some. of our. eavesdropping on allies the latest n.s.a. leaks shows the agency has been monitoring the german chancellor's cell phone for over a decade adding fuel then to europe's frustration over u.s. surveillance practices also this week. i remember flying out of the window in suddenly i was in the street and in a panic are to talk to survivors of that suicide blast that hit a crowded bus in the russian city of volgograd. america's unmanned killing machines draw condemnation from amnesty international and human rights watch who say that drone strikes in pakistan and yemen may constitute war crimes. and the syrian government presents its plan to destroy its chemical weapons while nineteen opposition groups refused to attend that long awaited peace conference in geneva.

live from the r.t. do center it's ten pm here in moscow it's kevin with you this very good have you company it's a weekly top stories of the last seven days and the german chancellor has been the target of u.s. surveillance for over a decade it seems according to a leaked and they say documented by german media it follows early reports of american spies tapping the phones of dozens of world leaders in a phone call to president obama merkel said the monitoring would be a breach of trust as she put it will syria in a minute if confirmed she also said that spying among friends does not work a bomber apparently apologized and reportedly claimed to have had no for knowledge of such practice is there they go nice into change. germany's billed newspaper goes

as far as suggesting he actually courage the bugging of merkel's phone the documents no show that her number was on the n.s.a.'s watch list from two thousand and two three years before she became chancellor comment from former french prime minister dominic de ville pyne he says he never expected american surveillance to go this far we knew that. some practices were existed but the search and overall system this came as a surprise for everybody in fact what we are seeing today is that the incredible privileges of the u.s. administration over the control of the world system we knew that the u.s. were controlling the financial system through the banking dominance of some big banks through the dollar currency reserve currency but controlling internet controlling the information you know world this is a privilege in monopoly if we are going to follow up in the same direction then

confrontation might be the look to. so be you leaders of the modern explanations from washington france and germany are pushing for a new deal on transatlantic surveillance now angered over the reports that the n.s.a. has been tracking the phone calls of thirty five world leaders and the statement warned a lack of trust could harm its partnership with washington and germany's also are teaming up with brazil to push for a u.n. resolution or restraining u.s. surveillance but u.n. diplomat load of a new says europe's anger is unlikely to go beyond formal statements. on the longer term and a few weeks after the media john down the big issue it will just go on and business as usual that is my expectation there will not that big any real measure it will remain states who have mental problems in i mean did their problem is not that their spying their problem is a score of their florida this year that they have been caught that's fine not that's another that's another matter altogether and if he is why do they do it not

just terrorists do they're for economic reasons they want to know what europe is going to do to world of brics countries who are easier to work because they are a free that they are losing ground. domestic shock waves are being felt as well thousands right in washington d.c. on saturday venting their anger against the n.s.a. and demanding reforms of federal surveillance laws the protests was billed indeed as the largest probe privacy demonstration in american history from where he's going to teach a cam reports. thousands of people gathered here on the anniversary of the signing of the patriot act twelve years ago they believe that was the day when in the name of fighting terror their rights have been taken away from them they believe that the tradeoff between security and privacy is a false one people here say that they're tired of lies that the government has been telling to cover up their mass spying after all just a year ago the director of national intelligence james clapper said no when asked

whether the n.s.a. was collecting data on millions of americans edward snowden's revelations of course confirmed that was a lie and the latest i've heard was that just within a month the n.s.a. spied on more than one hundred and twenty four billion phone calls worldwide that means that every single person on earth is facing the risk of being caught up in the n.s.a. dragnet and the person edward snowden thanks to whom this protest is happening is now holed up in russia because here in the states he would sure be in jail by now people at this rally dows of people in fact demand a meaningful surveillance a long way for him they came with a petition signed by more than five hundred thousand people demanding congress investigate the n.s.a. spying programs through the senate judiciary and intelligence committees planned hearings on those programs so they want to make sure that their voices are heard actually one of the main messages of this rally is watch the watchers but the

question is is there really possible because so far any light that's been shed on the watchers was through whistleblowers in washington i'm going to check on. them for more details not played so much buckle for privacy as well as expert analysis on those n.s.a. leaks and the outcry that they've been triggering to. a suicide bomber killed six people in russia's southern city of volgograd on monday dozens more injured when the blast went off on a packed bus artie's in france retraced the events of that sad day. october twenty first started just like any other monday here in volgograd people woke up with places to go and things to get done heavily using bus stations just like this but for several people needing bus number twenty nine they could never have foreseen how quickly their lives would change when they took that ride. the route ran without incident from morning till afternoon it's

