ukraine's opposition frontman seek more support from the u.s. and the e.u. as the country remains split by the. lack of lethal drugs is set to change the face of capital punishment in some us states seeing the return of the gas chambers and the firing squad. leader we hear from experts who describe what condemned prisoners will face when the old methods could be back in action. and washington is pressing the afghan government to security agreement before april's elections as fears mount over the taliban's growing strength in the country despite years of a costly war. a

very warm welcome to you from everybody here at r.t. international. headlines for now with ukraine's president he may have gone on sick leave but he is still set to sign the law to amnesty all those detained during riots in the country meanwhile opposition leaders are to meet the u.s. secretary of state and the e.u. foreign policy chief on the sidelines of a security conference in munich but with riots now spread wide across ukraine's west it seems unlikely more talks will bring any solutions. now reports from one of the hotbeds of the unrest. this is the regional administration building event notes on cards skin western ukraine where at the till a week ago the regional governor had his office but as you can see just liking kiev's there's now a giant barricade surrounding the building with snow tires and planks of wood

radical and and he russian this is the heartland of nationalism where anti unequivocal sentiment runs deep and that's the way natalia and her comrades want to keep it the twenty nine year old entrepreneur has been here since the building was overthrown she says work can wait this is more important. is supposed to have no president than to have you know called which but with the opposition as fragmented as it is that tully is the first to admit no yanna coverage could well mean an alkie whitney bishop along with the problem is that we don't have any person to replace him and we will need to take someone from their position which won't be easy the sentiments blown across central and western ukraine where regional offices are being picketed and seized by protesters i the result a group of right in radicals some wearing masks stormed the municipal building

chanting you have the power they used fire extinguishers and wooden sticks again police i intend to guard the demonstrators set up barricades made a vehicle pass and sacks of snow they demanded police in the building was similar scenes played out and she can see where protesters tried to set night to furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. the anger has moved even further westwards. engine off ski protests and ukrainian hymns while ignoring the governor's attempts to disperse them. in a van or from coffs those now laying siege to the municipality building a forbidden any symbols or sentiments of the ruling party. they claim it goes against the will of the ukrainian people no one knows where the head of the administration is there are parts of this building that are still functioning for example the day to day running of the city but on a political level everything is come to a standstill all this process might. lead to door disease on

that country else chorus i also result in some here spots in the long term perspective. despite the criticism of coverage these protestors have nothing better to offer. r.t. even a front costs western ukraine. well one ukrainian protester who had gone missing for more than a week has turned up alive dmitri blastoff claims that he was abducted and tortured and while the police already investigating its case you can head over to watch your daughter column for the very latest from kiev. this is r.t. international gas chambers electric chairs and firing squads all seem to be

a thing of the past could soon be making a comeback in parts of america a lethal injection drugs used to carry out the death penalty are in short supply and lawmakers and some american states are looking to return to the old methods some of which critics say verge on torture were important i reports in just the first month of twenty fourteen six executions have already been carried out on u.s. death row inmates however there's a shortage of drugs coupled with an increasing concern surrounding the efficiency of lethal injection has prompted lawmakers in some states to push for the reintroduction of the long abandoned torture is methods in missouri some officials have raised the notion of rebuilding the state's gap. and also proposed making firing squads an option for executions death by gun has also been proposed as an option in wyoming meanwhile in virginia there's been a push to make electrocution an option so why are u.s.

states now advocating to bring back these relics of the past in recent years european drug makers have stopped selling their drugs to prisons because they say they don't want their products to be used to kill prisoners as a result many u.s. executions have been delayed in other cases the use of new drugs for lethal injection caused slow painful deaths lasting over twenty minutes richard dieter of the death penalty information center says old execution methods being advocated are prone to even more mistakes you can imagine with a firing squad you know stumbling and no only partly. leading it you know these are things that are also prone to to error to pain to to you know from the public and so states changed to protect the day. to lethal injection so to go back would certainly jeopardize their whole purpose of carrying to carry out executions some us states already provide alternatives to lethal injection

alabama arkansas florida kentucky oklahoma south carolina tennessee and virginia it minister the electric chair if requested by the defendant delaware new hampshire and washington state allow inmates to choose hanging while arizona and wyoming legally allow gas chamber executions as an alternative currently lethal injection remains the only enforceable method of execution in the u.s. but if states get their way somewhere down the line death by firing squad or electric chair may become the new norm in america reporting from new york. r.t. . and still ahead here on the program afghanistan a faces a looming. threat of the taliban's resurgence as couple that in washington wrangle over a post pullout security deal. plus london and paris are splashing out on the joint development of new drones despite civilian casualties being increasingly colas by

