it's not on. the. markets why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy and cause a report on our. screwed syria big the new libya europe and the u.s. consider sanctions response to a call of an often deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters. prime minister vladimir putin hits the use of force in conflict all nations saying politicians are not practicing what they preach. protection or violation the french government puts all the soldiers on the streets to protest against terrorism but some members of the public say they feel targeted and spied on. and on to focus is on the north caucuses to find out why it's become a hot spot for terrorists using is an attempt to turn young muslims into extremists

. planned business out these speaks exclusively to the president of. get up about the company's plans to develop the arctic shelf in russia so missed the interview to around twenty two minutes time. international news live from our studios here in central moscow this is artsy where it's just past nine pm in the russian capital and the syrian army is sending in more tanks and reinforcements as part of a crackdown against antigovernment protesters in the south and well the u.n. is urging an investigation into the government violence washington is pushing for sanctions somebody the west may be gearing up for yet another intervention result. has been finding out. but could it human rights groups at least four hundred

civilians have been killed in the last month of violence in the country and in the last few days alone since the lifting of the emergency law some five hundred people have been arrested now the white house is considering introducing new legislation new sanctions against the leaking internet is a form of punishment for this violent crackdown in the hope is that european countries would follow suit in addition to this in another example of the increased diplomatic activity and a call for sanctions against syria we are seeing in the u.n. security council a debate over a draft statement that calls for restraint and also condemns the violence and it does see the stage for the eventual imposition of sanctions against the country it's thirty backs of course by the un secretary-general banking room for an investigation into the killings against this backdrop there is more concern being expressed by exposing the international community that not only the increased

diplomatic activity against the country but also the possibility of a future intervention and at this will spark a reaction from arab states in washington and in brussels i guess there are a lot of concerns about the fact that syria are like libya is part of an alliance and that alliance is very wide it begins in iran some elements in iraq's government are part of the syrian regime has been on hamas in gaza so if the international community or united nations all united states are going to apply to syria all of an economic meaning a direct intervention or political tremendous pressures what they may get in return is the reaction by the iranian regime by hamas by hezbollah and others who the consequences if nato and the u.s. stick up their operations in syria many fear could be the same consequences in terms of what we've witnessing in libya. maybe but it's in an operation that's already be on on the go for several months and many fear that it could continue for

months if not years really the situation in libya is a parallel to what we witnessed thing happening in syria today they were experts who are suggesting that this could lead to the eventual supplying of weapons to the opposition in syria in libya we heard nato and the united states saying that the libyan leader moammar gadhafi is not a target now we're hearing some western powers saying that he is could the same parallel been formed with syria so against the pretext of actually coming in and wanting to assist the local population and actually prevent to use this terminology a slaughter the waste could be preparing the ground for foreign intervention in syria. reporting on the french intervention in libya has the government in paris taking drastic steps in the name of security. it's easy to persuade people that there could be a terrorist is that your station it's easy for people in florida to believe world that they have a right to listen to my phone calls which they do have

a right to monitor my e-mails facebook because they're only protecting us with armed soldiers patrolling the streets of new observing the french government's policies are a far cry from. a photographer for the details coming up in just a minute. meantime the russian prime minister says he's alarmed by nato approach towards libya at a news conference following russia swedish talks because addition is quote backed them out of the cost. it's well known that i used to serve in the k.g.b. at the time the soviet union was we're doing a war in afghanistan many of my friends served in afghanistan one of them was the head of the advisors group on the security bodies in herat one day he went on leave and i asked him listen sasha how's the situation down there and at that time our country had a very patriotic spirit we believe that we're doing a very good thing having this war in afghanistan his reply came back and expectedly

up you know without my signature not a single missile or blind can be fired so what i asked i assess my success and my achievements by the number of orders that i don't sign for me the sound of chocking can you imagine hearing that from a k.g.b. officer at the time i asked him why he said do you know how many peaceful civilians perish because of these missile attacks but no matter what reasons are behind them sometimes i contemplate how easily decisions on using force are me today in international affairs and it leaves me gobsmacked and that happens against the background of all the fuss around the human rights and humanism which the modern civilized world seemingly practices don't you see significant contradiction here between fearing the words and deeds and the practice of international affairs and we should do our utmost to eliminate this imbalance. france's increasing security

at home fearing revenge attacks linked to its campaign in libya armed soldiers patrolling the streets have become a common sight the government says these measures are necessary to prevent a potential terror attack but as are these daniel bushell reports many see the policies as the scaremongering tactics of a big brother state. soldiers on the streets with machine guns this is france is the chief here at fist of your most expensive time to tear a program before it's what it called the growing terrorist threats the government claims troops make a public feel safer but that's not what people think they're a little bit dangerous they can. use the force and other way there is a bit frighted with god. the. premier francois feels as troops are required because france bombing libya threatens a terror attack at home you'll find soldiers at shops chill recites government

