u.s. secretary of state's visit to cairo opens a floodgate of criticism from opposition leaders who say the u.s. is too heavily involved in egypt's internal issues. the syrian opposition rebels are preparing to receive millions of dollars in aid plus direct support for the group's regime. with their foreign. private bradley manning pleads guilty to. military data to wiki leaks to show the public the true cost of war u.s. authorities will pursue the more serious charges of aiding the enemy possibly landing him behind bars for life. for the first time in six hundred years with reputation spiraling and. taking a chainsaw to america's economy with eighty five billion dollars and potentially

hundreds of thousands of jobs. thanks to republican democrat politicking. broadcasting live from our studios in. with the weekly recapping our week's top stories. now america's top diplomat john kerry was faced face excuse me a wall of criticism and public protest during his visit to egypt some of the country's opposition leaders accuse washington of interfering in the country's domestic politics that sentiment is being echoed by their supporters on the streets now reports on kerry's intentions in the region. he says that the purpose of his visit is essentially to discuss regional and international issues have a wide spectrum of egyptian leadership that is refusing to retry him the criticism

is coming from liberal and secular leaders they accuse kerry and the united states of siding with the muslim brotherhood and they accuse its leader mohamed morsi of essentially stepping into the same role as the ousted dictator hosni mubarak now it is true that the united states has maintained close ties with morsi but the criticism is that he is failing to implement reforms and at the same time he is turning the country into a more religiously conservative ruling system at least two opposition figures have refused invitations from kerry to sit down and hold talks with him and this follows this week a call by the united states for the main opposition group and that is known as the national salvation front to reverse its decision to boycott parliamentary elections that are due to begin next month john kerry was in turkey on friday telling the turks that they need to improve their relationship with israel the turkish prime minister recently made the comment that zionism was

a crime against humanity and response to those kerry said that the commies were objectionable this comment could indeed frustrate kerry's attempts to try and create an improvement in a strange israeli turkish relations that has hit an all time low what we essentially see through kerry's visit is an attempt by the united states to try and appease countries in this region israel he wants to essentially ensure a television security but the problem really is that the positions of both israel and the united states in this region are at an all time low they are under threat and in most small part due to the actions of washington and tel aviv themselves the situation in syria has only made things worse you have the rise of islamic extremism across the region following the arab spring and this is something that the united states directly supported at the same time what we're really seeing is and washington is having to deal with problems that it created and this is essentially the core or at least part of the core of kerry's first visit to this

region after taking office. middle east expert a professor. told us that there is a consistency in america's approach to the troubled region we have not seen a major rewrite situation of american policy in light years bring in light of the transition in egypt in particular it's really still the same whole season on the board now the body is used to protect american interests is really the army rather than the presidential palace it's the army that continues to get a great deal of american funds and it's through the clothes. that i think americans hope tuning in many of the same policies the maintained under or so in way that seem to be staging it suggests a continuation of the same american policy where israel comes first and israel's

arab neighbors are really to tool. use only to try to preserve israel's security well it's syria's apparently never ending civil standoff which became the key issue of u.s. diplomacy this week after bargaining and mixed messages syria's key opposition group managed to get more concessions from washington and its pro rebel allies. the u.s. has agreed to provide direct non-lethal support to opposition fighters battling the assad army on the ground it has also promised an additional sixty million dollars to help them secure the territories that they've already seen but washington's been reluctant to send arms to the rebels citing fears they could fall into islamist hands however some experts believe america could already inadvertently be helping radicals towards power. in the united states the washington administration believes that mr always saw is one his way out reminds me of the last stages of the

conflict in libya in two thousand and eleven when the opposition refused to negotiate with mr gadhafi because they thought he was on his way out as washington and the saudis see it they all be able to remove mr all assad from power forcibly everyone knew that the locomotive behind the opposition is al nusra front which in gauges and terrorist tactics and has no need or no desire for elections since they plan to shoot their way into power obviously washington is rather complacent about the participation in the syrian conflict over al bruce rule from so-called al qaida in iraq they either unwittingly or wittingly or pushing those forces into power in damascus. bahraini activists point to possible hypocrisy and a selective justice they demand of the international community pay more attention to human rights abuses in the kingdom after a court fails protesters but finds

