breaking news on r.t.e. policeman come under vicious attack from hordes of anti-government protesters in the ukrainian capital earlier tonight the buses have been during street battles. after months of hesitation and pressure from its western backers syria's main opposition group will attend peace talks in geneva and to fight seeing a funny way out of the political conflict currently plus two other stories that shape the week. forms i'm proposing today should give the american people greater confidence in american president rights which are being protected to restrain the surveillance habits of the n.s.a. for critics say the proposed reforms won't change a thing. also the international criminal court may soon see top british military

officials in the dock for the first time in history over allegations that troops committed war crimes during the iraq war. good morning it's kevin with me here this morning at r.t. international and straight to our breaking news in from kiev we've been talking about the last couple of hours at least seventy people have been hurt in unrest this once again in gold central kiev this is one of the most dramatic pictures we've got through tonight see placed on the floor there. you can see rioters literally beating security officers with sticks these pictures through from artie's rightly a video news agency as well and a catch that you can log online get more of that police have also been attacked with stones and fire crackers forced them to respond with water cannon and tear gas so that's the scene earlier on tonight we gather it's calmed down a little bit but i spoke to under a. witness some of these latest protests first hand. i saw them out of cocktails

thrown into the rows of police so it's happening all the time when police is trying to stop the protestors and to come to them closer to protesters the right activists are from stones to right pretty girls young people tried to break through the fans of police to go to the governmental area of the city and police are trying to trying to stop them people are building a barricade they are using the cars which are standing on the square the one to choose to achieve their goals now so be the one to victory and of course to go away to be not president they want to have another government and they want to have this in the in one moment they don't talk to journalists so they can't explain what they want so they want to fight activists and opposition leaders pushing for the government to step down over a new law that says in breach of the constitution the fresh legislation package

will insist they say it will make life harder for demonstrators correspondent really was in kiev when protests first began last year she shared her experiences with me. it either had to. burst into flame earlier right when they started back in november or it got to the point where they have to do something and by they i mean the protesters and of course the government as well but most of the protesters because for a while there they tried to keep it coming in waves they were waiting for the dispersed so they kept saying it's going to happen people kept getting messages through their phones and through twitter. threatening messages which were essentially saying we're about to be ambushed at the police because there's going to be you know essentially all hell breaks loose and it never happened it's really quite safe to say that we probably had several hundred of these ultra nationalist activists i would say this is exactly what they wanted them to mayhem and at one

point they tried to direct the bus somebody got into the bus and tried to direct them at the police if we go back to back to december there was already an incident when they tried to run a bulldozer into. as well so this is sort of a repeat of what we saw back then just a month ago essentially but it does look a lot does look a lot severe of course it's much more colorful now. very briefly. back back in the day basically it was about the fact that you know college pulled out at the very last moment from signing trade agreement with the european union but now they're completely different now it's against the government now they're protesting now they're saying this is a revolution and one of the government to step down for the second month of protests and they cannot agree on anything they decided not even to bring out a unified candidate should the elections take place and

a lot of people i think were really upset by that and that's what people were chanting earlier today they were shouting because that's exactly what they need and they don't see. spoke. with one attributed rested. he told me the opposition is trying to topple the government through unrest because it believes it would lose in genuine elections if the opposition has a court which they claim to have then why don't they simply wait elections we're not talking about five years' time we're talking about next february really talking about thirty months time so i think the opposition are now trying to bring down the government try to bring about very early elections to bring before the elections to topple the government and it is undemocratic because you know the majority of people are not represented by them i mean there's no evidence that they the majority do support them and i think that if the government were to fall when this would be undemocratic move freely and a box of the western leaders about this it is quite striking because gallup poll

