corruption across states costs an astonishing one hundred twenty billion euros a year according to a french study but details on the shadowy cash in the unions is the two sions are left out of the report. america's secretary of state admits that white house diplomacy has failed in syria and suggest more weapons are the answer to a report from the word zone on how the already deadly fighting is affecting the country's youngest citizens. so she's set out for sports but what about the gay propaganda boy called battle we talked to the city's l g b t community about what life's really like and how they are affected by the anger directed at russia.

which you are here to national coming to you live from moscow armory and josh welcome to the program. a whopping one hundred twenty billion euros each year succumbs to corruption in the european union member countries the figure compares to the blocks entire annual budget brussels home affairs commissioner cecilia malmstrom told the stand of the problem breast taking our europe correspondent here oliver has the details. over half of the people in the european union half of the over half of those who were surveyed have said they think the corruption within the union was growing seventy six percent of those who were asked thought the corruption was widespread within the european union twenty six percent said that they'd been directly affected by corruption sixty seven percent of people thought that the financing for political campaigns well that that wasn't legitimate within

the e.u. and that they worried about where money was coming from the government effectiveness at tackling corruption no only twenty three percent thought that they were capable of doing that and seventy three percent a huge number three quarters almost saying that they thought that the best way to get public services was through bribery just into who's put forward this report the e.u. commission or an unelected body they have made the headlines themselves a few times when it comes to some of the more leftfield laws that have been imposed upon e.u. citizens now their report didn't look into e.u. institutions and that's certainly raised a few eyebrows people wondering just how much more than one hundred twenty billion a year in backhanders of being going on if the e.u. it looked into themselves and russia's foreign minister has urged the u.s. to maintain contacts with all sides in the syrian conflict except for jihad as a group sergey lavrov speaking after talks in moscow with syria's opposition leaders also welcomed the rebels willingness to take part in the geneva

negotiations set to resume next week but while politicians push for a breakthrough time is running out for people living in a war zone as marie if national reports. lesson of arabic in a syrian elementary school these boys and girls may look like ordinary kids but they've already faced a lifetime of adult experiences they mark up there was an obvious bluffs called a day and cross the road i saw sarah and then i'm a self well somewhere nearby me and my cousins ran for cover the next day when i went to school our teacher told us that sarah died god bless her. sarah sister was also killed that day had asia is now afraid to go to school a choice pons was a bravery that many grown ups would be proud of but what did it mean that i hear from my parents teachers and friends that there is

a lot of people dying but i will not surrender i will continue to started to rebuild my country. amid the violence of a projected war the kids grow up very fast so. i feel afraid because of various and i feel sad because it's not ok to see kids killed like this it's not good this year and kids die away this. is eleven years old the syrian conflict has claimed for his relatives he was eight when it started and his had no real childhood seems so long i ask myself these girls why did they die they have nothing to do with this conflict so why did the. publisher. this story is not unique in almost every syrian school direct casualties like these. last november the entrance of the school in damascus old town was hit by three mortars four children and a bus driver died at the scene i haven't been able to accept these deaths until now

they were my kids i can clearly see their smiles and hear their voices i still see them in my dreams nothing can justify this no religion no moment of thinking makes it acceptable. but life the principle of the school tells us all it must go on at the holy reason the pain is immense both the children and the administration have been deeply affected but it's also encouraged us to continue or to change and are learning the mission of education is to bring up new engineers and new doctors new teachers to build up this country we have to resist this violence and this will be anything but an easy mission after a short break kids at this school in damascus are back to their classes but thousands of other syrian children all across the country still can't make it as their schools are destroyed and families displaced there were around twenty thousand schools in syria before the crisis today at least if easy for them

a gun and even if the reason school nearby parents are simply too afraid to let their kids out of this site once a thriving nation with a strong education system syria today faces not just a crisis of the present but of the future too. from syria. and on our website we've got much more in syria including the latest reports from the overcrowded refugee camp in damascus where tens of thousands are on the brink of starvation more than more had to r.t. dot com. now as athletes from all over the world arrive in sochi there is reassurance from the head of the international olympic committee that the resorts more than ready for the games to begin scott is there for us well organizers have been saying for some time now that sort she is ready to welcome the sporting world and of course all gets underway on friday evening fourteen pm local time the contents of the two and