a one person got on board thirty year old lie you see all of that is when things took a tragic turn anastasio veronica was on her way home from classes at the university laughing and talking with the other students crucially it was in the middle of the bus which stayed true to life. when the blast hit everything around me went flying and then i don't remember anything but i remember flying out of the window and suddenly i was on the street and in a panic i understood that something happened with my hands i was covered in blood but it was right here at about two pm local time that a blast ripped through bus twenty nine filled with about forty people first responders thought it was perhaps a malfunction of the bus fuel systems but aside from the shop they felt to ask themselves if this was a gas explosion where the fire is going to go with the same rock or that everybody in the blast was touching their faces and heads asking what happened what happened

there was a lot of blood on them and a lot of flesh everywhere i was very afraid i got out of my car and i saw a headline there and he had my friend took a young boy and his father to the hospital the remnant of an explosive device told the tale shrapnel t.n.t. and a grenade the accident site became a crime scene while edgy hardest from republic of dagestan became the central focus of the investigation authorities will be keen to find her husband teacher sokol of an ethnic russian convert to islam missing since two thousand and twelve in the hope he may have the answers lindsey france r.t. in volgograd. america's own during unmanned aerial strikes in pakistan and yemen should be regarded as war crimes according to a report released this last week by the human rights group amnesty international and that's despite the u.s. government's attempts to play down the civilian death toll from its drone campaign

let's take a look so the numbers on the news all here so it pans out all began in two thousand and four under the bush administration the number of drone victims saw dramatically then in two thousand and six almost one hundred were killed and another escalation came in two thousand and eight seventy five lost their lives there on the two thousand and nine hundred sixty two the year barack obama took office and the record number of strikes from unmanned jets were recorded over the next twelve months you see the figures go up and up and up the drone strikes continue the obama administration's responsible for about ninety percent in fact of all the strikes curried out since two thousand and four almost a thousand civilians have been killed including up to two hundred children according to some estimates the total number of drone fatalities in the region now tops three thousand three thousand six hundred even more we think arties lucy calf enough looks into the latest report from amnesty international that. the predator drone remotely controlled and heavily armed it's the weapon of choice in the cia's

undeclared war in pakistan that's where the u.s. is believed to have launched more than three hundred strikes since two thousand and four the target suspected taliban and al qaeda militants the white house says better drones then boots on the ground and justifies the covert program as both affective and legal america does not take strikes to punish individuals we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the american people not so according to amnesty international in a damning new report the human rights group warns u.s. drone strikes could amount to war crimes documents recent killings in pakistan's northwest tribal areas and the lack of transparency surrounding drones this is a secret program in fact in our case we've found at least in some cases they've clearly killed civilians and some of these cases might be war crimes that really concerns us one such case is that of sixty eight year old man nama bibi killed by a u.s.

drone last october she was picking vegetables with her grandchildren when that attacks took place a double strike the children miraculously survived. most of them i heard that. the first hit and the second hit my cousin. but her grandmother's body was pulverized these missile fragments are all that remain of amnesty documents other such cases but its main point the need for transparency and accountability the u.s. must explain why these people have been killed people who are clearly civilians must provide justice to these people compensation it must investigate those responsible for those killings now in a separate report a u.n. investigation looked at thirty three drone strikes around the world not just in pakistan that violated international humanitarian law and also resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties that report also calling for more transparency and accountability from the united states reporting from moscow i'm lucy catherine of.

coming up by a convicted terrorist has walked free in spain following european court ruling and apparently some of the name of human rights so we'll be looking up the protest spot that by that controversial decision and bring in some analysis on it right after this break. they're doing whatever they want in syria these days and even the obama administration can do nothing to rein the saudis in and i think the sad answer is that the united states doesn't have the power that it once had it doesn't have the leverage that it wants tries to work through allies through international organizations and occasionally on its own and deal with the court of public opinion . the best america can but there are there is a lot in the toolbox right now they're not many tools live.

dramas that can't be ignored. stories others who refused to notice. the faces changing the world rights next. to the picture of today's leaves. from around the globe. brokenly. alone again in madrid thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest against a court ruling in favor of the bar separatist movement etter the european court of human rights has ordered spain to release one of the armed groups most of taurus members in is still real has been in jail since the late eighty's for her role in

twenty three killings the spanish government accepted the court's decision but bore that it sets a dangerous president john locke the influence to democracy and cooperation told us the stroudsburg courts do exactly the opposite of what it was created to do. it's incredible isn't it that the european court of human rights should intervene in this way to alleviate the sentence of a woman who is feeling convicted to due process of the murder of more than twenty three people this woman is a mass murderer and the idea that a body the european court of human rights which was set up to safeguard citizens against the abuses that could be committed by states it gets through in citizens that such a body should now be as it were to beaning in favor of people who have themselves grossly abused the rights of citizens by murdering them the series of car blasts across the rocks killed at least fifty four people and wounded many more

