amid signs of moderate progress in syria's peace talks washington accuses damascus of holding on to its bylaws biological weapons program describe the ongoing chemical disarmament process. while inside syria survivors of the alleged massacre recount the horrors they saw when islamist militants seized the city more than a month ago our d. is the first foreign t.v. crew just film in the area since it was taken. the ukrainian president to make say it another concession in a bid to end violence in kiev the demonstrators refused to leave the bury kids saying it's still not enough. and a hopeless superhero brings new hope to berlin's down and out we'll report on how

a comic book strip is giving hundreds of financial lifeline. a very warm welcome to you if you've just joined us here on r.g.p. international you with me to say let's take a look at the sort. there are chinks of daylight breaking through in syria peace talks international mediator lakhdar brahimi said negotiations between the government and opposition are finally seeing some progress but at the same time washington says it's worried about new threats emerging from syria while terrorism being only one of them the u.s. national intelligence chief one damascus is a still capable of producing biological weapons despite the current process of disarmament art is more important there as the details. the u.s.

director of national intelligence claims that syria has not successfully weaponized biological agents in an affective delivery system but he says the government possesses conventional weapon systems that could be used to launch biological weapons now speaking to the senate intelligence committee james clapper said that america's spy agencies believe that some elements of syria's biological warfare program might have advanced beyond the research and development stage and might be capable of limited production the timing of these comments are quite interesting you have to understand them in context mr clapper is making these allegations as damascus has been successfully complying with the russian u.s. brokered deal to remove and destroy its arsenal of chemical weapons was brokered as a way to avert u.s. missile strikes that president obama was threatening in september to carry out now

it looks as though the u.s. administration may have a new reason to revisit their military playbook mr clapper is warning that syrian militant groups tied to al qaeda such as the al nasra front is aspiring to attack the united states he told the senate intelligence committee on wednesday that extremist groups in syria are conducting training camps to train people to go back to their countries and conduct more terrorist acts clapper says that some twenty six thousand rebel fighters battling the government of bashar al assad in syria are extremists and he also estimates that seven thousand of them are from fifty different countries including europe we've been reporting for months about how an influx of extremist groups in syria has turned the war torn country into a terrorist training center now the u.s. is currently feed the same point a conundrum because members fighting with the rebels may pose a greater threat to american interests than the syrian president washington wants removed. and to all activists brian baca believes washington's warning about

syria's biological warfare program is just a new way to push the government. it's a clear indication that the obama administration is looking for other rationales other pretext to keep the pressure on the assad government and when i say pressure that's kind of euphemistic what they're really doing of course is creating a great international crime by funneling arms and weapons and money and arms struggle in other words for mental and civil war so that they can destroy an independent nationalist government in this region of the world we've gone through this script before we saw it in iraq we saw it in libya we're seeing it in syria you know that state is government is carrying out an armed struggle policy a civil war policy and they need to keep our public rationales also they need a way to balance against geneva behave and to find a way to continue to demonize the assad government because their ultimate goal is

to get rid of assad not for a negotiated settlement it's been more than a month since islamist rebels seized the industrial syrians town of drama and allegedly massacred dozens of civilians the heavy fighting left thousands displaced and minutes and still hold large parts of the city making it impossible to go in and verify the claims yet r.t.e. became the first foreign t.v. crew to get to the area since the start of the siege and spoke to some of the survivors. is just a twenty minute drive from damascus but the highway runs through an area firmly under rebel control so instead we take a newly created pass driving through high mounds of sand and piles of old tires the army uses to shoot its convoys from the tanks it's maybe longer but it's a safer route now my government offices told us that last december was attacked by militants from a kite and in crude and the free syrian army. stormed into the city and they kept

the civilians in their buildings using them as human shields which made our mission very difficult this is why it takes so long we want to avoid civilian losses. they're actually to address the old town are the real blood and the work is house and complex nearby a drama lear both and i'll besieged like a dog whistle of another when maybe some bankers here to separate other are by large and out room aliya and to prevent the militants uniting. these corridors go all around the besieged cities with the army watching the area day and night this is one of the checkpoints of the syrian army behind this wall is territory held by militants and the soldiers strategy and mission right now is just to watch this area and to shoot if they see the enemy approaching. and this is actually all

