pledges the opposition will have a better say in the new parliament and reiterate that all claims of electoral violations will be investigated. sanctions on syria and one sided pressure don't work russia's foreign minister condemns the west for ignoring atrocities committed by opposition groups he says and to create a humanitarian catastrophe in the country. a deadly attack in belgium throws hand grenades and opens fire on crowds in the city killing at least three and injuring over a hundred more. than the russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid because it was stuck at the border after being blocked by police from moving further into northern reporter is at the scene.

international news in coming live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is r.t. present dmitri medvedev has promised that all reports of violations during russia's recent parliamentary poll will be looked into he made the comments as he met with leaders of the parties elected to the state duma the lower house of parliament. has more now from central moscow. we had mcdade of the pools addressing the concerns of the election violations he once again reiterated the old these claims are going to be fully investigated though he also has been talking about the paul the opposition to going to have to play in the need to miss saying that they should have a best say in the team a committee of course we had all the elections united russia lost the parliamentary majority that she says majority so you know it's russia do it even talking about it in milledge ing that they will have to work much closer with the opposition in the teacher to boss and loosen decisions and the compromises will need to be my age of

course all of this coming on the back of tens of thousands of people taking to the streets over the weekend to have their political voices heard amongst other things demanded a rerun of they call them until elections now so it's already turning some oats to the presidential elections days will be happening in march and we've seen russian billionaire mikhail prokhorov throwing his hat into the ring he announced his decision to run somewhat surprising he's been known in the past much more his other proceeds which of course being russia's third richest man made his money and metals and find and he's also the honor of an american boss people to name for his exploits as rush's most eligible bachelor but it's the political fail that he's been looking to play at the moment he was leading white schools in the summer but he quit that quite visibly in september we're seeing him now planning to return to

political spin now he's also had his spokesman of his company announce that he has plans to buy media a major media holding here in russia. again a very interesting week time's decision because thomas sands has seen a lot of controversy surrounding it today also its decision to fire its the. i'm one of the chief editor of the magazine now they were fired the publishing a pitch that depicted in the language that was related to the parliamentary elections boring cause a huge amount of anger. among journalists inside and outside of russia. apologize for the picture being published but that ongoing at the moment that's. raising some eyebrows certainly. keeping life in this post-election political debate. well we've received reports that a spokesperson for the owner has denied there are plans to sell the publishing

house and we'll wait and see how. replies to that in due course. still to come this hour here on our team a russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid for cause of the serbs is stuck at the border after being blocked by police from moving further into northern cost of a reporter is at the scene. and crowds of the former ukrainian prime minister supporters have stormed the court building where seven year jail term for power abuse is being appealed. russia's foreign minister has accused the west of turning a blind eye to armed opposition groups in syria which aim to destabilize the situation there and create further calls for foreign intervention second of all his repeated his belief that a one sided approach to resolving the country's crisis is wrong and wants both sides to hold dialogue to broker peace parties. has more.

foreign minister lavrov slammed the west for what it says is a one sided approach by some western states to the situation in syria he says that instead of looking for ways to bring peace to the country more pressure is being applied on the syrian authorities while the atrocities committed by some of the problem western groups within the syrian opposition are being ignored and these groups use hostile and aggressive tactics which only rock the boat and worsen the crisis even further. our partners who are calling on us to be decisive don't want to condemn violence committed stream is groups which have become increasingly active in syria in the city of homes several blocks have been occupied by militants they regularly attack army posts as well as administrative buildings hospitals schools police patrols and public transport i think there's no doubt that their goal is to provoke a humanitarian crisis should have an excuse to coup for outside intervention. to go

off added to that presenting these hostilities as the syrian opposition. efforts to gain democracy by some western states is in that accord approach at the moment he stressed that the libyan scenario cannot be repeated in syria and reminded that russia and china are putting forward their draft resolution on syria to the un security council which condemns the violence but does not give way for any foreign military intervention in the country. accusing russia of hampering the work of the un security council in these conditions is immoral they are both foreign ministers including of course the i was. being one of the keep whereas in the arab league have also called for syria. to monitors from the organizations to enter the country see what's going on there on the spot and actually also said that it wanted

