find out more visit. peace activists go on trial in the us for taking a stand against their government's drone warfare campaign. a teacher and a police officer killed in a hostage crisis in a moscow school carried out by one of its model students. have been administered to the u.s. secretary of state after he warned that the country could face a boycott if it fails to take real steps to strike a peace deal with the palestinians. and i welcome you watching r.t. international coming to you live from moscow. now activists calling for

a world with drone strikes will be defending their actions this week in courts across america three groups are standing trial separately for their protests against the use of unmanned war machines with more on the cases here's our correspondent. in washington. four activists appeared before a judge in california this monday for their attempt to deliver a letter of protest to a military base commander the letter accuses the u.s. government and all military personnel involved in the drone program of crimes against humanity more activists are on trial for similar actions seventeen people are facing charges in new york for protesting at the premises of a base from where we put drones are piloted also this week five other activists will be appealing their trespass conviction nearby at the central intelligence agency where they tempted to deliver a letter to the head of the cia john brennan the letter that these people are on trial for says our government has become a lawless power acting those judge jury and executioner just because he can by most

independent studies the vast majority of those killed are civilians and president obama's statement about quote unquote near certainty of no civilian deaths in drone strikes sounds cynical especially in light of reports like the one two months ago where a drone strike hit a wedding convoy in yemen last october i met with survivors of a drone strike in pakistan they were here in washington to testify before a near empty panel of congressmen about a strike that left their family devastated and nine year old girl and her teenage brother nearly escaped death the drone strike killed their sixty seven year old grandmother she was picking vegetables in her garden the activists who are on trial now point out the said irony no one has been held responsible for the strikes that killed innocent people and yet they're the ones drax to port and this goes on amid relative silence in the media and public ignorance of washington's many unmanned

killings at least that's what we have been hearing from david swanson an antiwar activist and author of the book war is a lie. but he has had people serving a six month prison sentences we've had people facing horrendous charges for exercising their first amendment rights this is an ongoing activity across the country and it's noticed in the local media that there's a virtual blackout in the national media in the united states you would have no idea this was happening it's that there's an extensive protest resistance movement against these drone murders and unfortunately most americans don't even know it's happening don't even know what the drones are being used for much less that they're being protested here exactly why are they against these trained strikes wise why is this any worse than any other military action. when these missiles go and kill innocent men women children infants in pakistan afghanistan again and somalia

there's no discussion there's no debate it just happens under the radar and there's a little blurb the next day saying militants were targeted and nobody knows what that means who they were and good reporting has shown that many many innocent people who have done absolutely nothing wrong have been killed by these drones which are counterproductive in their own terms they are making the united states more hated that. areas there is to miss the drone warfare cost hundreds of innocent lives in countries including pakistan and yemen one of our correspondents traveled to both countries to hear the harrowing accounts of drone strike victims and their relatives and as you've already heard one of these families went all the way to capitol hill to get answers from u.s. politicians you can find their stories in our reports at r.t. dot com also on my knee a man killing campaign puts boots on the ground as the u.s.

military makes a breakthrough in driverless vehicle technology and it's all there for you on our web site. a teacher and a police officer have been killed in a hostage crisis at a moscow school over twenty students who were in the classroom at the time were released on the hurt the gun man who is now in custody is reportedly a model high school student who harbored a grudge against his teacher artie's margaret howell reports from the city. i'm standing just outside the school in northeast moscow where a tenth grade boy walked inside earlier at around eleven o'clock this morning and opened fire know he'd taken two rifles out of his father's home and killed one security officer killed one teacher and entered a third person a security guard who is currently in hospital then he proceeded to take twenty four students hostage now these students he tipped he took hostage we're tenth graders

fellow students and they have since been let go now archie caught up with a friend of one of those hostages earlier here's what he had to say. my friend told me to switch on the t.v. i didn't saw my school and he said the security guard had managed to push the emergency bachmann time students were evacuated from the building i saw some of them later and they said the teacher was injured but then my mother said it was quite a chaotic morning this young man fired eleven shots in total his father was able to communicate with the young man and he did let the hostages go and then he did ultimately surrender to law enforcement it said that he is currently under psychiatric assessment the educational minister did make a statement saying that this wasn't a situation where the young man had any grievance against students or teachers it was believed that he just has an emotional problem however originally it was reported that this was

