opposition. protesters against. the city split by burning barricades with. killed in the. rival positions clash of the geneva two conference on syria even before the warring sides of the conflict sit down for direct. n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden to reporters asking russian authorities for more protection amid mounting death threats.

it is thursday morning here in moscow international. world headlines leaders over ukrainian opposition of cold on protesters in kiev to refrain from violence however the city's and battle center remained a blaze overnight let's show you these are live pictures now of the burning barricades defining the police and rioters with thick black smoke also covering the city right now i just i am in the morning let's get this report here from correspondent peter all of. there is a standoff again between riot is 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 sick 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 rights has and riot police 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 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 i can move to the left here yes huge crowds of people as they're going to try to get away from those barricades that were were up there can i please move again 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 have to we're going to get inside to get all 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. see 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 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 hear 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 crates they were flash bang grenades and then a charge by the police which is completely cleared out that whole area of where demonstrators place have been in a standoff for the last the last few days but all of this does seem that it's to continue for a while and yet will be trying to get back out there as soon as it's safe for us to

do so to see what's going on almost barricades where they were located. but yes it is now seeing demonstrators trying to move back into territory that they were just expelled from by the by the right places. let's take a close look at exactly where the ongoing total has been taking place right here we bring up a map on a r.t. international bring it up for you europeans square right here midway up the map it's the forefront of the unrest it's where the tires have been set allied and i swear peter all of it was just a few moments ago also some of the fiercest clashes have taken place around the nearby give government buildings they were talking about going to chef cocoa street that runs up the perimeter of here certainly along the flashpoint lines of the clashes between rioters and police that's where a security operation on wednesday pushed out some of the more radical protesters while here on our to international we did ask a former british police officer with experience of crowd control how to take us

through the tactics currently being used by the ukrainian authorities the minute it starts becoming violent when it hits and then 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 there's two primary and the first they can still peace quickly in whatever way you can get the demonstrators moved along. and then primarily that the second part would lead just to do so as safely as a great example for the public but then to the offices second so i think you know in some ways when you get back to environment the news against police officers in many ways it's not surprising that they haven't reacted as digging recently as they have when it's not very nice as you very good and indeed a lot of the police and get very unfortunate been injured as well about human beings at the end of the day you know they all strive however well equipped they are well trained they are unique so this is i mean it's

a horrible analogy but it's sort of combat in the field face to face with some dangerous people many of whom are actually intent on causing them harm. now there have been conflicting reports on the number of casualties but the deaths of two protesters have been confirmed of both reportedly having bullet wounds or thirty's however stressing the police are not equipped with live ammunition over two hundred police officers have been injured during the riots more than eighty have been hospitalized. when the mean time the whole slogans of some radical groups are forced to expose to question what's really driving the unrest nationalists who threaten more violence claiming their right to use force and they have already been reports of several anti semitic attacks as well and with becoming increasingly aggressive the voices of support from the west have been growing ever louder to see catherine off reports. the obama administration had upped its rhetoric against

ukraine on wednesday warning of possible sanctions that the government continues its crackdown on protesters there the state department spokesperson here in washington said all policy options are on the table but did not offer any more specifics now the u.s. meanwhile has revoked the visas of several ukrainian officials who are allegedly implicated in violence against peaceful protesters no members of the opposition however had their visas revoked by the united states this is something that did come under some scrutiny at the state department press conference when a journalist or raise the issue of a double standard the united states has already revoked visas of several people respond to me through violence. several officials ukrainian officials several. so there is no position no protesters nothing like this ukrainian official. now we also heard from the state department referencing two protesters that had

been shot saying that they had been shot by members of the police despite the fact that the investigation on the ground in kiev had not yet concluded president obama himself stayed silent on the recent developments as they put the department spokeswoman did call on the ukrainian government to abide by the protesters calls for the country to sign a trade deal with the european union instead of turning towards russia the state department's top your of europe official victoria nuland has visited the country several times recently to argue the case vice president biden had also called the ukrainian president to express his deep concerns now the united states isn't alone in pointing the finger of blame on the ukrainian government when it comes to the recent violence in kenya of we did also hear from the e.u. budget commissioner who said that sanctions were not being discussed at the moment but that the body will go beyond simply condemning the violence one possible option going after the bank accounts of certain all of arcs on the ruling party in ukraine

