and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with us let's get right to your top stories fresh clashes between government troops and army defectors in 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 of the progress of their observers mission in the country demanding the syrian authorities to let more observers in this comes as critics say the body is of failing to achieve its goal of ending the bloody crackdown opposition activists playing at least four hundred people have been killed by forces loyal to president bashar al assad since observers started working in the country twelve days ago president assad claimed his forces are fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad and some observers agree. right from the start the demonstrations were

not truly peaceful but there were many incidents. perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course they are denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts on a clear indication that they're off gangs and that ted it's working in syria to disrupt their life in syria they're not aiming their aggression only against that but against the whole syrian people. syria and obviously what we are witnessing in syria is not that evolution but actually it is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the city but to change the whole area it has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and that they're all. forces

international forces and local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the area for geopolitical reasons. respective of the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people and on the whole area. iran has promised to hold a new military drills near the strategic strait of hormuz and it renewed its threat to close down the crucial oil route if western nations proceed with blocking tehran's exports last week a new sanctions from washington began targeting iran's financial and oil sectors and france is calling for even tougher measures meanwhile an iranian newspaper has reported that iran has begun uranium enrichment for useful purposes at a well protected underground facility near the city of qom the u.s. and its allies continue to accuse iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons a charge tehran denies john reese from the stop the war coalition believes that pressure on iran is an excuse to weaken its 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 cause or spell i but the reason for this continued conflict is because the american administration simply can't live with an iran which has as much regional powers 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 stop 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. so i had for you this hour the fate of a former leader. prosecutors in egypt call for the death penalty for ousted president mubarak some analysts say his execution might spell trouble for the entire region. plus europe fears of recession and economic instability as trouble creeps closer towards the e.u. is heavyweights. on to america now where the race for the presidency is in full swing with six republican hopefuls competing to challenge barack obama in november vote front runner mitt romney is taking flak from his republican rivals who have dismissed him as a mere business manager this as he builds considerable momentum after his win in the iowa caucuses as he moves to new hampshire for the first primary vote in just

two days' time voting will take place across the u.s. in the coming months before a single candidate is chosen and the republican party convention in august seasoned a politician and a fierce anti-war advocate paul is trailing far behind in a poll by former congressional aide joel rubin he thinks this is because paul's agenda is indeed appealing but not to the members of his own party. really 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 conflicts in their national affairs and some areas that can be good he's opposed to military action with the ron who are supposed to be 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 inspire is leading the party and getting other republicans on board

to really change the agenda no he hasn't done that he's 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 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 obama the president himself is ratcheting up support for his reelection bid for the democratic party and now facing a long election season some of those who voted for the yes we can man in two thousand and eight say they've made a mistake and he's marina has more. 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 no way each strayed from a childish right has been donated to them lou find that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven other about twenty people holding out david mulford 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 as a result 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 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 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 dr cornel west was one of obama's biggest supporters i think that the because you got the nooses. 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. 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. you know. and i think i really think you misinterpreted his. his mandate yet with the approval rating 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 in my defaults. artsy new york. and coming your way later this hour a fresh political force in germany. thousands of voters fed up with even mainstream

return of their support to the party of the skull and crossbones are two explains in ten minutes time. but before that we go to egypt where prosecutors demanded a death penalty for ousted president hosni mubarak accused of ordering the killing of protesters during last year's revolution they're 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 a form of leader and called for a more humane punishment a lot according to estimates at least eight hundred people died in last year's clashes with pro mubarak forces since his trial began in august the eighty three year old has appeared on a stretcher due to poor health and u.s. based radio host and author stephen london's says that the military rulers are using that mubarak as a scapegoat to calm the angry crowds. this is a distraction this is to do. three east region every day here

believing the end is steet for several decades if you don't try it was all it was so it was in the crosshairs seems the worst now one of the military and. known also to people running the country to see. the more closely you are it will go very well used to seeing people because all agreements are certain people are objecting to but i think the protests will go on and the people won't be cool the violence will continue to struggle there's a long way to go. meanwhile the country's authorities have organized raids on the countries that nongovernmental organizations are suspected of fueling the protests with foreign help. brings us the details from cairo. the revolution may have toppled hosni mubarak the manager accused 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 following raids on human rights organizations last week i feel this is a very dangerous situation because you have to elections on the one hand. but the people on the streets pushing for change of secularists who have links with these groups so that the big tension really between washington and kyra. dobbs cellphones 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 it and your peroration 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 the eviction 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 says i would surprise. the police but the. tickets. just. can't take a position. against so he moderates the activity of the human race will be. a seed. 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 of. however 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 streets some of the trouble in tahrir square has been in some way forced 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 polite talk may hide a very different agenda washington doesn't want stabilization they want the permanent arnie's 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 gentlemen and 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 all of the market my mother knew from

us whatever the real reasons for the raids of n.g.o.s says 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. . afghan investigators have accused of the u.s. army of abusing detainees at its main prison in the country saying inmates had reported being tortured and held without evidence prisoners of the u.s. run prison outside air base north of kabul complained of freezing cold humiliating strip searches and being deprived of light medea benjamin co-founder of the anti-war group code pink says afghanistan should take control of the prisons in their own territory. aniston government should be having the final authority about how prisoners are treated in its own country and i think we should give the benefit of the doubt to afghan investigators and if afghanistan wants to take over

