. dot com we've got amateur video footage there and eyewitness accounts from the scene of the blast. police in louisiana hunting down several government who opened fire in a crowd during mother's day celebrations nineteen people were injured in the broad daylight attack during a street parade in new orleans what is more important has the details. well so far they have been no arrests announced but we do know that the new orleans police department has released grainy surveillance video they released that early monday morning showing a possible suspect in connection to the mother's day parade shooting in the footage you can see the crowd suddenly scattering in all directions with some falling to

the ground and it appears as though parade goers are running from a man who turns and runs out of the picture and the person is wearing a white t. shirt and dark pants the image isn't very clear but police are still hoping that someone will recognize the perpetrator and notify investigators police posted a series of still images from that grainy video on you tube as well there's also been a ten thousand dollars reward offered for information leading to their arrest and indictments in this case now law enforcement officials believe that more than one gone was fired sunday afternoon now by sunday evening a law enforcement officials were speculating that at least three people were connected possibly to the mother's day parade shooting an f.b.i. spokesperson characterized the shooting as street violence with no connection to terrorism now the victims from this shooting includes ten men seven women a boy and a girl both ten years old children were reportedly grazed by

a bullet but they are said to be in good condition at least three victims however were seriously wounded if this is connected to the ongoing debate in the united states over gun control a debate that has this country essentially divided look what u.s. president barack obama wanted to do with his legislation that failed in the senate was that he wanted to force tougher background checks on people that were attempting to buy a weapon now if investigators in new orleans ultimately find the weapons that were responsible for the shooting and they find out that those weapons were not registered were not were not sold to the people that use them or the people that use them got them illegally that goes back to the. the gun control debate that goes back to what many want to do in strengthening our access to firearms is have the proper procedures for people who want to buy a firearm so it's not clear yet if these guns that were used were illegally

obtained but if they were that speaks to the debate that is ongoing in the united states that is sensually still getting a lot of attention but not much traction when it comes to enforcing more gun control. the leaders vowing to step up the pressure on president assad in syria who support for the opposition the syrian civil war has been the main focus of prime minister david cameron's meeting with president obama in washington cameron said the u.k. will double its normal lethal aid to the rebels and push for the e.u. imposed alms embargoed to be lifted but he's going to has been following the talks . the u.k. prime minister is in washington as well powers are gearing up for a conference on syria that would bring representatives of the syrian government and the syrian opposition to the negotiating table president obama david cameron spoke about their hopes for syria they reiterated they want bashar assad gone and they want a transitional government to be put in place and in david cameron's words they want to shape that transitional government they want to shape the opposition david

cameron is here after talks with the russian president last friday at russia's black sea resort of sochi here's what he said about this new round of international efforts to mediate a solution we will come and president putin's agreement to join an effort to achieve a political solution to the challenges remain but we have an urgent window of opportunity before the worst fears are realized there is no more urgent international talks in this we need to get syrians to the table to agree on a transitional government that can win the consent of the syrian people but there will be new political progress unless the opposition is able to withstand the war and put pressure on assad is not a military victory so we will also increase our efforts to support and to shape the moderate opposition probably kid difference between moscow's approach to the political solution in syria and out of the u.k. and the u.s. has been insistent that it's up to the syrians to shape their government and that it's not up to russia or the u.s.

to say whether assad should stay or go that was the basis for the peace plan that major world powers including russia agreed on a year ago the so-called geneva communique it calls for the syrian government and rebels to agree on a transitional government leading to elections it was kind of strange to hear from mr cameron that russia has just joined these efforts to reach to bring about a political solution where it has supported exactly that all the way moscow and washington announced last week that they would be working to bring about together to bring everyone together to find a political solution to the searing. price is based on the plan but the success of the conference much depends on whether everyone will be pushing in the same direction that hasn't been the case so far the u.k. prime minister is pushing to lift the e.u. arms embargo two weeks ago the us said he was considering arming the rebels directly so far the us sort of with a silent nod has been watching its allies among the gulf states as they supplied

arms to the rebels the prospect of a political solution could be undermined on several fronts probably the most important of which is that the syrian opposition has not come out in favor of such a transition plan that would be negotiated with the syrian government and that's what war powers are now trying to mediate meanwhile experts agree that the alternative is a political solution is the prospect of a political vacuum in the event of the government all the while under the rise of islamic extremist groups. the government of bahrain as you surveillance software from a u.k. based company to spy on the leading rights activists that's according to documents filed in the london eye cooled by a founder of the rights group bahrain watch the manufacturers say the program is designed for use in criminal investigations previously campaign is a concern that the technology is being widely abused explain to me a little earlier how this program would. the way that it works is that it gets into a mobile device or a computer by user clicking on