most of the attacks were around baghdad targeting shiite muslim districts iraq is in the midst of its worst sectarian bloodshed in years with almost a thousand people killed last month alone let's talk about this now with investigative journalist gareth porter joining us on the line i go according to the types like they were the typical of al qaeda or are they or does it tell us is continuing violence about iraq's capacity to combat radical militant groups. well this of course has been going on now for years and the departure of u.s. troops in iraq has been one of the major developments since two thousand and eight that has not really affected the continuation of violence between the al qaeda related militants and shiites in iraq and i think this has to be understood as one of the most serious consequences of the u.s.

intervention in iraq which was clearly not anticipated but which should have been anticipated by u.s. policymakers which is the fact that there was no al qaeda presence in oil qaeda. capability for terrorism in iraq really before the u.s. intervened and within a year. of u.s. troops arriving in iraq was a major factor in the weather in the war there and so it was a question why it begs the question doesn't the obvious question why didn't they see it coming there are very many bright strategies bright minds and in washington the pentagon surely thinking this through you would have thought well these were bright minds only in one sense that they were great about. thinking up strategies that would give the united states military greater role in the middle east what

about the any game but. it was the consequences of of those strategies yeah i mean what was so well how far ahead were they looking then you know what they've made it back in so many ways here are they i mean this is been the bloodiest year in iraq now since two thousand and eight why this particular spike now there what are you putting out then to. i don't know the answer to that it could be for any number of reasons that you have various moments during a particular period or a year when there are higher levels of violence but i think the more important point is simply that this is a perennial problem it is not being it's not any closer to being solved now than it was a couple of years ago and there doesn't seem to be any way out of it that the iraqi government is capable of providing there are reports now that rex promises playing

to ask obama to speed a bomb shipments to his country how do you think the u.s. is going to respond to those calls well the u.s. just going to automatically say that that's a terrible idea. that is because the united states has chosen to make iran an adversary in the region and in global politics and therefore it's an automatic response but i think that in fact united states if it were a rational actor in this situation would be consulting closely with iran. if not in order to try to deal in a way with this problem that makes some sense and one of the things that doesn't make sense is the united states to continue to act as though it were in a position to somehow unilaterally help to bring stability to iraq or just simply not the case because paul it has store and if it's going to lose thank you phyllis tonight the syrian government submitted this plan to destroy its chemical weapons

meeting an internationally imposed deadline now the peace efforts in the country been dealt a setback nineteen opposition groups refused to take part in a long awaited geneva conference which was supposed to board all sides to the negotiating table for the pentagon official michael maloof says the rebels including the stream is factions have been emboldened by continuing western support . the united states cannot be caught in the position of giving arms to the moderate so-called moderates when in fact most of those weapons would go to the opposition they just take them away if you know the at the extremists already control about seven of the eleven palestinian camps already and. in syria and they're using them as the base of operations and they're intimidating the moderates and the moderates of course are can't stand up against the more extreme elements and they just don't have the the capability in the fight in the fighting fighting power to do that reporting to you tonight he cryptocurrency because battle for mainstream

acceptance is gaining momentum the first ever a.t.m. no known customers to turn a big callings into hard cash is about to be launched in canada who read more about that find out more about it can on our website. and the profits may be skyrocketing but they're managing nonetheless to steer clear of the taxman find out online from us what tools the riches corporations in the u.s. are using to do just that. international news making headlines tonight no brief a chinese immigrant in new york's admitted stabbing to death his cousin's wife along with their four children the victims were found in their own apartment in brooklyn on saturday night the motive for the crime remains unclear the suspect been staying with the family for the past week. in india at least five people have been killed in the string of blast before the start of a political rally in over seventy but ensured the explosions happened just before an appearance by opposition politician rendered modi who's a candidate for prime minister in next year's general election bombs went off at

a train station in lated near the venue of the political gathering no groups claimed responsibility so far. georgia's been voting in a new president springing to an end because decade in power votes are still being counted but accept all this point now to a result of victory for. the ruling party's candidate your game marvellous really is my main rivals already in fact conceded defeat marvelous really is a former education minister and have the backing of the country's billionaire prime minister both men are outspoken critics of the outgoing president of the river national takes a look at what makes mr successfully such a divisive figure. they are among the maze determined detractors of georgia's outgoing president. they follow me how selfishly everywhere to leave him in no doubt of where they stand. circus really was the once popular leader of the rose revolution the

