today should give. the rights.

of the. top stories of the week. welcome to the program. exile has finally decided to meet face to face with. this happening at wednesday's geneva conference and this is the. road map for peace groups of the syrian national coalition had previously rejected talks.

those preconditions for the blocs participation in the meeting and out of course are fueling the internal disarray in the body and right before the decision the country's foreign minister offered a prisoner swap with the rebels. is going off reports on the latest from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of the geneva two conference on syria it was a busy week for global diplomacy it's our hope that in the face to face meeting of the regime and the opposition will be the beginning of the beginning. and to this unspeakable conflict never before have russia and the us been so united over syria holding damascus and the rebels both responsible for atrocities standing together for a political solution and going further still. supposedly going to try to send the signals to all the syrian sides on the need to establish localized ceasefires to consider the lists of prisoners of war including civilians and also used to allow

humanitarian aid. washington even turn around its stance on iran saying it could also take part in the conference so long as it supported previous international agreements on syria to keep our swing the foundation for he would say you are on the same page when it comes to the most important issues of the same can't be said about some western nations who may be risking it all for half right now just one wrong move is enough to bring down this diplomatic house of cards such as the mixed signals sent from france to the rebels who themselves took the whole week to decide whether they'll take part. we don't have the assad regime on one side and terrorists on the other it is the regime that is fueling terrorism. such statements may be music to their ears but these are cynical statements the western military alliance has been recruiting right from the outset and it's confirmed by numerous.

reliable sources from pairs the diplomatic bitch move to moscow which was visited by syria and iran's chief diplomat the market has confirmed it will be agreed with and after much debate so has the opposition but still in question the ones produced by a widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and vital to peaceful solution for syria he was going off of our city. well the coalition did explain the last minute decision to attend the geneva talks saying it wanted to ensure that it will be supported by the fighters on the ground but syrian presidential advisor saying a shaaban thinks the blocks internal dispute actually shows it's alienating people all across the country these parties first of all they haue ben they have been living outside the city of for so many years they are kind of thin in arbroath who do not know what the syrian people are the following through and second i think because of the source of finance i think many of them are deceiving finances from

different parties but anyone who lives with this it and people who want the interest of the syrian people to be our bob of a thing as would give. priority to stopping this terrorism that is this throwing the lives of the state and people i believe it's a question of what is the one the priority is in the sea that people and city are and its territorial integrity oh is it something else in the interest being an ally for other forces and another potential player in the region whose participation is up in the air is not over iran with russia or in the u.n. urging tyrone's presence but washington sending mixed signals hillary mann leverett an expert on iran and american foreign policy thinks the u.s. is not serious about getting a political settlement of the syrian conflict. i think it's very clear if you want to have any kind of

a serious process. get started at geneva syria's process that might actually have some chance at producing a political settlement to this terrible conflict you need to have all relevant parties at the table and that means you need to have iran there i think the problem is the obama administration is still not really serious about wanting a political settlement in syria and basically they just they can't get over the idea that if you could just get president assad out of office it would be this terrible blow to iran is regional position they just can't let go of that of that fantasy that they've indulged for almost three years now that's joining us for the program here top military officials could face trial in the international criminal court of the victims of the iraq war submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous assaults and torture and the british

government meantime rejecting all allegations. as the story from london. up until now the international criminal court at the hague had mostly tried to african dictators and tyrants but the i.c.c. has been asked to investigate thousands of allegations of war crimes committed by british forces in iraq a two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization and a british law firm contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by u.k. forces and according to the also as of this report the finger of blame extends to the very heart of the british government at the time so the head of the british army the former defense secretary and the former defense minister could face prosecution for what this dossier calls systemic war crimes there are many hundreds

of cases where the people have been interviewed in the provided reports about this abuse and it varies from what people might think are. relatively mundane examples of abuse to really quite appalling physical violence there of course says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that their civilian superiors cautiously ignored such information at their disposal but the u.k. foreign secretary william hague has already firmly rejected the suggestion that those at the top pair in westminster knew what was taking place on the ground in iraq we reject allegations of systematic abuse but whether all substantiated allegations of things going wrong these things have been or are being investigated that does not require references to the international criminal court the position of the british government has been or were doing enough the point of this is simply

that they still haven't done enough there are right. now at the international criminal court two heads of state one of them a sitting head of state of kenya and the other the former head of state of cold d'ivoire they're both on trial at the international criminal court not for getting their hands bloody they didn't do anything themselves but people under their authority are people they should have controlled were committing the crimes so if it's good enough for the african countries it should be good enough for the u.k. to the international criminal court has come under increasing pressure to act against war crimes committed by western countries it's now up to the prosecutor at the i.c.c. to go through the claims of abuse and to decide whether to call high ranking british officials into the dock at the hague probably boy artsy london. the content of the dossier is held in secrecy although some extracts have seen the light and those witness accounts made a well known to the public

a rather alarming bit of beatings electrocutions various kinds of sexual humiliation even rape as well and the family members of inmates were also allegedly threatened by british troops and had least one case where one of the victims said that after being beaten his eight year old son was also injured by an officer reports from another witness suggest that while he was interrogated soldiers threatened to rape his sister and arrest his elderly parents on the international we spoke to a legal adviser at the european center for constitutional and human rights which coauthored the dossier. evidence shows that it's not only about individual and single cases and incidents it's really a systematic pattern of reparative acts which are puritans it's finding in our report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's now is the time because the u.k.

