clashes engulf central kiev as ukrainian police barricades and chase rioters on a fourth day of anti-government protests two people have died so far. the crisis is being fueled by nationalists and radicals keen to grab the opportunity to push for revolution. also this hour syria's government and opposition sit face to face for the first time since the start of the conflict the beginning of anticipated peace talks in switzerland have exposed the parties of very different views of the future . this is our international live from our studio in moscow where it's just midnight

and ten pm in kiev where two people have died in anti-government protests in the ukrainian capital in the fourth consecutive day of violence police have torn down barricades in the center of the city and chased down and the retaliation of protesters has been equally as forceful. as in the ukrainian capital. i can see from my vantage point that. several hundred protesters are moving into the square the numbers are not receding here it's still pretty much i would say maybe several thousand people of protesters and riot just over here slowing flash bangs both of cocktails rocks at the police can't see if the project was actually reaching the police lines because of this black smoke as i've said i would never expect that i would have to wear a bulletproof vest and a helmet in the iranian capital a little early several hours ago i filed this report i saw the first wave of

protests this off the police trying to push the protesters off the square let's have a look at this report right now. so this is yet another attempt by the police to push the protest this off the governmental quarter they've just started moving as we can see the covering themselves with shields the protesters the rioters are running back but they're still throwing rocks at the police it is very violent here we see that flash bangs are being exploded. from time to time although the police are not resorting to any kind of special mean so far they haven't even youth last bangs or non-lethal non-lethal form as far as we could see over here they've been waiting basically for hours for several hours before attempting another another go at the protesters we also heard earlier from the prime minister of ukraine who said that old those writing in the central kiev are considered to be terrorists and will soon heard from the some of the officials from behind the barricades from the

police lines who have been saying that. they will use force if needed and this is the case as we can see right now from our vantage point. the fear of the police i know in full in full swing this year the protesters who are still here pluming roofs and and move the foothills at them. when you see this literally maybe several hundred policemen. and. there will soon as you can hear banging their shields to give a proper psychological impact so that the protest is making most head but now we can see there are no protesters remaining at the scene of the riots which has been the scene on the right for the past four days already that said the protesters have been pushed off from the governmental quarter several police lines and see the one police line the other police line they're now securing the perimeter no major

violence as we could see no. major violence from the police in fact i would say no violence from the police at all we can see the car the police are not advancing to the independence square which is literally two hundred meters away from here they're not advancing they're just basically what they're doing they're securing this ground here that the governmental quarter pushed the rioters from the scene and what they're doing the just securing it here now so they're quick clearly they're not intending to disperse the big protests the protests that the independence square the one which has been existing for several months already there we have rocks flying at the plant at the police again the protesters the rioters are back are back as we can see and there can also see another wounded person being carried it is getting violent again although this time it's quite clear that the violence is coming from the protesters from the rioters not from the police the police is merely protecting themselves we can see a moment of cocktail there on the ground as well. again most of

cocktails are being thrown rocks are being thrown that the police. so this is look this looks like yet another yet another retreat by the police. and the protesters are demanding again the rioters are bringing tires probably they will burn them and who are them at the. police like they've done for several occasions already. they're charging they're charging again at the police as we can see throwing rocks all the time. our correspondent peter is also in kiev closely following the events as they unfold and here's how he was caught up in a surge of riot police. well i'm currently stood between independence square area in front of the economic stadium. european square where there is

a standoff again between rioters and riot police there's a line of fire a wall of fire separating the two that's being set alight by the by the riots is burning tires and thick black acrid smoke separating the two sides there's a steady stream of people moving from independence square over to where the flash point is currently is currently and what we're seeing is those people are coming they're carrying a lot of of rudimentary weapons some have held it some with homemade body armor we've seen them carrying the likes of of clubs i am balls bits of paving stone that they've been breaking up there's been a real operation going on among the rioters to to break up paving stones to provide them with rocks to hurl at the at the police and then getting them over to what is really now the front line and they say this clash between rioters and riot police no earlier on in the day the right police to clear everybody out of the area that's just behind me over there now while they were doing the i was in the sky on the

