around the clock around the world and this is r t and live in moscow tensions between iran and the west soaring ever higher with fresh calls on to around 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 the more u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has to ron's recent threat to close off a vital oil trade route a provocation u.k.'s also reportedly sent its best equipped warship to the persian gulf saying it's ready to send more if iran moves to block the strait of hormuz what is going to come on looks at the latest in a deep in dispute. the cold run of tension between iran and the west is simmering. it seems

a slight is 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 side 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 is through confrontation cornered by crippling sanctions iran's threaten 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 that's the case that 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 the rand 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. . iran is blaming america and israel for the assassination of

a nuclear scientist in toronto on wednesday further destabilizing the delicate situation columnist and veteran war correspondent eric margolis has told me that he believes the terror is willing to retaliate but is being cautious as it doesn't want to spark conflict. that'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 that these attacks have not invited reigning in retaliation against these suspects it in syria and international crime violence and international law and this issue has not been raised that the u.n. security council which it should be retaliation could be directed against this really were american scientific personalities. it's in the region i

think the iranians are just very anxious to get revenge but they're 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. well we always like to know what you think of the stories we cover here in our to including this one on our website we're asking what you think will come next in the standoff between iran and the west let's look at the results on the screen at the moment well this is how the opinions of mining are almost half of the votes say the u.s. will attempt to provoke iran into a war think that washington will simply strike and worry about the consequences later the rest are split fairly equally eleven percent say iran will try to scare off its inverse raised by claiming it has nuclear capability and we can see that at the moment ten percent believe that iran will forge an alliance against the u.s. with countries in south america. to cast your vote.

but with the iranian standoff gaining momentum its bitter rival israelis coming in for stinging criticism of the head of the program we'll report on the wave of anger over a planned new laws which people say threaten their freedom of speech and human rights . and still become world wide protests mark one tenth anniversary activists and human rights agencies condemning president obama's broken. to shut it down. yet another scandal is engulfed u.s. forces in afghanistan this time in the form of a you tube video which appears to show american marines urinating on the corpses of afghan fighters the video went viral in just hours causing outrage and revulsion among the u.s. department of defense has promised to investigate. the lobbying group the pac nationalist form believes incidents like these will only endanger the lives of u.s. troops. let's not forget that the americans came to understand with the explicit

objective also off transforming this country into a more humane country into a democracy and what we're seeing happening right now with the appearance of this kind of a video is the opposite and it is having an impact let's not forget that this is a region where religious values are really very deep deeply entrenched and the way you treat bodies and the way you treat the dead it's something that is treated very secretly here and with this video you can you can rest assured that this will have an impact in terms of the kind of reaction the kind of backlash to this will generate this video will generate against the very the. the american soldiers who are there right now in a lot of it really in danger is their life so it is fair to say that with this video surfacing the lives of american soldiers in afghanistan have become more let's say in a more precarious situation than they were before this video and speaking to so nic

into his cool head of the center for research and security studies says that even if the video is real the chances of an apology a slim at best. this i think reflects a very very alarming aspect of conflicts of war where the united states and other forces have been involved in starting from of college stand then going back to iraq and their detention of a number of other qaeda and taliban detainees at guantanamo bay it suggests that there is not enough regard for the fundamental law is not enough respect for even for the dead bodies that. that these people have basically it's human or all of mercenaries the americans are not in the habit of offering an apology look what happened in pakistan in the border area when twenty four soldiers were fired upon and killed in cold blood so coming back to what has happened in afghanistan or what happened there before dieted abu ghraib by the blackwater mercenaries i don't think

there is any apology would be forthcoming if something comes out that is just an expression of regret. the world's most controversial prisoners turn ten years old the anniversary of he was met with protests around the world with fresh calls in the bomber to keep his election promise and shut it down but today that's a fading fantasy off to washington and acted a new law allowing the military to indefinitely detain anyone it deems hostile smith reports. one zero 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 fall for a moving closer to being freed shockers 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 kuantan 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 cook american citizens need to trials in military commissions which are very far from being fair trials we have 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. i'm on that story online at r.t. dot com let's see what else is available on our website at the moment a crying shame north korean authorities have reportedly begun to punish citizens who didn't display enough sadness at the death of former leader kim jong il. an hour to examine the claims of the first reason to be considered up to no good by british police has become skin color those stories of r.t. dot com. a foreign journalist has been killed in syria for the first time since the ten

