capital you're watching r.t. now to our top story the head of the arab league is due to visit syria on wednesday in a bid to persuade the country's leader to end the six month long crackdown on the uprising there it comes after your country's announced a new round of sanctions against the regime but as artie's daniel bushell reports and many are questioning whether western concern is for syrian lives or their own oil revenues. william hague britain's foreign secretary says horrific scenes of brutality have forced this oil burning in syria but bizarrely sanctions won't start for over a month. they will kick in only when european oil firms complete their supply contracts which. an oil fields developed by the energy giants like french to toll on being touched from an ethical point of view because sanctions would start. to go on with reduction of oil as a result the e.u. may end up subsidizing the regime they oppose the oil industry can use sixty day

payment which means the e.u. could still be funding. into next year if a crime the horrific critics also why the e.u. is putting profit above syrian lives. diplomats warn sanctions won't even hit the mark they hurt ordinary people not the leadership they claim to target or most importantly europe's oil companies have to be on the shoulders of the syrian people their companies out of protective the e.u. is also hurting itself think expose this will simply shifts a ploy to the competition if you look at syria. already the chinese authorities have said that they would bury any. e.u. officials hope new stocks of the black gold from libya would take up the slack but they may be disappointed will not start being productive until maybe at the end of next year and if they were an embargo on syrian oil today of course they would be

short. with the war against colonel gadhafi taking much longer than the west expected may be cutting off one supply before a secured another don't you bushel for all to see in brussels. dr tell fiction more from philadelphia university in jordan says that although all blame has been pinned on the syrian government the opposition has also been responsible for a great deal of the violence there's two thousand people there. sort of they say but these two thousand and maybe they are insurgents or some of them out of but remember there is also one thousand soldiers killed in syria so these one thousand soldiers are impossible that they are being killed by by peaceful demonstrations definitely of them demonstrations in syria was not peaceful in any sense because otherwise how could the possibility that one thousand army men and policemen have

been killed during this five month yes there is the mistrust from both lies but we have the current situation and we should sit on the table and negotiate because there is no other solution. well to libya now where rebels have captured a crew of oil engineers and cooks from former soviet countries as they suspected them of being pro get off the snipers to russians have been released along with a ukraine and couple after they managed to contact the russian embassy however about twenty ukrainians are still being held and artie's media phenomenon has more now from tripoli. well as far as we know thirty two people including two owners of the russian passport and also better russian and ukrainian citizens apparently working for the russian libyan oil company here in tripoli engineers and coupes men and women have been arrested here in tripoli shortly after the rebels took the libyan capital and have been put into one of the rebels' training center here in the capital after they've been accused of been snipers of khadafi we have been able

to speak to the detainees and they deny all allegations what the cause was for some reason the finger slavic people are snipers we have nothing to do with that we came here to earn money peacefully that these people say that they've been provided with food and water but some of them have been severely beaten and tortured by the rebels the russian embassy has actually managed to release two owners of the russian passport and ukrainian couple but around twenty other ukrainians us to been held by the rebels here in tripoli this group of the ukrainian embassy refused to take them they said they don't have running water they said that they don't have proper accommodation. they would be better to stink of c.b.c. . as well the latest what we're hearing from bani walid southeast of the capital tripoli where the fighting over the last and main stronghold has been continuing in the last few days is that the rebel forces have reportedly reached

a deal with the conductor's loyalists on the ground to and to the city without fighting this information is yet to be confirmed but if the research deal if the research an agreement between the rebel forces and khadafi is forces. that actually would mean a breakthrough and we also receiving reports that scores of the libyan army's vehicles have reportedly crossed the frontier border into niger and many believe that khadafi himself could also be in monday and good also. have fled the country we are receiving these reports just hours after gadhafi information has claimed but then battle colonel is in the country and has no plans to leave it any time soon meanwhile british prime minister david cameron has called for an inquiry into questions that a u.k. intelligence agency extradited terror suspects to libya where they were allegedly tortured or the allegations surfaced after human rights groups in tripoli found

documents outlining m i six and cia rendition programs but former british intelligence officer and a master now expects to be poor but will be swept under the carpet when david cameron calls for an inquiry into these allegations he's been credibly disingenuous under the u.k. law at the inquiries act two thousand and five any inquiry that is established including this in this torture inquiry headed up by subpoena gibson is circumscribed by the very organizations that are being investigated in this case my five and i six so it's going to be toothless plus of course the other consideration with this is that peter gibson himself is heading up this inquiry was actually intelligence services commissioner for five years prior to taking on this role so he's been cozying up to the intelligence services in the u.k. for five years i doubt he's going to unearth anything deliberately perhaps he would probably want to shine a bright light in the dark corner should we say he'll be friends to the intelligence agencies they will have lost all credibility they have double deals in

libya for decades now and really their chickens are coming home to roost and i can't see how any government that comes into power in libya will trust whatever m i six or the british government now says. the war in libya could fuel british and french appetites for a new intervention according to rosemary hollis professor of middle east policy studies at city university in london all the full interview is coming your way just over an hour's time with hears you. cameraman tacos we took a massive gamble that they could pull something off in libya. that would contrast with the disaster that was the intervention in iraq and you know hope presidents are talking as though this is a template for future interventions this is very much a kind of proxy war which must be extremely exciting and exhilarating at some level to be involved so the appetite for further interventions will exist.

