officials raise the alarm over corruption on the world sucking one hundred twenty billion euros a year from the european economy roughly the size of the total budget and what's worse the report warns this may be just the tip of the iceberg. as the u.s. reportedly plans to back off and syrian diplomacy with more weapons for the rebels an r t crew travels to damascus school where the children refused to be victims of conflict. with the winter olympics just days away and a gay propaganda boycott battle still in the minds of man and we talk to the city's l.g.b. community to find out of the law has really affected their life in sochi. you're

watching our senior national coming to live from moscow i'm marina josh welcome to the program. officials have uncovered a corruption pandemic sweeping member states with one hundred twenty billion years lost to shady deals each year that figure was published in a report by the e.u.'s home affairs commissioner who warned dad the scale of the problem is probably even broader and getting worse are just bitter all over highlight as for us the most worrying details. 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 government effectiveness of 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 well fell out of kindness and an appeal for the flemish nationalist party was critical of their report saying it did not touch on corruption within brussels itself. the problems in some member states are huge and widespread and the problem within the european union is that all the member states are in danger of being contaminated the by this problem because when you are in the

euro zone for instance and when one of these member states in the eurozone has a big corruption problem well this problem will be felt by the other member states within the eurozone that's a problem with greece for instance so the problems in one country are becoming more and more the problems of the other member states with i find the surprising them with i find interesting at the same time is that the european commission has made this report on corruption in the european union but didn't make a survey of corruption within its own institutions and didn't have any specific information about corruption with e.u. funded projects while u.s. secretary of state john kerry has reportedly admitted washington suffered a diplomatic defeat in syria according to two senators who met with him privately

and as al qaida has power spreads in the region america is looking at a new strategy that may include sending more military hardware to rebels are cheering over now joins us live now for more details on this elegy marina so what is scary supposedly going to change america's approach. well kerry's comments reportedly came during an off the record closed door meeting on the sidelines of the munich security conference now according to the two senators in attendance john mccain and lindsey graham they said that the u.s. secretary of state admitted to them that he no longer believes the obama administration's approach to the crisis in syria is working and they say he talked about supporting a plan to arm the moderate opposition in syria according to the two senators they say that that plan would be aimed at blocking al-qaeda affiliates in syria from carrying out terrorist attacks on america now kerry spokesperson denies that he

raised the issue of supplying weapons to the syrian opposition now according to the two senators that have mentioned mr kerry also said during the meeting that he believes bashar al assad's government is failing to uphold its promise to give up chemical weapons according to the schedule that's been outlined you know however russia's deputy foreign minister recently said that syria is proceeding according to plan and even this month the assad government plans on removing a large shipment of chemical substances and that process is set to be complete by march first now while there have been some delays moscow says western officials are overblowing the situation russia says the reality is that when a stockpile of chemical weapons are being transported it's not always easy to immediately get proper security for the entire operation now in the past few weeks u.s. statements regarding syria including the ones that i just spoke about have indicated

that america is still beating somewhat of a war drum the last week we heard america's director of national intelligence james clapper warned that damascus may be producing biological weapons he also said that syria's influx of extremists have turned the war in a war torn country into a terrorist training hob and subsequently that's a threat to. u.s. national security so here we have three years after the civil war in syria started it appears as though the u.s. is back to square one with no coherent progress being made on the crisis in syria and still some experts would say looking for excuses for a potential military strike or to arm the opposition. does more important i think is so much for bringing us this date and more of an option out when to school and damascus and found out that inside the country many believe that more guns won't help. lesson of arab league 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 must somehow cover at which a madman but let's call them day and cross the road i saw sarah and then a missile found somewhere nearby me and my cousins ran for cover the next day when i went to school out teacher told us that sarah died god bless her but that only. sarah's sister was also killed that day khadijah is now afraid to go to school a choice pons with a bravery that many grown ups would be proud of this what did i mean 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 protracted war the kids grow up very fast so the whole of this i feel afraid

because a very sad and i feel sad because it's not ok to see kids killed like this shit it's not good this year and kids die like 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 scenes i don't want to i ask myself this girls why did they die so they have nothing to do with this conflict so why did they do the pleasurable. this story is not unique in almost every syrian school direct casualties like these. last november the entrance of the school in damascus is 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 don't 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 religion that 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 our 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 back to their classes the 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 a feel for them a gun and even if the reasons 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 to. ration oceanography from syria.

