i'm. coming up on our t.v. diplomatic talks to bring peace to syria start off on a better tone the syrian government demands our foreign governments stop supporting syrian rebels but u.s. secretary of state john kerry doesn't see any way forward unless syrian leader bashar al assad gives up power the latest on these talks just ahead. and the former governor of virginia and his wife have been indicted the fed says the feds say they've illegally accepted gifts from a wealthy donor is this government corruption or politics as usual will dive into that straight ahead. and the company behind the candy crush saga has trademarked the word candy bans other companies from using the word in other games clothing

almost everywhere else but can you really own the word candy more on that later in the show. it's a wednesday january twenty second four pm and washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching party america. we begin today with the latest on the conflict in syria efforts to find a peaceful resolution in the bloody civil war hit a roadblock today at the geneva two convention in switzerland the u.s. president for the u.s. calls for president bashar al assad to step down in the three year war that has resulted in over one hundred thousand deaths but serious foreign minister accuse other nations of funding extremism in the country and said only the people of syria can decide the fate of the country are g.'s eager pissed going off in switzerland

with more on the war of words. well it's the first opening day of the conference and 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 of 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 is the problem and i

said that i don't think the problem will be any solution without the support of stepping down 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 it was it is necessary to it did to agreements reached to geneva one but we are winning against the 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 the principle of need 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 in syria but the opposition was strongly

against that and in the end. washington ended up asking the united nations to cancel its imitation evolve today we've heard from both sergey lavrov and you and secretary general ban ki moon saying that they hope to iran 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. that was our tease igor piskun all reporting. well larman report out of iraq u.n. officials are criticizing the iraqi government for hanging twenty six people convicted on terrorism offenses according to the iraqi justice minister the

killings happened on sunday all of the people killed or iraqi nationals now report from human rights watch shows that the number of iraqi executions is rising each year take a look in two thousand and thirteen one hundred fifty one people were hanged that's an increase from the previous years one hundred twenty nine and in two thousand and eleven sixty eight people were killed by the escalation prompted criticism from un officials a spokesperson for the un human rights chief navi pillay says quote this continued conveyor belt of executions of by the government of iraq is simply deplorable the death comes as the country sees the fiercest sectarian violence in years. meanwhile in the ukrainian capital several people have died as anti-government protests turned violent it's the fourth consecutive day of protests described as

a war zone where rioters face off with police police have torn down barricades blocking the central kiev and chased down rioters parties peter all over is in kiev and has more from the grounds. well i'm currently stood between independence square and 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 rioters 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 that flash point is currently is currently 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 although 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 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 a plea police are trying to clear out the square as you can see a lot of people were going to be moving this way a son it comes to come and i can move to the left here yes huge crowds of people and they're going to try to get away from those barricades that we were up there. can i please moving in with actually police the moving in there very very. there but 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 the barricade 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're going to go inside to get all the way of what's going on this is an. the police homicide is that they are they getting rid of and they're clearing out everything that was ok this has been the position of such a standoff between writers and the police. see the police deciding that it was time to to put an end to the often to into clear people out we saw a huge wave of people huge huge wave of people fleeing from those barricades and as police tried 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 not person. so yes the

police have now cleared out all the way some explosions you can hear that we've had to come in 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 who've 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 demonstrators some place 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 soon as it's it's safe for us to do so to see what's going on. where they were located. the city is used to seeing

demonstrators trying to move back into the territory that they were just expelled from by the by the riot police well that was the scene earlier old 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. that was our team peter oliver. of five years ago today president obama vowed to shut down guantanamo bay here he is signing an executive order on his second day of office the secret base has been criticized by human rights activists for holding detainees indefinitely and for allowing torture and in the years since the president has repeatedly renewed his promise to shut the base down. i have said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that i still want to close guantanamo we

have been able to get that socog guantanamo is not necessary to keep america safe i'm going to reengage with congress to try to make the case that this is not something that is in the best interest of the american people the original premise for opening good will that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention was found unconstitutional five years ago did most become a symbol of around the world for an america that flouts the rule of law. but here we are five years after he pledged to close guantanamo bay it remains open now a group of thirty one retired generals and admirals that stood with him in the oval office when he signed the executive order are calling on president obama to deliver on his promise in a letter to the president they urge him to release the seventy seven detainees cleared for transfer the letter goes on to say quote gone tunnel mode does not serve america's interests as long as it remains open guantanamo will undermine

america's security and status as a nation where human rights and the rule of law matter the retired officers also call on the administration to be forthcoming about the use of torture at the prison as of today there is no clear path on how and when the base will shut down some members of congress are strongly opposed to closing the base due to security concerns. the former virginia governor of virginia is under fire for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from a wealthy donor former governor robert mcdonnell and his wife maureen were charged with illegally accepting gifts from businessman johnny williams williams owns a nutritional supplement company name star scientific gifts include fancy vacations a leave of time on accessories oscar de la renta dresses a rolex watch them loans in total it all adds up to at least one hundred sixty five