buildings train stations airports schools and churches but expose the system doesn't even work and the main feature of terrorism is that it's impossible to foresee. real target is not to catch terrorists says one investigator but to monitor the public it's easy to persuade people that there could be a terrorist it's natural station it's easy very for people in friends to believe well that they have a right to listen to my phone calls which they do they do do it they have a right to monitor my emails and facebook because they're really protecting us troops are only the visible part or storage fees can now read people's emails under a law passed quietly in february president sarkozy also signed a bill for police to tap phones without getting judges authorization to justify the

invasion of people's privacy says one author so as he makes france's six million arabs a scapegoat he has to make them afraid thinking that there is an arab with a bomb here down down. a government recently branded muslims a problem and burn the muslim food. face veil some already mocked the band and what they see as an arab witch hunt by going out in vocals and mini skirts there's also the law cost world workers continue to be laid off in the economic crisis video pirouettes estimated prices eighteen billion euros each year enough to create a million new teaching jobs and embarrassed government and lists a tries to hide the amount. is very expensive and because the executive can move resources from one area to another quite quickly it's very difficult to find an exact figure critics like michelle cologne have dubbed the video system vishy periods vishy was france's

first in the second world war it spied and informed on people and targeted ethnic minorities. the french government today stands accused of doing the same to its own citizens the new bush or r.t. paris. in the battle against terrorism in the north caucuses it's not just russian special forces on the front line within the muslim community their ideological battle is raging between moderates and the extremist groups trying to lure young people in artie's told botan as more and less. a busy day at university in russia's north caucasus these students are learning about arab culture and language they're trying to broaden their horizons so was so hillsborough ramiele until radical islamists took hold on him. i saw the way his stare changed he became alienated from everyone and brainwashing teaches them to be ready for the next world so they

stopped paying attention to this one by the end of university he had started to take food to militant friends in hiding when seville warned him to stop it he left home forever as local say he had gone into the forest. i already felt something inevitable and sad was coming but i didn't know what to do i didn't have a chance to stop him when he left home from what she knows it was a month later the police surrounded a group of militants there is terms couple they were ready to surrender but their leader started shooting to provoke a deadly gun battle in which they all died including ramiele in another of the regions capitals now take its friday prayers at the city's main mosque but this is a muslim community living under a cloud three months ago the leader republican mufti was shot dead outside his home by muslim extremists and as such i have been a vocal critic of both your thirty's and the extremists saying there is corruption

in the police as in other spheres of society but it doesn't mean the policeman to be shot dead. when their ideologists say they are there to make people scared of islam i can't agree islam is not a thing to be afraid of the only way to promote islam is to make people see the beauty of it if they are scared of it they will refuse it. but since the one nine hundred ninety s. more extreme forms of islam for to come from outside russia have been growing influence. university staff are concerned at how impressionable some students have proved to be they say the region's muslim majority will not be made to feel alienated we need. to speak more of the slow sure the russian federation i want government i'll concede you shouldn't all wards of the. do not do anything against as itself radical islam isn't thought to have arrived in

the region until the second chechen campaign started in one thousand nine hundred since then although widespread fighting has died down the methods of small extremist groups bombings and shootings are political the question oversleep asked here now is whether the radicals ideology and methods are ones of desperation or growing confidence from bottom up. and in the latest special forces operation in russia's north caucasus region two militants have been killed gunmen opened fire from their car before being shot by police it's been confirmed they were leaders of a criminal group that extorted money from local businessmen officials say the money it was used to aid militants and extremist groups in north caucasus region has been gripped by almost daily violence between authorities and terrorists. is r.t. come to live from moscow still to come this hour make way for the runaway minibus.

find out how russian authorities are planning to stop the dangerous drivers transporting russia's commuters. a story still to come this hour but first let's go back to our top story now the violence in syria and the calls for u.n. sanctions from washington and across a lighted james turns now is a writer on middle east politics and security joining us live there in london james good to see you here on r.t. now syria has become a new focus in the middle east and the u.s. is monitoring the situation very closely do you think though that washington's calls for sanctions could lead to another no fly zone resolution as we've seen there in libya. well i think we've got a long way to go before we see any form of direct military intervention in syria the situation clearly is not ripe for that what's interesting now is whether syria a country that has withstood various degrees of u.s. sanctions over the past decades were actually by any further sanctions imposed on

