today's headlines and round up of the week's top stories hundreds of policemen are allowed to leave a.b.c. each convention center in kiev meanwhile the president's offer to opposition leaders to head the government is left hanging in the air amid intensifying riots across the country's west. syria's government and the opposition hold their first talks since the start of the civil war it's been halted by diplomats is a major step forward. and we have to leave and we have to find a piece of life we can to give up. as bullets fly overhead we visit a maternity unit in syria where mothers and doctors have chosen life in the face of the destruction that surrounds them. and deadly clashes across egypt and terror attacks in the capital more the third anniversary of the revolution that

toppled longstanding dictator hosni mubarak. you're watching r.t. international live from moscow i'm linda fraps thanks for joining me around two hundred policemen be sieged in a convention center in kiev have been allowed to leave the building there are conflicting reports whether it was opposition front man vitaly klitschko or the interior ministry that brokered an end to the standoff the siege began shortly after leaders of the ukrainian opposition partially turned down the president's proposals aimed at calming the unrest in the country artist peter all over has more from kiev. this all started after. we had speeches from literally just behind me here in independence square from the main stage here from

opposition leaders in which they said that they they weren't willing to accept the . the offers that would be made to them by ukrainian president viktor yannick coverts not to run through what some of those offers were the constitution would change in that ukraine would go back to a parliamentary presidential republic what that actually means is that the parliament here the the end pains would have far more power it would actually remove some of the power away from the presidents that stands at the moment and would basically revert ukraine back to the constitution it heard in two thousand and four and some of those offers were was the offer of the position of prime minister for one of the senior position leaders are saying the same. now he's the leader of the the group here called fatherland he has often been offered the position of prime minister he has said that he hasn't decided yet and there will be discussions over whether he will accept that all not it's also

understood that vitaly klitschko could well be coming his deputy should he accept that position now other offers that were put on the table was an amnesty for everybody that has been to anybody that has been detained so far during the two week long violence that we've seen here in ukraine however there was a stipulation placed upon and that was the rice is would leave the government buildings that they've occupied all across ukraine they say we heard these speeches then we've seen the said these violent scenes it has all kind of calmed down right now but there has been a series of incidents involving the police here recently what we have seen is on friday evening three police officers were attacked not very far away from where i am right now there was talk of a agreement between opposition leaders and the police the rioters and demonstrators would leave the streets of the ukrainian capital kiev well that certainly isn't

happening right now from what we've seen. with the standoff between police and the rioters intensifying a retired commander from the los angeles sheriff's department says police in the u.s. would have used different tactics for what i was you know the behavior so or they're shown a lot more restraint and i think you could expect in most places night states the use of the ball or cocktails throwing rocks and bottles of striking him with holmes would all be considered lethal force in the united states if you feel that's a lethal situation in the united states you could very quickly be shot with lethal force with all the focus of our mass the grabbing of the police officer and then quietly while you can now could be very easily result in some type of we are forced . these pictures are just a glimpse of what kind of weaponry the rioters have been using the police are saying they were seized from one of the radical gangs detained in care of the group

was allegedly involved in kidnappings several policemen claimed they had been taken hostage and then released by protesters over to the towards the roof of my head and bound my aunts and legs with musk tape and taped up my eyes as well he looked a lot of you were more than yes we were attacked by a group of masked wearing youngsters they surrounded us cream of the cops a terrorist hands up to really take everything from us our wallets ourselves along with everything. in them to through we had done nothing to them because we were just coming out of a cafe after lunch with the mob surrounded it going to have to. meanwhile in over a dozen regions across ukraine enraged mobs have been besieging local governments in eight of them are too far rioters have occupied government buildings and declared that they will not obey the rule of president yanukovych which what started as a peaceful pro e.u. rally last november has now effectively set half the country

a place like syria chef skin looks at how the protest has transformed. those people in the streets of ukraine by seizing temperatures are writing the new narrative for europe. ever since the first rocks and molotov cocktails were hurled at the police in kiev march sunday the fishes in europe and the united states have started up fresh wave of accusations aimed at the actions of the authorities against what they called peace will protest this the album for no unison to give all we expect from the ukrainian government then the sure democratic freedom in particular they put unity for peaceful demonstrations then they protect life and that he uses violence does not take place. but people beating police on the ground somebody aligned with exploded project tiles and even taking them hostage can hardly be classified as peaceful even pictures of rioters carrying far on our surface saying i'm quite