which was a democratically elected leader ukraine is not north korea it's not saudi arabia it's a democracy and it democracy if you want to remove the government then what you do is you try to persuade people to vote in free elections and they're coming up as i said twenty fifteen so why don't the opposition wait for them knocking what we're seeing in ukraine is an attempt for a reggie change of his legs yes to have a glass to use protests in ukraine following the turmoil in care of right now he's got the and latest on his twitter feed you can follow him for the most dramatic pictures. syria's main opposition group has finally said he will attend peace talks in geneva after months of hesitation the made the decision just a few days before the summer is due to begin the opposition over insists the removal of bashar al assad from power remains its priority and his go pers can often expect at this week's 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. the end 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 we wouldn't be 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 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 ours laying 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 and also have 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 now my focus has confirmed it will be a geneva two 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 to peaceful solution for syria even if it's going to r.t. there is. the syrian coalition's hesitation on traveling to geneva further exposed

the deep divisions in the rebel camp syrian presidential advisor persona siobhan who was with the country's delegation in moscow earlier this week so the opposition exiles got little to do that with the people living in syria this part is first of all they have and they have been living outside thirty hours for so many years they are kind of syrian air in arbroath 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 receiving finances from different parties but anyone who lives with the syrian people who want the interest of the syrian people to be our bob everything else would give the utmost priority to stopping this terrorism that is this throwing the lives of the syrian people i believe it's a question of what is the one the priority 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 another key player in the region is supposed to the syria peace talks is up in the air is a rand russia in the u.n. want to washington sending mixed signals from the french prime minister tommy developers explain why he thinks it's crucial to run takes power. ron should be as much as possible part of the talks because you want he's a very regional important players i believe the dialogue that the international community is having with iran on the nuclear question is a very important one we should try to go forward and settled and if we can have the run on board in discussing the current crisis of the region we'd of course we will be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crisis and how can we solve the syrian crisis without you and 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 in the middle east so big we coming up them starting later today are to bring you a special preview of the long awaited geneva two talks and we've got special coverage lined up as well as the event from wednesday still ahead on our take russian officials on the fences of twenty in our delegation from moscow given access to the last russian citizen being kept there said they reminded washington of its own fulfilled promise to shut down the facility that's ahead plus to explaining the record breaking cost of the winter games and dispelling concerns over intrusive security the russian president speak to journalists just a few weeks before the sochi olympics kickoff is on that as well. a hugely anticipated address from barack obama on the future of n.s.a. surveillance this last week was widely criticized as failing to push forward on the

actual reforms the agency will continue its work but with some restrictions on its activities authorities will now need to dish an approval for instance to tap someone's phone and foreign leaders of u.s. allies will no longer be the targets of espionage apparently and the data which is gathered will no longer be stored by the government either although there was no explanation as to what will happen to it critics though 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 admitted data and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not can meeting 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 n.s.a. tactics caused outrage across the world when it compared its activities to the full scale espionage of a cold war era a correspondent paper all of a looks now the similarities own fault. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and confronted president obama but they exclaim. former offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars he have a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems 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 cheering the cold war this can now absolutely this is exactly as illegal or 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 by edward 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 high up on top of the communist leaning 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 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 in the movie 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 is 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 they 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 yet 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 looks set to continue for some time yet peter all of a r.t. germany. as i mentioned just now with the a winter olympics close to him or putin spoke to foreign and russian members of the media or about that after this quick break. economic downturns in the final. deal and the rest. will be. ok.

as a new position. to the best of my ability and judgment. i will prescribe for the good of my patients. i will not give deadly doses to anybody. or advise others to do so. i will never do. doctors of the dog. again with the sochi winter olympics now just a few weeks away president vladimir putin spoke to foreign and russian members of the media and he was keen to dispose concerns about security as well as to discuss some of the challenges of hosting the event as well. as in this year's olympic city

about what the president had to say. these games are the most expensive in the lympics history and five times the original price tag but mr putin did stress that over the last five years sochi was the biggest building site in the world all the venues had to be built from scratch in this 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 to sell it 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 russia's law against gay propaganda to mine is arose

