focusing live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is our team funerals have been held in syria for the victims of friday's bombing in the capital damascus and he's twenty six were killed in what the government believes or the suicide attack thousands joined the funeral seventy miles by the syrian authorities the escalation of violence comes as our oblique observers prepared to present their initial report on the situation activists claim hundreds have been killed since the monitoring team arrived two weeks ago showing criticism both from inside and the arab group the mission is to broker a peace plan to end ten months of protest which the u.n. says has left more than five thousand people dead and mr patrick henningsen thanks events in syria have been manipulated to promote regime change. a lot of these so-called human rights reports definitely skewed in favor of whatever the current

western policies coming out of the u.s. or london and paris of what they would like to see happen in syria which is me. people in the u.s. state department in the u.k. foreign office and the u.n. i want to frame this argument is that assad is having a crackdown on dissidents these are not dissidents these are in some cases armed insurgent and they're being backed in a material way by the u.s. and by some of these countries who actually are in the league guitar also has an interest in regime change in this country libya has sent al-qaeda fighters under the command of their tripoli governor to go and fight in syria this contravenes all united name and laws ok if the u.s. is actively involved in supporting this they are culpable in international court. and iran has announced its plan. to hold another round of naval drills in the horn

strait following its ten day maneuvers in the gulf has been threatening to block the world's most important oil route in response to u.s. and european sanctions britain says the move would be illegal and unsuccessful in international waters and warships are also there to ensure the passage remains open but tehran promises it will take action if u.s. warships sailed through the strait last week washington sanctions began targeting iran's financial and oil sectors to hamper its nuclear program france's core even tougher measures john research on the stop the war coalition for the use it's only just an excuse to regional influence. this isn't just about nuclear weapons if it were about nuclear weapons in the middle east then the united states would have a bone to pick with israel which is the only power in the middle east which actually possesses nuclear weapons it's not about that that's the course by life but the reason for this continued conflict is because the american administration

simply can't live within iran which has as much regional power as it has at the moment you see the americans when they look at the iranian regime they see its links with syria they see links with hamas they see links with hezbollah and this is a challenge to american power in an absolutely critical economically critical geopolitically critical area of the globe and it's that which is the sticking point for the american ministration in my view there are some people hawks in israel hawks in the united states who want to start all this militarily and it does seem to me that once we begin on the process of implementing sanctions of iran responding to the sanctions that there will be calls further down the road for direct military conflict and that in this case is even more dangerous than it was in the case of iraq. live from this is still ahead this hour battery life and death but prosecutors in egypt who asked president mubarak and we hear why his execution kill

any hope the sunni region. and europe still nursing a new year money hangover warning that some states could already be in recession while greece may have to abandon the single currency altogether. in the u.s. republicans are holding key debates this weekend ahead of tuesday's primary in new hampshire so former massachusetts governor mitt romney is the front runner antiwar advocate and around social conservative rick santorum a distant second primaries and caucuses will take place in every state in the coming months before finally choosing a candidate the party convention in august and then takes on the rack of bomber in the various presidential election former congressional aide and diplomat joe ruben told me that although ron paul stands out he's unlikely to secure enough support. he's foreign policy is very distinct from the other candidates in that he has a more isolationist viewpoint he wants the united states to retreat from

international conflicts in their national affairs and some areas that can be good he's opposed to military action with the ron who was opposed to the iraq war but the other candidates are all extremely hawkish on foreign policy very neo conservative and ron paul does stand out amongst them he makes voters want to support him but insofar as leading the party and getting other republicans on board to really change the agenda no he hasn't done that someone who says i am a free american and i can make it on my own and that's what ron paul really embodies but republicans also understand that kind of positioning will not win the general election against president obama. as a republican campaign rahm samp there's a growing question about how much of a challenge president obama can still post in the four years ago he was the ultimate choice for millions of americans today his army of supporters seems to be thinning as marina point now reports. four years

ago one historic campaign turned u.s. politics into a pop culture phenomenon. except for the democratic candidate achieved unprecedented support international fame and a record breaking six hundred fifty million dollars in donations. thousands of new yorkers celebrated the victory clutching an enormous american flag hand sewn by obama supporters but the winds have changed and the very same democratic symbol waved in honor of the president elect in a way each straight from a show straight has been donated to a movement that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven other about twenty people holding up david move food out organize the flag project after being inspired by obama rhetoric a dream shattered by the subsequent years of politics as usual curly what's

