the e.u. is offering financial support to ukraine as the country endures a severe political crisis amid ongoing protests this comes hot on the heels of western diplomats backing the opposition's bid to seize power. and they threatened us with machine guns. and killing us. r.t. is the first foreign channel to gain access to the besieged syrian city of where the survivors of the alleged islamist massacre recounts the horrors they witness. i . traditionally family values take center stage in france as thousands rally to protest against of the policies of.

broadcasting live from our studios in moscow recapping the week's top stories this is r t international with the weekly now all eyes have been on ukraine this week in 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 go to peace can offer ports. 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 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 that you know it's when you get that there are some fundamental questions that need to be answered in particular about the situation in ukraine how does fuelling street riots that are becoming more and more violent promote democracy why is there no condemnation of the e.c.g. 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 current such actions while any violations of little old home are dealt with harshly. some strong words there from russia's chief diplomat also added to joking

that next time we meet was with 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 burnt in confrontations with rioters earlier 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. and respond with pepper spray but tongs 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 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 it not remain soley 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 the current wave of violence policy reports from one of the regions that witnessed the turmoil. this is

the regional administration building event notes on card skin western ukraine where up until 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 and he russian this is the heartland of nationalism where anti unequivocal 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 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 yanna coverage could well mean an alkie whitley 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 where

a regional offices are being picketed and seized by protesters i misa 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 government demonstrators set up barricades made a vehicle pass and sacks of snow they demanded police leave the building was. similar scenes played out in chicago where protesters tried 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 buildings have forbidden any symbols or sentiments of the ruling party they claim it goes against the will of the ukrainian people. policia r.t. ivanna 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. it has been more than a month since the islamist rebels seized the industrial syrian town of hadera just outside of the capital damascus after that offensive dozens of civilians were allegedly massacred and thousands displaced there were extremists still occupy key parts of the city. and her crew were the first foreign journalists to get close 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. where the first for him to be crude 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 over ends and one claimed the doctors and patients were killed in a clinic which travelled 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 the

old town. and the workers house in complex nearby a drama. both are now besieged by people 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 their 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 with no access inside it's impossible to tell just how many the are but

luckily most of the residents managed to escape are dry we meet some of them two kilometers away they sheltered 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 the student who had to skate they occupied and we can't go there they're owed a 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 and a silence 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 vitus or 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 stole and i still see them in my nightmares. that are like this sort of 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 traded us with machine guns. once an important industrial and peaceful city has become yet another syrian battleground for weary forces whose

three alone 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. see from our drive in syria damascus has rejected it 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. 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. u.s. congress is looted during because he she was to arm the rebels so there is a lot to answer for an ounce from the language really really americans they don't seem to be you know having any shima that is what about the threat from washington that would use force if 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 whoever travels along that route between damascus and holmes either knew or southward 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 few last night with power last night were shots from a moderate opposition so if you want to move military grade equipment and vehicles into that through 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 pirate bay

after a 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 of the city of early on 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 oliver 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 all conceived 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 france well and the president to hear their anger their 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 dogs a 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 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. are to spear all over there for us now as one french journalist told us earlier francois alonso focus on sexual orientation issues as

a smokescreen to direct attention away from his low ratings. to seize an issue that he used to divert the race to distract attention from his unpopularity you want to get to see oppression of the ministries each year is actually looking at these issues but equally it's true that there is an i suppose about one says the population who do feel very strongly about this we talked about this a year ago that time i said there is the sentiment of the population who will not not let go on this subject to the whole the government issues that the whole day will push back to the background there is the new code which is expiring and to try all of it or if you like the she's not the t.v. she's even savior of the family was a pair of us children this is the fight for the suffragists family. now still ahead this hour testing the ice for future world records our correspondent joins the staff at such ease speed skating arena to make sure the service is for the upcoming races for gold are as smooth as can be.

so. this is a media lido so we leave the media by the same motions superior. play your part of the physical. forces that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politicking only on our team.

you're watching r t international just days actually the brand new adler venue in sochi 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 breath taking breath taking sprints false starts and photo finishes as what fans can count on. has been checking out the arena. 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 to and that this ring can 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 and you know walls and try and get a stained glass windows the gray and white color of the building in hunt'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 places. 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 optimal michael climatic conditions. on the surface so it's just a limp during the games every forty five minutes we'll have to bring. machines and bring them on the circuit for. the floor one hundred meter this is very important because i will be leveling up ice rink as well as making. all week a limb pins will be skating. suggs on the machine feeds. well they'll have to deal with every twenty five minutes of the games so that the libyans was skating well can have a much smoother last. it's going to be all about speed speed and more speed and the edge of the stadium and sochi is ready to bomb with the big pop in

sochi blocked. and you can get more of our tour of the olympic park at our two dot com and make sure you're here when the games get going we'll have special coverage on air throughout sochi two thousand and fourteen stay with us. 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 nuclear enrichment

a former adviser to iran's negotiation team. says the comments do more harm than good. and if they carry the pressure tactics which is part of these two prong. of diplomacy the being rising many thirty threats and is of a dangerous. threat that we saw in president obama's state of the union address is really content put duct if any there poisons them vitamin 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 any and for minutes that are well intrapreneur and a bit going 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 the twenty four year old is well known as one of 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 us 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 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 rest it was a political event meant to intimidate people in the space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well. holiday makers on of the beaches of spain may have to get used to an ominous silhouette on the horizon that's after america a ballistic missile defense destroyer to the area this of course has not been welcomed by moscow which has warned of a counter move to learn more online. and. jump the gun there pretty cool the big bang in practice a one hundred sixteen meter high german skyscraper was leveled in one of the largest ever controlled building explosions in europe you can head online for the dramatic footage. a dutch court has given internet freedom activists

a reason to celebrate to 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 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 property rights in this high tech era. 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 it 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. to take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world this hour the iraqi army has stepped up its bombardment of the city of fallujah reportedly ahead of a full on ground offensive the city was seized by al qaeda linked militants in early january and has been under intensive shelling for days the government has been holding off on sending in troops to give local tribesmen time to oust the rebels security in iraq has been getting worse it's almost eight thousand people killed in sectarian violence last year alone. thailand's electoral commission says it is unable to announce of the results of a nationwide vote after anti-government protest protestors 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 forms and rest was sparked by fears she was forced on you for an estate law to let her exiled brother back into the country. well just ahead of the stories of those left without a home in the big apple stay with us you're watching r.t. internetting. 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 anti-depressants 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 weed rampage no no you haven't the downside to all of this is that across america while the world people are looking for change and they want the message store 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. legalizing weed will just pacify the masses even more but that's just my opinion.

on how our. past homeless people who are the very reason some people. some problems will sit in those in the middle east and. it's a. really crazy so right there. is many reasons of wildfires so so there's. a bottom really it's your reward deal responsibility. this is many reasons as was the first song.

so start of the beginning for example we can. talk about the case of jose who was in that spot. so he got to refer here by his friend whose name was also jose. they both worked in times where. they're kind of costume mascot the other jose was batman and this jose was all wrong and they got to know each other and the other jose got to it and there's a situation that was going to enough that he knew he was ready to. patch of his family that he was in schrage wrong and rent a part that was so you reunited with his wife and children and they moved out on.