it by the international community i think we have to particularly look at the role of europe in this case europe is responsible for about twenty percent of syria's economy essentially twenty percent of its free trade so i think that the europeans can come up collectively with the message where previously in libya they failed then i think we have a very interesting case of whether syria finds another incentive not to crack down heavily against its own people you see the situation isn't right there but doesn't the west have a humanitarian obligation when we are seeing reports of civilians being targeted by the authorities people are dying there i know we're not getting a clear picture from journalists there but we're certainly getting pictures from syrians there themselves so isn't there an obligation for the west to intervene one rule for libya surely there's a lot of the same rule for for syria. well i think that we can only be so far when we go down this line of perspective in terms of comparing the various different scenarios across the middle east and north africa certainly the british prime minister would say that

a certain number of factors have to be met you have to have international legitimacy through the u.n. security council you have to have regional backing and you have to have the capacity to know your actions will make things better now in all three fronts in syria these things are far from clear and far from certain so i think that it's not simple enough to say ok we have the responsibility to protect something that's gone through the u.n. and was approved in the general assembly in two thousand and six yet is yet to be sort of fully codify by the major powers and instead we have more of an ad hoc coming together of alliances of the deep time of global financial crisis and people will be very conscious of the fact that syria is not libya and if you do decide to intervene in syria you would have knock on effects across the region in iraq in lebanon to israel palestine and it's an area that the western powers feel very dubious about finding themselves sort of neck deep in because you know we talk to many analysts on r.t. and they're looking at a wider agenda here some are saying this isn't just people what we see in libya and what we see in syria there's

a hidden agenda from western influence and indeed i was talking to a former reagan administration official who told me a little earlier that the u.s. . has got its eyes on syria because it was actually like to undermine russia's influence in the region as we know moscow damascus have been very close allies for decades and russia has a large naval base in syria do you see any element of truth in that theory. who are not of the moment i think that the americans will be very conscious of the fact that any pressure they put on pro syria today will simply force syria towards more traditional allies such as iran and as you mentioned russia a country which has been able to take advantage of the fact that the europeans and americans have largely shunned syria over the past ten years and that is allow them an opportunity to forge cultural economic and political links so i don't think the americans have that on their mind i think they're far more concerned with shoring up their traditional interests in the region and syria always as has a sort of jannah space honestly represents both sides of the coin one point people

thought that the u.s. army would turn left baghdad in invade the mascot's that is now sort of a scenario that is almost totally forgotten and said we're looking at a far more realist policy coming from washington looking at potentially engaging syria that was before these arab revolts across the region and now seems that the real scenario here is not about washington or london or even moscow it's far more about what the syrian people in the syrian military choose to do today because that is the current conflict line of the country is characterized like you talk more about this alliance that syria has with the likes of iran hezbollah and also many people saying that could be we can be if the regime is toppled at the same time what sort of threat does that pose to israel how does israel come out in all of this. well i mean the regime has been there for decades so the point is if it's toppled and if something. is in its place then all bets are off and we don't know what will happen in syria in terms of its regional allies whether the proxies of

hamas and hezbollah that it supports or whether it's very traditional ally in iran iran i think would be a sort of marker for syria a close ally who has put down a popular rebellion of its own in the previous two years and therefore have some experience and recommendation of how to do that given our own be drawn if you could be drawn into this and be provoked if something if syria does become unstable and indeed if there is foreign intervention there in syria well those are two very different things and i certainly think that if there is foreign intervention in syria yes iran's intervention in response is a definite and very real possibility just as much as it interfered in iraq when the u.s. invaded that country however if syria's domestic uprising is simply that and one where there isn't clear and obvious foreign intervention on top of it and i think uranium for find it very hard for their own legitimacy in syria an arab country as well as the capacity to do it of putting down someone else's rebellion so i think those are two very different scenarios very interesting to hear we have to say

thanks very much for giving us your point of view and explaining how you see the situation there developing james turns there as always good to have you here on r.t. thank you. well time now for update you on some other international news in brief this hour rival palestinian parties for. greed a reconciliation deal we're hearing that's according to officials and the news is that under the agreement a temporary government will be formed and the election date set and has been in power in gaza in fact has been running the west bank for more than four years into factions and violence erupted after hamas won the palestinian election in two thousand and six. and afghan air force pilot shot dead eight u.s. troops and a contractor in an airport in kabul and was reportedly suffering from mental illness got into a fight with his foreign colleagues or planned the attack after being recruited by the taliban incidences the number of recent attacks on foreigners by afghan