the unmanned war machines and plenty more just around the corner. and as you point out peter who is leading whom the u.s. has to put pressure on the saudis. russia has some influence on iran all because russia and try to get those two parties together here behind the scenes of have to be at a conference they've got to talk and divide the thing and come up to something is a solution here one of the things i find extremely ironic here is that about a half a year ago obama was a few minutes away from saying fire i don't think the poor have to disagree i think that. obama being very pro is very president of the here which a conclusion that he could get things done with the use of force and people really people here in washington do believe that if obama would not have stepped up this rhetoric or there would have done give instructions to go on

a military strike then perhaps the seriously also regime would only move on the suit on the chemical weapons from the. community board alone more than somewhere around two hundred children for all for them they also found that child abusers convicted child abusers got access to those kids. call recalling phenomenon and what i'm saying is overall it's an amazingly rosy picture in that adopted kids international as well as domestic are treated better than regular kids growing up in untroubled biological families in the united states. there's a. maybe. there's

a goal. that no one is with to get that. from. politics only on our team.

so ten minutes past the hour here in moscow as time ticks away before nato troops pull out of afghanistan the u.s. is growing increasingly frustrated with the country's government kabul is still refusing to sign a security pact which would ultimately permit american soldiers to remain in the fragile state but is all too often off explains the absence of an agreement could leave afghanistan vulnerable to a major taliban resurgence after thirteen years in afghanistan washington is counting down together with our allies we will complete our mission there are by the end of this year and america's longest war will finally be over. but ending a war isn't the same as winning one when it comes to afghanistan peace is far from

certain and a past ten years there were not able to build afghan security for the forces to be able to face the challenges and this country and to be able in the future to confront the challenges and taliban forces and the taliban fighters and al-qaeda force and. taliban have been active in the past two weeks alone the group has staged numerous attacks in kabul kandahar nimrods helmont and nanga har in fact ministry of interior incident reports reveal clashes with the taliban in most of the eleven provinces bordering pakistan the group also controls several districts in parwan just a short drive from the country's capital some provinces are believed to be controlled by shadow governments that answer directly to the taliban on that any work night the taliban run their area the district government is just. but there is no real security. and it could get worse a classified american intelligence assessment warns that the initial objective in

afghanistan removing the taliban and disabling al qaeda operations in the country could fail and that the taliban could return in full swing by twenty seventeen the u.s. wants some troops to remain in the country by the pentagon's logic the pursuit of terrorists is best based in the region same goes for u.s. drones and without american help the afghan army could collapse but the u.s. first needs the afghan president to sign off on a key security pact something he has been refusing to do so far. now our position continues to be that if we cannot conclude a bilateral security agreement promptly then we will be forced to initiate planning for a post twenty fourteen future in which there would be no u.s. or nato troop presence in afghanistan there's also the issue of talking with the enemy the consensus seems to be that the afghan war could only end in a negotiated settlement with the taliban not a military victory but that's proven elusive the taliban are internally divided and

the rift between kabul and washington has reportedly empowered hardline commanders who want to keep on fighting at the expense of those who support peace talks the u.s. war has succeeded in toppling the taliban regime and many afghans have seen their lives improve but those gains could easily be lost depending on who wins control over afghanistan a country that's once again could be up for grabs reporting in washington for our team i'm lucy catherine. and president karzai is demond being that washington and has peace talks with the taliban as a condition for signing the security deal. dicus a terrorism consultant and a former prisoner of the taliban he says the u.s. is not able to contain the group which continues to bolster its ranks is a continuous war for over twenty years they have continued to fight some of them and since the american invasion in october fifth two thousand and one they have if

anything increased their their ability to attack their holding forth the united states even with its search in two thousand and nine announced by president obama has not been able to really curtail the taliban they are as strong as ever as committed as ever and i think this is one reason why there is such difficulty throughout nato throughout the west figure out how to leave afghanistan and what to do with the taliban. washington has spent billions waging the afghan war and is still spending despite its mission winding down and since two thousand and one it has cost the u.s. taxpayer just under eight hundred billion dollars and here are some bills that are still to come in twenty fourteen every american soldier serving in afghanistan will cost an average of two point one million dollars withdrawing is not going to be cheap either the u.s. has decided not to ship back more than seven billion dollars worth of equipment but all be destroyed it's believed that