the security of a prison that is in its territory it should have the right to do that i think the u.s. should really speed up its transfer of power in all its ramifications to the afghan government. ministration is now having talks with the taliban the taliban want to set up a headquarters and cutter the obama administration after the troops leaving iraq is now almost talking much more about the troops leaving afghanistan and this has created more tensions but i think the solution for that is the u.s. to hand over the management of the ground prison over to the afghan government and to start developing to the afghan authorities in general unfortunately the obama administration is talking about leaving in twenty four entirely due here to find the scenes he's negotiating to have significant number of troops stay beyond that date i don't think the american people want to see that and i think that there

should be clear signs that the u.s. is ready to leave afghanistan and turn over the background prison would be one of those signs. in russia's republic of chechnya four security service officers have reportedly been killed and over a dozen were wounded in a shootout with illegal armed groups three militants are said to have also been killed authorities there 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 which had formerly been violent had remained relatively peaceful. in libya the country's government has released hundreds of prisoners from a makeshift detention center in tripoli but most of those jailed never committed any crimes and as our correspondent oksana point the reports thousands continue to

be held behind bars with little hope for a fair trial. the it was one of the first amnesty of the new libya hundreds of men and women many of them sub-saharan immigrants released from a makeshift prison most of them spent several months in captivity for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. we are releasing those who didn't commit serious crimes those with blood on their hands will be waiting for the prosecutor's decision when you have the richest were eager to pain the release as a goodwill gesture with the determination and the parole seemed entirely arbitrary some of the dictators supporters as these people to be just work for government agencies and others happen to be domestic helpers or government workers and now equal before the law or rather before the absence of it they are also in prison was triple his top detention facility under. the tories for its mistreatment and

arbitrary killings of animals but while all of its prisoners rest south free in late august as the rebels are on the capital dozens possibly even hundreds of makeshift prisons sprang out around the country according to u.n. estimates up to seven thousand allowed to get off a loyalist that bill how they're a little chance for justice a fair trial just a year ago this place used to be a school today the main last i'm being told here is that during the transition to democracy quick reactions are a must while many in the new libyan government held positions of power under gadhafi those who failed to jump on the bandwagon early enough and now finding themselves tugged behind bars. now in libya there are about a thousand people in detention and the problem is they haven't had any legal review they haven't had access to a lawyer they haven't been brought before any independent judicial panel or judges

so that's what we're calling for now was a quick and. legal review and rebuilding the justice system the treatment is even more brutal outside tripoli the tunnel to regard the gadhafi forces used to launch attacks against misrata is still a ghost town many of its former residents live in refugee camps and even their extraordinary renditions by militia are common this man says he was tortured for several days before finally being released the rule to be to you until you confess to things you haven't committed like entering homes or looting it's a grueling dilemma many of these mothers and wives have to confront to pray for their loved ones to be rotting in a prison with torture being officially acknowledged and you hope for their death children need their fathers and women need their husbands the government isn't doing anything to find them if they're dead that we want to know where they are more than a month since his capture his most famous prisoner is still doesn't have access to

a lawyer and while many dialyse feel islam's ability to have a fair trial he still appears to be better off than many of his countryman at least thanks to the limelight he's not running a risk of being executed like his father while many still are. artsy tripoli. well we have more news for you online just log on to our web site r t dot com here's a little bit of what we have for you there right now. russia prepares to launch a new radar system in siberia capable of tracking five hundred objects simultaneously as moscow pushes to modernize its missile detection capabilities. and the u.s. department of homeland security is also looking to boost its detection capabilities but instead of missiles they're looking for ways to keep tabs on us journalists. political.

the euro has 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 chalion 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 the meeting comes amid fears are knocking at the door of the e.u. heavyweights meanwhile greece has warned of a disorderly default in march if it can't secure more. economic analyst johan van overtveldt says that greece's exit from the euro zone is inevitable. 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 agrees realizes that we cannot go on lying list and that unrest 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. and as the eurozone struggles to curb the financial crisis its most reliable member germany has

a new reason to be concerned more and more people are adapting a new way of thinking choosing to put their support behind an alternative party or to see what a piece can offer reports. 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 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 firefighter was in a different one of its 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 crisis maybe we'll 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 party managed to win nearly ninety 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 one 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 miracles federal coalition porter is the first to feel the change

of heart from voters that actually lost that along with another four local votes across the country mainstream politics is also losing attractiveness. there's often too little distinction or distinctiveness between different parties from different fields or areas sometimes between difficult to tell the difference between conservative and social democrat experts say the key success tool is the internet and see it as the new driving force changing politics similar to the way it was influenced by a t.v. a little half a century ago so unless the mainstream parties adapt and change their tactics it may not need to long before they could find themselves on the margins. of already germany or coming up shortly the storm is brewing as we outline the financial forecast for the eurozone that's after our headlines coming up in just a few moments stay with r.t. .

the move.

to see. if. you. can one stream cascading from mountain slopes the view is midsomer much of. this beauty brings deaths at a speed of more than two hundred kilometers from the step in the eye of a launch. wealthy british style fund raising is not on the president's plan is fine thanks.

markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two kinds of reports. five thirty in the afternoon in tucson arizona and four thirty in the morning on a monday here in moscow but no matter where in the world you're watching this is our team glad to have you with us now the latest news in the week's top stories fresh clashes in syria claimed dozens of lives as the arab league decides to carry on with its observer mission and despite criticism that the organization is not achieving its goal in ending the bloodshed. iran says it will continue war games in the persian gulf and threatening to close a key oil route in the region.