play. up to mama so hesitation pressure from its western bach is to see where his main opposition group will attend peace talks in geneva aimed at finding a political way out of the conflict also in the stories that shaped this week. the forums are proposing today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being protected the american president promises to restrain the surveillance habits of the n.s.a. but critics say the proposed reforms one change a thing. on the to national criminal court may soon see told british military officials in the dock with a fast time and history of the allegations a with crimes committed by troops during the iraq war.

the latest news and the week's top stories you will change the weekly with me here national. international welcome to the problem 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 juice a big in their position however and says they remove all of bashar al assad from power remains its only priority. looks now by this week's a diplomatic twists and turns. with term 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 the syrian side 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 the words 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 off their hats 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 in 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 ph moved to moscow which was visited by syria and iran's chief diplomat the market has confirmed it will be agreed with after much debate so has the opposition but still in question produced by widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and vital tool. for syria he was one of the party. this year in coalitions has attention on travelling to geneva fat expires the deep divisions within the rebel camp see when presidential advisers say national ban who was one of the contras 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 thirty hours for so many years they are kind of. you know rode home or do not know what the syrian people are going 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 the syrian people who wants the interest of the syrian people to be our bob of anything else would give the utmost priority to stopping this terrorism that is this throwing the lives of the third and people i believe it's a question of what is the one the priority 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 iran russia and the u.n. won't turn around that but washington is sending mixed signals former french prime minister dominique de villepin has explained why it things it's crucial that iran takes place run should be as much as possible parts of the talks because you were uneasy very regional important players i believe the dialogue that the international community is having recently 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'd of course we will be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crises. how can we solve the syrian crisis with iran 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. and starting from monday i'll see will bring you a special preview of the long awaited geneva two talks plus don't miss the coverage of the event from wednesday. after three hours of. just over one hundred. moment see and common sense come together with one. war is not. does peace have a chance. a huge anticipated address from barack obama on the future of n.s.a. surveillance this week was widely criticized as failing to push forward any actual reforms the agency will continue its work but with some restrictions on a six have a series of sources will now need judicial approval to top someone's phone and

foreign leaders of u.s. allies will no longer be the targets of espionage and a day said which has gathered will no longer be stored by the government although there was no explanation as to what will happen to it and critics say these measures will 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 is 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 a heavy burden on american taxpayers the actual budget of surveillance programs is kit kept secret but some numbers have been leaked to the public and last year the all seeing eyes of washington cost over fifty two and a half billion dollars out of that over ten billion dollars went to the n.s.a. whose funding has grown by half in a decade yet one study suggests its data is only used in the detection of terrorists seven and a half percent of the time. the n.s.a. is tactics caused outrage across the world many have compared effects of issues to the full scale and span are of the cold war era our correspondent piece all of our looks now 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 the have a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems who quote if it's even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services during the cold war as can now as to elude 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 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 with a bond and now back in the day this post with ears to listen in normally private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the fifty. then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged with an electronic 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 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 we have 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 dubbed the two point zero by critics looks set to continue for some time yet peter all over germany. they're american and british authorities have claimed the monitoring of citizens is necessary for national security so later today we'll take a look at the scope of surveillance in the british capital and whether it's producing results. 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 routinely intercept american citizens. text messages you know. through the calls text messages so you just. see everything without my knowledge actually basically and there's all the legal absolutely legal yes when you back with the internet you're back a brother. told british military officials could soon be tried in the international criminal court for war crimes makes things of the iraq war have submitted a dossier accusing forces of new worse cases of abuse and torture but the u.k.'s fighting hard to prevent their servicemen from facing the tribunals aussies 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 had two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization and a british law contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by you. 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 stuff cia 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 as 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. 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 does not require references to the international criminal court the position of the british government has constantly 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 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 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 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 majority of the contents of the reports are kept away from the eyes of the public however some x. tracts have seen the light that the dossier contains reports of killings rape and vireos tortures methods torture methods that u.k. forces allegedly used on detained iraqis the families of when mates were 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 clane soldiers threatens to rape his sister we spoke to a legal adviser at the european center for constitutional and human rights who 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 cured and 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. so

ahead for you and international russian officials behind the fences have gone tom obey a delegation from moscow and given access to the last russian citizen being said they reminded washington of its unfulfilled promise to shut down the facility that's after the break. millions around the globe struggle with hunger each good. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. they can the very strong position against g.m.o. and we think that's. the genetically modified products are pretty. out there is no. evidence that there is any problem with genetic engineering when you make