a brand new military headquarters built in twenty thirteen at a cost of thirty four million that probably won't ever be used and that needs to be demolished as well according to a former british s.a.'s officer that of richard williams the u.s. georgetown means the afghan government will have no choice but to reach a deal with the taliban president karzai. those who have seen with him as they approach these next elections. and his supporters and those who he is supporting in the elections need to do a deal with the taliban going forward in twenty fifteen the taliban in certain provinces the conflict provinces in the south certainly will be the dominant political element and as the president goes forward there's going to need to be an accommodation with them so this is a political gesture and so yes he is taking risk with the lives of his own soldiers the afghan army and afghan police are all fighting hard at the moment in these

conflict provinces yes he's taking risk there but it's for a higher purpose and the higher purpose is clearly some form of political solution with the taliban. management at a major u.k. nuclear reprocessing side order to many of its staff to stay home on friday at r.t. dot com we reveal exactly what went wrong there it may have given some workers an extra day off but it certainly startled many locals. also one line we have this hour at r.t. dot. does nasa know more than we think a scientist is suing the agency demanding disclosures on a mysterious new object on the martian surface which the space agency's simply calling a stone. right to see the. search string. and i think you're.

going to. be in the. thanks for joining us here on r.t. international britain and france are set to make new technological and financial efforts to develop the latest line in lethal cutting edge drones the production of the new predator type drones will not begin for at least three more years the two countries want their own alternative to the infamous u.s. made unmanned planes spy the controversy surrounding the use of drones both sides insist they are essential for that militaries are one antiwar activist told r.t. the u.k. and france are just following america's policies and devaluing the lives of severe so. it becomes very easy to sell a war based on drones to the domestic audience because there's no soldiers there's no m. and there's no pilots put in their lives at risk. this makes drone warfare. fairly

acceptable to most countries in terms of the collateral damage yes we have we have missiles there do kill those in the surrounding area and i don't think that even the british military take much care if they need to take out what they consider an insurgent if there is in a crowd of people i think they carry on anyway certainly the cia drone attacks of been known to do that but even when there's only one person in the vicinity we've we've managed to kill one person and it's turned into that they've been civilians this case is going on in you kind of the moment by afghan civilians because their family members were killed to syria now the russian government says the u.s. has no reason to doubt the syrian government's commitment to eliminating its chemical weapons washington had raised the issue after several disarmament deadlines were missed leaving just four percent of the arsenal destroyed so far moscow insists because the general deadline drawn up in the u.n. resolution misjudged the amount of work involved earlier this week america's chief

of intelligence claimed the syrian government labs are still capable of developing biological weapons. staying with syria into the world up there we go now here on r.t. activists say at least sixteen people have been killed in government shelling of syria's northern hub of aleppo currently held by rebel forces and. for human rights said the bombardment happened on thursday however it took the organization a significant amount of time to verify the reports faced a major government offensive in a bid to reclaim eastern parts of the city that have remained under rebel control since twenty twelve. and thousands of israelis are gathered to pray at jerusalem's western wall to demonstrate against the ongoing israeli palestinian negotiations it called on the government to hold all talks with the palestinians saying they don't want to hand over their land to the meeting brokered by the u.s. secretary of state john kerry could see the formation of

a palestinian state in most of the west bank gaza and east jerusalem. now when do the winter olympics reach their top speed you just have to wait for the athletes in the competitions the skeleton to get down to business and while competing for gold in sochi these guys will be hurtling down the track at speeds of around one hundred and thirty kilometers an hour. went to examine the icy lube up close. the olympic hopefuls and bumps later lucia and skeleton will be chasing the dream here at the sunday sliding center them. the movie cool runnings they use retelling of the true story of jamaica's bobsled

team could perhaps resume tia in from this old sheet but i've always wondered how do they get the shape of the track to be able way it is i'd also how do they get it so smooth while i've already answered today and it saves money pollard to actually solve all of the shape of the track and want that dad this big baby here comes into action what it does is it was flooded like a vacuum machine so it got up over the i often tried and then moved but over the causes a frisson russia to have three up and slopes which help to slow speed and keep athletes sleep but competitors can still pluck up to one hundred and thirty five kilometers an hour here and get the tribe members takes a few called the to lose and to educate and convents i wasn't making my way all the way to an olympic track without testing my carving skills say i dig in.

