officials agree on the wording of a security which will give us troops. immunity from local prosecution however. has yet to be convinced. the taliban. that work those that are trying to. look at the allegations the us millions of dollars to companies linked to terrorism . also with the british government warns christian. countries. of the impact of.

joining us today. headlines for this hour. america has allegedly given a worth more than one hundred fifty million dollars to companies in afghanistan that are suspected of links to terrorist organizations in fact the revelations come from an investigator who was specifically appointed by the us congress. picks up the story. special inspector general for ghana stand reconstruction found out that the pentagon has hired forty three companies with suspected ties to terrorist networks the data come from the pentagon's own classified investigative reports and commerce department list of terror connected companies now the list of the forty three companies including a road construction firm presumably owned by

a leader of the colony network the network was blamed for an attack on the u.s. embassy in kabul that killed sixteen people two years ago the u.s. army has carried out a classified investigation and said there was evidence of a direct role of both the company and its owners in the facilitation and operation of the network and that approximately. from one to two million dollars per month close to the network to finance its activities the inspector general said i've seen the information and it made my hair stand on and he said well not just his united states government subsidizing. the taliban and al qaeda have cannae network those groups that are trying to shoot and kill our soldiers from these specter general members of congress have heard about billions of dollars simply wasted in of ghana's then now they have evidence suggesting that u.s.

taxpayer money goes to finance terrorists or suspected terrorists the same networks that the u.s. is fighting despite these findings the pentagon has resisted permanently blocking the companies from getting more u.s. contracts because his lawyers say they cannot use the evidence against these companies because the evidence is classified especially expect a general for against them we construction pointed out what he called the absurdity of it he said we can probably attack them via drone on monday and will issue them a contract on tuesday in washington i'm going to check out our team. and in the meantime washington has moved one step closer to securing immunity from prosecution for soldiers who remain in afghanistan beyond twenty fourteen now the u.s. secretary of state john kerry he says the text of a security agreement has now been settled on ultimately though it clears the way for thousands of american troops to stay on the ground and remain under u.s. legal jurisdiction today the document will be considered by

a three thousand member council of afghan elders who have come to kabul from all corners of the nation and the size of the remaining american contingent is also a sticking point that needs to be agreed upon sultanzoy as a candidate in the upcoming afghan presidential election and he says the current government has not considered the will of the people. i think the afghan president is trying to use this as a personal game people of afghanistan. and others who are involved in this country that we're tired of or we're tired of bickering and we're also tired of being playing politics with the lives of people of afghanistan on one hand the president wants to portray himself as a patriot on the other hand he's not able to even take care of corruption a rule of bringing rule of law and good governance that's what the people are suffering from he's trying to distract the people of afghanistan from what he

hasn't been able to do to for this country now legal immunity for american troops in afghanistan has long been an obstacle in relations between the two countries of the issue is made even more sensitive by some serious allegations against u.s. special forces. interviewed a journalist who investigated so-called claims of mass murder the special forces team the green beret eighteen as they're called was deployed to an isolated valley west of kabul where the taliban and other insurgent groups have a very heavy presence and what happened was over last winter the locals are complaining that the special forces team and the translators were murdering people torturing them abducting them and disappearing them just extraordinary allegations that at the time were essentially unproven now after the special forces team was forced out of the area by the afghan government bodies started showing up outside the base bodies that they said were the bodies of ten men who had been seen rounded

up by the americans and then were not able to be found either by the red cross or by the afghan government afterward so i essentially investigated allegation. testimony from locals from officials. about two confidential un red cross investigations that corroborate the allegations that suggested that the special forces and their translators were indeed responsible for these men's fate potential war crime allegations if they prove to be correct has there been any accountability for what happened well the military says that it opened a criminal investigation so they declined to comment for the story saying the political speeches but in the five months that i spent reporting the story no single one of the witnesses that i spoke to had ever been contacted by a u.s. military investigator so it really does beg the question of whether these investigators are actually going to be able to establish any sort of accountability for what happened there are still to come for you