monitors from the bric countries could also join them meaning brazil russia india and china of course. the violence in syria that's plagued the country for nine months has recently intensified with the death toll now exceeding five thousand according to the u.n. latest estimates but syria's ambassador to the organization has dismissed the allegations as incredible with some experts also questioning the source of the figures. there are definite questions on the credibility of the syrian human rights of salvatore particularly when it comes to the number of victims that they allege shyer victims after the government atrocity. and you can watch our full interview with the specialist on the region dr randy mastery website r.t. dot com there's also plenty of other expert opinion on syria's ongoing unrest and all the latest news from there. at least three people have been killed and over one hundred twenty injured in a hand grenade and gun assault on

a crowd in the village and city police say the attack was carried out by a built in citizen who died in the incident. cilia has more details as police continue to investigate the matter details are becoming clearer so what happened is at around twelve thirty noon here in. that's about eighty kilometers from brussels in the crowded city center gunmen had thrown about three grenades into a crowd and also opened fire at those people and it's it was reported that he also had more grenades on him now the prosecutor has confirmed that this man has this served time in jail for crimes related to what god drugs and sexual abuse and he was on his way for police questioning when he launched the attack and among the dead include the gunmen a fifteen year old boy a seventeen year old girl and an elderly woman and of course there were dozens injured the those numbers continue to change. goes on now what this

terrorism has been ruled out of this incident but of course any such attack of this nature in a city center in an urban area is thinkable unimaginable for people and it does draw memories of that recent attack in norway where a bomb explosions went off in the capital and although then a gunman had gone on a shooting spree on the island of utah where there were students gathering for a political meeting there were several dozens killed in this incident so of course such an attack of this kind of this scale has rocked the country and of course has taken people off guard. u.s. troops a foreign legion withdrawal from iraq by december thirty first the end of nearly nine years of war u.s. president barack obama reiterated that point to the joint news conference with iraq's prime minister who's on an official visit to washington obama says the troops are leaving a sovereign and so for loans iraq was all too short to was discovered many iraqis still wonder what america really accomplished. as two thousand and eleven draws to

an end and historical chapter for iraq and the us is finishing as well the occupation is over six feet deep i'm glad that the americans are leaving who are still concerned because after the troops leave who do not know what will happen next meanwhile despite all the efforts by the us there is doubt that anything significant has been accomplished in implementing a new form of democratic government and i think that's why they're not. destroy. the old system is it. and they split them hoping they have nothing to lose this thing which is more done from said down syndrome that's for generations iraq has been plagued by sectarian violence now moving forward there is concern whether different parties can agree to work together for the benefit of the country the problem of the with the u.s. forces but i know. for sure that the from the top to pick.

up now the problem the fight to securing that border to come. one of the problems here in iraq is that the infrastructure it was already crumbling but as the conflict progressed it was all but destroyed now the people living here say there's a lot of rhetoric about rebuilding but that political infighting and corruption is blocking any real progress the military is getting ready been putting out but in the same time we will not see yet another new projects going people you know. the city the sea the security just little is that the this is that i think over and beyond the political challenges there has been an exodus of critical thinkers and educated talent in the country a much needed resource for any developing nation we need people working and made this a world in the education really anything. so we need. somebody

on. leaving iraq easy in a position of continued reliance on american resources in baghdad sean thomas party . the us troops may be withdrawn from iraq but one of its military contractors is planning to return to the country the company formerly known as blackwater it's been involved in several scandals including the killings of iraqi civilians now and for the second time the company is change its name to joseph if it's not his from the security and intelligence studies program tells r.t. about the company's future and its checkered past cademy represents a long term trend a very visible trend in american security and military areas in which we see the privatization of all of these organizations or agencies and what we're seeing now basically is a corporatization of privatization of american military and security services and

that's exactly what it represents it's got in trouble several times in iraq the fallujah incident the square massacre that killed seventeen iraqi civilians and of course constant. constant cases of smuggling of weapons being caught several times by the state department for instance. and later we hear from a former indian ambassador to iraq and all through the book the ultimate prize he thinks that america doesn't plan a complete pullout from the middle east country that interview in full comes later this hour but here's a quick preview of what's to come. i don't consider this an american withdrawal i think it's just a reshuffling of the pack if you would draw from iraq completely you leave this. in the hands of a shiite led government which means we're going on to counter this the americans have now thought of withdrawing their troops but at the same time strengthening their position in iraq now the u.s.

