around the clock around the world this is r.t. live here in moscow good to have you with us at this hour at least twenty seven people have reportedly been killed by security forces across syria on wednesday it's been confirmed that a french television journalist died in a rocket explosion the first time a foreign reporter has been killed in syria since the uprising began in march this is bashar al assad has spoken to supporters in damascus for the second time in twenty four hours reiterating his dismissal of calls to step down journalist lizzie feelin has the latest now from the syrian capital. some reports the figures that hundreds of thousands of people who attended at least many tens of thousands of people there and of course. addressed the crowd amongst the people there was a huge forward of that was the president in his speech he mentioned that he very much wanted to be amongst the people and there were many young people that there

was a large mix of different ethnic religious backgrounds of course. syrian government has been accused by media organizations and others being unfair regime because it is led by. a religious minority inside syria. and today there were many different religious and ethnic groups of people represented including so means kristie is. many different people so that there was really an impressive actually show of unity amongst the syrian people from all different walks of life one of the five things that people seem very keen to express here is that outrage in particular. and that. news channels which is of course funded by their they are accused of fabricating. news reports of what is happening inside the country and they also

express a lot of anger towards the u.s. president barack obama french president sarkozy who's supporting the destabilization of their country and in contrast they see this countries such as russia who have been much more neutral during this conflict condemning all five. for any violence so that nations like russia and china. i viewed much more favorably by a lot of the people that i have come across. professor of international relations more coleman told me earlier that he thinks there's clearly a foreign desire to intervene in syria which means the regime supporters are choosing the lesser of two evils by sticking with the. the problem for president assad is that the main centers of resistance to him all based around the borders and that also however is a sign of the limitations on the support for an armed insurrection against him that it really depends upon getting money weapons and even perhaps personnel across the

border from lebanon turkey and to some extent from truth so we have a kind of standoff president assad has a lot of support the armed opposition has support we don't really know what ordinary people feel but i think one of the things the president sides trying to do is to say do you want to see libyan style civil war chaos or would you or to see this or that happened in iraq a few years ago and that's quite a powerful argument for people not necessary to be diehard supporters and certainly not to want to see themselves die in a brutal civil conflict that could spiral out of control. some of syria's neighbors of their own take on the crisis in turkey has warned of a looming civil war and it's troops are standing by orders to intervene artie's more if an ocean has more from istanbul. to the bloodiest day describing the syrian crisis maintained for months he is a growing violence we start spreading beyond the country's borders especially with

its close neighbor turkey wants to close friends too but now harsh critique of damascus on an. issue is first priority should be to listen to its people and meet their demands not to denounce others instead of massacring its people we should listen to them. so glitter glue is a harsh critic himself but he's criticizing the turkish government and korea is on the side with the free syrian army and the syrian national council and military and diplomatic forces aimed and overthrowing the regime of bashar al assad it supports a buffer zone and a humanitarian corridor which some fear could bring turkish troops to syrian soil what does that mean according to international law it means aggression against a country it means war but any intervention would be different from the one in libya since russia and china have made it clear new war no fly zone resolutions

which means the role of regional players like turkey increases dramatically but for new claims and korea's behavior is irresponsible and risky it has larger implications beyond the bilateral context of turkey syria as such the situation in syria must be handled with great care by all powers and unfortunately i don't see that. especially the part of our government or hand works with a middle eastern studies center based in ampera it's sponsored by the turkish foreign ministry to help shape policy and its opinion on syria it's clear syria is killing their own people. not always that's clear nobody has objectively information what is going on in syria the center specialists haven't been to syria for over here it means the picture they paint for officials in ankara is unlikely

to be an accurate one the technology changing you know when you look at the photographs or the videos coming from these governorates you can easily see that there is something going on but the sources of these videos are often questionable so it's easy to be misled or get a false picture of what's really happening but there does. researchers from coming to firm conclusions the military operation this is the last option which turkey does not want to see but this is an option that may have declared it doesn't welcome a military solution to the syrian crisis but turkey hasn't ruled it out either plain and eve if there is massive migration from its troubled neighbor turkey says it will have to protect its own people and fishery and currencies it wants peace and stability in the region its troops are already discounted as from the border with syria. r.t. turkey. still have for you this. for suspects.

