as an essay as master valence and take strong welcome comparisons with the stasi of these germany are talks of better and so the fear of your cold war spy service to find out just how much do you have in common with. moscow pushes for an equal role for iran at this month's international peace conference on syria as a russian foreign minister host meetings with his a rainy n and syrian counterparts. in the presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen is thrown into doubt after the latest killing of civilians by american forces.

which are going actual coming to live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program. now relations between the u.s. and afghanistan are in jeopardy after the latest killing of civilians by american troops in the war zone the afghan president says seven children and a woman died in a u.s. airstrike on wednesday all nato claims the incident took place during a counter-terror operation and admits that at least two civilians were killed by mistake it's the latest in a series of collateral damage scandals that have shaken u.s. afghan relations and kabul has repeatedly demanded and hand to night raids and airstrikes in civilian areas well let's now bring in afghan political analyst habib hakimi who joins us live here r.t. international thank you so much misery to me for being with us so in your opinion why are these deadly nato raids are still happening.

this incident has repeated in afghanistan minute times in the past two years and president karzai. has condemned this action by a foreign forces in afghanistan and demanded for from. nato countries india from from the united states to stop military operation particularly air operation and his attention areas in afghanistan in. afghanistan but still that. american forces the need to first the forces are operating in and different parts of the country and developed as and homes of afghan people to targeting taliban militants and i would members of the government of afghanistan demands. the stop of military operation and develop as of afghanistan but

american forces and in it two forces say they are targeting the militants not the civilians sometimes they killed the civilian some civilians by by ms. this happened again in the country and the government of afghanistan sees six children and a woman. have been killed in air strike by need two forces but need to in a statement and offer to step up and say that we are targeted the commander of taliban and some other taliban fighters in that area probably we have we have targeted civilians but we are going to end investigate. that ends today and and. mr you mean as we can see things are not getting better on the ground floor of the locals in afghanistan but let's not analyze astray she specifically how likely is it kabul government to agree to grant americans.

immunity from afghan law after twenty fourteen i mean things are not getting better now but what will happen afterwards much later in two thousand and fourteen in your opinion. actually the security situation is worsening in that country india is new sign that americans are need to will be able to stop the war in afghanistan and to decrees that the activities of taliban in. the future because they have not stopped a past. but tain eleven years and i think it will not be able to defeat the taliban after. twenty four as well. as. the security agreement with. afghanistan and are willing to change just situation. the future.

in another war the war and the situation of disk your is a situation in afghanistan is very. complicated and you know speaking of the security situation americans well well well be able to just solve the problem yeah speaking of the security situation that you mention which is not getting better as you said washington is threatening to pull all of its troops out of afghanistan unless couple signs the security pact so is this likely to happen do you think things will go that far. except exactly many people believe in afghanistan and i believe that's what the situation will be will be worse if american troops leave afghanistan by the. twenty fourth. afghan government and the people of afghanistan. demand. that the american. government should decide the security i mean with that

when they when i decided to stabilize that country because the afghan army and i can see the security forces and the government of afghanistan or will be not able to confront it to the taliban and to battle the taliban by. itself because of. a great need for american presence in afghanistan after twenty fourteen and now the taliban are able to. to do to we have destroyed and they are able to target. many. to try to get afghan and foreign forces and different parts of the country and the taliban will boast their presence in afghanistan if the american forces leave afghanistan at all or at political analyst to be picky me thank you so much for sharing your views with us and for describing what the situation is like on the

ground for a lot of afghans now. and coming up in the program here nancy international the battle for the north pole intensifies as climate change opens the region to increasing trade damaging and even military competition we discuss how far the nations with claims on the arctic are ready to go. moscow is stepping up its mediation efforts to bring keep power players to the table at this month's international peace conference on syria have the summits the russian foreign minister is hosting his rainy and and syrian counterparts for talks let's now get the latest from artie's paul scott and joins us live was more well paul as we know there's only one week left until the geneva two conference so to tell us what's being said in moscow ahead of the key event where russia reiterated their desire for iran to take part in next week's peace talks on syria in geneva