now turkey says it's suspending all trade military and defense ties with the israel prime minister erdogan has also warned of more sanctions against cesar l and so he may visit gaza all that follows the expulsion of israeli diplomats from our well let's now talk to r.t. is a policy or is following developments for us in the tele view of paulo these announcements are obviously a serious development what's led the turkish government to make such a strong stand. well as you say the turkish prime minister other one has announced that he could be slapping more sanctions on television this follows the release last week of a united nations report into what happened on board the marmora now that was a turkish vessel that took part in the thirst for to attempt to break the israeli siege on gaza some one and a half years ago and after israeli soldiers stormed the ship some nine turkish

citizens were killed israel has repeatedly refused to apologize for the deaths and in response and career has expelled the israeli ambassador it has downgraded diplomatic relations between both countries to the level of second secretary and it's also frozen all military cooperation the turkish prime minister used the word savagery when he referred to the israeli behavior he also accused israel of behaving like a spoilt boy in the region and he said that the term. challenge israeli bullying in the mediterranean by increasing the naval presence there the turkish government has also rejected another finding are there palmer report which said that the israeli blockade on gaza was not illegal with the turkish government saying that it would now lobby that with the international criminal court in the hague but it will we know that the un of course that sets of order palestinian statehood later this month do you think israel is losing support ahead of it. well i

think this is certainly a crucial time for you as well we've heard from the turkish foreign minister who held a press briefing with the top official now bill shaath in which he said that the turks had a campaign underway to help the palestinians be successful in a bid come september the twentieth for a palestinian state now this is no surprise because for several months turkey has indicated that it is supporting the palestinians it has also indicated that it is embarking on a diplomatic campaign to help them in their struggle we also know for example that the turkish prime minister is now planning a visit makes week to egypt now he has said that he will be upgrading military cooperation between turkey and egypt we are also hearing that a number of bilateral meetings have been arranged no doubt these will focus of largely on this fear of economics but certainly this has to be a concern to israel the official response from the israeli defense minister

ministry is that turkey has a lot to lose but most people here really are questioning what israel is going to do because this is a crucial time when israel needs all the friends it can have particularly ahead of this u.n. bed which of course israel is against you need to remember that turkey was israel's closest ally in the region and relationships between israel and turkey are at the lowest they've been in more than twenty years and certainly seeing the same between tel aviv and cairo where relations between israel and egypt are also now at an all time low arrival thanks very much for that update artes of policy you're reporting there in tel aviv. israel could face yet more trouble as concerns rise that arming and training. and allow the security forces to shoot at palestinian demonstrators could lead to further violence or we've got reaction to that on our web site that's our team call. it certainly is another one to be a good deal most of the. this is the biggest debut of. opinion from

a peace activists is says a tough response by israel will only escalate tension between israelis and the palestinians and also background on the long running conflict ahead of the story all that and much more at r.t. dot com. now spain is bracing itself for mass protests as its senate meets ahead of wednesday's vote on a hotly contested change to the constitution well it would cap of the budget deficit in a bid to fend off the debt crisis and golf in europe and you know say fixing a deficit limit means sacrificing social welfare for the sake of the markets and as our school reports with rising repossessions and unemployment many people are taking matters into their own hands. this was the last time i got him and had guests over at her house just a day after artie came to visit she along with her fourteen year old son was

evicted from the subsidized flat she called home for five years. i was fifteen days late with a payment i paid five hundred twenty four year zero and they still want to victor me even though i paid everything and it was months ago since then marie carmen has spent most of her time fighting to keep her apartment she really calm and collected but the pressure of losing a roof over her head caused mary carmen to suffer a heart attack while there are these apartments should be distributed in such a way that people can afford to pay for them but a lot of times they can't and i'm going to fight to make this type of housing more affordable. but it carmen's case is not unique in spain the country's an employment rate of over twenty percent means many people are simply unable to make their next mortgage payments in the past two years more than three hundred thousand people have been evicted from their homes as a result of spain's financial crisis this is where members of the fifteen m. movement come in. according to the international human rights convention every

