the leaders of france and germany have pledged to boost growth than give more power to brussels to stem the debt crisis but critics say when it comes to watching the pennies the e.u. itself sets a bad example. a very warm welcome to you this is our life from moscow i'm wrong receivership in his first presidential address in months syria's bashar al assad 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 as promised a crush of 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 up 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 said the arab league which 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 being killed in the country since the rest began in march international consultant load of things there's clearly selfish foreign involvement in syria. so there's clearly not what you would call a democratic leader but within the context she should be not on the contrary definitely is doing i mean you do see an oblique rivers in the factory in the united arab emirates so do you review what do it do if you do. show he is writing see not the ones that should point a finger and hear whether there is an international conspiracy them. point out to

me. is part of it i think it's more complex than just down there is also genuine probably fall but it is absolutely sure that there are elements from outside who are taking to rob you abusing whenever there is living among the syrian people for their own purposes that is absolutely. and i mean time some members of the syrian opposition want the west to carry out a libya style military intervention in the country but gene sharp author of the book from dictatorship to democracy things to change should come peacefully and from within here's a preview of the full interview will bring you in just over an hour's time. i think . military intervention is very dangerous. 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. ok for being

a symbol get rid of the old regime. be heavily influenced by the powers that intervene he u.s. france or whoever it is so that they will have a major say. happened in this or the syrian people but you think should the u.s. government should not be intervening military in the name. because if it doesn't work and they can. you without you still to come in the program here using your cash to provide for them. is your money and that's my money but we're much more careful because then with. the trouble is that here in brussels it's all somebody else's money. has to be reported by the whole of europe struggling with the e.u.

is budget is growing. on the race for the white house and the republican presidential candidates already ten political chunks off each other and nothing is off limits to get them. now five minutes past the hour here in the u.s. as a cold iran's enrichment uranium at an underground site a violation of u.n. resolutions however tehran insists it's all for peaceful purposes president. currently on a tour of south america said it was a joke to believe iran was making bombs. strong backing from the venezuelan leader . defended iran's nuclear program. said there was no sound proof that tehran was developing atomic weapons. it will also visit nicaragua cuba and ecuador during his two a little softer washington applied tough sanctions targeting iran central bank and its finance industry with the e.u.

expected to follow suit and the weapons campaign joel rubin says iran's are trying to gain more support to prevent further penalties. i was looking for friends wherever he can find them he needs votes he needs the united nations to block future sanctions he also sees potential markets for commerce when the rest of the world looks to be moving towards a more sanctions oriented position towards iran so if he 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 most analysts do 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 all 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 venezuela along with iran has long been an avid and washington critic but a spy and being portrayed as an enemy in the united states venezuela's president hugo chavez has found a way to warm the hearts of america's poorest people. as the story. winter morning in the south bronx in new york city outdoors the temperature is near freezing indoors. seventy seven year old allison many otis is bundled up brewing up pot of coffee and raising the heat just enough good 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 more comfort gets harder i go around 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 right now about the 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 crying to the people of the united states and i'm sure he he he ruled differently like obama wrong does differently and the whole we to tell these people how they should live

or how i mean are they convey to 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 americas leader sort of expressing similar sentiments of gratitude president obama recently accused the chavez government restricting human rights and taking frightening steps. look like well yes the venezuelan leader didn't mince words while perspire ending directly to his u.s. counterpart you know what i feel sorry for you just ask the black communities in 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 here we have children that are graduating from

college with eighty ninety one hundred thousand dollars that they have to pay back its to p.t. it's. just that and they can't get a job a struggle getting that much harder in the land of opportunity arena portnoy r.t. new york. live from moscow this is to have for you this hour sniffing out. why i want to go where borders relying on a four legged friend to help fight crime. i raced against the clock as well and truly underway in europe the leaders of the single currency as 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

a monday i'm going to merkel and nicolas sarkozy also called on the greece to move forward with promised structural changes or risk losing the next installment of badly needed belt out money athens warned at last week that default was a possibility which could result in it. even the euro altogether europe is now working to hammer out a new treaty agreed at a summit in december and leading to top of fiscal control of making budget rule breakers directly to the e.u. but many euro skeptics say putting more trust in brussels would be an era i thought is test the us of the rest of us. when times are this hard every cent accounts 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 what 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 arose 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 seize 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 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 if you say that you mean to say that stuff is sitting on the shows 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 we 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 . receipts when they have one when 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. in ten minutes time it's the business news with danielle but for now some news from around the world for you in brief first our attention to that of northwestern pakistan region a bomb blast targeting and taliban militia at a local market has left at least thirty five dead and dozens injured is the deadliest attack on 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 just over 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 elapse today he's being held in the western town of his interned and is charged by the hague with crimes against humanity and is now waiting to find out whether he'll be handed over to the court the most prominent son of the

