finer is rage on in the ukrainian capital as the city split by burning barricades with two confirmed killed and the turmoil these are live pictures coming out of the ukrainian capital. if the president does not comply with their demands it will focus on richard's there will be more of this and it will start and if it were the opposition gives a twenty four hour deadline for the country's leadership to announce a snap election. rival positions clash of the geneva two conference in syria even before the warring sides of the conflict sit down for direct talks. and it's a whistleblower edward snowden is reportedly asking russian authorities for more protection amid mounting death threats.

which in our national coming to you live from the russian capital i'm marina josh welcome to the program now before remain stories here are some breaking news we've been getting within the past hour here our teacher national the business partner former oil tycoon may know how to ski has had his prison sentence reduced the move by russia's supreme court means split tongue negative could walk free later today or tomorrow well we'll be getting more from our correspondent in just a few minutes here on r t for the latest so do stay with us for that if you can. now no peace in the central kiev where despite the reduced number of protesters on the streets the season battled centers remain a blaze overnight peter oliver is in the ukrainian capital for us. looking

independent square where the speakers are continuing to deliver their rhetoric from the stage just as you might be able to hear that over the top of. me talking now we have seen a a distinct decrease in the amount of people on the streets on thursday compared to wednesday now that's because wednesday was a public holiday it allowed more people to come out but what those people have left that were here yesterday that were here on wednesday well they've left more barricades better built barricades and certainly far more secure barricades about two hundred meters away just over to my left is where that that main flashpoint is going on in front of the stadium between rioters and riot police where they're separated by what is literally a wall of fire and i was out in that last night and having a look around about what was what was going on then it looked like something more out of dantes inferno that we heard from former world heavyweight champion. vitale

klitschko one of the main opposition leaders here he was the president if the president does not comply with our demands will focus our efforts there will be more of us and we will start an offensive if you will be new procedures with you i never urged for a physical standoff we're calling for a nationwide strike the people need to have their say but i'm using my own personal thord to call a halt to the violence from what we've seen certainly you really should stick to the job really because we've we've seen continuous amounts of mullets of cocktails thrown fireworks throwing rocks lot of rocks a lot of the the. the the paving stones here in kiev have been broken up and used as ammunition against police so the tally klitschko claims that he's using his personal influence in order to bring about peace well well we didn't see that wednesday night at all. now let's take a look at exactly where the ongoing turmoil has been taking place well this is

european square and the forefront of the unrest this is where the tires have been set of wide and that's where our teas appear all over was earlier some of the fire cast clashes have taken some some the fiercest clashes have taken place around a nearby government buildings and that's at a street were a security operation when they pushed out some of the more radical protesters there have been conflicting reports on the number of casualties but the deaths of two protesters have been confirmed both reportedly have bullet wounds authorities however have stressed that police are not equipped with live ammunition over two hundred police officers have been injured during the riots more than eighty have been hospitalized we asked a former british police officer with experience of crowd control to take us through the tactics used by ukrainian authorities. the minute it starts becoming violent

one of the. men may have no option and reacts sometimes in the way they do because once that situation does get out of control like that then those two primary i'm going to tell us they can still piece quickly in whatever way you can get the demonstrators moved evolved broke want it rushed and then primary that the second part will be just to do so as safely as possible for the public but then for the officers second so i think you know in some ways when you get back to be nice against police officers in many ways it's not surprising that they haven't reacted as vigorously as they have when it's not very nice as he looks very good and indeed a lot of his colleagues and good. we've been injured as well about human beings at the end of the day you know by all stripes however well equipped they are well trained they are you know this is going to zour been an allergy but it's sort of combat in the field face to face with some dangerous people many of whom are

actually intended phone calls and involve the oceans between opposition leaders and present in a cottage have not healed that any result and are set to resume later on thursday but the opposition has slapped the president with a twenty four hour deadline to call a snap election and launched what they say is their own shadow parliament however the prime minister has said the government will not accept an ultimatum somebody is still ready to meet the protesters halfway. meanwhile the slogans of some radical groups have forced after birth to question what's really driving the unrest nationalist have threatened more violence claiming their right to use force and there have already been reports of several anti-semitic attacks with the mobs and king of becoming increasingly aggressive the voices of support from the west have been getting louder as well and of has the details. the obama administration had upped its rhetoric against ukraine on wednesday warning of possible sanctions that

the government continues its crackdown on protesters there they 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 we invoked the visas of several ukrainian officials who are allegedly implicated in violence against peaceful protesters no members of the opposition however have their views was 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 the says of several people responsible for violence. several officials ukrainian officials several. so there is so there is no opposition protesters nothing like this ukrainian official. now we also heard from the state department referencing two protesters that have

been shot saying that they have 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 a state 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 you craney and 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 kiev 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 arks on the ruling party in ukraine

