freed captives of an extremist group in syria shocking details of their old deal as the militants fighting under the flags of al-qaeda emerge as the most radical in the region even by forces. still eating. in syria america's middle east policy is raising eyebrows with washington's offer to help fight the same militant group in iraq appearing to draw it together with iran. and historic sites go under the hammer in europe as cash strapped governments invent new ways to meet. me i love the british companies are over fracking is

a new report reveals hundreds of complaints of contamination but officials in companies seem keen to ignore them. international with twenty four hours a day several hundred captives of a rebel group linked to al qaida have been freed in syria it was being held by fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the vent one of the most radical jihadist militant groups in the region as a middle east correspondent explains they're not so lucky you may find some footage in a report disturbing. this group is looking as if the actions of kerry's odds are increasingly horrific there is video that is circulating of a terrible execution the video is verified but it comes from the syrian city of

aleppo and what we see in it is people who have been killed by. a fully a to islamic state in iraq an event which is calling itself the if it is understand is that the people killing each other forty from the from. and the emotions from the journalists among them as you see they will shake their heads as well as being handcuffed now this comes off to be used as an honest liberals have to be hateful treatment of and let's hope and what we're looking at recently is a position that's killing opposition the free syrian army is certainly horrified by the rise of these radical rebel groups there is no denying that imus is worse than the syrian president bashar assad fighters all the i s. as well using the children's i hospital as the central detention facility and dozens of bodies were discovered inside they appear to have been executed those who

survived in the some of the eyewitness reports that are coming through saying that the treatment was worse than they were ever treated by the regime is intelligence one of them saying that he was praying as bombs were dropped that planes were dropping bombs to put an end to their ordeal now fighters of the same as i insist who are behind executions and kidnappings in syria on now controlling key cities in iraq's biggest province with researchers and analysts saying that the wives of radicals in the region is that knowledge being fueled by the e.u. policy so certainly a very worrying picture unfolding in this region. and in iraq tribal leaders in the city of fallujah in the province are calling on al qaeda fighters to leave the city it's currently surrounded by iraqi government forces ready to launch their offensive and the u.s. is already speeding up its missile deliveries to the country to help now that's in contrast to the syrian rebels who are still enjoying major support from washington

that's according to geopolitical research. the united states is still feeding the fighters in syria through its ally jordan so it's very hard to to accept what america said face value when this still continued to support now it seems america would like to help the iraqi government fight terrorists that were created because of the occupation of the foreign forces of america and yet in syria next door in syria the same group i'm being aided to overthrow the government in syria so america is continuing its two political games in the region and of course the people that suffer are the countries themselves. the suicide bombing has killed at least twenty three soldiers of the military recruitment center in baghdad the attack is believed to be in retaliation for government attempts to push al qaeda fighters from fallujah u.s.

is weighing in offering help along with iran which says it's ready to send the military equipment but he's got to just look at tehran and washington finding themselves on the same side of the conflict. because of politics of the last few decades you think about the u.s. and iran as enemies that don't have anything in common but they do and it's fight against terror for one the kind of terror that is now so rapidly metastasizing in syria and walk radical sunni militants are gaining foothold in iraq's own bar province and the iraqi government is struggling to drive them out now for americans who had heard the term state sponsor of terrorism so many times used to finally won this whole setting sound on you for and u.s. secretary of state john kerry saying that iran might play a role of the peace talks on syria also something unusual among the audience that is so used to the hostile rhetoric although on syria both washington and tehran say

they want to stop this. for. iran does not share washing machine change in syria so still lots of. early indications that common interest could be slowly coming to the forefront after years on the back burner meanwhile a fresh un resolution on syria seeking to condemn the assad government has failed the statement drafted by the u.k. expressed outrage at strikes on the ship being carried out since last month over seven hundred have believed to have been killed the resolution was scuppered after diplomats refused to add amendments offered by russia. for more on the developments in the syrian conflict as well as analysis of the situation in the whole region to r.t. dot com. one of steroids in europe may be forcing many to tighten their belts to the max for others it's offering good opportunities hard pressed european governments looking to plug budget holes or putting their nation's legacies under

the hammer all these tests are silly it takes a look at whether the gamble is worth the cost. it's been dubbed that the great european fire sale in a bid for cash these are just some of what's been up for grabs but even funds raised from headline grabbing deals might not be enough like six greek island sold for eight point five million euros an italian island sold for two point nine million exclusive rights to use the coliseums image on their products for fifteen years twenty five million euros government debt in the euro zone is greater now than it was a year ago and some of the sales have led to public anger and frustration bestselling history and culture there selling beauty things a priceless and they've attached a price tag to it i think that's absolutely reprehensible there's absolutely no guarantee that that privatization will help consumers are told and one of the most surprising items recently put off the market was. for a little over

