this is. only. ten pm here in moscow tonight. outrage over the deaths of children in another american airstrike nato officials insist it was an operation to disrupt the insurgency. a key syrian opposition group refuses to take part in next week's peace talks as moscow brings together a rather serious foreign ministers now to try to help with the groundwork for the forthcoming conference. hopes fade to germany and the u.s. on a deal to stop snooping on each other as the route of. leadership. in

this is out international our top story this hour afghanistan's president hamid karzai ordered an inquiry into the u.s. airstrike that killed eight civilians seven of them children the night raid targeted a residential area north of kabul despite the government's pleas for american forces to stop hitting villages he didn't for a marty's arabic channel reports from the region. as a result of american barman's in afghanistan there have been a lot of civilian casualties one women worst was killed and seven children along with one civilian is injured according to the statements by. office they have asked the americans to give an explanation as to such a barman's to civilian area for the past few weeks it has shorn kinds of resentment and fighting between the nuttall forces and of our forces in one side and the

taliban forces and the other side but the barman's has not actually touched or hits any kind of taliban house or any type of our leaders in that area it's only has. targeted the civilian and because reality has been civilians according to the statement by the car as it were for its part nato is directly refuting more president karzai claims so you only two civilians died in what it described as a defensive is support to afghan forces the militants use a quick to spread the blame for the deaths in the local district the provincial officials were informed in advance of the operation and that so the statement reads from the international security assistance force it also says the operation was meant to disrupt insurgent activity foreign policy analysts told us the afghan government shouldn't buy that and instead demand justice for innocent victims here. 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 and 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 made so much money off of the destruction of the people in afghanistan and so many other countries in the world. well this is going to time schools in the u.s. to still. be falling flat a presidential aide recently spoke of how many more it is and afghans have to use so it gets the attention of u.s. officials the issue is of course especially disturbing these motorhomes been

looking at that. just last week an accidental shot by u.s. special forces on the dry bloodiest day in ground about ghana stems helmand province a four year old boy and troops say they mistakenly shot the child and dusty weather well the toddler's death is a painful reminder that there are still serious collateral damage since the afghanistan invasion began more than a decade ago while april twenty third seen an airstrike killed eleven afghan children and the coup in our province in the east here of the un numbers in two thousand and nine one hundred thirty one children in airstrikes twenty two died in the nighttime raids by two thousand and eleven one hundred ten children killed in two thousand and twelve seventy four children died and so far the hundreds of children's deaths at the hands of foreign troops have not perpetuated a single political actor on the world stage to change the policy on the ground will that's until now while collecting the data about civilian casualties is difficult

when u.n. figures do not represent the true number of children killed by foreign forces on a corresponding margaret how well the civilian casualties from american military operations of put the u.s. afghan security pact very shaky ground washington's draft pushes for thousands of its soldiers to remain in afghanistan after the combat mission ends later this year although the role supposed to be support for local forces the u.s. still wants its troops to be able to carry out attacks and homes or crucially without being a mute prosecution i.e. they can't be prosecuted where president cause is reluctant to approve the deal demanding that ending the airstrikes is a precondition of any agreement. in other news tonight egypt's military leaders get their way a referendum landslide but not every was convinced about the next constitution coming up in just a bit later we hear expert opinion on whether the current regime will do previous governments in going to change.

the syrian groups have officially confirmed participation in the upcoming peace talks in geneva one of the main certain opposition groups is again refusing to take part in the long delayed conference should do in a week moscow is hosting and iranian and syrian foreign ministers are trying to pave the way to the elusive negotiations paul scott's full of a fresh round of diplomacy the syrian national coordination committee has decided that they won't attend the talks on syria in geneva starting next wednesday now they're not one of the most influential factions in the opposition movement but there are hopes that there isn't a domino effect with other opposition groups deciding not to attend and the make up of the two delegations is still unclear but one side who does want to attend the might not be that is the arraignment government russia believes that their influence in the region should give them a right to attend along with another influential regional player in saudi arabia

