direct from our studios in central moscow this is our john thomas good to have you with us to our top story this hour 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 the progress of their observers mission of the country with critics saying the bodies are failing to achieve its goal of ending the bloody crackdown opposition activists say 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 political analyst. thinks or believe he's going to find a solution to the crisis that sweeping the country but that it needs a little bit 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 well 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 agendas 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 in near the strategic strait of hormuz and a renewed its threat to close down the crucial oil route if western nations proceed

with blocking tehran's exports last week new sanctions from washington began targeting iran's financial and oil sectors and friends is calling for even tougher measures meanwhile an iranian newspaper reported that iran has begun uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes at a well protected underground facility near the city of chrome the u.s. and its allies continue to accept accuse iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons a charge tehran denies the editor of the corporate report current 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 u.s. 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 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 the 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 a 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 under threat so adding more sanctions to to the mix is is really just a recipe for military disaster i think and still ahead 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 has trouble perhaps closer towards it they can use heavy weapons. now in america the race for the parazit in ca is in full swing with six republican hopefuls competing to challenge barack obama november's vote front runner mitt romney is taking flak from his co republican rivals who have dismissed him as a mere business manager. this as he builds considerable momentum after his win in the iowa caucus as the campaign now 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 for a single candidate is chosen at the republican party convention in august seasoned a politician and a fierce anti-war advocate ron paul is trailing far behind in the poll

congressional aide. thinks this is because paul's agenda is indeed appealing but not to the members of his own party. or 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 run 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 that inspires and 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 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 that they have made a mistake. as more. four years ago one historic campaign turned u.s. politics into a pop culture phenomenon. playing 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 terms you find that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven other about twenty people holding out david moffatt organize the flag project out of their being inspired by obama rhetoric i dream shattered by the subsequent years of politics as usual curly what's inspiring me as a as i would 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 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 her fessor an offer dr cornel west was one of obama's biggest supporters i think that the because you've got the new mrs. at the freshness taking part in more than one hundred campaign events last april the prominent intellectual tools or see that obama has failed he's a 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 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 are yeah the approval ratings

show voters are even more turned off and then right with the alternatives yet and 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 default. artsy new york. coming up in the program silencing the press. journalists in iraq reporting brutality and torture if they try to shine a light on corruption and repression in the country that's been left behind after america's withdrawal. cheez-it pathfinder series of meets a texan a builder who shares his experience into creating new opportunities for businesses

in modern russia. but first we go to egypt where prosecutors are demanding of the death penalty for ousted president hosni mubarak who is accused of ordering the killing of protesters during last year's revolution they're also calling to hang of the country's former interior minister and the six other security chiefs moscow has already expressed concern over the possible execution of the former leader and has called for a more humane punishment was that according to estimations at least eight hundred people died in last year's in clashes with pro mubarak forces since his trial began in august the eighty three year old has appeared on a stretcher due to his of poor health international relations professor mark allman says an execution could further deteriorate the country and the entire region. mubarak music. being christened when demonstrations were partial current already present state will have to close but. what about restrictions to

remember for instance. who are actually in wider group. who wouldn't guard and so hiram a person. either in state is no current which i did was. explain or ban my life so in fact we're going to expect that if you are. we can do great damage. to 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 a fatal for some actually a decade of conflict was meant to herald a move to democracy but journalists there say intimidation and brutality against them is rife as sebastian meyer now 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 in 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 slight mean 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 for example to go to. myself i don't go there i stopped there a long time ago not because. i'm 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 so that they think and you can see that there are people in the minister of interior for example they have

misusing their power against the citizen and they can assure that as they keep her comfortable and so one 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. 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 force base north of kabul complained of freezing cold humiliating a strip searches and being deprived of light jason ditz a political analyst at the u.s. based website antiwar dot com says president karzai wants to use the prison as a bargaining chip with the taliban. 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 that. 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 there's been talk that there will be prisoner exchanges between the u.s. in taliban and i think president karzai is hoping to get control of some of these prisons so that he can have them at least something of a seat at the negotiating table if for no other reason than that having access to trainable prisoners karzai government sky a 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 it is a dramatic step up from no access to any courts at all to russia's republic of chechnya and now where for security service officers have reportedly been killed and over a dozen were wounded there in a shoot out with the illegal armed groups three militants are said to 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 of militant attacks over the last twelve months while the formerly violent republic of chechnya had remained relatively peaceful. the euro has a sunk to an eleven year low against of the japanese yen 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 the. a 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 the meeting comes amid fears of the crisis knocking at the door of the news heavyweights meanwhile greece has warned of a disorderly default in march if it can't secure more bailout anomic 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 headquarters 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. some world news in brief for you this hour first to nigeria where days of sectarian violence has killed at least forty four people the latest attack occurred when the radical muslim sect boku haro targeted a church service in the country's northeast killing at least fifteen the violence comes after the group promised to kill christians living in niger as an orderly muslim north president goodluck jonathan has declared a state of emergency for areas affected saying the un rest is worse than the

