around the clock around the world this is r.t. live in moscow tensions between iran and the west are soaring ever higher with fresh calls on tehran 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 you are secular state hillary clinton has dubbed iran's recent threat to close off a vital oil trade route a provocation yukos 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 ortiz got a church car 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. where we'll 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 tell washington that the international nuclear watchdog these arms 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 do you grand 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 to confrontation cornered by crippling sanctions he ran straight to block the strait of hormuz a vital artery through which a sixth of the world's oil is should the u.s. replied by moving it seriously to the region and saying if iran goes for it they will attack experts say the policy of price the lady a new brand may lead to other threats from tehran moment 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 nuclear capability well i certainly want them to believe that that's the case what is it that i absolutely want them to believe that the secretary would you add anything to that some believe . 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 war the 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. . and in the latest developments the u.s. is sending another escorted aircraft carrier to the persian gulf saying it is

a routine mission iran meanwhile is blaming america and israel for the assassination of a nuclear scientist on into iran on wednesday the german from the start the walk says that conflict could be just around the corner. if you look at the recent report from the atomic energy authority it said quite categorically there is not evidence of iran developing a nuclear weapon it seems to me the. thing is in america and britain and elsewhere are ignoring this report and they are definitely stepping up the pressure the assassination of the latest scientist the nuclear scientist who worked in the tiles will be seen quite rightly as a provocation it will be seen as the work of the israelis backed by the americans and the troop movements the ships in the gulf all of this points to more and

more pressure on iran and even when people say. nobody will be mad enough to start this war on fridays people have said this before and there have been these wars i think it's much more than rhetoric the troops are going to. fall for maneuvers the ships are in the gulf i think there is a very very real danger of war and we have to prepare now to oppose any threat of war in iraq. we would like to know what you think of the stories we cover including this one on our website ruskin what you think will come next in the standoff between iran and the west this is how the opinions are lining up for the moment we can see on screen at the moment almost half of you say that the u.s. will attempt to provoke iran into an all out war just have referred to washington or simply strike and worry about the consequences later the rest are split fairly quickly eleven percent of you say that iran will try to scare off its reversers by claiming it has nuclear capability and ten percent believe that a rumble forged an alliance against the u.s.

with countries in south america log on to r.t. dot com now to vote cast your vote. with the iranian standoff gaining momentum its bitter rival israel is coming in for stinging criticism at home ahead of the. program that's how we report on the wave of anger over planned new laws which people there say threaten their freedom of speech and human rights. and also still to come worldwide protest march tenth anniversary with activists and human rights agencies condemning president obama's broken vial to shut it down. yet another scandal has hit u.s. forces in afghanistan this time in the form of a you tube video which appears to show american marines urinating on afghan corpses the video went viral in just hours causing outrage revulsion among viewers the u.s. department of defense has promised a thorough investigation well for more reaction to the video and to discuss the damage it may well do i'm not joined by john glaser he's just an editor at antiwar

dot com the incident if true it certainly shocking social networks especially are of bars with negativity about the u.s. military's apparent misconduct but can this really be a reflection on the whole u.s. military trying to do its job in afghanistan at the moment. well no i mean the point is not that every single u.s. soldier is the type to your innate on the faces of dead afghans rather the point is that this kind of thing happens in war and that means when it's when the war is unnecessary and even warns us getting out even more the point is that war invades and contaminates the humanity of individuals and unfortunately what we're seeing is that in the domestic context people just excuse this kind of brutality you know nor it in the name of patriotism and that's. something that's very very wrong with the political and military culture and really excusing it. the u.s.

department of defense has promised a thorough investigation are you saying that people in the u.s. on short by this like so many other people all throughout the world i think a lot of ordinary people. rallying around the sort of support our troops thing but yes the governments and the authorities in both countries have been condemning it right but the problem is that in the past when things like this have come up say like abu ghraib photos of you know naked men in pyramids or when they were standing next to the great detainees smiling with their thumbs up i mean these kinds of things happen a lot and all we ever hear is yes we'll investigate this don't you worry we're going to these are the bad apples it doesn't represent the most of most people so on and so forth it happens over and over again just happened with kill team the fifth striker brigade in kandahar who slaughtered afghan children for the fun of it and took cell of a tory pictures pictures next to their corpses were just told you know ignore this

