firstly. olympic torch relay. on aren't you are. raising are going to and immunity from local laws the controversial demands for u.s. soldiers to remain in afghanistan are wrangled gathering of tribal elders. graves crops preparations for trade agreement with the parliament for jets a bell which was one of europe's main conditions for the deal. and. the use plans to launch its own drone program triggered a major concerns with activists a warning they'll be no guarantee the unmanned aircraft or the used for peaceful purposes.

and welcome to cheat twenty following news live from moscow my name is you know our top story. the u.s. troops may remain immune to afghan laws and still be carrying out military operations after the end of their combat mission in twenty fourteen basswood a draft security deal suggested and the afghan president is urging an assembly of the country's elders to support it but that's while admitting there is little trust between him and washington the loya jirgah council has started debating the draft guiding the role of american troops in afghanistan after there was draw up according to the fresh agreement up to sixteen thousand u.s. soldiers will stay for ten more years and possibly beyond they will be playing a support role forces while still being able to carry out military operations against al qaeda and its affiliates which also includes a rating afghan homes under exceptional circumstances an issue which has been

extremely difficult for afghans and here's another stumbling block the deal gives american forces immunity to afghan law placing them solely under u.s. military jurors just if occasion jura to. daoud sultanzoy a candidate in the upcoming. presidential election says the government is not considering the will of the people i think the afghan president is trying to use this as a personal game people of afghanistan. and all others who are involved in this country 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 rule 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. discuss the possibility of u.s. troops remaining in afghanistan after twenty four c. in one hour joined live by retired u.s. air force lieutenant colonel current. miss could cost welcome to r.t. it's good to have you with us the afghan president has said this support he supports the park at the same time saying there's little trust between him and u.s. officials why why is that why the discrepancy well i think he's actually proclaiming that there's little trust you have to remember we put karzai in the united states government in place to karzai as president about twelve years ago so he is our man there's a great deal of trust and i think the only thing karzai is afraid of is the withdrawal of his protection at the point that american troops leave afghanistan karzai must go with them if you want to remain a viable part. do you think the tribal leaders will approve the deal

i think that they won't approve it as written number one and i also don't think the parliament which also must approve the deal will approve it as written and of course you've reported this is what we remember from iraq that was the sticking point in iraq was jurisdiction over abuses in criminal acts conducted by american soldiers in the country itself so that's a huge problem it's a it's a sovereignty it's a clear sovereignty issue and it does galvanize people so i don't believe that the loya jirga or the parliament later will approve that aspect. without an accord the u.s. says it will pull out all its troops do afghan security forces have the capability to maintain stability in the country. well not not the kind of stability that the united states would want certainly no. part of the cause of the

instability in that country is that it is partially occupied by american troops in has been in a state of war for twelve years. this is. the stability that the united states would want it cars i would learn that certain beneficiaries of american money and american politics in afghanistan would want that stability will be gone however a new balance will be found power will assert itself and if that's taliban it may be the game but. it are the kind of stability it preferred by us yet that will be gone much as we've seen in iraq. and what kind of reaction could receive from the time to buy into this agreement. i'm sure that to taliban opposes this. this agreement because they don't want to merican troops there and the thing to remember about the taliban is not only have they ruled the country before and they have an infrastructure to do that and they are very popular in the country they are

also playing along ok not like we are they know that it's their country and they know that some day american troops will leave and they keep their eye on that prize if they can accelerate that certainly they will the agreement was to leave in two thousand and fourteen i'm sure that they will expect that that's going to happen if it doesn't happen they're still playing the long game they know some time some year the american troops will leave. and washington has said it will not apologize for anything that happened during the war or he'll take on bond. well we always say that every once in a while we do let loose an apology my opinion of it is that these apologies were rarely given me are even more meaningless they mean very little when american politicians apologize or when they don't apologize the facts on the ground are very well known and well understood by most afghanis. the wrong things evil

things have been done in the name of war in the name of democracy they have been treated as a check and all state by an empire you know what good is an apology going to do it's not going to change anything apologies actually seem to be more of a political tool back here at home and i don't think they'll get one but i also don't think they care if they get one it would be absolutely meaningless all right karen creates a retired u.s. air force lieutenant colonel thank you very much indeed for your time thank you for having me. and tell me our first steps to freedom some of the bailed greenpeace activists are reunited with their loved ones while the destiny for the rest of the arctic setting still hung in the balance our special report on the all platform storming cases just ahead. ukraine has decided to hold preparations for a trade agreement with the e.u.