embassy in iraq is going to be about almost twenty thousand strong it's going to have numerous. offices like training training of troops etc who will be. basically americans who would be military men but working for the u.s. embassy by agreeing to withdraw troops as per the agreement they are in no way coming back burning civilian claude's and in fact i don't see any lessening of american influence as far as iraq is concerned. and you can log on to our website r.t. dot com for more stories comment and analysis and here's what's there for you right now there's much western media hype over this amateur footage filmed during russia's weekend election protests with claims that the strange aircraft used for aerial photography was a u.f.o. or a government surveillance drone. plus a bridge

a blaze dramatic pictures of raging on this vital piece of infrastructure in russia's far east with hundreds brought in to help fight the flames. russian trucks with humanitarian aid bound for serbs in kosovo have been blocked on the checkpoint by e.u. forces eagle over the net has the details by saying this humanitarian convoy has become a little bit of a political hot potato and the crisis only seems to be growing it's that awful from russia a week ago it doesn't carry anything controversial just basic necessities which i needed for. and that involves of course there are we've been struggling through the past few months with blockades and everything else and it was doing i'll tell you

until it seemed to reach the border this morning at which point it was apparently some of the trucks in the corner let through but then the whole control is stopped and they received information that apparently elects which is the you mission in kosovo which is manned mainly by albanians which represent their interests mainly want to see you at school this convoy into this part of course of a and this is something which isn't acceptable to the serbs i think this was from the point of the serbs an attempt once again to try and you can bet officials back up and suspicions and that policeman in the serbian territory and the latest information which we received from the russian side is that now there will be no compromise as to what color it will be that it's simply the structure will be turned back and they'll have to get all that i'd like to russia. hundreds of protesters have been storming ukraine's court of appeal that's why the country's former prime minister's conviction for abuse of power is being challenged you know tomasz and co is trying to avoid spending seven years in jail but could be present

in cool due to poor health meaning the hearings were postponed until wednesday. he has this report the fate of ukraine's prime minister still remains in the shadows because we understand according to her lawyers that according to the iranian law the appeal decision the decision on her appeal cannot be taken without your. presence in the court room and she is not here and there's also a great deal of controversy on that story as well so some sources say that she has a very serious blood disease other sources say that she has a ruptured spine and she cannot walk by herself that's why she was not delivered to the court building as of today on the other hand. the medical crew inside the detention center report that to her condition is not as severe as it's been told and that in fact she can and she's able to attend this court session so it is a mystery why she was not delivered to the court building as of today now. he's been convicted to seven years in prison for abusing her power during when she

signed gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine but even if the appeal court brings a positive decision on her appeal she would not be set free immediately because the stars you understand there's almost a dozen other charges against her this is only the first day of the appeal hearing and definitely this is not the last protest we'll be seeing over the next few weeks or even possibly months as some experts predict. we're told now for a quick look at what else is making news around the world in a world update and first to to news here and the new president has been sworn in and now lead to transitional government becoming the country's first leader after the popular uprising almost a year ago long time when a president zene. he was ousted after weeks of public protests the election of the interim leader follows approval over the weekend of temperate bottles to guide the nation. until a new constitution can be adopted. footage is emerged from china of a group of bystanders lifting a car to free

a young girl who'd been hit by the vehicle and trapped underneath the suv curat security video shows the five year old sitting in the street just before the car drove over sixteen people work together to ensure the child was pulled to safety canada has pulled out of the ninety ninety seven ninety global warming kyoto protocol saying the treaty is not working for the party comes a day after further climate talks in south africa led to a new agreement which is set to replace kyoto by twenty fifteen is called when the founder of the weather action foundation supports kind of deserts it and here's why . i don't believe in manmade climate change because there is no evidence for it in fact carbon dioxide is control boy world temperatures rather than the other way around so frankly i'm glad that. canada left the kyoto protocol process and i hope it heralds the collapse of the whole thing climate change is going on and the key aspects of the big very extreme events happen in the last

eighteen months were predicted boy asked whether actually using solar activity carbon dioxide has zero effect on repeat zero effect no effect whatsoever it is a complete waste of time it's a waste of public money it's a gravy train for so-called saw and looking into things which don't exist and of course for governments to impose taxation and oil companies to increase oil prices on the back of. increasing energy prices which is that then demanded by the global warming just nonsense lobby. well that's news for you this hour i'll be back with the headlines of our top stories for in about ten minutes from now in the meantime despite america's military withdrawal from iraq washington is still preparing plans to control the country's rich oil reserves and that's according to ranjit singh color india's former ambassador to iraq and that interview is coming up next stay with us for that.