but the foreign ministers of both iran and syria have been in moscow on thursday they met with russian president vladimir putin and also met with russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov who says that successful talks are in the interest of the entire international community and that iran has a role to play like the syrian people and the people of iran want to eliminate the hard bits of terrorism on syria's territory this is our unified position so it seems that with these talks now just days away the diplomatic wranglings have already begun. well after the high level meeting in moscow runs for a minister talk to r.t. sophie shevardnadze says serious future should be decided through voting at the opposition's demands for assad's removal as a precondition for peace talks make 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 here that should be the outcome of the negotiations if the people have confidence in their ability to attract the syrian people if they believe that you present them bitches 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 awfully down to the site 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 failure of that process i. mourn the ground in syria meantime over a thousand people have now been killed during into rebel fighting with radicals connected to al qaeda waging war against more moderate groups let's talk to pepe escobar ridden correspondent radio times is on the line from london hi there poppy this infighting among the radical the more moderate rebels is adding another dimension to everything is focused on these geneva two peace talks isn't it adding

another complication. it is because there's no sensing have in geneva two if you don't have reprise then to of our beheading the jihad is on the table and we know that the thirty thousand or so army being more or less assembled by a bundler bush and his acolytes all across the middle east these are the real actors on the ground this law makes a lot of iraq and in the event. al-qaeda or not al qaeda cia al qaeda linked or not does these are the people who are doing the war who are fighting the war and who are still being weaponized the free syrian army as we understood it to a few months ago it doesn't exist anymore it will it was controlled by qatar qatar is not a police or in syria anymore saudi arabia is if saudi arabia would be on the table in geneva two year run would have to be on the table as well no preconditions and

none nothing nothing like this is going to happen in geneva two so we're going to have a talk fast and it will have no influence on the landing of the opposition will any of the opposition groups be there in any shape or form any representatives to talk to the other side because any talks part of the no talks surely. yes of course any talk is better than all talk but the saying is the opposition the armed opposition from the beginning number one precondition out it never happened and it won't happen so if assad stays. the syrian government is part of the toff and the armed and the unarmed opposition should be part of the talks this includes what we call the power is getting those exiles who control part of the opposition in paris some of them will be in geneva some will not we won't have the armed

opposition in full and this is the most important thing so whatever you decide as a if you have a rolled map out of geneva two and it doesn't account on the real facts on the ground which we see every day and the expansion of the war from syria to parts of live and an across the border between syria and iraq you know we just got off to an i mean to this melting pot as well a lot of talk lately about whether or not saran will be that iran will be there will it we still don't know we still don't know because there's no official confirmation from the iranian foreign ministry that they will be there and this is what i already read it weeks ago. look this thing is we have more or less concrete evidence that some revolutionary guard units helped the assad government especially reconquering parts of the. how much corridor or in fact between. people and of course we know that hezbollah are also helped and

hezbollah now was guarding the syrian border so hezbollah should be able. to. see in their own to also be at the table they are players on the ground as much as all the. different factions by turkey by the jordanians by this and a lot of specially. by the saudis and a lot of you may have not as you mentioned not only won't let let me pick your point not only today syria's foreign minister reportedly sent a letter to the un secretary-general demanding that the countries supporting terrorist groups stop training and funding them that's going to be up for discussion or not. we still don't know and even to you when we don't have you when the mechanism that. you know we have the you win as the over raf overarching the establishing of peace in syria northern or lakhdar

brahimi and everybody else they're just one more player among all of their square billion players it's a very sorry state of affairs because if we had the u.s. secretary of state john kerry for instance being really forceful in having all these people control by the turks by the saudis and even by the qataris some remnants of qatari adjunct first would have this way on the table as well and this is what the russians have been saying all along the foreign minister lavrov we would have a meaningful discussion for the moment there's no indication this will be a meaningful discussion as you're talking about a minute ago there's a great big flash of lightning of your shoulder there in central london i hope that's not a premonition of what's to come gloom and doom and. doesn't get any worse thank you for being on the program pre-show to pepe escobar asia to influence upon and thanks are. in germany so the talks with the united states to get to

know spying agreement looks set to fail lengthy discussions have been ongoing since america's n.s.a. was exposed snooping on its ally at the highest levels in germany furious and comparing it indeed to the notorious east german secret police peter all of a minute with veterans the organization to find out how much in common it has got with the n.s.a. . on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone call confronted president obama with 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 quoted said 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 disk and now it's really 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 edward 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 high up on top of the ominously named 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 its abundant now 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 city. then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged. 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 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 human those fires my superior officer is there any technology we have that i 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 dozens of ships they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate

a person or listen to their cause 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 looks set to continue for some time yet peter all of a germany. very soon tonight the worldwide race to the top of the world's gathering stage as the arctic ice melts new routes and resources open up hope you can stay with me very soon the couple of minutes of looking at how that is their fault maybe the way of the competition maybe even comfort. 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. those. american citizens. text messages you know. the calls

text messages so you just see everything without my knowledge but actually basically and that's all legal absolutely yes when you back with the internet you're back with big brother.

