economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines you guys are reporting on are. up to months of hesitation and pressure from its western buckers syria's main opposition group where attend the peace talks in geneva aimed at finding a political way out of the conflicts also the stories of this week. the reform bills and today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being protected the american president promises to restrain these surveillance habits of the n.s.a. but critics say the proposed reforms while the changes saying. be international criminal court may soon see told british military officials in the dog for the first time in history over accusations a with crimes committed by troops during the iraq war.

the latest news and the week's top stories we're watching the weekly on all seem to national with making national policy and welcome to the program. syria's main opposition group has finally said it will attend peace talks in geneva after months of hesitation they made the decision just a few days before the summit is due to begin this will be the first time since the beginning the begging of syria's civil conflict that the warring parties will meet face to face their aims however still barry with the opposition stating they were move all of bashar al assad from power was its only priority during the talks but the syrian president said the idea him quit saying was not up for debate at the geneva two conference insisting only the people of his country can decide through elections going off looks back at this week's diplomatic twists and turns around

the march to mate. 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 of the end to this unspeakable conflict never before have russia and the u. words 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 the syrian sides on the need to establish localized ceasefires to consider the lists of prisoners of war including civilians and also to allow humanitarian aid. washington even turned around its stance on iran saying it could also take part in the conference so long as it supported previous international agreements on syria but he's our swaying the foundation for he would say you are on the same page when

it comes to the most important issues 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. 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 bears the diplomatic breach moved 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 participation by widespread acceptance that it's

a key player in the region and vital tool for syria you've got this going over party. this year and coalitions hesitation on traveling to geneva fat expires the deep divisions within the rebel camp see when presidential advisor saying ashton bon who was with the country's delegation moscow this week said the opposition in exile has little to do with the people living in syria. these parties first of all they have been living outside for so many years they are kind of. in arbroath who do not know what the syrian people. 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 is an people who want the interest of the syrian people to be above that i think as would give the most priority the

stopping this terrorism that is destroying the lives of the sudan people i believe it's a question of what is the one the proudest is is it the fear that people and syria and its territorial integrity or is it some personal interest being an ally for other forces another key player in the region his participation in the syria peace talks is up and there is a run russia under your own tehran that but washington is sending mixed signals former french prime minister dominique de villepin has explained why his sayings it's crucial that iran takes part. should be as much as possible parts of the talks because you want is a very regional important players i believe the dialogue that the international community. you run on the nuclear question is a very important one we should try to go forward and settled and if we can have you

run the board in discussing the current crises of the region we of course we will be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crises. how can we solve the syrian crisis without you that's why i really believe that the dialogue with this country is important and we should really take into account the fact that without having you run a border these new solution to be the least. starting from monday else he will bring you a special preview of the long awaited geneva two talks plans don't miss the coverage of the band from wednesday. after three years of. over one hundred. limosine and common sense come together with one. war is not d.h. . does peace have

a chance. a huge anticipated address from barack obama on the future of n.s.a. surveillance this week it was widely criticized as failing to push forward any actual reforms the agency will continue its work but with some restrictions on its successors his authorities will now need just a judicial approval to top someone's phone and foreign leaders of u.s. allies will no longer be the targets of espionage and need to say which has gathered it will no longer be stored by the government although there was no explanation as to what will happen to it and critics say these matters won't change nothing. i wouldn't call it a reform i would call it the ongoing normalization 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 the minute data and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not

can it mean 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 is 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. spying on millions of people isn't the n.s.a. places have a burden on american taxpayers the actual budget of surveillance programs is kept secret but some numbers have been leaked to the public last year the all seeing eyes of washington cost over fifty two and a half a billion dollars out of that over ten billion went to and i say who's funding has grown by half in a decade yet one study suggests its data is only used in the detection of terrorist seven and a half percent of the time so the n.s.a.'s tactics caused outrage across the world

as we remember many have compared its activities to the full scale espana of the cold war era our correspondents peter all of us looks at the similarities. on finding out that the united states a top 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 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 cheering the cold war. this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics

that the stars 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 showing 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 it's abundant now but back in the day this post with years to listen in on the private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the fifty then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged with them 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 mendelssohn's even those who are 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 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're cautious about the quality of the information collected for dozens if they relied too much on technology their 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 except to continue for some time yet peter all over germany. the american and british authorities have claimed the monitoring of citizens is necessary for national security so later today we take a look at the scope of surveillance in the british capital and whether it's producing results. when you are followed around when you are being investigated because of the whim of someone this is the beginning of the end of your freedom. routinely intercept american citizens. text messages you know. your calls text messages so you just see everything about my own knowledge that actually basically there's all the legal absolutely legal yes when you bareback with the internet you're back a brother. told

british military officials could soon be tried in the international criminal court for war crimes victims of the iraq war have submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous cases of abuse and torture but the u.k. is fighting hard to prevent their sallis men from facing the tribe being i'll point to boycott reports now 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 their report says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that their civilians to parry is consciously ignored such information at their disposal but the u.k.'s 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 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 called the war 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 or 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 our 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 ali boyko r.t. london. the majority of the contents of the report are kept away from the eyes of the public however some extracts have seen the light be dossier contains reports of killings be sings a rape and vireos torture methods that u.k. forces allegedly used on detained iraq is the families of inmates who are also reportedly targeted the eight year old son a one man was allegedly slapped by an officer when his father was arrested and the seine being interrogated claimed as soldiers threatens to rape his sister and we spoke to a legal advisor to the european center for constitutional and human rights which coauthored the dossier about these accusations. 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 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 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. still ahead for you this hour on international russian officials behind the fences have gone tom obey a delegation from mosco given access to they lost a russian citizen being caballe said they were minded washington with unfulfilled promise to chandon to send its plants. renovation plans and burgle spain triggered clashes with police across the country as protesters blame the government for wasting their scarce finances and much more in just a few minutes. there

is so little self reflection on the part of both them are a can public and american decision makers i wonder why is that we are no country of three hundred and fifteen million people very self-absorbed we are. saluted from the world by two large oceans. we tend to think of foreign policy is something we do to other people rather than that that's something we participate in. one of the new cultural phenomena like the bank of new policies i think sometimes people.

pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. you're watching the weekly on r.t. international let's move on and with the sochi winter olympics now just a few weeks away present allegedly a person spoke to foreign and russian members of the media he was keen to dispel concerns about security as well as to discuss some of the challenges of hosting the band and for more on what the russian president has to say let's not cross live to under a farmer who's in this year is. right now so how the anger of course when we hear

in the media about the winter olympics in sochi when to stand about in the huge amount of well it's cost has been discussed right so how did logical person justify it. well he didn't deny that there's been a massive overspend after all it fifty billion dollars these games the most expensive million pic history in five times the original price tag but mr putin did stress that over the last five years sort she was the biggest building site in the world all the venues had to be built from scratch and was huge infrastructural development in terms of roads and rail links and he said because of that it was expected things would go over budget but he said where overspend has not been justified action has been taken and people have actually lost their jobs including a russian olympic committee member who was in charge of the ski jump facility which went six and a half times over budget and he was fired however mr putin did say that there was

no corruption among government officials though if evidence was presented it would be investigated. of course russia has a law against gay propaganda to minors a rose a lot of calls to boycott the olympics from abroad so this issue was also mentioned wasn't it. there was and again he stressed that homosexuality is not a crime. in russia but he did say that calls for a boycott on the games on this topic was a throwback to old style thinking which he did not think was helpful and he said that he thought that the worst still people in the west that were looking to restrain emerging countries in the east that had become global competitors knew you'll show drew a parallel with china saying they also experienced call for a boycott in the run up to the beijing games back in two thousand and eight. and finally security and how it will affect big games is of course what worries many

