so the news and the week's top stories from our teams from national ukraine's opposition secure support from the west at a security forum and munich despite russia's foreign minister asking the e.u. politicians to open their eyes to the violence in the protests. in the searing fire artsy travels through our drive near the capital damascus to meet the survivors and it's hard by hardline rebels who still occupy parts of the stricken city. also this week bitcoins breaking bad one of the digital currency whose main advocates is the us that all the money laundering connected to the silk road drug trafficking websites.

you're watching r.t. international coming to you live from our headquarters in moscow the latest headlines and a review of the week's top stories now leaders from ukraine's opposition one pledges of support from the united states and the european union when they appeared at the munich security form appealing for greater involvement from the west russia's foreign minister called on politicians to look closer at the violence being used by protesters and so question whether that really has anything to do with democracy you go to school for ports from germany. clearly the west has already taken the side of the protests or so u.s. secretary of state john kerry said that the time has come for you have to decide whether it's with one country or with the rest of the world and he added that washington supports the people of ukraine but some have been calling this a one sided approach and criticizing it including russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov it is the new book that there are some fundamental questions that need to be

answered in particular about the situation in ukraine how does the fuelling street riots that are becoming more and more violent promote democracy why is there no condemnation of the siege and even still occupying government buildings were those who burned police officers who show racist anti-semitic and nazi slogans why do many leading european politicians and courage such actions while any violations of the load home are dealt with harshly some strong words there from russia's chief diplomat also added joking that next time we meet was mr kerry is going to ask him what grades he had in school asking how many countries this you think are in that group that he calls the rest of the worlds. and there were some fiery exchanges between the two sides and they give credit to one boxer turned opposition leader who was seated next to foreign minister. with the extremist

groups who were so. looks like. style. some of them are you with them klitschko argued that the protestors are defending their european impressions against cell called repressive measures and he used the opportunity to meet the ukrainian foreign minister face to face to show him an album which he said contained photographs of police brutality law enforcement consultant joyner gave us his thoughts on the crane insecurities handling of the situation. if you are in the situation where i've seen videos of police officers on fire that's a deadly situation and they certainly in the united states would have the legal right to use deadly force in response to that so if a police officer perceives that there's a threat to themselves or somebody else they can respond with pepper spray

personal weapon strikes electronic control devices the threat rises to the level where they think either they or somebody else are being threatened with death or serious bodily harm then they can respond with deadly force i think throughout the history of riots you see if there's not a strong police presence then the tag and eyes of the agitators they become emboldened and they become more violent and more aggressive so there needs to be a strong police presence in those circumstances to control the violence the latest polls show two thirds of ukrainians are against the havoc that. the country's region and over a dozen cities local administration offices were either c. store stormed and many feel the country's on the threats of civil war policy or has more it. this is the regional administration building event at sun card skin western ukraine where at the a week ago the regional governor had his office but as you can see just like in kiev there is 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 on the cover 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 it is valid 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 well with me bishop along with the problem is that we don't have any person to replace him and we will need to take someone from that 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 believe 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 gov demonstrators set up barricades made a vehicle paths and sacks of snow they demanded police leave the building and the. similar scenes played out and she can see where protesters trying to signify to furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. the anger has moved even further westwards. and ski protests descend 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 in 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 talk. of the country of course as a result in some years perhaps in the long term perspective. despite their criticism of the coverage these protesters have nothing better to offer. r.t. even a front costs western ukraine still to come on the program the frosty feelings right now between the u.s. and afghanistan are sparkling chilling turns later on reports on how the rift between kabul and washington is making the taliban a winner with no american combat troops to support after forces. also to come britain by better growing one of the key advocates of the default currency is the rusted suspected of laundering money for the forest drug trafficking.

now it's been more than a month since al qaeda sympathizers partly captured syria's industrial town of are drawn north of damascus dozens of civilians were allegedly slaughtered there and hundreds displaced the rebels still occupy major parts of the city but arts he managed to make it inside and speak to some of the survivors. address 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 mountains of sand and piles of old tires the army uses to shoot its convoys from attacks it may be longer but it's a safer route. where the first foray into recruit to get this close to address after the siege began a month ago it's still not clear exactly what happened in this industrial city last december back then reports emerged of numerous killings and violence after alger