now back to our top story at this hour here and here a national and one hundred twenty billion euro corruption burden that's been detailed in a european commission report we can now get more on this probe from the perspective of an organization that's made transparency its mission let's talk to cardon who is an office director of the international thanks so much mr dahlan for joining us here in the international to talk about this well let's look at the term now i mean certainly it sounds very broad so do tell us i mean more specific terms what form does this corruption take and who is getting what from who well the corruption takes many different forms across europe the different countries. very different corruption risks very different profiles in terms of the problem of corruption for example in many of the newer member states of the e.u.

there's still a lot of corruption that citizens paying small bribes for access to basic services like health care. but in other countries the main corruption with so to do with political corruption that's the kind of conflicts of interests that are in the dealings that politicians have with business well i mean and also what's interesting about this report is that your it is asian as warned of serious corruption in the e.u. for years but what sort of action do you expect to follow after this if any. well that's a good question the european commission has made it clear that the ball is now firmly in the court of individual member states that's the national governments they have to come through and deal with issues of foreign bribery keeney regulating conflicts of interests better. but there is of course a role for the european commission as well and the commission has been largely

silent on that part from saying it will release another report in two years' time for the commission could do more in the area of for example regulating conflicts of interest of the human. or in whistleblower protection legislation e well you know you mentioned the word silence there but the commission also had some findings of corruption within e.u. institutions what have they got to hide then why did it not reveal this information well the commission says that it is the self assessment would not be credible. we don't think that's the case we think any government should have the capacity to assess corruption risks in its own institutions the e.u. ombudsman has recently come out and agreed with us that there should be a chapter in the next corruption report on the e.u. institutions luckily transparency international is conducting its own assessment of

integrity problems integrity risks in the e.u. institutions and will be publishing that shortly also your press release hands that you want brussels to coordinate and to corruption afeard so does that essentially mean that you propose delegating the e.u. even more authority of over its member states. know it's not a question of more authority it's about using the powers in the competence as it already has it's about. softer initiatives using peer pressure and putting countries in the spotlight to make sure that the momentum for reform is maintained and to some extent they've done that with this report. but it's not about the new powers for the european union it's about using the powers that they already have more effectively but how can they be effective here i mean if on the

one hand they are commission to investigate corruption but then on the other they hide the corruption don't really exist within the european institutions well they. are in many ways it's just about putting together a comprehensive strategy because the commission deals with. corruption in different ways part of it relates to internal security in the fight against organized crime and then to money laundering one part of the commission deals with that the commission also is responsible for trade matters which is trade and customs is also . an area which is well known for corruption problems and part of the commission deals with the internal market and the public procurement in the internal market and really what the commission should be doing is drawing together all these areas and developing a comprehensive strategy to fight corruption in the european union including in institutions and we fully expect that the following are reports that the commission

will be reflecting on what they can do and it's not just a commission but all the institutions will be reflecting on what more can do to prevent corruption in its own backyard. ok carl downie office director of transparency international thank you so much for your thoughts here aren't international. now it seems the german government is not getting away with its sloppy snooping controls coming out and saying leaks forced the country's main hacker group to file a criminal complaint against the government over its part in the spy scandal. the horrors. of the b.b.c. news subtitles as we enter the chinese new year which of course is called the year of the horse alas i believe the b.b.c. forty and suburb feel a lot more about the true state of the british and global economies that which is

not allowed to be said publicly by the likes of the beloved b. if you think about the elites and government think tank and business going to forcing public assets and their populations to turn tricks for bankers using the pip slap of debt until the finances plug those national assets one too many loads of debt and then abandon the nation screaming for more debt credit all the way of the factory. she did lumber tour to mccurry was to build a new most sophisticated. fortunately doesn't sound anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should want your only dog.

