today's news and the week's top stories from our to international at amnesty for rioters comes into force in ukraine as the country's opposition cosies up to western politicians at a security forum in munich despite moscow once again warning the e.u. against taking sides in the unrest plus. young children about to die from a lack of water and they threatened us with machine guns there would be us three at a time and giving us our team becomes the first foreign t.v. channel to gain access to the besieged syrian town of our drug after reports of rebels massacring dozens of civilians there including children. and one of the biggest names in the world of digital currency is arrested over accusations of laundering over a million dollars worth of bitcoin. you're

watching our team international live from moscow with the merida josh welcome now and amnesty has come into force in ukraine giving riders in downtown key of a throughout the country the country on the west fifteen days to disperse and leave all government buildings this amid the seeming triumph of the country's opposition from men at a security forum in munich where are these scored pledges of more support from washington and the european union meanwhile russia's foreign minister has called against taking a one sided view breast in ukraine your best get off reports 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. sergei lavrov you have to deal with it is when you get that from there are some fundamental questions that need to be answered in particular about the situation in ukraine how does fueling sriracha that are becoming more and more violent to promote democracy why is there no condemnation of the siege in still occupying government buildings were those who burned police officers shot racist anti-semitic and nazi slogans why do many leading european politicians and courage such actions while any violations of the load hold are dealt with harshly some strong words there from russia's chief diplomat also added joking that next time they 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. well during discussions in munich both boxer turned opposition leader of telly and ukraine's foreign minister have had zero say with a top diplomat blaming his opponent for the increasingly nationalist violence in his country klitschko however diverted the debate by blaming the violence on police brutality security consultant chuck joiner who used to work for the cia and the f.b.i. gave us his thoughts on the ukraine's handling of the situation. if you are in the situation where i've seen videos of police officers on fire and 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

person a 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 the integrity 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. and the latest poll show to surge of ukraine years did not support the turmoil that's a goal for the western regions and most of which local administration offices have either been stormed or the seats amanda feel the country's under the threat of civil war or do you suppose we are travelling to one of the bads of the unrest. this is the regional administration building in event

a song called skin western ukraine where at the till a week ago the regional governor had his office but as you can see just like in key if there is now a giant barricade surrounding the building with snow tires and planks of wood radical and he russian this is the heartland of nationalism where antione covered sentiment runs deep and that's the way natalia and her come rates 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 you have a cup which could well mean an alkie alertly 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 we 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 these i intend to guard the demonstrators set up barricades made of vehicle parts and sacks of snow they demanded police in the building was. similar scenes played out in chicago where protesters tried to set night to furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. bianco has moved even further west with. intern off the protests to send ukrainian hymns while ignoring the government's attempts to disperse them. in nevada from coffs those now named fifty municipalities building half of britain in from bulls all sentiments of the green 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. of the country all scorers so i also result i hear some arab spring ups in the long term perspective. despite their criticism of the army coverage these protesters have nothing better to offer. t.v. event a from coffs western ukraine. you're. watching our senior national and right now you're looking at the live pictures coming out of the plane capital were despite the amnesty there is still a massive anti-government rally underway authorities are saying up to fifty

thousand people have gathered in the embattled independence square of course here as your national we'll bring you the very latest on the turmoil there on the air in a line at our team. has been over a month since reports emerged that hardline syrian rebels have captured the town of outside damascus dozens of civilians were allegedly slaughtered and sauza is displaced the rebels still occupy key parts of the town making it hard to verify information coming from there are just recent and her crew were the first foreign journalist to make it inside and speak to 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 moans of sand and piles of old tires the army uses to shoot its convoys from a tanks it's maybe longer but it's a safer route welcome. 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. to reported allegations the dozens of civilians had been executed that people were be hadad 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 blurred and the work is house and complex nearby a drama lear both and i'll besieged like a dog with a lot of the will maybe some bankers here to separate other are below and that room earlier and to prevent the militants uniting these corridors go all around the besieged cities with the army watching the area day and night. this is one of the checkpoints of the syrian army behind this wall is territory held by militants and the soldiers strategy and the 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 animal to 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 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 a terrorist attack the street and we had to skate they occupied and we can't go there they're older 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 a room barely ten square meters in the silence and everything what is happening is wrong there was no need for any of this see where we are now what degree we have reached now it's a question that many here are asking because these children haven't seen their mother for a month full ready 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 the loon i love you had 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 i saw with my own eyes people stone i still see them in my nightmares. don't like this sort of drinking water and they prevented the bakery from working for a cigarette and young children were about to die from a lack of water and they threatened us with machine guns. drawn once an important industrial and peaceful city has become yet another syrian battleground for weary

forces. taishan 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 our dryer in syria meanwhile u.s. intelligence is raising suspicions that the syrian regime is capable of producing biological weapons despite the ongoing chemical disarmament washington is also warning to baskets of possible military action if it misses the deadlines to destroy its arsenal anti-war activists brian bakker told us what he believes lies behind the threats. 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 for mental and civil war so that they can destroy an independent nationalist government in this region of the world we've gone through this script before we saw it in iraq we saw it in libya we're seeing it in syria 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 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 and coming out of the program reinforcing afghanistan. will support a unified afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future or is new hope that the taliban and the future well joining the peace process with the government of afghanistan. the volatile country faces the looming strout of a resurgent taliban as kabul and washington wrangle over a post pullout security deal and the thirteen year war.