skeptical that these riots will be. dealt with effectively in the near future that they will continue for some time nation on this the. neo nazi. representative of the so-called right sector group we began zend a neo nazi and the right is from all sides east and west and also in the political spectrum therefore i do not think that every one of the. opposition leaders to all of what a peaceful resolution of these of these qualities linked to some of these deals held down from the violence and they will continue for some time over the past two months their you know my down has changed in form and meaning what started as a peaceful protest broadcast has turned into a display of violence on both sides it has now grown in size to with almost half of the country's regional administration steak n over spawning serious concerns the country could fall apart any sort of splits in the area which could happen within.

next weeks must be described as quite possible because government wouldn't have enough forces so ukraine will be split it probably in two parts. we've got two different problems the opposition is still looking horns with those in power trying to get a better deal with the president and the protesters storming a police base and doing the people who are happy and their leaders suggest they no longer want to listen to anyone and care little about eighty agreed truth. auntie reporting from key if. and as riots keep spreading west from the capital political analyst eric draitser says opposition leaders have long since lost control of what goes on in kiev or elsewhere but i think at this point it's quite clear that they don't have direct control over the rioters what control they do have is purely from the public relations perspective it's obviously

a chaotic situation and it's gotten out of control and i doubt that anyone has a real handle on control of the situation their intention was never to win political concessions it was never to come to a political settlement there their true intentions have been quite apparent all along and that is regime change to bring forward regime change in the ukraine in order to overthrow that government and you see something quite similar in two thousand and four with the so-called orange revolution been done all over the world over the course of the last twenty years or so and this is no different but it's the country's east that's remained resilient to the burning barricades and around the clock violence and can pledging support for the legitimate government and the constitution instead artist policy players there. the industrial heart of the ukraine is a place where the majority has been silent until now the vine and pictures from kiev are spring people here into action but not in support of the anti-government rioters but the most of us not beat up but i cannot sit at home when there are such

things happening in ukraine the protests in kiev a horrible we are brothers we're all ukrainians in the east and south of the country support for president general cough which is high while tolerance for why it is low these demonstrators blame opposition parties for using hot headed students to destabilize the country years young people are like zombies they get information from the internet and this information is only one side the usa in the west are paying for this information to be put out of the book gregory greene is a correspondent with the local newspaper he wants order and for as long as the government provides it he says he'll supporters were buying up much or the message of the protesters regularly changes their main idea in the beginning was to join the european union the next week and it was political change and they wanted the president to go now i think even the protesters cannot say why they're demonstrating unlike the demonstrators in kiev most of the more than four million

people who live in the country's most populous region don't believe ukraine's future lies in europe losing off. russian market is or three all this region so that is the main reason why. people. don't. want. european association protests just complain the kid riot has a wasting time on the streets while it's the country's east that keeps the economy alive and if you crane was to join europe now its factories would be turned into scrap people here in a vision a different future to be antigovernment protests. what they want is a quick end to the demonstration and a deal to join the russian customs union this they say will give them the stability and security that the key of protests are threatening to unravel policia r.t. donetsk ukraine. you can find

a full timeline of the unrest in ukraine plus latest updates and more expert analysis at r.t. dot com. syria's government and the opposition were finally able to sit at the same table for talks in geneva on saturday their main concern at their long awaited meeting was getting humanitarian aid to besieged areas on sunday they were they are due to tackle prisoner releases are going off reports they face one another lets talk to one another for months simply impossible to imagine even at the beginning of the week just twenty four hours before the start of the conference the opposition couldn't decide whether to go to switzerland or not and when they finally did arrive i think that assad is the problem. that i don't think the promote any solution without us or going about our stepping down it became clear both sides had a completely different understanding of the talks goals the rebels pressed for

a son to step down officials seem to be ready to talk about almost anything except the president's future but at least outside players agreed to this is strictly up to the syrians to decide. the syrians of themselves had a primary responsibility to end the country determine their particular system and future and start rebuilding their country but one world powers left and direct talks were supposed to begin the opposition refused to sit down at the same table with the other side we came here to talk and they are not ready finally when it seemed the negotiations were completely special envoy to syria lakhdar brahimi announced he did manage to get both sides to meet and so they finally did they go shooting through him but still in the same room and face to face prisoners and kidnappings humanitarian aid and localized cease fires were the first issues on the table with more pressing topics awaiting discussion despite all the emotions