had ten years to investigate to prosecute the direct perpetrators but also the higher ups in the u.k. ten years and there are still hardly any prosecutions in the country so now it's simply the time that the international courts have to step in. it's already international for you today just a bit later in the program for spanish road rage all began as a protest against a street project in a northern town spreads across the country in a wave of anti-government rallies certainly with some of them turning violent. and if the arctic ice melts there's a freezer looming between those who want its resources in just a few minutes here on r.t. international we have a look at the tricky task of sharing the riches under the cold.

on june sixteenth one thousand forty one we had a graduation party at school and the war broke out. the shops were always full of goods. in september leningrad was blocked. one day mom went and saw that all the shelves were empty. in november the. warehouses it was the main storage place for all the food in the city people eating the earth because it had small traces of sugar in it i tried to eat it as well but i couldn't. live with incredibly heavy bombing. it was

a direct hit on that very shelter and everyone was buried underneath. all of them with dead. dramas that can't be ignored to. stories others through a few just in the. focus is changing the world right. to picture day. from around the. globe.

welcome to the weekly here on r.t. international now the drip drip of secret information fed into the media by whistleblower edward snowden seems to force the hand of u.s. president barack obama this week he said he wants to rein in the activities of the far reaching n.s.a. obama announced that there would be no more spying on foreign leaders friendly to the u.s. and limits would be placed on how troves of collected data are used for storage is would also need a court order if they want to run a check on a phone number using the n.s.a. as extensive data critics however say the announcement is heavy on ideals but rather light on detail everything's been punted into the long grass he said i'm going to set up a committee to do this i've asked this department to look at this everything's in the future we just don't know what is really promised and so i was very disappointed there was probably nothing concrete in there for example as far as the metadata collection is concerned he announced grandly well we're going to stop

doing this that i haven't actually decided how we're going to stop doing this so obviously the details matter there similarly in terms of the spying on the rest of the world is very important to note that foreigners have far fewer rights than the u.s. citizens on that he basically said well we will do it you know it's all a fair way and don't worry about it i mean there were just no real guarantees there . the global spread of america's all seeing eyes of certainly cost taxpayers a pretty penny as well in fact are the actual figures are as you would expect top secret but here's some leaked information that lifts the lid on spy spending at the so-called black budget report fifty two point six billion dollars that was for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion went to the n.s.a. its funding has grown by half in just a decade and yet its surveillance methods are only used in terrorist attacks seven point five percent of the time now the n.s.a.

is certainly a by no means the first spy agency to have seriously overreached its mandate and as artie's peter all of our reports with advances in technology must spying can easily get well out of hand. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and glimmer cool 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 and 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 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 i read 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 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 but back in the day this post was yours to listen in only 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 in them electronically moved 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 indices even those who are working in counterintelligence in the west work hours 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 fyrst 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 cost about the quality of the information collected. 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. two point

zero by critics. continued for some time yet peter all over germany. are still to come here on the program yet a new blow for u.s. afghan relations as washington tried to president karzai into signing a crucial security deal eight civilians most of them children killed in a nato raid those details are just ahead for you here on r.t. international. but for the meantime here on the program it's taken moscow officials more than a decade to get permission to visit the only russian citizen kept behind bars at guantanamo bay delegation was told its case will be reviewed in the near future russia says the notorious prison violates the basic rights of detainees and should be closed down our correspondent. has more from washington. visit

securing the release of the only russian nationals held at the detention center for over twelve years without charge reveal. the human rights commissioner reiterated russia's position on the detention center in guantanamo bay in his meetings with officials from the defense department and from the department of state he said russia's position is that this detention center be closed down as soon as possible this detention the mere existence he said of this detention center is in violation of human rights and international law the most important probably. element of a visit was to meet with with those who visit and to convey the message to the american representatives of america. that we insist they heard his words legitimate. would be taken care of back in two thousand and eight barack obama the u.s.