a lot of calls to boycott the olympics from abroad so this issue was also mentioned wasn't it 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. i don't think these are manifestations of the cold war but it is a demonstration of competition when such a powerful country like china starts showing rapid pace in growth it becomes a real competitor in global politics and being lobel markets and of course tools to restrain such growth are switched on probably some old approaches towards russia

still exist from the perspective that there is a need to restrain the economy. and finally security and. how it will effect big gains is of course what worries many people that what were the president's comments on that. it is a major issue particularly after the 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 sochi 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 you see small prefer police on the streets and also regular police write 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. you can watch the

olympics interview with the russian president for streaming on a web site out home. top british military officials could soon be tried at the international criminal court for war crimes victims of the iraq war submitted a dossier are accusing forces of bumiller is cases of abuse and torture but the u.k. is fighting hard to prevent this from facing the tribunal. reports 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 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 there port says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that their civilians to perry 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. 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 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 the people under their authority are people they should have control or 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 k r t london with a majority of the reports contents are being kept away from the eyes of the public over some extracts have seen the light of day the dossier it contains reports of killings beatings rape in various torture methods the u.k. forces allegedly used on detain the recchi s. the families of inmates were also reportedly targeted as well the eight year old son of one man was allegedly slapped by an officer when his father was arrested never detained he went on to report that when he was interrogated by a soldier then threat to rape his sister we spoke to a legal advisor at the european center for constitutional and human rights who coauthored this dossier robot 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. finding in our

report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's laws of 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 we've had to watch it all come for full interview with schiller co-author of that report which accuses british forces of abuse and torture played by the stories there as well of course you might want to check the radiation stricken fukushima nuclear plant now is a record levels to be more bad news after more bad news there the latest reading suggests the worst leak in one reactor well is going straight into the ocean. and one u.k. politicians making big waves right now is express likely views on why storms and

floods have been battering britain of late he says it's all to do with the legalization of gay marriage that's what's affecting the weather system according to him. one time a bay detention camp 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 and they were told his case will be reviewed by the u.s. military in the very near future remember one day is reporting now from washington with more about that. 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 of americans. that we insist they heard his words and legitimate. would be taken care of back in two thousand and eight barack obama the u.s. president promised to shut down the detention center multiple times he said that he wasn't able to fulfill his promise because of the congress which. a number of occasions has vast laws to make it harder and harder for the u.s. administration to either transfer. detainees to other countries or to bring them back to the u.s. and try them on u.s. soil which has left the u.s.

administration really in political limbo because this detention center has has seen the image and reputation of the u.s. . the simply never ending struggle of guantanamo detainees to be either tried or set free led to more than one hundred prisoners going on hunger strike last year a report said the current number of those still protesting thirty three but it's hard to know exactly because camp authorities stopped releasing official data last month and according to the military the release of information to track some more important issues like the welfare of detainees indeed the safety of troops as well the lawyer for several guantanamo detainee to describe to me exactly how the hunger strike is a big dealt with this for a prisoner are from camp six riches released camp goes on hunger strike the automatically get transferred not just count five but can't five record which really has been the most abuse took place and all the content of the prisoners are held in all steel cell and deny the most basic human rights just as

a punishment for going on strike but force feeding techniques are very much an option unfortunately against the very abusive force feeding techniques so for example and i've witnessed some of the very used to leave but use up the prisoners noses the well it's much worse still probably most tubes out every single time tries to force them back out each time there's still that forcing far too much too quickly into the prison a military prison if you're sick or just carry on doing it it really is horrendous . or tell more stories a bit later this hour we stay with me for that including a look at whether the twenty first century is welcoming a new cold war era melting ice is easy access to huge oil and gas resources and the riches that follow but that's not to the liking of environmentalists of course big story brewing we're covering that also is wall street better ration planted with plane ticket clashes in the wake of police in fact those clashes across the country .