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 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 massacre recount they witnessed. i. traditional family values take center stage in france as thousands rally to protest against the policies of.

broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is our team recapping our weekly program thanks for being with us now all eyes have been on ukraine this week the cabinet was dissolved government buildings across the country be sieged 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 u.s. 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 and if you sharply contradicted by russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov artie's reports 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. 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 shot racist and use the media and nazi slogans why do many leading european politicians and current such actions while any violations of the home are dealt with harshly. some strong words there from russia's chief diplomat also added to

joking that next time they meet was with mr kerry he's going to ask him what grades he had in school asking how many countries this you think are in that group that he calls the rest of the worlds. ukraine's prime minister along with a 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 respond with pepper spray but tang's personal weapon strikes electronic control devices pick 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. and the riots have not remained of soli in kiev in western ukraine many at local government buildings were stormed by protesters who clashed with police while the latest opinion poll shows two thirds of the country are against this current wave of violence artie's policy or reports from one of the regions that witnessed the

turmoil. this is the regional administration building event notes on cards skin western ukraine where at them till a week ago the regional governor had his office but as you can see just liking kiev's there's 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 anti unequivocal 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. 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 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 that position which won't be easy the sentiments

blown across central and western ukraine where regional offices are being picketed and seized by protesters i believe that a group of writing radicals some wearing masks stormed the municipal building chanting you 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 intricacy where protesters tried to set night to 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. ivana from crafts western ukraine. meanwhile thousands gathered in the capital kiev

on sunday for a mass anti-government rally now we've got more on the unrest in ukraine on our web site r.t. dot com. it has been more than a month since of the islamist rebels seized the industrial syrian town of hadera just outside the capital of damascus after that offensive dozens of civilians were allegedly massacred and thousands displaced though extremists still occupy key parts of the city or to use more if an ocean i had a crew where the first foreign journalists to get close 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 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 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 limerick's 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 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 are actually to the

old town. and the work is house and complex nearby a drama lear. both are now besieged like a dog whistle of another maybe some bankers here to separate other our beloved and out room earlier and to prevent the militants uniting. these corridors 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 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 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 terrorist attack the street and we had to skate they occupied and we cannot go there their own job locked he says his father is a government employee this is why it was 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 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 not 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 loner they were looking for anybody serving in the syrian army and also the vitus of the syrian soldiers beheaded at the sewage system. we were in a group of about twenty people they were beating us three at a time and killing us and i saw with my own eyes people stone 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 threatened 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 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 amara walker after old my colleague kevin owen that such a verbal attacks could jeopardize the next round of talks which are scheduled to start in a week. this congress is looted during the negotiations to arm the rebels so there is a lot to answer for and from the language we're hearing from the 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 political reasons why this is happening you know i know from from friends and family that whoever travels along that route between damascus and homs either know who or what there are certain segments of the road where they have to drive closer to like a hundred miles an hour or hundred sixty can or has an hour because of fear of sniper fire power or shots from moderate opposition so if you want to move military grade equipment and vehicles 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 language that was used also questions the commitment and the you know the american position and 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.

after a court overturned in the earlier ruling allowing the site to restart operations in the netherlands with more on that in just a few minutes. tens of thousands of people have marched through paris and the city of leone in support of traditional families and marriage protesters are demanding the government abandon its policy allowing same sex couples to marry and bring up children our correspondent peter all of the reports from the french capital well on sunday paris seoul the latest wave of discontent is 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 i'm good toward suggestions that france could legalize homosexual marriage also that it could do those could be brought in that would see if they could see gay and lesbian couples either adopt well

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 fronts war on the president to hear their anger at the government is not very fair exists in this matter i mean they don't want to go but there are many many people who just want to halt the right of children and just don't care and that she is she 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 to be 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. and he's peter all over there for us in paris now is one of french journalist told us earlier

a long focus on sexual orientation issues is a smokescreen to direct attention away from his low ratings. to seize an issue that he's deliberately raised to distract attention from his own popularity you want to get see oppression of the ministries each year is actually looking for these issues but he clearly it's true that there is i suppose about one says the population who do feel very strongly about this we talked about this a year ago at that time i said there is the celibacy population who will not not let go on this subject and hold the government to she said all they will push back to the background there is the new tide which is expiring the childcare if you like the she's not anti the she's in favor of a family was a pair of children this is a fight for the suffragists family. now still ahead this hour testing the ice for future world records correspondent joined that such as it speeds getting a readout to make sure the surfaces for the upcoming races for gold are as smooth

as can be. dramas that can't be ignored. stories there is still a few still no. faces changing the world right now. so pictures of today's news. from around the globe. looking.

this is a so we leave the. secure. party. that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politics. you're welcome back you're watching the weekly here on r t now in just two days the brand new adler venue in sochi will play host to the real stars on ice when dozens of top sports men and women will compete for lead big gold a real drama on ice with breathtaking sprints false starts and photo finishes that's what fans can count on has been checking out the arena for us.

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 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 two 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 that goal and edler quality is the main priority with optimum michael climatic conditions to show a world class. games every forty five minutes we'll have to bring on machines and bring them on the circuit for. the four hundred meter this is very important because i will be a leveling up ice rink as well as making pasta all week will be skating. close on the machine is free to. well the have to do with every twenty five minutes of the games so that the libyans was getting lucky to have any money. lost.

it's going to be all about speed speed and boards and the atlas and sochi is ready to bomb the thing in the big poppy in sochi a lot. we get more of our tour of the olympic park at r.t. dot com and make sure your here when the games get going we'll have special coverage on air throughout sochi two thousand and fourteen. the 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 scaling down nuclear enrichment a former adviser to your wrongs negotiation team. says the comments do more harm than good. and let's take a pressure tactics which is part of these two prong. of diplomacy the idea pronk 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 dot if their poison is they might omen for the coming talks they brought iran to the table by pressure and they need to escalate that pressure in india 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 a millionaire charlie sram 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 side clothes 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 little to do with this case. the u.s. dollar is actually the major facilitator of 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 because it 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 and it listed 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 big point space and it was a perfectly foreseeable event as well. holiday makers on 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 more. and to the big bang in practice one hundred sixty meter high german skyscraper has 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 this week after it ruled 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 bang didn't help reduce copyright infringement political columnist ted rall believes it's almost impossible to defend property rights in this high tech air. 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. and now time to take a look at some of the news 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 the ground offensive the city was seized by al-qaeda linked militants in early january and has been under intense of shelling for days the government has been holding off on sending in troops to give local tribesmen time to alst the rebels security in iraq has been getting worse 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 early general election comes after months of protests calling for the prime minister to quit to pave the way for far reaching political reforms rest was sparked by fears that she was forcing through an amnesty law to let her brother back into the country. now we'll have more news in about thirty minutes from now but taking you through then it's cross talk with. the u.s. military was built to square off against the soviet union over western europe but when you take that conventional military and now try to read task it as

a counterinsurgency force it creates a lot of gaps and that's the kind of private sector stuff. new york london. the whole world is. the original one the one on the end. of the building at the end of the street another one no more.

you know the flame. the olympic spirit travels with the flame from its place in greece. join james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond. where i. see. below and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle

a century ago this year the first world war started it fundamentally changed the global political order later and 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 our world politics. to cross-talk parallels to nine hundred fourteen i'm joined by my guest george samuel in new york he is a fellow of the global policy institute of london metropolitan university and author of the new book bombs for peace nato's humanitarian war on yugoslavia in washington we have brian becker he is the national coordinator for the answer coalition and in london we crossed to david stephenson he is an author of several books about the first world war as well as a professor of international history at the london school of economics are gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you.