i'm not planning to be involved in politics. he reveals his plans for the future at his first news conference as a free man but some questions about his past are being avoided. people consistently look cool to human rights has repeatedly said that he's. never seems to get through to. a suicide car bomb attack in syria claimed the lives of up to seven children that comes amid allegations that is almost massacred dozens of civilians in a damascus suburb. you can hear it in your home. apparently not many would especially after a report claimed that cancer causing chemicals were found in water samples

collected near fracking sites in colorado. the latest developments and a look back at the top stories of the past seven days this is the week going on r.t. . mikhail khodorkovsky says he will not pursue a career in either politics or business the former oil magnate outlined his plans for the future at his first news conference since he was released from jail. is a new month speaking. i'm not wanting to be involved in politics already made clear in my letter to president and confirmed many times i'm going to devote myself to social issues of. the struggle for power is just not for me. but it was despite the former president being flooded with question some aspects of his

past were avoided by the media as peter oliver reports mikhail khodorkovsky entered into the press conference in a whirlwind of media hype into a room packed to the rafters with journalists many of whom were congratulating him on his release as a political prisoner however there is a nother side to the yukos saga one that's not often heard free after ten years is that some of these comments after his release of raised eyebrows i mean. some of my comrades remain in jail they are my fellow sufferers for example my friend platon lebedev alexei protrusion there are still other political prisoners in russia not only those related to the you cause case i am free now and i'm asking you to think of it as something which symbolizes that the efforts of civil societies can lead to the release of some people who no one thought would be able

to walk free. to choose again was the head of security for mr holder called ski's oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence book by counts of murder if you have a court finding a person guilty of murder i think it's very difficult for anyone to then say well he's guilty but he's not actually guilty because he's a political prisoner i find it quite order in two thousand and seven a court convicted it too good of ordering the shooting over that immediate bet you call of the mayor of a town in siberia and his widow believes this was a crime that went to the top. but there are core skis behind the murder of my husband he's a free man now it's painful for me to talk about this because nothing can bring my husband back the international community should know the facts of our cause q. should confess his sins and stop trying himself as a victim the court found no link between the murders and the you cause head. of course he was jailed in two thousand and three for fraud and embezzlement he

refuses to accept any guilt for the crimes he was convicted of despite the cold big back up outside of russia to people consistently overlook the european court of human rights has repeatedly said that he's guilty as well but that never seems to get reported. peter all over r.t. berlin. khodorkovsky was released from jail on friday after being pardoned by president putin on humanitarian grounds he flew straight to berlin where he was reunited with his family including his mother who was suffering from cancer earlier we spoke to you're going else acer editor in chief of politico magazine compact he says there are parts of the former all the guards past the west prefers not to know about. totally unknown in the west. a big economic criminal that have stolen a lot of for money from the russian people and from the russian state that he stole

a lot of oil not physically or by the by means of fiscal many police. every kind of businessman in the west had done the same would have all sought ended in prison by this story is i'm told in the west there are are speculations and there are kind of pressure on him from the corrections of the anglo-saxon oil industry to mingle into russian politics and to go back into the game for it is unclear what will happen. you can get more on the release of mikhail khodorkovsky at our web site r.t. dot com and we have reports in-depth analysis and opinion. to syria now where a suicide bombing near a primary school has killed up to seven children in the province of this comes after dozens of civilians were allegedly massacred by islamists in the town of

artie's arabic channel went there to talk to eyewitnesses. error still fills the hearts of those who witnessed the militants entering the town about drugs they saw panic disoriented people running for their lives and they ran themselves they will never forget the despair in the eyes of those who were forced to stay behind we have no reliable way to communicate with the people trapped inside address but officials are saying the atrocities against the civilian population are continuing our people are being butchered and even burned alive and every bit of news coming out of the town is doing a new blow to those whose families are still being held by the militants and everyone working for the local authorities was to be killed regardless of their religion organon in a sion they were all taken to be killed they took everyone even those who supported neither the government nor the rebels they were all either tortured killed or used as human shields the things being done in a drawer unthinkable they're slaughtering children and throwing them out of windows

and no one's doing anything about it because the syrian authorities say they have evidence confirming that massacres have taken place and address sadat latakia and many other areas which remain under the control of the armed opposition the situation in syria has now deteriorated to the point that international norms of combat are no longer being observed. he's an industrial town with a lot of the us residents working both in the private sector and for government agencies horrifying crying must have been committed in this town houses were set on fire with people. from the syrian army which is a position just outside the town that continues to carry out surgical strikes as part of their effort to liberate which is now the only hope of the families waiting for news of their loved ones inside the town. r.t. well western powers have indicated next month's peace talks in geneva may no longer

