we're clearly not the safest. the e.u. is offering financial support to ukraine as the country endures a severe political crisis amid ongoing protests hot on the heels of western diplomats backing the opposition's bid to seize power. and they try to just with machine guns. and. are to use the first foreign channel to gain access to the besieged syrian city of where the survivors of the alleged massacre recount the horrors they witnessed. traditional family values take center stage in france as thousands rally to protest against the policies of along.

in broadcasting live a director our studios in moscow recapping the week's top stories this is r t with the weekly now all eyes have been on ukraine and this week the cabinet was dissolved government buildings across the country besieged while the opposition enjoyed huge backing from the west. e.u. foreign policy chief catherine ashton has offered financial aid to ukraine's interim cabinet the aid package is now being discussed by the e.u. and the us now meanwhile top diplomats from america and europe have already pledged their political support for ukraine's anti-government movement at a security conference in munich u.s. secretary of state john kerry called the rallies a fight for democracy if you sharply contradicted by russia's foreign minister

sergey lavrov artes you good piece can offer ports. so 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 one country or with the rest of the world and he added that washington supports the people also ukraine but some have been calling this a one sided approach and criticizing it including russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov you know that you know it's look at that if there are some fundamental questions that need to be answers that in particular about the situation in ukraine how does the fuelling street riots that are becoming more and more violent promote democracy it's why is there no condemnation of the still occupying government buildings are those who burned police officers who show racist anti-semitic and nazi slogans why do many leading european politicians unscarred such actions while any violations of the load home are dealt with 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 calls the rest of the world. ukraine's prime minister along with the whole cabinet resigned earlier this week in a bid to ease tensions and the ongoing crisis peacefully the move comes after weeks of violence left dozens injured including many police who were both beaten and burned in confrontations with rioters there we spoke to a former agent of the cia and f.b.i. who now advises law enforcement on crowd control to ask him how authorities should respond. 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 tongs personal weapon strikes electronic control devices give 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 and then the 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 riots have not remained a solely in kiev in western ukraine many local government buildings were stormed by protesters who clashed with police while the latest opinion poll shows two thirds of the country are against of the current wave of violence policy or reports from

one of the regions that witness to the turmoil. 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 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 and he on the cover of sentiment runs deep and that's the way an italian 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 which is supposed to have no president then to have you know call the church but with the opposition as fragmented as it is that tully is the first to admit no yanna coverage could well mean an alkie when the 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 mean a group of right wing 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 one of the. similar scenes played out and she can see where protesters trying to set night furniture they smashed windows and threw stones at security forces. in a van or from coffs those now laying siege to the municipality building for britain in symbols or sentiments of the ruling party they claim it goes against the will of the ukrainian people. policia r.t.

event a from cosco western ukraine. meanwhile thousands gathered in the capital kiev on sunday for a mass anti-government rally we've got more on the unrest in ukraine at r.t. dot com. more than a month since there is one us rebels seized a very industrial syrian town of hadera just outside the capital damascus after that offensive dozens of civilians were allegedly massacred and thousands displaced though extremists still occupy key parts of the city artie's maria and her crew were the first of foreign journalists to make it inside and speak to 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 mounds of sand and piles of old tires the army uses to shield its convoys from the tanks it's maybe longer but it's

a safer route. where the first foray into vickery 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 abjure 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 handed and burnt in 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 they're actually to address the old town. and their work is house and complex nearby a drum a lier. both are now besieged by control because a lot of them were maybe some bankers here to separate other out by law and out room aliya 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 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 for any military operation could threaten the lives of those who remain hostage and was 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 a shelter around what used to be a large sum and factory but in this hotel's me he doesn't go to school anymore but this place because a terrorist attack this weekend we had to skip the occupied and we can't go there they're allowed 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 a room barely ten square meters and a 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 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 in our drive 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 loner 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 and i saw with my own eyes people stone and i still see them in my nightmares. like this sort of makeup drinking water and they prevented the bakery from working for us and young children were 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 refinish not see from our drive in syria damascus has rejected face to face talks with the opposition when the geneva peace conference restarts that is unless the us secretary of state apologizes for saying president assad has no future in syria syrian political activist omar told my colleague kevin owen that such a verbal attacks could jeopardize the next round of talks which are scheduled to start in a week's time. the u.s. congress is looted during the negotiations to arm the rebels so there is a lot to answer for announced from the language from the americans they don't seem to be you know having any shima back to what about that threat from washington that

