why you should care about. this is why you should care only. ukraine's opposition front men seek more support from the us and the e.u. as the country remains split by the. western regions. a lack of lethal drugs is set to change the face of capital punishment in some us states. gas chambers and firing squads. and someone stumbling in only partly. leading we hear from the 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 a security agreement before the elections as fears mount over the taliban's growing strength in the country despite thirteen years of a costly war. it

is just after five pm on friday here in moscow this is r.t. international with me rule receive from all of us here welcome to the program ukraine's president may have gone on sick leave but he's still set to sign the law to amnesty all those detained during riots in the country i mean while the opposition leaders are to meet the u.s. secretary of state and e.u. foreign policy chief now this on the sidelines of a security conference in munich but with riots now spreading 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 up until 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 and he on a comic 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 problem with the problem is that we don't have any person to replace him and we will need to take someone from the position which won't be easy the sentiments blown across central and western ukraine where a regional offices are being picketed and seized by protesters i believe that a group of writing radicals some wearing masks stormed the municipal building

chanting we have the power they used fire extinguishers and wooden sticks against police. in china girl demonstrators set up barricades made a vehicle pass and sacks of snow they demanded police is the building was similar scenes played out and she can see where protesters tried to said knight to furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. the anger has moved even further west with. ski protests to send 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 store disease and of the country also course also result in some arab spring. in the long term perspective. despite the criticism of the coverage these protesters 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 now turned up alive at the retreat claims he was abducted and tortured while the police already investigating this case you can get the latest news from kiev at r.t. dot com. all right thanks for joining us for the program today a gas chambers electric chairs firing squads all seem to be things of the past

could soon be making a comeback in parts of america lethal injection drugs used to carry out the death penalty are in very short supply and lawmakers in some u.s. states are looking to return to the old methods some of which critics say verge on torture were important. in just the first month of twenty fourteen six executions have already been carried out on u.s. death row inmates however the shortage of drugs coupled with an increasing concern surrounding the efficiency of lethal injection. some states to push for the reintroduction of long abandoned torture and methods in missouri some officials have raised the notion of rebuilding the state's gas chamber 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. 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 death penalty to lethal injection so to go back would certainly jeopardize their whole purpose. to carry

out executions some u.s. states already provide alternatives to lethal injection alabama arkansas florida kentucky oklahoma south carolina tennessee and virginia it administer 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 us but if states get their way somewhere down the line death by firing squad or electric chair. maybe the new norm in america reporting from new york. r.t. . are still to come here on r.t. international london and paris to up the arms race they are splashing out on a joint development of new drones despite civilian casualties being increasingly caused by the unmanned machine. but for the meantime here on r.t.

international as time ticks away before nato troops pull out of afghanistan and the u.s. is growing increasingly frustrated with the country's government kabul is still refusing to sign a security pact which would permit american soldiers to remain in the fragile state what is artie's lucy catherine 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 bear 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 up past ten years they were not able to build afghan security for forces to be able to face the challenges and this country and to be able in the future to confront the challenges and the taliban forces and the taliban fighters

and al-qaeda and the taliban have been active in the past two weeks alone the group has staged numerous attacks in kabul kandahar nimrods helmont and nangarhar are in fact ministry of interior incident reports reveal clashes with the taliban in a most of the eleven provinces bordering pakistan the group also controls several districts in par one 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 the one that's any with the taliban to run their own district government is just me 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 as 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 lucy catherine. meantime president karzai is demanding washington and has peace talks with the taliban as a condition for signing the security deal jerry vandyke is 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. it 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 at all 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 what to do with the taliban washington has spent billions waging the afghan war and is still spending despite the mission winding down since two thousand and one it's cost the u.s. taxpayer just under eight hundred billion dollars and here are still some bills to come in twenty fourteen every american soldier serving in afghanistan will cost an average of two point one million dollars and withdrawing is not cheap either the u.s. has decided not to ship back more than seven billion dollars worth of equipment that will have to be destroyed it's believed a brand new military headquarters built in twenty thirteen at a price tag of thirty four mil will probably not be used and that needs to be demolished as well according to one former british science officer richard williams

the u.s. drawdown means the afghan government will have no choice but to reach a deal with the taliban. president karzai and 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 risks 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 and the people of afghanistan are no strangers to the threat of

drone strikes after the break on r t international we report on paris on london's plans to switch gears in the joint development of the unmanned war machine. stalled talks accusations traded in endless demands made this sums up the process being played out in geneva with virtual stalemate on the battlefield outside proxies for left to make the hard decisions and compromises to alleviate and then to finally end this civil war which of these outside powers have the political will .

