after months of hesitation and pressure from its western bankers syria's main opposition group a will attend peace talks in geneva aimed at finding a political way out of the conflicts also the stories that shaped this week. the reforms i'm proposing today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being protected. the american president promises to restrain the surveillance targets of the n.s.a. but critics say the proposed reforms while trying to say. i'm to the international criminal court may soon see told british military officials and the dog for the first time in history over accusations a rule crimes committed by troops during the iraq war. once explaining the record breaking cold still the winter games and dispelling

concerns over intrusive security that the russian president speaks to journalists just a few weeks before the olympics. the latest news on the week's top stories this is the week here on r c international with me. and was stunned this hour with some breaking news from kiev tear gas has been sprayed during clashes in the ukrainian capital where rioters are togs a police boss was blocking their way tens of thousands of opposition supporters are in central kiev to push for a vote of no confidence against the parliament and president activists say a new settled law was put forward this week is aimed at making it easier to prosecute down. traitors nationwide rallying accompanied by fierce clashes with

riot police began nearly two months ago after present in a car which ditched an association deal with the e.u. and of course more on this story as we get it. some other news now 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 their position however insists the removal of bashar al assad from power remains its only priority. looks now by this week's diplomatic diplomatic twists and turns 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 we wouldn't be 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 to allow humanitarian aid. it's 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 ours laying the foundation for he would say you are on the same page when it comes to the most important issues are the same can be said about some western nations who may be risking it all happen 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 participation by widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and vital tool for syria you've got this going on r.t. . the syrian coalition's hesitation on traveling to jenny about fathi expose the deep divisions within the rebel camp syrian presidential advisor saying ashen ban

who was with the country's delegation mosco 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 the city of for so many years they are kind of. you know are brode the whole do not know what the syrian people would go 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 above the thing as would give the last priority to stopping this terrorism that is this throwing the lives of the people i believe it's a question of what is the one the proudest is is it the sea that people and syria and its territorial integrity or is it some personal interest being an ally for other forces and that's

a key player in the region his participation in the syria peace talks is up indiana is iran russia and the u.n. along tehran that but washington is sending mixed signals former french prime minister dominique de villepin has explained why he thinks it's crucial that iran takes pond. ron should be as much as possible part of the talks because he one is a very regional important players i believe the dialogue that the divisional committee is having with you rod on the nuclear question is a very important one we should try to go forward and settle and if we can hardly run the board in discussing the current crisis of the region we of course we will be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crisis how can we solve the syrian crisis without europe 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 there is no solution to be the least. starting from monday also international will bring you a special preview of the long awaited geneva two talks plans don't miss the coverage will be banned from wednesday. after three hours of. just over one hundred. lomas see and common sense come together with one. war is not the answer. does peace have a chance. a hugely 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 but with some restrictions on his activities of

forces will now need judicial approval to tap someone's phone and foreign leaders of u.s. allies or no longer be the targets of espionage and he 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. it 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 minute data and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not can admit in 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 spying on millions of people isn't cheap and the n.s.a. places a heavy burden on american taxpayer as the actual budget of surveillance programs is kept secret but some numbers have been leaks to the public so lost share the all seeing isaiah washington post over fifty two and a half billion dollars out of that over ten billion went to the n.s.a. whose funding has grown by half in a decade yet so why a study suggests its data is only used in the detection of terrorists seven and a half percent of the time the n.s.a.'s toxics caused outrage across the wild many have compared its excesses to the full scale as spanish on the cold war era our correspondents peter on of our looks now at the similarities. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and gloom

urkel 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 who quoted 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 is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stasi used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it edward snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance showing germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again high up on top of the ominously named devil's mountain life the

remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or 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 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 and they move 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. he didn't have access to this type of technology they rely on developing personal contacts. 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 was taken seriously as

one former officer charged with looking into nato told us human those fires my superior officer is there any technology we have that i can use to stop eavesdropping on my calls yeah answer yes just don't pick it up these veterans of the spy game might be impressed by the capabilities of the n.s.a. but they're cautious about the quality of the information collected for dozens of ships they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their cause it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation dubbed two point zero by critics except to continue for some time yet peter all of a r.t. germany. the american and british authorities have claimed the monitoring of citizens is necessary for national security so later this hour we'll take a look at the scope of surveillance in the british capital and whether it's

