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

from using the word in other games clothing almost everywhere else but can you really all win the word candy more on that later in the show. it's a wednesday january twenty second five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team 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 talks in switzerland the u.s. called for president bashar al assad to step down to end the three year war that has resulted in over one hundred thousand deaths but syria's foreign minister accused other nations of funding extremism in the country and said only the people of syria can decide the fate of the country artie's igor piskun office in

switzerland with more on the war of words. well it's the first sin 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 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 promote any solution without the support of stepping down now it's also clear that all the participants of this conference due respect to 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 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 iran or actually its 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. washington ended up asking the united nations to cancel its invitation to build today we've heard from. u.n. secretary general ban ki moon saying that the whole will be able to join the talks some time later on along with other groups of the syrian opposition since clearly it's not present here entirely it seems everyone here agrees that the only diplomatic a political solution is fossil in syria and that's definitely going to take time but frankly even having these people the authorities and the rebels in the scene building may already be considered a diplomatic breakthrough. that was artie's igor piskun reporting. well in el larman report out of iraq u.n. officials are criticizing the iraqi government for hanging twenty six people convicted of terrorism offenses according to the iraqi justice minister the

killings happened on sunday all of the people killed the worry iraqi nationals now a recent 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 up from the previous years one hundred twenty nine and 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 by the government of iraq is simply deplorable that comes as the country sees that 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 central kiev and chasing down rioters artie's peter all of our is in kiev and has more from the ground. well i'm currently stood between independence square and an area in front of the did not miss stadium. a 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 the. it's currently it's currently what we're seeing is those people who 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 sun it comes the cover to move to the left here yes huge crowds of people there going to try to get away from those barricades that were were up there. can i please moving in with actually police the moving in there very very yeah 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're going to get inside to get out of the way of what's going on this is that. the police homicide is 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 writers and the police a. of c. the place deciding that it was time to to put an end to the mountain 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 stars 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 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 that were flash bang grenades and then a charge by the police which is completely clear now that whole area of 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 soon as it's it's safe for us to do so to see what's going on almost every case where they were located. the city is

saying 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 early 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 are a tease peter all of our. 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 secretive base has been criticized by human rights activists for holding detainees and definitely 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 the coke i want on a mo 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 that 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 guantanamo does not deserve

america's interest as long as it remains open. 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 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 well amazones a nutritional supplement company named star scientific the gifts include fancy vacations lube aton excess arrays oscar de la renta dresses rolex watches and loans

in total it all adds up to at least one hundred sixty five thousand dollars federal authorities allege that in return the company doll favorable treatment from the state government mcdonnell is 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 did nearly every elected official from president obama on down would have to be charged for providing tangible benefits to dunn's earlier i spoke with a crowd home and a government affairs lobbyist for public citizen for more on this case i first asked him if mcdonnell was being singled out or if this was 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 gifts that lobbyists or other special interests can provide to public officials including the governor and when you don't have limits and the don't have adequate disclosure this is the type of scandal that happens this began as an ethics scandal last march and as you noted it's now turned into a full blown fourteen counts of criminal charge the mcdonnell's both by the way bob mcdonnell and his wife i have been charged with with essentially bribery and they are going to be arraigned in court on friday right she's been charged as well and i shape clearly from that long list we'll we read off their benefit in one way or another got at some fancy things there governor mcdonnell doubts he says that nearly every elected official would be charged for getting benefits from

donors does he have a point there now 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 and it really isn't and they're about to find out that it is unacceptable i want to point out to 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. it all most appropriate behavior but when it comes to federal anti bribery laws

they have crossed the line. now with what 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 a 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 and 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 that 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 i know you're saying that it's this and this was coming due to the lax laws and virginia how do you expect this case to impact at the x. lives and the state of virginia is debating the for the first time some ethics restrictions for public officials and i suspect that bill is going to pass whatever it really is an inadequate ethics bill that virginia is considering they're 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 they exempt entertainment they exempt travel all the time. it's really that the mcdonnell's were take it's 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 august we'll have to wait and see of this leads to any reforms appreciate your time that was scrapped homan a government affairs lobbyist for public citizen the world's rich and powerful are joining forces in the picturesque 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 themselves but they may be forced to pay attention to it now it was brought to the leader's attention that the biggest threat to the global economy over the next decade is a wealth inequality are teasy katie pilbeam 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 a social rest 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 to as well as that we had the european commission president joe same 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-called breaking and they're saying that the thing that is being pointed out there they 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 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 that surveillance again. knology