street at the time and we we were able to to fit catch on film exactly what was going on what we've seen is a series of explosions going off or believe police are trying to clear out the square as you can see a lot of people we're going to be moving this way a son it comes the cover of i can move to the left here yes and shoot crowds of people as they're going to try to get away from those barricades that were were up there you can i own police moving in with actually police the moving in they're very very. they're pushing back very forcefully here. hopefully we're going to be going to be fine where we are police have moved everybody off those barricades moved everybody away from where they were almost our case you know we're going to have to get inside now we're going to. we have to we're going to get inside. to get all the way of what's going on this is that. the police have decided that they are they getting rid of and they're clearing out everything that was at those barricades this has been the position of such a

a standoff between rioters and the police. obviously the police deciding there that it was time to to put an end to that into into clear people out we saw a huge wave of people huge huge wave of people fleeing from those barricades and as police try to to disperse oh that's. oh that is that is. to say a policeman no hitting a somebody who's on the floor right there repeatedly beating that person. so yes the police have now cleared out all the way some explosions you can see that we've had to come inside to the hotel which is nearby where those barricades were. in order to to get away from from what was going on. there are some wounded demonstrators some people who'd been beaten as the police have now completely cleared all of that area away this all happened very very quickly it all happened

in a space of just a few minutes we heard a few loud explosions i believe they were. they were noisy grenades they were flash bang grenades and then a charge by the police which is completely clear now that whole area of where demonstrators police have been in a standoff for the last the last few days but all of this does seem that it's set to continue for a while yet will be trying to get back out there as soon as it's it's safe for us to do so to see what's going on. where they were located. but yes it is used now seeing demonstrators trying to move back into territory that they were just expelled from by the by the riot police that was the scene earlier on wednesday right now well the rioters have reoccupied those barricades and as i say they're separated from the police now by a wall of fire from those tires and other things that they're burning and they're continuing to arrive. all of the land will parts of central kiev resemble

a battlefield right now so here's a look at exactly where the events we're describing are taking place this puts it in perspective for you could shift street which has been at the very center of much of the violence there it's here that we have seen the fiercest clashes between rioters and the police in the last few days including today when the police managed to push the rioters up that very long street in the city towards european square here now this is where we're seeing tires burning right now in the wall of flames artie's alexy skis on him earlier he's there somewhere in the midst of all that black smoke now our reporter peter oliver he's already he's a little way back on european square and here is independence square the much talked about my dan square where the main body of the anti-government protesters have been camped l. for several months now and they are still there in great numbers while at the moment two hundred policemen have been injured during the riots they've suffered fractures head injuries burns stabbings and gas poisoning more than eighty have

been hospitalized so far and financial commentator patrick young says the rioters attacking the security forces of a few reasonable arguments and compares them to an organized terrorist group. in kiev we certainly see a large number of protesters but do they really reflect the viewpoints of the entirety of ukraine well i don't think that's the case intimately we have this tragic situation where the ultras affectively a thuggish element to seem to have links to very extremist politics in many cases i mean some of them are national socialists or fascist some of them probably have some sort of harkening towards communism certainly they're not the sort of normal average everyday people who really can be reasoned with these sorts of people existed all societies the truth is that normally when you have a reasonable rule of law you can manage to keep everything going from day to day on occasions of these sorts of fringes where their views have been inflamed unfortunately by interventions from the european union and the united states of

america which i think are wholly unreasonable in the domestic politics of ukraine you will see them try and rise up under dede those people are rather extreme some of them have very very ugly views indeed and of course they're demonstrating it through the violence that they're propagating on the innocent people of kiev and ukraine at this moment is not a huge majority movement demanding change it is all timidly a very well organized terrorist rabble well twenty people have reportedly broken into a television station there in kiev in what the authorities believe was a case of looting because equipment and furniture was stolen with such chaos across the city would discuss the tactics used by the ukrainian police with a man who's been at the front line himself simon for he was a senior officer for the metropolitan police and he told me that sometimes an officer is left with no choice about how to react. i guess really this is you the police somehow are standing between the tension between netting people have normal

protest which i think again he wants to do but the minute it starts becoming violent the way the protests meant they have no option than to react sometimes in the way they did because once that situation does get out of control like that well then those two criteria and the first they can restore peace quick quickly thing whatever way you can get the demonstrators moved on for a while. and then primarily that the second part of means is to do so as safely as possible for the public but then for the office a second so i think you know in some ways when you get back to grip of ahmed's be used against police officers who in many ways it's not surprising that they had reacted as diggler silly as they had when it's not very nice it doesn't look very good and indeed a lot of the basically to give of the of a very unfortunate been injured as well about human beings at the end of the day you know they all strike however well equipped they are well trained they are in