welcome back here watching our national wooden is spending time in the capital of the winter olympics before the games get underway he has welcomed members of the international olympic committee in sochi and as the world's top winter athletes arrive they had of the i.o.c. is confident that the host city is more than ready for the games r.t.s. paul scott is there for us. well organizers have been saying for some time now that sochi is ready to welcome the sporting world it of course all gets underway on friday evening at eight fourteen pm local time the contents of that two and a half hour spectacle are a closely guarded secret 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 thomas. says he's confident that everything will be completed in time on the games will run smoothly at the

olympic stage is ready for the base. of the world. we can see this in the sports facilities jury. and there we can see in the olympic village which are all of very high quality about eighty percent of the athletes can literally walk from their bed in the wheel each to their competition when 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 that 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 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 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 and visitors are 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 sporting 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 as such she and it's beating subculture is far more liberal than 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 had been a couple for over thirteen years and said although they don't agree with the law they remain mostly unaffected by it and well business is booming they describe the west's response as heavy handed and an overreaction. of course i think it's really bad it negatively affects gay russian people because society blames them for spoiling the olympics for a new port opening 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 i'm meeting people. need like any other gay bar that i've ever been to be on the back stage 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. in great numbers but the reality is that the issue is more complicated than it seems while some of the l.g.b. to pay the bills broken by three get you way behind the barrier you finally understand that the situation has to be just a single hand they gave up in your rush it could save money even somewhat lower it while people did not run 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 sports to remember most of them produced. sochi.

and the games are also a celebration of the region's rich environment russia's president drove members of the international olympic committee to the such a natural park to see a leopard cubs born there last summer mr putin had a close encounter with one of the creatures while the i.o.c. officials kept a safe distance and the russian president spearheaded a scheme to reintroduce leopards to the caucasus mountains and revive a population that died out decades ago. while our team is at heart of the winter olympics and will be broadcasting daily from sochi through the games and online at twenty fourteen dot com.

i. i. i i. and then reports has slammed the british government's so-called bedroom tax saying it's leaving the u.k.'s most vulnerable citizens in quote tremendous despair but ministers have dismissed the un's findings out of hand as artists are cilia reports from london. the united nations special rapporteur in housing released a report on the u.k. social housing conditions and call for the suspension of the so-called bedroom tax saying that it negatively impacts one's right to adequate housing as well as the general wellbeing of the most vulnerable individuals and households now since the introduction of this bedroom tax those who are of working age and receiving house it benefits may have found this money reduced if they are found to be living in flats with spare bedrooms at the u.n.

report also says that britain is facing a crisis of availability and affordability with tenants finding themselves with quote fewer rights and a little security but the u.k. is a how significant are has this this this report as partisan and he says it's disappointing that the united nations has chosen to associate itself with a quote misleading marxist diatribe absolutely outrageous i mean to accuse this un report of being marxist diatribe is to be like accusing. being a marxist organization these are basic human rights we're dealing with here this nasty party has to crusade against the poor in this country what they've done quite apart from already forcing the poorest families in this country to choose between heating and eating now they've got them worrying about shelter these are the basic tenants of civilization this awful awful government to strip from the poorest people in this country it's driven them to depression and even suicide this isn't the first time that the u.k. and the un have exchanged words on the matter but the u.k.

government stands by its decision saying that this will allow the free not to have bigger flats for families that need it more and it also talks about tax savings of about four hundred eighty million pounds in the first year however this is likely to continue as campaigners say they will continue to fight it on human rights grout in fact a liverpool council is reporting david cameron to the united nations saying that his government may be violating international rules on keeping people out of poverty reporting from london i'm tess are cilia. well a breach of citizens friday seen germany is apparently too much even for the country's leading hacker organization the chaos computer club suing chancellor merkel and the government for failing to prevent the u.s. and britain from spying on germans i just spoke to one of the activists behind him have we have strong indications that the german government. and or worked together with the american spies on all of our editors to live at the moment even if the

whole media was covering but they stayed very very passive and they it 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 beyond wrong and how the the government not only the american all the others are injured invading our digital lives it's still not proven that any of these matters 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 a big danger for the democracy. and at the margins here shortly to tell you about the ear piercing music allegedly used by the american military to break antonymous prisoners statements.

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 this is that across america while the world people are looking for change and they want the 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. but that's. what's up you know

i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set so if you weren't aware one of the torture mechanisms used on prisoners at gitmo was having your piercing music play in their cells continuously the melodies chosen for these weapons of war ranged from heavy metal songs to sesame street songs that 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 used 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 using the band's service as torture methods so kudos 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 the sets. the pieces look it was terrible they are very hard to take. once again to put them on a plane that never had sex with that their lives let's call it was.