a bit later this hour dealing with debt of the ever rising cost of living in the u.k. results in posts in all debt millions of families are unable to find enough money simply to pay for the. finale the program western officials are alarmed at the plight of christians in the middle east where they're increasingly becoming targets of sectarian violence britain's faith minister says the region is now seeing an exodus of biblical proportions with christians under threat of becoming extinct in some countries takes the story. for many christians in the middle east the arab spring has been wintry at best the international society for human life says that for want of if we five acts of religious discrimination in the world today a perpetrated and carried out against christians nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the middle east and north africa if you look at syria for example weight in

the state of the total population is christian a third of them have already fled from the civil war that started two years ago and that number continues to grow off to the murder of father best in years nasser last year in two thousand and twelve the threats and the persecution of christians escalated so much so that many today say the night me facing the questions of syria is the same night me that the questions everyone has been living under since the invasion in two thousand and three is the only a homo i believe it is all systematic and planned foreseen christians to leave in iraq for instance less than two hundred thousand christians remain we do have concerns we do hope we can stick to our land syria which is the cradle of christianity we also hope that the pope and heads of christian denominations shall call for denouncing violence and adopting dialogue in all this this here the

christian town outside of damascus was attacked by rebels tens of soldiers were killed and many residents fled it's still not clear how many of them have not returned to the village and where in syria they have been displaced only i visited the town of homes where syrian soldiers took me to the frontline and showed me the damage the rebels had carried out against a local church one hundred this is the church unfortunately it was not like that before look at this destruction in mass and from here the explosions were coming down on people praying and of course people started crying out for help from us because. priest was raised here and they were captured here in the church elsewhere in egypt to be muslim brotherhood supporters have blamed christians for the armies all stirred up a president mohamed morsy more than eight hundred christian sites were attacked and some fifty two churches razed to the ground while iraq after the american invasion

back in two thousand and three half of the iraqi christian population lived for middle east countries and american think tank the pew forum says that christians face harassment and oppression in one hundred and fifty nine countries this is maybe three quarters of all the countries on the face of the point see on television. america's unmanned drones are notorious for the deadly operations and flash points all around the world and now the european union also wants a slice of the sky leading aid you members are now signed a deal to co-produce their own drone technology and the plans of sparked fears among activists who say they use still lacks accountability peter all of our reports of that group has been dubbed drone club and their intention is to develop a new generation of unmanned aircraft over the next ten years now the reason that they're doing it this is that they believe they're being left behind when it comes

to drone technology by countries like the united states and israel currently both britain and france do operate drones they use the american bill to reprint drone interesting lee enough though germany has said that they are opposed to the use of any kind of weaponized drones and the european defense agency has being quick to point out the. technology however the use of drones particularly by the united states in countries like pakistan and yemen and the widespread civilian casualties that is being caused well that's left drone technology is a very emotive issue and here in germany and see war activists about the decision to develop them here are very very concerned i think that the very nice phrasing that they've tried to say it's just for to control human trafficking over the mediterranean airspace and so forth for surveillance purposes i don't see them

necessarily helping migrants coming from africa from lampedusa didn't help just to save any of those people so there is no control about these things they can say is being used for humanitarian purposes but actually they could be used for lethal purposes well this comes after a recent u.n. report that was somewhat damning of drone technology in fact refer to them as being a danger to global security and that by using these type of weapons it encouraged more nations to try and acquire them are coming up in just about twenty minutes or less abby martin probing the potential ramifications of what she is calling a global drone arms race. another cold war is technically over looks like a new kind of arms race is alive and well so european leaders have just announced they're forming a drone decision upon decades in the making and france germany and several other nations are pouring money into a new generation of armed drones to rival those used by the u.s.