people that what were the president's comments on that. yes well as you say it is a major issue particularly after the new year bombings in volgograd he did say that forty thousand troops and police are on duty in and around the search area at the moment he did say it was necessary but he also did stress that they would do all they could to make sure that they would not be too intrusive for members of the public and all these people will come to saatchi to try and enjoy the games from my own experience i was walking along the promenade yesterday and on the horizon was a warship and yes you do see small patrols of police on the streets and also regular police raid checks but i wouldn't describe it as overbearing in fact i would say that i think many people will find it reassuring certainly at the moment with around three weeks to go before the start of the games. he's andrew from reporting there from twenty fourteen winter olympics how safely and very many

thanks indeed. gone tunnel bay detention can finally allowed a visit by russian officials after more than ten years of diplomatic negotiations the delegation from moscow visited the last russian citizen being held in the camp and they were told his case will be reviewed by the u.s. military in the near future rima dia has more now from washington. visit securing the release of the only russian nationals held at the detention center for over twelve years without charge revealed. 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 of the most important probably. element of abuse it was to meet with with those citizens and to convey the message to the american representatives of america. that we insist they heard his words and legitimate interests. 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 seen the image and reputation of the u.s.

. the neverending struggle of gun tanami detainees to be either tried or set free let in more than one hundred prisoners going on hunger strike last year reports say the current number although still protesting is that just three but it's hard to know exactly because county authorities stopped releasing official data last month and according to the military the release of information detracts from more important issues such as the welfare of detainees and the safety of troops there a lawyer for several guntown of the detainees described how exactly the hunger strikers are being dealt with if a prisoner from camp six which is the least count goes on hunger strike they automatically get transferred not just count five but can't record which really has been the most abusive place in all the content of prisoners are held in all steel cell and denied the most basic human rights just as a punishment very much right but force feeding techniques are very much action

unfortunately against the very abusive force feeding techniques so for example and i've witnessed some of those that they used to leave but use up the prisoners noses to it so much they're still pulling those tubes out every single time twice a day forcing them back up each time they're still about forcing far too much too quickly into the prison american prison so if you're sick they just carry on doing it it really is horrendous. you can head to auntie dot com for the latest updates about the infamous facility and the international reaction to the neverending detention of those cleared for release long ago there are plenty of other stories that are as well including a u.k. policeman says he knows why storms and floods have been battering his country he says it's going to retributive for legalizing gay marriage read more about online. radiation levels hit another record the latest measurements as the worst pollution

auto react so well is leaking right into the ocean read more on the crippled power plant as dot com. one and crowds has the raged across spain this week dozens of accidents were arrested after clashes with police as protesters swept through nearly fifty cities trouble was triggered in the northern town of burgas of a multimillion dollar plan to rebuild local infrastructure protests the sad the money would be better spent on social needs after a two year recession and despite the renovation being cancelled the process went on and that's because of the overall discontent with the government according to one political analyst. the demonstrators say that they will continue. protesting against this project because they they still don't believe that it's going to be withdrawn the reason why people are so angry specifically because it doesn't fit

with the current situation of austerity of cutbacks in services this is an area which has suffered from those cutbacks in public services recently so people they say they prefer to other schools and hospitals rather than parking lots this is the very conservative cities this is the other small city in spain but it happens something like that in a city like google so this is probably. one of the symptoms of of how problematic is being the situation on the whole the whole of space. under the news this hour a new explosion has ripped through approaches side entire lines capital bangkok injuring at least twenty eight people following an overnight gun a type that wounded an opposition member attacks are becoming increasingly common as protesters continue to rally demanding the prime minister's resignation protests as a wanted do rail parliamentary elections with the opposition saying the word will be

raided. a blast at an army compound in northwestern pakistan has told three a military convoy killing twenty two soldiers around thirty others were in. one the explosive device was detonated inside a vehicle pakistan stonham on faction claimed responsibility for the bombing and promised more attacks against what is called the country's secular system. and tens of thousands of ukrainian opposition supporters have gathered in kiev central square and we're bringing you the latest pictures from independence square right now in kiev so they want to initiate a vote of no confidence against the parliament and the president they say a new set of laws put forward this week is aimed at making it easier to prosecute demonstrators the nationwide running accomplished.