penney's the e.u. itself sets a bad example. just after six pm here in moscow this is odd tea with me will receive a welcome to the program around it two dozen civilians have allegedly been shot dead by security forces all across syria another report comes after the president delivered his first address in months dismissing pressure to resign he claims he still has the people supporting and leading the fight against what he's calling as foreign funded terrorism as its promise to crush mercenaries and saboteurs with an iron fist saying they don't represent the syrian people he repeated his claim that no orders were ever given to far on a peaceful protesters reiterating his commitment to that of democratic reform he said a referendum on

a new constitution that will take place by march the president also slammed the arab league which suspended syria's membership in november the league's observers are currently overseeing the implementation of a peace plan eleven monitors received minor injuries in an attack by protesters on monday and international consultant. i think clearly selfish foreign involvement inside syria. now so there's clearly not what you would call a democratic leader but within the hour in the context he should be not the worst one on the contrary. is doing i mean you do see an oblique represented by the rain the united arab emirates so do you really be you. do it do a few do monarchies show he is writing c are not the ones that should point a finger and you know whether there is an international conspiracy elements that point out to me did there is. i think it's. it's more complex than just down there

is also genuine all but it is absolutely sure that there are elements from outside who are taking abuse even whenever there is living among the people for their own purposes that is absolutely. with r.t. still to come in the program using your cash to provide for their own comfort. there's your money and as my money you know where 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 now technocrats in brussels want more of it as we report despite the whole of europe struggling with the e.u.'s budget is only growing. and the race for the white house is on and the republican presidential candidates are ready to tear political chunks of each other and nothing is off limits to get the vote. the u.s. has called iran's enrichment of uranium at an underground site

a violation of u.n. resolutions however tehran insists it's all for peaceful purposes president mahmoud ahmadinejad currently on a tour of south america said it was a joke to believe that iran was making bombs back with energy and has received strong backing from the venezuelan leader who defended iran's nuclear program because chavez said there was no sound proof that iran was developing atomic weapons but when it is right it will shortly visit nicaragua cuba and 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 campaigner joel rubin says iran is trying to gain more support to prevent further penalties. looking for friends wherever he can find them he needs votes he needs votes at the united nations to block future saying 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 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 and 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. conversations between iran and washington have reached boiling point since the u.s. increased its military presence in the gulf but the war of words between the countries has led to a spike in global oil prices and let's cross over to daniel daniel bushell is standing by the business desk over the latest on the numbers and the implications so. yes the price will double to two hundred dollars

a barrel if the situation keeps deteriorating some analysts think iran of course one of the world's biggest crude producers we'll have more in the business news later this hour. we'll be seeing daniel shortly venezuela along with iran has long been an avid anti washington critic but despite being portrayed as an enemy of the u.s. venezuela's president hugo chavez has found a way to warm the hearts of america's poorest people in a fortnight 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 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 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 poor americans living in low income neighborhoods and shelters throughout the country president chavez often demonized by washington march 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 going vay 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 americas leader well sort of expressing similar sentiments of gratitude president obama recently accused the chavez government restricting human rights and taking the right steps. on the right value so the venezuelan leader didn't mince words while responding directly to his u.s. counterpart you know was i feel sorry for you just ask the black communities in your country what you mean to them you 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 it's to pay it's looming just sit and they can't get a job a struggle getting that much harder in the land of opportunity arena portnoy r.t. new york. just approaching ten minutes past the hour here in moscow and still ahead for you in the program sniffing out tara why a busy moscow airport is relying on a four legged friends to help fight crime. i raced against the clock is 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 on the collapse of what they've worked so hard for the german chancellor is today meeting the french head of the i.m.f.

in berlin hoping to pave a way forward despite a growing call for more action and less feasts and banquets on monday nicolas sarkozy also called on greece to move forward with promised structural changes or risk losing the next installment of badly needed bail out money nothing as did one last week the default was a possibility which could result in a bad. the euro all together here is now working to hammer out a new treaty agreed upon at a summit in december leading to tough for school control and making budget rule breakers directly to the e.u. but many euro skeptics say putting more trust in brussels would be an error saudis tells us earlier reports. when times are this hard every cent counts for the seventy fifth 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 due to 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 person as 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 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 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 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 seize the demolition of an existing building of the creation i would know what 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 if you say that you mean to say that stuff is sitting on the shows needs while working i really have this responsibility to do

legislation for five hundred million people in a proper way again there is an argument for this that these people these institutions do need facilities the timing is just horrible because the austerity measures imposed a lot of member states the fact that brussels is plowing 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 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 our silly r r t brussels. all right in about ten minutes time is daniel with the business up of for now though the artsy world up for you first our attention goes to our western pakistan region . targeting an anti taliban militia blasted out of local market at least thirty five dead dozens injured at this point this is the deadliest attack in the country in recent months local islamist insurgents have been blamed for it militants with links to al qaeda have carried out hundreds of bombings in pakistan over the past few years. libya has asked for more time to respond to the international criminal court which wants to know when more market f.e.u. son saif al islam will be handed over the deadline given by the i.c.c.