a link in an email it's often disguised as an update for a program and then it effectively inspire or fin fish as it's also known it hijacks that device so it can then download the contents of your hard drive it can listen into your calls listen into skype conversations it can record anything that you type and turn the microphone on and off as it pleases bharti is reporting just today on the case of a bahraini political activist who also claims that she's been spied on around this time last year are four consecutive e-mails that look suspicious the first of those e-mails i actually did not suspect i tried to open for my phone from my laptop and when i did see that the attachment was opening i forwarded it on to a friend who told me i'm a virus so i was very astonished we discovered there was a company called gamma international which sells this software to foreign

governments we also know that the servers. receive this information from the software is actually based in bahrain so the servers are currently in battery and they're being updated in which this is further evidence. so you've gods in place to make sure that this technology doesn't get in to the wrong hands you just hear that it does exist but it doesn't surprisingly enough up until now the sale of this sort of spyware has been largely unregulated and it's likely to come under closer scrutiny now that these revelations have come about but gamma international themselves they've remained tight lipped about who they sell the technology to they refused to comment when i see i asked to speak to them today we have seen them trying to defend their reputation in the quest recently by saying that they do only sell to governments with the intention of catching criminals be it pete. files or terrorists but judging by these revelations it looks like some governments are

abusing that and defining criminal in very different ways now so far human rights groups have had difficulty ascertaining from the british government why it's allowing for these sales to take place privacy international provided an almost two hundred page dossier of evidence more than six months ago to him r.c. asking them that question asking them what they're going to be doing asking them if gummer international will be prosecuted and how to account unfortunately we spent the first three months without hearing anything we wrote them another letter this time representing one of the victims a british bahraini who'd been targeted by. at that point they still refused to tell us what they were doing and so alternately last month we filed for judicial review of their failure to provide any information about the state of any investigation into fin fisher as you've just had absolutely no reassurance from the british government that they're looking into this issue at all and meanwhile the calls for

sorting this out and really looking at the problem of getting much louder very recently the german foreign minister called for and the e.u. why did buy on on the sale of this sort of spy ware technology to any political regimes that could be potentially abusing the technology so it looks like the brits are going to come under increasing pressure to police the area much more heavily. a little earlier from london more news for you after the break this is our team in moscow. manufacturing consent or determining a foreign policy consensus washington in the halls of power in western capitals drive foreign policy decisions particularly when it comes to iran israel and syria is american foreign policy in the country's own interest. we speak your language.

programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you. but i want to turn to bangalore story. spanish to find out more visit. could you take three. point three. three. three. three. old freeboard video for your media project free video don carty dot com. continues here on a t. the idea that britain would be better off outside the european union is gaining

ground within prime minister david cameron's government both the defense and education secretary said no said they would vote for the u.k. to leave the bloc if a referendum was held right now on the sort of first reports from london. this is going to that so many like the prime minister is struggling to maintain control of this a plane among his own party a the e.u. if you know anything that a senior figures within his own party education minutes that michael gave come out and say that he feels that there could be. benefits leaving the event that sentiment echoed by the defense secretary philip hammond he said that he'd vote to leave if the referendum were on the basis of our relationship in britain with the e.u. as it stands today no rather embarrassing for the prime minister of course because he's in the us at the present time to press for a trade deal between the e.u. and the us that he claims could bring ten billion pounds that new benefit to

britain now they're becoming the prime minister that surely had a statement where he. when he's responded to these statements from senior figures and he said that he does seem to think there's a swing in the town even before the negotiation has started now this is in reference of course to his speech at the beginning of the year where he promised that if the party with a to do with a majority in the twenty fifteen general election that there would be in out referendum by twenty seventy all three of those renegotiation of britain's relationship with the remember a lot of people amongst his own party included want to see a substantial repatch relation of powers from the e.u. but of course there were many unanswered questions a predominantly a well would actually be considered a failure because of course if there's no guarantee whatsoever the person would i get that renegotiation of a relationship that's going to be

a lot of questions about the prime minister is only thirty within his own party this isn't any problem the split over the new issue is an old problem for the conservative party if you can imagine that the other parties right now are going to be absolutely gleeful so this whole family squabble is that once again being played out so publicly. so furthur in british conservative politician andrew rosendale believes that the country can enjoy a fully fledged trade partnership with europe while avoiding any political interference from brussels germany and france have come together to create this grand vision of a united europe well it was never going to work and that's being pretty today with the term all across europe because it was disastrous euro project and i think it's in germany's interest and the interest of france's world so in so have a different type of relationship with the rest of europe it's not just britain that would benefit from

a simple free trade agreement with the rest of europe i think everyone would benefit and hopefully we'll have a much happier situation with each nation deciding their own future and cooperating freely rather than being part of this e.u. straitjacket the e.u. was only actually created in one thousand nine hundred ninety two so you know the the idea that all of our trading would suddenly stop if we weren't part of the e.u. is nonsense we traded round the world for years and that will continue whatever happens time now for some other news making headlines around the world at this stage of the day and first to afghanistan where a roadside bomb has claimed the lives of ten civilians and left many others injured in the southern region of kandahar the victims including three children were in a truck which hit an improvised explosive device they were on their way to a funeral of two others who died in another explosion last week no group has claimed responsibility so far however in april the taliban threatened renewed violence and what they call their annual spring offensive. gary opposition