. a mass rally also erupted at the american embassy in key have several thousand activists reportedly demanded a stop to financing the violence and meddling with the country a political analyst on international affairs come and had a record also off he believes the west is too harsh in condemning ukraine's government this by no stretch of the imagination be characterized as peaceful demonstrations of that point nor can these actions which are so persistent and so well organized and so not criticized by the west be seen as simply you know provocateurs operating on the. you know on the extremes you know of otherwise healthy protests when he approaches from the west there but rather violently i am in chicago and of course i was here for the demonstrations against the nato summit in may of two thousand and twelve and i can assure you that when demonstrators got out of line here they were bludgeoned you know pretty severely by this year ago police were themselves are not attacked so i believe that you know the fact that.

prominent u.s. and european political officials are egging on if you will they're doing everything possible to exacerbate the conflict in kiev senator john mccain it was said and it wasn't given december as it was victoria nuland it was the system secretary of state for european and your asian affairs as well as catherine ashton from the european union have for you know at least a month and a half two months and doing everything possible to not only provide some you know false legitimacy to violent protest in kiev but also quite a unilaterally and entirely showing their hand as being you know against that of the incumbent government of president viktor yushchenko that. a negotiation between opposition leaders and president on a covert charge not yet yielded any results they are set to resume later on thursday but the opposition has slapped the president with a twenty four hour deadline to call us not the election and launched what they say

is their own shadow parliament however the prime minister has said the government will not accept any ultimatums but is still ready to meet the protesters after. all to stay with us here on r.t. international we will continue bringing you the very latest from key have on the ongoing unrest. it's r t international the syrian government in its main political rivals failed to find any common ground at the opening of the geneva two summit on wednesday international mediators are now rushing to make sure the first direct talks between the warring sides take place on friday as planned. going off was in switzerland with more. right minister i'm sorry to. can you just read for yourself if you live in new york i live in syria i have.

to give the syrian. here in this forum the first day of the conference was expected to be spent listening to formal statements instead it was the scene of bitter exchanges as the syrian opposition pressed on with its calls for president assad to step down and i think that i said is the problem and i said i don't think the problem will be any solution without us of going about stepping down as change of power in damascus is something that washington is pushing for as well but will not be part of that transition government but according to the u.n. secretary general this is neither up to washington nor any other outside players to be signed. the syrians have themselves had the primary responsibility to end the conflict determine their particular system and future and start repeating their country while democracy is willing to discuss anything from commenting territory

partial cease fire anything that is except assad's resignation it seems the parties have a different understanding of the course of the talks indeed the only agree on the one thing that a political solution is the only way no one should go no one's trying to gloss this over that this is the beginning of a tough and complicated process more than forty countries and organizations and all suggest together how this must end that it has to have an inclusive syria but it's. still the statements were indeed emotional and there were mutual accusations but what's most important is that all the parties involved want direct talks to start as soon as. the bill was with the first round of negotiations b.d.d. by the u.n. arab league special envoy on syria is expected to last one week after nearly three

years of extreme violence it isn't a surprise the two sides of the syrian conflict aren't getting along very well frankly just getting them in the same building may already be considered a diplomatic breakthrough not to mention the talks which are scheduled to continue on friday europe is going off r t montreaux switzerland. and some analysts say it's up to foreign powers to watch the warring sides of the syrian conflict to make the concessions needed for some sort of diplomatic breakthrough. they must understand that neither one of them is able to really sort of the game military victory over the other in the battlefield so they need to reach some sort of accommodation for one of the opposition cannot dictate and say that i said cannot be a part of any. future syria and the syrian government cannot sort of lump everybody into sort of the basket of terrorist or speak so each one of them must reach out and i believe that they will ultimately they can this is going to take

