ukraine's president says any talks of a deal with the e.u. must involve russia says the prolonged european rallies are continuing to disrupt the government and worsening the already crippled economy. the honeymoon is over australia's high court overturns the country's first law allowing same sex marriages. in less than a week. we've been married we've been on. india's reinstated its ban on same sex relationships while people in croatia vote in a referendum to outlaw it for good look at the setbacks for gay rights in different countries. and going off line the co-founder of the fall sharing website the pirate bay is being held in solitary confinement for these families left in the dark over

the reasons why he's being punished as harshly as a terrorist our top stories this hour. live from our studio center here in moscow was just turned eleven pm this is international and we begin with our breaking news this on r.t. al qaeda linked rebels in syria have abducted one hundred twenty kurds in a village near the border with turkey the news has been reported by the syrian observatory for human rights groups said all the captives including at least six women have been taken to known location and linked groups have been terrorizing the kurdish enclaves in syria with several unconfirmed reports putting the number of those killed in the hundreds let's now go live to pull he's an investigative journalist at university in the u.k. paul what do you make of these reports. well this looks like the isel as they know

the islamic state of iraq. which is an al qaeda linked group in the north of syria it looks like they're getting stronger and stronger moments and there's great tension between them on the on the kurds and also the free syrian army rebels as well so it's it seems to me that it's developed into a multi sided battle not just rebels versus the syrian government any longer we're getting more and more evidence that jarvis the elements are getting stronger and picking fights with those around them and the kurds themselves they've been trying to create their own independent state in effect haven't they out of the chaos arising from syria and indeed they have their own armies so. we could see perhaps retaliation now we could there the kurds of trying to create their own state for a while as for a long as i've been

a journalist and for longer so and they have tried to take you know take advantage of the situation standardly from their point of view to create a separatist state which covers several borders included in parts of turkey so they're not popular with the turks either but. they've got quite military well armed so it will be interesting to see how the kurds will react to the this but nevertheless al qaeda linked groups have reportedly been planning to announce this is not mixtape there and we also heard that there'd been a string of reports of and mass murders in kurdish villages by the al-qaeda rebels in many ways they there are people being victimized at the moment but is their plight in effect being ignored by the international community. well it's it's very difficult for the international community to get involved but in fact they have reacted because as you saw very recently the american government of pulled the plug on nice non lethal aid to the free syrian army because of the simply because the

al-qaeda rebels are have taken that equipment they appear to be. in the course of battles between them and the free syrian army have been captured equipment supplied by the americans and therefore improving their military capability so and americans to pull the plug but that shows how intense is getting there and the. international community is a very difficult it's very difficult to do inside anything inside syria and it's very hard to get in there to do anything and it's hard to know what they're going to do next and this comes just over a week since and as soon as rebel factions kidnapped thirteen syrian and lebanese nuns in the village. and they haven't yet been released can anything be done about then. well clearly not the kidnapping also extends to journalists in this area i mean journalists just can't go into the into syria the syrian area now where you could what should be on the rebel side because they are being kidnapped and

therefore you know this is why the syrian observatory for human rights has become so important is the one of the few organizations that can get information out of the rebel areas. and we're completely dependent on me in some ways because this report comes from them it so far no one else has been able to confirm or deny it or this study said paul just funny this this is getting so complicated isn't it now and it's dangerous you've got the free syrian army at odds with islamic extremists and of course the free syrian army against the sad regime and now of course we've got this with the kurds and al qaida it's just finally what you may call the future of what's going to happen there in syria well it's hard to think of it you know of a greater mess and of course you got the weather close the in with winter now which was seeing the impacts on the real victims of this which are the civilian population who are having to leave the country and they are setting up in you know refugee camps where they have they're not properly provide do it for and they're

going to start dying so it's is it is not pulling mess paul really good to talk to you thank you very much indeed for joining us live here on our team international paul ashmore investigative journalist to university in the u.k. thank you. well of course we'll be closely following these reports coming from syria and we'll bring you more as we get it. and we have more breaking news from the middle east this time from iraq and this news as i said just coming in that's where officials say that government have killed eighteen oil and gas workers in the northeast of the capital baghdad reports say most of the dead are iranians and they were attacked as they were digging a trench to extend a pipeline running between iran and iraq and some sources say that the incident took place in a predominantly sunny area and another seven people have been wounded in that attack so more breaking news for you here on our to international we'll bring you the developments as soon as we get them. doesn't get a curve which is refuted demands from the opposition to dismiss the government to