involved calls for assad to be removed from power it's feared extremists could take control of the country if his government falls washington says it's willing to meet members of the newly formed islamic front group which is implicated in the bloodshed in entre we spoke with an adviser to the u.s. congress who warns extremists can't be trusted first of all it would be a strategic mistake if the us administration or europe or their allies would be engaging in a partnership and a partnership meaning they would be collaborating with organizations that are she hobbies and have not committed to become moderates or recognize the fact that if they come to power or part of power they will recognize human rights that did not happen that would be a mistake of the size that was done in afghanistan and maybe done again with the party by next year the number two if the united states will engage or has engaged some of these organizations probably in the goal of a very tactical engagement to make sure that those forces are not going to bring

more foreign forces from the outside including al qaida but again i'm very skeptical so we have to have a better strategy to engage with the more moderates with the seculars and also with the minorities that exist in syria today. a co-founder of the pirate bay website is being treated almost like a public enemy number one that's according to his lawyer who says he's in solitary confinement with little contact with fellow inmates but after he was charged with hacking into a danish government database plus. it was apology you want to know how much i feel about mr snowden's leaks i feel jealous hootin talks about the n.s.a. surveillance program and explains why moscow is pouring cash into ukraine in the end of the year q. and a session with the media that's later on this hour. for to infertility birth defects and cancer or potential side effects of chemicals found this week near fracking fracking sites in colorado but that hasn't stopped us

energy companies pushing ahead with their drilling operations and as you can reports residents living near the wells have almost no allies in their fight for a safe environment the local government in texas tells steve lipski that the water from his well water that he can set on fire is safe to drink and to use in his home . you can't get into your home. thank you but steve has the assessment of other experts who say he's well is a ticking bomb in his backyard loaded with methane and other contaminants why the starkly different assessments steve claims that a fracking operation nearby contaminated his well and that texas energy authorities are shielding the gas company. they don't want the world to know that it really is this bad they don't want it in official documents it could be that the fracking allowed gas from lower formations into the aquifer and subsequently into steve

lipski as well the gas company denies the claim the lips sued the range resources corp but the firm counter sued and won. in cause and effect evidence a ground water is incredibly difficult to prove my use of us are is an engineer who worked with the federal environmental protection agency is not surprised that the state oil and gas regulator sided with the gas corp conceit that derives its same come in survival from oil and gas production issues really putting him in charge of also regulating the protection of groundwater from going down swells and there's an inherent conflict of interest in that determined to fight for his home father of

three steve has been shipping fresh water from the city on trucks at a cost of five hundred dollars a month but the family now faces another blow from the fracking corporation of four point two million dollars lawsuit for defamation steve lipski is dream house and it's a beautiful property has become his nightmare several of his neighbors apparently have the same problem but they're reluctant to speak out after they saw how the gas company went after mr lips they shouldn't expect much help from washington either why do you sell us are says the environmental protection agency has not put nearly enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the e.p.a. from coming up with a report in favor of the practice. believes his word vice to vent the gaps constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack because those who do you are pretty much

the only run on top of one hundred years from now when somebody is. typing on the border and they're able to trace it to this for you and everybody else who's had who appears invest in a philosophy for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so far doubt on fracking potential profits that households like steve leaves his family are left to fight a low to get a healthy environment in their homes. or to keep parker county texas. meanwhile the u.k. government would like to see greater energy exploitation in the countryside a report has laid the groundwork to open up vast areas of britain to exploration including shale gas drilling now on this map the light blue shows how much land at this point is been earmarked for that u.k.'s energy minister has hailed the report as the next step in unlocking britain's fracking potential but friends of the earth's helen rimmer believe it's time to stop before it's too late we've only had

a handful of exploratory drilling sites across the u.k. but already we've seen huge local opposition whether it's in the south easterly or the northwest where we're seeing it now and i think with the government's new licensing round which is going to open up another two thirds of the country to potentially to fracking we're going to see even more position and i think the government is going to have to put a moratorium in place like it had done previously and actually listen to the concerns of communities because there's a very loud and clear message. discussing the crisis in ukraine joking about the n.s.a. surveillance program and talking about his stance towards greenpeace activists these are just some of the issues president putin covered during his annual marathon q. and a session this week archies igor piskun of was there and brings us the details . they never met personally but his revelations surely made an impact on the world . answering a question about edward snowden the president didn't reveal his exact whereabouts but he couldn't resist humoring his all relationship with barack obama and u.s.