a million euros to get a maltese passport and therefore becoming the e.u. says it a move that's been put on hold as two thirds of the public at opposition leaders cry foul. splitting the same legal gun three s which there is trades meant huge international damage which was uncalled for because more go to date has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the whole european union it's a question of principle over citizenship should not be pulled out on say proponents of privatization see it as a necessity for either nations that are in dire straits but also warned that by europe at a bargain may not be as much of a jackpot as one might think if i were investor i wouldn't be buying many of these things all of these countries have serious political risks for any kind of foreign investor anybody trying to. buy a house in italy has to reckon with the possibility that ten twenty years down the

line a government is just going to nationalize whatever they whatever they want to nationalize but for what it's worth this sale continues tesser sylvia r.t. when we talk with financial expert patrick young on this issue and he told us the big sale is no remedy to the euro zone's real problems. when you've had a sudden shing incredible recession as we've seen in many parts of europe there will ultimately be a point in time when the economy binds us back to some degree but truly the problem is that the euro is still fundamentally a counsellor as disorganized monetary system up the core of the european union the mediterranean countries have still done little or nothing to organize what is a fact of lee and intergenerational warfare all their people can keep and get and hold on to their jobs younger people simply have no chance of getting any jobs in the first place let alone keeping them and therefore we do not have

a sustainable recovery europe it's trying to paper over the cracks it is simply failing to address the very very substantial issues europe needs to restructure it needs to be more competitive because already other countries are eating its lunch. security is being tightened around u.s. military bases operating in britain new laws are set to come into force and there's no need for parliament's approval for taking pictures or failing to clean up after your dog could be enough to get you arrested the full details coming up later in the program here on r.t. international. but first hundreds of complaints over water contamination have been filed in u.s. states where oil and gas drilling known as fracking is taking place pollution was confirmed in a number of cases raising further over the safety of the controversial technique when a recently published review by the associated press details the problems in four states in the hundred ninety complaints have been registered since two thousand and

ten in six cases contamination was confirmed at the same period west virginia one hundred twenty complaints over one hundred twenty complaints in four of those cases the companies are taking corrective action in pennsylvania they've been nearly nine hundred complaints in just two years for the. hundred of them confirmed as pollution and texas has two thousand complaints made by the public although authorities haven't confirmed any of those were indeed cases of contamination when i go over fracking is spilling over to the state of new york as well arty's more important witness the latest protests there. but more than that thousand people have gathered in albany new york city capital to take a hard time and tide packing probably only was the governor andrew cuomo to get cracking he make you think you really think you make this easy to see

tourists think you probably can which will leave the decision on whether or not he was rocking succumbed to the work states now over the past ten years fracking has led to a u.s. boom in oil and gas production generating hundreds of billions in revenue for companies and landowners but it's also created concerns and fears about pollution coming in talking to the candidates if you will that the ball was teaching so many of those that i spoke with thank you all ready seen cases dangerous was taking place throughout the state throughout the country and they don't see those cases that i see to where they live they are contaminated high levels of radiation a break the bottom line is extreme they credibly thirty four on the extreme an extraction of a kind of anyplace new york state of i feel like the fracking companies have no heart was is because they're not getting some of the old people's houses this size

or down to now wondering now renewable we think this fracking upstate new york we're going to ruin our fireplace and real estate they do not want to be the next rocking was the question is who could talk of the state and listen and feet to the concerns of his constituents the forty from albany new york read up or not the arctic still to come for you this hour the newborn celebrity of north pole origin which has become an object of obsession in the headlines. puir for text polar vortex the polar vortex we look at why the polar vortex seems to frozen not only north america in the minds of the global media which can't help repeating help cold the cold actually is.

but i will only react to situations as i have read the reports from. the pollution and no i will leave that to the state department to comment on your latter point to say. to carry on the talking no. thank you no more weasel words. when you question me prepared for a change when you punch be ready for a. printout of speech and a little down the freedom to cross. you cannot preemptively restrict your freedoms because of the fear of what something or how something might be used everything that has ever been developed has been years for a bad purpose baseball bats which are fun for you know for baseball players to hit

balls you know they've also been used to beat people to death i mean we just cannot restrict ourselves because something might be years in or in the wrong way. in the u.k. m.p.'s are introducing new bills to protect u.s. military bases in britain a person could be punished just for walking a dog near by the government's using legislation enacted over centric to move ahead without punishments approval nor smith has more. there are twenty activities all together i'm not going to list them all but they range from things like pitching a tent near a base or bringing a caravan near a u.s. airbase taking food to graphs of anything or anyone digging near a base or even failing to clear up after your dog near a base all of these things by the way you're liable to immediate arrest no further

