breaking news on our t.v. policemen under vicious attack from hordes of anti-government protesters in the ukrainian capital where buses have been burned during street battles. the international criminal court may soon see top british military officials on the dock for the first time in history over accusations of war crimes committed by troops during the iraq war. a price worth paying vladimir putin speaks about the record breaking cost of the sochi olympics ball dispelling fears over safety and security of those attending. the reforms i'm proposing today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being protected for forms didn't inspire confidence on capitol hill where top ranking lawmakers criticized

the proposals themselves and the speech for creating a climate of uncertainty. two am in moscow i met treasury bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news but we begin with breaking news tonight disturbing images emerging of violence in kiev around seventy police officers hurt in clashed with protesters according to the ukrainian interior ministry this is one of the most dramatic pictures that we've seen in the footage from artie's video agency ruptly you can see rioters beating officers with sticks the crowd also three stones and firecrackers at police who responded with water cannons and tear gas ukrainian journalist andre botched avoid told us what he witnessed. i saw the moment of cocktails thrown to the rows of police so it's happening old

a time when police is trying to stop the protestors and to come to them closer the protesters to the right activists and stones to write articles young people tried to break through the fans of police and to go to the governmental area of the city and police trying to trying to stop them people are building barricades the use of the cars which are standing on the square they want to choose to achieve the goals now so there is a one to victory and of course to go away to be not the french 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. to visit opposition leaders pushing for the government to step down over a new law bases in breach of the constitution they say will make it easier to prosecute demonstrators campaigning for change parties or in evolution go was in kiev when the protests first started last year and shared her experiences with my

colleague. it either had to. burst into flame earlier right when they started back in the 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 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 really quite safe to say that we probably had several hundred of nationalist activists i would say this is exactly what they wanted them to me and at one point they tried to direct the bus somebody got into the bus and tried to direct them to the police if we go back to back to december there was already an incident when the.

the police 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 skinnier of course it's much more colorful now rewinding the cloak. very briefly to how all this started. back back in the day basically it was about the fact that you know pulled out at the very last moment from signing i 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 their revolution and we want the government to step down for the second month of protests and they came out agree on anything they decided not even to bring out a unified candidate should the elections take place and a lot of people were really upset by that but that's what people were chanting earlier today they were they were shouting because that's exactly what they need and they don't see any. residue on the governor says he's ready to enter talks with

the opposition to resolve the ongoing political crisis in ukraine neil clark a u.k. based journalist monitoring the unrest in kiev says the opposition is trying to topple the government because it would lose at the ballot box. if the opposition had this a course they claim to have then why didn't they simply wait elections we're not talking about five years' time we told you about next february when he took in about thirty months time so i think the opposition are now trying to bring down the government to try to bring about very early elections when called the elections talk of the government and he's undemocratic because you know the majority of people on that represented by my view there's no evidence that they. do support them i don't think that is the goal of this would be undemocratic moves really and to focus your western leaders about this is quite striking because you have a coach who was a democratically elected leader ukraine is not korea it's not saudi arabia it's a democracy and it give ocracy if you want to remove the government and what you do

is you try to persuade people to. free elections and that i mean not as i say every twenty fifteen so why don't you opposition way to the you know i think what we're seeing in the ukraine is an attempt for a change. parties like you covered last year's protests in ukraine is following the turmoil and the latest on his twitter feed follow him for most dramatic pictures an up to date information. from u.k. military officials could be tried for war crimes for the first time in history a report by the european human rights group says britain is concealing evidence of abuse by its forces during the iraq war thousands of former iraqi detainees testify that they suffered numerous cases of violence and torture by british troops the dossier is now being examined by the international criminal court. reports. 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 stuff see. presented by a human rights organization in a british norfolk 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 cools 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 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 the 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. artsy and majority of contents of the report being kept away from the report from the public but some extracts have come to light the dossier contains reports of killings beatings rapes in various torture methods the u.k. forces are allegedly used on detained iraqis families of the inmates reportedly also targeted the eight year old son of one of them one man supposedly slot by an officer when his father was arrested another former detainee claims soldiers

