here in rambles kidnap a group of nuns from a christian monastery allegedly moving them to a nearby rebel controlled town as a christian community is increasingly caught up in their raging violence. i'm ready to pick up in a cheap forty seven and start shooting. we will gather radical right wing groups that have hijacked the demonstrations in kiev as more european leaders throw their weight behind pro e.u. protests in ukraine. this is humanitarian aid from the european union and altogether these products may go around for good or for the stuff here aid for the e.u. plagued by unemployment and hysterically a recent study shows over twenty percent of europeans at risk of poverty.

international coming to live from moscow with me marina joshing. islamist fighters in syria are believed to be holding a group of nuns hostage abducted from an orthodox monastery near damascus they have reportedly been moved to the rebel controlled town of your brood the pope has called for prayers for the kidnapped women amid demands from clerics and religious organizations to release them our middle east correspondent paula flair is following the story. twelve nines and three of the helpers who belong to the orthodox monastery of moola are believed to have been moved to brood now according to syrian opposition activists the women were moved for their own safety but earlier religious officials said that the women were abducted by members of the

fund which is affiliated to al qaida the syrian observatory for human whites says that the women were taken after several days of intensive fighting during which the front find to eventually manage to capture the old quarter of moola and various reports point to the fact that these are mr frum fighters entered the orthodox monastery in the same term of mosul know where these women were while there's a lot of concern particularly amongst christians living in syria as the attacks against their communities seemingly escalate we have heard from the pope who has decided to pray for the safety of these women and earlier we at r.t. spoke with the international christian concern who said that they were extremely worried and extremely troubled by this incident in particular they have called on rebel forces to ensure the safety of these women and also make sure that all lines of communication with them remain open there are several muslim clerics who have

also condemned the abduction in the strongest terms we did. confirm that terrorism is a savage monster which wants to do it our all religious and humanitarian values they came to cuba and kidnap your muslim moms and christian priests in our job you ship so like they kidnapped priests and priestesses and events in one dangerous conspiracy. of the church in syria which they want to tell you to the stone age you're sick to run for into the country many christians have left and are now living as refugees elsewhere in. mascots because they're so fearful of the situation the last time that i was in syria i visited the city of homes where both the syrian army as well as people who are returning to the question quarter showed me around and banned churches and spoke about the fear that they too have as attacks on the christian community inside syria escalate. and here's

a food that allegedly shows another attack on a christian monastery in syria all this is an orthodox monastery north of damascus the opposition justify the attack saying off to troops who are using it as an ulterior position and you can see here rebel fighters targeting the buildings which then catch fire my colleague kevin allen spoke to reverend mr r. and anglican priest from syria about the fate of christians in a war torn country. thousands and thousands hundreds of thousands of christians where this place from their homes and a lot of christians were killed we still have two bishops missing from from a little we don't know anything about them and now another attack on the of the christian community in syria and the world is watching robert is it because the christians in syria big specifically targeted or just getting caught up in the wider conflict what's the picture i think they are being used by both sides. as

a political card because the regime wants also to free to show that they are protecting the minorities specially the christians and they are begging for for the international community to interfere to release the nuns wear the the rebels they are totally blind to the and the islamists to target specifically christians there is a systematic attack on the christian community in syria. and hundreds of thousands of christians were displaced now for more on the christian started by rebels in syria as well as other developments in the conflict had to r.t. dot com. the opposition in ukraine has delivered an ultimatum to the president calling for early elections and they are threatening to set up

a round the clock blockade of key government institutions if their demands aren't met protesters waving nationalist flags are staging a rally outside a government building in key if at the moment it is or it is or in english to reports the protests that started out as pro e.u. demonstrations have now become fertile ground for extremist groups. oh laurie to crane glory to the heroes if they fishel slogan of the hard line nationalist movement known as the ukrainian insurgent army and the chant heard among the crowds in key of these days here is just a couple of these protesters cheerleaders mr lake tell me bork founder of the nationalist party and the man inspired by the actions of the u.i. a's wartime militias they took up machine guns and fought the russians the germans and the jews those who quote wanted to take away our ukrainian land and this is. another far right activist from the radical nationalist but movement so we need war