protesters armed with torches have clashed with security forces and broken through police lines during post election riots in the capital of fear election was overshadowed by widespread allegations of ballot fraud and as the opposition are testing the results which the former prime minister's party victory has stepped down amid corruption allegations and mounting economic turmoil just two months ago . europe's finance ministers signed off billions of euros a bailout funds today heavily indebted greece and cyprus received huge loans to prop up their ailing economies cyprus got the green light for the first three billion euro installment of its bailout agreed in march after tense negotiations with international lenders greece has been relying on cash injections for the past three years and it will now get another eight tranche worth four point two billion euros and also a further installment of three point three billion euros later this year well despite the greek government's claim that the money is putting the economy back on

track many believe the country is paying too high a price for that help as media culture over reports. as been three years says greece was granted its massive bailout by international lenders since then the harshest areas he measures have driven the economy into the ground but some claim that the risk hope on the horizon for grace and that it's about to turn a corner let's see now how greece's economy ferrous today compared to what it looked like in the last full year before it needed rescuing starting with the country's output g.d.p. an indicator of the standard of living that's plummeted almost fifty billion euros in the last three years while government data has thursday by forty five percent so where do the optimists sounds while the good news these measures have improved the country's budget deficit three point eight percent to put that in perspective it's now very close to the biggest sets by the european union but for the greek people

though of the most alarming trend is the unemployment rate that stopped twenty seven percent mostly the country's youth and that's going to get worse four thousand civil servants are being laid off this year alone with the number is set to triple by the end of the next year one expert says no matter how the number is set up now the money will still have to be repaid the greek government trying to image. it budget this is by simply slicing the public investment and continuing continuously delaying the statement about its directions so in reality if if that rig states. were ever money well as with most of. this it's so that's why they insist that it does i mean listen. we've seen the normally not.

meant to really prove there's so little that a real. states. government's economic policy policy is the what is the recession the very big question the elephant is over the size of this. as you know bailout agreements ireland in reality they have in greece. and during an astonishing six years of recession is also having a harrowing consequence so is science in greece which used to be the lowest rate in euro are rising rapidly mostly among the middle class troublingly people have taking their lives in public hanging or shooting themselves or even self-immolation while politicians and economists shuffle the figures as the people of greece spain the price with their livelihoods and their future these situations becoming

increasingly desperate at guantanamo bay where prisoners have been on a hunger strike for more than three months with the one hundred sixty six inmates at the u.s. facility in cuba were cleared for release years ago but have been given no indication of when they could be set free the hunger strike is a protest against prisoner abuse and indefinite detention without charge guards at the camp or feeding several of the inmates against their will to keep them alive a practice that the u.n. human rights office has described as torture but despite all the international criticism lawyers for the captives as well as rights activists say washington has yet to take any real steps to resolve the situation. i think it's such a sham that we hear the president say that guantanamo should be closed he is the most powerful man in the entire world why can't he close guantanamo well he can the question really is why doesn't he close guantanamo he is lacking the moral courage he is lacking the political will he blames congress but really he has the power to

release those prisoners who've already been cleared for release demand a speedy and fair trial for the other ones and bring them into the united states and close down the shameful prison the prison of guantanamo the force feeding seems to be a situation that is analogous to torture and this has been said by the american medical association and human rights experts they say that the way in which this is being done is so painful to the prisoners and those prisoners who have had a chance to get messages out to their lawyers have described the terrible situation that they are in being strapped down for several hours having these tubes stuffed down their nose and into their stomach and it says they say it feels like a razor going down their bodies so this is another form of torture and these

prisoners have already endured years of torture in the prison in guantanamo. that's it brings up to date for the moment i've got with the news team with wolf in just over thirty minutes from now in the. cross talk discuss the impact of american foreign policy on conflicts across the world that's coming your way after the short break. the illusion of safety trumping your right seems to be the main political theme of post nine eleven america i notice pushing the keep you safe at any cost more than new york billionaire mayor michael bloomberg who recently had to defend his stop and frisk strategy after giving

a speech to police brass stop and frisk is the practice of just being able to search anyone in new york at any time for any reason with your hands this gestapo style practice has been in place since two thousand and two but thankfully was finally recently found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge you know the fourth amendment all the talk about no unlawful search and seizure seems pretty clear to me why did this take so long to figure out bloomberg despite that silly constitution thing stands firm with this policy declaring if you end street stops looking for guns they will be more guns on the street and more people will be killed it's just that simple well to that i would say if you stop nazi style first kings of random innocent people there will be more freedom on the streets it's just that simple but that's just my opinion.

please see. below and welcome to cross talk we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle manufacturing consent for determining a foreign policy consensus who in washington in the halls of power in western capitals drive foreign policy decisions particularly when it comes to iran israel and syria is public opinion constructed to fit the interest of special groups and lobbies and is american foreign policy in the country's own interest. to cross-talk american for.