round table talks in kiev that's after calls from the european parliament for snap election to appease the crisis ortiz paul scott has the details now from kiev. president viktor yanukovych had a round table meeting today with opposition leaders three of the opposition leaders and the announcements come after that discussion where the opposition reiterated a number of their demands including a snap election now the president has refused to dissolve government but he has made a number of concessions including an amnesty on all protesters who have been arrested throughout the course of these demonstrations and he also says the authorities will not use force on these protesters around me was the implications on any possible a huge deal of being gassed sest by government now he has promised that there is no alternative to close the e.u. integration but does say for this to happen that they'll need close cooperation from russia now as you can see around me the protesters remain defiant as ever as

we head into the course of the weekend and over the weekend we are expecting numbers here at independence square to swell not only the opposition. more and more people to come down to support the movement and we are also expecting a pro-government rally to take place over the course of the weekend we're hearing that up to two hundred thousand pro president you know the covert supporters could be descending on europe his ski square which is just around one hundred yards to my left hand side around one hundred yards away from where we are right now in the heart of the opposition movement and these protesters they've been here now for over three weeks on the demonstrations the protests that have suffocated this part of key have a beginning to take their toll on the economy as well as my colleague now reports the. key of protest have ended its fourth week with no sign it will die down the recent attempt by police to clear the streets proved fruitless not only hard into people's resolve it took the protesters only several hours to rebuild the barricades which the police i take it down in

a matter of minutes and now they're even bigger than before the blockade has existed for almost two weeks now and not only creates something of a traffic nightmare for the locals but also as the government. it cripples the country's economy because of governmental buildings being under siege ukraine's prime minister says the country is still without said budget for next year because it shows for drafting the budget for next year and the parliament should have an opportunity to work on it the protests are destruction many social projects like road construction and metrics mansion which here badly needs the economic impact is being felt far from the rallies in the capital at one of the country's leading winemakers factories a thousand kilometers away from the scenes playing out in kiev times are tough but . what's going on in kiev is complete chaos and it's causing serious economic damage to state enterprises like our vineyard our export license has expired because work in the public offices in the capital was disrupted by the protest we were unable to export five trucks of wine to russia and lost two hundred fifty

thousand euros and now our contract with russian importers for the next year is up in the air because they doubt our reliability. and that's happening to a country already on the verge of economic collapse with an external debt of one hundred thirty six billion dollars and what is widely seen by economists as a pre default level standard and poor's have recently warned if the violence continues they will need to lower ukraine's credit rating even further unless the country gets a large injection of cash from somebody over the next six months at the latest maybe even sooner than they will default fearing ukraine's economy would not survive the unrest ukrainians rushed to the banks buying foreign currency and closing their accounts in november foreign currency reserves experienced a deficit of almost eight hundred million euro the second highest figure in the country's history there is a clear line for foreign currency which definitely does not happen to financial

stability of the country foreign exchange reserves. to disappear very quickly. meaning that i mean. by the value people basically trying to close their deposits this commercial man's beach also significant risks on the commercial banking system in the country. revolution down with the government to prison that's what we've been hearing at the key of protests for weeks but a possible default or economic collapse is not the talk of the town behind the barricades lets you assess the oxy reporting from key if in ukraine. well while the european parliament has called for mediation at the highest levels to ensure ukraine's association with the e.u. right now drop the editor in chief of the german get veldt newspaper says this is simply filling the divide even further. only

a tactic to further increase the tensions and because i fear the the e.u. and behind it need to have tasted blood and they want the whole thing i think they want you. back in the western food as it was after the orange revolution with european government agreed to any snap election did we have snap elections in greece in spain in you know ireland where hundreds of thousands of people went on the streets demonstrating against. the taxpayers' money being squandered on banks there's no we don't have the these demonstrations played down in our media and. they were tear gassed. or club. also spoke to a claim serbian filmmaker america's two it's

a and he says the deepening ethnic and political divide in ukraine reminds him of the divisions in the former yugoslavia. the political division of ukraine is if in exodus labia croatia and sort of the i would be the same republic because in our country it was a long period process in which division between ethnic and religious division was taking time over there but the scenario is similar because it comes as a consequence of the idea of spreading europe all over the place and you can watch the full interview with america's students on monday right here on.