was attacked by militants belonging to al-qaeda linked groups and the free syrian army. they 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 how to reported allegations the dozens of civilians had been executed that people were be hadad and burned over ends and one claimed the doctors and patients were killed in a clinic which revelled to address hoping to verify these reports but there is still no way of getting into the besieged areas of the town to confirm if any of that actually happened we got as close as the army can there actually to address the old town admiral blood and the work his house in complex nearby a drama lier. both are now besieged and i could go looking for love another one maybe some bankers here to separate other our beloved and our groom

a lier and to prevent the militants uniting welcome to. these corydoras go all around the besieged cities with the army watch in 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 and him into 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 all but luckily most of the residents managed to escape car drivers will meet some of them two kilometers away the shelter around what used to be a large sum and factory life in this hotel's me he doesn't go to school anymore but this place because terrorist attack the street and we had to escape there compiled

and we cannot go there their only job locked. says his father is a government employee this is why it was 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 in the sun as 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 but 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. and. 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 i'll be ahead they were looking for anybody serving in the syrian army and i saw the virus of 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 then i saw with my own eyes people stone i still see them in my nightmares and money and i'm like this sort of big cut drinking water and they prevented the bakery from working for a sitter and young children are about to die from a lack of water and they threatened us with machine guns. once an important industrial and peaceful city has become yet another syrian battleground for weary forces whose three year long 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 roof notional

tea from address in syria. meanwhile u.s. intelligence is raising suspicions that the syrian regime is capable of producing biological weapons the spying the ongoing chemical disarmament washington is also threatening force should syria felt to remove all of its toxic stockpiles by july and more active as prime backer told us what he believes lies behind the scaremongering 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 to an arms struggle in other words form 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 states 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 he 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. from the highs of being lauded a bit coin millionaire to signify the darker side of digital currency the vice chairman of the coin foundation trying to sram was arrested in the u.s. earlier this week he's been charged with trying to launder and million dollars worth of bad coins he's in the infamous outlawed website silk road if found guilty that's once a four year old faces more than a decade behind bars traumas out on bail but remains under house arrest and financial analyst mark thorson things that actual legal issues have very little to do with his case. the u.s. dollar is actually the major facilitator of illegal transactions of drugs and human trafficking all sorts of nasty business is most of that trade is done with the u.s.

dollar not bitcoin bitcoin is a small player it is a small percentage of its transactions are illegal that's true but the majority are for legal goods whereas the u.s. dollar is the primary player in international trade in illicit items but this was a political event not a legal or judicial event this arrest it was a political event meant to intimidate people in the bitcoin space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well. canadian heavy metal group has made it on to the guantanamo prison play to us. and they're not happy about not getting paid for their patents of building us government which is allegedly using their songs as a means of psychological torture headline or more details. and lost

in translation our three dot com reports on how britain's having to hire interpreters for pupils as it's revealed that english is no longer the first language and second theme song for its. right to see. first. and i would think that you're. on a record with their. instrument. being . afghanistan's for parents to kick off its election campaign on sunday while american troops are pulling out of the country but the security pact which was supposed to map out their supportive role is still in limbo loosely caffein off reports on how the taliban could be the ones benefits and from the friction between

washington and kabul. after thirteen years in afghanistan washington is counting down together with our allies we will complete our mission there 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 and when it comes to afghanistan peace is far from certain actually the security situation is worsening in the country india is new sign that americans. will be able to stop the war in afghanistan and decrees that the activities of. the future and the 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 a 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. and if any with night the taliban run the area the district government is just there but there is no real security either 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 and prove but those gains could easily be lost depending on who wins control over afghanistan a country that once again could be up for grabs reporting in washington for our team i'm lucy catherine. and coming up on arts he will look a water whites the speed skaters and the soft shoe we had to the stunning adler

stadium to try it out before the olympics. last made super hobo o'brien need swap of superhero who lives on the streets while cleaning up criminals that and more still ahead. look right from the scene playing. first tribute and i think picture. on our reporter's twitter. instagram. to be in the cold cold. choose your language killing spree killer though if you're going to kill some of. the kids that can sense your click and. choose the opinions that immigrate to.