security personnel. the white house was released president barack obama's original birth certificate to prove he was born in the state of hawaii so-called birth the claim that a bomber was actually born in his father's native kenya making him ineligible to be president. obama did release a less detailed version before he was elected in two thousand and eight but he had refused to make public is a regional one until. hundreds of military personnel are taking part in the predawn rehearsal for the royal wedding in london maybe a royal air force were testing their readiness for what promises to be the world's biggest televised marriage ceremony prince william and kate middleton to be married on friday and around six hundred thousand spectators are expected to line the procession route. well here in russia every day commuters swarming onto public transport here in a country take serious risks in an attempt to get to their destination shuttle

buses are cheap and frequent but in some parts of russia they're involved in up the whole of all road accidents often with lethal consequences. in finding out why. a high speed chase and a miracle that no one was killed. for more than ten minutes volgograd police pursued the speeding shuttle bus which had a drunk driver at the wheel. another shocking example this race between two million buses in central russia that left the plane people injured according to police in some russian cities shuttle vans are involved the more than half of all ruled accidents we are in the us these could southern russia and as you can see shuttle bus is very popular here the cost is less than a dollar per ride but just like anywhere else in the country this type of transportation is fraught with danger and most shuttle vans belong to private companies where drivers are often overworked and underpaid some of them try to get

behind the wheel drunk or worse. this year alone forty random checks and found twenty seven drivers for using drugs for just one deep go to living in moscow who parked his car and took a shuttle bus to work he says he almost got killed. for a serious while lucia's in a row very risky wants to run into a red light going the wrong way i was so scared i was ready to grab the guy by the hand and make him poorer meanwhile authorities and the want to see clearly that they found a solution to the shuttle bus problem a trendy high tech one. but this year we are equipping all shuttle buses with satellite tracking equipment and video cameras to help us deal with complaints on a case by case basis no matter home press of these plans are it's still unclear how this big brother approved will attack the situation on the roads but with the rising number of shuttle bus related deaths and injuries it may be once. the

carnage. and i want to see. more shortly we bring in the story of a man who went undercover to find out what's driving the american citizen protest movement known as the party that's coming up in less than ten minutes from now but first it's business news with the retreat that's after a short break. i know you want your business out so he would need me chairman of the russian oil companies ross and luke oil are expected to present plans for the first exploration projects up to the arctic shelf by the first of september. and pledges to invest

dozens of billions of dollars into shelf exploration in russia and the broader. it's not another disaster in the ocean it's a state of the our training center for workers developing offshore oil and gas deposits the complex is built by lou quote who has just signed a deal with ross now on self exploration and to talk on these and more i'm joined now by they have a right good i think here of. when b.p. planned to sign a deal with ross nafta on the arctic exploration they pledged to invest the first billion dollars and provide technologists what will be your contribution to the hearth aeration. we have unique staff are already developing some of the world's largest offshore deposits such as the west courier to them we are financially stable we can take on some of the financial risks we are partners for rosemary and

. while i am planning to start joint exploration of the shelf deposits and how much i already it's invest. in first or specialists will have to present concrete feasible projects by the first of september and the government should approve them it's mostly our projects or in the black sea or in the caspian sea each cycle of geological exploration especially in the arctic is very three to seven wells in ghana we spent about a billion dollars to drill these kinds of wells i think their minds will be similar here especially if we talk about exploration of the arctic. but if the b.p. rosneft deal goes through how might it affect your corporation over the last now. it will intercept it our partnership rose naifs partnership with b.p. are very different projects which are not connected they're economically thing

a lotion plea or politically when we're talking about cooperation with those nafta we're not. talking about exclusive partnerships that's about cooperation and concrete projects are you believe he may finally resolve this dispute with its russian oil partners s t n k b p says it's ready to sell its stake in the joint venture up next to the banks and dad of one of the partners in the consortium which owns fifty percent of the m.k. b.p. says the sale will be possible if they're offered a good price he wants to buy out his russian partners after they are lucky the british share swap an article expiration deal with rosneft had earlier refused b.p.'s twenty seven billion dollar often suggested the price should be forty billion dollars. yes that's not the billion dollars stake it's a sixty percent premium to the company's current market greece that's too much i think thirty billion dollars is more realistic however given the situation in which b.p. is stuck we will probably come to terms with or b.p.

has enough money it had around twenty billion dollars and it's account as a unit last year or also which really sure they're technically capital is twenty seven percent comfortable level so b.p. shouldn't have any problems in getting a loan if it decides to bio team he would know. that and russia's markets ended wednesday's session on the negative notes energy stocks were among the main losers despite high oil prices banking stocks were also on the downside take a look at some of the shares on the my sags rosneft is down almost two percent at the close in seen being was down two point four percent despite posting record high annual profits. and coming up next on r.t. the headlines to stay with us.

wealthy british soil some time to try to find. markets finance come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy which might structure for a no holds barred look at the global fine.