a great deal of time a great deal of attention and a great deal of goodwill on part of those who are advocating both sides if you can do stay with us here on r.t. international the very latest developments from switzerland where the geneva two conference on syria certainly ramping up. and in just a few minutes here on the program will head to be other side of switzerland and the luxury of ski resort of davos for some of the planet's wealthiest and most influential people of puzzling over matters like poverty and inequality george he will be asking if the efforts are bearing any fruit. but for now on the program whistleblower edward snowden reportedly set to request additional protection from russian or thora after receiving a growing number of death threats the former n.s.a. contractor has been living at an undisclosed location in russia since august when

he received asylum from washington's prosecution details here with r.t. is more important. despite his temporary residency in russia it's fair to assume that n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden follows what's reported about him throughout the world however it's the recent death threats robert descriptive ones published in the us media that is causing the thirty year old to request extra security and protection from russian law enforcement the website buzz feed quoted an anonymous u.s. intelligence officer describing how he would have assassinated snowden if he had the chance another unnamed pentagon official has been quoted saying he would have simply love to put a bullet in snowden's head work he not restricted from killing an american snowden's lawyer says the former contractor is constantly accompanied by private guards but that may no longer be enough to ensure his security. we

clearly understand that there is a serious danger for the life and health of edward snowden and n.s.a. intelligence officer says that it's easy to imagine a situation where he walks around for example after doing his groceries and he accidentally bumps into someone then he suddenly. goes home and dies in the shower in his situation he has to think about his security snowden's attorney stresses that according to russian law i've done the right criminal liability he also says the former contractors refugee status makes him only entitled to ask the police for help in the meantime a new poll by pew research shows that while americans are still divided over the benefits of snowden's n.s.a. leaks when it comes to just young americans ages eighteen to twenty nine years old the majority believe that snowden's leaks served the public's interest reporting

from new york. r.t. . and while edward snowden remains. deeply unpopular with u.s. officials members of the public consider him a hero and they're seeking ways to express their gratitude for exposing american mass surveillance there was a blower nominated for an honorary position of rector at the glasgow university. with one of the students who spearheaded the project. the reason which shows edward snowden is because we know that he is a hero here's a brave man who risked a lot of things to let us the people know the extent of us media surveillance and intrusion into our private lives and we just want to show him that we appreciate what he's done and it is a clear message sent out to those who are monitoring us that we will not stand for this and that we do not this we do not accept this kind of criminality it would be more symbolic than anything because he will be able to actually physically come to

class go it will choose a representative. for him in situations where he cannot personally attend but his duties will be to hold the title of the rector of the university of glasgow we've had an overwhelmingly positive response of course we will do everything we can to make sure that this actually happens and if you don't call me just a couple of clicks away for you know with many stories including the ride forces in many countries are equipped with water cannons the protesters around the world are fairly used to getting a soaking but not in england and wales so far though and as we told you on the web site u.k. police bosses may soon be changing their approach. the haka best known for breaking through the computer file wall of several members of george w. bush's family and cracking the e-mail account of his secretary of state is reportedly caught in romania or you want to know about it r.t. dot com. right to see.

her story. and i will be. on our reporters were very. instrumental. i. am. going to be able to. well it up very shortly for now though the world economic forum in davos is picking up pace as it enters its second day there are plenty of issues for the billionaires to wrap their brains of of for example of you know quality perhaps tax evasion the host of venture capital katie pilbeam she's there to explain what matters most this year. so far here in davos it's all been about the essential the which is the reshaping of the world the consequences for society politics and business now we know there are today one that they intend to go out the window and people talk

about what they want to talk about and this year'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 rest can come out of that and bear in mind here dollars eighty billion as that have come to talk about that so the irony is there to see we've also got plenty of other topics been spoken about including climate change surveillance is that it's haitian going on every morning to we know tax avoidance is still sensitive here because business leaders saying where is the rules and regulations where are the laws that we are so cool breaking in there saying that the thing that is being pointed fairly say as i say tensions on that one as they usually so we've also got plenty of other things going on for the rest of the day of us 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 but you know what everyone is waiting for mr