first color revolutions which saw power change in post soviet republics. in the last days of his near ten year presidency even former allies are on the attack. after his successes start of building an authoritarian regime the media was attacked one million people fled one quarter of the population went through the penal system they were either arrested or interrogated in two thousand and seven police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters one thousand cycles phillis government to resign. in two thousand and eleven they did it again. boudin i'm ugly there are people who are afraid to express or even have their opinion if they faced injustice they failed to report it as good a fact their families. told me his brother used to run the state audit office and claims he was tortured in jail when he took his case to the human rights cotton

strasberg told nikki says he too was arrested over fabricated case becoming another recognised political prisoner. i got eight and a half years if it wasn't for new premier vanished really i wouldn't have got out. in just one week i saw they took out four dead bodies from jail they said those young men died from diseases but that's nonsense days before last october's parliamentary election videos showing young emails being humiliated and beaten became the last straw for the georgian people selfishness party lost but this georgian media veteran says the public euphoria over circus really is defeat is tempered by how much the people had already lost individually and. promoted georgian people are still ended and the nation with history and we started to live in it we started moving away from our soviet past or to be our heroes of the hour genius he managed to convince the entire world and under the flag of democracy we

got fascists as georgia's a left or it votes for many here it's less about welcome in the future but saying goodbye to their past the law prevents macao circa srila from running for president again now has a mission is life far away from politics in the wine business but the public seems in no mood to simply let him fade into the background there is a strong desire here in georgia for circus related to be broad justice and it seems his detractors won't stop until that thirst is quite changed. r.t. tbilisi georgia. the next full news bulletin in thirty four and a half minutes time with me kevin zero eight next though after the break he was on a boy because he talks to a former u.s. envoy to saudi arabia about whether the two allies relationships started to crumble ahead that is just.

it seems like politicians can get away with anything nowadays but not all of them the former mayor of failed detroit has been sentenced to twenty years in prison after being found guilty of committing record tiering conspiracy fraud extortion and tax crimes while the mayor the prosecutors say he funneled millions of dollars to himself and family members all while detroit moved headstrong towards the bankrupt state it is in today this is big news not because some mayor took bribes but because he got punished the judge who convicted him stated why this is such an important case she said at the very least a significant sentence will send a message that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated yes sending a message you see corrupt officials are usually cowards and they do what they do because they feel they can get away with it when you start to put the fear of god into them they start to behave much better so the question is will the mainstream

media grab the story and really use the conviction of detroit's former mayor is an example probably not but it would really help the country if they would but that's just my opinion. polling of welcome to well that's part of the fallacy of relationship has long been not only one of the most consequential but also one of the most sacred. that's two decades of behind the scenes deals the saudis have now made that displeasure over the american public is this a change of mood s. lap on the reast or final major cracks in the alliance well to discuss that amount joined by robert jordan a former u.s. ambassador to the kingdom ambassador in jordan it's a great honor to have you on the show thank you very much for having me now i know

that you were appointed to the ambassadorship by george w. bush taking up your post almost immediately after september eleventh attacks arguably one of the most critical times india a relationship between the two countries and i remember back then or dinner americans were quite mistrustful of the saudis and probably that mistrust was mutual but despite dad and dad very critical very difficult time officials rarely allowed this negativity to show in public speeches and policy pronouncements was that just the attic or are you indeed had no major disagreements that could be sort of swept under the rug well right after nine eleven we had to reestablish trust between the two countries and their leadership we weren't clear whose side the saudis were on initially and it took a while to work through that i have to give credit to the saudis for having helped us deal with that we ultimately ended up sharing intelligence cooperating very will

in the war on terror but at the same time there were there was a background of great of happiness with the american position on the israeli palestinian conflict show as we went into early two thousand. the president invited crown prince abdullah to come to his ranch in crawford texas. and this was a very significant invitation but crown prince abdullah was very reluctant to come because the intifada was in full force. yasser arafat was being held captive by the israelis at his compound in ramallah so you crown prince abdullah was very reluctant to come he finally decided to come and brought with him a videotape to show the president the violence that was being perpetrated by the israelis on the palestinian civilians i was actually at that meeting in crawford

and was very close to the situation and so if you look at it from that context the citee unhappiness with the american position on israel has been going on for quite a number of years while ambassador jordan as he just sad the relationship has never been particularly easy but i think there was always a signal code of ethics to a code that was broken just a couple of days ago when saudi arabia very publicly refused the security council see it and see that it's been logging for for almost three years and on top of that one of the country's most powerful politicians intelligence chief prince bandar bin sultan. allows himself to criticize american policies in public why do you think all of the sudden he decided to break these code of silence that saudi and american officials and then taint for a couple of decades already well i would say the last three or four years have not been.