discussion of governments using two hundred year olds law which comes under the control of the ministry of defense which means that these laws don't have to be discussed in parliament at all they can just be introduced completely unilaterally now they apply to around one hundred fifty bases all over the country among them are two u.s. air force bases that a key centers for u.s. eavesdropping basically they are in the middle of the country near milton keynes and their signal really stations and one of them funnels back data to washington from this network of embassy. spy bases including that facility if you're a member that was listening in to you and all allegedly listening in to angela merkel's telephone there were previously no special laws that were put in place to govern the land around these spaces so their introduction now is raising questions among critics they're saying you know does it mean that there will be an expansion

of the bases what are they trying to hide and why is the u.k. government helping them in this campaign is also worried that it's preparing the ground for an expansion of the u.s. drone network that this is in preparation for that and we know there is strong evidence that the u.k. has been involved but its bases have been involved in the targeting of drones in the past. stories for you just a click away including reaching new heights the u.s. navy is taking to the air with a new craft fitted with a rolls royce engine and having a wider than the boeing and handed it to a website for footage of the machine being. put through its paces. plus google's find in france for not telling users just what it's doing with their private information to find exactly what the global giant's been up to log on to opti dot com. parts of russia's north caucuses being put on security alert after six bodies with gunshot wounds were found in four separate

cars police are hunting for three suspects who are thought to be armed and driving a car across the region. has the details. reportedly at one of these one of those cars as a minor explosive device detonated when the police was on the scene no one was injured fortunately now the authorities are considering several version of what happened they've already considered launching a criminal case and several criminal articles such as illegal possession of arms manslaughter act of terror is not among these considered diversions nevertheless the authorities of the region have imposed a special security alert mode which is called the counterterrorist operation mode in two districts of the region on the usual day that she has would not have probably led to such a high security alert mode but of course in a month's time we'll have these sorts you lympics and the whole region is basically in a special security mold right now this concern several regions in the russian south some of them are as far as seven hundred kilometers from the city of sochi but

still no nevertheless they are in a special security mode we know that in the city of sochi itself there will be special security checkpoints cars with license plates other than those belonging to the city of sochi will not be allowed inside unless they have special accreditation but this will not concerned the special security model not concerned fans in any way because their tickets to the games is providing that they can they can be anywhere in this in the city of sochi and surrounding areas so obviously the usual fans the common fans will have nothing to worry about russia is losing its patience with senegal the russian foreign ministry strongly urging the country to free a trawler detained in dhaka without any further delay meanwhile the owner of the ship is preparing to file a suit against the african country at the international tribunal for the law of the sea of hugo piskun of has been diving deeper into the story. well these are some firm demands coming from the foreign ministry to free the sailors at once since

frankly the situation is beginning to look a bit shady there the troller was arrested over the weekend eighty two crew members are on board sixty of them are russian citizens and similarly authorities are accusing them of go fishing but at the same time they still haven't been able to provide any evidence proving their claims and now there are also reports that some of the crew members were injured during the arrest and apparently they are not being provided with the necessary medical assistance and also the traveler is now running short of wise including fresh water at the same time between peace has come out for supporting senegal's actions in this situation leading the russian authorities to question the real motives behind the arrest greenpeace says it's been tracking this vessel for a long time why are they taking upon themselves the government's responsibility to protect their waters and biological resources therefore based on the statements from greenpeace one may conclude that the military of senegal is acting upon these

claims as you may know senegal's fishing minister heads the green party in senegal and was until very recently a member of greenpeace and so you see the connection between this harsh and unprecedented attack on the russian trawler and his detention with greenpeace's actions to asians with greenpeace have been quite complicated especially after the arrest of the so-called arctic thirty a group of peace activists in the russian north who are accused of calling it isn't but then were all released as part of a mass amnesty in december. some other news in brief this out i was updated suicide blast in the pakistani city of karachi has killed three including one of the country's best known police commanders. had survived previous assassination attempts but this time and exposes laden vehicle was ran directly into his convoy came just hours after three suspected members of the pakistani taliban were said to have been killed in the city. government demonstrators

have rallied to drum up support for a citywide. aeration shut down bank hopes to bring government to a standstill. and watches are ready due to pressure from the streets of new elections before. that is not a. citizen councils to film before any election. as prime minister is handing over power to a caretaker government. has agreed to resign as part of a deal with his opponents. a political crisis sparked by the assassination of a left wing politician in july three years after an uprising in the state the caretaker administration will supervise new elections regarded as the final stages of the country's transition to democracy. now when cold comes in winter it's normally just called winter but this week the american media has been having a frenzy over a new term the polar vortex promoting the image of