threatened to sexually abuse his sister we spoke with a legal adviser at the european center for constitutional and human rights who coauthored the report evidence shows that it's not only about individual and single cases and incidents it's really a systematic pattern of reparative acts which appeared and that the finding in our report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's now is 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. hardly any prosecutions in the country so now it's simply the time that the international courts have to step in. syrian main opposition group voting in favor of attending peace talks in geneva we look back at the week diplomatic

twists and turns days before negotiations that could pave the way to a political solution in a country that deadly civil war are due to kick off that and more after a short break. there is so little self reflection on the part of both the american public and the american decision makers i wonder why is that. country of three hundred fifty 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 something we participate in.

thirteen minutes past the hour russian president vladimir putin saying russia will do everything it can to ensure a safe winter olympics without making security measures too intrusive with less than three weeks to go before the start of the sochi games the russian leader sat down with the international press he addressed the huge cost of staging the event and dispelled fears that gay visitors could suffer discrimination earlier my colleague a shot of all those spoke with artie's andrew farmer in the host 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 are they if evidence was presented it would be investigated russia's law against gay propaganda to minors a 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 it was really a whole i don't think that 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 becomes a real competitor in global politics and being global 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 affect big

gains is a cool set look one reason many people that one of 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. in and around the sochi 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 to ensure you see the members of the public and all these people come to sochi to 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 you see small patrols of police on the streets and also regular police right. as i have a bearing 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 gangs you can watch the prelim big interview with the russian president in full on our website r.t.

dot com. he usually anticipated address by barack obama reining in the n.s.a. spying has been widely criticized some lambasted the proposed reforms as being cosmetic and the most likely ineffective while others so they carried additional risks one of the key points of the speech was that any data gathered by the agency will no longer be stored by the government there sparked fears that third parties could access the information if it was stored beyond official control not only that but lawmakers accuse the president of failing to bring forward actual reforms and creating a sense of uncertainty josten one raid ak a campaigner for government accountability thinks the changes won't make any real difference. so far what has been telecast through government leaks look a lot like a lot of cosmetic changes in other words it does not appear that the president will be reigning in the largest controversy with just probably the bulk collection

of american data nor will he be adopting any recommendation to house and store that data in for example a telephone company rather than by the national security agency again i think a lot of these changes are are really discuss magic and they're contrary to what his own internal review panel recommended you know sales tactics causing a reader cross the world many compared to activities to the full scale espionage of the cold war era our correspondent peter all over looks at the similarities. finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and confronted president obama with this claim. former offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars of a warning for the n.s.a.

if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems and who quote if it's even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services during the cold war does can now as to elude this is exactly as illegal or some of the tactics that the stars are used to employ it is a breach of human rights of the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it i read would snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance show in germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again. on top of the ominously named devil's mountain life the remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or its abundant now but back in the day this post 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 into 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 when distance version or 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 office. is there any technology so that they can be used eavesdropping on my calls yes 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 cool shits about the quality of the information collected for lessons yet they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their calls it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation dubbed two point zero by critics but since you continue with some sign yet these are all of the chimney. turning now to some other stories making international headlines in iraq government forces have launched an all out attack to push al-qaeda militants out of ramadi at least twenty police and allied tribal militias were killed or wounded in the assault large parts of the city along with nearby fallujah feller militant control late december elsewhere gunmen killed six sunni's in the eastern city of baquba.