producing results. for british military officials could soon be tried in the international criminal court for war crimes because end 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 servicemen from facing the tribunals aussie's point of boyko 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 could two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization 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 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 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 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 ali boy artsy london the majority will become tanned so the reporter kept away from the minds of the public however some extracts have seen the line so the dossier contains reports of killings be sings rape and various torture methods that u.k. forces allegedly used on detained iraqis the families of the inmates 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 claimed soldiers threatens to rape his his sidestep and we spoke to a legal adviser to the european center for constitutional and human rights who cope also to the top about these accusations. evidence shows that it's not only about individual single cases and incidents it's really

a systematic pattern of reparative acts which are cured and finding in our report or communication to see its more as and single isolated incidents it's not as a 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. that international courts have to step in and are now back to our breaking news story from kiev and the sporadic clashes between protesters and police have flared out across the sun told the ukrainian canvas hold and these are live pictures from there for you right now we know that a police prize has been set on fire during the clashes with rioters also throwing firecrackers and stones at police and soldiers tens of thousands of opposition

supporters are running in central kiev demanding a vote of no confidence against the monument and president activists say a new set of law was put forward this week is aimed at making it easier to prosecute demonstrators nationwide rally accompanied by fierce clashes with riot police began nearly two months ago after president can accomplish ditched an association deal with the. i also hear from witnesses that explosions heard constantly on that kiev's independence square and also one of the opposition leaders vitaly klitschko has also been seen that so we'll bring you more on this story as we get it. and still ahead for you this hour russian officials behind the fences and gone tanabe. a delegation from moscow given access to their last russian citizen the big head that said they remained at washington all the unfulfilled promise to chandon the vicinity plus. st renovation plans and

will spain triggered clashes with police across the country as a protest is blamed the government for wasting their scarce finance that and much more on that later this hour. wealthy british style it's a spot on to the split right in the front. of the. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars a report on. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've . covered.

pleasure to have you with us you're on t.v. today i'm wrong researcher. this is the international welcome bach would be sochi winter olympics now just a few weeks away present 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 under pharma has more now from this year's end impacts. these games are the

most expensive million pick 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 the 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 that were looking to restrain emerging countries in the east that had become global competitors knew 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 games is of course what worries many people that what were 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 small patrols of police on the streets and also regular police raid checks but i wouldn't describe it as overbearing i would say that i think many people will find it reassuring certainly at the moment with around three weeks ago before the start of the games. and later today r.c. revisits the record breaking relay of the game simple their olympic talk. gone time with 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 camp they were told his case will be reviewed by the u.s. military in the near future rima honeyed here 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 those 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 that was to meet with with those who isn't going to really listen to the america representatives of the miracles. that we insist they heard his words. it will 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 vassals 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. the image and reputation of the u.s. . and. spain this week dozens of auction is arrested after clashes with police as pressure swept through. trouble was triggered in the northern town of multimillion dollar plan to rebuild local infrastructure protester said the money would be better spent on social needs for a two year recession and despite the renovation being cancelled the protests 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 he'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 have schools and hospitals rather than pockets this is the very conservative c.t.s. this is the other small city in space never happens something like that in a city like google so this is probably. one of the symptoms of of how problematic it's been the situation on the whole the whole of space. coming up next we'll take a look at the scope of sin lehmann's in the british capital and whether or not it's producing results.

the majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting when the average american is not doing so well financially this seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue that congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a million dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of a campaign to get in a congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so yeah a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting a 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 they get 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 . welcome to london the world's capital of surveillance even though the years since one thousand nine hundred you may be forgiven for imagining big brother really is what you need. one. six. on the fore. every bit of public ground. of everything the three but also just

because all the different companies and different landowners have their own c.c.t.v. cameras so every thought that's what everybody. in the most monitored city in the world there is one camera for every fourteen people but does this intense surveillance keep london as safe i mean in a way the streets like a kind of dangerous because that coveted c.c.t.v. but no one's watching that's what's interesting about these two to be culture if it takes away like the joy of having initiatives like natural bill to. photographer henrietta williams for george going to have mapped a ring of steel around london's financial district. forced from automated security gates and surveillance cameras anyone who enters is registered electronically and anything out of the ordinary triggers security protocols. even seemingly.