olympic torch relay. on our. top stories today here on. ukraine you turn on a free trade deal with the e.u. with kiev refusing to meet one of the vital steps demanded by europe for further integration. economic goals versus political differences the turkish prime minister is here in russia to discuss business. disagreements on syria could end up dominating the talks. and good veterans who fought alongside british soldiers say they are prepared to die in a hunger strike to get equal pension rights reporting how those extreme measures are bearing fruit.

this hour's top world headlines live on r.t. . from all of us here welcome to today's program. ukraine has suspended work towards a free trade deal with the e.u. the country's parliament voted against a draft that would have let jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko get medical treatment abroad or europe had demanded her release as a prerequisite for further integration. of such decision. two months ago it was talented as a done deal on thursday ukraine's government all but completely ruled out that an association agreement with the e.u. would be signed next week instead regarding trade ties with russia and see i asked was made the priority of. some stage of ascending to the top is unfavorable. the one hundred eighty degree turnaround comes after months of openly voiced concerns that ukraine's economy would simply collapse if it formed

a free trade zone with the e.u. which in turn promised no compensations on potential losses think it is a lucky escape really because i think that this deal was bad news for the ukraine it would be like somebody today back in time to nine hundred twelve and buying a ticket for the titanic it would have been a national suicide for the ukrainian government to sign this just a few days before the move moody's downgraded ukraine's economic index to a breeder fault level that led the government to openly admitting that the already ailing economy was not ready for a leap of faith. we haven't gotten the clear signal from our european neighbors that the losses which we had suffered in the last four months will be compensated by entry new markets and european markets we will need to hold the work of a dozen of our enterprises but our country can't afford firing tens of thousands of workers. but the real bone of contention is the fate of jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko the e.u. has been insisting she must be either set free or at the very least be allowed to

travel to germany for medical treatment or there would be no deal continues failings of the parliament to pass any such laws suggested that letting in a call which biggest rival out only eighteen months before the country's election was clearly not on the president's wish list finding himself now between a rock and a hard place on sunday and of course which will watch tens of thousands hit the streets for the anniversary of the two thousand and five orange revolution and just like nine years ago it has every chance to be a very loud protest alexi russia ski r.t. reporting from kiev in ukraine. and the decision to postpone further integration has split the ukrainian parliament here. i i as you can see right there the opposition bowing the parliament's refusal to allow the team a shanker to get medical treatment abroad a further statements on postponing the idea of european integration were met with calls for the presidency which meant around one thousand activists launched

a protest against the decision and called for a mass rally on sunday that date coinciding with the beginning of the orange revolution by geo political analyst f william angle he believes the e.u. has nothing to offer ukraine in the first place. i suspect that the ukrainian. political leadership but as it has a delusional view of what the e.u. would bring for your cranium economy of course a they long to be accepted as a western european nation and so forth since the breakup of the soviet union but right now the e.u. is in a kind of a death spiral the e.u. has little right now to offer a crane and if you create a ukrainian business political. leaders were. looking at the thing more realistically they would concentrate on building stronger bridges to

the east because the future of europe western europe not simply ukraine but the future western europe in my view lies with eurasia in the sense of russia china and with a trade pact with europe on hold kiev is set to restore its close economic ties with the russian commonwealth earlier we discussed the pros and cons with venture capital host katie pope. according to the energy minister of the ukrainian energy minister he seems to think that it's all about economics and that it makes sense for ukraine to stay away from the e.u. free trade zone at the moment a lot of that to do the fact that we rein in on the economy is now in during the third recessions it's two thousand and eight and they've got a widening deficit to contend with dwindling foreign reserves and not perceived. foreigners over so well what about that don't grade because obviously she realises absolutely from the big three s. and p. moody's and fitch or reduce them to near and around the junk status that the likes

of cyprus and greece and that really is a dangerous zone to be sitting on and it gets worse than that because even conversations about nafta gatt which is their symbolic gas companies see a quiver in of russia's gas pramod the u.s. is exxon mobil being sold on to a foreign buyers if ukraine doesn't go to the e.u. free trade deal don't know then what are the other options here well they'd have to come back to the drawing table renegotiate russia's union which is where bellary some kazakstan and potentially our media sitting at the moment now this would mean we've got exports of twenty five percent going to russia at the moment that would have to be fortified as well as that we've also got gas discount going to discuss i thought i was. we know that ukraine relies upon those if they were to go the european way they would have to forfeit. so we're seeing a bit of a bit of a dodging on both sides here absolutely use not happy with kiev decision not to