i think is mostly due to a stereotype i think a stereotype of the seamy traction with the polish didn't come with just for you know we're just about to do it. why police in britain are under fire for stopping and searching youths who they deem suspicious. and all eyes are on the u.s. and israel after a car bomb kills one of the brightest minds in iran's nuclear industry. the story still to come first today marks ten years since the first prisoners were sent to america's most notorious prison in cuba. and after a decade the detention center remains on the wrong side of the law with its harsh interrogation process is and use of torture the promise to close it but instead the president has now also and a new law authorizing the indefinite detention of terror suspects christine reports from this is me i've said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will

follow through on that promise is broken it is ministration policy to try to close guantanamo we have certainly run into opposition the problem is he doesn't have a plan to do that or at least what to do with terror suspects they are suspects like murat kurnaz captured in pakistan in two thousand and one well worked. for an ngo that helps young people get off drugs he was sent to guantanamo and tortured for five years. after i had seen a couple things couple couple of people got killed in front of me some of them got just keep on his happy until he died and he was hanging on saying until he was forced to confess he was a member of al qaeda so he told them time and time again he was not was freezing call it was during winter. and i had no clothes on so i was hanging there for many days. and. going to sign almost

every time when i said no he just made like this and. it's stories like this that draw fears condemnation even from within north america when one of the most powerful that we're democracies is behaving with promoting you know illegal practices and abusing human rights that undermines the cause of human rights everywhere on the planet it is this hypocrisy that others say leads us enemies to more action not less i think the number one recruiting tool for zawahiri and bin laden before he was killed was and colonel morris davis former prosecutor and guantanamo bay resigned after being ordered to use information obtained during torture he said he was hopeful things would change under president obama he didn't just embrace the bush policies he kissed him on the lips and ran with them many believe the prospect of closing guantanamo bay will now be much more difficult thanks to the passage of the national defense authorization act by congress it was

signed into law by president obama on december thirty first now within the bill provisions that allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it considers to be a terrorism suspect without charge or trial and with this increased leniency no doubt increased space to hold those prison. there is where we need it but the n.b.a. clearly you know there's a major roadblock in this passage really was the death knell for attempts to close guantanamo now i think we're stuck with six president obama will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law even applying it to american citizens no person and military uniform ever volunteer the rooms are less than to the military for the purpose of taking action against american citizens it's to protect american citizens protecting american citizens the reason given for guantanamo bay in the first place but ten years later

it is having the opposite effect still the once temporary solution now looking more and more like a permanent fixture in washington christine for south r t. colonel morris davis who we've just seen in that report was a chief prosecutor at guantanamo bay during president george w. bush's administration and his full interview is coming up later in the program but here's a quick preview of what he experienced while working there. believed at the time and did for most of my tenure there we were committed to having full fair and open trials my policy had been we were not going to use any evidence obtained by waterboarding or any of the other enhanced interrogation techniques that most people call torture but it seems there were a champion of the rule of law when we're trying to apply to others not so much when . we're looking at in the mirror at ourselves the convention against torture for instance we're signatory to that. you saw recently in the republican presidential

debates or candidate said they would resume waterboarding so you know we love to criticize other countries. but we're not so good at holding up the mirror torso. well we're always interested know what you think in today we're asking when do you believe guantanamo bay will finally close will to voice your opinion go to r.t. dot com and participate in our latest global poll is look at the results so far on screen fifty nine percent of those who responded believe that the u.s. has no interest in shutting it down in the quarter a convince that will be shot when the u.s. can no longer afford to run it and some fiddle only happen when washington builds a new prison somewhere else and just two percent think all terrorists will have to be defeated first dot com cast your vote there check out our online news coverage including. the story about an anonymous group famous for fueling protests across

the globe is calling for the entire us nation to rise up against a controversial national defense act and protect the american constitution. and also in line for the moment money well spent russia's defense ministry pays a million dollars to create its own computer games to promote picture it is i'm among youngsters those stories and r.t. dot com. one of iran's top nuclear scientists has been killed in a car bombing in the capital tehran stuff. reportedly supervised a department at the turns iranian enrichment plant your stories of pointed the finger at israel and the u.s. the obama administration is denying any role in the death. is the fourth atomic scientists to be killed in iran since two thousand and turn almost two years ago