they can do for any military operation could threaten the lives of those who remain hostage and with no access inside it's impossible to tell just how many the are but luckily most of the residents managed to escape are dressed to meet some of them two kilometers away a shelter around what used to be a large sum and factory but in this hotel's me he doesn't go to school anymore but this place because terrorist attack this hit and we had to escape the occupied and we cannot go there their own blocked. he says his father is a government employee this is why it is dangerous for his family to stay we ask where they live now. he has mother appear from the darkness of a room barely ten square meters and a silence and everything what is happening is wrong there was no need for any of this see where we are now what degree we have reached now it's a question that many here are asking these children haven't seen their mother for

a month already seriously ill she couldn't get her medicine due to the siege with her condition deteriorating she was sent to a hospital far from her family. we were living in peace and now where are we i wish peace would come back to all of syria a month later it's still not clear exactly what happened another drug most of those we talked to here in this camp fled before the militants arrived but occasionally we meet some who didn't escape so quickly and alone and up there were looking for anybody serving in the syrian army and also the virus so the syrian soldiers beheaded at the sewage system. we were in a group of about twenty people they were beating us three at a time and killing us and i saw with my own eyes people stone i still see them in my nightmares. that i'm like this sort of big cut drinking water and they prevented

the bakery from working for us here and young children are about to die from a lack of water and they tried us with machine guns. drawn once an important industrial and peaceful city has become yet another syrian battleground for weary forces whose three along confrontation has left well in excess of one hundred thousand dead and millions displaced and yet it's another place where no side looks able to win and it's the ordinary syrian people left to pay the price. see from our drive in syria. more witness accounts of the alleged drug trial cities vailable online on our website at r.t. dot com. protesters in ukraine are refusing to leave the streets despite parliament passing an amnesty bill put forward during recently gershon's with the president as part of a deal to end the under arrest but because it would mean dismantling the barricades

in kiev and returning siege governmental buildings the political opposition are refusing to accept the conditions alessio chefs he is in kiev for us. last night on wednesday the parliament stayed almost until midnight to find a solution they managed to pass and then an enemy still law which provided those conditions but the opposition says they are not willing to take these to meet his demands they are not willing to make concessions of their own the opposition wants all those detained in the protests to be released from prison sunday criminalised the government the ruling party says they are ready for it only on one condition that other protesters d.-o. keep by all the administrative buildings they have captured over the past several weeks and dismantle the barricade in the governmental quarter in kiev and this is the sticking point right now here is what leaders of the opposition said regarding the new amnesty law which i'm assuming you unfortunately did dr to bill which you know of is not the best solution to the crisis on the contrary it could it

deteriorate the situation tensions in society because this is. how can we discuss negotiations today they're pursuing their own goals they pay no attention to the people they ignore the people's representatives in parliament they decided to go their own way we'll see where it leads. so it seems that the compromised which everyone thought was almost reached between the opposition and the ruling party hasn't been achieved particularly from the side of the opposition which is not willing to make any concessions the president last night warned that if a compromise is not reached between the sides of the parliament then the parliament maybe just sort so the tension is now in the political sphere and it's really hard to say where this will all go. ukraine's president made concessions off a meeting with the opposition earlier this week first and reading laws that will lift it shortly after him the head of the state accepted the country's prime

minister's resignation and to dismiss the cabinet and now push through with the amnesty bill was the opposition says is not good enough because it contains a. condition that they should leave central kiev now the cranium president attempts to broker a peaceful solution was not enough washington and brussels to ease the pressure they're putting on the u.s. is preparing sanctions for both the authorities and the opposition responsible for the riots all brussels remains highly critical of the violence seen during the protests global policy expert mark conceivably leaves the ukrainian leaders attempts to restore peace being blocked the united states and the european union they shouldn't are very much miss a mistake and that what they should be doing is supporting the ukrainian government urging the rebels the holdouts to accept the amnesty agree with the most important thing is to defuse tensions and prevent new explosions of violence and the

opposition are not doing this they are not in a constructive mood they were not oppositional destructive mode they don't want to make change to due process i think it would be disastrous of president you know which were to resign i think if that was the case the danger of civil war in ukraine between eastern ukraine and western ukraine with key of course in the middle would be much greater president you know because it should be supported by the european union and by the united states he's the main force for moderation and reconciliation left in this country. i stay up to date live events in ukraine twenty four seven with the help of our website our team dot com then you'll find a timeline including photos from here as well as fresh reports from our correspondent.