while in clashes broke out in istanbul as thousands marched to commemorate a murder journalist their reporter was campaigning for a reconciliation between turks and armenians but that sparked anger among nationalists such demonstrations have been staged every year since the journalist was killed back in two thousand and seven. the french interior minister says about a dozen teenagers have left the country to join militant groups in syria he added that the trend of young people traveling to the war zone has dramatically accelerated this after syria's main opposition group finally agreed to attend geneva peace talks after months of wavering or cheesier piskun of looks back at the 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 of 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 wouldn't start supposedly 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 to keep 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 perhaps right now just one wrong move is enough to bring down this diplomatic house of cards such as the mixed signals sent from france to the rebels who themselves took the whole week to decide whether they'll take part. we don't have the assad regime on one side and

terrorists on the other it is the regime the dispute the terrorism. such statements may be music to their ears but these are cynical statements the western military alliance has been recruiting mosher had seen 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 not because it's confirmed it will be a diva and after much debate so has the opposition but still in question is iran's borders the region where the widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and vital to. syria you've got it going over there it's . charles fairbridge is a former british counter-terrorism intelligence officer and he thinks rebels mistakes are forcing the west to work with assad the rebels are unable to deliver on their promises in any case perhaps of more immediate concern to the west and

this is particular the case in the european capitals it's clear that elements of the syrian opposition comprising fight is jihadist fighters have gone from countries such as britain germany spain etc to syria to fight with al-qaeda linked forces that actually pose a threat to european countries themselves so this recognition has meant that security services have of course been forced if you like to address this in the best way to their national interests and of course inevitably that means particularly since it's likely more i think recognize now that assad will be around for some time to actually make those links even if discretely with back with the regime's intelligence services starting on monday or he will bring us special preview of the week of the long awaited geneva two talks plus don't miss our coverage of the event from wednesday. after three years of. just over one hundred.

homeless see and common sense come together with one message. war is not the answer . does peace have a chance. and coming up next on a bike a quiz a veteran u.s. diplomat on whether he thinks washington in story evaluate some of its foreign policy stay with us. another whistleblowers facing a lot of heat including a wave of death threats but what did she discover some sort of dark secret cia plans or some other plaque for a new war of luxury no she exposed something far more dangerous and important to the zombies on their couches the university of north carolina athletes are mentally

unfit for college and even high school mary willing come blew the whistle on the fact that between eight and ten percent of the school's football and basketball players read of the fourth grade level and many others are sub college level she also claims that these students were allowed into the university based on the screening process done by the university i.e. implying that the you of n.c. knew exactly who they were letting into the university remember college football makes a lot of money i always had a feeling that something like this was going on i mean according to usa today many college athletes claim that during the season they put in more than double the amount of hours on sports that they are allowed that's fifty to sixty hours a week how can they possibly learn anything maybe it isn't so sad that this goes on it is a reflection of economics what is sad is that the whistleblower is getting death threats just for saying that it is going on by those stupid hard. we're friends but the surest monitoring.

what the american public hasn't really understood is that this is not a normal big scandal and that these banks like h.s.b.c. have the blood of american soldiers on their hands that going off in afghanistan and killing and killing an american or you know allied soldier that is being financed through our banks that's a problem. hello and welcome to worlds apart it's hard to find a country whose foreign policy has also laid it more between idealism and cynicism than that of the united states many american presidents began their terms in office with blah just to make the world a better place and finished with the world uttering never again what needs to

happen for american foreign policy to become more pragmatic and in touch with reality while to discuss that i'm now joined by a cast freeman a distinguished american diplomat who also served in various capacities in the state and defense department ambassador three minutes a great privilege to have you on the show i'm glad to be here you know every time when we try to examine the foreign policy we get a lot of responses from and graham merican accuse as a few as bashing and maybe my being a russian invited some of those accusations by your in the american the you gave thirty years of your lives to the service of your country and yet some of your views on the american foreign policy are pretty solid boring i wonder how do you distinguish between a critic. thinking and criticism and is it possible to avoid criticism while applying critical thinking to american role in foreign affairs the united states

has a democracy and one of the responsibilities of citizens as i see it is to speak out and try to influence policy and that's particularly the case when the policies that are being followed are either unrealistic or counterproductive. and in the middle east in particular u.s. policy has been pretty consistently counterproductive in recent years so i don't see a contradiction at all between my service for the u.s. government. own view of myself as an american patriot and criticism of my government's policies now many of the policies that bureau i analyzed in your book america's misadventures in the middle east tend to have some sort of recurring patterns you know some of the mistakes tend to be made over and over again and yet i think.