worldwide news live from the center of moscow this is artsy with me rule research shy in his first a presidential address in months syria's a side has dismissed pressure to resign he claims he still has the people support in leading the fight against what he's calling foreign funded terrorism assad's promise to crush mercenaries and saboteurs with an iron fist saying they don't represent the syrian people he repeated his claim that no waters were ever given to fire on peaceful protesters reiterating his commitment to democratic reform he said a referendum on a new constitution will take place by march the president also slammed the arab league which has suspended syria's membership in november the league's observers are currently overseeing the implementation of

a peace plan more than five thousand civilians and some two thousand officers are said to have been killed in that country since the unrest began in march let's get some more on this and more reaction from international consultant. thank you for coming on the program today so i was you just heard president assad is a blaming a foreign conspiracy for the unrest in syria any evidence do you think to support that claim. well the this is a classic example where you cannot pinpoint exactly where the culprit in this i mean our sound is clearly not what you would call a democratic leader but within the context he is certainly not the worst one on the country and what the arab league is doing i mean who does the an oblique represent a factor in the united arab emirates how do you rate you. do it there are few do monarchies so he is right in saying they are not the ones that should point a finger at him whether there is an international conspiracy where there are

elements that point out to me that there is part of it i think it's more complex than just that there is also genuine popular all but it is absolutely sure that there are elements from outside who are taking to rob you abusing whatever there is living among the syrian people for their own purposes that is absolutely as you say there are some external influences exacerbating the situation there in syria but i thought it claims that the people are behind and meanwhile we've seen thousands calling for his resignation how much support do you think he really has at this point where it's difficult to say he does he does indeed have the support of some elements in society some groups but he certainly does not have the support of the majority that is clear to say people are united against him is not true you now are the president claiming it today during

a televised address you were saying that the opposition is not prepared to talk to his regime do you think there are any alternatives to negotiations here can they just talk this one out i think the one thing that it gives an international. opinion could do is indeed. to sit at the table and negotiate but what exactly what is happening is it. absence as you mentioned yourself exacerbating the situation i think it's like always of course a peaceful solution can only be done by negotiation my sitting at the table but if you are encouraging violent opponents not to talk to their own president then you are into intervening in a conflict within a country and that is what is happening i mean i am pretty certain that there are very decent syrians who want to sit at a table and negotiate a peaceful nonviolent way out but they're not giving

a chance now i thought is also the arab league meantime for being representative of democratic values and the absolutely but he has accepted the league's observers into his country why why is that you think. it's also very this is also a very mixed. issue of course there is the arab league you work with instruments that you and it really could indeed do some good work but what they're doing and there is of course in the matter of their credibility member the problem is who else are you going to send are you going to send it again people from europe the former colonial said cetera no it has to conform with the arab countries and the and it really could play a role but what i see is not exactly ok so internal participation in the region to bring round some sort of resolutions there but we have heard calls from some of the opposition for a u.n. backed no fly zone in syria eerily reminiscent of what happened in libya when i was

in groups of ruled out accepting any foreign intervention beyond the arab league's involvement could you foresee regional intervention or perhaps western or global intervention there in syria well the thing is of course. organization still a nato always. in the nature. when this will lead to an intervention no one can fool seat but so far as i see decision. it looks likes me going for a second libya should not your. life in brussels international consultant for my belgian m.p. load of honest thank you. what are some members of the syrian opposition want the west to carry out a libya style military intervention in the country of a gene shop all three of the book from a dictatorship to democracy things changes should come up peacefully and from within a preview now of the full interview we'll bring you later this hour. i think.

military intervention is very dangerous and will. be and and some syrians have been doing that that's very unfortunate because that will not help that will not bring a democracy that will be the outside forces. assuming you get rid of the old regime then the new movie heavily influenced by the powers that intervene us france or whoever it is so that they will have a major say we're kind of a government happens in this or the syrian people but you're 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. you would still to come in the program here using your cash provide for their.