month regime uprising began a french reporter and eight more civilians died when shells struck a pro-government rally in the central city of homs both the country's government and the opposition were quick to blame each other for 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 threatened to follow suit within twenty four ounce despite growing tensions present the sounders still backed by a large number of syrians during a pro-government rally he once again accused foreign powers are sponsoring the unrest or for more discussion on the developments in syria are joined by root by the director of the center for middle east studies well we've seen both sides blaming each other for the death of the french journalist but he was among a group of correspondents escorted by the government so should responsibility for this therefore lie with a sad regime. yeah it's really they blame each other but that it's

out of question and the government. have any interest you're not short a journalist among demonstration at pro-government it's silly to accuse the syrian government about this and he was killed by snipers or from their orders from the opposition it's a clear and my opinion. and we had yesterday that the most. pro government also was on that that by mortars and some. woman and children were killed and i don't see opposition deny this but they spoke from outside syria and they release and use or at least for example they accuse the government it's a part of the warfare but it's not it's not acceptable it's not credible of course the government is using weapons but against gunmen against insurgents

but i don't think the government and syria. population even on to govern among the most racially. i have estimation about five thousand victims in serious times ten months of them. and member of dogmeat and i think that's not the way to see the government the shooting civilians can we talk about fifty thousand ok can we move on about the arab league's mission at the moment how would you assess the resignation of one of the observers and his claim that the mission is a fauci even though many see it as the only international step made towards peace so far. personally i was not surprised that number of dogs or birds. did resign and i am expecting in the next few days maybe others will resign

for money reasons some of them for security reasons because they can do a dangerous and that is if i think no one can deny that there is a fighting between the government. especially they go through thirty very dangerous songs and. this is their mission and some of them they have been injured in the last few days would you agree with your city has been a failure would you agree this mission has now been a failure. no i am not sure and when i. first monday of this mission will have and i'm not sure i believe. that if you talk if you hear the head of those observers ahead of the d n. b a he is optimistic and he is doing the job and he did not criticize even he was talking about the cooperation of the syrian regime and what they're trying to

firstly. we have to remember that they are not going to see the first of all to change the regime or to make reforms. or. stop the fighting stops the violence especially from the government side let the army go back to that acts like the mass media. coverage of the situation and the release the political prisoners that's. one one final question you saw not bring about you said not to bring about a change of regime but interesting enough we could perhaps be seeing a change in the regime because according to reports from local media president assad has vowed to form a new government that will compromise i should say will improve include opposition members by february now who is actually assad talking about if he is talking about some sort of opposition just very briefly. yes u.s.

president that the opposition in syria is would be for them within the regime and that changed at best and that is human of course but they want security and stability in syria and they want to change the regime without any fighting and without any blood and the other part of the opposition if you talk about the position and that their support they are divided they are divided they are not united they are from the left wing to the right wing including the islamic parties and the syrian national council and the larger your position on bella on saw only you are not a political visit all four of those divided opposition they are in my opinion there i invited to come to see that to participate in their government but they will not go there president assad was talking about ten miles deep but it is just that i think you would form a new government with the opposition inside syria transition period

before the constitution and general election. no but you know as maybe it went and election maybe it would lose it would leave he said i will not stay and. if i lose that go mr thank you very much for spending your time with us and giving us your perspective on the developments there in syria the moment the director of the center for the center for middle east studies joining us live thank you for your time. thank you. well it is also explore this issue in more depth with a professor of middle east politics jeremy salt and he believes the death toll figures in the conflict may have been exaggerated and that they're not all the fault of the regime you can watch that interview in full in about ten minutes from now and here's a quick preview. of the human rights. council report said four thousand but there was no explanation of that figure where they go on a few days later. who's the u.n.

