a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at the mosque i roll received tensions between iran and at the west are soaring ever higher with fresh calls on terror and to stop all nuclear enrichment they've come after an urgent un security council session was called by france in response to reports of a new atomic facility in the islamic state meanwhile u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has dubbed tehran's recent threat to close off the vital oil trade route as a provocation and u.k. has also reportedly sent its best equipped warship to the persian gulf by saying it's ready to send more iran moved to block the strait of hormuz. looks at the latest in a deepening dispute. the cold run of tension between iran and the west is

simmering. it seems the slightest the increase of heat could make it boil over into an all out confrontation. but where will be that boiling point the point of no return we're getting closer and closer to war with iran the iranians are playing with fire problems in a crisis if you get where any small thing can really set it off and it doesn't quell washington that the international nuclear watchdog is arm site closely monitoring iran's nuclear activities are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon no but we know that they're trying to develop a nuclear capability and that's what concerns us and our red line to iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon iran's main source of livelihood is oil export is in danger the u.s. is imposing fresh sanctions that will dramatically complicate transactions through iran's central bank iran is also close to losing europe as a customer the reason that this is happening is that this is the logical conclusion

of our current strategy against iran we have sanctions in place with no diplomacy the only way that that and is through confrontation cornered by crippling sanctions iran's threatens to block the strait of hormuz a vital oil artery through which a sixth of the world's oil is shipped the u.s. replied by moving its fifth fleet to the region and saying if iran goes for it they will attack experts say the policy of isolating iran may lead to other threats from tehran and the possibility that one day they will go through with their threats but washington signals that it's ready or it wants everybody to believe that it's ready could weigh up we had to without using nuclear weapons ourselves take out their their nuclear capability well i certainly want them to believe that that's the case well is that i absolutely want them to believe that it's secretary would you add anything to that somebody. it's just a war of words and neither side will go for an all out conflict considering what it

is that it will be for the whole region frankly speaking this tension is artificial it doesn't have to happen it doesn't need to exist the iranians would do themselves an enormous favor by saying less. and we would do ourselves a favor by ignoring most of it all of this sadly i think is connected to israel and the israeli fear of iran for rhetorical reasons more than military ones it may be a war of words but actions are already showing thousands of u.s. troops are being deployed to israel an american citizen has been sentenced to death in a rare and convicted of espionage iran might feel cornered and therefore make drastic moves right now it's in a war of words but one bullet shot and the powder keg can blow up the question is what's going to provide that deadly spark i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t.

and iran is blaming america and israel for the assassination of a nuclear scientist in tehran on wednesday further destabilizing the delicate situation columnist and a veteran war correspondent eric marconi's believes toran is willing to retaliate but is being cautious as it doesn't want to spark a major conflict. it's either israel did the killing murder and the united states certainly didn't condemn israel for doing it and gave its assets through a major financial supporter of israel i'm surprised that in fact these attacks have not invited reigning in retaliation against these suspects it is certainly an international crime violence and international law and this issue has not been raised once a curate council which it should be retaliation could be directed against this really or american scientific personalities. in the region i

think. just very anxious to get revenge but they are being cautious now because it seems not so far away in the gulf american forces massing and there are growing threats of war against iran. i know we always like to know what you think of the stories we cover here on our of course including this one on our website we're asking what you think will be coming up the next standoff between iran and the west to come your votes that are. here's how you're lining up almost half of the votes say the u.s. will attempt to provoke iran into an all out war and just under a third think washington will simply strike and worry about the consequences later and the rest as we can see split fairly equally. saying iran will try to scare off its adversaries by getting has nuclear capability and ten percent believe tehran will alliance against the u.s. with countries in south america going to r.t.

dot com right now in our worldwide poll. and with the iranians gaining momentum it's a bitter rival israel is coming in for some stinging criticism but ahead on the program here an artsy report on the wave of anger over a planned new law which people say threaten their freedom of speech and human rights. protesters are again gathering in their symbolic birthplace of zuccotti park predictions that the movement would not survive into the new. a foreign journalist who's been killed in syria for the first time since the. uprising began a french reporter and more civilians died when shells struck a pro-government rally in the central city of homs but the country's government and the opposition were quick to blame each other for both being behind the attack meanwhile one of the arab league monitors in syria has abandoned the observer