that's the main thing an organization like cars can't exist without war. is one of those suspected of arranging the bulldozer action key of over the weekend men will present the ultra nationalist sentiment that is popular in western ukraine which has traditionally gravitated towards europe rather than moscow. we will fight for the european union until the end and even if they bring your tanks we will win which must go i'm ready to pick up any keep forty seven and start shooting up to a thousand people go to kiev every day and our motto is together to the end our resistance forces consist of afghanistan war veterans and former security service officials recent polls show the country's sharply divided on the issue with more than seventy percent of those living in a western ukraine favoring the deal with the european union but that drops to less than thirty percent in the east in kiev what began as

a campaign over trade ties with europe is now it is the ending into a rallying cry for ukrainian nationalism good enough you know but that's when these people are being passed off as innocent kids who suffered during the peaceful protests i'm sorry i've seen others there who clearly were nonmilitary and then there were others with knives in their pockets why would anyone do that when. going to a peaceful protest. yet it seems to be escaping some of the europe and america's political heavyweights that there is a rowdy right wing driving force taking root in a ghost go party key. and here again politicians are not missing the opportunity to sound a message of support to the protesters in kiev germany's foreign minister has met with ukraine's opposition leaders analysts seen walking through crowds in kiev's independence square key opposition figure vitaly klitschko served as his guide the dutch foreign minister is also pay a visit to the protest camps and top e.u. officials are in kiev for

a pre-planned security summit to discuss this further we're now joined live by professor from the university of rhode island and he's in ukraine at the moment thanks so much mr retro for so i'm just here on r t well first off as we just saw we see politicians add their rallies participating in a key meeting of the opposition figures so what sort of message in your opinion does the stand to ukraine's government. well clearly it's a one sided message of support for the policies of the of the you and it is an attempt to attract ukraine to sign the association agreement but i think. the ukrainian government is really trying to play the two sides off each other on the one hand the e.u. and on the other hand. russia in order to get the best deal that it can from either one without alienating the other. well. also you know we

see that the e.u. deal that sparked riots in kiev doesn't imply green joining the e.u. automatically and in fact it would mean massive cutbacks for key if so why do so many people still want it to be signed. it's been portrayed in the ukrainian media simplistic terms as what is called here a civilizational choice in other words if you hope enough for you to embrace you they will unfortunately the the association agreement doesn't say anything at all about membership and. does not address that or does not encourage that at all what it is mostly about is an effort to open ukrainian markets to e.u.

goods that trade imbalance is already very substantial in favor of the e.u. and it's only likely to get worse if the association agreement is signed ok we understand the position on this but what's interesting now is to look at the position of the united states we're hearing that the u.s. assistant secretary of state who is in cave at the moment and she just announced that she will be holding meetings with the opposition as well as ukrainian government so what is your view on the u.s. position in this crisis. well the u.s. is supporting the position of its of its western european partners of the e.u. . unfortunately i think it's a shortsighted position one that seeks to divide drive a wedge rather between ukraine and russia whereas a more alongside it position could actually encourage both russia and ukraine and the former states of the soviet union to adopt

a comprehensive policy that would encourage all of these states to join not join but to associate and come together with the e.u. unfortunately it seems to be more of a divisive and a confrontational approach than one that aims that we can silly ation. let's now take a look at the situation in ukraine internally and. you know ukrainian nationalists have see is the opportunity of these protests so could we see their numbers grow. what are your thoughts i think. national forces in ukraine are not that popular however when bloody incidents occur and there is. a room for riots. and violence takes place that does encourage support

for extreme responses but in general i think most of the people at these protests would like them to see peacefully and to the extent that they continued to proceed peacefully this will actually be. extremist nationalist boys professor who have had the university of rhode island thank you so much for talking to us here on our t.v. and sharing your views with us thank you. meanwhile authorities in ukraine are investigating cases of police brutality and we have out to show you disturbing food that's emerged of a demonstrator being brutally beaten by security forces shortly after a protesters attempted to storm the president's office in one scene a man lying on the ground is continuously beaten by passing special forces officers he was later taken to hospital for treatment before that food it's emerged the country's internal ministry promised its our investigation into all reports of

police brutality while the prime minister has apologized for the violence. while the e.u. trade continues to divide public opinion politicians raise doubts over the blocks ability to cope should an agreement ever be reached with ukraine let's take a look at why well over twenty percent of europe's population is at risk of poverty level gary it is one of the most impoverished countries with nearly half its population living close to the bread line romania is not far behind where four out of ten find it hard to make ends meet and agrees slightly over thirty percent of the population struggle to meet financial demands and about the same percentage of people in spain and italy are under pressure from harshest parity measures are going off went to a food bank in rome where essential provisions are handed out to the city's poorest . marco used to work as