a superhero has come to the rescue of billions homeless he's not a guest from other planets no a rich crime fighter basically is just a character from magazine but as art is probably going to reports even that may be enough to help those in need. his muscles affair but he has no fixed abode it's super hobo the unlikely superhero inherited his super powers accidentally after savoring some discarded beer. normally like that man or iron man they are very very rich playboys who rescue all the world know it's the guy from the on the ground rescue which gets to the city because it's very attractive for people all over the world not because it's so correct or clean city but because of his heavy charm so it's logical that the chlorine superhero of.

the so bomb super hobos create a says the idea was spawned while watching a homeless man trying and failing to sell a newspaper on a train. so stefan went to the star some faggot newspaper which is sold by the homeless and unemployed and offered to launch the charity supplement in order to boost its sales for sure it's a little bit political incorrect but this is the only way to get more people into the subject homelessness and so we decided to do it the newspapers distributed through chaos such as this one said the city's homeless can come here and buy in copies for sixty cents apiece which they then sell on for one year a fifty and they're able to make a profit but certainly in the time that we've been here several people have come up trying to buy in more copies of that super hobo supplement that has been selling so well super hobos breath stinks he dreams of oceans of beer and yet the homeless

vendors don't take offense it's a very good idea it should have been thought of earlier the comic supplement makes it heavier and i can't carry as many copies but it's not too bad you just don't carry on. now the customers are asking for this comic it would be good to have super car too. that document publication a step brighter than the fortunes of its fellows the soup kitchen at zero station has an increasing number of hungry mouths to feed the cries is. doing and or bringing in bring much more people into difficult situations a lot of foreigners you foreigners are law to come and people are telling them germany is a rich country and please come and you will have a good life but in fact it's very difficult to get jobs here and it's very difficult to get flats i'm thinking that the number of people. especially in the

body is increasing in the next years enormously but those trying to shift the papers daily say the comic strip has at the very least added that little bit of comic relief. curling is a five centuries old but it's relatively new to the winter olympics so after the break we take you inside the ice cube curling a rena insults she's olympic pop. deaths behind bars so we report on statistics from the u.s. jails brought to light by the death of a mother of two left to die in an american prison cell we'll have more on that's.

the. economic downturn the find out all day long. and the rest because i. believe if we. put it on your. face you know. pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today.

thanks for staying with us the game's a don't start for we're just days away but still she is a winter olympic villages opened their doors to the first athletes today there are three areas ready to host thousands our competitors an artist paul scott went to see them. well behind me is one of the three athletes villages that between them can house up to seven thousand competitors this is the one in the coastal cluster and for the next few weeks it's going to be the higher up to three thousand competitors it's where they're going to eat sleep train and of course socialize but the unique thing about this coastal cluster is that the athletes all of them are going to be within walking distance of their venues leading to a real sense of community spirit there are two of the olympic village is

a thousand meters above sea level there are in the mountains and it's going to house all the competitors in outdoor events and of course any olympic games it's really just about the sport it's just about the athletes and with the first competitors beginning to arrive in sochi excitement is on the increase with the games now just a little over a week away. and of all the way does falls to the outside a curling can seem like one of the most complex the game has been chess on eyes due to the strategic and technical details involved and as i find out of for myself at the sochi winter olympics it has it's very own when you take a look. it's curling up in sochi for the winter games and at the curling the olympic stadium at least will be perfecting this sweeping. and ultimately the quest for gold the ice cube curling center is a three thousand to multi-purpose arena it's one of the smaller centers here at the

olympic park it will be hosting the wheelchair curling competition to come the paralympic games now it's quite a spacious small center and those with disabilities will be able to enjoy this center so what it is proving you made one point have seen this all this weekend this to some it looks like a sweeping map but it's more than that physics and strategy play a role. the idea is to push the stone from one end of the ice to the other aiming for the center of the house which looks like a. sports car comes when the sweeping begins sweepers with what looks like a mob out of the stones melting the ice ever so slightly with the friction of the sweeping this is done to make the rope go farther it can straighten out the top at the office traveling on. now the team with the red cross is to the center of the

back soon after all these throws in the end knocking the opposition's team stories out of the house of blocking it's part of the parts of the game this involves intense strategy sessions and this is where curling really turns into chess on ice. now you know so curled up at the curling stadium this winter olympics mom would say sochi olympics are to. credible continue to walk through the olympic park to watch a series of reports on the social venues here on r.t. international. world room is the iraqi capital baghdad has been shaken by a series of bombings and shootings leaving at least twenty people deed shops and restaurants and commercial districts of mainly shia neighborhoods were targeted although no one has claimed responsibility for the assault al qaeda linked