accusations and preconditions were heard this week these talks are the first real chance for a diplomatic solution in syria and after nearly three years of bloodshed and ongoing violence it will be a bumpy road and there is a long way to go but the first steps in the right direction have definitely been made you've got this going on forty geneva switzerland have a s a frosty abi a former professor at tehran university thinks the main goal should be to prevent syria from sliding deeper into chaos. i do not want to see and. where you have you know the breakup of the country and basically warlordism in various parts of the country and incitement of a serious sick tyrian and so forth you have these. groups banning music images and of course the hour zero respect for women's rights and so on so what is the priority syrian opposition as

a stance is right and wise and counterproductive given the fact that they have serious impulses on syria and national integrity and sovereignty in light of the intrusion and destructive of all of thousands of foreign forces who have zero commitment to devalues a free democratic syria as well as the rights of women and so on by the two sides met in switzerland air raids or armed clashes continue across syria but even in this chaos there is still hope. visited one maternity unit but the gruesome side of war has to take the backseat. even in this dangerously divided country one place the differences don't matter is this children's hospital in damascus. a tiny relative of a government minister chose a room here whose babies belonging to fighters of the free syrian army. who have

patients from all over syria including areas held by the rebels because this is the only hospital of its kind in the country where babies born think can be treated and we treat them all the same they're all syrian children after all we all belong to one country and have to learn how to live together again. in three years of conflict neither men or women or children were spared according to the un more than one hundred thousand people have died all in fact the number is so high they've officially stopped counting. the anger and pain on both sides can't be measured. but still it's peace that people want more than giving an idea who is married to a syrian government soldier has just fallen pregnant and the tough lives this is a beacon of hope this kidman salata mean my husband it's a connection between us while we are away from a child there which is often for me this baby means life itself i live through this

baby. comes one and a half year old daughter was born during the fear is to attack damascus has ever seen. she says her fight has nothing to do with her. or not want to thing that war means there and we have to leave and we have to fight for peace and life we can't give up now. it's a side of war that not many think about in the midst of violence and devastation babies are still be borne in their thousands of new parents who run away from atrocities in their hometowns often end up in camps which like the basics of sanitation and security. between death all around they're choosing life. not tea from damascus. coming up shortly snowden tells all the former n.s.a. contractor held his first q. and a in which ruled out the possibility of going home and took

a swing at the american legal system for failing to protect whistleblowers. across egypt both supporters and opponents of the transitional militias military backed government have been out on the streets this week many of the demonstrations ended in deadly clashes with security forces some twenty nine people have been killed in street violence since thursday also this week terror struck at the heart of the nation in cairo the capital was battered by a series of bomb blasts that left six people dead and ignited more hatred of the country's islamist opposition the attacks happened as egypt was preparing to mark the third anniversary of the revolution cairo based journalist mohan sabri say says the muslim brotherhood has to carry much of the blame. keep talking of conspiracy theories they keep blaming the government for speeding those bombings in it's the four points which is absolutely nonsense one of the syrian time off the opposite side which is the regime and the regime was the one to tell us those are not

peaceful themselves and or as hostile as the muslim brotherhood is what should be stopped now what the government should be working tirelessly to stop is inciting violence you know why didn't those gaps between sectors of the community and moving the country forward towards a freeze of civil strife. the world's richest powerful gathered at a luxurious resort in the swiss alps this week to talk money that was of artes business show venture capital. was there two. weeks venture capital we are in davos with a wall of economic forum where the topics of income inequality tax evasion and the dangers of complacency were spoken about by world leaders now why do the richest people on the planet come all the way to these are all the isolated mountains of the do you drink paid don't own kind of pays and enjoy a bit of ego stroking well i try to look beyond all of the work out what it's all

about so i spoke to a no vote prize winning economist finance ministers as well as a russian oligarch business leaders to join me all day here in r.t. . and i say leaker edward snowden held his first q. and a session this week sharing his views on the agency mass surveillance and american freedoms snowden xclusive the possibility of a fair trial in the united states he stressed that if he'd returned to congress with his in for his he'd actually turn to congress in the first place for this information he would have been charged and jailed right away there whistleblower stressed that the bulk collection of personal data must end that it doesn't help fighting terrorism and that it violates the us constitution he also said that the flaws in the american legal system leave whistleblowers unprotected discouraging them from exposing any wrongdoing. while a wide range of u.s. officials consider edward snowden a traitor many people around the world are calling him

