plus destination unknown russia's mars probe whose mission went astray before circling the earth has finally plunged into the ocean two months after its launch but it's not yet clear if it's landed in the pacific all the atlantic ocean. welcome is why i'm here in moscow you're watching the weekly a round up of the top stories for the last seven days with me kevin now in first the crisis in relations between iran of the west paid to get fueled by wednesday's assassination of a top nuclear scientist into ran iranian officials blame them over on the u.s. and israel they want to stop its nuclear program meantime american and british warships are gathering in the persian gulf with iran that earlier threatened to block a crucial oil lane that submitted a pending oil embargo aimed at forcing to run to abandon its atomic ambitions. the cold run of tension between iran and the west is simmering. it seems the slightest

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 were any small thing can really set it off and it doesn't clear washington that the international nuclear watchdog these arms 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 that iran's central bank iran is also close to losing here. 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 threatening to block the strait of hormuz a vital oil artery through which a sixth of the world's oil is should the u.s. replied by moving its test suite to the region and saying if iran goes for it they will attack thousands of u.s. troops are being deployed to israel experts say the policy of isolating you ran 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 way if 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 thing that 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 sastry 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 i was sadly i think is connected to israel and the israeli fear of iran for rhetorical reasons more than military 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 our team. coming away this hour the book of politics in kazakstan take snap a leg it's been a year for the common people and seeing isn't with

a picture of a few fulfilled promises not to use a recipe for peace the cosmic stuff but a region that's simmering with unrest a report coming up also u.s. military optimism for afghan progress is crushed by a leaked cia report painting a grim picture of what's going on in the country suggesting nato is decade long occupation has hit stalemate. syria's president bashar al assad's issued an amnesty for crimes committed during the ongoing anti-government uprising in the country according to the official state news agency it will cover peaceful protesters and also those who carried unlicensed weapons and army defectors who turned themselves in before the end of the month meantime un chief ban ki moon has demanded that the regime stops the crackdown on protesters with reports suggesting that twenty seven were killed on sunday it comes as the ruler of qatar has backed military intervention into the country if it's the only option to end the bloodshed he's become the first arab leader who openly endorsed such a step sort of a middle east research university and says this exposes the double standards of the

state. this is just really unbelievable to hear this especially considering that today qatar amir is actually in sri lanka another country whose government violently oppressed its people and there was no word not a peep from the international media from the international politicians and nor from the security council and so this is really problematic that sri lanka can get away with this kind of violence but you know when it comes to a country that is against western interests there is a different standard and of course we have to remember that the tar send forces to train to help you know quell a demonstration a brutally repressed democratic protesters in bahrain with you know with the invitation from the rainy. crowded government there are so this call for interference or intervention in syria really is quite ridiculous when one looks at the undemocratic past and present of these gulf countries and how and why they

believe that they can use force to you know interfere in a country that's going suffering from a civil war really from bouts of violence from its own citizens when you know who is who are the arab troops going to shoot if they enter syria. syria's longtime ally turkey is among the increasingly vocal chorus calling for president assad step there is lending its support to the armed opposition and keeping its own troops at the ready near the border result is great for national reporter and quote might not be getting an accurate picture of what's happening in syria. where the bloody state is calling the syrian crisis mounting a crime unless she is a growing violence may start spreading beyond the country's borders especially with its close neighboring turkey wants to close friends too but now a harsh critic of damascus on. first priority should be a solution to its people and their demands not to denounce others instead of

massacring its people you should listen to them. so glitter glue is a harsh critic himself but he says he's criticizing the turkish government ankara is on the side with the free syrian army and the syrian national council and military and diplomatic forces and overthrowing the regime of bashar 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 their own vision of players like turkey increases dramatically but fruit 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 cache. sufficiently especially on the part of our government. works with a middle eastern studies center based and kyra it's sponsored by the turkish foreign ministry to how to shape policy and its opinion on syria it's clear syria is killing people. not always that's clear nobody has objectively information what is going on in syria the center specialists haven't been to syria from over here it to me is the picture they paint for officials in ankara is unlikely to be accurately on the technology at 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 that the sources of these reviews are often