a half hour spectacle are closely guarded secrets over the last twenty four hours or so athletes spectators and journalists have continued to arrive in and around sochi the reports are emerging the number of hotels a colony in complete hotels they're going to house spectators and journalists but the president of the international olympic committee is here in sochi says he's confident that everything will be completed in time on the games will run smoothly but the olympic stadium is ready for the base. of the world. we can see this in the sports facilities. there we can see in the olympic. which are all of very high quality about eighty percent of their fleets literally walk from their beds in the wheel each to their competition bring you. something i have never seen

before at the olympic games. also went on to address the issue of security saying that he is assured the games will be secure all that is a direct quote of course the recent twin suicide attacks in volgograd less than a thousand kilometers from here have heightened tensions but part went on to draw parallels with the two thousand and two winter olympics which were held in salt lake city just a few months after september eleventh and the other issue that of course has overshadowed really the buildup to these games is russia's adoption of the law banning the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to mine is now many critics feel that this is infringing gay rights on my colleague martin andres has been out and about in sochi and he's been finding out how if at all the new law is affecting the lives of gay people here in the city. thousands of athletes visit is

expected to arrive this week and three billion people are also estimated to watch the winter olympics this month for some however the games aren't about spiritual progress they're about gay rights and the controversy surrounding last year's legislation that restricts children being given information about nontraditional relationships a similar law to the u.k. section twenty eight that was impost for two decades in the late eighty's we had to the city's only beach front gate venue my ak or lighthouse in english for a club that's been in the city for more than thirty years it seems this and it's beating subculture is far more liberal. some people think traditionally one of the more tolerant russian cities when during the soviet era russians from all over the country could holiday here. club owner and his partner a man have been a couple for over thirteen years and they don't agree with the law they remain mostly unaffected by it and while business is booming they describe the west's response as heavy handed and an overreaction yes. of course i think it's really

bad it negatively affects gay russian people because society blames them for spoiling the olympics and. opinions are still divided on sexuality in russia and this club does give something of an insight into the reality of gay life here the one time in the club and meeting people. need like any other gay bar that i've ever been to. backstage the performers are getting ready for tonight's performance in preparation for the club's new foreign audience english songs have been added to the show. the performance here can't believe the media attention bush is gacy has generated in the west activists abroad have spoken loudly in great numbers but the reality is that the issue is more complicated than it seems while so many algae to communities they are brought in last year i think in

a new way but the baby and violence and the situation has been changing and they gave. us a good. even somewhat. well people do not roam the streets handed hand in sochi behind closed doors at such clubs people can be openly affectionate and one thing is for sure whether you have conservative or liberal views this month is going to be a celebration of sport to remember. r.t. sochi. well our team is the heart of the winter olympics and we'll be broadcasting daily from sochi throughout the games and online at twenty four teen daughter team dot com.

i. want to draw on activists are finding themselves in courts across the u.s. for protesting against the use of the deadly unmanned aircraft several groups are in trial separately with one being prosecuted for blockading a drone airbase yeah there is still relative media silence about what the drones do to civilian populations leaving the public in the dark and that's what anti-war activists david swanson has told r.t. . but yes had people serve me know the 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 but 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 when these missiles go and kill innocent men women children infants in pakistan afghanistan yemen somalia there is 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 now the drone program was launched under george w. bush but has been widely expanded during barack obama's presidency the most

affected by drone strikes are yemen and pakistan were hundreds of civilians have been killed by the unmanned aircraft and a variety of asom it suggests that in the last five years more than three hundred and a sense became victims of drone warfare and even though the american people are growing uneasy with the attacks washington shows no intention of putting an end to them. a warring major drug supply route is opening up in israel yeah it's a heavily armed nation is unable to stop the spread of illegal substances we reported out in just a few minutes. found that the secret of the island of the dead one of the united states largest cemeteries keeps the public away and it's barely accessible to even their relatives of those buried there that story is just ahead here on our team.

