to look back at the poor seven days on the latest developments this is the weekly t.v. and our top story this hour fresh clashes between government troops and army defectors and syria have left at least eleven soldiers dead and more than twenty wounded the violence has also claimed the lives of ten civilians meanwhile ministers from the arab league met in cairo to discuss the progress of the observers mission in the country with critics saying that failing to achieve its goal of ending the bloody crackdown opposition activists say at least four hundred have been killed by forces loyal to president bashar al assad since observers started working in the country just twelve days ago. and this. told me a little earlier that she thinks the arab league is going to find a solution to the crisis that's sweeping the country but that it needs more time. the violence is two sided that there are attacks against government troops these realities on the ground need to be reflected by the observers the arab league

observers and unless they have time to really see both sides of the story we're not going to know how best to solve this conflict we're not going to know how best dialogue will happen and who to trust and who involved in this process syria also has to be careful to have reliable people come in and not those with political agenda seeking to destabilize or undermine the syrian regime of course there's also violence continuing in this must stop so the arab league needs to find a just way to end this crisis and not listen to the western pressure that's coming from europe and from america to intervene in syria and to get the united nations involved right now let the arab league try to do its job. iran has promised to hold new military drills near the strategic strait of hormuz renewed its threat to close down the crucial if western nations proceed with blocking tehran's exports well last week new sanctions from washington began targeting iran's financial and oil sectors and france is calling for even tougher measures when one rainy newspaper

reported that iran has begun to rein him in richmond for peaceful purposes at a well protected underground facility near the city of. the u.s. and its allies continue to accuse iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons a charge to iran denies that of the corporate report card affairs website says pressuring iran further will eventually lead to war in the region. i think it's quite remarkable to think that france and the us and other countries would be willing to step up sanctions that have already had such a profound effect on the iranian people on the basis of their hunch that iran to run is developing nuclear weapons as as france has basically put it is quite remarkable because that really does is tantamount to an act of war and and really the i think the only logical outcome for this is another increase in military tensions between the countries involved in that region that are already on the knife edge of military tension so it is quite an explosive thing to be talking

about and i think the escalation in recent weeks with the recent ten day military drill in in the straits of hormuz has to be weighing heavily on the minds of of the u.s. and others but but i think really the idea that iran would really close off the straits of hormuz or attempt to do so would only be an absolute last measure resort for a country that relies on the importation of refined gasoline and other things through the very straits that they would be sensibly sabotaging and planting mines in so it's it's quite remarkable to think that that iran would do that in any other situation other than they felt that the entire existence of their country was an under threat so adding more sanctions to to the mix is is really just a recipe for military disaster i think. we're going to have for you this hour here in r.t. the fate of a former leader of the cute is in egypt for the death penalty for ousted president mubarak some analysts say he's execution might spell trouble for the entire region . plus europe is in progress right this year as recession and economic instability

creep closer towards the use heavyweights. stories told to come but first in america the race for the presidency is in full swing with six republican hopefuls competing to challenge barack obama in november as vote front runner mitt romney's taking flak from his republican rivals who dismissed him as a mere business manager this is he builds considerable men. after his win the. campaign now moves to new hampshire for the first primary just two days from now voting take place across the u.s. in the coming months before a single candidate is chosen at the republican party convention. season politician and. paul is trailing far behind in the poll and. that's because he is agenda is appealing but not to the members of his party because he took so much money from them in his 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. affairs in 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 conservative and ron paul does stand out among. voters want to support him 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 really embodies but republicans also understand that kind of positioning will not win the general election against president obama as the republicans slug it out for the right to take on a bomb of the president himself is ratcheting up support for his reelection bid but with his approval rating down and the economy still on the ropes some of those who voted for the yes we can man in two thousand and eight say they made a mistake. as more. four