a deal. or is free cheese always in the most trash. the. poor and the free. enterprise is profit not. these golden rice barkeep. u.s. president barack obama's public opinion ratings are in the doldrums he may finish his days in office as one of the country's worst in least effective presidents how do story and the public to determine the success or failure of an american president and why are some presidents rehabilitated years or even decades after they we've all. seen to national welcome back with the sochi winter olympics now just a few weeks away president vladimir putin 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 event and your family has more now from this year's olympics. these games are the most expensive limping history in five times the original price tag but mr putin did stress that over the last five years so cheap was the biggest building site in the world all the venues had to be built from scratch and with 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 about if evidence was presented it would be investigated russia's law against gay propaganda to mine is rose

a lot of calls to boycott the olympics from abroad so this issue was also mentioned it 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 they were looking to restrain emerging countries in the east that had become global competitors and you also 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 gains is of course what worries many people that one of the president's comments on that. 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 would come to such a. try and enjoy the games my own experience i was walking along the promenade yesterday and on the horizon was a warship and yes you do see a small portion of police on the streets and also regular police checks but i wouldn't describe it as overbearing so 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. go on time of a 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 county they were told his case will be reviewed by the u.s. military in the near future and rima abu hamed dia has more now from washington a visit securing the release of the only russian national held at the detention

center for over twelve years without charge. 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 the tension center is in violation of human rights and international law the most important probably. element of abuse it was to meet with with those who those are going to really listen to the american representatives of the miracles. that we insist his words and legitimate. it 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 most to make it harder and harder for the u.s. administration to either transparent. 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 stains the image and reputation of the u.s. . the never ending struggle of gun tunnel when he chaney's to be either tried or set free lead to more than a hundred prisoners going on hunger strike last year reports say the current number of still protesting is that us three but it's hard to know exactly because camp authorities stopped releasing official data last month and according to the military their release of information detracts from more important issues such as the welfare of detainees and the safety of troops there a lawyer for several gun tunnel detainees described how exactly the hunger strikers

adding dealt with. this for a prisoner from camp six which is the least count goes on hunger strike they automatically get transferred not just to count five but can't record which really has been the most abusive place in all of kuantan of prisoners are held in all steel cell and you know the most basic human rights just as a punishment for going on strike 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 you guys are the prisoners knows it's the but it's a much they're still pulling those tubes out every single time tries to forcing them back up each time there's still that forcing far too much too quickly into the prison american prison so if you're sick or just carry on doing it it really is horrendous. it can always had to aussie 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 and there are plenty of other stories that as well including a u.k. politician says he knows why storms and floods have been battering his country he says its goals are tribute for legalizing gay marriage read more about that online . and for consumer radiation levels to hit another record the latest measurements suggest the weiss pollution at a reactor while is leaking right into the ocean read more on the crippled power plant as a dot com. mile and process raged across spain this week dozens of accidents were arrested after clashes with police as approach has swept through nearly fifty six days trouble was triggered in the northern town of buggers of a multimillion dollar plan to rebuild local infrastructure protesters say the money

would be better spent on social means after a two year recession and despite the renovation being counseled 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 seen 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 a very conservative cities as is the other small city in straight never happens something like that in a city like google so this is probably. one of the symptoms of of how problematic . speaking to situation on the whole the whole of space. and now the

news this hour and new explosion has roots for approaches science in thailand's compas so been called injuring at least twenty eight's people on an overnight gun at sonic that's when did an opposition member socks are becoming increasingly common as protesters continue to rally demanding the prime minister's resignation as one to do rail february's parliamentary elections with the opposition saying the vote will be rigged. and tens of thousands of ukrainian opposition supporters have gathered in kiev central square they want to initiate a vote of no confidence against the parliament and the president they say new set of law was put forward this week is aimed at making it easier to prosecute demonstrators a nationwide running company by fierce clashes with riots please began nearly two months about after president he had a call which ditched a deal with the. that's coming up next the how the grain that feeds billions

landed in the center of a genetic modification scandal stay with us. 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 or not first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of a campaign to get in the congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so you know a million. hours 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 . down. did you give consent for your child to eat golden rice. we didn't know it at the time they didn't tell us it was g.m. food not me if i had known it at the time i wouldn't have allowed it.