the high court in australia has overturned the country's first unknowing same sex couples to marry that's just less than a week after it came into force did this month india upheld its colonial era legislation criminalizing homosexuality while croatians overwhelmingly voted against same sex marriage and a national referendum. looks into why some countries refused to give the rainbow the green light. most western countries already recognize in some form the right of gay couples to get married and adopt children but in other parts of the world there is the opposite trend in less than a week. we've been married and we're going on there it's in australia just days after the nation's capital allowed same sex couples to get married the high court there struck down that the sedition saying regional authority said no right to decide the matter to live in a relationship with loves and trusts to twenty seven australian couple of them saw their marriage annulled. australia's high court ruled that gay marriage was illegal

because the marriage act only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman and only the parliament can change the legislation the most recent attempt to change the law in the australian parliament failed last year polls in the country show support for gay marriage stands at fifty three percent. and offered an absolutely amazing that. history jumping through hoops to try to make sure that every tree on the planet has its natural environment so. that we would be challenging the definition of marriage which creates exactly that environment for a child requiring that it's between a man or woman in india the supreme court has just made gay sex illegal again since the nineteenth and. india has had a ten year sentence on the statute books for quote carnal intercourse against the order of nature four years ago a lower court found it on constitutional the supreme court just brought the law

back into force by making a similar argument as the australian judges only the nation's parliament has the right to change it but with the overwhelming majority of indians against same sex marriage and with a conservative nationalist group leading in the upcoming elections in legislative change in the next few years is highly unlikely but you have a lot of old really just got to lead us. to all the communities of this country that i'll go to do this do you do does that events at each of the main suit is thing europe has seen something similar this december quotations voted in a referendum to outlaw same sex marriage two thirds of the mostly catholic population there approved changes in the constitution in the tug of war between those who are and those who are not allowed to say i do the conservative view on marriage seems at least at the moment to be prevailing in many parts of the world going to check on our team. in july same sex marriages received the royal stamp of

approval in england and wales but by pushing the legislation through prime minister david cameron only deepened the rifts with an easing policy conservative commentator ben harris quiney says asking what people think is the only way it should have been done is that she did the same sex marriage just nation that was the straw that broke the camel's back but the conservative party remains divided and same sex marriage is one of the causes of that so what i would have liked to see his first let's have a debate about it in the conservative policy work out how to get the legislation right perhaps a system like france where. religious institutions and hotels or whatever then you won't want to hold. weddings so well you can do so and then the state simply on the right say union between two people in the interest it really will form that union takes extending civil partnerships all that would've been a better way to do it and i think a referendum would have been very important as well because it removes the

controversy if a question for david cameron is can he convince the conservative philosophy that he's actually a conservative to bring this legislation forward. the passing of nelson mandela wasn't only about grief and tributes as we tell you shortly south africa's immense immigrant population has plenty of reasons to want to about their future after the death of the anti-apartheid icon our correspondent investigates why. that's coming your way just a few minutes. technology innovation all the developments from around russia we. covered. wealthy british style. expert on. the.

market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mixed cause or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. sacred laboratory. was able to build the most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach the creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only on the dot com. is being claimed the co-founder of the infamous for sharing website pirate bay is reportedly being held in solitary confinement in denmark all of it takes up the

story supporters and family members of twenty nine year old got freed while he was one of the founders of the bit torrent site pirate bay have been expressing their concern over the conditions he's being held in in a danish prison now in june of this year he was sentenced to two years in jail in denmark for computer hacking now the charges that were brought against him related to alleged hacking into the the computer network of a computer systems company as well as the danish driving license database the head of the danish police force the national police commissioner of denmark said that the operation that was being run by mr awad had been incredibly sophisticated. it is from across the world including the likes of julian assange should actually call for him to be to be released or at least have his his is conditions in which

he's being held in improved but these aren't the first legal problems that he's had he was part of the group that founded pirate bay which was used to share bit torrent surround the world now that was the subject of a very high profile case regarding copyright infringement sampai isn't supporters come out and say well the conditions in which he's being kept have well certainly overstepped the boundaries for the crime that he's committed while the mother of the detained computer specialist christina's father home maintains has some is completely innocent the court when they decided about him being put into this arrest place they never made a decision about the solitary thing and the prosecutor according to what the prosecutor said to media. we could go she said that and never made such a decision. so it's difficult to find out who made this decision and since you don't

know who made the decision you can't complain properly about it they have suspicions to it's him no. he has told me that this is specials that the danish police claim that he is innocent that the claims they make them not public yet but he has told me about them and he says that in the sand and says he has told me that i must believe he definitely. is louise horn told me earlier that she says the conditions her client has had to endure normally only reserved for violent criminals and terrorists i don't understand what's going on to be honest and i've been both a prosecutor many years ago and i've been employed with the ministry of justice and to be honest these days i'm bit embarrassed that they treat him this way i don't understand why i got floyd has been in denmark for sixteen days now and the