question of will so it's easy to be misled and get a false picture of what's really happening but there does. research is from coming to firm conclusions military operations this is the last option which turkey does not want to see but this is an option it may have declared it doesn't welcome a military solution to the syrian crisis but turkey hasn't ruled it out either plain and if game if there is massive migration from its troubled neighbor turkey says it will have to protect its own people and marc fisher and korea insists it wants peace and stability in the region its troops are already just kilometers from the border with syria. r.t. turkey. later on r.t. we hear from the author of what's been described as a blueprint for nonviolent revolutions in the next hour jeanne sharp explains to us where there is a peaceful revolution concept is a match for the arab spring reality also now is time to look at how washington's latin american bogeyman has all the hearts and homes of half

a million people view. the euro struggle for survival got that much more difficult this week of major credit rating agencies slashed the credit scores of ninety you nations the downgrades handed out by standard and poor's come amid growing concern that the eurozone has failed to rein in its runaway finances and debt france and austria are especially hard hit losing their prestigious aaa status that made them a safe haven for investors the reaction from e.u. leaders was varied was some calling the move unjustified while others accepted the decision and called for an action economists across the waiting for monday go later on today when the markets open to gauge how much damage has been spotted john laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation in paris he believes the euro project has reached its end. the downgrading of france but not of germany obviously means that the franco german axis is no longer tenable proposition what we see in the euro zone is that there's only one country calling the shots not two

and that's germany there's no doubt that it will extract a terrible blow for sarkozy is only real chance of winning the election was to show himself as a safe pair of hands as the devil you know in a crisis now it's clear that france has both a crisis and the devil they know i mean it's true that these agencies are not above reproach they've made a lot of mistakes in the past but i think that european leaders are being completely paranoid when they blame the ratings agencies for their problems any fool can see that there is a massive debt problem in europe and i think when the euro finally collapses as it will do surely within i would think probably the next year that we will see just a this announcement downgrading of france and as having been one of the decisive moments. investment analyst patrick young says he believes the rating cuts were well overdue it's been deserved frankly for several years i mean the french government has been economically incontinent for the course of several decades

they've lived in never never land they have no concept of how to run a reasonable economy in terms of not spending more money than they can afford it's a disaster for mr sarkozy but then again it's been coming since the start of his presidency it's been building for twenty five years and he did nothing about it so he's just as culpable as everybody else in this issue on the future of the euro everything is not up for grabs again it emotionally destabilizes every single aspect of the euro because we still have no leadership in the euro zone we've got situations like greece needing fourteen and a half billion euros to refund in march alone the euro sits on the precipice tragically and that's a terrible thing for all our viewers throughout the world. the debris of russia's failed bar should space probe called for fall back to earth but where it sounded remains unclear are things people about as born of russia's most expensive and most

ambitious space mission since soviet times. it's a merge there to be three theories as to where the remnants of phobos grunt eventually hit the earth now most of the probe burnt up in the atmosphere along with any of the toxic fuel that was carrying but around two hundred kilograms it's believed all of the modules made it through the earth's atmosphere now we heard initially from the russian military saying that that landed in the pacific ocean around one thousand two hundred fifty kilometers off the coast of chile we then heard from cosmos the russian space agency who said this well maybe it landed in the atlantic ocean over the other side of the south american continent now we've also heard from a ballistics expert putting forward a third theory which is that the remnants of they say this probe that came back down to earth could have spin spread over such a large area that it could have actually hit both the atlantic and the pacific as well as parts of mainland brazil it was

a hugely anticipated mission from the russian space agency it was supposed to go to the martian moon a focus pick up soil samples bring them back to earth for analysis partially where it gets its name from food is good and basically meaning focus soil in russian now that information that data that the scientists were craving could potentially they were saying of lead to developments towards a potential martian settlement a human settlement on the moon of course all that data gone now it was a hugely disappointing mission at the probe got into orbit and then pretty much stayed there no matter how much effort was made by ross cosmos as well as the european space agency to try and contact it and get it back on its way eventually crashing back down to earth on sunday evening. people over there insurgent radio communications intercepted by pakistani armed forces have indicated that the leader of the country's taliban. has been killed in a u.s.