allow you to get medical treatment. economically there are huge advantages to going towards the e.u. but they are long term in the short could ukraine default in its ambitions potentially because they would lose an immediate two billion a year. thanks for joining us here on our team today racism doesn't get you far in politics accept israel apparently. report on one who won reelection on promises to build a truly jewish city with as few our christmas trees as possible. and a hawaiian island genetically modified food companies. look at how the. movement is spreading internationally. now in the program russia and turkey will attempt to cement their economic ties later but it's strong differences on middle east politics which could prove to be a bit of

a sticking point the turkish prime minister meets the russian leader in some petersburg today syria expected to be one of the most contentious topics during the talks. with these kinds of meetings it's often just as much the international context what's not officially on the agenda that matters as the topic that the two sides will formally discuss which is the economy now that does bring us to syria russia and turkey have been at odds over over the civil war the conflict in that country the last time the turkish prime minister was right here in st petersburg a very different climate heated disagreements as of course one of the strongest supporters for the syrian rebels in fact the largest faction of the opposition the syrian national council is headquartered based in turkey there's been some concern about for instance the illegal flow of arms over the border from turkey into syria something that turkey does but still an issue and there have been high level

diplomatic spats the worst incident for instance was back in october twenty twelve when a russian syrian passenger plane was stopped by turkey accusing russia of shipping essentially to the governments now back in august when the chemical attack outside of damascus took place turkey had been one of the strongest voices calling for intervention international intervention in syria since then we've seen a little bit of a tempered position basically the two sides now do agree. to talks as the diplomatic effort the attempt for the diplomatic resolution to syria has been called both sides do agree that this is really what needs to take place now also not officially on the agenda but still an important issue in this time of iran this is one issue that the two countries do really see eye to eye on there is of course that new round of talks currently underway in geneva turkey is not of course taking

part in those negotiations but through various officials they have voiced their support for iran's nuclear program support for that program of course as long as it remains a business relationship between the two. country certainly has not been overshadowed by the disagree even such as syria only germany is a bigger trading partner for turkey than russia certainly the two countries have a longstanding relationship that's not likely to be overshadowed by any means by these political disagreements over syria and the russian i took it as a likely to discuss iran's atomic ambitions and some of the same timeless nuclear talks between tehran and six world powers now and have a good day in geneva later this hour on cross talk. about the chances of any possible breakthrough occurring unless the p five plus one in particular the united states and france are willing to stick to understanding the radio and thought they had reached verbal

e on some of these issues i you know i don't think the rainy ends are going to feel they're not going to feel comfortable with going ahead with an agreement it's a matter of trust i mean do we have that here and if it's not here yet what does it take to create that level of trust then the rest of it is a lot of details i think if iran doesn't soften its position on those three points . that are not likely the deal. i. want to cross talk a bit later this hour here on to you but for now good soldiers from nepal offered to sacrifice their lives while fighting for the british army and dozens of conflicts over two centuries and have now shown a readiness to die for their own cause as well launching a hunger strike to demand they get the same pensions as any other soldier. smith spoke to protesters who say the u.k. government has abandoned them. how long is it now since you last had anything to

eat starting sixteen days. in freezing temperatures and biting wind. starved himself for more than two weeks right on the prime minister's doorstep we sacrificed. who hundred years. our ancestors. my. grandpa they won many many wars. they sent them bad putrid. fish of warriors from the pool because of being recruited into british army regiments but to hundred years during which time they fought and died for britain all over the world recently in iraq and afghanistan but there's never been parity with their british cohorts in pay or conditions despite their sacrifice it