lose the playing. field the big spirit travels with the flame from its place to greece. join james brown for an elemental and a big journey around russia and beyond. where are supposed to go. play.

welcome back you're watching our team international i want to the world's largest hacker groups is suing. angela merkel and the entire german government for fostering in-depth spying projects led by american and british agencies along with human rights activists they say leaders enabled the mass surveillance and violated the country's criminal law we spoke to one of the activists behind the move. we have strong indications that the german government. and or together with the american spies on all of our editors are live at the moment even if the whole media blitz covering but they stay very very passive and they if for us it looked like they were just waiting until the storm is over and that's why we want to force the

federal prison prosecutor to start real investigation on what is going on and want ground wrong and how the government's not only the american or the others are injured invading our digital lives it's still not proven that any of these measures really help finding terrorists than all the other excuses they find and that's just a new way of power and which is fundamentally destroying every everybody's privacy and probably will also be of big danger for the democracy. school is reeling from a u.s. style shooting rampage online to get the story of russian staring into have been showing great promise turned into a killer on campus. speaking out against the king of saudi arabia can get you branded a terrorist or two dot com has a story. with

us here today on researchers. the trillion dollar war on illegal drugs could be largely in vain a u.n. report reveals more than two hundred seventy million people around the world are addicted to illegal drugs despite strict policies and billions of dollars spent on fighting the problem the study also lists world's largest drug hubs naming israel among them paula sleazier reports on how the country became a major traffic center. like most major cities there is

a dark side to the tel aviv night scene armed with a hidden camera we visit one of the popular downtown nightclubs everything's on offer children doing drugs in the middle of the room was using drugs in a twenty five years but not. stuff and sixteen years ago. i fell to the heroin and this was terrible one he is a former user he spent many nights in prison and paid the ultimate price we were living on the street do you know if we were doing you know you just you know you want to use this you're getting a berth for an hour or two to get it again so. the soup can come out from a lot of people coming over from the circle my wife she died from the drugs she couldn't stop with for borders drug smugglers are entering the country from all

sides although in this instance security forces manage to make an arrest they cannot stop them all israel has a starve role in the most recent wooldridge drug report issued by the united nations office on drugs and crime alongside brazil it's listed as a country that is a major manufacturer an importer exporter and user of narcotic drugs i can confirm that more than fifty percent of all the drugs that enter israel a seized but this is obviously long term counter police operations that will take place and continue working with the into porn is twenty five representatives that are here in israel and therefore information is transferred on a day to day basis but maybe that is not enough based on figures that the israeli police know about and based on the suspects that we've arrested there has been an increase in attempts that's correct all sides agree this is a dangerous situation and that israel has to do more so people like want me. once

again i think it's through. even the government even the govt. people understand that it's it's a disease the situation in israel is not substantially different from that to europe or united states. simply a riot in the country fashionably late policy on television. last targeting a military bus and yemen's capital sanaa has killed at least two soldiers and left several injured the incident comes at a time of mounting tensions in the country's north west where shia muslim groups or trying to establish a breakaway state are battling local tribal leaders and the army among the thousands of shia party asters march through sanaa kucing a sunni led ruling party which has been in power for fifty years of mass corruption and abuse of power. international peacekeepers in the central african republic have been engaged in firefights while trying to stop

looting in muslim neighborhoods in the capital the communities were earlier taxed by rival christian militias forcing muslim residents to flee their homes currently over six thousand troops from france and the african union are in the country trying to quell months of sectarian tension that has killed more than two thousand people. out some final resting place for almost a million people yet it's kept under strict lock and key the hard island cemetery is one of the biggest in the united states and the axis is strictly limited by the government it's even difficult for relatives of the diseased to visit their loved ones graves as the situation in our reports. we're a place kept from the public eye. you've likely never heard of it despite its long history and size one of the largest cemeteries in the united states with