a policeman charged with murder not guilty that's just ahead. and israel could soon get the unique benefit of being america's official major strategic ally being measured to be discussed at an annual pro israeli gathering in washington but the leaders of both countries are absent we've got analysis on that in just a few minutes. this week u.s. private bradley manning pleaded guilty to handing over secret military data to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks prosecutors say that they will push forward with the more serious charge of aiding the enemy and call over one hundred forty witnesses to prove their point a guilty verdict could mean a life sentence and watched the latest developments. guilty but not sorry more than one thousand days after his arrest u.s. army private bradley manning admitted to being the source behind the largest leak of classified information in u.s. history private first class bradley manning has pleaded guilty to ten of the twenty

two charges against him private bradley manning minutes he gave thousands of secret document to the wiki leaks website manning gave his first detailed explanation of why he did it manning said he uploaded tropes of u.s. secrets to the weekly leaks website because quote americans have a right to know the true cost of war and he has the purest form with he had the a very sophisticated now a fifth of why he had to do it as a duty. to expose what their government was doing in the name which within the home and around the world so all credit to him he's. the former intelligence analyst said he attempted to contact traditional media outlets like the washington post the new york times and politico but failed to get through to them later deciding to pass the documents on to wiki leaks manning said he engaged in a prolonged internet conversation with the wiki leaks member called cox who he assumes was julian a songe i think it's very clear that the risks of street government secrecy are

much graver and have already done much more serious damage to the united states and god knows other countries and the risks wrought by whistleblowers and leaks like this one manning pleaded not guilty to aiding the enemy the most serious charge which washington is determined to proof the u.s. government is reportedly planning to call a key witness to testify that osama bin laden actively sought to access material manning passed along to wiki leaks some reports suggest the unknown individual could reportedly be one of the navy seals involved in the about about raid that killed bin laden the fear here i think is that you would be sensationalizing the proceedings and it would it would make it nearly impossible for manning to have. a fair trial in a just because we now be talking about terrorism terrorism and terrorism will get away from the fact that he is charged with the offense of releasing the information and they don't have to show that terrorists received it this will continue the

obama administration has ushered in this era of pursuing whistleblowers and making certain that they are prosecuted and they go after them zealously in a manner that they do not go after other individuals that's been the thing i think is the most particularly striking is you can have private contractors who engage in weapons smuggling like like the blackwater executives or you get bankers that engage in financial fraud and they are pursued as jealously as whistleblowers following his arrest in may two thousand and ten manning was kept in solitary confinement at a military jail in kuwait then at a marine person in quantico virginia for the first ten months of his detention a former army analyst spent twenty three hours a day in a six by eight foot windowless cell and was forced to sleep naked without bed sheets treatment that hundreds of legal scholars including president barack obama's former harvard professor claims was cruel and inhumane punishment that may have

undermined manning's psychological stability i think he was treated very horrendously and they would be they were very much trying to break him and subject him to horrors and to make it clear to intimidate people around the world would do the kind of heroic things that grab the meeting did to try and it through them from doing that manning himself said he believed the move would only embarrass but not damage to the u.s. and eventually kick start the public debate the results the u.s. was shamed in front page headlines around the world a nervous superpower launched a witch hunt against whistleblowers and wiki leaks became a household name the cost for young private they spend between twenty years and a lifetime behind bars for an important i.r.t. new york. peace activist jeff patterson believes manning's actions have played a major role in ending the american and military presence in iraq if you look at

the end of the joint services agreement between the united states in iraq government about a year year and a half ago now every expectation was that that joint agreement would be ratified and u.s. troops the some some of them will be allowed to stay in iraq i believe that if you look at the wiki leaks documents giving the iraqi people example an example of war crimes and wrongdoings that committed by u.s. forces that gave iraqis backbone to push back and then the agreement didn't happen so i would say absolutely just like daniel ellsberg released the week at the pentagon papers to help in the vietnam war i believe bradley manning had as much a contribution to ending the iraq war that certainly any other soldier in the military had. the catholic church witnessed history this week as pope benedict the sixteenth officially resigned something that hasn't happened for six hundred years and as the

church remains leaderless internal divisions and a marred reputation meaning many are losing the faith eroding the church's foundation eating a political report. it's not just about selecting a new bishop of rome some say but the very future of the catholic church the catholic church is undergoing a very important crisis it is a crisis at two levels it is a government crisis and it is a crisis of the believers there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals of but the leaks are far from the splendor of the sistine chapel a closer look at the recent events in the vatican to highlight disillusionment and frustration with the church once all about i distanced myself from the church when i became an adult when i started talking about what had been taught to look it was a question we have to all the scandals broke out in the catholic church i realize that it doesn't represent my spirituality benedict the sixteenth may have been the