it comes after the country's parliament rejected a bill which would have allowed the drought former prime minister yulia tymoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad while she's an ex a hash asking has more now on the tricky relations between kiev and brussels. the main condition is said by brussels that is letting the former prime minister walk free from prison or at least be sent for medical treatment to germany she is suffering from severe back problems has not fully been fulfilled but whether or not this association deal will be signed it would not be relevant to the gas deals and gas agreements that ukraine already has with several european and american oil and gas companies like chevron exxon mobil and royal dutch shell in fact he has already let them into their market i remember some time ago the ukrainian energy minister telling me that the amount of natural shale gas which ukraine possesses and we talking here potentially the biggest amount of shale gas in the whole of europe without would not only solve its domestic gas supply problem but also make it make

the country into an exporter in the region the government just so keen on pushing this extraction of shale gas that it's been to a large extent think electing the warring calls from the countries to call the juice i've been saying that fracking using fracking in the east of ukraine in highly populated areas would cause ecological catastrophe exploding. at the depth of one kilometer may cause poisoning of ground waters and this would make areas large areas in the east completely uninhabitable but in any case experts say that even if ukraine starts producing extracting shale gas from from its soil this would not happen until the twenty year twenty. and let's now take a closer look at fracking the method in balls breaking out rock at least one kilometer below ground opponents say they could be grave environmental consequences warning the use of explosives and chemicals contaminates water supplies and pollutes both the ground and air but advocates of the technique say it will help to

solve the energy crisis and create more jobs e.u. members are deeply divided on the issue while entry giants are pushing for widespread exploration. has been following the resistance of europeans to fracking in their countries. a number of european countries have had large scale anti fracking protests take place recently as sort of the prospect of more drilling has been rolled out across europe but one of the largest anti fracking stories to take place over recent months happened in remaining out where locals actually formed a human chain around an area where u.s. oil giant chevron was given the green light by the remaining in government to begin exploratory drilling now i traveled there to cover this story and i spoke to a lot of the locals there and they are all most of them farmers they live off the fat of the land and for them they were genuinely frightened by the prospect of

their groundwater being contaminated their food not being safe to eat they were talking to me about having to safeguard the health for their children as they see it as governments siding with large corporations and not protecting the interests of their citizens who are talking about genuine risks that they see from this technology fracking has been associated with air pollution water contamination water depletion earthquakes and of course climate change the oil and gas companies have spent billions of dollars really selling a story about how fracking is safe and the reality is quite different. i think that's something that anti fracking campaign isn't protesters in the u.s. and in europe are no doubt reassured by is that large scale protests and citizens opposition to this technology really does work for example france has just

held a ban against fracking because of the environmental risks involved. prospects of widespread shale gas drilling in europe let's not cross live to brussels and speaks to a good call policy officer from the watchdog food and water. thank you very much indeed for being with us here on r.t. so fracking the now considering a generalized guidance to show gas drilling would you think about it. well for us i think shale gas is definitely part of a lot of extreme energy projects to be its arctic. drilling be it's tar sands shale gas is just one more form of extreme energy extraction that we're fighting so our stance is that she'll god has no place in a rapidly accelerating. period of climate change so we believe that she'll guys is not part of the solution and should be banned so the extraction technology fracking

should be banned and she'll get it is not part of a low carbon future. this is this is our view what we expect from european policy makers i mean some member states are going to push ahead with shale gas regardless we would want at least some data gathering to happen about what exactly are the impact of shale gas so that we have a clearer picture unlike in the u.s. where we still lack a clear picture about the environmental impacts of large scale shale gas extraction that we would really want some high degree of transparency and accountability for these companies that want to use these invasive technologies in a densely populated continent right so that you raise your voices against it but the energy giant sub very keen actually on drilling a few countries and many governments are looking into it as well i would like to see shale boom in europe that. well i think the dish he'll get

a story has been hyped to an incredible degree we have very little geological knowledge compare in the in europe compared to places like texas or pennsylvania so the idea that we know where the shale is and what it looks like it's just preposterous so they will take years to develop the geological knowledge we don't have the service industry we don't have the drilling rigs so this idea that we're going to do it overnight is also ridiculous the idea that we're going to get major buy in from local communities in a densely populated continent like europe is also ridiculous that we won't see a shale boom and you cannot mix that shale gas are really questionable in europe the reason why energy companies want to do this is because they anticipate higher gas prices in the future that could fund this kind of extraction not because they anticipate lower gas prices so going to be expensive it's going to be risky and we should just turn away from it but so officials and energy companies insist their

risks from front king i love actually despite what you say if the technology actually saves lives a proper oversight. ok we probably would have to apologize because we just lost connection that was a good call and let's move on now then. and a mass exodus is bringing christianity in the middle east to the extension of the continuing bloodshed in countries like syria and iraq is causing christians to leave their homes a face of terror and violence the details on this story coming up and if your mom.

choose your language. make it without any financial center stay still some. choose the good consensus to. choose the opinions that degrade to. choose the stories that imply the. troops be sent off to.