was only in two thousand and nine one the right to live in the u.k. and there's still no equality retired because get paid just a third of the pension of u.k. based soldiers something they say is an affront to their dignity our demand is not more. there is only one kind of human being in the world and they must or must be treated equally they must be respected equally if they do not internalize this thing and then demands in the follow up peaceful and prosperous war it is impossible parliament's now announced an inquiry into the situation prompting writes to start again but inquiries take time and there's no guarantee that at the end the demands will be met they have high hopes after all it's taken twenty years and a hunger strike to get to this point laura smith r.t. . and more news coming your way after a very short break. including a report on

a controversial issue all fracking that is igniting debate all across europe. mission to teach me. why you should care only. wealthy british. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with. no holds barred. headlines kaiser reports. cross talk for the e.u. is considering much tighter regulation all fracking the controversial new method of drilling for energy companies could be forced to prove they're not damaging the environment let's take a closer look at a practice more potently let's have a look at the risks as well here on the method involves breaking up rock at least one kilometer below the ground to create fracking fluid water is mixed with

chemicals like your rainy and mercury and pressured into the ground during this process toxins are released from the system contaminating the nearby. ground water supplies up to seventy percent of the poisonous fluid is left in the ground and is not biodegradable the rest of it evaporates releasing gases into the atmosphere advocates of the technique say it will help to solve the energy crisis and create more jobs but artie's party biker has been following the resistance of europeans to the ongoing controversial practice of fracking. 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 for mania 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 i travelled there to cover the 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 government 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 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

something that anti fracking campaign is an protesters in the us 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 up held a ban against fracking because of the environmental risks involved. money for a real life. university of nicosia becomes the first institution to accept. payment to study for a. dangerous species so. very cute.

in israel it's a multi ethnic community of jews arabs and christians the mayo is very open about his desire to change that and his openly racist views were no barrier to his reelection. as a look. what my goal is to have as few arabs as possible blunt direct and a virtually racist shit from a shop or ninety five percent of mayors think the same but only five percent will say it to the media i'm sorry i'm the only one who does say i have to stay true to what i believe should one capsule has never shied away from controversy the mayor

of nazareth elite is known for building neighborhoods for jewish citizens only banning christmas trees from schools and boasting that he's stopped the arab population in the city from growing among his friends he comes prime minister benjamin netanyahu and now he's just been reelected for another term in office you know. the israelis first jewish state and then a democracy the same goes for nazareth anyone can live here if they think there will ever be a church or mosque they can keep on dreaming but nazareth elite is in fact an ethnically mixed city one in five of its residents is arab it borders the biblical and much larger nazareth often called the arab capital of israel. as a ref and other villagers come here to get away from their crowded areas and improve their living standards. stay we was born here he's been trying to get an arab school in the city but it's not going to happen on this mayor's watch in this country when they get to the. extreme.

if he becomes more racist then he will have more people to vote for him to claim make sure that finkelstein angry she supports cap so and says their desire to live in a jewish city is what the country's founding fathers in visaged visit russia go wild in the thick of it he is what is keeping me here because i know that if it wasn't for him we would lose our home this is without a doubt a war of existence recent municipal elections or gap so reelected with fifty two percent of votes. his promise to jewish city forever gets this election campaign was soaked with racist undertones which many here are now dangerously close to entering israeli political mainstream the most disturbing aspect he takes pride in this in a way a microcosm of israel this city's battle to preserve its jewish identity is infused

with history religion and discrimination depending which side you're on policy on t.v. as with the elite nor the newsroom arch of a lot of capital rigo to open up the world update now where the latest numbers killed by the collapse of a supermarket roof twenty one now confirmed dead including three rescuers were trying to pull victims from the wreckage is thought up to thirty are still trapped under the rubble the tragedy happened a peak time as people took their shopping after work on the roof may have fallen in because of the weight of soil being used to build a winter garden on top of it. a string of attacks across iraq of killed at least forty eight deadliest assault taking place in a city north of baghdad where a car bomb ripped through a market killing thirty one iraq is seeing its worst violence in years more than five thousand people killed in the last eight months and we've got a timeline marking all the victims who have died since the invasion of two thousand