surveillance tactics. it was noticeable if you want to know how my feel about mr obama after snowden's leaks i feel jealous i feel jealous because he can do these things and get off scot free still there is nothing to be happy about but on the other hand there's no reason to be frustrated however tough the criticism against the us may be all these measures have always been aimed at tackling terrorism but there must be some clear rules and certain agreements including those of ethics ukraine was also discussed that actually said it right from the last few weeks with mass protest both in favor of against moving closer with the e.u. moscow's giving kiev a fifteen billion dollar loan to help because of severe economic problems and according to putin integration is not the core reason behind the wave of unrest. those who are pushing forward the idea of signing an association agreement with the european union these people would govern in ukraine not so long ago. was

a foreign minister also headed the parliament to machinegun is a former prime minister you schenker was ukraine's president why didn't they sign these papers when they were in power no one was standing in their way so you could have gone ahead and sign them and there'd be no problem today i have legitimate downs that the current protests are about moving closer to the e.u. it's an internal political struggle and signing or not signing this document is just a pretext like the current amnesty which should affect up to twenty five thousand people coincides with the twentieth anniversary of russia scots dushan members of pussy riot and greenpeace activists from the so-called arctic thirty are expected to benefit so obviously this issue was also mentioned including the president steps on the organization itself. this ship it entered our exclusive economic zone was not responding and they tried to scale the platform after attempt to stop them the second boat started ramming our border guards is that's

a civil discussion about protecting the environment it's just p.r. or an attempt to blackmail racketeering or someone's order to disturb our work on developing resources that will happen should serve as a lesson and unite us along with greenpeace in joint efforts to minimize environmental risks instead of just making a fuss. of course these are only a few topics touched upon which we also talked about recent diplomatic breakthroughs like the syrian chemical arms deal and the iranian nuclear program the conference was attended by over thirteen hundred journalists and lasted over four hours you're pissed off r.t. moscow. bad news for beefcake says american scientists develop muscles for robots they're a thousand times stronger than their human equivalent but if you're concerned about a rise of the machines had more website for the full story. and china is planning to construct an aircraft carrier because of washington's growing military presence

in asia you can get the latest on what's behind all the tensions in the pacific r.t. dapat. one of the new will for the moment what. policies do you believe. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i wrote researcher. he's not a killer or a terrorist but he's being held in conditions as bad as if he were a line activist and a legit hacker got treats for home far is one of the founders of the file sharing website the pirate bay has been accused by denmark of stealing of millions of

personal id numbers and it's not the first time one of the pirate based creators found themselves in court and the website first came under fire back in two thousand and six when it got on the wrong side of hollywood it was taken down for several days when swedish police raided its headquarters several years later its founders were charged and eventually sentenced to a year in prison for encouraging copyright violations earlier this week our two spoke to our home lawyer who told us her client is treated much worse than is warranted by the charges against him it's got a little bit better since we talked to her last time he's been moved to a different facility. beyond the first facility the first prison couldn't really get any worse than that so now he's in a different facility and he's been allowed to. be with another inmate to talk to another inmate two hours a week but it's still not good years allowed to go outside as well one hour every day. and during that hour. you know. you

need to talk to other inmates you certainly not. given the conditions that other in the same case would be given. very cautious about you don't really want anything to go wrong because it's a very sensitive sensitive case in denmark in egypt three prominent arab spring leaders have been jailed for three years over protests that took place in november they were convicted of violating a new law restricting gatherings of more than ten people while the government concentrates on its crackdown on unrest things are getting worse for egyptians as bell true reports. omaha meet a young egyptian design student sits in his favorite downtown cairo cafe talking about a better life abroad three years on from participating in two thousand and eleven revolution omer is frustrated with the state of the country he says once he finishes his studies he'll have to leave you i have been. here your story for four

years then you don't find a job at the end of it there are better chance is outside egypt there i can find the freedom to work with the skills that i have that is one of the most important reasons forcing people to leave egypt there are eight million egyptians already abroad and others and looking to join them as the economy flatlines in the political instability even if the economy of the country will grow in the future the double digits there will never be able to accommodate every new job seekers there is going to be always a percentage of the population that would seek job elsewhere job outside of the country youth unemployment rates are at a staggering seventy seven percent and that may well rise after years of turmoil for young men like almost seeking work abroad is often the only option but it's not just the economy driving egyptians to leave some a feeling a growing crackdown on political freedoms a growing numbers of activists are now facing jail sentences after the military