the right so this is i mean azhar one analogy but it's sort of combat in the field war would argue like making military and policing because it's completely different from the way the military operates but actually this is very front line so used to face with some dangerous people many of whom are actually intent on causing them harm. sometimes in those circumstances who are correct so they. police officers do lose control and actually do things that are you know they know they deeply regret but are criminal in nature well then i suppose what makes the difference between the police and the rioters is that their mark of a civilised society is that it looks at those responsible for protecting the peace and then in june cross will scrutinize what they did and if they acted outside of a little they must be dealt with in those terms. well they've supported the ukrainian opposition since the very beginning of the protests and now the u.s. and the e.u.

even threaten kiev with sanctions with more on this let's talk to her she joins us live from berlin and they saw in plenty of these sanctions on the horizon well there's been a considerable amount of pressure exerted on ukraine from abroad already the u.s. embassy in kiev has revoked the visas of certain ukrainian officials linked to the violence they said that they're considering further action and the european union could be following suit they've placed the blame for what's taking place in kiev squarely on the ukrainian leadership the president of the european commission has a manual has said that the e.u. may have to rethink its entire relationship. certain consequences could be in store for one e.u. official has said that one priest sanction that they could take would be to check the e.u. bank accounts of certain ukrainian oligarchs linked to the ukrainian leadership but at the same time we've had an m.e.p.

talking about the association agreement for ukraine still being still being very much on the table and the the e.u. official that's responsible for e.u. expansion the european commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy well he's coming to kiev on friday so on the one hand we've got condemnation and threats but on the other hand we've got to look and hope that eventually ukraine is still going to rubber stamp that deal with the e.u. thanks very much indeed for that. reporting live from berlin now let's cross to kiev where we can bring you some live pictures of how it's looking at the moment in the center of the city still walls of flame plenty of fires burning there throughout the city and of course bring you more on that is developments continue there throughout the night now the u.s. and the e.u. are justifying this on response saying it was provoked by the ukrainian authorities as we've heard from polly the emotional boda he's

a senior international relations lecturer and research from moscow state university explains why he believes the decision is hypocritical. but what we're hearing from the united states and from the european union is of course the most cynical hypocrisy after the last few years of the brutal police repressions of the occupy wall street movement in the united states and the anti neoliberal austerity diktats that have been instituted around the european union which brought literally tens of millions of protesters out onto the street. them calling against the violence in the ukraine where the majority of the enjoyment of the time to be against has been from the police that it was suffered injuries from allah calls talked tales firebombs knife stabbings club meetings with morning stars withered shots from trebuchets constructed and the my don and bows and arrows i mean there really were afraid to seeing

a level of medieval violence from the protesters that is where the real violence in these protests is going to. be dissolved the ukrainian opposition say present because it's refused to also their questions jaron ago today but they could continue tomorrow the president did say the cabinets resignation is not impossible while opposition leader vladimir klitschko urged protesters to stay put and go on the facts we'll bring you the latest on ukraine as soon as we get more international news in just a couple of minutes. with

economic up down in the find at. the on the field sang i and the rest that flight. thank you. pleasure to have you with us today.

they've been a year in the making and just a couple of days ago it looked like they may not happen at all but representatives of syria's government and opposition finally in the same room and talking for the first time since the start of the country's three year long conflict. has been following the talks and wraps up the first day of the conference for us. well it's the first opening day of the conference that we're really expecting it to be filled with all these formal statements but instead often emotions became in the spotlight and also became clear that different participants off the talks have a different understanding of their goals for instance syrian authorities seem to be ready to talk about commenting terror since it's widely known that besides the political opposition terrorists including al qaeda linked groups are fighting there in syria as well and they seem to be ready to discuss things like a localized cease fire as well but at the same time we had u.s. secretary of state john kerry in his opening statements saying that president assad