country's that late leader was captured in southern libya in november or trying to flee into neighboring nigeria. north korea has announced it will issue special pardons for convicts to mark the birthdays of two late leaders a state news agency said the amnesty will begin on the first of february kim jong il who died last month and his father kim il sung it's unknown what kind of crimes will be pardoned or how many inmates will be released the u.n. estimates the country holds around two hundred thousand people in political prisoner camps. or voting in the key primary of the u.s. election season has begun in new hampshire where candidates for the republican presidential nomination of buying a victory they're hoping to take on barack obama in november writes for the white house a former massachusetts governor mitt romney has been well ahead in the open polls of congressman ron paul and former senator rick santorum some way behind head of

the vote counted it's continued the political point scoring and nothing was off limits former massachusetts governor romney was mocked by rivals during a debate after saying that he enjoyed firing people political comedian dean obeidallah told us here about tea 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 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 understanding 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 us 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 on employment's gone down it peaked october two thousand and

nine at 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 worked many times of for 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 when is president obama versus mitt romney and that 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 that 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. of course a lot more online for you at our dot com including america's foreign policy. president obama's plan to cut back on troops in asia putting crease the number of bases simply provokes the wrath of china also on our website for you at our t.

dot com. the possible reasons behind the failure of russia's. interplanetary mission in years reveal more to come. just on in 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 on matched by any other dog these furry crime fighters spend their days sniffing out explosives. paid them 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 in dogs basically i grafted a wild beast sense of smell into a domesticated animal of what their husky hurry to just 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 that a buddhist sort 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 this way passengers see that aeroflot give special attention to security as for accuracy they'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 police gave the lady to think 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 this is the british you might wish. the 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 achieve the 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 our guest sets 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 of their investigation. sure enough she finds me trying to check in for a flight. well it's all good. no matter how hard you try to hide if you have explosives these amazing animals will find you. r.t. moscow. russia here in our spotlight interview show here on r.t. it's a look at how parts of southern russia are going to reform themselves and to top tourist destinations after daniel the person asked if there. talking to business traders are closely monitoring the escalating tensions between iran and the west if the worst case scenario comes to polls some analysts say oil could double to two hundred dollars

a barrel but nick parsons from national australia bank explains why that's on likely. i think they're 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 are talking about i think a lot of it is already in the price. see how the oil price is performing it's

gaining this you not only to tensions with iran but also the consumer credit data from the united states which is expected to boost demand light sweet is getting close to one hundred three dollars a barrel brant has gone over one hundred thirteen. quick check on the stock markets now luxury goods are doing well of the swatch group revealed better than expected sales for last year. has put on five percent in paris the foot over a percent frankfurt over. the markets here in moscow also on the rise as we move towards the evening is up almost three percent the most six foremost to this hour. and now the biggest movers on the my six majors or on the rise paul to post stronger crude oil is up around two percent truck make a commercial is also gaining reported a forty percent increase in sales for twenty eleven retailer seven continents

however is among the many losers following rick. the parent company plans to buy back twenty five percent of its shares at a record low price. last year was turbulent for the russian stock markets they lost a real twenty percent of their value some experts believe this you could be just as bird from v t b 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 us which actually might happen a lot of analysts are predicting a recession in europe and obviously if the numbers don't pick up and maybe a little bit below consensus growth in asia which is which has been the last woman in two thousand and eleven obviously there will be some room for disappointment right now thirty percent of sounds are given that the world press is sticking. to the high levels. and to other news british luxury car maker rolls royces reported

record sales in twenty eleven company sold more than three thousand cause the highest in its hundred seven year history so particularly grew force in germany russia worth more than doubled. that's the latest business to join me next hour for more. to.

me. if they shoot something inappropriate from the public they can easily be shot by accident casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what does their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave around. and this clear what happens with such witnesses i got him on my site. one of my many objects above.

should be nurses shooting on our. wealthy british style. markets. 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 in two cars a report. he .

says. and syria's president says he still has the people support and will not step down its play rest in the country on foreign forces promising to clamp down on so-called terrorists with an iron fist. also pledged to continue democratic reforms with a referendum on a new constitution that is slated for march. dismisses washington's criticism about its nuclear program.