country's civil war which took place in the one nine hundred sixty s. . sudan's president omar al bashir has offered to help to disarm former libyan rebel fighters and integrate them into army police forces in a state visit to tripoli the leader said the overthrow of colonel gadhafi was a gift to sudan the proposal from here who's wanted on war crime charges in the hague sparked outrage from amnesty international the libyan authorities are going to get stronger groups which will show and to fight gadhafi during the country's civil war. africa's oldest liberation movement celebrated its one hundredth anniversary on sunday tens of thousands of south africans gathered to wave the green and gold colors of the african national congress the a.n.c. is credited for ending a white minority rule in the country almost eighteen years ago south africa's first black president nelson mandela was absent from the celebration due to his frail

condition. now in order to help in the enterprise grow you need the right facilities and the right man texan chris van right thinks it's him and he shares his experience of adapting to the russian way of life and doing business he also explains his part in raising a modern moscow sky. we have a. vision which is we want to bring global business to the russian marketplace so we're extremely motivated by this and what that means is you know taking away the grand ideas you know we want to help global business to be more effective in achieving their business objectives in russia and we do that by providing them with financial capital in the form of real estate so we build factories distribution centers and production plants for global businesses who are serving in the russian marketplace occurred to me that this is a very rich part of the world with stream lee intelligent people and they just get reorganized in this part of that reorganization they're going to be all sorts of opportunities so it was the idea of really observing and participating in as you

can as a foreigner to the extent you can as a foreigner rather in the rebuilding this economy that drew me here i remember specifically coming out of sheet metal and to i remember driving the city and seeing the ukraine hotel which was you know it's a beautiful building and you know it's that gothic style on a stick type of architecture and it's truly imposing is a beautiful day and i realized that i was in a different part of the world and it was intimidating and quite stimulating took me about a year to kind of come to grips with the differences and finally i summarise it for myself as following in the united states when i when i worked on wall street for anything we're working on there is basically a process you went through and that process was twenty six steps and you go a b. c. d. and you're just overcome every step of the process and you achieve the result you're looking for what i realized in russia is that that approach didn't work and it would confuse the heck out of me because i said well wait a second we've got to get organized we all have the same goal how do we achieve

that goal and what i realize that actually if you took a american approach to doing business in russia you could not be successful because the rules of the game were information certainly in the ninety's and so there was no be there was an a and there the end result and to get the result you had to kind of sort of moving to a straight line you had to sort of. an enormous amount of energy just to keep people on a common track towards the ultimate goal and you know sort of managing chaos and pushing it and nudging it to the desired result so once i learn that i realize that in order to be successful here it's stubbornness is extremely important where all the products of our upbringings and i was you know a child in a large family with you know wonderful loving parents and. you know wonderful loving and energetic brothers one was two years older than me the other was four years older than me and for all of my childhood they were physically stronger than me and you know boys will be boys they will wrestle they will punch they will kick and if you get knocked down stand back up and you know maintain your composure and

your integrity and things will work out well success has many fathers failure is an orphan and i feel that you know it's very hard for people. you know in this part of the world to accept that your and our mission is to you know continue to build out our existing projects in the south of moscow which is a globally relevant project in terms of size and then replicate to a smaller extent the same type of concept across the major markets in russia you know currently we have our major customer john deere we designed built a known their major factor in russia republic trucks is also an existing customer of ours we've done work for mcdonald's and we're negotiating relationships partnerships with kind of the who's who of the fortune five hundred active in russia and looking to get more active so that's really our ambition is how do we help these great businesses to tap into the potential the russian marketplace and

how do we save them from experiencing many of the frustrations that i experienced you know as an entrepreneur so our job is to help them see that it's a process to doing business in russia and it's not an unknown you know at the end of the day i do what i do because i enjoy knowing that i'm influencing things for the positive so when i go look at. our projects and i look at the customers we serve and i talk to our customers and i see that they are quite happy with the results we've achieved for me that gives me enormous pleasure and that really is what drives me it's the ability to influence things it's not making money or you know being the boss or things like that it's you know doing being successful by doing good and making money we want to be profitable but we want to really be doing something that develops this country in a positive way. and

coming up a very a little bit later we bring you close to one of the most deadly forces in nature avalanches but before that i'll be back with a recap of our main stories in just a couple moments.

if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be shot by. casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has had. in 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 it's clear what happens with such witnesses i got it on my site. one of many subjects the be. sure to merciless shooting on our.

wealthy british style sun it's time to.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is our team sean thomas and these are your top headlines the latest news and 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 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 threatening to close a key oil route in the region if western nations proceed with blocking tehran's exports this comes as news.