the head of the european parliament urges ukraine's president to call an early election while in kiev a brief truce between street rodgers and security forces draws to a close. un prepares the ground for syria's rival delegations to meet face to face on friday after day one of the long awaited peace talks was marred by bitter exchanges. and the still blows worries edward snowden is reportedly planning to ask russia for personal protection after receiving death threats our top story this hour.

is out international live from a studio in moscow where it's just a nine pm and seven pm in kiev where protesters and police have declared a truce which is expected to expire in just an hour from now the e.u. is getting more closely involved with the head of the european parliament saying the country's president should call an early election. is there gauging the mood on the streets and following international reaction. in terms of what we're seeing from pressure and people taking speaking about what's going on here in ukraine from the outside well we have seen some movement with regards to the european union martin scholtz the head of the e.u. parliament has said that ukraine must call snap elections now that came on the back of the of a phone call between the president of ukraine the article which on the president of the european union but also which was to put also expressed his deep concern about

the situation there was unfolding here in ukraine and said apparently this well if action wasn't taken to rectify this then the e.u. would be looking to try and step in and see what they could do he didn't elaborate on what he meant by that and what he what he thinks that the e.u. could do in this situation in regards to the response from for misty on a covert he said that a state of emergency wouldn't be declared here in ukraine and that we wouldn't be seeing the military becoming involved in this now he went on further to say that a special session of the ukrainian parliament would be scheduled for next week in which they would be discussing the possibility of of new elections they would also be discussing me. the repealing of all how they would go about repealing new laws new measures that were brought in to try and tackle the violence that we've seen on the streets here now with regards to snap elections what we're hearing from the

ukrainian prime minister mr is out of his that well in his opinion that's just funds to fold that they'd just not possible it's not plausible to hold elections at such short notice now he also was talking about those that have been involved in the clashes these rioters that have been involved in clashes with police describing them as militants not his day saying they're not demonstrators they're not protesters that the. in fact in his words militants now we spoke to we went along over just behind me where the the main flash point has been as it's all quite know due to the cease fire but we went along there to find out what would be going on if no solution can be found war war we've just see vitaly klitschko one of the leaders of the opposition here obviously of course the former world heavyweight boxing champion delivering a speech to the writers here on the front line the very front line of the barricades here just in front of the arts say this wall of fire that exists between

the the riots and the riot police right now. he's been talking to two to his supporters and giving them messages here's what we have heard is that this after this twenty four hours of this ultimatum that was delivered to the the victory on the corvus ukrainian president. that there could be potentially more violence and we would expect to see that if those if their demands are met or when as we see in the center of kiev has become something of a battlefield over the past few days now this is independence square known as my dad and it's the main hub of the protest that's where the opposition camp is at the moment but some of the most fierce clashes on wednesday broke out on this nearby long street here in the city tars were set alight there and you just heard artie's peter all of a reporting from the scene and two people were killed both reportedly with bullet

wounds if he's however say police on the streets do not have live ammunition and they do appear to have been vigilantes with firearms among the rioters as you can see in this picture here meanwhile western governments have been placing the blame soley on the authorities don't know mcadams from the ron paul institute for peace and prosperity says their comments are not helping the situation. reason why the protesters if that's what they are to be called have become more radicalized it's because they've been encouraged all along by e.u. and american politicians who have been on the ground in the middle of the protests encouraging them and that's simply unprecedented it's unprecedented interference in the in the sovereign nation and it's all blamed on this new protest law and this protest law is virtually identical to any law you would see here in the united states for example you're not allowed i'm here in d.c. you're not allowed to wear a mask at a protest in washington d.c.