president obama has announced the united states will definitively end the war in iraq at the end of this month but as the united states attempts to get the military personnel and contractors out of the country questions still remain about the implications of this decision for security in the region joining me to help discuss this is the former indian ambassador to iraq and the author of the book the

ultimate prize saying kala thanks so much for joining me first of all i want to ask you about the recent terrorist attacks in iraq obviously there have been quite a few in the past few years and they've claimed hundreds of iraqi citizens lives do you think there is still a role for the united states in iraq when the americans walked in good not to have done anything but to introduce some semblance of democracy otherwise what was that going in and once they went in and decided to use some semblance of democracy it was going to be a shiite led government and because it was a shiite the government has very strong links with its cool. you don't. and therefore the main aim which i should say was to speak sure that the oil the vast oil wealth of iraq remains available would be in jeopardy

and i think that is basically the present dilemma if you withdraw from iraq completely you leave this wost oil wealth of iraq in the hands of a shiite led government which very close links with iran and therefore it upsets the political balance as far as the middle east is concerned so to that extent. to counter this the americans have now thought of withdrawing the troops but at the same time strengthening their position in iraq now the u.s. embassy in iraq is going to be about almost twenty thousand strong it's going to have numerous what they call sub offices like training training of troops etc who will be what they call basically americans who would be basically military men but working for the u.s. embassy similarly there will be a consulate in they will be

a consulate in. good cook there would be a consulate even further north and each one of these consulates is about a thousand strong it will perhaps be the largest u.s. embassy anywhere in the world i mean normal embassies are usually between thirty to forty maybe if it's a very big embassy perhaps one hundred strong but twenty thousand strong it's means that they're going to be lots of other people who are going to be still in iraq and you sort of just spoke about these sectarian issues with then. one and if the united states technically leaves the country how do you think the iraqi government will be able to stop these sectarian divisions into becoming a full fledged civil war it's going to be extremely difficult because if you see the communities of iraq as they existed most of the military in pre us invasion iraq was sunni dominated most of the officers were sunni.

the shirts were basically foot soldiers they had more basic military training as such and therefore because it was a similar government they were able to keep them in check it was basically by force of arms that people were kept were to call in check and of course the strong arm methods of. who has been there whether it was or even earlier most of them were using very tough methods to keep. the population in check no whether the new government which is the shiite led government will be able to equally take stronger measures to control we were to call the situation is a bit doubtful because frankly i don't think they have the experience to be able to run a country like iraq i foresee sectarian violence perhaps may not be of the scale that it is no but may have little more than what is presently going on and you mentioned

the united states troops going to crawl way how do you. i think the arab gulf countries are going to react to that are they going to welcome the americans i don't think so because i don't see i don't see this. actually i think it's just the shuffle of the cards so as to speak because the american not going very far they're just going to quit which is next door and you can always come back because the bases will be kept intact and as i mentioned with a twenty thousand strong u.s. embassy most of the staff except i will always be there and secondly they have made sure that there is no law the air force in fact you find that there is hardly perhaps not even less than they don't even have five planes to fly around so they don't control the airspace the airspace over to be controlled by the americans and which means that you can reinforce at will whenever you want how you want and you can also prevent anybody else from coming in perhaps even if the say the iranians

were to decide the american air force would be available make sure that they don't cross over so i don't see i don't consider this an american withdrawal i think it's just a reshuffling of the pack and i want to thank you so much air time thank you. wealthy british scientists sometimes explicitly. market why not succumbed to find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars

a report on our jeep. the league. the limits the sets. it's. just so. if. mother. it's six cool.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images cobol has been seeing from the streets of china that. china operations are all day.