there's immediately though so we leave that maybe. are the same motions your. plate

your party years ago. or shoes that no one is asking with the gas that you deserve answers from. politics. welcome back you're watching r.t. international young american entrepreneur and a bit coy millionaire charlie sram was arrested in the u.s. this week the c.e.o. of the digital currency exchange but instant is accused of laundering more than a million dollars worth of big coins through the converse a website silk road known to be used by drug traffickers the twenty four year old is also accused of not putting necessary regulations in place to keep criminal activity out of the financial system a found guilty he faces more than a decade behind bars he's now under house arrest after being released on bail

financial analyst mark sorenson believes the arrest was aimed at setting up political precedents not a legal one. the u.s. dollar is actually the major facilitator of the illegal transactions of drugs human trafficking all sorts of nasty businesses most of the trade is done with the u.s. dollar not a big one big point 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 big space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well. holidaymakers on the beaches of spain may have to get used to and on the ominous silhouette on the horizon after.

ballistic missile defense the store the area this force has not been welcomed by moscow which is warned of a counter move and learn more about this online home over the. suzi u.k. arms manufacturers seeking compensation of over half a billion dollars following the dispute which goes all the way back in seventy's. a presidential campaigning starts in afghanistan as american troops continue their was draw from the country kabul is still refusing to sign a security pact which would permit u.s. soldiers to remain in a fragile state after two thousand and fourteen are just losing confidence reports on how the taliban could be the ones benefiting from the friction between washington and the afghan government 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 when it comes to afghanistan peace is far from search. and the past ten years there were not able to build an afghan security force 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 forces 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 hard 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 on that any work night the taliban run their area the 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 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 once again could be up for grabs reporting in washington for r.t.e. i'm lucy catherine. washington has spent billions waging a war in afghanistan since two thousand and one and has cost the u.s. taxpayer just under eight hundred billion dollars and there are some bills still to come every american soldier serving in afghanistan this year will cost on average two point one million dollars more than seven billion dollars worth of equipment

isn't going to be shipped back so it will have to be decommissioned and a new thirty four million dollar military h.q. will not be used and is now reportedly going to be demolished we spoke to. a terrorism consultant and a former prisoner of the taliban and he's saying stay u.s. is not able to contain a 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 and what to do with the taliban. snapshot of some of today's world news and athens scuffles have broken out between riot police and anti-fascist protesters and raged by a gathering of right wing golden dawn party supporters officers used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd there were several arrests after a leftist rioters a tap to ma'am carrying a greek flag and golden dawn rally was commemorating the deaths of three navy officers which broad greece and turkey to the brink of war in nineteen ninety six. thailand's of the torah electoral commission says it's unable to announce the results of a nationwide vote after anti-government protesters forced the closure of hundreds of polling stations they disrupted the delivery of ballot papers and set up the early general election comes after months of protests calling for the prime

minister to quit to pave the way for far reaching political reforms the unrest was sparked by fears she was forcing through an amnesty law to latter exile brother back into the country. in a matter of days breathtaking sprints false starts and photo finishes all on ice it's time to get your skates on for another look at what the sochi two thousand and fourteen winter olympics has got to offer with a bang would say. 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 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 piece is reflected by and you know walls and try and get a stained glass windows the gray and white color of the building in hans's this impression even the facade is transparent so that spectators inside the arena can see out the focus of the arena doesn't disappoint with leading sports men and women coming forward to praise. it features to competition tracks and one training track all designed to provide the best possible performance for after. the quality of ice can make a huge difference in winning gold and at adler quality is the main priority with optional michael climatic conditions to show a world class. it's generally

a limp during the games every forty five minutes will have to. be machine on the circuit for a lot of the floor one hundred metre this is very important that they do this because they'll be a leveling of the ice rink as well as making it. all meet a limb plants will be skating. close on the machine is doing feats. the well the hope to do that every twenty five minutes during the games so that the libyans was beaten let him have a much smoother and boss up. it's going to be all about speed beat and boards and the endless stadium and sochi is ready to bomb with the park in sochi for. a get more of our a chore aveo in the park at r.t. to call in make sure you're with us when the game schedule go and we'll be bringing you special coverage on air throughout sochi twenty fourteen.

and up next we hear of the dramatic stories from both sides of the us mexico border . take me to the ball game and 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 settle 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 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 are 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 a psychotic terrorist murder nope but that's just my opinion.