restrictions were put upon him from day one and two weeks ago i asked for a formal decision from the prison service so that i could actually tell my client what's going on and i received what was yeah three four sentences just stating that you know referring to this section in the danish legislation he is to be put under special restrictions and it was a big surprise to me because normal normally these restrictions are only used if people are very well violent towards other inmates and i've also i know one case where it's been used against someone who was charged of terrorism but for me it was a big surprise that this was that they used these restrictions on got that. in his lifetime nelson mandela managed to break down society's divisions and smash apartheid in south africa he stood with open arms welcoming refugees from far and wide who saw him as

a father figure but without him to protect them many fear they'll no longer be welcome aunties paula slip reports. don't lean software feagin south africa from the congo because of one man nelson mandela causes the lot more louder to do inside of the. camp but now he's gone and only means afraid she and other foreigners like her will be kicked out i think that it is well thought it was because they don't one foot in the area complaining that put him over taking their jobs millions of africans have fled their troubled countries in search of a better life in south africa but more often than not they've swapped one horror for another with no money work or prospects a handful have made this place a methodist church in downtown johannesburg home if you're a green or if your german or if you're fringe and you come into this country you were in to experience what's experienced here one of the things that protected for

instance was that it divorced us from the rest of africa who failed is struggling to support his wife and five children in a brutal attack she was beaten so badly she miscarried he was left for dead their crime being foreigners in a strange land i think we could we have. a right to life i think i should call that. in south africa prejudices run deep not only are african foreigners accused of taking jobs away from locals they're also held responsible for accelerating crime so if who is doing it in the way they're going to do the work to do is good and. what we want to give them a sense of going home though is not an option political instability acute poverty and violence awaits them. for twelve long months has been too afraid to

step foot outside this church and now with mandela gone she's more afraid than ever liz too says something about the flood and. no one will talk about the flooding this as night falls these schools close providing refuge to people seeking sanctuary in a country that doesn't want them here r.t. johannesburg south africa. on a website for you signs of medieval style strife at the helm of north korea kim your moon's uncle is put to death with an hours off to pyongyang orders his execution and online for why the nation's second most powerful man was given the death sentence along with other clues to the case. and you don't often see snowmen on the streets of jerusalem but less than two weeks before christmas mother nature completely changed the face of a holy city and gave locals plenty to cheer about yourself at r.t. dot com slash in vision. russia may have been hit hard by the ever increasing drug flow from afghanistan but the authorities in one village have come

up with a unique way to benefit from it after officials in siberia confiscated more than one hundred sets of opium seeds that were thrown into a residential furnace in the flames are used to heat nearby homes the drugs have been used as evidence in several criminal cases which have now been closed and literally cleansed by fire. and i'll be back with more news from just over half an hour from now in the meantime pope francis is named time magazine's person of the year is that a sign of the church's influence or just a good bit of a loss is in cross talk after the break. confident that the irish people won't be asking it down to

a stab in. the down why be why the private banks of any cause so start after hopkins wasn't to be found now economically what always happens is the. central bankers politicians say this will never ever happen again and it keeps on happening but we have to ensure is that if the us company. doesn't switch please make us all full cost for tots slave. is on a journey to structure. one hundred twenty three days. through june so my mother tongue two cities of russia. relate fourteen thousand people or sixty thousand killings. in a record setting trip. their c.e.o.

numbers face. a limp the torch relay. on r t r c dot com cool. little. hello and welcome across all things considered i'm peter lavelle time magazine's person of the year francis the catholic pontiff according to the managing editor the pope changed the tone and perceptions of the roman catholic church this may be so but francis also is showing himself to be critical of the global economic order and capitalism is their hope for the church francis merely a p.r. product. to cross-talk pope francis i'm joined by my guest jamila bey in washington she's

a journalist in public speaker also in washington we have a one hundred chef when he is the president of the at was economic research foundation and in madison we cross to scott rickard he is an expert on catholicism as well as the executive editor of chronicles a magazine of american culture all right crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage encourage it all hundred in washington per person of the year well deserved yes for sure few people have such respect as the pope and few institutions the catholic church still has so much kristie just so much influence around and around the globe so i'm a middle aged ok jamila are you elated that pope francis is time magazine's person of the year it is despairing despairing to me that i've got.