well let's now get some more analysis from graham phillips who is a journalist based in ukraine graham things much for joining us here on r.t. well you've been covering this i'm going to ramallah for quite some time now at this point we know that the west has introduced sanctions against the ukraine's government but leadership i should say but what about the violence by the opposition wise of being ignored. in terms of that you have to look at who is reporting the actual actions taking place in kiev it's coming filtered through the prism of organizations such as border radios for border. pravda and even put the key of post and really their objectivity is completely compromised by the fact that they're effectively opposition activist organs and they're functioning in that way and they're reporting the news today and so we're really getting the news filtered through the opposition's lanes and that's how it's been reported to the wider world so what is the driving force of the unrest in your opinion from your standpoint

the driving force is clear its fundamental far right extremist neo nazi politics everyone knew that wins for border achieved around ten percent of the vote in the october two thousand and twelve elections were going to be record and it didn't take long and this is been in the offing for a long time and if you notice now no one is even talking about the association agreement in fact no one's even talking about to release from prison which were supposedly the touch papers which lit this up this was really orchestrated from the beginning and in fact if you go into occupied city hall now you see us for borders flags for borders banners flying bedecked across the building so make no mistake this is an attempt by a party strongly linked with far right neo nazi politics overthrow the ukrainian government well you know now that you mention that i mean we can see that

nationalist groups are gaining momentum there i mean there are so many different factions there and we're hearing that you know that specific nationalist group is in fact you know gaining prominence there so why is the international community ignoring this and how much longer can the artillery is go unnoticed. i was obvious stunned i was on sunday and i saw guys lining up with fuse a laws of missiles cocktails. and weapons of every single man attacking police in every way they codes and i returned from that i was then on the internet checking the news and it was being reported immediately that the us has introduced sanctions against the ukrainian government. police and government are being criticized but to be there on the ground it's it's absurd to reconcile with what you see which is highly militant lines that in fact i've been in city hall just proceeding events these guys were getting really militarized were getting mobilized they were getting ready to go into war they knew exactly they were receiving

briefings they were receiving instructions on the basis of going into war they went in on that basis and they went to that end to effectively instigate a civil war in ukraine and i think it would really be tendentious to say that what we have at the moment isn't a degree of civil war in ukraine well and finally let me just ask you a quick question here i mean looking at the opposition and one of its front man vitali klitschko there's been earlier calling for an outright of fans of and when we asked him on camera i mean he softened his stance so and saying that he will do his best to keep the protest peaceful why it's such a sudden change of heart briefly if you could. i mean klitschko is a decent individual essentially however in this he's simply being maal used by those who are more adroit and more adept and exploiting the fact that he is perhaps not necessarily the most intelligent of characters what you've got now is a real drive to overthrow the government very soon by back keep sheena led by gets

a new because he knows that if tymoshenko is released then his tenure is a caretaker leader of that party is over and you could believe that if they push now and let's remember that in any case an election for a president for a new president of ukraine is only a year away you get two parties who have a huge interest which is back if she runs for border the fact of the allied push for the election now and they believe that in that case they can effectively position their man be most likely only johnny bach as the president of ukraine klitschko simply doesn't see what's going on and as for you. he's coming out with a statement such as we need to go to the front lines and if it's a bullet in the head so be it well i saw him. sunday when tear gas was going off and i've never seen a man run so fast in my life so these are effectively very bold words from johnny bach who's telling his followers on twitter that it's revolution it's time to overthrow the government but they're effectively putting the bodies of these

fundamentalists on the front line and these guys are undereducated they are also last two against you around there is a time there's a lay on top of war going on at the moment there but for the moment thank you so much for bringing us your views here on our team or national that was ground phillips. journalist based in ukraine well stay with r.t.r. national as we'll be bringing you the very latest from kiev and the ongoing unrest there. you know what you're here to national life from moscow now the business partner of former oil tycoon we know how to cost he has had his prison sentence reduced by russia's supreme court but it could walk free later today or tomorrow let's now get the very latest from our correspondent. if we do talk us through the details of the

court's decision basically the decision was made in both cases that of course put on a bit of but seeing as we hope that the coarsely was actually released on january twentieth after receiving presidential pardon as part of the nationwide amnesty and has left prison at that time limit if was remaining in the colony and his sentence was reduced to just. over ten and a half years but seeing as he's already served and said he is free to go as soon as the officials in the prison that he's serving his sentence and in the north of russia receive the official papers that could be as early as today it could be tomorrow basically now we're just waiting for the papers to be delivered to the prison officials now when it comes to the other parts of the case that the supreme court was looking at it has upheld the earlier ruling that her father can muster and burst the state just over seventeen billion rubles in taxes which he is own

which he believes which he owes and that actually is part of the case because both of course conservatives have been serving their prison sentences on charges of tax evasion as well as money laundering and embezzlement so this means that basically the case for the two men now is closed and the supreme court has also left an opportunity for judicial rehabilitation for both of them. sorry i think so much for bringing us the details of the court's decision or in ghost reporting there well after the short break we had to davos where delegates have been listening to the address by iran's president hassan rouhani stay with us for that. the media leave us so we leave that may be. the same motions in your. place your party there's a good. news that no one is as good with the guests that you deserve answers from.