mission claiming it was unable to achieve its goals another monitor has threatened to follow suit within twenty four hours despite growing tensions president assad is still backing by a large number of syrians during a pro-government rally he once again accused foreign powers of sponsoring the un rest and online news journalist james call. but says the syrian leader may have a point. it's important to understand that when he speaks of this conspiracy that he's going to strike down and the sleaze foreign terrorists who are invading his country that this is in fact not something that's open to debate it was actually revealed in documents that were leaked from the u.s. state department last april that proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the u.s. state department has pumped in at least six million dollars secretly on covertly into syrian opposition groups since two thousand and sixty arab league mission there is is pretty much pre-ordained no matter what the mission itself comes out with if there is even one dissenting voice the one dissenting voice will be given all of the the media attention so it's

a question of which way the the powers that be have decided this is going to go in unfortunately it looks like it's going to stack up in the in favor of military intervention once again. kind of that was the view of our james colbert and dependent news journalist and japan well professor of international relations walk almon says even those opposing assad still prefer him to the idea of foreign intervention and the inevitable risk of more polite chat. the problem for president assad is that the main centers of resistance to him are 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 and 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 think but i think one of the things that president assad is trying

to do is to say do you want to see libyan style civil war in chaos or would you or to see the sort of 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 r.t. has also explored this issue in more depth with a professor of middle east politics that of jeremy salt he believes the death toll figures in the conflict may have been exaggerated and that they're not all the fault of the regime i do watch the full interview coming your way in about twenty minutes time but for now a preview. of the human rights council report four thousand but there was no explanation of that figure where they go now a few days later. who's the u.n. human rights commissioner she threw up the security council and said five thousand . well i think it echoes around the world and i think it lodges in the popular

imagination is five thousand people being killed by the syrian government but security forces by the military whatever were in fact i don't think is any doubt at all that a large number of military of civilians have been killed by gangs about it but the fact is so what we actually need to do is to aggregate these. watching our t.v. it's good to have you with us the world's most controversial prison has now turned ten years old the anniversary of guantanamo bay was met with protests all around the world fresh calls as well on a president obama to keep his election promise and shut it down but today that's a fading fantasy out of washington enacted a new law allowing the military to indefinitely detain anyone that it deems hostile laura smith investigates. one zero zero zero zero one zero zero zero abdullah i am

absolutely today is probably just another day for the inmates of guantanamo bay they may not even know that people around the world are campaigning for them but as far afield as london demonstrations are held to demand the release of the hundred seventy one men still held without trial in the cuban camp after ten years one of those men is shaka omer who's earned the dubious distinction of being the last british resident held in guantanamo he was in afghanistan or nine eleven he says doing charity work digging wells and building a girls' school in kabul. when the u.s. invasion began almost went into hiding from an increasingly wary northern alliance but his freedom didn't last shuckers supporters maintain he was sold for a bounty went into the hands of the northern alliance who were warlords basically

and he actually thought all the americans that my goodness it will save me from the torture that he's had lots of torture by them but no he was transported to graham turner and bear he has remains despite president obama's original election pledge to close guantanamo altogether despite being cleared for release and despite being a legal permanent resident in the u.k. with family in london which includes one son he's never even seen and fought for moving closer to being freed shuckers supporters see worrying developments in the us is attitude to extrajudicial detention obama recently signed the national defense authorization act which places domestic terror investigations into the hands of the military and extends a ban on transferring prisoners out of guantanamo bay i'm very sorry indeed president obama for reasons. lack of political will or he would say complete

inability to deliver has not. lived up to that promise and indeed is now proposing to book american citizens into trials in military commissions which are very far from being fair trials we had to process the british government has requested the release of but there's been no movement on the case since two thousand and seven meanwhile as his family grows up without him he lives out his life in a tiny windowless cell not knowing whether he can ever expect to be released laura smith london. the ten year anniversary of guantanamo bay has also evoked a strong reaction from human rights organizations and activists amnesty international renowned for defending political prisoners staged its protest at the statue of liberty in paris of the twin of new york's famous landmark the previously called the prison quote the gulag of our hundreds also gathered across america

demanding obama keep his word something he says he can't do because of the opposition of congress but investigative reporter jason leopold believes there's no real domestic pressure on him to act as the majority of americans prefer to turn a blind eye. it's very sad that the public more or less this tune kuantan m o out has. widespread human rights abuses it is issue and abuse that we condemn other governments for however what's happening now is that we have come to accept indefinite detention i think that people are willing to accept it now it doesn't affect them let's face it they look at this an issue that they do not need to be concerned about because they still see the majority of people there as terrorists even though we have seen evidence surface

