well program provides them a warm blanket our winter. you're watching r t coming to live from moscow i'm marina jaffe welcome to the program europe's top power couple have called on the eurozone to boost growth to stop the debt crisis from spreading and ensure the very survival of the region's single currency at a meeting in berlin and on merkel and nicolas sarkozy said it was just as urgency reached a fast agreement with greece's private creditors before more bailout money can be handed over athens has insisted as faces default and could have to abandon the euro if it doesn't get more cash by spring the e.u. now needs to iron out a treaty agreed upon last month which includes the threat of sanctions tougher surveillance and makes budget rule breakers answerable directly to brussels but many are skeptics say putting more trust in brussels would be an error as artists

are so you know report. when times are this hard every cent counts for the seventeenth year in a row the european court of auditors refused to give the e.u. accounting books a clean bill of health the court found that in two thousand and ten three point seven percent of the e.u.'s budget was spent in error that's four point five billion euros essentially wasted juta mistakes like ineligible or incorrect calculation of costs claim to e.u. co finance projects or breaches of public procurement rules to be fair brussels gets criticized because persons you criticize. that said though it should forgive them for having that air raid there is a feeling that it's not unjustified that in europe. brussels the commission these situations have not taken the really hard look at their budgets and done the hard cutting batt a lot of member states have in fact the e.u.

commission and parliament wanted to have some one hundred thirty three billion euros to spend next year but settled on one hundred twenty nine after tough negotiations with member states well that's still an increase of two percent is the e.u. budget uniquely continues to grow it only ever goes in one direction what they call a cut him means a slightly smaller increase and they would have wanted in an ideal world there are two kinds of money in the world there's your money and there's my money you know we're much more careful with the second than with the first the trouble is that here in brussels it's all somebody else's money mostly their money. which is why criticism rose with the budgets committee approved thirty eight million euros for the purchase of three buildings to increase office space for m e p's and their staff and the area behind me is a property that will be acquired by the european parliament the project for the demolition of an existing building and the creation of a new one the total cost one hundred twenty five million euros fifteen million of

which will come up from the budget. critics cried foul but the project supporters stand their ground when there is a new member states you need new space it is ridiculous to say that we don't need more space when we have more stuff but if you say that you mean to say that stuff is sitting on the show's needs while working or we have this responsibility to do legislation for five hundred million people in a proper way again there is an argument for this institution do need facilities the timing is just horrible because the austerity measures imposed a lot of member states the fact that brussels is ploughing on with grand plans for you know these beautiful new buildings just smells bad yet it's not just about new buildings for your kratz that raises eyebrows. how hard is it to just come up with with receipts when they have one when they have spent my experience base for this so of course it hurts them in fact some say the allure of being

a euro crap to me also be hurting poor member states losing their best and brightest to brussels i just people in those countries the entrepreneurs the people who could have done so much making things inventing things selling things creating businesses in the states because nothing can compete with the advantages of being on the e.u. payroll they all start gravitating towards by that directly the brussels bureaucracy or in direct as the saying goes if you can't beat them join them. but that's clearly not a win win solution for everyone just r.t. brussels. marco and sarkozy have locked horns over attacks on transactions made by financial institutions in france ones that in place as early as possible but germany says the charge should only come into force when all you states agreed to it leaders are now working to eliminate the most divisive issues before the next year white summit at the end of the month but financial advisor patrick young says

the meetings are basically a waste of time. the only thing that's growing at the moment i suspect is going to be the weirdest lines of all the civil servants and ministers who are so much in all over the place in eating endless numbers of cream bones and delicacies in each of the different locales they visit the truth is that absolutely nothing has been done in order to try and actually fundamentally of the problem and again what we've seen is a sticking plaster complied to all of the different problems that are going on mrs merkel saying but we'd like to keep everybody in the euro and we hope to keep everything together and we'll work very hard to do that well you know what the problem is it doesn't matter how much you talk about something it's actions that are going to come and the moment all we have is of words of the euro are actually breaks up which is unfortunately quite possible at the moment i'm not sure it's probable and i'm not saying it's definite but it's possible if the eurozone breaks up that's going to give them certainty uncertainty means people don't know whether to order things for their company it also means that individuals don't know whether

to spend money at the shops it means ultimately that all of the little grease the oils the wheels of commerce critics start and that's the real problem here what may happen is alternately we may see the i.m.f. the international monetary fund ultimately trying to come in and stapled together some sort of a solution whatever happens there's a lot of uncertainty ahead and that's got to be worrying because uncertainty spelled recession and recession is not going to be good for anybody in the world who needs to work for a living so we have for you this hour here in our political rast like it's a fight for voters and for the republican candidates in new hampshire as the parade there are policies and hard gays and guns ahead of a primary. and front line in the war against terror we're looking at a new species of terrifying guys brad specifically to sniff out explosives in the most extreme conditions the details are just ahead. and the last house land there