it's only a minor pick up go on supporting the troops and supporting the war so you're not expecting any investigation by the u.s. that can be deemed as fair and to expose exactly what happened who is responsible for this and somebody to be brought to account you don't have any faith in that happening then at this stage. well if if recent history is any guide that is almost an impossibility ok i mean take for example just a couple weeks ago when american troops it was a couple months ago forced afghan civilians to march ahead of them on roads that we believed to be filled with bombs and landmines planted by insurgents that is a war crime and it was basically ignored a member of the military official said yes sort of you let's get it don't you worry but now i want to forgot about this just quickly talk about not the impact that it's had on people around the world viewing this video. had on them but what about within afghanistan itself the damage it could now do tell about recruiters should

be having a field day over this it will destabilize afghanistan even more when to this specially given today's promise of more violence from the taliban is there any way now to have some sort of damage limitation exercise well look the problem with damage limitation is that this is not a limited instance i mean the abuses born on a daily basis by afghans including the embarrassment of being militarily dominated for over a decade exceed the imaginations of most ordinary americans i mean this war is an utter failure in every sense when it's costing thousands of lives on both sides nobody bothers to count how many afghans have died it's costing hundreds of billions of dollars many of the much of the money from america just goes into corruption or even sometimes funneled to the taliban one of the primary missions in afghanistan is to train independent afghan army but that's

a complete failure the army is made up right now of illiterate criminals and drug addicts who sometimes attack nato soldiers and quit all the time by the month there are reports of widespread torture in government in afghan government controlled prisons. and badly. three thousand detainees many of whom have no right to a lawyer have no right to find themselves in court many of whom have been charged many of them physically and psychologically abused by u.s. interrogators local militias or throughout the country are being funded and armed and trained by the us despite grave violations of basic human rights all the time i mean this in addition to all the problems that the afghan war causes over the border in pakistan which is terribly unstable and happens to be a nuclear capable state. everything about this war is an utter disaster and this is only a little window into how much of a disaster it all is but that disaster suno we're going to be by twenty fourteen

when those combat troops are due to leave and hand over security to the afghan people it will be evident then went to i wouldn't have so much confidence that's the case many military officials and some even on the political side in america have admitted that twenty fourteen is more of an inflection point than withdrawal date we're going to be there for a very long time years and years and years beyond twenty fourteen as a training mission and also as an occupation mission this war is not ending obama's twenty fourteen so we can help you help them so. john always good to hear thought thank you very much indeed for joining us live there john glaser assistant editor antiwar dot com thanks thanks. to the world's most controversial prisoners turn ten years old something that i was just talking about there guantanamo bay was met with protests around the world with fresh calls on obama to keep his election promise and shut it down but today that's a fading fantasy after washington and acted a new law allowing the military to indefinitely detain anyone it deems hostile

parties or smith has more one on one. i don't know i am not really today's probably just another day for the 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 and seventy one men still held without trial in the cuban camp after ten years one of those men is shaka armor 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 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 there 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 here in london which includes one son he's never even see and far from 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 kuantan there i'm very sorry indeed

president obama for reasons. like a political will or he would say a complete inability to deliver us nor. lived up to that promise and indeed it is now bracing to book. in military commissions which are very far from being fair. 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 not knowing whether he can expect to be released. london. born that story online at r.t. dot com that's our website online all the time let's see what else is available there 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.

examines it claims that the first reason to be considered up to no good by british police has become skin color those stories at 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 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 is threatened to follow suit within twenty four hours despite growing tensions president assad is still backed by a large number of syrians. the director of the center for middle east studies told

me earlier that he believes terrorists are behind the attack in arms. but it's out of question and the government. have any interest you're not short a journalist. pro-government it's silly to accuse the syrian government about this and he was killed by snipers or from terrorists from the opposition it's a clear and my opinion but opposition accuse the government it's a part of their set go to go to war for but it's not it's not acceptable it's not true that if we have this the nation about five thousand victims in syria i sensed then monsanto to the. policeman and members of god and i think it's not the way they see the government in this video. is also explore this issue in more depth with

a professor of middle east politics 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 you can watch the full interview in a little more than ten minutes from now but here's a quick preview for you in the meantime. the human rights council reports four thousand but there was no explanation of that figure where they go. a few days later. who's the u.n. human rights commission she stood up the security council and said five thousand and i think it echoes around the world and i think it lodges in the popular imagination it's five thousand people being killed by the syrian government security forces by the way whatever whereas in fact i don't think it's any thought at all that a large number of military of civilians have been killed by armed gangs about it but by this so what we actually need to do is to aggregate these figures.