person has a right to decent housing if addiction is inevitable they have to make sure these people are not going to go homeless you just can't kick them out on the street that they're going to zeeshan is known as the indignados or the outraged they staged protests by homes of those who are being evicted hoping to prevent court plaintiffs and the police from entering sometimes they succeed like with this woman who kept her house because fifteen m. interfered with the vixen process. these are subsidized housing people who are in tough situation financially so i can't understand how they can evict people who cannot afford to buy their own homes. so far fifteen m. have managed to stop fifty vixens across the country and for. at least for me carmen and her son the power of. every victim is a human drama and the people who gathered here believe they are fighting social injustice but some wonder with the efforts of this group of people are enough to

solve the problems within this better system itself in madrid. and later this hour max kaiser and the stacy herbert discuss the behavior of banks and the ongoing debt crisis well here's a quick look at what's to come. union members and activist groups are demanding harsher punishments against the bankers because according to a report this year by the new economics foundation they said that banks have made sixty billion pounds out of the financial crisis they helped create most of it is due to selling debt to the government it's a bust out scam it's an insurance scam it's arson scam and they get paid out on credit default swaps or other form of insurance so-called insurance and they collect money as mafia terrorist bankers or financial terrorists that's what they are there terrorist to get paid per acts of terrorism and vandalism.

all going back to the situation in spain and to discuss the upcoming vote in the spanish senate and its repercussions for the country's economy i'm not sure life or been driven by writer and journalist. mr out of thanks very much for joining us so let's get straight to it if approved by the senate do you think that this deficit cap would improve the economic situation in spain. well it depends of course your point of view this is actually is not a measure in itself it's a commitment to carry out measures in the future to review suspended deficits to almost see the budget deficit now there are experts who say that this is absolutely necessary because spain has to borrow money from the markets and this borrowing this money at a very very high interest rates and this will send a message to the markets that this spain is solvent country it can return these

money but at the same time the problem is that spain has a problem with growth growth in spain this is largish so if you don't have growth then you also cannot pay back the money so the government has to strike a very fine balance here between the two things and it remains to be seen if this measure is actually helpful or harmful ok you have been saying for a while now that the problem in spain is unemployment you are saying that spain's debt is is lower than the average where is the disconnect here you are saying that if you look at the numbers of the dead is still sustainable but again as you mentioned markets are reacting to it differently is there something we're missing here. so can you repeat your question i am going to hear you very well ok is there something we're missing because investors are definitely doubting spain's ability to pay back well here are saying that the biggest problem in spain is unemployment and not the debt so what are we hearing there. well let's say that the markets are

not rational and they are driven usually by fear sometimes by greed. they just think they feel that the spain could be like greece or like ireland or like portugal because the fertile country within the euro so so they tend to lump together countries that are very different but they resemble each other because they are part of the periphery and i think that's the that's the real reason is just a psychological perception and then again it's true that the growth in spain konami growth is not very good so that in the long term will be a problem for the dept we don't have a problem now but we may have it in the future that is true ok let's look at the people of course how vocal do you think the public discontent will be if the senate gives the initiative the go ahead. well government to spend the nice everything the reason terms of social policies of infrastructures. most of the money the

government dispenser goes to paying the pensions of the people if the government makes a commitment not just this government but for future government source world not to spend or to spend as many minutes possible then people is going to suffer as artists that is clear and that is why trade unions and left wing parties are are protesting this measure because yes it will it will or it may have an effect in how people leave that's true ok now both incoming and outgoing chief of the european central bank they're calling for greater financial integration within the euro zone as well even suggesting a centralised economic government do you think that creating more bureaucratic institutions will actually save the euro. well. nobody knows if it will be an advantage or hindrance or do you strew is that what we what we really need is. so-called euro bond studies. it which will be

guaranteed by the whole european union because although weiss we have done much in each although because german bonds go down in spanish and italian bonds goes go up this is a situation that is very problematic not just for the economy but also for the politics of the union and for the eurozone distributive the euro so ok i just said very quickly what about the growing calls for some countries to leave the euro zone and return to their original currencies do you think that's reasonable. well frankly nobody knows it simply is simply that it has not been foreseen there is no mechanism to the so is it's really a mystery what would really happen because it is true that for some countries like greece for example maybe a space in the country in the in the euro now it's a problem but it's not the same thing not having been there being there live in the euro that is something we don't know what consequences would make may have well thank you very much for your thoughts there are. a writer and journalist joining us

