the. ukraine southern republic of crimea sets a date for a referendum on further autonomy from kiev as thousands rally against the rise of ultra nationalism. new clues to the whereabouts of the else to present as he announces a news conference to be held in southern russia after dismissing ukraine's interim leaders as illegitimate and asking moscow for protection. under international law accuses israel of using excessive force against palestinian protesters in the occupied land saying some killings could be tantamount to war crimes.

from the city center in moscow this is art international with twenty four hours a day the iranis of ultra nationalism in the capital is causing tensions in southern ukraine the center of unrest is now in the capital of the autonomous region of crimea and local parliament there was voted to hold a regional referendum which could push them even further away from kids control you have this kind of is there for us. crimean parliament has released the local prime minister from his duties basically dispersing the government as well and has set a date for a referendum over whether or not to stay with ukraine and this date is may twenty fifth which is the same day when the new authorities in kiev are planning to hold nationwide presidential elections in fact they said that crimea is have no rights to hold any sort of referendums independently under new laws which have been passed recently in kiev and now in the meantime over and over the night here in the

capital of the crimea a group of unknown pro russian activists got inside the building of the local parliament and race russian flag on top of it they however did allow deputies to enter inside and there are no reports of any sort of aggression from them now also several thousand people gathered outside of the parliament as well pro russian activists with russian flags and well the people that i've spoke with they're very concerned about the things that have been happening in kiev especially about more and more nationalists coming to power there and they say that they are ready to protect their national identity just to explain the east and southeast of ukraine where we are now is heavily populated by ethnic russians now all of this is coming after clashes erupted on the wednesday also in front of the parliament between pro russian activists and probably ukrainian ones most of whom are crimean tatar arce and it started as a rally but then political tension grew into make one. bar

more rain here in the crimea national slogans are being shouted alongside pro russian ones they share the same went but definitely not the same political views i . i. know. we all came out today to show that without our approval no decisions will be made we see the. crimea is a part of grain this is the majority of people here support russia in the u.s.s.r. the crimea belongs to the russian soviet republic until nine hundred fifty four when the then soviet leadership decided to transfer it to the administration off soviet crane and when the u.s.s.r. collapsed in one thousand nine hundred one and the crimea was left as a part of independent ukraine but for the last few centuries mainly ethnic russians have been living on these lands alongside minorities including the muslim crimean

tatars but. the crimea always used to be russian and was passed over to the crane unlawfully it's time for justice to prevail the square in front of the a local administration building here in secret all we had. division. was a political change and it was for you when you and gulf war pro russian with the russian flags there was waste year and the tensions reaching the boiling point. even though i knew several dislikes don't most of the crimean tartars have been siding with the ukrainian nationalists but they were never able to agree on much it was about tatars want their own crimean tartar government as it was but the idea is too far fetched to me at this point however nationalism is far more important than logic and the majority here are expecting the local crimean authorities to exercise the political will and not oh well a new ethnic conflict in europe to break out i you go to school of r.t.e.

reporting from the crimea i mean one a video has surfaced online of alexander music he's a former mercenary who fought in chechnya and a current leader of the ultra nationalist group known as the right sector it shows his method of dealing with the remaining authorities. just. look at the scene there's a policeman standing there behind this guy. policeman over there doing nothing. look at him. you know. that this was a barge into a prosecutor's office in central ukraine in attacked an employee while demanding to see the prosecutor who was not there he then began to terrorize staff members a sort of one of them and threatening to tie him up and drag him out quote like an animal or a man of radical views music joins you create an ultra nationalist party in one thousand nine hundred one in the chechen war he fought alongside the militants and prides himself on personally hitting three tanks and killing

a number of russian soldiers he's previously been accused of organizing in the fascination attempt on a fellow party member and was convicted of kidnapping a businessman and causing him grievous bodily harm well despite all that he ran for ukrainian parliament and twenty twelve and now stands at the helm of the country's nationalist movement. well the whereabouts of ukraine's ousted president viktor and a covert remains unknown but he did release a public statement earlier today suggesting he's in no mood to give up the fight to hold on to power or he's unlikely to check your reports the unocal which saga has largely resembled a hollywood thriller something along the lines of catch me if you can he fled the korean capital five days ago after a huge outbreak of violence here ever since his his whereabouts have been unknown some have been speculating that he is still in ukraine and the new ukrainian power in kiev were quick to brand him as a criminal to slap a wanted tag on him and to declare him as