another physicist linked to the country's nuclear program died in a similar explosion tensions between iran and the west are growing rapidly as the u.s. is already tehran with more financial and oil sanctions and the e.u. plans to follow suit but russia urged europe not to aggravate the situation by following in america's footsteps bottom. some of them from the universal peace federation told me earlier that he thinks a regional conflict is now a real possibility. after consecutive actually asked us nations against nuclear scientists inside iran and this is to my own understanding maybe the fourth as a nation inside the head on over and around i mean inside iran this will lead to an example how the west actually and the us specifically through the mossad or through the cia will always engineer or handle such as us nations inside iran well i'm predicting there is a certain plan or an agenda by the west and israel will not engineer it will not exit q that it could be the brits and the us but this will benefit isn't it for

sure this and the threats actually behind this shall lead to a regional or an international war in the region which is there was going up in case tension grows time by time and accidents actually consecutively they grow like a snowball as if in the in the gulf region so this will eventually upload you know escalate the situation inside the gulf and specifically in there was going to the iranians they have offered dialogue but the west so far has neglected that and they are not ready to sit down with iran and discuss certain diplomatic measures. now to some news making headlines around the world and first to nigeria the government is one of the nation's fuel strike could lead to anarchy as demonstrations enter the third day nine people have been killed since monday mortars become the longest nationwide strike in nigeria's history it comes after the government ended a popular fuel subsidy leading to an increase in gas and transportation costs throughout the nation unions are vowed to keep up the indefinite strike until the

subsidy is restored. and in the u.s. occupy wall street protesters have moved back into new york's zuccotti park after barricades were lifted this comes after civil liberties groups and letters to the city saying that paris broke zoning laws the blockades were put in place after demonstrators were victims from the area two months ago. the occupy movement has been marred by accusations of police brutality since it began last september. the eternal prime minister mario monti says his country no longer poses a threat of contagion to the rest of the eurozone following painful but vital reforms he's met with the german chancellor angela merkel who praised italy's efforts in imposing austerity measures to avert a debt disaster more toward a protest breaking out in italy if it's reforms were not acknowledged as successful he's agreed on a new tax on financial transactions pushed by merkel but only if it's applied to the entire european union this comes as the e.u. struggles to contain its debt crisis with many states believed to be back in

recession. and u.s. drone attack has killed at least four islamic militants in pakistan the missiles which struck late last night hit an insurgent compound in north waziristan on the afghan border and now this comes just two months after american airstrike killed two dozen pakistani troops adding to the already tense relationship between washington and is now the white house said the november attack was an error but pakistan rejected the findings saying the strike was deliberate wiemar pakistan's prime minister has fired his defense secretary as tensions between the government and the military grow chris woods a senior reporter at the bureau of investigative journalism at city university in london says is now about its reliance on american aid means it will continue to tolerate drone attacks. i think good relations with. the government are growing stronger. significantly. because we're about in

washington. about a new government on growing strikes and that's what reflect i mean obviously it's very very. true and we're talking about billions of dollars a year. being spent on pakistan's military by the us going back almost there so yes that money is important to pakistan and i think that's an important aspect of leverage for the u.s. . strikes syria continues to claim but it hasn't killed a single civilian in pakistan since two thousand and ten the bureau's research on this shows quite the opposite a. minimum of fifty three civilians were killed in pakistan where you were in the first few. years horace hundred twenty six it is fair to say it was true that civilians do get killed more the question here is. war in the tribal areas

of pakistan and what kind of authority does it have to actually carry out these drone strikes. british police have been accused of crossing the line when it comes to upholding law and order by stopping and searching people they deem in any way suspicious those who are most often considered to be up to no good by authorities believe there is one reason behind it skin color parties are the bennetts has this report. this is supposed to prevent terrorism police in britain have free rein to stop and search anyone they deem suspicious but what constitutes suspicious he's hugely controversial no stopped a young black men and police still can't escape accusations of racism even from inside parliament. police will argue that it's because the people are typically looking for comfort sick so she's going to make backgrounds that starts to look very much like racial profiling and it's certainly true that these people are often massively disproportionately stopped all the boys at this youth club in north

london have been stopped and searched some on several occasions all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and they say for having the wrong skin color. or stop because of another type of car. was when they stopped us to explain. this topic because big news in recent attacks attacks to say that there was this big issue stopping the car. and the reality was the kid. who was in the car i think it was mostly the stereotyping the stereotype that if he may track change or the color like the color skin be fine with that just for you know well it just opens up and it was the way it was stabbings a frequent in this part of london carte blanche for police to stop and search whoever they want they can be in public sometimes physical poorly explained and often humiliating some brass in those in the middle of the streets off on the