first pope with a twitter account but many argue this measure alone was not strong enough in appealing to the masses now this is the age of transparency the age of the people the churches should be properly screened they've been. considered sacred she won the. big rate assets everybody now you see that they will be to be. the problem in the media they're really working on leases he went to change many things about the church for people of gabrielli of this inability to face up to and much less to punish those who may be responsible for tainting the image of the church is the deciding factor in abandoning catholicism. there's another scandal with a girl who disappeared in the vatican twenty years ago and they say the man found her remains the italian police are leading the investigation here but instead of helping them with vatican is obstructing the investigation going on it's likely they knew about this and stayed silent and on top of all those cases of pedophilia

was that this is just disgusting the list of controversial events involving catholic priests or vatican officials reads like a tabloid reports of sex abuse pedophile. accusations alleged large scale corruption and possible ties with the mafia while the media especially in italy has been having a field day with the scandals the vatican either stayed silent or rebuffed. but those things may be looking rather grim for the seat of st peter's at a first glance there is still a chance church can make a comeback. with a church we. could be. with but in spite of the. many wondering if he has been the world is rapidly changing and that the catholic church has failed to keep pace sure it has

seen a fair number of ups and downs as well as in two thousand year long history but there is opinion that perhaps taking an unpleasant development sweeping it under the carpet and sealing it with the people ring. is a tradition better left in the past in rome. would executive director of the national secular society in britain says it's time the church started burying its head in the sand when it comes to serious criminal allegations. i'm certainly aware of two major issues over child abuse that are going to come up and are going to be very very hard for the vatican to swallow because it's not just that there are the child abuse by though that is issues it's actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointing at the vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret files which it won't release so that's going to look very bad and i think people are going to get less and less tolerance about

that in the in the vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this and putting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins and being much more open and and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes. turned over to the police. the u.s. is looking to squeeze tehran with yet more sanctions but as the screws tighten there's a boom in other quarters of iran's and the cultural sector picks up the pace that's coming up later this hour. and a comedian a communist turned democrat and a sex scandal survivor face off in a hung parliament they post-election italy split on austerity corruption and government more on that shortly. seaquest ration cuts have kicked in in the united states with the government now slashing eighty five billion dollars from its budget following political deadlock but even as the first snips

are made of the blame game is raging with democrats and republicans desperate to offload responsibility professor of political economy jack rasmus believes that the new cuts will bring that world wide uncertainty. i think the psychological effects of america can't get it so it's just a house and in order will have an impact not only on the new us as we've talked about but i think it will cause more uncertainty you see uncertainty is a key economic variable across the globe and i think you know once again the whole issue of does austerity solve the problem will be a big issue and as a result i think it will turn more globally towards monetary tools quantitative easing but that has big problems in dissipating currency wars so we'll see what what happens with on the money terry side and that will be an outcome of all this i think seven bahraini protesters will spend the next ten years behind bars

after being found guilty of the attempted murder of a police officer it comes as two policemen were acquitted of killing a demonstrator in a separate incident human rights activists say the international community should listen to the voice of the people. we are in the middle of a geopolitical conflict between the un the united states of america especially we are holding the sweet and the iran and saudi arabia into fishing but if you buy any people who are in the middle of this it's like we are a battlefield the international community and international government western governments should assure that even if they were interested in the security of the region they do not back the human rights of the people of bahrain if you do not respect the democratic demand of the got a good people tomorrow these people might take over and these people might not like that but the united states or other governments did not support them and one day. us

a basketball legend has called the north korean leader an awesome kid despite the country's recent nuclear test that's when he took a trip to the isolated country to film a documentary there find out the details of what else he got up to on our website. and a filthy rich moscow has more billionaires than any other city according to a new survey get a glimpse of what they spend it all on at r t dot com. nuclear talks held this week between iran and six world powers including the us ended without a breakthrough and as america introduces a new bill to tighten the economic screws on the country tehran insists it has the right to ensure its energy independence global strategy analyst hillary mann leverett says war will be hard to avoid if u.s. policy towards iran doesn't change. the critical issue for the iranians and i think this is where they perceived slight and i stress slight movement on the u.s. side is in the recognition of their rights their sovereign and their treaty base

rights to enrich uranium what that does is not solve the problem but it allows a process to go forward negotiations and suddenly go she ations over how much the united states and other key parties are going to allow iran to exercise its rights as iran continues. to go forward and speak to a program in the rest of its in the west of its ways that it's amassing missing real power in the middle east the united states and particularly its allies israel and saudi arabia will be increasingly uncomfortable with that and i don't know for how long they will be constrained both those allies and their friends here in washington constrained by this these these negotiations because these negotiations are not really intended to resolve the problem it may be something that is delayed for another year but i think we are if we don't change our policy in some fundamentally ways were on a trajectory toward toward war with iran