a pizza your many italians used to call it the golden skill which would always get you work in rome but it didn't hold true for marco one day he was sacked and has not been fired since he's been living on the street for about four years now and says at forty six he sees little chance of fixing his life he asked us not to reveal his identity. when you live on the street survival is what takes up most of your time simply getting a shower is a challenge it takes so much time to take care of yourself like a normal person you reach the end of the day and you're exhausted and depressed. with the talian economy going through its longest recession since the second world war over twelve percent of adults are unemployed while four out of ten young people don't have a job there are no official figures on the homeless we have any type of food that we can get for free from somewhere more italians are beginning to turn to charity and humanitarian aid for help two years ago we had about fifty five percent where

for no surrender forty five percent today we have about sixty five percent valiant thirty five percent for us complete theory. everything on the shelves is free given in exchange for points allocated to low income families by the global charity network. most of the food is near its expiration date except for specially labeled aid it's really similar to an ordinary supermarket you've got bread pasta dairy products vegetables and so forth but the one thing which really stands out are these packages with signs saying not for sale this is humanitarian aid from the european union and altogether these products make up around a third of all the stuff here. caritas is now raising the alarm saying around one third of all italian children are at risk of poverty and are lacking basic essential such as protein rich foods heating and close the skin off our t.

rome. europe is experiencing its worth humanitarian crisis for decades according to a survey by the international red cross millions of europeans are unable to afford food or a roof over their hands the organisation's european director told us the number of people having to turn to charity is beyond their worst expectations what we have seen since we did our first survey in two thousand and nine and on to two thousand and thirteen is that the crises are really taking root at community level at individual level and that household level to a different degree because people today has so used old their savings there's nothing left seeing a rapid decrease in what we call the middle class people the british red cross what they are doing right now in what they loans more than loans is the room is that because food distribution time pains things to say conclude it is serious even for

the one so for us working in this business on a daily basis we were shocked when we sold their cumulated data across europe. deteriorating situation has driven many away from the idea of euro integration later in the program we examine how the european parties may be leaning further right than ever before. iran is being compared to a lady you hold on to want to and takes money from an old an elderly gentleman but one says spend her time with house and young man but sometimes you know you really have to choose i mean you cannot have both if you use in that kind of metaphors i think you should clearly separate the present exist in ukrainian a sort of truce we should have been negotiated in the very embarrassing way it was both the european union russia and ukraine the nation.

dramas the truth being ignored. stories others of the few posts in those. places changed the world writes now. to picture just days. from a strictly. book to. welcome back you're watching r t international liberals have often played the role of king maker in the european parliament especially in recent governments but analysts are warning that could be about to change was the euro skeptics take

a lead role six months before european elections artie's or smith ways the precarious balance between right and left. there won't have been many meetings in london this year where british membership of the european union was met with a huge round of applause but that's what happens here at the congress of the alliance of liberals and democrats for europe they reckon best still in demand but opinion polls and elections throughout the e.u. tell a different story in fact the continent appears to have made a significant lurch to the right with new policies emerging all over the place populists this new law it's made me but their hostility towards immigration austerity and the very idea of the e.u. has rattled the mainstream parties enough to cause them to step to the right to even got to look to david cameron's conservatives for an example of that so are the

liberals dying a slow death i asked said graham watson and the pain president of the audi a lawyer says important there is a family prepared to stand up to the far right when so many are simply moving on to their ground in the hope of recovering lost due to scripture says mrs suisse here in opinion polls we see it in people's right to choose what we have to convince people is that the european union brings us a lot of benefits but needs reform if it is to continue to bring us those benefits and committed to the race then but certainly swimming against the tide europe why the liberals have just six months before the european elections to convince a skeptical public that further integration is a good thing meanwhile the writes will be working just as hard here in britain separatists you kipps nigel farage is talking about a landslide victory as if it's practically in the bag. an r.c.