is your money and as my money you know we're much more careful with the second than with the first trouble is that here in brussels it's all somebody else's money. in brussels and one or more of it. despite the whole of europe strong. it's only. the us has a cold iran's enrichment of uranium back underground site of violation of un resolutions now if it's around it's all for peaceful purposes president mahmoud ahmadinejad. of south africa said it was a quote joke to believe iran was making bombs. had received strong backing from the venezuelan leader who defended iran's nuclear program. said there was no sound proof that iran was developing atomic weapons. will also visit cuba ecuador

this plan comes after washington applied tough sanctions targeting iran central bank and its finance industry with the e.u. expected to follow suit and the weapons campaign says iran is trying to gain more support to prevent further penalties. is looking for friends wherever you can find them he needs. the united nations to block future sanctions he also needs potential markets for commerce when the rest of the world looks to be moving towards a more sanctions oriented position towards iran so if you can get votes and if you can get commerce in this trip to latin america which is a key one for him and for the united states since it's in our backyard that would be a success for him he needs to break out of the isolation that the rest of the world is trying to put him and iran into is to not believe that iran is capable of maintaining a blockade of the straits of hormuz for any significant period of time if they were

to do this it could also be counterproductive blocking oil coming out of their own country or going back and forth would both hurt their own revenue source and also harm their allies in china and other countries around the world. tension between iran and washington has reached a boiling point after the u.s. increased its military presence in the gulf and threatened to use force should to iran go ahead with blocking a key oil route this is all led to a spike in oil prices let's cross over now to die and you'll find out what that all means for the regional and global markets are down all over to you here's the pros who almost double to two hundred dollars a barrel if the situation keeps deteriorating some analysts think we're of course one of the world's biggest crude producers we'll have more in the business news later this hour are done about looking for to it so you said. venezuela along with iran has long been an avid anti washington critic despite being portrayed as an enemy in the u.s. venezuela's president hugo chavez has found a way to warm the hearts of america's poorest people. portnoy has the story.

winter morning in the south bronx new york city outdoors the temperature is near freezing indoors. seventy seven year old alison 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 i call it add screaming and waving i mean all they do was raise raise raise raise and i mean it's the same dollar you get in so how far can you push it one hundred gallons of oil one hundred fifty gallons of oil is about the. 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 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 crying to the people of the united states and i'm sure he he he ruled differently like obama wrong just differently and the whole we to tell these people how they should live or how i mean are they good invading 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 ing human rights and taking frightening steps. on the private value of the venezuelan leader didn't mince words while perspire ending directly to his u.s. counterpart you know what obama i feel sorry for you just toss the black communities of your country what you mean to them you're the greatest disappointment of recent years the poor people of your country you're a great disappointment to them it's time that we stop minding everybody else's business and took care of business here we have children that are graduating from college with eighty ninety one hundred thousand dollars that they have to pay back its to pay its naming them just to and they can't get a job a struggle getting that much harder in the land of opportunity arena r.t.

new york. it's good have you with us this is r.t. live from moscow still ahead of you this hour here sniffing out tara i want to see more. now relying on four legged friends to help to fight crime a detail for that is coming your way. a race against the clock as well and truly underway in europe the leaders of the single currencies two most powerful countries are doing everything in their power to try and prevent a meltdown and the collapse of all they've worked for the german chancellor is today meeting the french head of the i.m.f. in berlin hoping to find a way forward despite a growing call for more action and less banquets on monday nicolas sarkozy also called on greece to move forward with promised structural changes all risk losing the next installment of badly needed bowed out money athens warned last week that default was a possibility which could result in it leaving the euro europe is now working to

hammer out a new treaty agreed at a summit in december leading to tough fiscal control and making budget rule breakers directly to the e.u. but many euro skeptics say putting more trust in brussels would be an era start is to sell syria reports. when times are this hard every cent counts for the seventeen year in a row the european court of auditors refused to give the e.u. accounting books a clean up 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 gitta mistakes like an eligible or incorrect calculation of costs claim to equal finance projects or breaches of public procurement rules to be fair brussels gets criticized because person is easy to 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 institutions

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 because the e.u. budget uniquely continues to grow it only ever goes in one direction what they call a cut him means a slight you small 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 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 any

piece 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 cry foul of 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 each of those 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 and they have spent my experience base for this sort of course of hers 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 either 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 our silly r t brussels. and before we get to daniel with the business news now time for the r.t. world update or some other news in brief from around the world first to northwestern pakistan region it's where a bomb blast targeting taliban militia at