live from madrid thank you. well let's take a brief look at some other into your head national headlines at this hour australian police have arrested a father who was holding his daughter hostage in sydney the eleven year old girl is now safe with the rest of her family following the raid in which she was rescued well the man had walked into a legal office with his daughter at nine in the morning and claimed to have a bomb in his bag. the hague war crimes tribunal has sentenced former yugoslavian army chief. to twenty seven years in prison his guilty of crimes against humanity during the balkan wars in the one nine hundred ninety s. including the siege of boston and capital sarajevo and the massacre of muslims. that is it was one of many ethnic serbs fugitive military officials on trial in the hague with the former president of serbia and yugoslavia yes slobodan milosevic having died in custody while the international criminal tribunals for former

yugoslavia has been criticized for convicting serbs and giving milder sentences to former military officials. there's plenty more on our top stories at r.t. dot com and you can look at what's a lot about the web site right now not exactly criminal behavior however a lawsuit out of chicago alleges six year old school kids were handcuffed simply for taunting him class want to argue dot com to find out more plus. in a bid for the guinness book of records moscow celebrates its birthday with a spectacular for the light show that up to eight hundred thousand people getting the chance to travel from sea to the stars in just a couple of minutes. the official. from the. video. and. in the palm of your.

comb. dimitri is here now with a business update. welcome to business r.t. and it's a big day for the russian gas industry as it has started filling the new nine billion euro undersea pipeline to europe gas deliveries through the first part of the nord stream project due to begin two months when completed next year the twin pipeline will provide fifty five billion cubic meters of gas to european consumers annually this is about half the amount of gas currently being exported through ukraine to europe officials at the opening ceremony have hinted there might be a third pipe laid should relations with transit country ukraine not improve.

speaking of which the gas is people tween moscow and kiev has more twists and turns than a viper and that's wasn't enough ukraine has a big budget problems it's got to get the deficit deficit down in order to receive by a meth funding and that's not an easy task. it has very few means of closing the budget deficit so renegotiating with gazprom is one way of doing that it is not in a position of strength ukraine has signed a contract for several years at a certain price for gas and now is trying to renegotiate how it's going to actually have any kind of success with gazprom is an open question for me. so you look at the markets now start with commodities light sweet is under pressure and worries that slowing growth in the united states and china would demand is down to one dollar fifty seven cents meanwhile brant is back up over one hundred eleven dollars a barrel this hour. european markets in a positive territory investors are taking

a break from two days of heavy selling hotel and restaurant operator with bread is up more than seven percent of the company reported a thirteen percent rise in second quarter sales is the picture in russia and the r.t.s. m i six initially did drop within half a percent in the first minutes but now they are gaining around half a percent so you can look at some of the individual share movies on the my six most energy majors are bouncing back from monday's losses new coil is up zero point eight percent meanwhile appliance retail end video is up point six percent gaining on news of a possible merger with its rival eldorado nickel is also on the rise that one of its main shareholders roussel declined the fifteen percent by bad offer made by the nickel producer and they backed down from gazprom bank says the russian market is cheap and offers opportunities if you pick the right stocks. you have to look for the companies which are all this or you think will be less vulnerable in this market environment probably because the government was more mature more oriented

towards domestic market and less exposed to if you're in the shale you know fluctuations because all of this you can look really predict. hundred percent of the ruble global currency performance or less so year so that's why i think it's better to have exposure to the companies which gives you some hedge against the but i sure will never be able to a local currency which is the real healed. of the good business the good kush piled . in other news russian technology says it's going to hive off its main subsidiaries an i.p.o. in four years time analysts say will most likely offer elec tronic biotechnology and engineering assets if they run corporation is going to spend the proceeds on a new investment fund to buy into foreign assets russian technologies controls twenty five companies including russian helicopters and. the turnover

in the russian stock market last month was a record for august sales at the ten largest brokers on the my so it's almost doubled to the usual volume be to more than seventy eight billion dollars brokers say they are benefiting from an increasing number of clients who are rushing to buy into the market after a heavy sell off that month. that's over me could join my colleague julie bokova she'll be here in around fifty five minutes time to bring you a business update there like the next arctic.

one for him lasted for fifteen years. and one million new war was promised for a. little smirk for the. general of the service. on our team. for the. we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. welcome back here's a recap of the main stories on our t.v.

the head of the arab league heads to syria to demand an end to the government's crackdown on protesters there this follows the e.u. announcing a new sanctions against the regime but critics say the battle of all imports serves the interests of european companies rather than those of the syrian people. spain prepares for a fresh wave of protests ahead of a crucial senate vote on top of the budget deficit a move that many fear will lead to social cuts while the european central bank calls for greater financial. within the eurozone as the only solution to the crisis . also turkey suspends trade and military ties with israel as a jewish state fails to apologize for last year's killing of. the gaza flotilla raid a prime minister has also warned of more sanctions against israel and said he may visit gaza. well be back with more stories in less than half an hour from now our financial pundits.