over the years that the vast majority were in fact innocent. investigative reporter jason leopold there talking to. get more on the story online and on let's see what else is available on our website for you right now a crying shame north korean authorities report begun to punish citizens who didn't display enough of the money to. re-examine the claim for the first reason to be considered good british police has become the issue of skin color. in about ten minutes time is the business news here on r t but for now protesters are back in new york's zuccotti park where the occupy wall street movement was born

almost four months ago police evicted them in a night raid in mid november setting up metal barricades to prevent new gatherings but now that the barriers are gone protesters are back and determined to stay as artie's anastasio reports. the mood certainly is very very optimistic people seem very reenergized they're excited to have been able to get back into the park the birthplace of occupy wall street that's where everything began and it's really looks like a lot of the skeptics were hoping that after the occupiers were kicked out of the park in mid november that would be the end of occupy wall street but certainly that has not been the case and the occupiers the protesters themselves believe this and they see this is a new chapter really for the food movement that has now become nationwide over the last several months you can't just barricade people out and you can't say that this park will either be used by no one or only by people that live in this area should

be open to everyone and so i think that it's important in so far as people come here and gather as we move into this bring it it gets warmer i think the visit will return to being the movement even when the barricades are still there we were always here representing i mean sometimes you only see it up in the front it's. one of the main rules the new rules for the occupy wall street movement here in new york city is that they cannot have tents or sleeping bags back into the park and that was of course a large part of them being able to stay out there for months and protest and demonstrate and essentially bring attention to their movement these days that's something that's not allowed they can technically sleep there but that's certainly something they can't really do and that really impacts a number of people there today and in the days to follow because not many people are able to sleep standing up you know it's very important that critics this entire time are saying no way will occupy wall street be able to last until the summer they were really hoping that after the eviction the protesters would not come back

but people have been gathering not necessarily in this park but in other locations indoors and they continue certainly to do so with this place kind of returning as the main headquarters for the occupiers here in new york city. well i mean while in the u.k. occupiers have slammed a government proposal to curb executive pay on the grounds that it doesn't go quite far enough it follows a report showing that a group of top british see raked in five hundred million pounds in pay and bonuses despite the country's dire financial plight and that's one of the themes being discussed by max and stacy in the commons report coming up at fifteen thirty g.m.t. here on. robber barons at least the robber barons from the nineteenth century built stuff like railroads and you know oil industries here the robber charlatan barons of the city of london and wall street build nothing because there's no laws against dealing in that industry and mervyn king if interest rates they're zero percent to make the stealing that much easier so facto

the robbers there are just paper ponzi scheme pyramid building shmucks. now at twenty past the hour here in moscow the chorus of critics is growing in israel against the so-called boycott more it punches anyone who speaks out against the country's settlement construction in the west bank human rights activists have turned to israel supreme court to overturn the legislation but it's not easy paula reports there's a whole range of other controversial bills all waiting for cabinet approval as well . gershon baskin is a wanted man in israel for his outspoken views against the government's policy of settlement expansion it's ironic because if it wasn't for those left wing israeli activists it's dark for israel would have secured a recent prisoner swap that's always weighty soldier gilad shalit exchanged for

palestinian prisoners after five years in captivity gershon says it was his contacts within him us that allowed the two sides to reach an agreement but now a controversial so-called boycott threatens to find the post war hero if he steps out of line the appeal to the public is an arab appeal. and there is a competition of who is more strongly advocating a position which is if our europe what the law says is that any israeli could face legal action just for speaking out in favor of boycotting settlements the first steps to fascism are quiet so. i i hope that the supreme court gives us a loud screaming telling us that fascism shouldn't pass but for now the supreme court is keeping quiet the state attorney again this month asked for more time to consider the arguments angering gabion who team who filed a petition to ignore the law the morning after it was passed in parliament until

the court rules otherwise israeli owners of companies based in the settlements can seek damages for boycotts called against the goods i don't i don't accept any border. but it's the. right word not. the boycott law is one of several controversial pieces of legislation being advanced by the netanyahu government a number of similarly criticized bills are currently under discussion in the israeli parliament another ball aims to dramatically limit foreign funding of nongovernmental groups critical of israel it's expected to receive cabinet approval soon this is a very conservative right wing coalition they have a solid majority in parliament by. still they sort of promote these bills which which are preceded not only by the left but by the press by the courts . is not encouraging democracy ok or sort of limiting free speech in israel