a fugitive but apparently on the call which may be resurfacing in russia here first of all he published a statement handing it over to several russian use agencies saying that he was still the legitimate president of ukraine elected in a constitutional manner every decision made in the key of parliament in kiev according to an accord which was illegitimate and he was willing to fight until the very end to bring the constitutional order back to the country at the same time he said that he and his competitors have been receiving death threats from people he described as extremists and that's why he asked russia to provide protection for himself some rumors and those are sources not yet confirmed by any official in russia have reported that in fact the russian government granted this protection for unocal which but now the latest news is that one of the officials close to the ousted ukrainian president said that the other which will hold a press conference in the south and a russian stuff on dawn on friday at about five o'clock local time certainly

a lot will be clear if this press conference takes place and which would probably clarify what his next steps will be. with the country more polarized than ever there's no better time for the ousted president to speak out according to international relations expert mark sloboda. while technically still the having rights as the president of the ukraine after being driven out by this putsch in kiev he's released a rather powerful statement we have seen a complete deterioration of the situation in kiev this putsch has shown that they really have no power. to control what is going on certainly not in the entirety of the ukraine but even more locally the ultra nationalist mobs which which the cynically made an attempt to ride the tiger of their violence into

power or are now in control of the streets so. i guess at this point must feel he has no alternative except to try to restore order to the country meanwhile comments on the crisis have been coming in from high level ministers from nato countries for more on their reaction here's our correspondent you see coming off in. nato defense ministers expressing a lot of concern over ukraine as well as their perception of the kremlin's response the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen called on russia not to do anything that would quote escalate tension or create a misunderstanding he told a meeting of the nato ukraine commission in brussels to the latest developments in the crimea were quote dangerous and irresponsible also raising the alarm of the new german defense minister now she weighed in at her very first nato summit in brussels let's take a quick listen the situation in the ukraine particularly in crimea fills us with great concern it is of the utmost importance that we prevent

a breakup of the ukraine and that special forces in the country are strengthened so a lot of concern about whether ukraine remains in one piece or not the russian foreign ministry meanwhile issuing a statement in response to all this saying that the nato defense ministers were sending a quote wrong signal. their statements urging all sides to refrain from making what moscow referred to as provocative statements and this alarm not just coming from the nato ministers but reflected in the western press as well the news has certainly made front page headlines with a lot of speculation that moscow's decision to hold military drills is linked somehow to the unrest that's a notion which the russian defense minister sergei surely goo disputed saying that the emergency military drills were routine and largely unrelated to the developments in the ukraine he did go want to say that russia is of course closely monitoring the developments there and there as well as around the russia's black sea fleet which remember is based in the crimean well the western media has

a longstanding history of making moscow out to be the bad guy that severe political analysts dmitri babich of course. people in the west and there are a nationalist growing use in ukraine are interested in dimona is in russia russia has no intention to equally the territories from the former soviet union by military force. our government and our nation and we don't need new territory so this is just a big kid you had all the global media in general all the media internet media and used by starvation they will live to attract you so it's very it's a very kind you way to attract viewers by creating the sort of pain you but i think it's irresponsible it's clear to me about how to process that russia will not give in to be needed to really you know green russians will never find ukrainians. in the military we. so you know my view this is all just and.

i'm sorry break my head in russia showing their human the pressure does not stop the whole. foreign media and started for it. months of turmoil of push ukraine further towards a default the e.u. and the i.m.f. has so far pledged to offer financial support but that's likely to come with some painful conditions here are some of the reforms the i.m.f. was demanding from the previous administration well first off pension reform the government had to increase the retirement age also a number of benefits and welfare payments should have been cancelled including those for school children and the elderly and the gas prices need to be pushed up both for businesses and the private sector with households facing up to a two fold increase state owned coal mines primarily in the east were said to be privatized and on top of that of agricultural land had to be put up for sale would

you political analyst william engdahl believes the west has been taking advantage of ukraine's fragile politics the conditions that the u.s. wants to hold. lenient clouding what of the prime economic areas that are integral you linked since the soviet union era to the russian economy the united states government is making. us the treasury is not in any political show to give billions of dollars to the ukrainian economy estimates are thirty five billion required this is a manipulation from the outside or do so without international as we close in all the latest developments there in ukraine more expert opinion is also available online at r.t. dot com or international news stories coming away after a short break. sigrid

lumber tour. was to build a new most sophisticated. mission to teach creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only. so we leave the people. of the sea to security. issues that no one is asking with the guests that deserve answers from. politics.