and israel looks like all of america's unmanned kills are leading to a bad case of drone and b. but it's not just europe that has set its sights on these deadly robots for the last few years iran has been working on its own drone fleet this week the islamic republic on the veil that's the largest armed unmanned aerial vehicles to date capable of striking targets almost anywhere in the middle east in fact you a.v.'s are so popular now seventy six countries possess them according to government accountability office one can only hope that world leaders are taking into account the alarming inefficiency and deadly outcome of these drone wars because if they don't will find out the true danger of a global drone race. well good morning to you from moscow nearly quarter past the hour here in the russian capital love the rest of today's stories are waiting for you in just a moment. her

. face just feeds the. economic ups and downs in the final months day belong to the old sang night and the rest of the life doing the taking will be everything we own all to. put it under full strong arm and watch as the bank news all the face of your life you know alone. please. please.

a pleasure to have you with us here on our team today i roll researcher. the olympic torch is on its epic journey to structure. one hundred twenty three days. through down some nine hundred thompson cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand kilometers. in a record setting trip by land air and sea and others face. olympic torch relay. on march the marshy dot com took. the gods is woman. is pretty. good picks.

let's this is. worldwide news live from moscow for you today people in britain a baring themselves in loans and credit to meet the high cost of living and the level of personal debt in the country is close to an all time high and as ati's laura smith reports millions of families risk losing their homes just as they try to make ends meet. heroine london's main shopping dried christmas has already begun with all the exhausting spending that entails but millions of households across britain will be entering the festive season already saddled with

unmanageable debts a new report says personal debt has hit one point four trillion pounds as the rising costs of living forces people to borrow to make ends meet debts they ultimately wouldn't be able to repay that one point four trillion is an average of fifty four thousand pounds per household that's almost double what it was ten years ago and almost as much as the country's entire economic output that figure includes mortgages secured debts but the report warns that owns secured debt has also tripled in the last twenty years britain's fifty five point six billion pounds on their credit cards alone treble what it was fifteen years ago all that says the report has a how ruing effect on people and their relationships. change the chart he sees about half a million people a year in debts ruins their relationships it can really kind of

a lot of pressure pressure on their family life and and the stigma associated with that just makes it really hard for people to deal with their problems and they're about to feel the pinch even more despite historically low interest rates britons have failed to pay off as much debt as their american counterparts and when interest rates rise as the bank of england has promised they will as unemployment fulls mortgage payments will go up to potentially putting thousands of families out onto the street. now it all for you this moment a diplomatic spat involving over two thirds of all nations a group of one hundred eighty three countries a major u.n. conference on climate change right in the middle of the session. details are there for you right now as to why that happened. plunged into a legal battle after trying to register the brand name in russia ultimately

upsetting one of the country's oldest political parties. where you can. see. her struggle. and i think. we go it's day two of talks there on iran's nuclear program with all sides expressing confidence that a breakthrough could be possible it's off to israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu flew right here to moscow on a last ditch effort to get the russian president to toughen the terms of the proposed deal and the agreement being discussed would reportedly create

a six month diplomatic window for terror ron before a final pact can be negotiated during this time the country must freeze parts of its atomic program in return for limited relief from sanctions but israel thinks the deal will just buy time for tehran to make a bomb and is threatening a military strike against the islamic republic. we talked to one israeli journalist who believes netanyahu is efforts to prevent the agreement not likely to work. all indications at deal is in the making of course it could always fall through if one of the players insists on some minor point but the general direction is thoughts and agreement. and many in the israeli public think it's a very good development contrary to what. i. would make it

appear and i will be keeping us posted of course on the second day of talks in geneva but if you want to learn more about the negotiations with iran just head over to watch dot com. the meantime here on the program fracking is offering governments around the world access to potentially vast amounts of energy resources largely ignoring widespread protests over the method which involves breaking up rocket at least one kilometer below ground opponents say there could be grave environmental consequences warning the use of explosives in chemicals contaminate water supplies polluting the air on the ground a san francisco based climate campaign director rose bratz and she believes the fracking industry is wasting its time in pushing this new technology aqim has been associated with air pollution water contamination water depletion earthquakes