militants often launch similar tactics against shia communities. hundreds of protesters poured into the streets of brussels to protest spain's abortion policies demonstrators marched from the spanish embassy to the european parliament last december madrid adopted restrictions on abortion allowing it only in limited cases including rape of physical risk to the mother. been put in an american jail sometimes means losing more than just the liberty figures published by the u.s. ministry of justice show more than eleven thousand people died in prisons over the last decade some of them hadn't even been charged artie's a mirror david looked into one such case. it's a mother still in mourning distraught over her thirty seven year old daughter died

after spending several agonizing hours lying on the floor of a brooklyn jail cell the day which led to kyin livingston's death this past summer stemmed from a nonviolent altercation with her grandmother but after her arrest police brought her here to brooklyn central booking where she was held waiting to be arraigned by a judge unfortunately she would never make it to a court or ever officially be charged with a crime. instead livingston would spend the remainder of her life in a jail cell suffering from severe stomach pains diarrhea and convulsions but despite her physical distress livingston son alex says a witness told him n.y.p.d. officers ignored the pleas of his mother and others who were with her in the cell they started banging on the bars of the cells and screaming at the officers to get help to get medical help and everything and there's

a feeling off that i won't buy. it she's just having a seizure my grandson has seizures old song will pass and why p.d. officials tell the family that livingston was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital but one witness and fellow inmate told the daily news that livingston had been dead for twenty minutes before the e.m.'s had even arrived the department which is now being sued by the family has declined requests to turn over key surveillance video and release the names of the officers who oversaw her care in a statement to our t.v. regarding the case a spokesman for the new york city lot apartment said this involved a tragic matter but given the pending litigation we cannot comment further but livingston story is not exactly unique she represents just one of hundreds of deaths that take place every year in local jails. across the country according to the most recent department of justice statistics available in two thousand and eleven eight hundred eighty five inmates died while detained by local police

departments deaths which have typically stemmed from a preexisting health condition it's a statistic that kara to bash nick of cooney center on media crime and justice has called the alarming it could be somebody the has a condition that has never been diagnosed before adding the stress of the situation could bring that out it could be anybody eighty percent of the people under jails have some sort of medical chronic condition that's why to bash nick says these officers need to be aware of inmates illnesses and trained on how to react to dire medical conditions and that's what this community is demanding six months after khayyam livingston's tragic death they're calling for accountability and they're insisting on changes to the u.s. jail system that could prevent others from falling victim to the same fate in new york i mean our david our. and on our website the volgograd bombers have been identified investigators released the names of the terrorists who carried out two

deadly bombings in the southern russian city and detained their alleged accomplices plus. a vocal critic of fracking in the u.s. can no longer and tell was hopping at her home state including a hospital after she lost a legal battle with an oil giant. nest breaking the set with a mountain. currencies are crashing markets are tumbling taper no no no taper no no no but i'll be print print more no wait maybe we should taper no maybe we should print print cryptic paper maybe paper print paper bring paper print tape or tape or tape or print they take they don't while markets are down two percent four percent away

maybe we should print more money i mean. you know having this whole thing as a commanding control economy doesn't seem to be working yeah milk we need milk bread bread yeah bread hurricane print. command control. why do you think you need to search for live on other planets why the truth is such disregard on this one one of the things i think that's a human mission to mars will accomplish is to make humans here on earth more sensible about life about life on this planet about the planet itself about the environment so one has to want to keep benefits for humans to mars will be a better earth.

martin and this is breaking so today the house of representatives passed the farm bill after two years of negotiating how many billions of dollars would be cut from food stamps after all is said and done the program will be cut by eight billion dollars and about eight hundred fifty thousand households will now lose ninety dollars among. and food assistance here that right a measly ninety dollars is what all the fuss was about that to who worry the bill also provides billions of dollars to subsidize major commercial farmers many of which are owned by the very congressional lawmakers who rally all the time against the nanny state i guess government handouts don't apply when you're the one cashing in and now let's break this that. the please please share a similar very hard to take that. long well

you better act with the terror threat there are those. that believe. such. that. every year approximately twenty two thousand dolphins and porpoises are killed by fishermen in japanese waters and no town exemplifies the slaughter of these marine mammals more than the village of tides gene from september to april ties the fishermen engage in a tactic called drive hunting but herds pop.