thousand dollars federal authorities allege that in return the company got favorable treatment from the state government mcdonnell denying the charges and is accusing the feds of going too far. the united states supreme court has already rejected this radical idea and for good reason because if it were applied as the law of the land been nearly every elected official for president obama on down would have to be charged for providing tangible benefits to down from or in this case i'm joined now by craig homeland a government affairs lobbyist for public citizen welcome there. so i mean what do you think craig is he being singled out or is this just the way politics works this is how virginia politics works quite frankly virginia has had

very lax ethics standards they've had no limits on give lobbyists or other special interests can provide to public officials including the governor and when you don't have limits to me don't have adequate disclosure this is the type of scandal that happens this began as an ethics scandal last march and as you've noted it's now turned into a full blown fourteen count criminal charge the mcdonnell's both by the way bob mcdonnell and his wife i have been charged with with this sensual bribery and they are going to be arraigned in court on friday right she's been charged as well and clearly from that long list we we read off their benefit in one way or another got at some fancy things there governor mcdonnell though he says that nearly every elected official would be charge for getting benefits from donors does he have a point there you know you see that's part of the attitude when you come from

a state that doesn't have proper ethics restrictions. of public officials like bob mcdonnell and his wife actually come to believe that they are entitled to these types of gifts they believe that that's how. that's just how business is done and. it really isn't and they're about to find out that it is unacceptable and i want to point out too by the way that governor bob mcdonnell is the very first governor of virginia to actually face criminal charges. he and his wife just stepped over the line to the point where it's federal officials and not state officials who want to point out also who are prosecuting this case in virginia you know gift giving wining and dining vacations golf clubs all of that stuff has been considered almost appropriate behavior but when it comes to federal laws

they have crossed the line. now well for the first time now we have a majority of members in congress that are millionaires of course we live in this post citizens united time where politics and money is becoming more murky the line there is being is not as. clear as it once was so what do you think is this kind of just. the way that it is now and is it becoming more so this way well money is becoming more more important in politics and to elected officials and as that happens we're going to see more of these types of scandals unfortunately these especially the citizens united decision has really opened a huge can of worms when it comes to special interest money flowing to elected officials the more as we saw in virginia the looser the rules are the more the

money the more the gifts flow to public officials the more they're going to start believing that they are entitled to these types of privileges and the more scandals we're going to see there's i want to mention just go where the court date is that square. from this friday to the following friday. i know you're saying that it's this this was coming due to the lax laws and virginia how do you expect this case to impact ethics laws in the states virginia is debating for the first time some ethics restrictions for public officials and i suspect that bill is going to pass however it really is an inadequate ethics bill that virginia is considering they're debating legislation to impose a two hundred fifty dollars gift limit for public officials and have disclosure of any of those gifts however they exempt meals legs and entertainment they exempt

travel all the types of gifts really that the mcdonnell's were taking are going to be exempt under the new ethics legislation virginia has a long history of letting anything go when it comes to money and politics and even with this mcdonnell scandal i don't see virginia you know correcting that kind of behavior i guess we'll have to wait and see if this leads to any reforms appreciate your time that was craig homan a government affairs lobbyist for public citizen. all the world's rich and powerful are joining forces in the picture asked alpine resort of davos to discuss a slew of issues one of them ironically is the issue of severe poverty it's something most attendees probably haven't dealt with much themselves but maybe forced to pay attention to it now it was brought to the leaders attention that the biggest threat to the local economy or the next decade is

a wealth inequality artie's katie pell b m has more. so far here in davos it's all been about the essential the which is the reshaping of the well the consequences for society politics and business now we know that after day one that they intend to go out the window and people talk about what they want to talk about and this year it's been all about income inequality and the consequences of that and really here everyone appreciates that it's the biggest risk to the global economy but no one quite knows how to deal with that and it coincides with youth unemployment as well as the social unrest that can come out of that and bury my zero dollars eighty billion as that have come to talk about that so the irony is that they're to say we've also got plenty of other topics been spoken about including climate change surveillance is that it's going on every morning too as well as that we had the european commission president joe same manner but also he spoke about the tensions in ukraine as well and he was saying the authorities to

quell the situation we know there's been some face calluses already so that is being spoken about too as well as as i say surveillance on the issue of security the privacy and where the balance comes in and can we really have both that's being questioned we know tax avoidance is still sensitive here because business leaders saying where's the rules and regulations where are the laws that we are so cool breaking and they're saying that the thing that is being pointed fairly say as i say tensions on that one as per usual we've had the leader of japan he's been up on the stage talking about the nomics he's been held for dealing with two decades of stagnant growth in japan everyone is questioning if he's the right person to continue with that job or is it all about austerity which you are dealing with at the moment so we've also got plenty of other things going on for the rest of the dive also we've got the european parliament g elections what's going to come out of those the brics club as well brazil russia india china is instead