dot com is our website searching for better ways to tackle radioactive waste adequate power plant. the un's nuclear watchdog has come up with a brand new solution of which local residents may find it hard to take a log on to a website to find out what the plans are. plus don't be surprised if your facebook or twitter feeds have unknown messages posted in your name and millions of passwords for the popular social networking sites have been stolen the league also shows that users are far from meticulous when it comes to cyber security. and also to look at some other stories from around the world and at least twenty people have been reportedly killed and dozens more wounded in yemen a suicide bomber reportedly drove a car packed with explosives into the entrance of a defense ministry compound in the capital sanaa the blast severely damaged a hospital which is thought to have been the initial target unconfirmed reports say

gunman then stormed other buildings belonging to the complex and fighting broke out between soldiers and government the yemeni defense ministry says almost all the attackers have been killed but did not specify the exact number we are closely following this story and we'll bring you more on this as we get it. in argentina at least one man has been killed and over one hundred people injured during a mass looting in the country's second largest see gangs raided shops in the area after the police refused to perform their duties over a pay dispute the man of died was caught by a stray bullet and was in deluding himself over a dozen supermarkets were raided and santa lines it's. six people have been killed and dozens injured in a militant attack on a police intelligence headquarters in the north of iraq both suicide bombers and gunmen who were part of the assault that and that with a two hour shootout with security forces no group has admitted yet to carry out the

attack in recent months iraq has been experiencing a surge and sectarian violence with almost one thousand people killed in the vandals. in brazil hundreds of indigenous people have attempted to storm government buildings in the capital brasilia this comes after the justice ministry you lay down its new rules for the demarkation of native lands for the world cup security guards at the presidential palace pepper spray protesters who have pushed over a metal barriers and some activists in national dress also tried to storm the ministry of justice saying the new rules undermine their rights to own ancestral lands as. well as the turbulent situation in kiev spirals further out of control r.d.x. on a boy who talks to ukrainian politician andriy shevchenko worlds apart is just ahead for you.

we often see the middle east as a place of constant term old revolution but people in thailand seem to be very fired up as well massive. testers are force a government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the time equivalent of the american f.b.i. which has been accused of killing around ninety people in a crackdown on those who support ousted prime minister taksin shinawatra who is the brother of the current leader while people are crying out for democracy with accusations of violence against protesters so where is barack obama john kerry the mainstream media i mean whatever some group of rebels protestors are i mean freedom fighters rise up for democracy are we supposed to arm them like in syria and or bomb their country back into the stone age like in libya serbia iraq some protests explode across the mainstream media with calls for intervention and others are almost totally silent like thailand and bulgaria where there have also been storms

of buildings less than a month ago i might be a conspiracy theorist but the selective coverage and selective concern for some humans rights and off the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion. welcome to worlds apart with every passing day ukraine's choice between closer ties with the european union or russia seems more like a choice between good and evil a democratic future and the authoritarian past but it is the choice really so stark well to discuss that we and alan joined by and reshift a member of the ukrainian parliament on a strong supporter of european integration mr shift chunka thank you very much for

your time great to be with you first of all could you have a data on what is happening in key if right now. well we are at the my dawn of independence and right back from the parliament to where we had a no confidence vote for the korean government and there's you already know it failed. only one candidate in eighty six m.p.'s voted to put the government down there were two reasons to do to do this no confidence or first is the collapse of the association agreement was the european union and second it's the bloody police attack on peaceful protesters here on their way down the sort of the saturday morning as we can see behind your back people are still gathering in the center of here i wonder what do you protest or so really want right now and are they still rallying in favor of the association agreement or they want something else. as you can see the independence square is already full of

people and people keep arriving as a consumer left and right this is the first reaction to this to this no confidence vote in in the in the parliament we should wish failed actually i think after this we lost a good opportunity to start finding our way out of the political process and sunanda people here and my done they clearly demand we want the president to step down that's the way to solve the political crisis that's the way to get closer to this decision agreement was the european union you mentioned earlier the brutal use of force by the police and we've all seen the footage from key of and i think everybody including president unicom of himself recognize that the use of force was excessive and as far as we understand the investigation is underway and before that investigation was event completed the chief of police had to step down so don't you think that in demanding nothing last then the resignation of the president himself

the opposition is being a bit too excessive in its demands. well as of the moment we have heard some words not too many wars and we have seen no actions at all so not a single police officer has been punished or fired after this bloody saturday and we have not seen the minister of internal affairs in the parliament he was afraid to come to see the m.p.'s we have not seen a single senior officer stepping down so actually people are so angry as of the moment because in the parliament they expected that those who were responsible for this bloody massacre here in the on on my done would be punished that would be the first step to get closer to justice and we see we also know actions so i've seen i think for for most of the people here and i was absolutely clear that the but the president's party of regions which did not vote or vote against the government shared.