a revenge killing particularly for this young teacher who's believed to be between twenty nine and thirty years of age that this young man did kill him but at this time we don't have any information regarding his emotional state although we do expect that to be forthcoming on the latest reports claim that the young man used to brag to his friends about his shooting skills acquired with the help of his father used to take into a firing range you can read online more about this at r.t. dot com for all the. updates on this story. another spat seems to be brewing between the u.s. secretary of state and the israeli government it all started after john kerry expressed his concern over the lack of progress of peace negotiations with the palestinians mr kerry says the status quo being maintained by israel is not sustainable he also warned that many countries could seek to boycott tel of eve if

peace negotiations fail in response to this prime minister benjamin netanyahu replied that any efforts to boycott israel would be unjustified then the strategic affairs minister weighed in saying israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a gun to its head and finally the economy minister call on israel's allies to stand up against those trying to pursue and he said netty gender's against his country and some two thousand israelis gathered outside the western wall in jerusalem last week for a prayer rally against u.s. efforts to broker a deal israel resume peace talks with the palestinians last july a deadline for a framework agreement has been set for april with israeli settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem remain the key sticking point. what we spoke to senior correspondent and columnist for the directs newspaper he says pressure from the u.s. could mean a blow for the israelis. american pressure could have many

forms. that would probably not be any direct overt physical sort of pressure but even holding off on supporting israel indeed diplomatic arena of including in the united nations security council if the palestinians godor and claimed their right to establish a state disk would also put a lot of pressure on israel and the very fact that we see a public spat between the. obama administration and the netanyahu government this is already putting pressure on israel because israel's main strategic asset has always been its good relations with washington if this is taken from israel israel could no longer be considered the major power originally that it was

considered to be for the last fifty or sixty years. coming up later this hour catching out the cops. being charged with assaulting a police officer obstructed and resisting arrest i couldn't six months in prison and that would have completely the revolver believe changed my life. party speaks to a student about how a video that went viral helped him win his case of police misconduct. following calls for greater support by opposition leaders in ukraine brussels and washington are putting together a significant short term assistance package despite concessions from president yannick overage mass rallies are still being held in kiev with people refusing to leave the streets unless he steps down in foreign policy chief catherine ashton says the western aid is supposed to help the country through a transition period but the money will be dependent on

a new ukrainian government approving political and economic reform and with investment and also on the cards the region giants have been eager to exploit the country's shale gas potential and that's got locals worried as porthos leader explains western ukraine a big good battleground for american oil giants two months ago keeps trying to prevent with chevron to use this area for fracking. flammable tap water toxic chemicals pumped into the earth contaminated environments just some of the risks that have sparked protests against fracking in the united states and europe. thank you now it's ukrainian farmers that orlick will buy milk who are left in the cold some less time our lakes and rivers will get dirty sporadic protests have fallen on deaf ears and able to match the might of the fuel lobby if america can.

to crane we can lose our position and america will control ukrainian money and business meanwhile countries like france switzerland and the netherlands are worried enough to bend the technology the ten billion dollar deal level chevron to operate in the country for fifty years it has the right to sell the gas it up tains with quotas to other countries so all claims that ukraine will make a lot of money are in fact nonsense and in a place where unemployment is rife kids promise of thousands of new jobs is enough bait for people next ingenue forty four years old and employed and trying to care for his sick mother of all i hope will get a job people in ukraine are not scared of work we must just learn what to do for carriage for kiev is energy independence and cheap fuel for a country struggling to pay the bills even though russia dropped the cost of its gas by almost a third to calculate the shale spoils industry experts look at precedents in

neighboring poland companies promise the earth only to significantly scale back which is very high risk for this bush because after the five years of exploration process bodies may decide to stop. their activities because they do not find. places where it will be their disability to produce gas pressure on peer to keep these firms out is growing but not fast enough it seems to quell the government's desire to have its own gas whatever the cost or concerns of the people policy our team have live coverage of western ukraine. they are reaching out to chevron and shell ukrainian authorities say the firms will help the country achieve self-sufficiency and even enable its own energy exports american environmentalist though says financial gain would come to greater costs for ukrainians. the