you're not allowed to erect a tent you saw what happened to the occupy protests violently torn down you're not allowed to have foreign funding of your political organization here in the u.s. it's illegal in poland one of the most arrogant of the countries interfering in ukraine condemning this new law well if you libel a politician in poland you can go to jail for two years so there is an enormous amount of the parker see involved here far right groups are getting momentum in ukraine spurred by the anti-government protests and they're making it clear that they do not favor a peaceful resistance nationalist factions are insisting that the government will only listen to the language of force but meanwhile washington has responded to ukraine street violence by revoking the visas of several individuals and threatening sanctions from the u.s. point of view only one side is to blame in all of this because of the 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 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's 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 as he 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. a russian president spokesman has reacted to western condemnation of what's happening in kiev to meet the press corp says that moscow considers any interference in ukraine's domestic affairs as absolutely unacceptable adding that russia has never and never would do such a thing the actions of ukrainian police officers have triggered much criticism and i asked a former british police officer with experience of crowd control to analyze their

tactics the minute it starts becoming violent way that. meant may have no option and to react sometimes because once that situation does get out of control like that well then there's two primary and the first they can restore peace quickly in whatever way you can get the demonstrators moved to go broke. and then primarily there the second part of the interest to do so as safely as possible for the public first of them to the offices second so i think you know in some ways when you get back to environment to get a little so it's in many ways it's not surprising that they haven't reacted as did actually as they have i mean it's not very nice as it looks very good and indeed a lot of the police and get very exalted we've been injured as well about human beings at the end of the day you know they are striving however well equipped they are well trained they are you know this is i mean it is

a horrible an analogy but it's a real combat in the field face to face with some dangerous people many of whom are actually intent on causing them harm or we're closely following what's happening in kiev with peter all of it in the midst of the trouble there across western ukraine nationalists have captured the regional administration buildings in two cities where you get more details on ukraine's term on an r.t. dot com with minute by minute updates. the international mediation for syria will hold separate meetings with the government and the opposition after the warring sides failed to find any common ground during the first day of the geneva two peace conference diplomats hope to bring syria's bitter rivals together for their first face to face talks on friday you know he's going to reports now from switzerland prime 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 you 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 i think that i said is the problem and i said i don't think the problem old any solution without a set or 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 country 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 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 peoples of the blizzard that the first round of

negotiations mediated by the u.n. and 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 stay in touch with developments at the peace talks as r.t. brings you in-depth coverage from geneva to. well we stay in switzerland to bring you another key global event that's underway there is business and political leaders address the world economic forum in davos among them iran's president rouhani who's pledged cooperation with his neighbors and the rest of the world the details coming up shortly.

we speak your language. programs and documentaries in spanish matters to you. use a little tentative angles keep the story. spanish

find out more visit. been getting an increasing number of death threats and is expected to ask russian authorities to help protect him that was whereabouts he russia kept secret report has details of the indictive hunt for the former n.s.a. contractor. 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 and robberies 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 but speed 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 with edward snowden and n.s.a. intelligence officer says that it's easy to imagine a situation where he walks around for example after his groceries and he accidentally bumped 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

a death threat carries criminal liability he also says the former contractor's 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. . even though the white house said the u.k. government considers snowden to be almost an enemy. for some people he is a hero worthy of being honored students glasgow university have known mineta him to be their rector which would make him their representative on the university's governing body we caught up with one of the people spearheading the bid 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 that 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 is 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 rector of the university of we've had an overwhelmingly positive response of course we will do everything we can to make sure that this actually happens a family dinner date for tony blair and saw the former prime minister serve with more than food and wine when a bomb and tried to conduct a citizen's arrest to make him face justice over the invasion of iraq and what he don't come to see how that worked out. plus details on one of the notorious hackers

suspected of breaking into the computers of george w. bush and his secretary of state is reportedly being called by remaining in police details on that story just a few clicks away. dot com. iran says it's ready to engage with neighboring countries and other world powers president rouhani has pledged came but the world economic forum in davos. is that. he is taking full advantage the president of the country has armory honey all of the devil's economic forum 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 around is open for business and as i say it's basically 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 has 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 of that and he is basically opening up the country to international investment he's worried the likes of any tell you tell shell as well as exxon mobil throughout the day he wants to really drum up support for the oil industry that has been really suffering in the last two years because as they sanctions which will now be partially lifted thanks that interim deal that has been struck now he's got great expectations for his economy let's listen to the man himself. iran's economy has the potential to be among the world's top ten in the next three decades that's our long term goal which we're planning to achieve through our social economic as well as domestic and foreign policy my government is pursuing ideals and economic development democracy and the improvement of iran's foreign relations and that's impossible without our international engagement now considering