a local market has left at least thirty five dead dozens injured is the deadliest attack in the country in recent months and local islamist insurgents have been blamed militants with links to al qaeda have carried out hundreds of bombings in pakistan over just the past few years. a deadline for libya to give the international criminal court information on the status of colonel gadhafi son saif al islam is set to expire today saif is being held in the western tunnels in and is charged by the hague with crimes against humanity the most prominent son of the country's late leader was captured in southern libya in november while trying to flee into neighboring niger. north korea has announced it will issue a special pardons for convicts to mark the birthdays of two late leaders a state news agency says the amnesty will begin on the first of february in honor of kim

jong il who died last month and is far. kim il sung it's unknown what kind of crimes will be pardoned or how many inmates will be released the u.n. estimates are the country holds around two hundred thousand people and political prisoner. north korea denies the claim. well a lot more online for you at r.t. dot com including america's foreign policy future president obama received a response from china after saying the u.s. should reduce its military might in asia but. just where it's placed in the region also for you on our web site. the possible reasons behind the failure of russia's first interplanetary mission in years. at r.t. talk.

now twenty minutes past the hour here in the russian capital one of moscow's busiest airports is relying on a special breed of canine to help fight terror with a sense of smell by any other dog these four legged friends spend their days sniffing out explosives. furry crime fighters a visit and put their noses to the test. the man's four legged friends on the front line in the fight against terror these dogs are a special breed part husky part jackal and it's their cute sense of smell which makes them perfect for sniffing out explosives in airports. it turns out that of all the canines it's the jackal that has the best sense of smell so it was logical to use that to improve the sense of smell and dogs basically i grafted a wild beast sense of smell onto 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. 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 could get a buddhist out of. the silly most dogs have two hundred and twenty million smell receptors forty four times more than a human this allows them to detect even trace amounts of explosive material making them invaluable for airports looking to put passengers at their ease but they are not ever working with these dogs among passengers makes people feel more secure in their poor it's this way passengers see that aeroflot 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 they needed to be there has to be trust between the two the dog 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 but this is the protection 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 well 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 ground 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 cheating 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. for august sets about sniffing me out for finally to no 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 are so well suited to working in the airport some passengers don't even notice that they're part of their investigation. sure enough she finds me trying to check in for a flight. well it's a good. no matter how hard you try to hide if you have explosives these amazing

animals will find you. r.t. moscow. already not just a few minutes here r.t. it's our interview with author and scholar jean sharp. daniel the latest business in yours. welcome to business traders are closely monitoring the escalating tensions between iran and the worst if the worst case scenario unravels some analysts say oil could jump to two hundred dollars a barrel but nick parsons from national australia bank explains why that's 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 find 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 if it were based purely on that then we'd be looking today at 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 talking about i think a lot of it is already in the price. list now see how oil is performing performing with it's gaining value due to not only tensions with iran but also consumer credit from the united states is close to one hundred three dollars a barrel brant is around a hundred and thirteen. banking shares are pushing european indices hoile the footsies gaining around one percent in germany that is up almost two point four

percent but investors must still be very worried about their future before monday they bought four billion euro worth of german bonds with a negative view meaning unless it was guaranteed to make no money. in the markets here in moscow they're quite upbeat at the moment the o.t.s. is up almost two and a half percent the most is putting on one and two thirds of a percent this hour. but now the biggest movers on the more six oil majors all on the rise as expected supported by stronger crude oil is up around two percent financials also gaining with russia's biggest lenders over three percent in the black retail a seven continent however is among the main loop. following reports that its parent company plans to boy about twenty five percent of its shares a record low price. last year was turbulent for the russian stock markets they lost twenty percent of their value some experts believe this you could be just as bird or free to be capital explain some of the major risk factors for that to happen

obviously if you are price would have to for significantly and for that to happen obviously things have to go pear shaped in europe and the and the us which actually might happen a lot of analysts are predicting a recession in a in europe and obviously here to give you numbers don't pick up and is maybe a little bit below consensus growth in asia which is which has been the most from a name to thousand island obviously there will be some room for disappointment right now thirty percent of sounds are given that the world prices sticking. to the high levels that's the latest business all have more in fifteen minutes to join with it.

wealthy british style. is not the type of.

market why not come to. 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 in to kaiser report. but there's also the live from moscow top of the headlines now syria's president says he still has the people support and will not step down as he claims the unrest in the country on. foreign forces promising to come down on so-called terrorists with an iron fist. also pledged to continue democratic reform with a referendum on a new constitution slated for. iran and dismisses washington's criticism about its nuclear program as ludicrous for the us.