well again leaders in spades wealthiest province are voted to us madrid to go it alone catalonia not only has its own language and distinct culture but it's also responsible for a fifth of spain's wealth this is session moves is seen as a direct challenge to prime minister previously to thwart a referendum on constitutional grounds i spoke to an arc from the european partnership for independence she says catalogs can't be prevented from having their say end of the day. more than eighty percent of catalans wish to express themselves even if they want or not want the documents of catalonia so we're talking about the more prosy obviously doesn't know what democratic constitution that kind of paul to a majority of citizens of european citizens do not express themselves in the ballot box we actually think that the governance of that alone has been a real benefit for catalonia for us and for europe because for us it's not a question of money is about that we are

a nation we know we are nation we know our rights and we are proud to prove that we know that and the we want to restore the state that we used to be with our constitutions our institutions so we can decide either about our own policies. in iraq there with 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 they called it illegitimate and promised to challenge the results the first day of voting so eleven killed and scores injured in clashes between anti regime protesters and the police in fall among floor military crackdown supporters of deposed president mohamed morsy protests without police approval to well the muslim brotherhood was declared a terrorist group by the government in late december i spoke to the president the arab lawyers association he says that egypt sliding back into his dictatorial powers. as a lawyer i've read the constitution the present constitution and the one before

this present constitution the biggest problem it has in it is that it puts the army and the armed forces above the state and above the constitution people would have to understand that egypt is the only other country that the army actually is in control beyond any other country all the people who rose against mubarak are now being offered and you mubarak's situation on in every sense of the word and even a harsher mubarak regime the at the present moment i think government in egypt at the present moment it's gone way beyond the previous regimes in its treatment to the citizens who do not support it. a couple more to my big stories now a suicide car bomb struck a hezbollah stronghold in lebanon near the syrian border it's killed four people at least twenty six others were hurt in that explosion it was near a local government building has palos deployment of fighters to help president

assad has seen violence spread from syria an attack came shortly before international tribunal two against four hezbollah members of the assassination of a former lebanese prime minister. palestinian medical sources say israeli airstrikes on gaza boarded a woman for children israel claims it struck in retaliation after intercepted five rockets from gaza and blames a must for all cross border missile fire local residents woke up the sound of explosions and began inspecting the damage and see that. the arctic's thinning 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 having to exploit the region's riches getting everyone to agree on how to divide it all up could prove tricky and worst case attempts. explain. 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 but 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 or take 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. attention and maybe more attention that we would like to see green up or nine r.t. new york well hopefully not but the word is a possibility that following the polar ice is setting up new perspectives for trade nonetheless the north sea route is a shortcut for russia and europe to ship goods to asia there goes the whole journey indeed from the atlantic to the pacific i think could be reduced to about three

weeks also on the other side of the arctic there's another attractive trade route too there's that one it's the northwest passage through canada thick ice has until now prevented navigation through the passage but things change and i spoke to christopher perry's a former british naval officer he says disputes over the arctic he thinks will inevitably arise in the future. 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 when the ice does recede to you not just going to the northern sea 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 that in the past have faced each other across the north

pole that icy waste are not open water for quite a few months of the year and that will introduce a different perspective different jomon trieste you're going to see canada and united states also entering into the arctic so it's going to be an interesting situation g.g. point here probably around twenty forty five twenty fifty but people will be getting ready for that of course it in the years leading up to that. time flies to now that could be some good news for you online if you want your phone calls to stay private with and i say spokes listening in. but this encrypt should have no says it's developed a small sum by let users dial with discretion find out more from also there as well american troops may withdraw from iraq two years ago to the flying but abuses continue to warn the country is more gruesome pictures emerged disposing of dead iraqis at the infamous abu ghraib prison it's a sobering read some a website on. the scope of surveillance in the british capital and whether or not

it's producing any results that's the topic of our next program but off this quick break here on tonight.

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 million dollars is not as much as it used to be a special in the cost of a 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 . speak your language. programs in documentaries in arabic in school here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the r.p. interviews intriguing story are you. trying. to find out because it are a big. dog called. the world's capital.