has no future in his country which is pretty much the position of or what the opposition has been saying and they're still pressing on with these calls for him to step down we managed to speak with their official representative here at the conference let's listen to what he had to say. i think that assad is the problem and i said i don't think the problem old any solution without us of going hours ago now it's also clear that all the participants of this conference do respect the agreements of the asian one conference which include forming this transitional government but according to the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov the interpretations of these agreements are often different as well as the most it is necessary to a did to agreements reached to geneva one but we are winning against a one sided interpretation of those agreements many including our colleagues in europe the us as well as the opposition are tempted to interpret the geneva communiqué soley in the context of regime change but we stress that principle of me

to consent between the government and the opposition to run or actually it's absence is another issue here since this was supposed to take heart and it's a key power in the region with a definite influence on the situation there in syria but the opposition was strongly against that and in the end. the washington ended up asking the united nations to cancel its imitation evolve today we've heard from both of you and secretary general ban ki moon saying that they hope will be able to join the talks some time later on along with other groups of the syrian opposition since currently it's not present here entirely it seems everyone here agrees that the only diplomatic a political solution is possible in syria and that's definitely going to take time but frankly even having these people the authorities and the rebels in the same building may already be considered a diplomatic breakthrough what is your position of there will despite

a general understanding that peace talks will be easy inside syria there is hope of some kind of breakthrough what is more information reports from one place where i read in this for reconciliation is especially strong. even in this dangerously divided country one place the differences don't matter is this children's hospital in damascus. a tiny relative of a government minister chose a room here whose babies belonging to fighters of the free syrian army. who have patients from all over syria including areas held by the rebels because this is the only hospital of its kind in the country where babies born see can be treated and we treat them all the same they're all syrian children after all we all belong to one country and we have to learn how to live together again. in three years of conflict neither men or women or children were spared according to the un more than

one hundred thousand people have died in fact the number is so high they've officially stopped counting. the anger and paving both sides can't be measured. but still it's peace that people want more than view of ange penality who is married to a syrian government soldier has just fallen pregnant and their tough lives this is a beacon of hope this kidman salata mean my husband it's a connection between us while we are away from a child there which is often for me this baby means life itself i live through this baby. herms one and a half year old daughter was born during the fear is to attack damascus has ever seen. she says her fight has nothing to do with her. but not to want to thing that war means there and we have to leave and we have to fight for peace and life we can't give up now. it's a side of war that not many think about in the midst of violence and devastation

babies are still be born in their thousands of new parents who run away from atrocities in their hometowns often end up in camps which like the basics of sanitation is security. between death all around they choosing life. from damascus the talks between the syrian government and the opposition is set to continue and r.t. would of course be bring you full coverage throughout the week when i'll be back. recently facebook was a blaze with likes and shares about the twenty fourteen no pants subway ride this is a yearly event that has grown in popularity and spread way beyond its native new york to cities across the globe according to fox news

a century thousands of people ride the subway in their underwear as if it were a normal day what you're going to say is a prank collective the cause of scenes of chaos and joy in public places yeah i guess this is kind of funny i mean hey i like wackiness but think about the effort and propaganda takes to get thousands of people the world over to simultaneously do something and then with all that effort and all those thousands of participants all you do is walk around without your pants on this idea must have been created by some people with a pretty decadent lifestyle because how can you even think of organizing people for the goal of spreading joy when a lot of us can't even afford to put dinner on the table in the future could you guys please try some pantless food donating or pencils recycling or maybe best of all and artist of all pencils job creating wackiness is fine but when you have the power of thousands of trousers volunteers please use it responsibly and productively but that's just my opinion.

the abu ghraib pictures raise the question where were the doctors while this was going on either they directly would as they've been this or they witnessed the consequences of it why hadn't they protested. here the doctors were complicit they were the centerpiece of torture they were enablers they were the selectors they will authorize hears.

from apocrypha he's to now the standard for the healing professions has been simple that obligation is first and foremost to the patient's interest while being torture satyrs back. how have american physicians and psychologists come to sanction and implement torture in our military prisons and why haven't they been held accountable for their actions. on. tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom whether we bring our

enemies to justice. or bring justice to our enemies. justice will be done i. less than three weeks later u.s. forces invaded afghanistan in retaliation to the september eleventh terrorist attacks on the united states. in a radical new policy the bush administration declared afghan prisoners enemy combatants no longer protected by the geneva convention. before nine eleven prisoners of war were interrogated according to the army field manual that followed the geneva convention. the new interrogation methods involve torture. we have no alternative.