a hero and seek ways to thank him for exposing global data collection a group of students at the university of glasgow in the u.k. doc nominated the whistleblower for the position of director we spoke to one of the activists. the reason we chose edward snowden is because we know that he is a hero is a brave man who rist a lot of things to us that people know the extent of fewest 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 kind of subtropical resort in the black sea coast provide enough snow for winter olympics a question we've often heard in the run up to the games well no you won't see any snow in the city itself however in the nearby mountains there's plenty of the white stuff to provide spectacular scenery and perfect slopes artie's to ban let's say want to try it out. if like me you enjoy a little bit of extreme sport then hang onto your helmets for the best skiing track in the black sea resort snowboarding and freeze diving competitions at this twenty fourteen olympic winter games will be held to the was on the rose a fucked up pronto also known as the hot extreme was. that.

just seven years again this regime but also for a third was on top to day it's quite a different scene designed and build by french experts it's now a picture place cocks the nobel prize style hotels and chalets at over five thousand feet it's one of the highest lifts of mountains in the world the mountain carriers though provides axes. and professionals in the alpine and freestyle skiing as well as snowboarding as for those going for winter gold a difficult terrain is available. i wasn't going to be left behind so i hired some speed headed up the.

drive so way not all the hot tub and i'm definitely going to be tough in all the snow. the rain has been faced by professional kids who've been testing the slopes over the last year and for those still worried about the weather busy enough of it cold and i have promised. having a monster ice machine on stand on. ok we've made it to the load and i'm still intact no bones broken and i can tell you this it is absolutely magical out here the mountains are why i kept it in the snow it's just absolutely beautiful and i think i might of all must also a new sports i might take up seeing next time so indeed for everyone who's coming out here to the new ski resort and all points. of the black sea is

going to be one you'll always remember. now i'm going to sign up for some hot chocolate chip on the day on the ski slopes over all the hard forty said with us from our reports from where the athletes will be going for the gold we've got plenty more to share with you before the olympic flame is lit at the main arena so here on our take in the coming days here you ok. how do you operate do it again i'm going to rehearse good sports short track speed skating is it as easy as ruth i'm not an olympic athlete am bomb which is on. my fire. some world news in brief for you now a suicide bomber has blown himself up near a bus carrying soldiers in the afghan capital kabul the taliban says it carried out the attack in which at least four people have been killed the group has stepped up

its campaign ahead of the pullout of nato combat troops at the end of the year. hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of rio de janeiro in brazil to protest the twenty four thousand football world cup the tournament is due to take place in the country this summer people have expressed anger with the amount of money being spent on the competition rather than on health and education similar protests took place in the country on saturday including the capital brasilia. police in the u.s. state of maryland say they have disabled a crude explosive device found in the bag of a gunman at a shopping mall earlier he killed two store workers and wounded five more people before killing himself police say they don't know the motive for the attack. assailants have killed six police officers and wounded another in two separate attacks in pakistan in the southern city of karachi three policemen died when

a hand grenade was thrown at their patrol car gunman later opened fire on another vehicle he has been the scene of similar shootings in the past most of them blamed on militants. up next the story of the doctors who throw their hippocratic oath out the window and get involved in torture.

maybe also reflected the massive surveillance operation that is going on when we're talking about defending against terrorism which ultimately i think is it's is a catch twenty two right because you don't want to take a program away that is saving people and creating a safer environment but at the same time you know i truly believe that we all have a right to enter that freedom i believe we shouldn't be surveilled except for a. right to see. first strike. and i think the true.

on our reporters. instrument. the abu ghraib pictures raise the question where were the doctors while this was going on either they directly witnessed the abuse or they witnessed the consequences of it why hadn't they protested. here the doctors were complicit they were a centerpiece of torture they were enablers they were to so it caters they will authorize years.

from apocrypha used to now the standard for the killing professions has been simple that obligation is first and foremost to the patients interest while being torture shatters that cover. how have american physicians and psychologists come to sanction and implement torture in our military prisons and why haven't they been held accountable for their actions. tonight we are our country awakened to danger.