would use force of syria failed to get rid of its chemical stockpiles by the summer there are some pretty cool reasons why this is happening you know i knew from from friends and family that who would travel his along that route between damascus and other newer southwood there are certain segments of the road where they have to drive closer to like a hundred miles an hour or under sixty can orders an hour because a funeral sniper fire power last night were shots from a moderate opposition so if you want to move military grid equipment and vehicles into that through the they have to be moved you know a much slower than that and they would be vulnerable especially if they're carrying you know chemical. warfare material that was that was used also questions the commitment and the you know the american position whether they went into this agreement in good faith or not because they might seem to be using this agreement to punish is serious rather than using this agreement to get rid of the chemical warfare calmer waters for file sharing website the pirate bay.

very dutch court overturned an earlier ruling allowing the site to restart operations in the netherlands we have more on that in just a few minutes. tens of thousands of people have marched through paris and in the city of leon in support of traditional families and marriage the protesters are demanding the government abandon its policy allowing same sex couples to marry and bring up children our correspondent peter all of our reports from the french capital. well on sunday paris saw the latest wave of discontent to sweep across france as we saw thousands upon thousands of people come out onto the streets vent their anger at what they see as the erosion of traditional family values in the country is being particularly anger toward suggestions that france could legalize homosexual marriage also that it could be brought in that would see they could see gay and lesbian couples either adopt or conceive children to i.d.f.

treatment they say that that's isn't what the traditional family is about and that's why they've been coming out here and telling me that they want to get the french government in particular fronts war on the president to hear their anger the government is very firm exists in this matter i mean they don't want to go but there are many many people who just want to call the right of two germans i just don't care that she's says even more so use for a long time his personal popularity well that is it an all time low and he's currently seems the the most unpopular french president in recent memory and what that seeing is more were more people coming out onto the streets to vent their anger against all odds and against the rules that he's trying to impose on them that they say infringes upon traditional family values here. parties peter all over for us there in paris now is one french journalist told us earlier francois alonso

focus on sexual orientation issues is a smokescreen to direct attention away from his low ratings. this is an issue that he has deliberately raised to distract attention from his unpopularity who want to get c. impressions of the ministry of the interior is actually looking for these issues but equally it's true there is an i suppose about one says the population who do feel very strongly about this we talked about this a year ago and at that time i said there is this element of the population who will not not let go on this subject to the whole the government pushes it a whole they will push back to the background there is the new code which is expiring and to try arder if you like this is not anti this is even savor of a family was a pair of children fighting for a chauffeur just happened. still ahead this hour testing of the ice for future world records our correspondent the staff at such ease and speed skating or reading to make sure the surfaces for the upcoming races for gold are as smooth as can be.

sacred lumbered tour. was able to build a new most sophisticated. fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and . this is why you should care only. speak your language. programs and documentaries and spanish

matters to you. a little turn to angle stories. so you hear. the spanish find out more visit. welcome back you're watching of the weekly on our t.v. international now just days the brand new adler venue and such he will play host to the real stars on ice when dozens of top sportsmen and women will compete for limpid gold a real drama on ice with breathtaking sprints false starts and a photo finish that's what fans can count on artie's to say they've been checking it out. 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 is reflected by and you know 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 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 to 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 optimum michael climatic conditions to show a world class. but it's just a limp during the games every forty five minutes will have to. machine on the circuit for a while but the four hundred meter. is very important because they will be a lovely lovely ice rink as well as making it. all meet a limb pins will be skating. close on the machine feeds. the well the hopital everybody five minutes of the games so that the libyans was speaking like and have it must be. lost that it's going to be all about speed beat and boys

and the endless stadium and sochi is ready to bomb the thing in the big papi in sochi blocked. he can get more of our tour of the olympic park at r.t. dot com and make sure you're here when the games get going we'll have special coverage on air throughout two thousand and fourteen. u.s. and e.u. sanctions will continue to burden iran's economy that is according to u.s. secretary of state john kerry during a meeting with his iranian counterpart in munich some of the restrictions were