drone strike the official taliban spokesman in the country denied the american drone strikes resumed wednesday having been suspended after a u.s. attack decimated a pakistani army base last november instance budget international calls pakistan to freeze nato supply routes through its territory and american base there is over but also promise to shoot down any drones on its territory the defense list told r.t. that the supplies are stuck in pakistan tell a different story about america's intentions in the region. there is a complete political chaos in the slum above the government is corrupt it is treacherous the americans have imposed this regime to achieve the objective of softening up pakistan for the doctrine of asked back and this government is now on the verge of collapse which is also collapsing the us strategic games in the region basically what the americans are trying to do is their past the responsibility of their failures and of one is found upon pakistan and this is also corroborated from the fact that the nato supplies that pakistan has blocked today in pakistan contain

the military hardware which is then invision level hardware almost nine armored infantry divisions and their support equipment supplies up and the nominations are stuck in pakistan and the concern in pakistan army is that if the americans are talking of the drawing from of understand they're talking about peace deals of a taliban then why would the americans need abrams m one a one main battle tanks and almost nine armored infantry divisions in afghanistan to fight an insurgency where they are blocking off these deals. the cia report leaked this week says the u.s. military operation in afghanistan is doomed to failure it's directly contradicts recent optimism expressed by the department of defense u.s. troops are set to leave the central asian country in twenty fourteen but american think tank on pace in afghanistan believes the actual pullout will take far longer it has been ten years that has now unified the country i said should have been it

looks like there is no chance for americans to see your government standing on its feet however this could fall on americans be honest on for quite a number of years i would say in the years are unknown at this time but it looks like it's going to be a long time because there's a corrupt government cannot function in the way that it is right now the fact is that there is a friction in the white house right now that some or say no basically the pentagon good military is the one that's calling up that same don't know we should not really rush in ploy fast as we can. polling booths across kazakstan have now closed millions of people cast their votes to choose the country's new parliament of those votes are now being counted the elections come a little less than a month after oil workers staging a prolonged strike over poor pay were locked in fatal clashes with security forces the elections were set to take place in august but the president dissolved

parliament last november and ordered an immediate vote exit polls so far show that the ruling neuro termed parties amassed some eighty one percent of the vote with its closest competitor coming in at seven percent that party will now become the second page of a group to enter parliament and xander boycott reports preempting violent unrest is a priority in cannes and stuff having learned disturbing lessons from the arab spring. because it wasn't for the snow and the freezing temperatures stands capital of aston that could easily be mistaken for one of the gleaming cities of the gulf a village just two decades ago it is now an oasis in the desert but it's architecture having a distinct arriving flavor like many arab countries kazakhstan's primary sources of income our oil and gas and it is that x. for that allowed this country the luxury of building its new capital city from scratch in fact kazakstan is now producing about as much oil as leave beer was churning out prior to its civil war and the similarities don't and here both

kazakstan and libya have predominantly muslim populations both were consider still roots of calm in their turbulent neighborhoods and both have experienced decades of rule by just one man in terms of style that fast. is the exact opposite of erratic more market afy and of course he's still in power but the libyan scenario no longer seems improbable in kazakstan even to its leader some young people are fascinated with what's happening in the world right now in africa and europe but we have to explain to the new generation that blindly believes everything it's told that there are those who envy our well being the countries who are revolutions took place have gone back ten to fifteen years economically speaking the town of john knows and is rightfully called catholics tons of oil capital but it's no match for glistening asked despite producing much of the country's hydrocarbons for decades it's been poor and neglected. the uprising in

western kazakstan has smouldered since last spring but culminated in december in a weekend of clashes with police that left seventeen dead and more than one hundred injured as the protests spread to other cities. jittery in the wake of the arab spring but it was because extern has a sense. and so democracy with several parties in parliament and some of position media but the essence of the regime is similar to those of the arab countries that's why the first thing the authorities did when their pricing began was to switch off the mobo networks and the internet connection before the people even demanded it out loud the kansas authorities decided to offer a political reforms the people are now going to the polls to elect a new parliament recent constitutional amendments guarantee they'll be more than one party that has been up until now the challenge now is to keep all the