moscow believes that tehran should be represented as an equal member of the discussions and should not be participating from the fringes from the sidelines as has been suggested by even by the united states now these peace talks on syria known as geneva two or shuttle to start on january the twenty second russia helped broker the deal on russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov says that successful discussions are in the interests of the entire international community. we will. we stand in support of syria sovereignty and its territorial integrity we want the equal rights of all ethnic religious and other groups that live in syria to be secured so that the country can exist in peace with all its neighbors and like the syrian people and the people of iran we want to eliminate the hardheads of terrorism on syria's territory so this is our unified position but it's not a unique position it has been stated by the united nations security council we do

not have a hidden agenda and we have nothing to hide our stance is shared by the whole international community well this many round of diplomacy is to last for two days with a larger offset to me syria's foreign minister in moscow on friday all right paul thank you so much for bringing us this update that was paul scott reporting there and following the meeting with his russian counterpart iranian foreign minister zarif said down whether to be so sure nancy to discuss the future of syria it seems that there is a great deal of insecurity among those people who are setting conditions for even negotiations this should happen and actually happened this should be the outcome of the negotiations should be the outcome of the negotiations if the people have confidence in their ability to attract the syrian people if they believe they were present in the bishes of the syrian population then they should be ready to go to the ballot box why do they need to set preconditions and it's all put it under the

sun at the end of the day no country. other the syrian people can decide what will happen in syria and if they try to impose their riches on the syrian people sooner or later they'll see the fate of that process. when leaked files from the us national security agency revealed that the american spies have been keeping close tabs on a key ally germany the government there was furious comparing the practices to those of the stasi is germany's atory secret police are just bigger all over met with a veteran of that service to find out just how similar the two really are. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and confronted

president obama this claim. former offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars he have a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems who quote if it's even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services during the cold war. this is exactly as illegal or some of the tactics that the stasi used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it edward snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance showing germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again high up on top of the communist leaning devil's mountain life the

remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or it's abundant now but back in the day this post with years to listen in on the private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the fifty. then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged with them and they can move the way they do it now is much more intensive your web browsing history credit cards they can build a profile on you way easier than was ever possible in my day. didn't have access to this type of technology they rely on developing personal contacts. even those who are working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said we were pretty good even then the fear of being listened into is taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us human those fyrst my superior

officer is there any technology we have that they can use to stop eavesdropping on my calls yeah answer yes just don't pick it up these veterans of the spy game might be impressed by the capabilities of the n.s.a. but they're cautious about the quality of the information collected for lessons yes they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their calls it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation dubbed two point zero by critics except to continue for some time yet peter all of a r.t. germany and president obama is expected to release a proposal this week on limiting the n.s.a. surveillance practices but a former east german intelligence officer rainer rupp believes nothing is likely to change in the way the secretive u.s. agency operates. this is what fun would call vindu interesting to pretend something

is happening but if you look at the composition of the committee of the advisory committee vidual is supposed to suggest changes these are the same guys who are operating the system and we've been participating in the construction of the very system that they are now supposed to modify or to. date. but nothing to be expected from from this and if you look at the details and the pieces which have been coming out of washington or from the n.s.a. or from. quite open the. need not only admitted. that they're continuing to spy on congress as well now the n.s.a. revelations came courtesy of edward snowden who is hiding from washington's prosecution and russia later this hour when

a woman has stood up and support him and his fellow whistleblowers in her own unique way. when you are followed around when you are being investigated because of the whim of someone this is the beginning of the end of your freedom. to use a teen lee intercept american citizens'. text messages you know. the calls text messages so you just. everything about my knowledge actually basically and that's all legal absolutely yes when you bareback with the internet you bareback with big brother.