years ago one historic campaign turned u.s. politics into a pop culture phenomenon. 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 no way you've strayed from a cherished right has been donated to the movement that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven or thereabouts when people holding out david moved to 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 as up as i would over the 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 in 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 who didn't produce what people wanted him to produce in two thousand and eight professor and author talk to cornel west was one of obama's biggest supporters i think you get the beers you got the new season. at the

freshness taking part in more than one hundred campaign events but last april the prominent intellectual told r.t. that obama has failed he's the friendly face of the american empire abroad he's in the process actually of becoming very sadly a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business and any politician here knows they're in trouble when the hollywood a listers start turning their backs are you happy with the way that obama has been running the country. you know. and i think i really think he misinterpreted his. 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 unassailable candidate of choice this time mr obama is likely to stay if i default. new york. we're coming up with a program for you turning a blind eye some of london's poorest areas already rampant with gang culture face more crime misery with the government pressing ahead with its police cars. first to egypt where prosecutors in the mourning the death penalty for president hosni mubarak of ordering the killing of protesters during last year's revolution and also calling to hang the country's former interior minister and six other security chiefs moscow has already expressed concern over the possible execution of the former leader and call for a more humane punishment according to estimations at least eight hundred people died in last year's clashes with forces since his trial began in august the eighty

three year old has appeared on a stretcher due to poor health international relations professor mark ullman says an execution could further deteriorate the country and the entire region. mubarak music. being christian when demonstrations were partially current our present state will have to close but. what about going straight. to the sheer who are actually in why the root. the end of. the bar and so hiraman christians. either and say there's no clint which i knew was no way of. explaining what their life were so in fact why the perspective here. we can break down which. will change us and possibly. to since the last american

troops left iraq the country is learning to manage its own affairs but the consequences are proving fatal for some a decade of conflict was meant to herald a move to democracy but journalists there say intimidation brutality against them is rife but sebastian minor reports. this spring iraqis inspired by neighboring arab countries began protesting against their government in a square in baghdad one which shares its name with the better known counterpart in cairo. but iraqi journalists trying to cover these protests silenced by the government security forces and today's iraqi journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten or just simply killed it seems to be a high level of intolerance or dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or particular leaders use it fell to me

a freelance journalist showed some shocking you tube footage from the protests this february that explicitly show iraqi security forces targeting him because he's a journalist. he shouts which is arabic for a journalist over and over again but it makes the police more violent three or four maybe five right police were around me one of them slap me in the head other one kicked me in the and they grabbed me fast managed to escape arrest thanks to two foreign journalists who intervened but since the arrest of one of his colleagues he stopped covering protests altogether became hard for journalists for example to go to tahrir square i myself i don't go there i stopped there a long time ago not because. not that scared to be arrested. you know i'm worried to be mistreated we tried to speak to

journalists who've been arrested in baghdad but everyone was too afraid to appear on camera so we came up here to the more peaceful kurdish region to see if the situation was any different here i met a young photographer who was arrested while covering similar protests in the kurdish region but after the interview he called to tell me he was scared of reprisals from the government and asked to blur his face and change his name after his arrest in april and was imprisoned for four days and tortured. six men came to the room and started to shout at me and beat me with cables then they gave me electric shocks they wanted me to admit that i hadn't been at the protest. when he was finally released after four days a friend took pictures of his wounds and published them in a local magazine immediately ahmed was rearrested as a punishment for publicizing his initial arrest. came and they held me for three days and made me sign a document declaring that i would not talk to the press again back in baghdad the

government spokesman admitted to r.t. that individuals in the iraqi government were indeed using their powers to silence the press but i noticed that people been. using bit but this is again is not protected by the government the government or the against and you could see that there are people in the ministry of interior for example they have misusing their their power against the citizen and there is this building that is the keeper culpable and some of them has been fired almost nine years after the invasion u.s. troops are home but what of the country they're leaving behind with politicians using the security forces to silence journalists it appears that iraq lacks any credible press freedom or freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer or iraq. in russia's republic of chechnya four security service officers have reportedly been killed and over a dozen more wounded in a shoot out with illegal armed groups three minutes have also been killed