human rights commissioner she stood up the security council and said five thousand and the figure echoes around the world and i think it lodges in the popular imagination this five thousand people being killed by the syrian government but security forces by the north or whatever whereas in fact i don't think it's any doubt at all that a large number of military of civilians have been killed by armed gangs about it but by defectors so what we actually need to do is to aggregate these figures. the chorus of critics is growing in israel against these so-called boycott law punishes anyone who speaks out against a country settlement construction in the west bank he will rights activists have turned to israel supreme court to overturn the legislation but it's not clear reports as a whole raft of other controversial bills that might not be to their liking either . 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 way the 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 a very arab 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 board not by the. right not left. 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 burke. 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 since win him the law has only strengthened his resolve to stop israel's growing onslaught on democracy policy r t tel aviv. what are the latest from the world of business now with daniel and i'll be back with our summary of our main news stories in about six minutes from now. we're going to business despite the financial challenges of twenty eleven russia has become the third fastest growing economy in the world of the china and india the latest economic data revealed by prime minister vladimir putin showed four

point two percent added to the country's g.d.p. last year meanwhile industrial production rose four point seven percent the fourth best result in the world and this point major global economies suffering budget deficits in twenty eleven russia finished the year with a surplus. now the threat of all supply disruptions continues to trouble investors as japan the second largest consumer of iranian crude new sanctions against the islamic republic saudi arabia says it has an oil pipeline that could stand in for a portion of the missing supplies but energy strategist karen lewis believes that in the worst case scenario alternative energy routes will not help to plug the gap completely. if the straits of all most were to close and again we don't believe this will happen alternative routes of getting middle eastern oil to market need to be examined saudi arabia already has a pipeline across the arab peninsula to the red sea which is not being used at the

moment to take two million barrels a day or so of production you i.e. are about to start a pipeline that will. vent the straits of hormuz again that's right about one point five million barrels a day so taken together that's still a small proportion of the oil that would be lost if the straits of hormuz were to be closed. let's have a look at the markets no oil is first bring the struggling to go over one hundred fourteen dollars a barrel it's up from two week lows early in the week though it's triggered by concerns that an oil workers strike in nigeria and threats of more sanctions against iran nuclear program will hamper world supplies of crude markets in the u.s. heading lower this government reports indicated that sales at u.s. retailers increased just point one percent in december which box earlier expectations of a stronger holiday season both the dow and the nasdaq losing a third of one percent this hour markets closed flights here in moscow continue the lousy week for the l.t.s. m i six both indices are still suffering contagion from world economic fears let's

have a look at some of the share moves almost six today energy majors have been mixed gazprom is down after announcing plans to spend five point seven billion dollars of the sort she winter olympics in twenty fourteen overtake has also lost all preliminary results to. natural gas production grew forty one percent last year carmaker after versus accelerated for a second day some reports the rideau alliance plans to increase its share in the russian car maker to fifty percent in the first quarter of this year. and in other news the russian markets jumped thirty nine percent in twenty eleven. european business is they reached over two and a half million vehicles that's much higher than for cost or if it still hasn't managed to get back to pre-crisis levels expects the market to grow at a much slower pace this year to reach two point eight million calls. the worst case

scenario is very much linked to what might happen with the global economy the impact of that may have on russia. because clearly russia won't be immune from that i think the would be upside is very much around the continued opportunity within russia in terms of a low level of car ownership in a relatively number of vehicles on the road provided we see a stable economic situation good availability of finance which is very important both for for retail customers but also for businesses and also for retailers who want to invest in new facilities then we have the potential to see upside from that you want to point it feels to the right level. for the business for now to join us for more the next hour if you can.

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the fuel for the front ends technology innovation all the moves developments from the round rush up we've dumped a few jerks covered. the west accuses it. with developing nuclear weapons to run the u.s. and israel police estimation before scientists in. another. video appearing to show u.s. marines urinating on the corpses of sparking uproar among afghans. and violence in syria.