and of course climate change you know across the u.s. and internationally these threats are just being quieted by oil and gas companies reaching often confidential settlements with people who are desperate to get some compensation for the damages they've suffered owing gas companies have spent billions of dollars. really selling as you know a story about how fracking is safe and their reality is quite different. world update time here on our t.v. to pakistan we go where officials say a suspected american drone strike in the country's northwest has killed six police say the unmanned aircraft fired at least three rockets at an islamic seminary killing teachers and students are burning their bodies beyond recognition to afghan militants were reportedly among the dead in pakistan is publicly against covert cia drone operations with recent independent estimates suggesting up to nine hundred

civilians have been killed since two thousand and eight. hundred of protesters in italy throwing smoke bombs up police they responded with tear gas and brute force scuffles broke out in a square in central rome where people had gathered to protest against a high speed rail link between italy and france the opponents of the project argue it's a waste of money and would end up hurting the environment rally was time to coincide with the meeting between the italian prime minister and french president who arrived in rome to discuss these. shifting gears to iraq now where a series of deadly bombings across baghdad has targeted crowded areas most of them shia neighborhoods thirty five people killed dozens more wounded i rest is spiraling in iraq two thousand and thirteen the deadliest year since two thousand and eight the total number of lives claimed by violence in the country since two thousand and three that is estimated at approximately one hundred twenty thousand

with four thousand suicide bombers having carried out attacks on police posts schools mosques and busy streets as well john whitehead journalist who has covered the issue extensively he says the iraqi government is unable to control the radicals who for years have been pouring into the country. the antiwar movement in europe and the united states predicted that this is precisely what would happen if . the new key went into iraq as they did in two thousand feet so this is a key so of the chickens coming home to roost but we can't the entire region is in complete chaos because of this regional conflict and there's difficult for security forces in iraq i'm sitting here to keep a lid on these things that's why it's important that the west who is pressure on the position. to stop fighting and to come to the bushing table but to isolate these sunni fundamentalists they have no place in the future of the region

now online same as created a timeline to track the growing level of casualties in iraq just a click away co. i could have you with us here on r.t. today thank you for joining us it's about time for breaking the set as promised i mean martin the looking at how world powers are doing their best to outmaneuver each other in the production of it's live from moscow it's out.

in my research i randomly came across a sad statistic according to the center for the constitution only twenty eight percent of americans have actually read the constitution although the overwhelming majority claimed that they understood some of it and now we see why the constitution especially the bill of rights are getting whittled away the average person doesn't really know what their sacred covenant with the government actually says which means the government can get away with reinterpreting the agreement to suit their needs and not yours because no one is the wiser but if you think i'm going to say we have rich american how dare you then you are wrong the problem is that any kind of philosophy or ideology or just even asking why seems to be getting out of favor in educational systems all over the western world and beyond i mean

shouldn't the average american be taught in school about you know america and like the constitution and capitalism. can the society advocate praise or defend values they don't have any idea about please let's get the stuff back into the educational system but i shift my opinion. to. the the. it's going on over on i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set and the cold war is technically over looks like a new kind of arms race is alive and well so european leaders have just announced

they're forming a drone club decision upand decades in the making and france germany and several other nations are pouring money into a new generation of armed drones to rival those used by the u.s. and israel looks like all of america's unmanned kills are leading to a bad case of drone and b. but it's not just europe that has set its sights on these deadly robots for the last few years iran has been working on its own drunk fleet this week the islamic republic on the veil that's the largest armed unmanned aerial vehicles to date capable of striking targets almost anywhere in the middle east in fact the u.a.e. views are so popular now seventy six countries possess them according to government accountability office one can only hope our world leaders are taking into account the alarming inefficiency and deadly outcome of these drone wars because if they don't will find out the true danger of a global drone race. it

was a. very hard to take a. life that had sat. would that hurt their little little little little. me live look. look look look. look. look look look look look look look. like. this week another round of talks between the u.s. and eleven other countries regarding the transpacific partnership for t p p are taking place in salt lake city throughout the week people have been demonstrating and protest the potentially disastrous of.