a club doesn't really exist anymore as well as our surveillance again. knology a top topic to say it's all going on there's plenty on the agenda but you know while everyone is waiting for mr hassan rouhani to turn out as well as. mr netanyahu they are expected to arrive here in davos of people want to know they're going to be communicating with each other and if mr rouhani is going to be able to invest as soon as you can see is a pattern he had to be to concern ourselves with stocks that great big top of the agenda ready in terms of the thieve it's all about five years on from the financial crisis what kind of an economy we dating with now that is the question what about challenges going forward. that was artie's katie pilbeam reporting. millions of people are hooked on the smartphone game candy crush the makers of these super popular and addictive game have trademarked the word candy that's right

the word candy has been in the dictionary for as long as the sugar sweet sugary sweets have been around but now the game maker owns the word interestingly the name of the video game maker is carrying the trademarks ban of the use of the word candy not only they're banning it not only from video games but everything from clothing to amusement parks the game maker says the trademark is protecting the company from intellectual property infringements but really can you own the word candy for more on this story i was joined by derrick on a visiting fellow from yale i first asked him whether or not you can trademark a word. well the short answer is yes you could trademark a lot of things and not only have the trademark words but the even trademarked colors if you can trademark sounds so certainly you can trademark a word yeah i want to pull up a piece of the final leg from the u.s.

patent and trademark office it says the market consists of standard characters without claim to any particular font style size or color so they're really they're getting there and they really are own hearing it with the word candy in all its forms do you expect eric for king the game maker to seriously go after other companies that use the word candy to the extent that they're allowed to trademark is supposed to exist for the purpose of reducing consumer confusion idea of being candy crush has developed a brand and if i come out tomorrow and develop my own candy crush game you may think that that's also a game from king and so the point of the trademark here is for consumers not to be confused but if the trademark is being abused in a way for things that they could sue would not be accused by the courts would not uphold that so it sounds like this is all coming down to money and that they make

a lot of money a lot of people play the game and they want to continue to make money they make about a million dollars a day and what they are lawyer has said here is that they're not going to go against every app that uses the word candy because that would be crazy but they're going to go against apps that have kiddie in their title in a way that they believe consumers could be confused by and apple has already started taking some of the apps off of the app store in that direction well it sounds like it's a lot at their discretion gives them a lot of power when they may or may not choose to pursue it to go after a company that uses the word can sure they set a cease and desist letter and it's up to the other company whether or not they choose to abide by that or fight the court ultimately would be the court. that would decide but oftentimes of these things the never goes that far and if they do use the word and if a company goes out of out alive and well what what could be the penalty of using the word candy well the court can impose a variety of sanctions they can be fined they could have any proceeds that they're

dry from the sales taken away from them the app could be removed from the app stores is that's not a court given five that's through a violation of their terms of use now does this work retroactively in other words are things that we know what they use the word candy are they ok again candyland what about you know names of people they're the name candy candy crowley are they safe are they safe from this trademark q.a.m. presumably has its own trademark but no those things would not be affected because the consumer is probably not going to be confused between can do and i'm candy crush candy land has its own brand name identification. do you worry about the precedent that this could set in terms of owning words in the dictionary. if it is troubling particularly something like this where you can imagine a large number of games and volved candy but it's very common to have words that are trademarked like this for example apple has a trademark to their name but yet we use apple in

a variety of products their trademark is limited to the markets that they participated so you can't make another apple t.v. but presumably i can make a t.v. a t. shirt under the bridge name apple and similarly here you may not be able to make a game that looks and sounds and has a name similar to candy but you can still use candy in other markets they're not participating in right and you had mentioned that they are probably just going to go after other game makers or other companies that might benefit from their from their name but my understanding is that this trademark goes beyond just a game maker is that it can work with clothing that works with amusement parks that it works with even food i mean how is that possible how is it able to encompass such a wide variety of things beyond just i phone games or will get i think it was the question of customer confusion so again this is from kid has been abused of course but the question at hand is if you go to a target and you see

a shirt that has candy crush or non-urgent candy something written on it and similar characters would you potentially think that is a sanctioned t. shirt kid that's the real question at hand here and so these are potential markets for them to enter angry birds for example is ample has plush toys and they sued a plush toy maker so those are natural markets for them to extend to but the trademark sort of applied to every market certainly markets that they wouldn't enter you know like a candy television or a candy iphone candy for smartphone those would apply. well be careful how you use the word candy as a takeaway from this i guess wow very interesting time that was their economy a visiting fellow from the. law. boom bust is coming up next here on our team here in aid joins us now for a quick preview higher and look ahead we love for it to come out on boom bust day my interview with steve keen a professor of economics at the university of western sydney plus arison and i

discuss big ones newest frontier las vegas true story it's all coming up so stay tuned looking forward to it air and that's going to do it for now i'm liz wahl satan boom bust is next. and. i would rather as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question. wealthy

british soil. is no time to write. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. i got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. if they were it's a story. it's just this guy like smear about guys that are working for the people motivations the mainstream media were for each other bribery was vision. of the road it was.

hello there i marinate this is boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. first up pimco ball small madell area and announced he'll be stepping down as head of beeching trillion dollar investment firm so we're slated to take his place i'll tell you coming up an economy economics professor steve king sat down with more watch to talk to dad both here at home in the land down under lost in today's big deal ed harris and i talk about fixed point coming to a vegas casino near you it all starts right now.