ron for a beginning to enrich uranium at a new on the. around facility southwest of the capital tehran the state department called it a further escalation in iran's failure to comply with un resolutions the us and its allies believe iran is developing a nuclear capability something to iran denies america's ally france has warned of a response more intense and severe than anything previously a u.s. general also said washington would be prepared to wipe out iran's nuclear facilities another battlefront between the two is a strait of hormuz in the persian gulf to iran threaten to close it if the west blocks iran's oil exports as laid out in recent sanctions the pentagon says it could use force to reopen it and iran plans to hold a fresh round of naval drills in the area but some experts say iran isn't to blame for the escalation. iran hasn't attacked any other nation for hundreds of years the united states has form on attacking another nation every couple of years continues to attack all the time i think we know who's provoking this latest spat the united

states is a net exporter of oil apparently first time in sixty is so presumably they're enjoying the oil prices as they spike with every new threat for united states makes against masses of ordinary men women and children in other countries as to what it thinks about its servicemen and women who fight on its behalf they don't much care about them either one must remember that leon panetta the format of the cia now secretary of defense is a lot of us agree defense is a lot i'm not saying that i'm really repeating the former house speaker nancy pelosi we know that leo burnett about his involvement in torture other democratic colleagues in congress also called him a liar at that time so as for more on this the united states seemingly just wanting prices while at the same time threatening people and the developing world the rest of the world the major superpower. in the world don't like what the

united states is saying that sort of united nations. says something truly open etc and obama says foreign policy is in tatters whether the united states really can cause a play to war with iran. i really don't think so at the moment. amid threats from the u.s. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad has turned to south america and made venezuela the first stop of your store of the continent and arden's critic of washington venezuela has defended the home of the in john said there was no proof that iran is trying to develop atomic weapons and that it's the us the poses a global threat the iranian presidents at the rod and caracas should resist the mean an arrogant united states both leaders also joked at their relationship shouldn't cause any concern iran and venezuela are a long time trading partners and i did a job will also visit nicaragua wall cuba and ecuador. along with

mahmoud ahmadinejad a good child this is a leader washington likes to paint as an enemy of america but there are thousands in the us who have a lot of warm feelings for the flamboyant venezuelan leader explains. winter morning in the south bronx new york city outdoors the temperature is near freezing indoors. seventy seven year old alice many otis is bundled up brewing a pot of coffee and raising the heat just enough. to take the chill out of the air the retired grandmother of seven lives alone on a fixed income and each winter as federal programs continue to be slashed the struggle to afford comfort gets harder. and waving i mean all they do was raise raise raise raise and i mean it's the same dollar you get and so how far can you push it one hundred gallons of oil one hundred fifty gallons of oil is

about. right now about close to six hundred dollars however venezuela has been stepping in to make alice's life a bit easier by delivering one hundred gallons of free heating oil each winter she is a four year beneficiary of the citgo venezuela heating oil program which provides free heating oil to five hundred thousand poor americans living in low income neighborhoods and shelters throughout the country president chavez often demonized by washington helped launch the program in two thousand and five following hurricanes katrina and rita all i know is that he was caught and he was kind to the people of the united states and i'm sure he he he ruled differently like obama wrongs differently and the whole we to tell these people how they should live or how i mean are they convey they are our country with their not being generous to give us what comes out of their earth at no charge so could you really have ill

feelings against them. i'm thankful for it. i really am in an interview with the venezuelan newspaper el universal america's leader well sort of expressing similar sentiments of gratitude president obama recently accused the chavez government were strict in human rights and taking threatening steps. democratic values the venezuelan leader didn't mince words while perspire ending directly to his u.s. counterpart you know was a boma i feel sorry for you you just asked that black communities of your country what you mean to them you are the greatest disappointment of recent years the poor people of your country you're a great disappointment to them it's time that we stopped minding everybody else's business and took care of business we have children that are graduating from college with eighty ninety one hundred thousand dollars that they have to pay back

it's dippy it's looming them just and they can't get a job a struggle getting that much harder in the land of opportunity arena r.t. new york. syria's president assad is expected to make a speech about the crisis involving the nation on tuesday even as activists claim government forces are continuing a brutal crackdown on protesters the country's opposition denounced the arab league observer mission currently in syria saying monitors are doing little to resolve the conflict with hundreds reported killed since they arrived in way december the government's opponents called on the un to help and the ten months of violence president asad is also coming under increasing pressure from neighboring states he says it feels threatened by the conflict and could take our leading role in dealing with it author jean sharp says the syrian opposition should stop calls for outside military theories because of whoever leads to democracy. i think it inviting

intervention no their intervention is very dangerous and then. they be and and some syrians have been doing that that's very unfortunate because that will not help that we are not being a democracy that will be a bit by the outside no ok for some. assuming you get rid of the old regime then the new regime will be heavily influenced by the powers that intervene us france or whoever has that they will have a major say over that work and the government happens and that's out in the power of the syrian people but you think should be the u.s. government should not be intervening in military and they move into barghouti because it doesn't work and they can serve other objectives. and you can see the full interview with author jean sharp in about fifteen minutes time here on r t. republican presidential candidates in the u.s.