authorities have located their main hideout which was packed with explosives and weapons a number of terrorists remain on the run and additional security forces have been dispatched to the area russia's caucasus region has seen a rise in militant attacks over the last twelve months while the republic of chechnya had remained relatively peaceful. the euro is sunk to a sixteen month low over the dollar with fears now growing that the eurozone is facing a wave of recession italy and spain are facing a crucial investor confidence test next week as they race to raise public funding italian prime minister mario monti met french president nicolas sarkozy in paris and called on other member states to show more confidence in the single currency and meeting comes amid fears of the crisis knocking at the door of the even use heavyweights meanwhile greece is one of a disorderly default in march if it cannot secure more bailout cash economic analyst overbuilt says that greece is exit from the euro zone isn't it. 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 lying list and unrest and even 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 would 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 the 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. to deal with its own economic outlook britain has to make further public sector cuts as part of the government's austerity measures thousands of police officers will disappear from the streets affecting some of london's most impoverished areas where gang culture is rife correspondent laura smith reports the timing for these cuts couldn't have come at a worse time gears up for the twenty twelve olympics. and often also. the dark underbelly of life in britain's inner cities gang culture dramatized here for a television series for gavin it was real life he got into a gang to escape a feeling of powerlessness an abusive home life where money was a constant struggle. as a young. man. to

. be angry over the top. name for the crazy. people. at his lowest ebb gavin admits to having stabbed a girl and his story isn't unusual in deprived areas nowhere is the question of how to solve the gang problem in london more relevant than here in new it lies in the shadow of london's two thousand and twelve olympic park but it's also got more gangs than almost anywhere else in london round here young people say you start just by hanging out with your friends on the streets and you end up in a spiral of gang violence and fear. in you are more than half of all kids are living below the poverty line and they don't feel the government's doing anything to help them how can you hold me she don't understand. you have to have a. i don't. know in

a bar of the bridge in london and the neighbor was going to has gone crazy and the neighbor. in london. was there if the government really knew and understood would be happening when gavin met sheldon thomas an ex gangster himself he turned a corner and they're now working in a team to get young people out of gangs the government claims it wants the same thing and having laid the blame for august's riots firmly at the door of gangs their solution the carrot and stick method are if you found some excellent police work to identify and manage the highest risk on members through a combination of targeted surveillance enforcement and arrest for any offense however minor and positive offers of training employment and drugs treatment for those who want a different life but for those not prepared to break away from violence they will

face harsher and tougher punishments but this isn't going to work according to sheldon thomas who feels the government is forcing him at every turn what they do. the manifestations of gangs gun violence. gang rape drugs to deter that's just a manifestation of the causes of it causing stemming from family breakdown moles on the window from society as a whole while the government rhetoric sounds encouraging other policies will undermine both carrot and stick economic austerity cuts will mean sixteen thousand fewer police officers on the streets and services that deal directly with gangs now will have their funding cut by between twenty and ninety percent in some areas that means young people like gavin in the future will have nowhere to go but the st lawrence smith party london. afghan investigators have accused the us army of

abusing detainees and its main prison in the country saying inmates are reported being tortured and held without evidence prisoners of the us run prison outside by graham airbase north of kabul complained of freezing cold humiliating strip searches and being deprived of light which a syndicates political analyst at the us based website antiwar dot com joins me now live from because what he has to say about this well jason given the u.s. record on alleged torture just how valid all of the findings of this investigation likely to be think. well i think they're not particularly surprising for anybody that's paid attention a lot of these allegations have been the subject of court cases in the u.s. over the past few years particularly the question of holding detainees without any specific evidence or charges and u.s. courts have found repeatedly. unfortunately the. the military base that bob graham