inspiring me is that as a lot of us like that that's the thing that's inspiring you know like that's why i brought the fight so ws and the thing that inspired me about it is the fact that it's a grassroots movement. that had a like a very clear and transparent process artist shepard fairey seems similarly just and chanted releasing an updated version of his iconic hope poster replacing obama with his now clear support for occupy wall street with an economy still in crisis wall street largely unregulated social programs slashed and over forty five million citizens on food stamps it all starts with you making a decision to get involved obama's familiar prose may not be enough to win back his familiar fan base he didn't produce what people wanted him to produce in two thousand and eight professor and author dr cornel west was one of obama's biggest supporters i think you get the beers you got the nooses. diversion is taking part

in more than one hundred campaign events but last april the prominent intellectual told r.t. that obama has failed he's too friendly face of the american empire abroad he's in the process actually of becoming very sadly a. big finance and a puppet of big business and any politician here knows they are in trouble when the hollywood a listers start turning their backs are you happy with the way that obama has been running the country. now and i think i really think you misinterpreted. his mandate yet the approval ratings show voters are even more turned off with the alternatives leaving obama seemingly the lesser of two evils america's president clearly enters the twenty twelve race amid a growing band of disillusioned democrats most will still back barack obama over

his republican rivals arguably with heavy hearts in two thousand and eight he was the honest saleable candidate of choice this time mr obama is likely to stay in my defaults. new york. egyptian prosecutors this week demanded that ousted president hosni mubarak be hanged for allegedly ordering the killing of protesters during last year's uprising also seeking the death sentence of twenty minister and six other security chiefs eight hundred people died in the bottoms which. you know since his trouble getting all this the eighty three year old hit on a stretcher into poor health talk show host stephen these days and using the barack as a scapegoat to hide their own shortcomings. this is a distraction this is. ok ron has reached. believing the interstate for several days and then trying to absolve themselves

in the process things are worse now one of the military and. no law also the people running the country the same ones closely allied with. who is saying because all agreements are certain people are too but i think the protest will go on the people. the violence will continue to struggle there's a long way to go. but calls from a barracks execution not being seen as part of a wider battle by egypt's military rulers to curb the ongoing a public anger on the other front the country's non-governmental organizations suspected of fueling the protests with foreign help that's ridiculous comports from current. the revolution may have toppled hosni mubarak the manager passions accuse of corruption and suffocating freedom but now it's the ruling supreme council of

armed forces which finds itself in hot water with the west calling raids on human rights organizations last week phyllis is a very dangerous situation because you have the elections on the one hand producing a prose nomic majority but the people on the streets pushing for change secularists who have links with these groups so it's a sign that this big tension really between washington and kyra leapt up cell phones and more than twenty boxes of documents were reportedly seized during raids by the police authorities promised all will be returned yet several questions are mean what prompted the raids and what could possibly be so suspicious about entry all of the races in post revolutionary egypt. and the members of the arabic center for an independent judiciary never did get an official explanation for the confiscation of their documents or these. action from their office that followed. we don't know what they were searching for we told them we could give them anything they wanted but they came in search everything and didn't give

a simple answer whether they wanted bank statements or anything else. sitting on a sidewalk by their former office the vix it angio workers point out a certain irony this never happened when mubarak was in charge of our surprise. the police like the. ticket system just. can't take a position. against so he moderates the activity in the face you. see. is a. human rights activists in egypt believe the rays are attempts to punish them for accusing military rulers of failing to carry through democratic reforms but western observers say the authorities are becoming increasingly wary of the ever watchful eye from washington and the true purpose of raids is to prove foreign funding over

again is ations which authorities accuse of destabilizing egypt the seems to be a strand of opinion inside the military inside the state machine that. is very disillusioned with the old friendship with the west and may be trying to find evidence to prove that some of the trouble on the street some of the troubling times has been in some way fostered by these n.g.o.s washington tirelessly repeats the old adagio of the importance of its relations with egypt as a key player in the middle east but the light talk may hide a very different agenda washington doesn't want stabilization they want to be permanent so that they can you know use that as a lever in the entire region egyptian activists aren't too happy with western help which. they say can do more harm than good. i mean i don't like the way foreign countries put pressure on egyptian authorities that the pressure has to come from the egyptians and we as