process itself is you cannot balance of liquid laced with sand and with chemicals under super high pressures down into all these drilled holes without having a consequence this whole fracking. madness is spreading all over the planet they want to frack as many countries as possible and so more people are getting aware of it and i'm getting people here from all over europe north america africa to come here to see for themselves besides what they hear from the gas companies because the gas company will admit to no problems everything is hunky dory everything is covered all the bases are covered we have nothing to worry about folks we know what we are doing. still ahead rising the rig. something i have never seen before at the olympic games.

sochi olympic venues get the highest praise from the international olympic committee find out more in a couple of minutes. talking about language at all but i will only react to such right i have read the reports but like. you know i will leave the state to comment on your latter point. because are you talking. you know more weasel. when you made a direct question are you prepared for a change when you launch be ready for a. critical speech a little down to forget to watch. dramas

that can't be ignored. stories are there is still a few who still notice. things is changing the world right now. so picture today. on demand from around the. globe. to be. ready set and only a few days to go to the sochi twenty fourteen winter games have received the final stamp and a stamp of approval from the president of the international olympic committee and thomas beck didn't hold back as he was addressing the media describing the unique qualities of some facility the olympic stages is ready for the best winter

rest lead of the world. we can see this in the sports facilities. state of the art there which has been tested and there we can see in the olympic village is which are all of. very high quality and or for excellent conditions for the athletes about eighty percent of the athletes can literally walk from their bed in the wheel each to their competition when you use something i have never seen before at any olympic games all the top athletes at the winter games in sochi would of course take home their whole of medals the lucky ones will even get a slice of the taliban's meteorite but what is left for those who don't make the podium and for the army of fans that have traveled there were earlier i went along to find out. well if you're looking to buy

a souvenir during the olympics you probably want to get your hands on one of the mascots either the snow leopard there or the polar bear and if you want to go to the high end of the market you could try one of these porcelaine figurines these have all been made in a very famous village just outside moscow this workshop english here has produced russia's famous blue and white china for the last two centuries but it's not plates and pockets of the taking up it shelf and of the space at the moment smiling mascots but it's not you games are being produced in abundance crafted a molded from the region special clay sixty kilometers southeast of more cisco that's poured into special molds made for the hair they're good polarbear benefactress forty craftswomen get to work carefully how many painting each one on average it takes fifteen minutes to load the leopard is a bit tricky and takes a little longer then it's a whole day spent in the oven during which the black ink turns into that trademark

blue after that they're left until boxed and sent to the shops it is an intricate process that even mirrors the slogan for these olympics cool yours andrew farmer to r.t. . make sure to stay with us on r.t. for our special coverage from this year's capital of winter sport we are on there throughout such a twenty forty. and

now when you go up against the british police force it's your word against days our team met one student who learned the hard way how important hard evidence is when that happens. as the story. i was being charged with assaulting a police officer obstruction arrest i couldn't six months in prison and that would have completely irrevocably changed my life and devastated. academic more had intended to attend a talk by the education minister in june two thousand and eleven and found himself in a crowd of protesting students and just outside this university who was later arrested and the police officer said that a shop had pushed him twice before running away. this video appeared on you tube or a shock is later seen and offers a different version of events.

thanks to this video the charges were dropped scotland yard agreed to pay a shocked twenty thousand pounds in damages after he launched legal action for wrongful arrest as a result of video evidence produced as part of a civil claim against the metropolitan police service three offices are the subjects of the i.p.c.c. supervised investigation but such outcomes may not always be so easy to come by it's very often the case. people have been wrongly accused by police officers of having committed and spots the evidence of the officer corps to give more credence to notch off the accused individual they just have. to try and give his best accounts as they can to gather as much evidence as they possibly can and once again that the conduct of the police is put firmly under the spotlight in the twenty eleven two thousand and twelve period at the independent police complaints commission saw a decrease in complaints but an increase in appeals made about the handling of