international is accusing israeli forces of using reckless abundance in the occupied palestinian territories and you report from the human rights group goes as far as to suggest some killings may actually be war crimes. has the details. this amnesty international report that is some eighty seven pages views the behavior of the israeli army in the occupied west bank of a period of three years from two thousand and eleven to two thousand and thirteen and what it found is that the israeli soldiers behaved in an excessive and reckless way resulting in the death of multiple palestinians in what some might say is war crimes as you can well imagine the i.d.f. has dismissed the report it says that amnesty international has a complete lack of understanding of the situation on the ground and that in fact

during the same time period it was a marked increase in palestinian violence on the israeli army nonetheless the report documents the death of some forty five palestinians in this time period it talks about a pattern of unlawful killings it also says that in addition to these there were at least two hundred and sixty one people were seriously injured by live ammunition and an additional eight thousand who were seriously injured by other means including rubber coated bullets in the same time period there was only one israeli soldier who was brought to book he was sentenced to one year in prison with five months suspended and allowed to remain in the army albeit at a lower rank well earlier i spoke to your thumb girl he's director of amnesty international israel and he believes there is a pattern which clearly indicates the way authorities view the whole of palestinian society one of the cases that we document in the report is that the story of samir a word is sixteen from the village. near ramallah he was shot by

israeli soldiers in the leg he tried to flee and then was shot two more times in the head and in the back to death nevertheless right dispersal right control measures do need to be used in some circumstances and they and they have been haven't they surely the military does have to maintain control let me give you an example i myself of a five year old son we live in to live in. if he were to throw a rock at a car he would be severely punished by his father for one perhaps a police car would come and you know be very concerned that could hurt somebody that does not warrant. shooting a child that does not warrant arresting children for long. amounts of time without their parents these are patterns that we see seriously in the occupied territories this is the way that the israeli military treats palestinian society there's growing discontent in america's diplomatic community

after barack obama nominated several big election backers to be ambassadors especially after agreeing at the senate showed their nominees to be more or less clueless about their future postings its critics obama simply returning the favor for the funding that saw him return to office is going to report. confirmation hearings ever deal that a number of president obama's nominees for a masochist ships have little or no knowledge of the countries they're assigned to serve in. the real expert on china but said the man who is confirmed as u.s. ambassador to china one of norway's major political parties progress party now expects an apology from president obama after the future of bassa to norway apparently did know about their existence norway has been very quick to denounce. them. we're going to continue to work with norway to make sure government has denounced them the coalition part of the coalition and the government but i would

say you know what a guy already i think corrected but what george tunis does know is how to run motels and how to raise money he has reportedly bundler contributed more than one point three million dollars for president obama's election campaign he's not alone more than half of the president's political appointees are his sponsors and or fundraisers the reported quote unquote price paid by his donors for ambassadorships stands at nearly two million dollars. to those concerned about the qualifications of its nominees the white house has a diplomatic answer being a donor to the president's campaign does not guarantee you a job in the ministration but it does not prevent you from getting many are worried about the message that some of these appointments send to the world the structure reinforces the perception that. the americans are not listening to their counterparts because the policies are made in washington and the people who are

delivering that policy really are instructed to live and what they're getting back isn't going to have any input whatsoever into the decision making process that is of course if they know what washington's policies are do you agree that the u.s. embassy in china should be an island of freedom that's a question i going to have to get back to. work with the straightest i do not know the history of policy precisely on that point career diplomats. are now worried not just about some of the current nominations but about the standards for future diplomats they don't want the message to be oh you don't have to be an expert on the country where you are going to serve on behalf of your government and then there's the broader question well kind of diplomacy can you expect. in washington i'm going to r.t. . the biotech joined proclaimed by some as the most evil company in the world is

once again drawing a new study suggests monsanto's roundup weed killer could be linked to a highly toxic and deadly kidney disease read more about the dangers linked to the g.m. food producer online. on the web site of the moment astronomers discover seven hundred fifty new planets outside our solar system almost doubling the number of planets known to humanity details on this much more available for you right now. the chief executive of america's largest energy company has joined a lawsuit to oppose the construction of a new water tower near his home and could be used for fracking the head of exxon mobil was quick to say he doesn't oppose the drilling technique he's just worried about the view from his home being ruined his excuse had left some environmental activists bemused. ironically i was sitting in the room full of people who were there to beg this the town of barton vale to enact a mock moratorium on new drilling permits and so it was very surreal for us to hear