wealthy british royals. let's let's. play. the markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two reports. look it was a problem very hard to take a plunge again long there is a plug hat that sachs would make their lives let's play.

lists and lists look the people. if you're just joining us welcome to the program 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 and the production of the new predator type drones won't begin for at least another three years but the two countries want their own alternative to the infamous u.s. made unmanned planes despite the controversy surrounding the use of drones both

sides insist they are essential for their militaries however one antiwar activist told us here at r.t. international and the u.k. and france are just following america's policies ultimately devaluing the lives of civilians. it becomes very easy to sell a war based on drones to the domestic audience because there's no soldiers there's no airmen 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 if they need to take out what they consider an insurgent if there's an in a crowd of people i think they carry on and there are any right certainly the cia drone attacks of been known to do that but even when there's only one person in the vicinity we've done it we've managed to kill one person and it's not right or that they've been civilians this case is going on in the u.k.

at the moment blow by afghan civilians because their family members were killed. always many stories for you one line including management of a major u.k. nuclear reprocessing side ordered many of its staff to stay home on friday when are to reveal exactly what went wrong there it may have given some workers an extra day off but it certainly startled the locals. also online for you this hour it's not no more than we think a scientist is suing the agency demanding disclosures on a mysterious new object on the martian surface which nasa says is simply a start. right from the sea. first rate. and i would think that your. orders. instrumental.

in the. it's good to have you with us here for the program on r.t. international but when do the such the winter olympics reach top speed well just ask the athletes will be jumping into their bubs slaves and onto their losers and skeletons and then hurtling down the track at speeds of one hundred thirty kilometers an hour to buy mazzei went to examine the icy run up close. the olympic hopefuls in bumps later lucia and skeleton will be chasing the dream here at the sunday's line being sent to. the movie cool runnings they use retelling of the true story of jamaica's bobsled

team could perhaps you resume t.-a in sunny salt she but i've always wondered how do they get the shape of the track to be the way it is i'd also how do they get it so smooth while i've already answered today and it takes one polit to actually solve all of the shape of the track and once that's done this big baby here comes into action and what it does is it was flooded like a vacuum machine so it was up over this guy off of the drive and then move it over the causes of for us in russia to have three up and slopes which helped to slow speed and keep athletes sleep but from the patches can still pluck up to one hundred and thirty five kilometers an hour and get a tribe member takes a few called the to lose and to be created convents i wasn't making my way all the way to an olympic track without testing my carving feels the same way i did.

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 being a hero who know what they're doing they've been trained to do what they're doing right now to actually. 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 bobsled and the sledging competitions go exactly the way it is because the 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 uses reform i don't go enough and that's why this game you can be called funky the russian would look. at the funky sliding center line. we've got many more reports from to by giving you

the best impression of the venues in and around the city of olympic dreams are just before the flame finally reaches such a i don't miss them in the next few days on air and of course online dot dot com. how do you operate dillon piggy i'm going to ring was good sports such. as ruth's a rose i'm not an olympic hockey mom which is on. my phone. this is aussie international the geneva two peace talks between syria's government and the opposition have yielded no breakthroughs so far but have seen the two sides meeting face to face for the very first time at a conference which aims to find a political solution to the bloody civil war is set to resume on the tenth of february in a statement to the media the un's syria and void locked up or he me acknowledged the slim but tangible progress to date it's become used to sitting in the same room

they have present the positions and listen to one another. this is very slow indeed but the sides having gazed in an acceptable manner this is a very modest beginning but it is a beginning on which we can build the gap between the sides remain why there is no use pretending otherwise nevertheless joining go does questions i hope i observe a little bit of common ground perhaps more than the two sides themselves realize or recognize. and are staying with syria in our world update activists say at least sixteen people have been killed in government shelling of syria's northern hub of aleppo a currently held by rebel forces the u.k.