having been tearing political chunks off each other had of a key primary in new hampshire on tuesday front runner mitt romney has been mocked by his fellow republicans after he said he enjoyed firing people the former massachusetts governor is still well i had it up to an eerie result with congressman ron paul and social conservative rick santorum way behind in two t.v. debates had a voting candidates kept away from the economy or on employment when he. told me that by addressing issues like guns gays and abortion republicans are just fighting for ratings. they're trying to find something that sensational that's what the media does that's their job if it was a boring debate about economics how many people are going to watch it let's be honest it becomes bland and boring it's a lot of numbers most people including myself would struggle to understand what is going on but everyone understands abortion and gay marriage and contraception so those are the easy issues it makes it easier for us to talk about them let's be

honest let's talk about jobs let's talk about the economy i have to think the reality is that these republican candidates it's not an easy thing to have an answer they don't have an answer unemployment's gone down and picked up to over two thousand and ten point one percent it's down now in december to eight point five percent maybe obama's policies contribute maybe they don't maybe it's cyclical in any event the economy is improving and these republicans don't have answers so they want to talk about the social issues the heart issues the ones that make you go out and vote make you make phone calls get people to come out to the polls they scare you it works before it works many times of four they just try to use the same play from the old republican playbook i think we're going to get back to the economy that's what americans want to hear what is president obama versus mitt romney and the the that will be the issue it has to be that's the one we all want to hear about so i think for now this is a game they're running for republican nomination until the republican issues then we get to the big battle the super bowl if you will that's we're going to hear the really should we want to hear about. at r.t. dot com there is more news and analysis on the u.s.

elections and here is what you can find there the moment. the texas congressman at an anti-war advocate to ron paul turns up the heat and new hampshire and pulls away from his rivals to become the only alternative to republican favorite mitt romney also and i see this polish prosecutor holding a news briefing with journalists he then interrupted and asks everyone to leave the room and this is what they saw when they came back to find out why he shot himself and that r t dot com. now let's take a look at some of the stories from around the world at least twenty five people have been killed and dozens injured by a bomb blast targeting into a taliban militia at a market in northwestern pakistan the explosion which was the deadliest in the country for months struck vehicles being used by the militia it happened in the region close to afghanistan which is dominated by tribes and has a strong military presence. north korea has announced

a prisoner amnesty to celebrate the birthdays of late leader kim jani on his father's will come into effect on the first of february but it's not known how many prisoners will be released died on december the seventeenth leaving the nation under the control of these youngest son kim. the international criminal court is still waiting for information from libya on the status of colonel gadhafi son saif al islam despite a deadline being set for tuesday the most prominent son of the late leader was captured of amber while trying to leave the site has been charged by the hague with crimes against humanity and is waiting to find out whether he will be handed over. a fire fight started in eastern afghanistan when a group of insurgents tried to storm a government building in province two police officers were killed by a what's being described as a gang. of suicide attackers two of the insurgents were also killed when afghan

security forces are reportedly still battling to others the province borders pakistan as one of the main routes for taliban fighters to enter the country from shelters across the frontier. at one of moscow's busiest airports there's a new breed of crime fighter on duty they're able to work in extreme hot or freezing cold to sniff out explosives where ever they are there all over went to see what they can do the man's four legged friends on the front line in the fight against terror these dogs are special breed part husky part jackal and it's their acute sense of smell which makes them perfect for sniffing out explosives in airports so it turns out that of all the canines it's the jackal that has the best sense of smell to call to use that to improve the sense of smell in dogs basically i grafted a wild beast sense of smell into

a domesticated animal of what their husky hurry to means that they can handle temperatures as low as minus seventy degrees centigrade while the jackal side of the family provides them with equally impressive abilities in the heat of. jackals or some tropical animal that's used to high temperatures as an experiment we took these hybrids to the united arab emirates where they were able to work in forty two degrees centigrade they could walk on sand which was heated by the sun to sixty degrees ordinary dogs wouldn't be able to handle that. sort of. the salie more dogs have two hundred and twenty million smell receptors forty four times more than human this allows them to detect even trace amounts of explosive material making them invaluable for airports looking to put passengers at their ease. and that ever working with these dogs among passengers makes people feel more secure in their poor it's this way passengers see that era flock to give special attention to

