syria's national coalition finally agree. they should give the american people. but their rights are being protected the u.s. president. will be reined in but critics say the long awaited. torture beatings and even sexual assault british senior military figures were accused of widespread abuse. which began in two thousand and three and could end up standing trial.

to win the release of the only russian inmate held in the facility they also join the chorus of voices. to the. headlines today. thank you for joining us following months of uncertainty syria's main opposition has finally decided to meet face to face with the government this at wednesday's geneva conference and this is the first time the sides will be in the same room struggling to strike a roadmap for peace some key groups members of the syrian national coalition had previously rejected. for the blocs participation in the meeting.

right before the decision the country. as foreign minister offered a prisoner swap with the rebels not easy going to piss going off reports on the latest from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of 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. 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 they keep our swaying the foundation for he would say you are on the same page when it comes to the most important issues of the same can be said about some western nations who may be risking it all for perhaps 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 diplomats the market has confirmed it will be agreed with and after much debate so has the opposition but still in question is iran's produced by whites with its actions that its a key player in the region and vital to peaceful solution for syria is going off the party. and i charles shoop bridges a former british counter-terrorism intelligence officer he thinks the mistakes of the rebels' force refusing to work with the west and our side for that matter is only going to make things worse. the rebels are unable to deliver on their promises in any case perhaps of more immediate concern to the west and this is a particular case in the european capitals it's clear that elements of the syrian opposition comprising fighters jihadist fighters have gone from countries such as britain germany spain etc to syria to fight with al-qaeda linked forces there

actually pose a threat to european countries themselves so this recognition has meant that security services have of course been forced if you like to address this in the best way to our national interests and of course inevitably that means particularly since it's likely more i think recognize now that assad will be around for some time to actually make those links even if discreetly with back with the regime's intelligence services. and another potential player in the region who's participation is up in the air is that of iran russia and the u.n. urging tehran's presence but washington is sending mixed signals. there's a middle east analyst told us that all the regional power houses should be invited seeing contradictory signals then obviously the u.s. is undecided on this issue that is very unfortunate because it sends the wrong signal to iran even have adverse consequences with respect to confidence been being

under no clearing shield iran has the state it is preparedness to participate and may construct the accounts contributions for political settlement. and those will be approved when you see tension by supporting their syrian chemical weapon disarmament so i think that the united states should stop this self-contradiction send then invitation through the u.n. to iran so that all the parties that have a stake in this conflict could participate and bring an end to this tragic catastrophic conflict. it's r t international top u.k. military officials could face trial in the international criminal court after victims of the iraq war submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous assaults and torture of the british government meantime rejecting all allegations reporting 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 all says 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 they're put 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 here 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 constantly been or we're doing enough the point of this is simply that they still haven't done enough there are right. you know 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 called 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 for 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 well there are some extracts have seen the light and those witness accounts made public are well rather alarming among the abuses reported beatings electrocution various kinds of sexual humiliation even as

far as rape the family members of inmates are also allegedly threatened by british troops or in at least one case harmed and one of the victims said off to being beaten his eight year old son was then injured by an officer and reports from another witness suggested while he was interrogated soldiers threatened to rape his sister and then arrest his elderly parents earlier on the international we spoke to a legal adviser at the european center for constitutional human rights which was that the dossier. evidence shows that it's not only about individual single cases and incidents it's really a systematic pattern of reparative acts which are. finding in our report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's not all 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 there are still hardly any prosecutions in the country so now it's simply the time that international courts have to step in and it's good to have you with us here on our international just a bit later in the program the boss. spain's richest region both of them on madrid's commission to hold an independence referendum on its boosted breakaway moods the prime minister's already volatile to block it. and as the arctic ice melts there's a freeze looming between those who want its resources just a few minutes here on the program we'll look at the tricky task of sharing the riches underneath the frigid. fiber for the meantime here on the program the drip drip of secret information fed into the media by whistleblower edward snowden certainly seems to have forced the hand of u.s. president barack obama just this week he said he wants to rein in the activities of

the far reaching n.s.a. a bomber announced there would be no more spying on foreign leaders friendly to the u.s. and limits will be placed on how troves of collected data are used authorities will also need a court order they want to run a check on a phone number using the n.s.a. as extensive data critics however say little is said to change despite the big announcement. i wouldn't call it a reform i would call it the ongoing normalisation of the outrageous policy of violating the fourth amendment on an enormous scale we're learning more as every week goes by about what they're collecting in terms of text messages and e-mails and emitted data and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not can it meaning that anything has been done wrong is not proposing to stop doing it is not suggesting we restore the fourth amendment to the constitution he's

suggesting that this will continue and it will be reformed perhaps in part someday but he claims it's been a great step forward i don't see it the global spread of america's all seeing eye is suddenly costing taxpayers a pretty penny as well by the actual figures are as you would expect top secret but here's some leaked information that lifts the lid on the spy spending now the so-called black budget reportedly amounts to fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion went to the n.s.a. its funding has actually grown by a half and just under a decade and its surveillance methods only used to the ones being used in terrorist attacks amount to seven point five percent of the time the n.s.a. is by no means the first spy agency to have seriously overreached its mandate as aussies are all of a found out with advances in technology mass spying can easily get out