a top topic to say it's all going on there's plenty on the agenda but you know what everyone is waiting for mr sun rouhani to turn out as well as israel. mr netanyahu they are expected to arrive here in davos and people want to know they're going to be communicating with each other and if mr rouhani is going to be able to woo some investors so as you can see it is a packed agenda here in davos plenty to concern ourselves with stagnate growth being top of the agenda ready in terms of the thing it's all about five years on from the financial crisis what kind of an economy are we dealing with now that is the question so it's all about challenges going forward as. that was our a tease katie pell being reporting and still ahead here on r t the makers of the candy crush saga have a trademark the word candy is a sweet deal for candy crush but what does it mean for other businesses we'll tell you more after the break. we welcome errors made in abby martin to be sure

to close on the r t network. it's going to give you the numbers might give you one stock never i'll give you the information you make the decision don't you know bringing you the the revolution of the mind it's revolution ideas and consciousness in the sense that it's very very probably would be described as angry i think in a strong no one single. got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. today where it's a story. with this guy like it's me or that guy stead of working for the people most issues the beach were richer right steve and. they did rather well.

millions of people are hawks on these smartphone game candy crush the makers of the 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 sugary sweets have been around but now the game maker owns the word interesting only of the name of the video game maker is king the trademark bans of the use of the word candy not only from video games but everything from clothing to amusement parks the game maker says the trademark is aimed at protecting the company from intellectual property infringements both really can you own the word candy for the store i was joined by derek khana a visiting fellow from yale law i first asked him whether or not you can just trademark a word straight out of the dictionary. 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 trade mark sounds so certainly you can trademark a word yeah i want to pull up a piece of the the filing from the u.s. patent and trademark office is 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 they really are own hang it on the word candy in all its forms do you expect eric for carrying 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 they d. 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 or would not be accused by the courts would not uphold that so it sounds like this is all coming down to money and 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 will be the court. that would decide but oftentimes these things are to never goes that far and if they do use the word if a company goes out of out alive and well what could be the penalty of using the

word candy well the court could impose a variety of sanctions they could be fined they could have any proceeds that drive from those sales taken away from them. could be removed from the stores is that's not a court given five but 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 of the game candy land what about you know names of people there the name candy candy crowley are they safe are they safe from this trademark will clearly have presumably has its own trademark but no those things would not be affected because the consumer is probably not going to be confused between kid dealing and i'm candy crush candy land has its own brand name would have occasion. do you worry about the precedent that this could set in terms of owning the 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 trademark like this for example apple has a trademark to their name but yet we use up all 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 brand name apple and similarly here you may not be able to make a game that looks and sounds and how the name similar to kids but you can still use candy in other markets they're not participating in right and you have 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 game makers that it can works with clothing that it works with amusement parks that it works with even food i mean how is that possible how is it able to encompass such a why. variety of things beyond just i phone games are well good i think it was the question of customer confusion so again this is some 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 written on earth this can be something written on it and similar characters would you potentially think that is a sentient t. shirt by kitten that's the real question at hand here and so these are potential markets for them to enter angry birds for example the 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 kiddie television or a candy i phone candy for smartphone those would apply. well be careful how you use the word candy as well and take away from this i guess wow very interesting time that was there a con a visiting fellow from the outlaw. well you may think it's just an innocent way to sightsee and get around town but in charleston south carolina riding around in

a rickshaw may be part of illegal activity the police there are cracking down on rickshaw drivers that are peddling without a permit in order to catch them undercover cops dressed as tourists are going on rights the city requires drivers that give downtown tours to have a license to speak to tourists at least one died learn the hard way that it's against the law to drive without taking an extensive history exam according to the local paper the post and courier it cost him a fine of over one thousand dollars this thing happened back in september but did not become public knowledge until recently charles said as this story helps point out has some of the strongest laws regulating tourism in the country and we are going to leave it there for more of the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash america our web site r t dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter at liz wall we'll be back here at eight pm.

technology innovation and all the developments. that you jerry.