a human rights organization should provide it. time and money from us whatever the real reasons for the raids of n.g.o.s offices the increasing internal strife in the country could portend a shipwreck not just for egypt's relations with the west but for the country's revolution in cairo. r.t. . well that's still to come in the program the skies spied that signal israeli leaders there worried about their former ally and neighbor meaning satellite technology enabling them to get close up pictures israel doesn't want to reveal find out why. some countries in debt laden europe may already technically be in recession warning came from the head of the international monetary fund christine the government this week show said twenty twelve will be no walk in the park use an unemployment remained cold hard the end of last year and consumer confidence fell as a public felt the bite of cuts greece's prime minister warned places

a disorderly default in march can't secure cash to put up because they missed the next few weeks ahead of international inspectors visit determine if greece can stay in the u.s. economic analyst. so quick action is needed to avoid a public vote in greece. the greek economy is going down like a stone. g.d.p. contracted by four percent in two thousand and ten by six percent in two thousand and eleven and there is probably worse to come in two thousand and twelve and i think we are now at a point where everybody is research realizes that we cannot go on like this and that an arrest and even an arche in the country is becoming so much of a threat that some drastic things need to be done and my reading of what the greek government is doing is that they are trying to they are looking for an alibi to offer to their public by which they can say well it's not our fault it's the

international community that pushes us towards the exit of the euro zone and i think also here in europe at brussels that quarters of the european commission people start to realize they really are at the end of the road there is no other option left for them they're in a deadlock they cannot rewind the greek economy and so they are facing in a big black hole. meanwhile with debt it apart the swirling around it you might have thought that the books biggest paymaster germany would be the most concerned but increasing numbers of people there have other things on their minds they want this kind of explains why they're finding traditional politics no longer to their taste. it looks like an ordinary scene at one of the many bars in berlin except there is one thing which makes this party totally different from all the others the parties they must get out and. translate the pirate part of germany that's right and this is an annual meeting of

a political party and all these people or i'm only it's eighteen thousand members across germany like me treat was tired of the mainstream and i was really disappointed in. all this the same way. the faces. and the firefighters are different and one of the key differences apart from the style in general is a software system called liquid feedback allowing ordinary germans the opportunity to propose policies online the pirate stand for more transparency and freedom on the internet but when it comes to core issues like the economy and we don't have currently a stand on this this crisis maybe you will have after the. next federal convention but this wasn't a problem of the previous election for the berlin state problem a time when the port authority managed to win nearly nine percent of the vote securing fifteen seats most people who i talked to they say are just something

something fresh to me like because many germans believe that politics are cross to this time as the big players struggle with big economic and political issues but part party doesn't even have an official stance on the eurozone crisis or the arab spring nevertheless it continues gathering more supporters i mean a coincidence or an alarming signal stream politicians the free democrats party which is an go in merkel's federal coalition porter is the first to feel the change of heart from voters that actually lost that berlin wall to along with another four local volts across the country mainstream politics is also losing attractiveness because. there's often too little distinction or distinctiveness between different parties from different. areas sometimes you. can tell the difference between conservative and social democrat experts say the. internet is the new driving

force changing politics similar to the way it was influenced by t.v. half a century ago. change their tactics. before they could find themselves on the margins. or in germany online with more news analysis around some of what's there right now point. in israel will now be treated as terrorist credit card details of almost half a million people online. the. believers all over the broader celebrate the birth of jesus reports on the praising and the party. so the president has offered libya his help in disarming former rebels bashir has been visiting tripoli is wanted by the hague on genocide charges he writes groups

condemn the visit and questioning the libyan leader's priorities but analysts say they're just following the west's example. gordon brown shaking hands with get their feet in two thousand and nine at the g eight summit in italy or for example tony blair shaking hands with gadhafi in two thousand and seven just outside of his hometown where he was killed in certain two thousand and seven so i mean i think yes there are double standards here first at the same time western leaders are very open to doing this and do this themselves as well this support the libyan rebels who are fighting against gadhafi and have good material reasons to do so for a long time sit down in libya get out these libya. heads and you can understand why bashir wanted gadhafi out and why now having supported the rebel uprising if there would be some attempt to kind of welcome him. into libya no i must say that so many