and this is how we get the tracks native. well. it really isn't as easy as it looks so you really need men like a here who know what they're doing they've been trained to do what they're doing right now to actually call the ice now twenty seven of them including jamia how will we add during the olympics basically taking care of this entire tribe making sure that the and the sledging competitions go exactly the way it is because a truck is too big to get through the narrow lanes it's done the old fashioned way with this new shovel and a broom. for russians speeding down snow reuse is a form of growing up and that's why this venue has been called funky the russian word looks like the bomb would say at the funky sliding center. and we have many more reports from dubai most say giving you the best impression of

the venues in and around the city of olympic dreams just before the flame finally reaches i don't miss some of the next few days on air and online you don't hear you ok. how do you operate deliver the game i'm going to rehearse pretty good sports such as speed skating is that as easy as ruth's a rose i'm not an olympic hockey player by much it is all going to. leak. into by fire. all right coming to live from moscow it's all of the international coming up next larry king talking to turned politician tun dr jesse ventura politicking here in just a few minutes on our. take

me to the ball gain take me through the metal detectors so wait that's not how the song goes well as the country changes sadly so must the national pastime they said the mariners released a statement that they like all of the teams for twenty fifteen are setting up metal detectors to screen all fans entering their stadium for getting visions of hot dogs in home runs now everyone will be able to tell their grandkids about how their bags got searched because they had metal buttons at company name stadium baseball

memories the team's management is also continuing their ban on bags larger than forty by forty by twenty centimeters because if you're going to seek an explosive device it had better be compact their body maybe i'm jumping the gun metal detectors can't touch your genitals or do a naked body scan they're probably the least intrusive coming form of security scan then again think about it they want to prevent some terrorist from blowing up a densely packed crowd of people in the stadium so the m l b wants teams to create densely packed lines of people outside the stadium before the game starts with these security measures really stop. psychotic terrorist murder nope that's just my opinion. jesse ventura is going off the grid we want you to join him he's opinionated of course outspoken american original bucking the political system and doing it in a bare knuckle no holds barred way yes he ventura has a lot on his mind and he's ready to un load it's all on this edition of politicking

. politicking jesse ventura on larry king or a t.v. has a new show featuring the former governor jesse ventura the show is called off the grid and that's exactly what jesse is doing he'll join me from his secret location and welcome to ora t.v. jesse good dad be aboard larry it's great to be here i can't believe that we did an interview probably a little over a year ago when you told me this is where i should be and lo and behold i've ended up here on or a t.v. it's fantastic and i'm indeed off the grid larry and will be moving around constantly so they can never get a fix on me when i broadcast back into the united states ok we're going to talk

about off the grid in the next segment we're in a concentrated some politics in this obama's job approval rating is sitting around forty six percent is that surprise you. well it's not really because having been an elected official you realize that whenever you make hard decisions you're going to get people angry at you a lot of people are one issue people so if you go against them whatever that particular issue might be all of a sudden they don't like you for the other nine things you might do good so you never do hold you know polls like that fluctuate like the wind larry they're going to go up and down depending on which way the political wind happens to be blowing how do you assess how he's doing well i've been extremely disappointed in him because you know he ran to change their ass and benami change were the same country

we were under george bush we're still involved in these ridiculous wars we're still we've got everybody under surveillance and all american citizens seem to be potential terrorists that's why they're watching us i guess and that's an amazing thing too larry how can they do that when they do it with my money i don't want them watching me with my money oh gave president obama recently told the new yorker by the way in a fascinating article this is quote there's no doubt that there's some votes who just really dislike me because they don't like the idea of a black president the flipside is that there are some black folks and maybe some whites who really like mean giving me the event of the doubt because i'm black your reaction to that. well i'm certain you know i'm certain it's true to some extent for me it's not i could care less black person white person woman whoever runs the united states of america i will be critical of them i will

also support them when it's there to support them and many things like that so. i don't necessarily put a lot of credence in that you have said that the n.s.a. leaker edward snowden who remains in russia on a temporary grant of asylum is your personal hero why well he's not necessarily a personal hero but i think yours indeed a hero i can't say personal because i don't know him but to me he's a hero larry because he caught our government breaking the law and violating the constitution it took great courage to put himself on the line and make this wrongdoing noland to the american people and we have every right to know it we have the right to know when our government violates our constitution and our bill of rights and that's what makes him a hero because.