a hand. on finding out that the united states a top to private mobile phone and confronted president obama with this claim. former 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 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 during the cold war this can now it's 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 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 used to listen in normally 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 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 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 was taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us you might those fires my superior office. is there any technology for this 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. 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 many more stories still to come here on r.t. international including a new blow for u.s. afghan relations. tries to president karzai into signing a crucial security deal eight civilians most of them children killed in a nato raid just around the corner. but for the meantime here on r t it's taken moscow officials more than a decade to get permission to visit the only russian citizen kept behind bars or guantanamo bay at the delegation was told his 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 that 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 do and to convey the message to the american representatives to the miracles. that we insist hubris and legitimate interests. would be taken care of back in two thousand and eight barack obama the us 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 seen the image and reputation of the u.s. . despite official reports the hunger strike at guantanamo bay stopped in december a human rights advocates claim the number of inmates still protesting stands at thirty three and military authorities are refusing to release any new data now according to authorities the release of information on hunger strike is quote the tracks from of the more important issues like the welfare of detainees and the safety of troops or that clive stafford smith is a lawyer for several guantanamo detainees he shared with us his impression of the force feeding techniques. if a prisoner from camp six rich is the least can't goes on hunger strike the

automatically get transferred not just count five but you can't five record which really has been the most abusive place in all of one town and 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 action unfortunately against the very abusive force feeding techniques but we 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 in the some of those that they used to leave but use up the prisoners noses to hurt so much they're still pulling those tubes out every single time twice a day forcing them back up each time there's still that forcing far too much food too quickly into the prison amenity prison so if you're sick they just carry on doing it it really is horrendous. the latest updates about the

facility the international reaction to the never ending detention of those cleared for release long ago plenty of other stories are waiting for there right now including. police being left red faced. local resident. change. find out why he. and a desperate move to bring down the south american drug cartels. to shoot any plane that could be carrying. is it possible that innocent flights are also in the line of fire. right now on the web site. here on the program afghanistan has accused u.s. forces of killing eight civilians seven of them children at. home it's one of the many incidents to have tested relations between the nations

washington increasingly loses the argument as to why i should sign a security deal the agreement is crucial for america as it would see a portion of its troops stay in the country after the main withdrawal later this year. violence against citizens caught in jeopardy. this event is an example of why the afghan government is so adamant about this in advance like this makes it less likely that the u.s. in the afghan government will be able to reach an agreement do us would be happy to keep trying to keep troops there on their terms that there would be happy to keep. u.s. troops here kind of you know magical unicorn fantasy terms that they never journal civilians they never do anything the afghan government doesn't like those two things are in contradiction the us forces that magically do what the afghan government wants and doesn't do but the afghan government people don't want those

u.s. forces those magical us forces don't exist and a mounting civilian casualties from american military operations are one of the key reasons the us afghan security pact remains on shaky ground and washington's draft pushes for thousands of its soldiers to remain in afghanistan after the combat mission ends just a bit later this year although their role is supposed to support local forces the 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 of course president karzai reluctant to approve the deal demanding an end to airstrikes as a precondition for any agreement. hi we're coming to you live from moscow where lawmakers in the richest spanish region of catalonia voted to ask madrid to allow a suspension referendum cheered on by dozens of demonstrators waving independence

flags the local parliament approved the move with an overwhelming majority over the spanish prime minister mariano to hoist has vowed to block the referendum on constitutional grounds a recent poll show about half of the catalans want to break away but at least eighty percent want to have the right to vote on the matter of the region his own language that represents a fifth of the whole country's economy an article from the european partnership for independence says catalans cannot be prevented from having their say. more than eighty percent of catalans wish to express themselves either uv they want or not want the death of months of catalonia so we are talking about the more pressing obviously and there is certainly no one democratic institution that can prove to a majority of citizens of european citizens to not express themselves in the ballot box we actually think that the governor's office alone is going to be

a benefit for the tunnel you know for spain and for europe because for us it's not a question of money is about that we are a nation we know we are a nation we know our rights and we are brought out to prove that we know that and that we want to restore this state that we used to be with our constitutions our institutions so we can decide either about our own policies our thanks for joining us here at r.t. international as the arctic ice slowly melts more nations according do absorb its natural riches with massive oil and gas reserves hidden under the polar sea bed it might be rather tricky there were how to agree on dividing it all up marina portnoy in our picks up this rather frigid issue. 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 have 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 opportunity for a bigger slice of the pie is what many fear can inevitably spark a twenty first century cold war in the frozen waters are also on explored 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. r.t. new york. now a big part of this is the trade our sea route through the arctic is a very attractive shortcut from russia and europe to asia due to thawing ice such a journey could take just twenty two days that is ultimately slashing transport costs it's almost twice as fast as the southern route through the mediterranean are all across the indian ocean christopher perry is a strategic forecaster also a former british naval officer he thinks disputes in this race for the arctic are

ultimately unavoidable 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 exist up 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 hardly nor can see reach 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 that in the past two faced each other across the north pole that icy waste they cannot open water for quite a few months of the year and that will introduce a different perspective different geometries and you're going to see canada and you know these states also venturing into the arctic so it's going to be an interesting

situation g.g. 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 we've got more of the week's top headlines coming your way in about half an hour's time but for now on our team international how the grain that feeds billions as landed itself right in the center of a genetic modification scandal hope to see.