a frosty villain taking its toll on the u.s. but as the blast of cold weather now eases we look at how all of the news is being frozen out to demonstrate just how freezing freezing is. in the reports. more talked about in the u.s. media than the most ridiculous celebrity baby name and the royal wedding combined it's called a polar vortex the polar vortex the polar vortex the polar vortex more frightening than your worst nightmare it's a whirlpool of dense frigid arctic air ladies and gentlemen in the cold cold hell if you can imagine so it is the coldest it has been decades every thirty seconds and all it's really cold out this is the most important mainstream news story for days on end we have a team of correspondents covering this arctic blast it's really obvious that it's cold but just to keep your journalistic integrity you want to first hand account of how cold it is and if a mailman is all bundled up saying yeah it's cold then you know it's actually called here's a hamburger and a steak even though there's really only that much to eventually talk about how does

your skin doing since mother's weather no matter how hard you try to keep your attention to look at this is a little mall noddy's deficient chicago pizza hard as a rock you could use this as a weapon if you wanted to it's ok temperatures dropping to subzero extremes it is a rare occurrence in certain parts of the year was everyone but it's am doing it up like there's no tomorrow might be a tad over exaggerated and you go as spring to remember us people know it's cold people know they shouldn't go outside you don't need to go on and on and on and meanwhile there's really really important news that it's not getting covered then again weather coverage doesn't require bringing up the truly unpleasant you don't to worry about the confusing stuff the stuff with new ones like the syrian civil war like the pros and cons of genetically modified food you just walk outside and go buy doubles or hearts as a result other countries are rolling their eyes at us because we're complaining that it's cold but they're also rolling their eyes at us about everything else it

looks like the us mainstream media are taking their tips from an old piece of advice if you don't know what to say just talk about the weather and if they think you're going to r.t. me or. my. news for you in just over half an hour with me and the team in the meantime. we're taking a look at the legacy of the arab spring in the worlds of the self the short break desists odyssey to measure. what a country experiences a tragedy like the recent terrorism in volgograd the x. question is what to do about it i mean we have to do something right let's never let a good tragedy go to waste one do remember recommends getting rid of the moratorium

on the death penalty for prayers groups including terrorists because the death penalty is the perfect way to punish a suicide bomber also this do remember failed to mention high level cryptic kratz in the government as those who could possibly face the firing squad perhaps that was just an honest oversight i'm not against the death penalty in some rare instances but punishing terrorists after the fact doesn't bring victims back the focus needs to be on the source of terrorism soldiers can play around all day with weapons because the government gives them a salary weapons and training some people are recruiting arming and training new terrorists you don't need to usher in a massive surveillance state to stop terrorism or go death penalty crazy what you need to do is hit the funding and training source hard if you can i mean how many of you guys out there could make a remotely detonated bomb a c four on your own without help almost none of you see for doesn't grow on trees someone pays for it but that's just my opinion.

iraq is clearly again falling back into extreme civil strife washington says it wants to help but most iraqis appear wary of any more american assistance. then there is a chemist in washington plans to finally leave this year the sad reality. is that long can mean never be able to be. alone of welcome to worlds apart and a half years ago egypt and much of the arab falls were going through dramatic changes that even the most creative screenwriter couldn't imagine hopes were high if you just seem bright and be happy and within reach what happened to those dreams while to discuss that i'm now joined by a prominent egyptian actor and activist. mr burkett i really appreciate your being

on the show thank you very much thank you thank you very much for inviting me now i remember that back in two thousand and eleven you spent days on tougher square alongside other protesters calling for president hosni mubarak to step down and eventually thanks to your efforts and the efforts of thousands of other dedicated patrick activists he eventually deed and in one of the interviews you gave back then you said that that made you feel very proud of the egyptian people i wonder if you still hold on to that pride are you proud of what is happening in your country now yes i'm definitely proud we went down two thousand and eleven to object to a number of wrong things that were happening in our country and when they happened again we just took to the streets again very quickly and very effectively because three days instead of eighteen days the second time so i'm still asked bro but i

remember that one of the main slogans that you could hear on tap for square background was brad freedom and human dignity and if you take those as as a yardstick of. success or progress the picture is not really here brive because your economy is much worse than it used to be more people have been arrested or killed since the ouster of mubarak than prior to that and when it comes to human rights and human dignity the progress is very limited to say the least so isn't egypt pretty much back to where it was before the arab spring only much worse i think what's happening now in egypt is a retaliation to to the actions that were taken by people in power and their supporters to humiliate human dignity and basically want to break it.