politics.

welcome back to watching r t international the syrian government and its main political rivals fail to find any common ground at the opening of the geneva two summit on wednesday at a national mediators are now rushing to make sure the first direct talks between the warring sides take place on friday as planned are just a group is going off as in switzerland with more. prime minister i'm sorry too. can you just read yourself if you live in new york i live in syria i have. to give you this. 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 is the problem and i said i don't

think the problem will be any solution without us a goal of our stepping down a change of power in damascus is something washington is pushing for as well bashar assad will not be part of that transition government but according to the u.n. secretary general of this is neither up to washington nor any other outside players to decide the seriousness of themselves had the primary responsibility to end the conflict determine your party to a 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. know 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 it's goes through the statements were indeed emotional and there were mutual accusations but what's most important is that all the parties involved one direct talks to start as soon as possible. the first round of negotiations mediated 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 are 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 you were going off our montreaux switzerland iran's pledging to keep firmly on the path of cooperation with its neighbors in other world powers and

that's the key message from president rouhani has been addressing the world economic forum in davos well let's now go live to switzerland because our team is katie pilbeam is standing by with more details for us so quite a significant speech there for ron and its leader to tell us more katie absolutely he is taking full advantage of the president of the country has all the devils aconite for him because it's incredibly timely for him we know that the six month interim deal struck between the six major powers has taken effect this week and the message from him is a run is open for business and as i say explicitly timely because in the audience you've got two hundred fifty people the protests of some of the richest people in the world eighty billion as hey we got forty heads of state so he's speaking to the right people and it's the first time in ten years that an iranian leader has come to this event and he is basically opening up the country to international

investment he's willing the likes of any to tell shell as well as exxon mobil throughout the day he wants to be drum up support for the oil industry that has been really suffering in the last two years because they sanctions which will now be partially. interim deal that has been struck now he's got great expectations for his economy let's listen to the man himself. the year on the economy has the potential to be among the world's top and in the next three decades old gold which are pursuing wider planning and social economic as well as the mystics in foreign policy my election by the people of iran took place in the framework of a democratic system allowing me to pursue the i view of the economic development of democracy in iran to international relations without international engagement

being from if such as growth creativity in the quality of our unattainable. now considering a run has one of the biggest if not the biggest oil and gas reserves in the way that is a feasible goal for the country and one person who's not going to be too enthusiastic about the large round of applause that lead received today will be benjamin netanyahu the leader of israel he will be gracing davos with his presence. and we know that he's not going to encourage by the the relationships between iran and the west are now warming up thanks the sanctions being partially lifted and investors are keen to get involved as well. as much for bringing us the very latest from davos in switzerland capel been there. i was a lower edward snowden is reportedly said to request additional protection from russian authorities 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 for washington's prosecution artist has the details. 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 rather 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 quote 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 moscow for example after doing his groceries and he accidentally bumps into someone then he suddenly feels drunk 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 a death threat carries criminal liability he also says the former contractor's refugee status makes him fully 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. now on the way disturbing allegations about doctors who break their primary oath of caring for the sick and instead get involved in torture. recently facebook was ablaze 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 a 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 at your pants on this idea must have been created by some people with a pretty decadent lifestyle because how can you even think about 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.

after seven years in prison coming to what was finally released eric montel though kept his promise to be in kabul when the young man arrived. his mother couldn't even recognize him because he had physically changed so much because he was just a boy and he apparently had a certain shape to the back of his head from either a fall what have you and she. was in total disbelief until she felt the shape of his head and then at that point she collapsed on the fore. in the case of involvement of health professionals when does it rise to the level of national scandal. how

many more revelations about physician involvement about research about approval of interrogations from people who are clearly injured to be injured again. how much more. the american public does not hear much about dr involvement in detainee abuse since the abu ghraib scandal both administrations have gone to great lengths to present detainee treatment as humane. we're going to look at that and like right now we're going to treat him mainly. to get beat up reacted in a circle. the press is giving tours of modern medical facilities in guantanamo and army psychologist who report on the condition of detainees make no mention of symptoms of trauma. the diagnosis we see are the same ones we see in the state the main or most problem diagnosis diagnosis here are personality disorders. do you see

any signs of disparate but in some of these i mean it is. not really. make that a few of them have may be. maybe a few of them. i can't i don't know really any specific details though where they have done anything. out of desperation. doctors at detention sites are divided between those who work in treatment services and those who work under the intelligence command although the two are officially separate there are many reports of doctors in the medical services supporting the programs of the intelligence command. released detainee.