good things stability prosperity. and at the same time allow the society to evolve. meanwhile their thirty's have approved millions of dollars worth of programs to give the rest of cd a facelift and create new jobs between each case. the president's close associates appointed to oversee the turbulent region says in a few years and will make some cities in the gulf pale in comparison. come here in a few years and you won't recognize this city while the arab spring may have been sparked protests around the world it's also taught authorities valuable lessons on how to contain those rallies and like all rulers and those that are by would much rather learn from the mistakes of others especially if they come at a price paid by gadhafi on a boycott artsy kazakstan. this week the anniversary of the world's most controversial prison guantanamo bay was marred by public protest song both sides of

the atlantic demonstrators called on us present apart with one of his election pledges shut down the jail but critics see little chance of that happening because of the recently signed national defense authorization act allowing america to detain anyone it deems allstar tom as well as a lawyer for several detainees in guantanamo he believes it is politics that held a bomb about from closing the infamous jail is. promised. this is a political problem in a democracy when certain people are playing with fear the republican party is basically playing on fear to influence their constituents and in the face of that fear of the obama administration hasn't had the courage to oppose it or the courage to get the job done other things like the economy have seen more important it's a shame it's a challenge in a democracy and we need to continue to fight to have this cause it's a stain on the reputation of the united states it's a horrible place over one hundred forty people have been arrested after members of

kosovo's radical self-determination movement clashed with police five kilometers from a border crossing in serbia the activists were heading to the front here to block a good shipment from serbia but was stopped and pepper sprayed by police for disputes between kosovo and serbia of course tensions in the region for over a decade belgrade made a series of concessions to kosovo because of its ambitions to join the e.u. but it's not easy go right never force they come at the expense of ethnic serbs living in the south like a state. it's a checkpoint in northern kosovo may not look like an obvious triumph of peace but here is the same spot just weeks ago since the summer you backed kosovar albanians who tried to take control of the border between serbia and kosovo the minority erected barricades in response they don't recognize kosovo independence saying that the albanian dominated province is still part of serbia now both sides have finally

agreed that the border will be jointly policed. there calls belonging to anyone can now freely pass through this checkpoint when you're trumpeting this as a happy resolution that a standoff and while life here has become easier a lot of serbs are saying that once again they've given up too much for the compromise and have received no reassurances about their long term future belgrade tried to talk serbs in kosovo down from the barricades so it was to join the e.u. which made a peaceful solution to the border issue a precondition but despite progress on the border belgrade application for candidate status has been stalled in the latest round of talks with brussels some countries which did recognize corso and they feel that serbia is a week just before they are getting the kind of a status because why they are squeezing serbia exacta trying to achieve something more than than usually are asking the candidates. just meters from the e.u. soldiers in the past serbian militia many here have been engaged in conflict with

albanians since nine hundred ninety nine when an ethnic or divided their territory into they have been coming to this road block since july and say they will carry on despite the border deal alone is for why should we be happy to see you soldiers give us permission to use this road we never used to need permission to use it at all we do not trust the e.u. or albanians wanted it when our relatives and friends have been injured in this conflict for the past twelve years. those who gain the most from the border compromise are ordinary serbs blocked roads prevented many children from coming to school and their parents from buying even basic foodstuffs but normality is some distance away. so. there are constant warning sirens during the lessons these children are not growing up normally their lives are defined by the conflict and this is true not just for children but for all serbs have been living in kosovo for twelve years while opening the roads is

a step forward the serb state as an independent kosovo they do not consider their own and that does not appear to want them remains as uncertain as ever you go girl i didn't have artsy kosovo. i'll be back with the main headlines in just a few minutes a little later then we've got a special report for you call the billionaires tea party it's about the protest movement which emerged in opposition to barack obama threatening to derail his promises of hope and change just that.

now it's not about spilling blood. it's the war of barricades from one side and fears blockade from the other. invisible border it has cut people from the land for twelve years. the conflict that divided serbia into two hostile parts is still not over.

if. russia would be so much brighter. about song from finest impressions. whose

phone starts on t.v. dot com. well the future science technology innovation all the least of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. the top stories from r.t. to run claims the u.s. and israel were both behind the assassination of an iranian nuclear scientist in the city in an effort to block the country's atomic program adding further to mounting tension between america and the islamic republic. will pressure on syria the amir of qatar becomes the first arab leader to openly call for foreign military intervention in the country while turkey keeps its forces on standby along the border with his former ally. mortals facing the euro survival effort says ninety you countries have downgraded by credit rating agency.