a run has one of the biggest if not the biggest oil and gas reserves in the world and that is a feasible goal for the country where 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. the business partner of the former oil tony. has been granted an early release by russia's. had been due to walk free in may but will now do serve in just a matter of hours from the us so let's go live to. for more on this really you know the details of the court's decision here well basically right now but all negative is waiting for the official papers from the supreme court to be delivered to the prison where he has been serving his sentence now this supreme court has found that on the negative. early release and could go free at any moment

the court also ruled that the time that it has spent in prison in two thousand and four and two thousand and five before he was actually sentenced to prison sentence for the first you can scase was actually illegal and that was sort of a victory for pot on negative. and on top of that the supreme court also said that both that of course they would have are eligible for a right for exoneration meaning that if indeed they decide to go through with it or if there is a chance they actually will may be able to have all all sentences all charges dropped against them and their slate cleared so to speak however on top of all of this the supreme court has actually upheld the earlier ruling which stipulated that who had of course keep a seventeen billion dollars seventeen billion rubles as reimbursement for the taxes that he hasn't paid which is the origin of the so-called first case

this is exactly what he said he does not intend to do because he says stipulates that he is innocent of that and that is also precisely the reason why we probably will not be seeing the former oil tycoon coming back to russia any time soon because the drug because the charges seventeen billion rubles. was the reason why he said he is not going to come back to russia and will indeed stay abroad in berlin or switzerland where he went to after being released at the end of december on presidential pardon it either thanks very much indeed for the. reporting that. or more world news for you from the international in the world update this hour and most motorcycles have killed five policemen and wounded two others in egypt it happened at a checkpoint south of taxes escaped from the scene of a two hundred fifty security personnel have been killed since the military toppled

islam as president mohammed morsi last july. a fresh rally in thailand's capital is seen thousands of people defy government imposed battle marches as a state of emergency in falls under a sixty day to create maintaining law and order until febreze election every crowds insisting that the government resigns now and the trying to hold that state ministries bringing central bank to a standstill. and walk out of the pentagon in the united states is not the generals they were it's cleaning catering staffie said they're fed up with low salaries the strike will get president obama to put an end to poor pay for contract employees at federal facilities some of paid less than nine dollars an hour around forty percent less than what researches say is a basic living wage in the area. of about the news team with wolf in just over half an hour from now to. reach a woman who has come up with an unusual way of showing his support for the whistle

blows that's in the worlds apart after the break. looks. a little. cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. a little

leg. but the leg it was terrible a leg very hard to take a look at a little longer there's a club log cabin that has sex with the perfect there's no legs let's play. lists lt legless leg lifts look at the people.

here you ok. how do you operate dillon but i'm going to him was pretty lame sports and such experts. say lord i'm not an olympic hockey player bomb much say on the there's plenty to eat my son. long welcome to worlds apart whistleblowing is all about pulling because of government's wrongdoing and shocking big public within dissin travel ations well this is exactly what one irish adamic 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 emphasize the integrity of whistle blowing

well to discuss that i'm now in joined by dr dobson fuller herself 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 this 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 his 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 well on this 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 is a risk of it being perceived not just an act of and decency but simply as a prank. i wonder if it doesn't trivialize the our deal of whistleblowers who pay a very high price for what they did yes yes and i mean that is a for sure it is something that we've seen everyone from grannies to you know the fireman's calendar you know oprah just put in these kind of new calendars and in fact that's where i got the idea i did think there are a lot of charities and a lot of good causes they do make new calendars to raise money for their cause and that's kind of what i saw it as a little bit of a tongue in cheek. kind of idea however i don't think it would be right to say that it trivializes the plight of whistleblowers in fact i think that the situation

we're in right now is not one where we're so much facing a trivialization issue as perhaps a marginalize ation issue what i'm trying to say to people is don't go out and buy a calendar of any odd model i mean i think just about every model has under the sun from here to timbuktu has a calendar of themselves every year give your money to this project and give it to a cause that affects you now i know that you're selling there's calendars on your website and you promise to use the proceeds to how. their activist organizations i wonder how well are they selling so far quite well actually i've actually been quite positively surprised at their reaction that it's received because of course i was i was asking myself will this work will this be something that people come out and support and yes indeed i've been sending calendars from here it was really over the past few weeks so very very well far better than i had hoped not what we see on those calendars.