installed government enforced the law banning protests without official permission daily battles between student protesters and security forces broke egypt's campuses police and the army continue to patrol the streets here where we need democracy freedom better health care and social justice to fulfill the main demands of our revolution the police need to change the whole regime needs to have a better ideological way of dealing with egypt or more people will go and the government hopes and new constitution and upcoming elections will help stabilize egypt but until egyptians can find work and enjoy basic freedoms more will be forced to leave. for r.t. cairo. time for a brief look at some other news making headlines around the world right now. in istanbul turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse people venting their anger over a government corruption scandal at least twenty four people close to

a prime minister air do on were arrested on suspicion of investment money laundering and bribery the turkish leader has dismissed the case as a conspiracy to discredit him and his government. in the capital of central african republic thousands of muslims have marched against peacekeeping operations in the country according to locals the rally was triggered after three gunmen were killed in clashes with french troops it was the first demonstration since french and african union forces arrived and the sectarian bloodshed in the country. eastern canada has been hit by a major ice storm leaving more than four hundred thousand people without power and threatening to leave them in the dark over christmas hundreds of flights were canceled while many roads have been blocked by fallen trees no casualties have been reported but some are comparing this this storm with the one in january one thousand nine hundred eighty eight that left dozens dead. a suicide car bombing at

an army checkpoint in eastern libya has left at least thirteen people dead and scores more injured a truck carrying explosives drove up to the checkpoint and was detonated when soldiers approached to check the vehicle government troops in the east of the country regularly come under attack from armed militias they did their duty and were repaid with sickness servicemen with the royal air force were tasked with carrying out nuclear tests in south australia at the height of the cold war and as tests are sillier reports calls for the u.k. government to compensate them are growing louder. flutie i was seventeen when he joined the royal air force and was eventually posted to mary lincoln south australia nuclear tests were carried out there in the fifty's with some publicity but minor trials reportedly continued in secrecy until the my nine hundred sixty s. run do. we knew every or for every fortnight aircraft flew in with

a nuclear flask. which we unloaded onto a lorry and it was taken away by the scientists who did what they were doing with what he termed fifty illnesses he believes were caused by his exposure to radiation that marling started manifesting i started off with i had tb i then started having degeneration of my spine my daughter has gone pancreatic condition which can only be of traced back to genetic source so i have the question in my mind. was it many was it because i was there and many others are asking the same questions even before world war two radiation was a hazard the problem is measuring it in a meaningful way very very difficult indeed nevertheless there is undoubtedly i think tradition among the british authorities not to own up to any responsibility

these people were experimented on quite honestly it was disgraceful how those soldiers were created and they've long been asking the government for recognition and compensation their service is part of history a war you allies of future generations will not forget but for those who would actually serve the forgetting is not an option especially for those who feel that a decision they made decades ago may have cast a shadow on their lives and those of their loved ones if you look out of the country's nuclear countries a treaty that veterans and compensate them and recognize them and we stand right at the bottom of the table that is wrong france the united states and even the tiny island not have already done so with the ministry of defense maintains that while there is a quote huge debt of gratitude owed to the veterans the government rejects any link between veterans' health problems and their military service citing a two thousand and ten health nice audit. overall the range and severity of

problems reported was typical of older people in the u.k. in general any veteran who believes they have suffered ill health service has the right to apply for no fault compensation jeff knows the clock is ticking and while he's hopeful he has no illusions about how difficult the fight will be at the very least what he wants is this. cost money money to say thank you we're like goes. we don't exist does or sylvia r.t. london. that's all from me and my colleague and your farmer will be with you in the next hour before that it's time for cross talk with peter lavelle you're watching our. but. over. the job the price is the only industry

specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy but albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across several we've been hijacked why a handful of transnational corporations will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once built up my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem truck rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing america if i ever feel ready to join the movement then walk a little bit of. wealthy british style. that's not tied to the title of the findings will target.

markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports on. such of the twenty fourteen olympics what's this place like and the line is is so special as the russian resort prepares to welcome the world power the games should be in the city's present and future ludlow so it will bring you this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold and snowy windy mountainous tough yet beyond the olympics what the. starting germ of the first on our team.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm people of few u.s. presidents elected to a second term in office leave the white house success or even popular rock obama is a case in point his poll numbers are low his legislative agenda is in deep trouble and washington's friends and foes around the world do not take him seriously is obama already a lame duck president. to cross not whether obama is a lame duck i'm joined by my guests in new york chet why he's a democratic political strategist and we also have don de bar he is an anti-war activist and host of a daily radio program right gentlemen cross talk rules in fact that means you can jump in any time you want and i very much encourage it chad if i go to you first in new york congratulations on your victory. race in new york a breath of fresh air a lot of people say but let's go to president obama he's got very low numbers in the polls right now about forty six that's the lowest during his time in on.