so there is news in the week's top stories from artsy international 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 in the violence in the protests. in the syrian crossfire artsy travels to draw near the capital damascus to meet the survivors of an attack by hardline rebels who still occupy parts of the stricken city. also this week break him back to one of the digital currencies main advocates is arrested over money laundering connected to the silk road drug trafficking website.

you're watching our teens or national coming to live from our headquarters in moscow i am arenacross for about. we start with ukraine a world leaders from the 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 to 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 you know. 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 you can still occupying government buildings were those who burned police officers who shot racist and and nazi slogans why do many leading european politicians and current such actions while any violations of the load home until we've harshly some strong words there from russia's chief diplomat also added to 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 called the rest of the worlds. and there was some fiery exchanges between the two sides in the ukrainian standoff to one box and turned opposition leader vitali klitschko was seated next to the country's foreign minister are you with the extremists groups

who were some. looks like. let's see style. are you with them klitschko argued that the protestors are defending their european ambitions against so-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 consults and chugged joyner gave us his thoughts on the ukrainian securities 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 but tons

personal weapon strikes electronic control devices if 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 variety 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 habit that's been plaguing kiev and the country's regions and over a dozen cities local administration offices were either seized or stormed and many feel the country's under the threats of civil war policy or has more on the ukrainian divide. this is the regional administration building event outfront carves 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 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 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 it 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 yana coverage could well mean an alkie whitney bishop along with the prayer 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 we 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 in the building was similar scenes played out and she can see where protesters trying to set night furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. the anger has moved even further westwards. 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 buildings have 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 division of the country of course as a result in some years perhaps in a longer term perspective. despite the criticism of the army coverage these protesters have nothing better to offer paula r.t. even a front costs western ukraine in other news it's been more than a month since al qaeda sympathizers partly captured syria's industrial town of draw north of the mask dozens of civilians were allegedly slaughtered there and hundreds displaced the rebel still occupy major parts of the city but our team managed to make it inside and speak 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 mountains of sand and piles of old tires the army uses to shield its convoys from attacks its maybe longer but it's a safer route. where the first foray into recruit to get this close to our drive 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 fallen soft arguer 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 and sent them as human shields which made our mission a very difficult this is why it takes so long we want to avoid civilian losses or to reported allegations the dozens of civilians had been executed that people were beheaded and burned in over ins 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 drum a lier. both are now besieged and i could go use a long another one maybe some bank ones here to separate other out by law and out room aliya and to prevent the militants uniting because of. 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 a 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 address we meet some of them two kilometers away they 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 a terrorist attack the street and we had to skate they occupied and we cannot go there they're owed to 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. the hours mother appear from the darkness of the 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 because 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 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 they 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 i saw with my own eyes people stoned i still see them in my nightmares. like this sort of drinking water and they prevented the bakery from

working for us 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 will and it's the ordinary syrian people left to pay the price. see from our draw in syria meanwhile u.s. intelligence has raised suspicions that the syrian regime is capable of producing biological weapons the spike the ongoing chemical disarmament washington is also threatening force should syria fail to remove all of its stockpiles by july its toxic stockpiles that is anti war activist 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 the united states government is carrying out an armed struggle policy a civil war policy and they need to keep up public rationales also they need a way to balance against geneva he need to find a way to continue to demonize the assad government because there are ultimately goal is to get rid of assad not for a negotiated settlement still to come here on ars he ends her national betson by bit coy one of the key advocates of digital currency is arrested suspected of laundering money for the for his drug trafficking website. last made super

a hobo or bradley type of superhero who lives on the streets while cleaning them up with criminals thoughts and more still life. how do you operate dylan but i'm going to remain as good with sports such. as ruth i'm not and i live the property. is on the. lease. my fine. a century ago this year the first world war started to fundamentally change the global political order later in even weakened international system set the stage for the second world war since the end of the cold war the global order has been in limbo under american domination in the twenty first century just how stable are world politics wealthy british style.

markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cancer the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines two kinds of reports. welcome back you're watching r.t. international now from the highs of being a log of the bitcoin millionaire to signify in the darker side of the digital currency the vice chairman of the bitcoin foundation charlie sram was arrested in the u.s. earlier this week he's been charged with trying to longer a million dollars worth of bitcoins he's in the end from this outlawed website silk

road if found guilty that's once a four year old faces more than a decade behind bars. on bail but remains on the house arrest financial analyst mark thorson things that actual neagle 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 the trade is done with the u.s. dollar not big coin bitcoin is a small player it is a small percentage of its transactions are illegal that's true but the majority are for the. 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 big space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well

a canadian rock group has made it onto the guantanamo prison play list. and they're not happy about not getting paid for it they're planning to build the us government which is allegedly using their songs as a means of psychological torture had online for more details. and lost in translation r.t. dot com reports on how britons have higher interpreters for pupils as it's revealed that english is no longer the first language and seven hundred schools. write the scene. first for you and i would think that you're. on a recorder's twitter. and instagram. could

be in the. 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 is supposed to map out their supportive role is still in limbo calf and off reports on how this holiday could be the once benefits and from the friction between washington and couple 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 actually the security situation is worsening in the country india is new sign that americans. will be able to top the war in afghanistan and.

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 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. if any with not the taliban to run their own 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 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. a quick look now at some of the world stories that we have for you today scuffles in athens have broken out between the riots police and protesters who were in rage by a gathering of right wing golden dawn party supporters officers you see are gas and stun grenades to disperse the troublemakers there were several arrests after left us rioters spotted an attack the man carrying the group flying the golden dawn rally was commemorates in the deaths of three navy officers which brought greece and turkey to the brink of war it was back in one nine hundred ninety six. millions of voters in thailand are heading to the polls for a general election that's been beset by months of answer government violence

protestors have been calling for the prime minister to step aside so that widespread political reforms can be conducted that was sparked by fear she was forcing through an amnesty to let her exhausted brother packing for the country reelection violence. than a gunfire injured at least seven people at a rally. indonesia's mount cinnabon has erupted again killing at least sixteen people in the western island of sumatra clouds of thick gray ash and searing gas in gulf nearby homes just a day after authorities allow thousands of villagers to return saying it was safe they will cain has been active with smaller options since september haven't been dormant for three years. in lebanon the car bomb has exploded near a school in the north east close to the syrian border at least four people died and eighteen others were injured in the town of her which is a stronghold for the militant group hezbollah then syria ministry suspects there

was a suicide attack soon the militants often target shiite areas of lebanon everett's allegation for has been lost and in its fighters and to syria. and that's court this week left at the censorship of the only one file sharing website the pirate bay in the band fell flats when the users easily found loopholes to get access to the site's contents political columnist ted rall believes there is 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 it's time to get our skates on for another lockout lotsof she's got so awful for some of the finest once the sport saqlain step on what's a spend 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 the skating rink it's very important

that this rink be maintained properly particularly for the skaters and they 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 inside 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 impression even the facade is transparent so the spectators inside the arena can see out the focus of the arena doesn't disappoint with leading sports men and women coming forward to trace 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 goal and edler quality is the main priority

with optimal micro climatic conditions. on the surface so it's just a limp during the games every forty five minutes will have to. be machine on the circuit for. the four hundred meter. it's very important that they do this because they'll be lovely lovely ice rink as well as making. all week we'll be skating. close on the machine is free to. well the have to do to everybody my religion the games so that the libyans was beaten like and have it must be. lost. it's going to be all about speed speed and speed and the endless stadium and sochi is ready to bomb a thing. or two. and you can get more of our tour of the olympic

park at r.t. dot com and of course make sure you're here when the games will have special coverage on there throughout the fourteen. next he's not your usual handsome comic book hero but he's here to hold down the now it's back on their feet scraggy face superhero dreams of beer while the people you gag at his reeking breath but german fans can't get enough of him as paula boy has been discovering. 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 bettman or iron man they are very very rich playboys who rescued the world no it's the guy from the on the ground who rescues 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 earlier so bomb super hobos 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 stratum 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 that is 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 his 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 comic supplement makes it heavier and i can't carry as many coffees so it's not see bad you just don't carry on. now the customers are asking for this comic because they have super hard to buy

that document publication and stepped right in the fortunes of it says the soup kitchen that is the station has an increasing number of hungry mouths to feed the cries is. doing and or bringing in bringing much more people into difficult situations a lot of foreigners you for a lot of. people are telling them johnny 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 balloon 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 artsy.