choose to stories could impact your life choose to be accessed through. good leverage. to build on the most sophisticated which on fleet leave doesn't give a darn about anything mission to teach me why you should care about humans. this is why you should. only. community board alone more than somewhere around two hundred children all for them they also found that child abusers convicted child abusers got access to those kids. called 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. and we can sing in court this week left of the censorship of the online fall sharyn service the pirate bay the band fell flats when users easily found loopholes to get access to the size contents political columnist ted rall believes there's nothing companies can do to protect their products. anyone who tries to regulate the internet at this point seems to be failing it's a very interesting case though because it seems to rely on the concept the legal concept of arbitrary and capricious ness in other words the law which applied

specifically to this site would be which should apply to all sites obviously and if they were only going after this one and effectively at that then what's the point and it's unfair but you know there's obviously broader implications of such as intellectual property rights the motivation of for example movie studios creative people cartoonists and writers those kinds of people have to be able to earn a living so it's you know it's an interesting balance between internet freedom and the fact the digitization has made it very difficult for copyright holders to enforce those rights. now snapshots of some of today's world news we start in athens where scuffles have broken out between riot police and anti fascist processors who were approached by a gathering of right wing golden dawn party supporters officers used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the troublemakers there were several arrests after left us riots or spots of an attack the man carrying the greek flag the golden dawn

rally was commemorates in the deaths of three navy officers which brought greece and turkey to the brink of war in one nine hundred ninety six. millions of voters in thailand are heading to the polls for a general election that's been beside my mom so i don't see government violence protestors have been calling for prime minister should know wants to step aside so that widespread political reforms can be conducted that was sparked after fears she was for worse than through an amnesty to light her exiled brother back into the country reelection violence by two blasts and gunfire and at least seven people at a rally. in the shoes mound cinnabon has erupted again killing at least sixteen people on the western island of sumatra clouds of grass and searing gas engulfed nearby homes just the day after authorities allow thousands of villagers to return saying that was safe they will cain has been

active with smaller options in september haven't been dormant for three years. in lebanon a car bomb has exploded near a school in the north face close to the syrian border at least four people have died in eighteen others entered in the town of her male which is a stronghold for the militant group hezbollah then syria minister suspects it was a suicide attack sunni militants often target shiite areas of lebannon era telling ation for hezbollah and its fighters and syria. now it's time to get our scariest song for another look at what soldiers got software for some of the finest ones for sports half later variants of longmont size been checking out the ice on the inside. we've just arrived here at the adler skating center this is where the speed skating

competitions during the twenty fourteen winter olympic games is going to be taking place now we've been invited inside to actually take a look at the four hundred meters in length a skating rink it's very important that this ring can be maintained properly particularly for the skaters and they're going to show us how they do that so let's go and see it. as you can see it's spectacular on the outside but the real beauty is how it works on the insight no expense was spared in the creation of the venue at the olympic park and you can certainly see where the money went a crystal face speed is reflected by angular walls and triangular stained glass windows the gray and white color of the building in hans's this impression even the facade is transparent so the spectators inside the rena can see out. the focus of the arena doesn't disappoint with leading sports men and women coming forward to praise the circuit it features two competition tracks and one training track all

designed to provide the best possible performance for athletes the quality of ice can make a huge difference in winning that gold and edler quality is the main priority with optimal micro climatic conditions to ensure a world class ice surface but it's telling me that i'll just be a limp cake doing the skating games every forty five minutes we'll have to bring. on leveling machines and bring them on the circuit board minutes around on the floor one hundred leagues the length of the circuit now it's very important but they do this because they'll be lovely lovely ice rink as well as make me a monster and move the ball be a limb pins will be skating. close on the machine is doing pretty well though how to do that everybody my religion the games so that the libyans was skating like and have a much smoother and last but. it's going to be all about speed speed and more

speed and the endless stadium and sochi is ready to bomb a thing a deliberate park in sochi or to. get more of our tour of the olympic park out are to dot com and of course make sure you're here when the games go away and we'll have special coverage on there throughout salt sheets once the fourteen. next is not your usual handsome common book hero but he's here to help or lansdown announced back on their feet this craggy face superhero dreams of fear while the

people he rescues gag at his reclaim breath german fans just can't get enough of him as polly boyd has been discovering. his muscles a firm 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 bettman or iron man they are very very rich playboys who rescued the world no it's the guy from the on the cross and rescue which gets to the city because it's very attractive for people all over the world not because it saw correct or clean city but because of his heavy charm so it's logical that the glorious superhero of. the so bomb super hoboes creators 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 stratton fagen newspaper which is sold by the homeless and unemployed and offer to launch the charity supplement in order to boost its sales for sure it's a little bit political incorrect but it's the only way to get more people into the subject homelessness and so we decided to do it the newspapers distributed through kiosks such as this one so 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 has several people have come up trying to buy in more copies of that super hoboes 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.