found of the national transitional council most of the time they weren't even in libya at all with the people on the council themselves so off cozying up and getting the approval of western governments to lead libya rather than orienting themselves for the libyan people and actually fighting for democracy there i find it very striking that you have no question. criticizing the libyans for engaging with their neighbors and sorting out diplomatic relations i always just i'm staggered by the fact that these human rights groups basically we human rights as missionaries in the nineteenth century wielded the bible in the ten commandments to basically civilized countries to be inferior and incapable of governing their own countries and people. were turned to some of the stories making headlines today announced the coast of new zealand and a cargo ship which grounded three months ago has been torn in two by storm so the degree of the sea cleanup teams are on standby in case the remaining oil on board.

hundreds of tons of oil burst gushed into the sea when the ship hit a reef devastating wildlife in the area that's been described as new zealand's worst maritime disaster. an afghan investigative commission is accusing the american military of abusing inmates held at the u.s. run detention center. itself the prisoners gave numerous accounts of abuse and torture photos president karzai has demanded that the base be hundred over to afghan control the u.s. says it will investigate the allegations. a wave of sectarian violence targeting the christian minority has swept through eastern nigeria forcing hundreds from their homes attacks in a state of other men were killed at least thirty of the extremist islamist sect thought to be behind them the group has carried out of multiple bomb attacks during the past month killing dozens and has warned christians to leave the muslim dominated north. roger in time the president cristina fernandez de kirchner has

left hospital after an operation on my route plan of office said surgeons discovered no traces of cancer. had been falsely diagnosed the news was greeted with relief by hundreds of supporters who camped outside the hospital expected to return to work next month. now a russian tanker carrying an emergency fuel delivery is making its way through thick ice towards the alaskan city of newman the renda set out across the pacific in december from a port in south korea and is now less than two hundred nautical miles from its destination a severe storm there the a desk and community of about three and a half thousand people cut off without enough fuel to last through the harsh winter the russian tanker is being a company by coast guard icebreaker and it's carrying more than three point eight million liters of petroleum products president admission is due to reach the town by monday morning. now these days

a quick online search there anyone get detailed pictures of almost all corners of the planet with one notable exception israel technology is racing ahead tense the camera shy country will be able to hide from the lens much longer as closely in our reports. israel's leaders are worried and they've good reason to be in just a matter of months they'll be nothing stopping satellite companies from getting up close and personal. thank you think. more to enable me to. lose. until now only the americans had the technology capable of taking images greater than two meters per pixel resolution and american law stopped us companies from distributing the pictures the americans very sensitive security

demands of scrutiny that plays along with it which means even with google earth one can zoom into israel but only so far to feature a look at specific parts of israel many of them will come out blurry than any other place in the world that i've checked but that's about to change turkey is putting the finishing touches to a military satellite it plans to launch within the next two years the gawked took satellite will be capable of taking the very pictures tel aviv doesn't want distributed and there are no american star legal qualms in turkey about upsetting its photosensitive neighbor to keep a soul directly or indirectly some of these injury to him as off israel and that's the fear here especially because tensions between tel aviv a day and co are at an all time low and aid for to the attempt on gaza two years ago that left nine two and cause expulsion of the israeli ambassador has tel aviv nervously weighing its options the irony is that it was not so long ago that the gawked took satellite would have spelled good news for israel the two countries

cooperated extensively often sharing military intelligence but whereas turkey was once israel's a closest ally in the muslim world today it is ankara that is asserting itself without a television as a powerful player in the region or his trying to say that he isn't really not to be granted the special. services. that if used to have this saying these are military means nor the playground of. the phone companies everyone should abide to the same laws should have the same standards one satellite is barely enough. to put israel's picture shy world in a spin but this is not a country that wants its neighbors knowing its business especially with an arab world in flux and israel fast losing former friends policy r.t. and of a line israel. well shortly the story of an american vigilante waging a one man war on an eagle migrants' us mexico border it's off the headlines in a couple minutes.

from. wealthy british style it's sometimes it's right on. target. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global

economy in cars report on r g.

your week's top stories on today's news from. syrians say their final farewells to the victims of friday's blast to damascus. observers prepared to reveal their initial findings from countries on. iran announces plans for a new war games in the persian gulf author of peter threats to. response to. the mudslinging. us republicans a constant challenge of. former massachusetts governor mitt.