well. science technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. welcome back to starting international as the arctic sea ice melts away at an alarming rate access to vast oil reserves is opening up and countries bordering the region are determined to the fantasy or slice of the pie the polar sea bed may hold as much as fifteen percent of the world's undiscovered oil and thirty percent of its natural gas so take a closer look at how nations hope to benefit from the receding northern icecap while while the lion's share of the arctic natural wealth is still hidden five

nations are leading the charge for its resources that's canada denmark norway russia and the u.s. and other arctic council members are finland iceland and sweden who are trying to expand their influence in the region organizational so has twelve observers states most of them european but in may last year several key asian powers china india japan singapore and south korea established links with the club and the economic rise of asia means that its influence on what happens in the arctic to be crucial but as artie's maria port not found out the battle for the region to take a dangerous turn. melting ice caps in the arctic have ignited a military build up over the world's smallest ocean and the riches buried beneath it the arctic circle is believed to contain thirty percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and fifteen percent of its oil the future of the world economy to some extent is dependent on the arctic and i think you know russia and

canada the united states and norway and denmark are very interested in exploiting these resources last month canada abruptly claims that it owned the north pole while the united states with its alaskan outpost has plans to boost its military there claiming it lacks operational experience and needs to police the thinning ice as it's replaced by fuel filled maritime traffic but that's not all. actually u.s. submarines are deployed not too far away off the norwegian coast it would take us missiles sixteen to seventeen minutes to get from there to moscow so we really hope that with all the things that have been happening in the world over the past few decades we put the cold war confrontation behind us in all five countries bordering the arctic sovereignty rights to resources within two hundred nautical miles of their territorial waterways but a growing up a tight for a bigger slice of the pie is what many fear can inevitably spark

a twenty first century cold war in the frozen waters there are also unexplored resources that we don't know yet to which country belongs which could be of course of interest to many countries i do think that. smaller things could spark both tension and maybe more tension that we would like to see marina port r.t. new york and trade winds in northern ohio a attractive shortcut for russia and europe to ship fuel and other goods to asia due to sawing on this passage to take as little as twenty today. yes and slash transport costs for comparison the southern voyage through the mediterranean across the indian ocean is roughly twice as long and we heard earlier from christopher parry a strategic forecaster and former british naval officer it thinks disputes are unavoidable in the race for the arctic where i think we could have some disputes is there a number of other interested countries such as india china korea japan all getting

very interested not just in the northern sea route but also in the resources that exists there in the arctic already the chinese are operating greenland to places like that and i think there will be a scramble by some of the other countries for some of those resources whether the ice does recede to you not just going to the northern sea route across the top of russia in the northwest passage across canada you're also going to have a route around twenty fifty straight across the top of the north pole now that means that the countries in the past of face each other across the north pole that icy waste are going to have open water for quite a few months of the year and that will introduce different perspectives different jomon trees you're going to see canada and you know the states also entering into the arctic so it's going to be an interesting situation to the point of view probably around twenty forty five twenty fifty people will be getting ready for

that of course it in the years leading up to that and in gaza to sion for idjit put forward by the military backed interim government has received overwhelming support in a nationwide referendum around ninety eight percent voted in favor according to early results released by national media is a must opponents boycott of the vote claiming the no campaign it was never given a chance by the authorities beltre reports from cairo. now many people thought this would be the case as there's been a huge drive by the government and the military pushing people to participate and yes as well as multimillion dollar purse to campaigns by businessmen across the streets calling on people to ratify this constitution and this is what the government really be looking for is a big yes as this would basically be a seal of approval on the political right man and would see basically pave the way for elections and possibly also paid the way for a presidential come this kind of the seat of egypt to fight to lead a general ability to tell sisi who said he might run if the people want him to so