and three you can find the details at all if you talk. to parents fukushima nuclear power plant workers have successfully removed the first nuclear fuel rods from a cooling pool twenty two of the unused assemblies were transferred to a safer place but there are more than one and a half thousand potentially damaged assemblies to deal with the current operation is considered one of the most dangerous ever attempted in nuclear history. and on the other side of the pacific the u.s. government also has a nuclear problem how to store its waste twenty seven billion dollars has been put towards it but what was it actually spent on breaking the set tries to find the answer. we're all familiar with the ongoing nuclear powder keg of superhuman daiichi nuclear power plant but here in the u.s. there's another nuclear problem that this government just can't solve the storage of nuclear waste is the department of energy is supposed to have a program in place to manage and store radioactive waste which is why the d.o.d.'s

going to be used for nuclear power plant operators of the tune of twenty seven billion dollars over the past few years but in two thousand and ten obama decided to abandon plans to develop the yucca mountain nuclear waste depository in the data leaving us with no long term storage site so what did the twenty seven billion dollars and cleanup fund end up being used for that turns out absolutely nothing. to be more than later in the day i want to you for now though home why an island has pasta binding companies which produce genetically modified food from operating on its territory modified crops will also be restricted to indoor structures and experimenting with new types of plants as being totally prohibited but elizabeth from the center for food safety she believes the g.m.o. mood is beginning to reverberate all across the world this is actually

a movement which is spreading across the country they move actually it's the second week in hawaii there's the band obviously on the big island but also another piece of legislation that was passed in a coup why which severely restricts and makes the chemical companies to regulate and report the chemicals that they're using on the land there are a couple of states in the country that have actually passed the labeling laws except they have a close in the other states have to join them before those are actually enacted so this is a big movement that is happening it not only in the united states but particularly all across the rest of the world people wanting to have a healthy people source of food. well we're coming to you live from moscow this is ati with me role research as promised pay level and his guests nodded looking at the prospects of the six sided iran nuclear told to stick around for cross talk.

leave us so we leave the. bush and secure. your party there's a bill. that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politic only on our. george is on an epic journey to. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred cities of russia. really fourteen. or sixteen. in a record setting trip. there. are numbers made. a living torch relay. on our.

welcome to cross talk all things considered i'm peter lavelle in which negotiations only a week ago the prospect of a deal with around tantalizingly close then the french played the role of spoiler to the great delight of israel nonetheless negotiations continue much is made of the technical side of the talks in fact this is a sideshow but these negotiations are really about is the issue of trust. to cross talk around i'm joined by my guest flynt leverett in washington he is a professor of international affairs at penn state university and co-author of going to run also in washington we have time here he is

a turkey and middle east analyst as well as a journalist and in paris we cross to see she's the executive director of the wisconsin project on nuclear arms control all right folks. i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage unfledged if i go to you first in washington we almost had a deal over a week ago and what are the prospects of a deal right now and what are the prospects of. the radicals on both sides of the table winning. i am i have to say i hope i'm wrong but i'm not particularly optimistic about a deal being reached being reached this week i don't think that there's been a lot of progress on the issues that kept agreement from being reached the last time the parties convened in geneva there's the issue of iran's nuclear rights and how they get acknowledged or not acknowledged in an interim agreement there are

disagreements about how to handle the during an interim deal this heavy water reactor facility at which the iranians are building there's still disagreements about the disposition of iran stockpile of near twenty percent enriched uranium. i don't really see much sign that either be united states or the french are backing down from some of the positions they took on those issues ten days ago and if there's not some give on that i don't know how the rain ians will be in a visitation to accept the five plus one proposal ok what are the possibilities of a softening its position because the international perception is that this is a very moderate negotiation team right now and the fact that we were very very close gives the impression that it takes it's more political will right now and as

i said in the introduction the program we can you know we can. get tongue tied over all the technical issues but it's a matter of trust i mean do we have that here and if it's not here yet what does it take to create that level of trust then the rest of it is a lot of details. well i think that's right i think you know since the p five plus one and iran met in geneva almost two weeks ago and now i think there's been a sort of deterioration of trust based on these technical issues but i don't think that you can divorce those from sort of the breakdown i think they are quite important the points that flint just laid out are at the core of the of the interim deal and i think that if iran doesn't soften its position on those three points the negotiations are not likely to yield a deal in mind so it's all incumbent upon it ran to cave into the negotiations it always gets down to that it seems.