many here think it's a way for the right wing coalition government of prime minister netanyahu to stay in power but for people like gershon baskin he says he'll continue to call for a boycott of the settlements and far from censoring him the law has only strengthened his resolve to stop israel's growing onslaught on democracy policy r.t. tel aviv. daniel joins us next with top. of the business news here on the new year for the market blue chips but it's inherited a lot of problems from twenty eleven financial uncertainty and debt issues continue to weigh heavily on the main global economies but nicolo pop goes off from v. to be capital says that financially russia is well placed to face the challenges of twenty twelve. russia is never quite we'll positioned. in terms of sustainability to start all shocks and this is mainly because of trying

to have a significant shift over the exchange rate not only see which central when dealing with into cells into eleven but i think there are even in case of. global market deterioration and we want to be facing the sedation simular to the cells and data cells and nine in the russian economy as they seem to central bank pays more attention to interest rate would seriously emperor interest to keep race within his interest rate corridor with another big theme for themselves and twelve is there anything about the potential leaders ational for their local want to market for foreign investors and there this is also one of the most interesting new way and soon the sheer could take place in their action for national markets. with a look at those markets now well first both print and lloyd's suites have been edging up this sell from the lowest settlement in almost two weeks has been

triggered by the concerns we just heard that the strike in nigeria and threats of more sanctions against iraq's nuclear program will curb crude supplies in europe stock markets have barely changed moving into the off blue now investors are waiting to talk shows in spain and italy as well as a crunch european central bank meeting reports that germany's economy the biggest in the eurozone contracted in the fourth quarter is also keeping traders on god. here most of the markets have picked up their first games for the week both feel ts and more six are in the black over one percent this hour let's have a look at some of those share moves on the more i six energy majors are on the rise this hour from monopoly is up over percent of personal plans to spend five point seven billion dollars on the sochi winter olympics in twenty fourteen oil company lou quote is also again in point four percent and co make half the verse is. among the main winners for the second day running some reports the read only stand alone its plans to increase its share in the russian core make it to fifty percent in the

first quarter of this year. from broad frozen capital expects stocks to keep growing in the first half of twenty twelve. overall we are quite positive on the second on the first quarter and on the first half of the year at all i would say these goals it beat contrary to the overall consensus on the market which suggest that the first half of the year will be more or less difficult while the second one will be more positive we think vice versa and we think that situation with the european debt would not affect that much on the equities market is did last year so we see some improvements and we we think that we're close to the bottom of this it's a lot of the crises itself but let's see all of the influence on the equities markets because of european problems. you know the news russia's economy has seen some shift from speculative capital to foreign direct investment last year companies saw eighty four point two billion dollars of capital outflow the biggest in three years

and the same verses but taking their money out of risky markets like russia due to financial certainty around the globe foreign direct investment growth twenty eight percent to forty eight and a half billion dollars the russian market still calls jumped thirty nine percent last year the association of european businesses says they reached over two and a half million vehicles first much more than full cost however it still hasn't managed to get back to pre-crisis levels expects the market to grow at a slower pace this year amid worldwide economic uncertainty. russia second largest still make a service still is planning to build a new plant in the republic of trinidad and tobago in order to improve the efficiency of its american as it projects worth six hundred million dollars with a company attracting local state and private commercial partners global supply cheaper real materials for service or enterprise in north america. only this hour the russian cinema industry has got a present for the new year locally produced movies outperformed for months at the box office over the nationwide winter break the magazine book is bulleted says

russian films generated forty seven million dollars or fifty four percent of the total books office that's a surprise given the the total share of local movies for the whole of twenty eleven was around thirteen percent in the russian market took grossing film was still of foreign one sherlock holmes a game of shadows. that's all we've got time for this hour join me in fifty five minutes for more business here on r.t. .

the best sleep. the band. the book.

if you're just joining us a very warm welcome to you live from moscow your headlines now a storm brews over iran and the west accuse it of provocation amid suspicion is developing nuclear weapons and blames the u.s. and israel for the assassination of a fourth scientist in two years. of world wide protests. tenth anniversary with activists human rights agencies condemning president obama's broken down to shut it down.