sun rouhani as well as israel mr netanyahu 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 stagnant 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. so the planet's eighty five business men control as much well first half of the world's entire population that's according to report by oxfam presented at davos much lawson who is the head of advocacy of the charity organization is a well perhaps a bit skeptical about any progress of the annual forum despite its proclaimed goals amid the champagne and caviar. you've got people having more money than they could

spend in ten thousand lifetimes when you have a billion people living on less than a dollar a day there's a lot that could be done on the international level to tackle the issue of growing inequality particularly around the issue of tax tax havens and tax avoidance so you see hundreds of billions of dollars being hidden away in tax. this is money that is by the richest corporations the richest people and it should be taxed if it was taxed fairly and that money could be spent on health on education on decent jobs for ordinary people so if we sort of crack down on tax evasion that would make a major difference we think would be a lot of talk about equality very little action we don't expect them to do much and . some of the global headlines for you in brief now a russian trawler has left the west african country of senegal it's after its owners paid around a million dollars to all thora teams there who claimed it was involved in illegal shipping the old get off was seized nearly three weeks ago the incident stoking

diplomatic tension between moscow and dhaka the ship's captain maintains the vessel was not legally at the time of capture russia now even considering a lawsuit against senegal. dozens of pentagon workers have come out on strike in the u.s. state of virginia not the generals rather the cleaning and support staff who are protesting against low wages at the demanding the government raise their pay which now starts at nine dollars an hour. and pakistan crowds have been protesting a bus bomb explosion that killed twenty four shiite pilgrims on tuesday protesters are calling on the military to step in and stop the bloodshed that's ripping the country apart of audiences spreading the recent studies showing a twenty percent rise in sectarian killings last year compared with twenty twelve. and a car bomb in baghdad has killed five and wounded sixteen others on wednesday that's

despite a government push to create three new provinces from contested parts of the country to try and stem sectarian violence twenty six died in a wave of bomb explosions in baghdad earlier in the week the u.n. saying twenty thirteen the bloodiest in the last five years. well thank you very much for joining us here with all of the international law stepping aside on a boycott is next with world's. oil drum the future. is here so we've hit the roads focus on new technology. on this moon show no policy is complete without school shootings. and we learn

about the next infill suv evolution this has the potential to save lives. no update on. we've got the future covered. on june sixteenth one thousand forty one we had a graduation party at school and the war broke out.

the shops were always full of goods. in september leningrad was blocked. to sort it all the shelves were empty. in november the. warehouses were used it was the main storage place for all the food in the city. because it had small traces of sugar in it i tried to eat it as well but i couldn't. credibly everybody. it was a directory. and everyone was buried underneath. all of them. along

the welcome to worlds apart whistleblowing is all about pulling the cover of governments wrongdoing and shocking public relations while this is exactly what one irish decided to do to draw attention to the fate of julian assange john edward snowden is a new calendar really is the best way to tackle whistle blowing all to discuss that i'm now joined by dr. dr fuller thank you very much for your time thank you for inviting me now the reason governments are so unhappy with missile blowers is essentially because they point to the fact that emperor has no clothes but i guess you decided to take this idea literally well yes i mean you are correct and indeed the theme of the calendar ties into whistleblowing in that it's about

revealing the truth i worked as a model while i was writing my ph d. mainly as an art nude model for artists but also for photographers and that's why when i began to get very interested in whistleblowing when these revelations came out which were of course highly relevant to my line of work i began to think what can i do to actually have an impact as wow on the situation to raise awareness but also to raise money for it and because i had quite a few photos and some of those photos had never been used in other projects i decided i would donate this to this cause as it were and to try to raise money to support these organizations with those photos but this is not really an novel way of attracting attention i mean we have seen everybody doing that from students to grannies so i guess at this point there's a risk of it being perceived not just an act of distancing but simply as a prank i wonder if it doesn't trivialize the ordeal of whistle.