this will be a huge blow to them is the brother in that regard the situation as basically illegitimate and have been boycotting the votes this yes the constitution will basically be making even harder for them to be able to function on the streets to give the dismissal of the government to move forward with elections so we'll have to see what's going to happen next but the most brotherhood and i suppose have said they will. expect that in the coming days and the vote on the constitution follow a month long military crackdown on members of the muslim brotherhood and other activists who've jeff to tell force taken out by egypt's new rulers protest without prior permission or ban the muslim brotherhood also found its hands tied as the group was branded a terrorist organization the president of the arab lawyers association told us this new constitution puts egypt on the road to dictatorship once again as a boy and i've read the constitution the present them situation than the one before this present constitution the biggest problem it has it is that it puts me and the

armed forces above the state and above the constitution people have to understand that egypt is the only country that. is in control beyond any other country all the people who rose against mubarak no being a. situation in every sense of the world and even the hardship. at the present moment i say to the government in egypt at the present moment it's gone way beyond the previous regimes and its treatment to the citizens who do not support it. now take a look at some other stories from around the world and this fan of capital madrid activists have torched trash cans and clashed with police the rally was in solidarity with the people of gaza in northern spain where thousands have been protests against the government's plans to revamp part of the city center opponents claim it will cause traffic chaos and drain public funds the stand off for as the

local mayor to suspend the project. in iraq government forces have regained control of a small town near the city of fallujah following an era fans of the advance is being hailed as a major success for rocky troops who have struggled to force militants from the area fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the levant and group have controlled most of the province for nearly two weeks now and have also stepped up violence across the country forcing the prime minister to issue a plea for international help numerous protests in support of whistleblowers such as julian assange bradley manning and edward snowden have taken place around the world in recent years are teammates one woman who chose a different way to show her support for the movement. she's a lawyer she's got a ph d. in international law and she was a lecturer but she's also posed for glamour calibers in what some would say would

be provocative or racy photos of her age she says is to raise funds and awareness for the works of whistleblowers and other activists like that today we're joined by dr roles live fuller thanks very much for joining us today but what i'd like to know is why did you choose this matter of getting awareness why not another way well actually i have written articles on whistleblowers in the military so i have actually written quite a lengthy article is that are going to be published but i really thought that in order to make a difference to these with lawyers who as we know are in jail or not the moment i needed to involve myself in a more material way and i thought well how can i do something that isn't just a matter of talking i think there's quite a lot of consensus on this issue we believe we've talked enough i do think that something that was a glowing review in violations of international law is very empowering i think there is attention given to these issues obviously however i do think that people

here bill is issues and they might you know get you complain in private or perhaps say on that they've been unfairly treated in private but what i'm trying to do is give people a way that they can contribute materially because you can sit and you know complain in the poverty something like that but this is a way to actually make a contribution to funding the legal defense or for example organization or awareness or organizational help for was a blowers not necessarily i just wiki leaks or chelsea manning or snowden also we're finding out public internet work and fair which is a canadian initiative reforms will also work place was a blowers are very important as well so this way it gets away fast and basically put our money where our mouth is and how good people are going how the scope of surveillance in the british capital and whether or not it's producing results is in the spotlight just to happen on our t.v. and. knowing.

the majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting when the average american is that doing so well financially this seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue that congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of one campaign to get in a congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so yeah a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting the work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you or me can't get into the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so they get the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks

know once you're in debt they've got you by the throat well that's just my opinion . of the play. the olympic spirit travels with the flame from its birthplace in greece. joining james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond. where am i supposed to go oh.

i fly. to london the world's capital of surveillance even though the year isn't one hundred eighty four you may be forgiven for imagining big brother really is watching me i can clean one in six seven fourteen fifteen eighteen hours on the ball every bit of public ground is more. of everything are free but also just because all the different companies different landowners have their own c.c.t.v. cameras so every thought was watched by everybody. in the most monitored city in the world there is one camera for every fourteen people but does this intense surveillance keep london safe i mean in a way the street like a kind of dangerous because they coveted c.c.t.v. but no.