president promised to shut down the detention center multiple times he said that he wasn't able to fulfill his promise because of the congress which. a number of occasions has vast laws to make it harder and harder for the u.s. administration to either transfer. detainees to other countries or to bring them back to the u.s. and try them on u.s. soil which has left the u.s. administration really in political limbo because this detention center has has the image and reputation of the u.s. . and despite official reports the hunger strike again talum obey saying it stopped in december a human rights advocates claim the number of inmates still protesting stands at thirty three but the military authorities are refusing to release any new data in fact according to authorities the release of information on the hunger strikes quote detracts from the more important issues like the welfare of detainees and the safety of troops as well. stafford smith is

a lawyer for several guantanamo bay detainees he shared with us his impression of the force feeding techniques if a prisoner are from camp six which is the least account goes on hunger strike the automatically get transferred not just count five but count five record which really has been the most abusive place in all of kuantan of prisoners are held in the north steals and denied the most basic human rights just as a punishment for going on strike but force feeding techniques are very much an action unfortunately against the very abusive force feeding techniques but you can't stand aside the question of whether it's not the culture correspondent toure and the world medical association says it's not you know unfortunately the techniques they're using grown tonneau aren't groups your assistant so for example and some of those that are used to leave but use up the prisoners noses the hurt so much they're still pulling those tubes out every single time tries to force them

back up each time there's still that forcing far too much too quickly into the prison american prisons if you're sick they just carry on doing it it really is horrendous. or you can always head over to watch dot com for the very latest updates about the infamous facility and the international reaction to the never ending detention of those cleared for release long ago there are also plenty of other stories for you they're included right now texas police are left the red faced off a detaining a local resident his crime giving some change to a homeless man you can find out why he wound up in handcuffs at r.t. dot com right now. and a desperate move to bring down the south american drug cartels the honduran airforce is allowed to shoot any plane that could be carrying narcotics are innocent of flights also in the line of fire you can find out on our web site.

there were violent protests this week all across spain including the capital madrid about a fifty rallies were reported by dozens of people arrested several injured in clashes with police it was all sparked by a demonstration in the northern town of bor of course where people were angry at a costly plan to redevelop a street and they said it would force some of the poorest locals right out of their homes of a sense council the scheme which would have cost up to thirteen million euros but the fact that the protests continued nonetheless shows the overall level of distrust towards the government according to one political. the demonstrators say that they will continue. protesting against this project because they they still don't believe that it's going to be the reason why people are so angry specifically because doesn't feet with the current situation of austerity of cutbacks seen in

services this is an area which has suffered from those cutbacks in public service that recently so people they say they prefer it to other schools and hospitals rather than parking lots very conservative see. seizes the step of a small city in space never happens something like that in a city like little or so this is probably. one of the same time self of how problematic it's been to situation on the whole in the whole of space. now afghanistan has accused u.s. forces of killing eight civilians seven of them children this during an anti taliban night raid on a house it's one of the many incidents to have tested relations between the nations as washington increasingly loses the argument as to why the bull should sign a security deal the agreement is crucial for america it would see a portion of its troops stay in the country past the main withdrawal later this year gareth porter is an investigative journalist specializing in u.s.

security policy he believes obama can forget about the deal. what he is really after here is concessions that would. basically establish his credentials as somebody who is standing up to u.s. military power in afghanistan. and basically make it more likely that he would be an acceptable partner in future negotiations. i don't think the united states is going to agree to the demands that he would need to put forward that he has put forward as the price of such a deal and that's why i think this does represent a a real crisis in u.s. relations with the karzai government at this point. mounting civilian casualties from american military operations is one of the key reasons the u.s. afghan security pact is on very shaky ground and washington's draft pushes for

thousands of its soldiers to remain in afghanistan after the combat mission ends later this year although their role is supposed to support local forces u.s. still wants its troops to be able to carry out attacks and raid afghan homes all the while being immune to afghan prosecution president karzai reluctant to approve the deal demanding an end to airstrikes as a precondition for any agreement are still to come here on the program with the international france is trying to wean itself off its tax fix also the french president said this week pedals on his policy of eking out money from business and putting it into a state office. and a country where citizenship is not yours by birthright. to talk to those who have never lived anywhere else but still can't enjoy the privileges of a normal citizen. those stories and many more coming your way in about

fifteen minutes time after the weekend business program venture capital comes. welcome to venture capital with me katy perry this weight right is john's all school boards at the u.k. may leave the view for films do not take place look at global reaction from the former leader's office late on the czech republic who have very different opinions on that there were plenty of international politicians here it most go this week because it was the economic forum which i went a little too i caught up with the world renowned economist jeffrey sachs on tax evasion and they gave in still being put on a wall street that's all but let's start with mr dawoud all's well because he

ruffled. feathers this week by warning that the u.k. could be forced to quit if the organization does not reform and here is what the chancellor exactly the main points now he has been frustrated by what he sees as the storing of the free trade deal between the e.u. and the u.s. by e.u. lawmakers themselves and the g.o.p. is being shown up by economies like china and india now the british public will get to decide in twenty seventeen in a referendum if they want to continue as a member of the e.u. now the main sticking points for the british people are immigration social security and interference from brussels and british law especially when it comes to human rights now the czech republic is in a similar situation to britain in the fact that it's in the e.u. but it doesn't have the year as its national currency so it also for the president of the.