isn't under their jurisdiction and that the military basically can detain people as long as they want without charges at the air force base let's talk about the timing of this. these accusations are coming at a time when of course the u.s. has been using this prison for years but now we're talking about this troop withdrawal one in a couple of years time by twenty fourteen why do you think we're seeing this sort of tension and these allegations coming from the afghans now i think it's pretty clearly related to president karzai is efforts to speed up the transfer of the base which itself seems to me a function of the ongoing talks between the u.s. and the taliban there's been talk that there will be prisoner exchanges between the u.s. the taliban i think president karzai is hoping to get control of some of these prisons so that he can have at least something of a seat at the negotiating table if for no other reason than that adding access to tradeable prisoners in the u.s. and this is this came as a big surprise for the u.s.

didn't it and there was talk of course of this sort of negotiation the handover the the running of the prison background prison in the next two years and all of a sudden the afghan authorities say we want that transfer to happen within a month now what does that tell us about the current relations between the two while i think again it goes back to the question of the peace talks right now and president karzai is concerned that he's being treated as very much a secondary partner and in negotiations with the taliban and he's trying to get some sort of bargaining chips involved in this process but what about the inmates themselves is that not a concern that security in afghanistan and beyond could be compromised if the afghan authorities take over this prison and release inmates who are regarded by the u.s. as high risk alone possibly but i don't think the karzai government has a particularly good record on detainee treatment either so well. the prisoners

there might see at least some nominal court access which they've been denied under u.s. control i don't really think you're going to see massive releases or really any serious releases other than prisoner exchanges can one be sure that the treatment and conditions for those prisoners will be any different will they benefit from this changeover in the running of the joe. not necessarily unfortunately as i said to karzai government's very atrocious record with handling detainees as well particularly detainees accused of torture but i would like to think that. there's at least some hope that they would have access to the afghan court system which is of course far from perfect but is a dramatic step up from no access to any courts at all. let's look at the the future plans the date as i mentioned earlier for the u.s.

troops to leave twenty fourteen now some experts say that the troops will probably stay be that. probably because the security levels will not be achieved at that stage to what the west and the u.s. would like to see do you think that could be the case i think it almost certainly will be the case the u.s. has been in not so secret negotiations with the karzai government about rubber stamping continuing the mission possibly for another decade past twenty fourteen date there's been not really open talk in the u.s. media but open talk in the international media of the possibility of a two thousand and twenty four deadline replacing the twenty fourteen deadline and well the u.s. is saying that that last ten years would be a smaller commitment than what the first ten years have been i think it really remains to be seen if even that will be the case jason to talk to you thanks very much for your thoughts jason gets that from the antiwar dot com coalition live the image you can thank you you thank. let's update you now on some world news in brief

in our world update this hour and first to nigeria where days of sectarian violence have killed at least forty four the latest attack in the radical muslim sect a book targeted a church service in the country's northeast killing at least fifteen violence comes after the group promised to kill christians living in nigeria's largely muslim north president goodluck jonathan has declared a state of emergency for areas affected saying the unrest is worse than the country's civil war which took place in the one nine hundred sixty s. . saddam's president amar al bashir has offered to help former libyan rebel fighters and integrate them into army and police forces in a state visit to tripoli the leader said the overthrow of colonel gadhafi was a gift. the proposal from bashir who is wanted on war crimes charges in the hague sparked outrage from international and libyan authorities have been struggling to disarm rebel groups which are appealing to the country's. civil.

well short of the story of an american vigilante waging a one man war on illegal migrants on the us mexico border that will be off to the headlines with me in a couple of minutes from now stay with us live here and. all . if they shoot something inappropriate for

a public they can easily be shot. casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what does their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave around. and this clear for thousands with such witnesses i got on my site. one of the many subjects to. shoot first is shooting on our. the. technology innovation. developments around.

news and the week's top stories now in our weekly. seeing the implementation of a peace plan. in the persian gulf. region as the. republican race for the. election.