a week since elections and italy and its senate remain in limbo with parties across the political spectrum so far refusing any talk of coalitions and one party led by an emetic comedian now finds itself in the role of king maker. loews anti austerity anti corruption rhetoric rallied millions of italians and securing him a quarter of the vote but he was still behind the democrats and coalition led by disgraced former prime minister silvio berlusconi the president is now calling on all sides to work together to try and form a stable government or else face a new election but paolo order a phony a strategic and political analyst says that the people are as weary of broken promises as they are austerity. people who need to be are tired of staking measures which have not produced the structural reforms of the society you know that do have a trustable future call for those who are already working and for those who have to

add to the work force people are tired of promises which have not been fulfilled the center left he is. getting what it was already seem to me a bulls be elections but certainly many people are wondering why they didn't make the reforms in the previous their stations where they had the majority so the situation is very cultic at the moment it is not certain that the government can be forced if not the coalition government involving over the major political forces that are present in the bottoms. israel could become the first ever nation to enjoy the official status of america's major strategic ally is among other things could mean an obligation to support an offensive against iran the proposed legislation is to be discussed at the annual american israeli public affairs committee gathering about to kick off in washington despite the significance of such

a move neither of the leaders of the two countries are attending your political analyst patrick henningsen says that this could be a sign the israeli lobby is losing influence we know the u.s. and some noises coming out of washington there is quite a little contingent within the united states that is looking to perhaps get into the batek because she should run and not be talking abrasively as they have in previous years and israel has entered the fray of israeli lobby is really putting pressure on those politicians in america to take a more israeli line which is a more hardcore lied to us to do with perhaps a flame war with out of around the big change that we're looking at is a shift there is a shift away from this kind of like allegiance to israel that is on capitol hill in washington d.c. there are splits appearing because americans are realizing that it's not in their best interest it's not in american interest to follow israel's agenda so therefore

aipac. it's not beneficial for aipac to be running the government and want any more as for the past thirty years. when this friendship leaves. the apac congress this sunday. now for some more internationalism brief this hour. in macedonia at least twenty two people including thirteen police have been injured during protests against the appointment of a new defense minister. fairy is a controversial figure and it was a guerrilla fight in the country's two thousand and one albanian insurgency riot police clashed with ethnic albanians who torched buses and attacked shops during the demonstration. several hundred people have attended a far right protest in the u.k. with fifteen arrested supporters of the english defense league blocked off much of

the city of manchester as they marched through the streets escorted by more than three hundred police scuffles broke out between the protesters as different factions within the protest kalash three hundred fifty demonstrators took part in a counter rally against the group later in the day. hundreds of thousands of protesters have rallied in twenty cities across portugal to call for an end to deep budget cuts protesters in the capital lisbon held up banners and chanted slogans against austerity measures put into place as part of an e.u. and i.m.f. bailout under the terms of the rescue portugal has to make an extra four billion euros worth of cuts over the next two years. and the u.k.'s unemployment benefits are meant to support those desperately searching for work but for some the financial advantage of remaining unemployed outweighs getting a new job meaning they choose to stay dependent on the system or reports i couldn't really believe my luck to be on. it was just

a dream i thought this is amazing you know british government is helping me out you know i needed somewhere to live and i don't have a job not the what do you expect to hear from someone who's fallen on hard times housing benefits allowed stephanie to rent a flat in this sport block in london's glitzy mayfair and by myself i could always barely afford a studio in central london when i was working and. looking for a job. in the spacious flat it just makes you really lazy it's a sprawling and complicated system but one that allows a family of four to claim up to thirty five thousand pounds a year from housing to child care and unemployment benefits i've known people on benefits and they've been. afford new cars that have been able to afford to go abroad on holiday i've never actually been abroad on holiday before in my life so how on earth can they afford

a good holiday when they're on benefits and i'm workin an hour can't fart to do that that's what makes me angry piece by piece what we've seen over decades is the growth and growth of the welfare state to do many more things for many more people there's no doubt but hope for a certain segment of society we actually basically have communities imbedded in welfare generations of people who have not worked the welfare state was all the idea of a man who might well be turning in his grave william beverages idea of the five giant evils of society squalor ignorance want idleness and disease some of the very qualities that critics say the system encourages beverage was absolutely emphatic welfare should only provide you with subsistence levels of support and it should only do so for a short period of.