complaints by police compared to the year before where it's found that offices are fully below the expected. behavior the public would want to see accountability. police misconduct show itself like specific to being to be chilled . out for someone who's been on the receiving end of this misconduct a shock says there's something he'll now keep in mind we need to videotape the police whenever we can because if it's their word against ours the only way we're going to win is if we actually prove to them prove to a court without a shadow over doubt that they were like i was or sylvia r.t.e. london. she might have brushed aside the embarrassing revelation of being spied on but german chancellor angela merkel could be in for more trouble in connection to washington's surveillance operations germany's largest group of hackers has filed a criminal complaint against mrs merkel's government writing foreign spying and

violating the right of citizens find out how that case could pan out on our website also online now so i want to create what it calls the coolest spot in the universe on board the international space station head to r.t. dot com to get more on what she experiments are planned at the orbiting the ball. right to see. her struggle. and i think you're. on a record like. i. am . on my. over one hundred thousand people marched through paris and leon on sunday once again venting

their anger at the policies of france's embattled president along. the crowds were protesting against possible amendments to gay marriage and adoption laws which would grant same sex couples alternative ways to have children however authorities have said they are planning no such changes and this comes exactly a week after a so-called day of anger saw tens of thousands across france demonstrate against the government and one french activist is so unhappy with president along she's gone on hunger strike. it's been a day since i've been fasting i only drink water because we are many people demanding the resignation francois land i've been fighting for ten years in defense of family values the french government is destroying the family and this is bringing the country down because if the family is not strong the state is not strong either. you need. a force some news in brief

in lebanon state media says a suicide blast in a minibus in beirut has wounded at least six people the incident happened during the evening rush hour in one of the capital sudden districts which is close to shiite neighborhoods two days ago at least four died in eighteen wounded in the northern has blast wrong hold shia areas of lebanon are often targeted in retaliation for the group sending fighters to syria. oh. the rocky army has stepped up its bombardment on the city of fallujah reportedly ahead of a full on ground offensive the city was seized by militants connected to al qaida in early january and has been under intense shelling for days the government's been holding off from sending intrigue to give local tribesmen time to use the insurgents' security in iraq has been getting worse with almost a thousand people killed in sectarian violence last year and further proof of the

worsening security situation today is bag. dad is hit by a wave of car bombings at least twenty three people have been killed authorities say the attacks bear the hallmarks of al qaeda affiliate in iraq. spare a series of explosions at a cinema in pakistan have killed at least five people eyewitnesses say a man sitting in the back row hurled several grenades into the audience around thirty people were injured some critically during the incident in peshawar. and more clashes have broken out between police and news after protests in the kenyan city of mumbai massacre that after security forces stormed a mosque on sunday resulting in a violent confrontation left at least two people dead the raid was ordered are the worshipers raise the flag of the banned extremist group bad youths armed with knives are said to have attacked the officers who responded with gunfire over one hundred arrests were made that coming up can those with

a license to kill ever be controlled sophie shevardnadze finds out from the founder of america's most infamous private security contract. the building behind me become the center of start up companies from around the world come together to talk about the best way you ideas. on the blog so well. will take place last.

york london. the whole world is on the. complete truth of the original one a further one down the end there are further to hang up the courts building at the end of the street another one the more transparent society gets the money or the pot the tears become we see military and state unfairly falsus mobilized against people who blend into the city the city the more people trust electronic devices the more defenseless they are the fear that it is a. hearty.

welcome to sophie and co on sophie shevardnadze and they are just fortune turned mercenary boss erik prince down at blackwater at the world's biggest private military company scoring billions in government contracts in iraq and afghanistan but the public backlash that followed from years of atrocities can. force him out of the business are mercenaries bonds to cross lines can they be controlled and is

civil and suffering inevitable when people are given a license to kill well we'll ask the man himself in our program today. blackwater the world's most powerful drug me a dollar the u.s. government they made a killing plugging holes in america's war on terror as soon as it is until roaches died washington is accused of hanging its paid fighters out to dry. to hide guns really go out of control in the war zone were they just thrown under the bus by the white house or did they get what was coming to them. of the biggest u.s. private military contractor blackwater welcome to the program it's great to have you with us so i'm just going to start from the very beginning q created blackwater to train u.s. navy still so how did it become one of the biggest security contractors in the world. well in.