the chorus of critics is growing in israel against the so-called boycott nor it punishes anyone who speaks out against the country settlement construction in the west bank human rights activists have turned to israel supremes court to overturn the legislation results paula still 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 this left wing israeli activist it's done 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. and 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 another 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 boycott. but it's the. right not boycott 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 when him the law has only strengthened his resolve to stop israel's growing onslaught on democracy policy

r.t. television. now the winter sports season is in full swing but a new viral video hit shows it's not just the jet set on the slopes of france all switzerland who like to get involved because this footage it shows how a thrill seeking crow was just as keen to enjoy its bit of adventurous the bird appeared to be using the lid of a jar as an improvised snowboard and enjoyed its first run so much it decided to have another go though of course there was no ski lift provided in the snow might not have been as fresh as you'd find in the french alps. i think that's what you call snow birding now a reminder of the top stories coming your way very shortly but in the meantime it's the business update with daniel. welcome to business a new gas war is looming off the moscow ruled out ukraine cutting supplies kiev

signed a contract to receive fifty two billion cubic meters from russia in twenty twelve but made a surprise announcement this week that it would only take hold that ukraine's leadership has its struggling economy called to afford to pay the full amount but goes from has today insisted the deal must be made in full we'll be following the story and we'll bring you any developments as they happen. despite the financial challenges of twenty eleven russia's become the third fastest growing economy in the world of the china and india the latest economic data on prime minister vladimir putin showed g.d.p. grew over four percent last year industrial production also rose among the world's best and despite major global economy suffering budget deficits russia ended the year with a surplus. now the threat of oil supply disruptions continues to trouble investors as japan the second largest consumer of iranian crude but 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 strategy gareth lewis davis believe

that in the worst case scenario alternative energy routes can't plug the gap. if the straits of own words are 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 production u.a.e. are about to start a pipeline that will. vent the straits of hormuz again that's right about one point five billion 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 stock markets now european equities headed higher in early trading or news the boring course e.u. debt auctions on thursday week new data for the u.s. economy ruin the sentiment in london with the footsie crossing the line just in the

red frankfurt however managed to stay afloat closing almost half a percent higher as you can see their markets close here in moscow continuing a lot of the week for the all ts and my six indices are suffering contagion from world economic fears with both barely managing to end the day in the black. this have a look at some of the share moves on the most six today energy majors have lost gains from earlier in the week goes down after announcing plans to spend five point seven billion dollars on the sortie winter olympics in twenty fourteen take also fell is the natural gas production grew forty one percent from last year but after versus accelerated for a second day there are some reports that the lawyers plans to increase its share in the russian carmaker to fifty percent in the first quarter of this year trade alexander rifkin wraps up the day's trade for us. it was a surprising news from europe which actually big lead the markets today.

finally we realized that crisis was not that hard but the worst was mine and learn and replace the bones and screenplays the bones of the lower rates for italy for example is fifty percent below below for summer two thousand and eleven was a big surprise and were a positive surprise for markets so we had quite a positive second half of the day and also some numbers from us on the retail retail sales on the. jobless claims also affected the market still with us this move is pretty much a positive one and i believe that's the day to head today from. european bond sales will support this move. that's the business news stay with us for the headlines next donati.

wealthy british style. that's not on the title of. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our.

me he. needs to. see. if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be shot by x. mas casualties of war ok. i wish you would have never happened but it has sat. in a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what does. for their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave. and the spear birth happens with such witnesses i got it right.

person. from moscow this is top stories now a storm brews over iran as the west accuses it of provocation amid suspicion is developing nuclear weapons blames the u.s. and israel the assassination of a fourth scientists in two years. but all the scandal erupts in afghanistan centering around a video appearing to show u.s. marines urinating on the corpses of minutes in fights is sparking uproar among afghans. and violence in syria claims the life of a foreign journalist for the first time since the unrest began as the arab league files to continue its observer.