well again this is r.c. welcome back christians in the middle east are facing increasing sectarian violence with the civil war in syria and instability in egypt and iraq forcing them to flee their homes the u.k.'s minister for face has called on western governments this week to protect christianity from becoming extinct in the countries where a mass exodus is taking place on his policy on reports. 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 we tend to say 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 nasa 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. the way oh 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 to the sea to the christian town of muna 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 of course people started crying out for help from us. the priest was raised here and they were captured here in the church elsewhere in egypt to the muslim brotherhood supporters have blamed christians for the army's all story of the president mohamed morsy more than eight hundred christian sites were attacked and some fifty two churches razed to the ground while in iraq after the american invasion back in two thousand and three half of the iraqi christian

population lived for other middle eastern countries and american think tank the pew forum says that christians faced harassment and oppression in one hundred and fifty nine countries this is nearly three quarters of all the countries on the face of the policy on team television and as always will have plenty of stories for you on our website including the extraordinary sight of a brand new island off the coast of japan and undeceive kind of corruption has created it nears the landmines as well as sending towers of ash and smoke billowing into the air a bird's eye view video is just a click away. and one of the world's leading oil producers is under fire and it's not dreading our series here that sparked public outrage this time at our website and find out what the british world giant will have to pay for harassing and bullying those posting critical messages

on the country's fraser company's a facebook page. states and on their way to launching their own drone program that's after leading members of the bloc signed an agreement to invest in new unmanned aircraft technology plans alarming activists who say it's difficult to determine whether the drones would be used only for peaceful purposes is based on of a house report. 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 is 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 report 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 known weaponized uses for drone technology however the use of drones particularly by the united states in countries like pakistan and yemen and the widespread civilian damage and casualties that are being caused well that's left drone technology as a very emotive issue and here in germany and see war activists on top beat about the decision to develop them here 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 that 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 see it 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 referred 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. and some more news from across the globe this hour hundreds of protesters in italy threw smoke bombs at police who responded with tear gas and bird falls scuffles broke out on a square in central rome where people had gathered to protest against a high speed rail link with france the parlance of the project argue it's a waste of money and would the environment the right it was time to come inside with a meeting between the town and prime minister and french president was in rome to discuss the plans. as suspected american drone strike in northwest pakistan has killed six people police say the unmanned aircraft fired at least three rockets at an islamic seminary killing teachers and students to afghan militants were reportedly also among the dead in a separate incident two policemen under civilian have been killed by an explosion

in the south west of the country after a bomb rigged to a bicycle went off near a group of people have clear goals behind that time. several more greenpeace activists have just been granted bail by a court in st petersburg bringing the total number to twenty six eleven have already walked free ahead of their trial of hooliganism and the others will do once their bail money is posted meanwhile russia's president vladimir putin has reiterated his view on this controversial case he's correspondent has more. the president has commented on the situation around greenpeace saying that he does think that the goals of greenpeace as an organization are positive but he doesn't agree with the methods that its activists choose nick on the blog that when the platform was being stormed it created an emergency situation this could have led to not one mistake by operators there but multiple mistakes they should not have been

distracted from their work not all noble causes can be accomplished by any means but at the same time the state should be lenient over twenty peace activists have been released on bail the bales around sixty thousand dollars it will be returned to them when they come back for the actual trial since all of them are still accused of hooliganism and just to remind you the whole story started in september when these activists which later became known as the arctic thirty approached a russian oil platform in the north and then a smaller group tried climbing onto it all of them were arrested first charged with piracy and then these charges were reduced to the cooling going isn't but still it felt guilty then they could be looking at facing up to seven years behind bars so this is still quite a serious violation quite a serious crime now greenpeace has been denying all the accusations saying this was

a peaceful act of protest aimed at protecting the arctic's environment and the fourth incident has become a stumbling block in the relations between russia and the netherlands as well since the arctic sunrise the vessel which were the activists were on belongs to the netherlands and it's now actually suing russia at the international maritime tribunals demanding the release of the ship and its crew meaning the activist as well and up next i did not and let's have the so-called trying to find number of european states eager to build. doubt that on mind miter else. the big going barbarians are at their game they have to get their feet of the american soul dollar reservists something their bread and circuses pushing

political clout tyrants mocking their corrupt regulators and party officials who hate any payment system which they can chop up. but you know that these volatility of bitcoin is what makes some people extremely excited that these. new digital currency adah the people extremely wary of bitcoin and that's one of the reasons why i caution people is a very high risk environment and it's really not ready yet for for your average everyday investor to it trust their savings to it and in any way anybody who puts money into the system now should expect that they could lose all of. the that.

is going on everyone i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set and of course 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 in 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 iraq has been working on its own. 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. the possibly the teams they are looking very hard to take a little while to get to. have you ever had sex with the target they're looking. for the killers. the to. the. little. this week another round of talks between the u.s. .