rex tillerson talking about and unsightly water tower that my disrupt his being too when these people sitting in the audience had water that would phone like dishwasher dish water they had rashes there were so many toxic release of gas near their homes that they had to evacuate five hundred and one release in just one year they had to wait their small children up at night and evacuate in the middle of the night to to get away from these toxic gases lunch at downing street and tea with the queen it was the full british charm offensive for the german chancellor on one day visit but all the pomp and circumstance was enough to persuade angela merkel to get behind prime minister david cameron's push to reform the e.u. she said she doesn't support widespread change but urged britain to stay in the union to help strengthen it anyway so severe reforms. for german chancellor angela

merkel's visit to london it's a red carpet welcome fit for queen dubbed by foreign secretary william hague as britain's most important partner on seeking e.u. reform and the first german chancellor to address both houses of parliament starkly different to british prime minister david cameron's low key pub lunch with his french counterpart last month all that seemed to be placed on getting the backing of europe's economic powerhouse in redrawing love his relationship with brussels after all. if not of course in this europe incentive on both sides to find a suitable agreement so what exactly does cameron want for the u.k. curbing immigration by possibly putting a cap on workers from europe entering the u.k. at restrictions of benefits claims for migrants castes aren't protections for financial regulations on britain and repatriation of certain powers back to

westminster to name a few but the question is what he wants in return but would be some wins for the u.k. but you could imagine it's a tit for tat. they would have to accept something in return amid all the fuss summer of lowering the excitement of the british foreign office has repeatedly advised ten downing street to bear in mind that any reform will require the agreement of all other states and that naturally germany won't do anything against its own interests weak the foreign minister. the financial transactions tax once again which could cost you. three point five billion pounds you have so. it's actually the long term strategy seems to be very different. has many more friends around the world should really be focusing on.

the world. and in the end it still boils down to this one who wants a little less europe while the other wants a whole lot more of it. desser sylvia r.t.e. london. forty's and just have a half an hour from now in the meantime a special report on the american kids who are packing their bags with their books that lunch and they go to the spring. to the help to buy scheme for real estate which is a copycat of the fannie mae and freddie mac. debacle which caused the sub prime crisis two thousand and seven the british energy corporations are going to take fracking even though in america it's been proven to be completely an economical and environmental disaster but they're going to do it here anyway because why nobody in the media here except for maybe george will be up over there to guard him will say anything about the fact that this is an ecological

disaster and more importantly in economic dog all that will increase britain's debt to even higher than it is right now the highest it's been a decade. as you don't know if you don't panic or you ignore response to roos. most everyone in my life that i cared about their goal much and then. they came askin well. i was a national champion in track and field and also i was able to go and qualify for the olympic games. you know nine hundred eighty eight i started to experiment with other drugs i had lost all the financial means that i had was really on the street .

black large brown can. feel great to drink. over. did you know the prize is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy correct albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our crass cynical we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once all just i'm tom are in on this show we reveal the big picture of what's

actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem for trucks rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing are not defined for you know ready to join the movement then walk a little bit of. winter is when the sahara comes to life in a way says palm trees are being harvested. people are waiting for the biggest event of the year. the desert festival. this is true it is very out of this race leading camel races have spent the last year preparing for the grueling marathon. the day before the race there's a heavy sandstone overcoming the power of nature is a never ending challenge. so far on

a desert went to the naughty. this is cumberland county in south kentucky deep in the american countryside far from the sprawl of life. a place where alcohol is neither sold not consumed in the bible reign supreme. in a village of eight hundred people there are forty churches. it is a pious closed community get weapons are a part of every day life here for protection and so hunting. exposed from childhood it is not unusual here to own your first gun in kindergarten. how many people own guns in this village more probably do than go outside of these

things are you actually not in that state of the brain and have your own go not everybody in the county is quote a way of life here where everybody wants around here and they much else to do fish i would say you know a very hard majority country people own guns my grandson started her when he was probably three or four years out so he just and i got one at hans and wanted fishies. so so when you go to kindergarten you get your first gun. yes thats what they want the family of a southern kentucky two year old girl shot and killed in her home says it was all an accident he received the rifle specially made for children as a gift last year. cumberland county hit the front pages of news wild wide in maine and five year old christina shot his two year old sister dead with a gun he received as a gift for his fifth birthday a real gun with real bullets the manufacturers openly advertise.