is set to elapse in less than one hour al islam is being held in the west and tunnels in thailand and it's charged by the hague with crimes against humanity the most prominent son of the country's a late leader was captured in november while trying to flee into neighboring nigeria. and to nigeria now where roadblocks have been set alight in during the country's second day of strikes against soaring fuel costs police are using tear gas and firing into the air to disperse the demo. straighteners this comes just one day after three protesters died in clashes with officers the nationwide strike began after the government ended a popular fuel subsidy leading to a rise in gas and transportation costs all throughout the country. 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 in honor of 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 but u.n. estimates that the country holds around two hundred thousand people in political prisoner camps. well voting in the key primary of the u.s. election season has begun in new hampshire where candidates for the republican presidential nomination vying for victory they're hoping to take on barack obama in november for the white house former massachusetts governor mitt romney has been well ahead in the opinion polls with congressman ron paul and senator rick santorum some way behind ahead of the vote candidates continue their political point scoring nothing was off limits the former massachusetts governor romney was mocked by rivals during the debate after saying that he enjoyed firing people political comedian dean obeidallah told us here at r t that by addressing issues like guns gays and abortion republicans are just scrapping 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 in 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 as talk about the economy i have to think the reality is there. these republican candidates and it's not an easy thing to have an answer they don't have an answer unemployment's gone down and picked up two or 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 tell what the social issues the heart issues the ones that make you go out and vote you make you make phone calls and get people to come out to the polls they scare you it works before it works many times of four they're just trying to use the same play from the old republican playbook but 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 the beat 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 the big battle the super bowl if you will that's already here the real issues we want to hear about. and i do bear in mind a lot more online for you at r.t. dot com including of america's foreign policy future president obama's plan to cut back on troops in asia but increase the number of bases just provokes the wrath of china also on our website for your. other possible reasons behind the failure of russia's first mars interplanetary mission in years are revealed find out all the issues at r.t. dot com.

one of moscow's busiest airports is that relying on a special breed of canine to help fight terror with a sense of smell unmatched by any other dog these furry quien fighters spend their days sniffing out explosives. or pay them a visit and put their noses to the test. among four legged friends on the front line in the fight against terror these dogs are a special breed part ascii part jackal and it's their cute sense of smell which makes them perfect for sniffing out explosives in airports. it turns out to do 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 a graph to the world the sense of smell to a domesticated animal of what their ski her 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 point temperatures as an experiment we took these hybrids to the united arab emirates where they were able to work equal to two degrees centigrade if they could. sandwich was heated by the sun to sixty degrees ordinary dogs wouldn't be able to handle that but it did get a buddhist sort of. this early most 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 the best way and that ever working with these dogs among passengers makes people feel more secure in the airports this way passengers see if it's aeroflot to give special attention to security as for accuracy of even

detected gunpowder residue on the clothes of hundreds of 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 keep it to keep 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 and they should notice and immediately respond to the dogs for every motion and reaction but this is because she 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 sates that'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. terminal while florida tries to track me down. for our guests 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 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 good. no matter how hard you try to hide if you have explosives these amazing animals will find you. r.t.

moscow. all right i'll be back with the headlines in a few moments at a very after daniel with the latest business. to business traders are closely monitoring the escalating tensions between iran and the west if the worst case scenario comes to pass 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 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 mind 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 now if it were based purely on that then we'd be looking today it's an oil prices 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 see how that oil price is performing the all prices continuing to rise at the moment do not only to tensions with iran but also consumer credit data from the united states that's expected to boost demand further has just got over one hundred three dollars a barrel prince edging closer to one hundred fourteen. and let's take a check on stocks retailers are doing well as they are strong figures for twenty eleven marks and spencer is up almost three percent this hour london's edging to five thousand seven hundred points and frankfurt know up over two and

a half percent. russia however has edged back in the last few minutes but it remains higher for the day the old index is currently up over two and a half percent. and now the biggest movers of the my six majors are on the rise supported by that strong crude price over one and a half percent truck make cameras is also gaining off to reported a forty percent increase in sales for last year but retailer seventh continent is continuing to slow it down reports its parent company will back its shares at a record low price. last year was turbulent for the russian stock markets they lost around twenty percent of their value some experts say this you could be just as bird cost of capital explained some of the major risk factors. for that to happen obviously of your price would have to force 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 the recession in

a in europe and obviously if you give you numbers don't pick up and maybe a little bit below consensus graph in asia which is which has been the last one. of us there will be some room for disappointment right now thirty percent of sons are given that the world press is sticking. to the high levels. and to all the news british luxury comical rolls royces reported record sales in twenty eleven the company sold more than three thousand calls in its hundred seven year history group particularly forced in germany and russia where they more than doubled. his business will have more mix there with the journey that.

this is our time. to reclaim the american dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many we are one that won't we breathe we hope. to me the american dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom and a government under socialism is not a government a free. man. you . have very motivated out cross the country who are activists who are willing to fight for what they think is rights for themselves but

the fact is forty four bridge ok. we are counting. property drowning and i think it's threatened by it's cutting off our. it's making goldmark recy. all but impossible. when an uncomfortable question leads to a grave accusation the world who is more as you know following. the president who isn't supposed to hide anything. worth someone asking him why do you make a secret out that when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different. when you get experiencing very serious problems off of the saakashvili

government came to power in two thousand and three if you get it from a book that was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were often be set up and humiliated in public when the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger is that we have been deprived of the only means of earning a living i have got to our originals of all the papers. at them legalized the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop. michiru free cretaceous free to store charges free arrangement

free. three stooges free. food free broncos clothing video for your media project a free video don to r.t. dot com. if you are just joining us a very warm welcome to you this is live from moscow time for your headlines syria's president says he still has the people support and will not step down as he blames the unrest in the country on foreign forces promising to clamp down on so-called terrorists with an iron fist but short of al assad also pledged to continue democratic reforms with a referendum on a new constitution slated for march. iran dismisses washington's criticism about its nuclear program as lewd.