based observatory for human rights said the bombardment happened on thursday however it took the organization hours to verify the reports aleppo has faced a major government offensive in a bid to reclaim eastern parts of the city that have remained under rebel control since twenty twelve. thousands of israelis gathered to pray at jerusalem's western wall to demonstrate against the ongoing israeli palestinian negotiations they call them the government to stop hold talks with the palestinians saying they don't want to hand over their land at a 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. or not this news just in on r.t. international ukraine's president has now signed a law that gives amnesty to all demonstrators detained during the riots in the country except those who committed serious crimes out of a for the amnesty to take effect the rioters must stop their blockade of the

streets and government buildings the protesters have been opposed to the law demanding a full pardon without any preconditions bring you more of these developments from kiev as soon as we can. by for another here on the program up next the twists and turns on the talks on the syrian crisis so ongoing the geneva two peace talks under the close watch of people of bell and his guests promise to. take me to the ball game 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 get 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 stick an explosive device it had better. become packed 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 hurt 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 well these security measures really stop a psychotic terrorist murder nope but that's just my opinion.

below and welcome to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle stalled talks accusations traded in endless demands made this sums up the process being played out in geneva with a virtual stalemate on the battlefield outside proxies are left to make the hard decisions and compromises to alleviate and then to finally end this civil war but do these outside powers have the political will. to cross talk developments in syria i'm joined by my guest and our bell in washington he is a member of the brookings institution and a scholar in residence at the american university and in new york we cross to joe lauria he is a u.n. correspondent for the wall street journal all right gentlemen welcome to the program crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want joe is that we can hear out where does the geneva process stand i mean maybe the best

thing that's happened is that it's even happening. yeah i guess it that it stands pretty much where it began irreconcilable differences between the two parties they sat in the same room they spoke through mr brahimi the u.n. negotiator they spoke to each other there are a lot of rumors that the syrian government had decided that they agreed certainly to talk about a transitional government that's been shut down so really no progress was made no progress was expected except on the humanitarian front there was an attempt to get aid into homes that's not over yet that of tampa hasn't happened yet so even that minor victory that they were hoping for the in the grocery it is the u.n. may not happen ok dan where would you agree with what we just heard from joe here i mean the best thing that's happened with these talks is that they even are happening in the first place i think it's of the chief meant to have both parties in the same room and being able to finally after days of waiting to talk to each other and there was some reported progress being made inside the room we don't

haven't seen concrete results yet but one has to hope that these direct talks can go somewhere and become more concrete news from you know there's a stalemate on the ground but news from syria coming out from syria this morning are very disturbing just. syrian regime the assad regime targeting different neighborhoods of rebel forces continued strife humanitarian. and just we heard here in washington yesterday the chief intelligence. official of the administration talking about syria becoming a hotbed for islamic fundamentalism and for terrorism possibly striking at the u.s. you know it's very interesting i was watching very closely the u.s. secretary of state's comments about what's going on there and and i think we all

agree whatever your political stripe is that there is the. this civil war is truly truly dreadful but the u.s. and its allies constantly criticize and point out atrocities committed by the assad regime but they are very tepid in criticizing opposition groups and particularly groups that most people believe are linked to al qaeda or groups like al qaida. does this create the kind of this fear of compromise and diplomacy that's necessary i guess what i'm saying and putting in question the role of the united states here is that a fair broker no no of course not there are openly declare they want to stop the girly drinking opposition group or groups no they're not being a fair broker the united states absolutely not i think when kerry went to the opening session of this conference montreaux he again stood up and call for assad to go i mean i don't see where that helped any we really know the u.s. position why gratuitously stirred the thing up.