highly embarrassing. they were busting their cars because of the bus. but i don't know when the law came into force in two thousand and one police didn't even need a reason to stop and search europe finally ruled this illegal early last year forcing concessions from the government since then stop and searches have decreased by ninety percent the problem still exists in theory there are strict limitations to stop and search the power is going to be used in a specific area fourteen days before he was twenty eight but in practice all that means nothing if the powers can simply be renewed on expiring which is why the whole of london has been a stop and search zone for the last ten years police now don't even need to record the suspect. name any injury they suffer all the outcome of the surge the government says it'll reduce paperwork but it leaves it wide open for a peek targeting and physical abuse kyle runs the u.s.

and he too has been stopped repeatedly suspects are entitled to a receipt but few know this and kyle says police are often reluctant to make any record but most often search it's. kind of like trying refused to give to sleep. and they say i've heard excuses we don't have no power we have to go to the station to get it and if i still start to argue the case someone has a notepad and can give me a form in the end of it so i do think they do target young people police used to have similar powers in the one nine hundred eighty s. but they were scrapped after racial targeting provoked massive riots some saw the august riots as history repeating itself but one of the things that caused that was placed by the place to. stop and. an instance of a place certainly institutionally against the people and the probably institutionally racist as well. eighty five percent of writers cited anger of

police as their reason for violence in a recent study by the guardian newspaper a fact the government can no longer ignore it's prompted home secretary theresa may to launch a review of how stop and search powers they used are when it r.t. london. coming up for his interview with the former chief military prosecutor of the kuantan of the prison that will be right after the business update with a recap of our top stories that will be with me in about five minutes from now stay with us live here in moscow. welcome to business russia's big state has been postponed according to comments from the country's deputy prime minister. says they won't get a fair price for firms like transitive. drew in the current world economic turmoil the privatization will be put off for up to three years according to government sources quoted by newspaper lists of all it from. the move.

but there were certainly hopes in the market there would be significant impetus to privatisation this year but my sense was that certainly there was no strong expectation that a word pro see with aggressive privatizations ahead of the presidential elections and if anything if there were to be a significant pipeline of privatizations coming up you could also have a negative effect of some sort. of the market in terms of the saturation of the supply and negatively affecting the price that but currently we clearly see that the market conditions are challenging that the global scene a square challenging and this is something that makes. this strategic asset somewhat more problematic. there's been a new flare up in the gas dispute between russia and ukraine says it will boil only

twenty seven billion cubic meters of gas this year despite the fact fifty two billion has been agreed in the contract but the head of russia's any joint gazprom warns ukraine must pay the full amount agreed to his deal with ukraine made this decision without any consultation with russia if they want to make any changes to the contract they should agree them six months in advance if you crean breaks the conditions of the contract russia will act according to the existing agreement. this trickle the stock markets and all the e.u. closed in the red food and energy sectors will tugging downwards pharmaceuticals also suffered due to the lost over three percent of the of belgrade the role all tention has heard energy firms shows three percent in london. russia's bourses closed lower for the second day in a row following problems in other markets the r.t.s. lost over one percent while the most six finished almost point eight percent in the bread now the biggest move was almost six today weak or was weighing on energy

majors from last point eight percent that's all news ukraine wants to take this gas the freeze in the contract with discover retailer magnet jumped it reported a forty two percent increase in earnings for twenty eleven and half the verse finished among the main game is on reports the lawyer plans to increase its share in the russian call make it to fifty percent in the first quarter of this year. that's the business news the headlines are next on r.t. .

if they shoot something inappropriate from the public they can easily be shown to accept casualties of war ok. i wish you would have never happened but it has happened. in a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what destroys their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave iran. and the spear what happens with such witnesses i got him on my site. one of many objects submitted. to her shoes shooting on our.

if you just joined us for a warm welcome our t. life here in moscow top stories now that the syrian president claims he's still in control of will soon crush what he's branded a foreign funded insurgency but international pressure on bashar al assad to step down is mounting as more civilian deaths are reported across the country. a controversial stop and such policy banned in most of europe but still used by british police as black community leaders screaming racism those who are most often considered suspicious by their.