afghan outrage over the deaths of children in another american airstrike but nail fishelson insists it was an operation to disrupt insurgency. moscow pushes for iran to play a key role at the upcoming peace talks in syria as a russian foreign minister brings together his counterparts from tehran and damascus. and can see eye to eye on their spies pope's fate for germany and the u.s. on a deal to stop snooping on each other as a route over bugging the berlin leadership rumbles on.

which ninety coming to you live from moscow on marina josh welcome to the program i'm ganna stands president having karzai has ordered an inquiry into the us air strike which killed eight civilians seven of them children the ny raid targeted a residential area north of kabul despite the government's pleas for american forces to stop hitting villages nato though claims only two civilians died in a water described as defensive air support to afghan forces and military chiefs were quick to spread the blame for the deaths saying that local district and prevention officials were formed in advance of the operation and that's how the statement reads from the eyes of the international security assistance force it also says the operation was meant to disrupt insurgent activity foreign policy oust mob and says the afghan government shouldn't buy that and instead demand justice for innocent victims. that's always the argument that the foreign powers make they always make it sound like they're invading a country just because they care so much about the people that are under attack but

all over the world you can see the fruits of us foreign intervention these kind of massacres are really built in to foreign interventions you can see it wherever this happens whether in the middle east africa asia anywhere the result is poverty misery suffering they've never improve the lives of the people in the people have the right to run their own country a president karzai if he represents the afghan people should be demanding that reparations be paid to the people of afghanistan for the so many crimes that have been committed there for all the people killed for all the lives lost for all the poverty and misery created by u.s. intervention and those reparations shouldn't come from ordinary working class americans it ought to come from halliburton it ought to come from general electric and all the military contractors that have made so much money off of the destruction of the people in afghanistan and so many other countries in the world and mounting civilian casualties from american military operations have put the u.s. afghan security pact on very shaky ground washington's draft pushes for thousands of its soldiers to remain in afghanistan after their combat mission and later this year all those air role is supposed to be to support local forces the u.s.

still wants its troops to be able to carry out attacks and raid afghan homes all while being immune to afghan prosecution president karzai is reluctant to approve the deal demanding that ending the airstrikes is a precondition for any agreement now egypt's military backed leaders get darr way and referendum landslide but not everyone is convinced about the next constitution. i. think 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. coming up later with your expert opinion on whether the current regime will outdo previous governments in going too far with change. and syrian foreign ministers are in moscow for a meeting hosted by russia's chief diplomat paving the way to the long delayed peace talks in serious in a week moscow insist that iran should be

a one of the main players at geneva two all scotus following a fresh round of syrian diplomacy taking place in the russian capital. 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 either 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 and russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says that successful discussions are in the interests of the entire international community. we stand in support of syria's 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 but this many round of diplomacy is to last for two days with lavrov said to me syria's foreign minister in moscow on friday after the high level meeting iran's foreign minister talked to r.t. so shevardnadze he says syria's future should be decided through voting and that the opposition's demand for us is removal as a precondition for peace talks makes no sense it seems that there is a great deal of insecurity among those people who are setting conditions for even negotiations this should happen and that should happen 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 do present the bishes of the syrian population then they should be ready to go through the ballot box why do they need to set preconditions and this all put it on to the side at the end of the day no country other than 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 failure of that process. now reports from germany say the talks with the united states to get a no spy agreement looks set to fail lengthy discussion have been ongoing since america's n.s.a. was exposed snooping on its ally at the highest levels leaving germany furious and comparing it to the tories stasi one veteran of the former east german secret police spoke to peter oliver about whether the two organisations really do you have

anything in common. i'm finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone call confronted president obama with this claim. formal offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars of 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 cheering the cold war as can now is truly this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stars are used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't

stop it i would snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance show in germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again. 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 was used to listen in normally 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 electronically mukesh 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 manderson's even

those who were working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said it 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 you mind those fires my superior office. is there any technology that they can use to stop eavesdropping on my calls 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 cautious about the quality of the information collected for lessons yet 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 over germany

and president obama is expected to unveil a proposal this week to spring clean the n.s.a.'s activities let's get now more from your getting us or the editor in chief of the german global current affairs magazine compaq thank you so much your in for joining us here on our international to talk about this so first start of what do you expect to hear from barack obama's reforms i mean will they go far enough to curb the n.s.a. seemingly unbridled spying powers. i don't know expect anything from the speech of obama tomorrow. reformists. but the activities of the secret service his only aim is to prevent. us from inside the n.s.a. like snowden bring information out of the you of the n.s.a. . but he will not stop spying on companies and straight into

for example in trouble he would not do it well i mean hypothetically speaking what are the chances that america and germany will agree on a no spy pact anytime soon. the chances are like ciro because the americans are not willing to. make such a treaty with germany they only accept the corporation inside the firefighters meaning inside the community of the anglo-saxon states and even this corporation is not fixed in a written. so the americans are not willing to do. many bill press perhaps a big kind of treaty with humiliating. that is not acceptable for the trauma popular even up except for the trauma parliament. well

let's now talk about the us and germany relationship as we know it has soured after the revelation after it's been revealed that the u.s. has been spying on german chancellor so how important is this deal then for future relations between the two countries. the atmosphere between america and germany has worsened for example of yet less the. very emotional debate in the german parliament about the n.s.a. off. the stop of the new treaty new spying treaty in this part of mentor and debate even the speakers of the majority party the christian democrats showed. showed angriness showed protest towards the american behavior saw i think. the attempts of the government and of the american government to cool dawn the discussion. have failed