lifted under a deal reached in november in exchange for tehran scaling down a nuclear enrichment and former advisor to iran's negotiation team. says the comments do more harm than good. and let's take carrie's pressure tactics which is part of these two prong coercive diplomacy the idea pronk being rising nearly thirty threats and is very dangerous. threat that we saw in president obama's state of union address is really can't to put duct if their poison is the environment for the coming talks they brought the iran to the table by pressure and they need to escalate that pressure to gain maximum concessions and secretary of state kerry has been referring to this man telling aspects of the opinion nuclear program which is contrary to the content of the geneva agreement and flatly rejected the idea that any and for minutes that. entrepreneur and

a bit coin millionaire charlie shrem was arrested in the u.s. this week he has been charged with the laundering of more than a million dollars worth of the cyber currency through the online market silk road a site closed for selling drugs twenty four year old is well known as one of the bitcoins biggest promoters and if found guilty he now faces more than a decade behind bars sram is currently out on bail but remains under house arrest financial analyst mark thornton thinks that actual legal issues have very little to do with his case. the u.s. dollar is actually the major facilitator of the 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 big point space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well holidaymakers on the beaches of spain may have to get used to an ominous silhouette on the horizon. that's after america sent a ballistic missile defense destroyer to the area this of course has not been welcomed by moscow which has warned of a counter move you can learn more online. and. there it is the big bang in practice and a level one hundred and sixteen metre high german sky scraper was leveled in one of the largest ever controlled building explosions in europe and had online for the dramatic footage of. a dutch court has given internet freedom activists

a reason to celebrate this week after it rules to restore users access to an online file sharing service the pirate bay the hague appeals court has reversed a two thousand and eleven decision to block access access to the website stating that the ban didn't help to reduce copyright infringement political columnist ted rall believes it's almost impossible to defend a property rights in this high tech era. anybody 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 it effectively is 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 that digitization has made it very difficult for copyright holders to enforce those rights. now look at some other world news making headlines around the world this hour the iraqi army has stepped up its bombardment of the city of flu shot reportedly ahead of a full on the ground offensive the city was seized by al-qaeda linked militants in early january and has been under intensive shelling for days the government been holding off on sending in troops to give local tribesmen time to oust the rebels security in iraq has been on a down with almost eight thousand people killed in sectarian violence last year alone. thailand's electoral commission says it is unable to announce the results of a nationwide vote after anti-government protesters forced the closure of thousands

of polling stations they disrupted the delivery of ballot papers and set up blockades 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 let her exiled brother back in the country. at least five people have been killed in a blast at a cinema in the pakistani city of peshawar at least another thirty were injured and some are in critical condition i would miss his claim a man sitting in the back row of the auditorium threw grenades after a short break. we're going to jump the gun there a little bit now after a short break the most dramatic stories from either side of the us mexico border you're watching r t international stay with us.

the first recreational marijuana shops are now open in colorado finally the question of what effect legal marijuana will have on the american public can be answered with real world experience you know there are a lot of people out there with strong arguments as to why we should legalize this controversial play it firstly there are plenty of things just as bad for us as marijuana or worse like beer cigarettes antidepressants and mystery fast food meats which are totally legal secondly young men are often thrown in jail for the absolutely victimless crime of smoking marijuana i could see punishing someone for drugs like crystal meth which can and do turn people into maniacs but have any of you out there ever heard of someone breaking into people's houses on a we ramp age no no you haven't the downside to all this is that across america the world people are looking for change and they want

a massive storm rise but when the masses are stoned out of their minds it makes things in life that we shouldn't tolerate become very tolerable we now call allow us to make it through another day of our miserable lives so that we can live without going through all that effort of trying to make things better or challenge the system legalizing weed will just pacify the masses even more but that's just my opinion. one of the new. ideas are i believe. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher.

larry the fact is the place they take you to and detain you. if they're really root races and an educated they are racist so racist and root they check out every part of you they even look in your shoes. they also examine you in places that they shouldn't they trichy of worse than a duck these are good they say that the got takes his time but he never forgets. almost them as i hope that one day they will also have to go through this. i was trying to got and ask to give you hope and protection and that she protects all migrants because i have seen how much they suffer.