nearly a million burials almost one million people buried here since the eighteen hundreds the poor homeless stillborn children and bodies not claimed by anyone on just over one hundred acres heart island a piece of land just off of manhattan this is as close as we can get to the island with a news camera this is a dog where ferries transporting bodies inmates and occasional visitors depart from after a variety of uses from a prison to a psychiatric ward to hospital the place has been ran by the prison system making the cemetery more reminiscent of a jail where inmates beurre up to fifteen hundred bodies a year burgles for those the city takes care of take place in mass graves here inmates dig ten feet deep trenches at fifty cents per hour dollars that are buried out there are primarily homeless there are people that are generally forgotten and ignored by society. photographer even ferentz was able to get these images by reaching the island in secret on a handmade boat the most striking thing when we first landed it hit our boat

for the morning. was that we almost stumbled into an open area we stepped out and just realized that the plywood covered coffins controlled by the city's department of correction the location is difficult to access and visits if any are strictly regulated ahead of a live child and she's gone and i have no. control over going to a cemetery to visit her former navy commander ilene josephs five day old baby girl died thirty six years ago at twenty three all by herself while the grieving mother was trying to figure out funeral arrangements she found out that her childhood already been buried by the city people are not properly informed in the hospitals as to what it means to allow the city to take care of it ilene was given a death certificate with no indication of where her daughter and did up the search for her child's grave went on for decades she was five days old i had nursed her

she was my daughter and i was in the just about to throw her away i would like to go to walk to my daughter's grave and be able to have some final. closing but getting closure has been a struggle so far elaine has been able to come to a busy ball on the island following id checks after permission from prison system officials if this were a private cemetery it would be very clear under the law that you had to allow visits to the actual grades because it's a public cemetery the specific law that requires access does not does not apply filmmaker author and founder of the hard island project melinda hunt works with women like elaine to have the island be made into a public park it's inappropriate to expect the public or someone who's lost a child to have to contact the department of corrections and to make arrangements to. visit hard island and then not to be able to go to an actual grave site

this is work to break it into their own lawyer mark taylor works with the grieving mothers pro bono many of them were did not subsequently have children so they have born children who are buried out on the island and for them looking back in their life it's something that has meaning and importance to them access to the graves is is impossible because the graves are not marked lost records lost graves they're storing their own records out there under shoddy conditions the department of corrections has not done a great job of maintaining this island is a part of you know the new york culture urges jurors is a viable part of the prison system after a battle that's lasted years eight mothers including elaine have recently been informed that they will be able to visit specific grave sites still under strict regulations but until the island stops being run by those who run prisons this

place holding almost one million people will continue to treat those fighting for closure like inmates people don't throw their families away just as he took in a new york. abby martin here shortly to tell you about the ear piercing music allegedly being used by the american military to break when thomas prisoners. 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 can 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 this is that across america and well the world people are looking for change and they want to 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. right to see. first street. and i think the church.

on our reporters with. the. what's up y'all i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set so i guess you weren't aware one of the torture mechanisms used on prisoners at gitmo was having ear piercing music playing ourselves continuously the melodies chosen for these weapons of war range from heavy metal songs to sesame street songs i would play for hours or even days on and now when this came out the pentagon downplayed the news by saying that the music was not torture despite a.p.

report detailing how the music drove prisoners literally mad and even suicidal the bands in question kindly asked the administration to stop weaponized in their art but one canadian band is taking it one step further industrial music group skinny puppy just found out that their music has been at use on at least four occasions and the thought of the u.s. government using the band's dark melodies to inflict mental and physical anguish was deeply troubling to the group the lead singer seven keys said quote we never supported those types of scenarios because we make unsettling music we can see it being used in a weird way but it doesn't sit right with us so what are the band do all they dedicated and presented their new album as an inner voice the u.s. government it's called weapons and the album itself is a literal bill for use in the band's service as torture methods so crude owes to an awesome band for using its platform to call attention to the human rights abuses that are still going on today now let's break this up.