. we are back to the situation of october last year after all snowden came out with their liberation tarball the spying on the mobile phone off transamerica. discussion of will. in in the next weeks i think well as we can see the relationship between the two is now on a bumpy road somewhat but ok now if no deal is reached how would sad impact the internal political situation in germany in european. sign of alarm is the position of the new unit of the drum and merrick corp feel me. all told. me. yesterday trimming the. top. with

treaty meaning the exchange of bond between europe and america. for a protester was. the behavior in. those affair and proposed that germany and europe as a whole take a tougher stand in the negotiation so the european american free trade zone so the atmosphere is really frosty at the moment all right you know as us are editor in chief of germany's combat magazine thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us here on r.t. international. thank you all the world wide range to the top of the world is gathering steam as the arctic melts routes and resources open up join us shortly as we look at how paves the way of what paved the way for competition and even conflict.

when you're followed around when you are being investigated because of the whim of someone this is the beginning of the end of your freedom. american citizens. text messages you know. the calls text messages so you just. see everything about my knowledge actually basically and there's no legal absolutely yes when you bareback with the internet you bareback with big brother. no. origin. stories others of the few said no such. thing since changing the world right. to picture

of james. holmes is a former student. dropped dead. welcome back to watching r t international with josh how almost all the votes counted early results from egypt's referendum suggest overwhelming backing for the country's new constitution proposed by the military backed interim government supporters of the ousted muslim brotherhood boycotted the vote calling it illegitimate and promising to challenge the results 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 very yes as well as multimillion dollar per se 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 state of approval on that political right now and would see basically pave the way for elections and possibly also pave the way for a presidential come this is kind of the seat of egypt to find a leader i'm 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 hates me in that regard the situation as basically you know just imagine have been boycotting the votes this yes to the constitution basically be it make it even harder for them to be able to function on the streets to give the dismissal of the government to lead forwards with elections they will have to see what's going to happen next but the most motherhood and i suppose have said they will step step up that process so expect that in the coming days. despite the initial results adjusting widespread unity over the country ski foundations the first day of voting saw eleven killed and scores injured in clashes between anti regime protesters and police as followed

a month long military crackdown on supporters of deposed president mohamed morsy protest without police approval were banned while the muslim brotherhood was declared a terrorist group by the government in late december the president of the arab lawyers association told us that egypt's sliding back into its dictatorial past. as annoying i've read the constitution the present them situation than the one before this present constitution and the biggest problem it caused it is that it puts me and the armed forces above the state and above the constitution people would have to understand that egypt is the only out of country that. is in control beyond any other country all the people who rose against mubarak know that being a new mubarak situation in every sense of the word and even the hardship mubarak regime at the present moment i see you doing 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. elsewhere around the world this hour riders in madrid have clashed with police apparently solidarity with residents of a town in the north days of street unrest and boring last saw thousands for test against plans to revamp part of the city center locals claim it will displace poor households cause traffic chaos and drains fresh public funds the standoff has forced the mayor to suspend the project. a suicide car bomber has struck he has valastro hold in lebanon near the syrian border killing four people at least twenty six people were injured when they. the ripped through a predominantly shiite area near a local government building has been as deployment of fighters to help ally president assad has seen violence to spread from syria and the attack came

shortly before an international tribunal began to try for hezbollah members in absentia over the assassination of a former lebanese prime minister. palestinian medical sources say israeli airstrikes in gaza have wounded i women and four children israel claims it struck in retaliation after intercepting five rockets from gaza and blames hamas for all cross border missile fire local residents had woke up to had woken up to the sound of explosions and began suspecting the damage. arctic sending ice is gradually opening up access to massive oil and gas reserves hidden under the polar sea bed but with an increasing number of states aiming to exploit the region's richest getting all to agree on how to divide it up could prove tricky and towns are just explains the melting icecaps 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. is within two hundred nautical miles of their territorial waterways but a growing opera type 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 but 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 you know port my r.t. new york now assigned polarize is setting up new perspectives for trade northern sea route is a shortcut for russia and europe to ship goods to asia the whole journey from the atlantic to the pacific could reduce about three weeks and on the one side of the

arctic there's another attractive trade route the northwest passage through canada sic eyes as until now prevented they have a geisha through the passage but that's changing and christopher perry is a former british naval officer who says disputes over the arctic will inevitably arise. where i think we could have some disputes is there are 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 exist there in the arctic already the chinese are. 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 hurt the northern ca route across the top or russia and 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 to 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 a different perspective different geometries 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 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 there could be some good news for you if you want your phone calls to stay private without n.s.a. spooks listening in a christian firm sas health a smartphone that lets users dial with discretion and we'll tell you about it online. also there are american troops may have drawn from iraq two years ago but abuses continue to haunt the country as more gruesome pictures emerged of marines disposing of data rocky's of the infamous abu ghraib prison. they are watching

and hash now live from moscow next the story of a woman whose getting wolf whistles from whistleblowers and in an effort to raise awareness she's also raising eyebrows to start has been to be there. she's a lawyer she's got a ph d. in international law and she was a lecturer but she's also posed for. what some would say would be provocative or racy photos of her 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 going to be published but i really thought that. in order to make a difference to. you as we know are in jail or. at 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 that 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 hear about these issues and they might you know 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 awareness or organizational help for whistleblowers not necessarily just wiki leaks or. and also we're finding out public internet work and fair which is a canadian initiative reform so also one place was a blowers are very important as well so this way to basically put our money where

our mouth is and help these people. stay with us he is one of the key united nations officials are peacekeeping operations talks to world apart.

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 not 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 the 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 again 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 . the flame. the limbic spirit travels with the flame from its birthplace in greece. joining james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond. where art. thou.