security as for accuracy we've even detected gun powder residue on the clothes of hunters returning home. with the animals having to work in an environment filled with distracting sights sounds and smells it's important that the dogs and their handlers have a close relationship please. there has to be trust between the two the dark should feel absolutely free and shouldn't be pressured by excessive discipline the handlers have to be extremely attentive they should notice and immediately respond to the dogs every motion and reaction this is that which you might share. a false alarm is detected unless the north point five percent of searches making the dogs far more reliable than the best man made the texan device much of that is down to the breeding but a lot of training is required before they are ready to work amongst the public so while it doesn't take the dog long to find what was hidden underneath my seat but

it's all well and good doing it here on the training grounds but how will they fare in the busy atmosphere of an international airport on an average day over one hundred thousand people pass through this terminal a cherry mitzvah airport plenty of distractions making it the perfect place to conduct a test this bike here contains around three grams of plastic explosive i'm going to go and hide somewhere here in the terminal while florida tries to track me down. it's about sniffing me out finally to know searching every nook and cranny in which a potentially dangerous package could be hidden when you see these hybrid dogs in action it's clear why they're so well suited to working in the airport some passengers don't even notice that they're part thorough investigation. sure enough she finds me trying to check in for a flight. well it's a good job. no matter how hard you try to hide if you have explosives these amazing

animals will find you. r.t. moscow will surely we discuss the best way to bring democracy before that they'll take a look what's happening in the world of business here is international. it's twenty four minutes past noon here moscow watching business r.t. escalating tensions between iran and the west remain firmly in the sights of investors if the worst scenario takes place some analysts speculate oil could jump to two hundred dollars a barrel but nick parsons from national australia bank says a price spike is unlikely. i think the very very close relationship between the external value of the u.s. dollar and oil has begun to slip over the course of the last few months if we remind ourselves of where we were three summers ago the oil price eight hundred

forty seven dollars per barrel exactly on the day when the euro dollar exchange rate one sixty so we had a very weak u.s. dollar we had a very high oil price that relationship has held good over a long period of time and if it were based purely on that then we'd be looking today it's an oil price or around seventy or seventy five dollars so that suggests to me that a lot of the potential disruption that we hear talked about is already in the price and i doubt very much that we're going to see the sort of spike that some of the wilder analysts are talking about i think a lot of it is already in the price. let's now see how well it's performing at the moment and it's gaining value on tuesday due to not only tensions with iran but also it upbeat consumer credit data from the united states light sweet as topping one hundred two dollars brand there's a one hundred thirteen dollars. and now on to the equity markets banking shares of

pushing european indices higher in the opening retailer marks and spencer is higher in london where the footsie is gaining just under one percent and germany there dax is up more than one percent. and the markets here in moscow are quite upbeat at noon both the r.t.s. and the my sex are running on point nine percent this hour. and now on to the biggest movers on the my sex or oil majors are on the rise supported by stronger crude oil is up almost one percent financials are also gaining with russia's biggest lenders burbank one and a half percent in the black and a retailer seven continent is among the main only losers following reports that its parent company plans to buy back twenty five percent of its shares at a record low price. tuesday is the first day of work for many in russia after a long new year of christmas holidays but not for the local stock markets this year

for the first time the equity markets have traded during the traditional ten day break that means there is less catching up to do even so while it cuts costs over from the t.v. capital says it will take some time for the markets to gain all that they were quick to remain weak. russians tend to return from all these later of and they officially end and spoke with in the first week i was going to be lower most of the political risk has been played out so the dynamic of the russian start market will largely depend on how things develop in the new year in the mainly new european markets probably will be unlikely new russia specific news that will move the markets in any meaningful way. and in other news british luxury car maker oist has reported record sales and twenty eleven the company sold more than three and a half thousand cars the highest one hundred seven year history sales group particularly fast in germany and russia where they more than doubled and that's all

the latest from the business desk i'll be back in about fifteen minutes.

me. me. if they shoot something inappropriate from the public they can easily be shot by sebastian is more 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 what happens with such witnesses i got him on my site camera one of my many objects above the be sure to nurses shooting on our.

welcome back you're watching live from moscow these are the top stories the news stops you raised from the shore you are survival calling for a boost to growth to stop the debt and to do from spreading angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy also wants to push states firmly under the brussels umbrella but critics say it could be anything with cash flowing to satisfy an unelected technocrats. iran begins uranium enrichment out a secure underground facility a move the west has asked for vocative to iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and is threatening to close a vital world.