from under control. destination unknown russia demands broke through this mission one just traded for something that has finally plunged into the ocean two months after launch but it's not yet clear if it landed in the pacific or atlantica. this is all she's weekly review hello and welcome to the program the crisis in relations between iran and the west peaks again fueled by wednesday's assassination of a top nuclear scientist and to run iranian officials blame the murder on the u.s. and israel want to stop its nuclear program meanwhile american and british warships were gathering in the persian gulf where iran had earlier threatens to block a crucial oil lane decimate a pending oil embargo aimed at forcing tehran 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. 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 i'm sorry 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 its oil export is in danger the u.s. is imposing fresh sanctions that will dramatically complicate transactions through the rand central bank iran is also close to losing here of 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 iran's threatening to block the strait of hormuz a vital artery through which a sixth of the world's oil is shipped the u.s. replied by moving its personally 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 iran 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 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. that's 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 a disaster 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 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 up this hour an archie big cookbook of politics in kazakhstan takes not to let his other near for the common people and season with

a useful build promises that the release of recipe for peace that kazakhstan is serving up in a region simmering within bread. also u.s. military optimism afghans progress is crushed by leaks the cia report painting a grim picture was going on in the country suggesting natives decade long occupation as a stalemate. the syrian government has released about one hundred ninety prisoners under a drill on a stand down stand sunday by president assad syrian officials say another batch of prisoners will be released monday once that papers are finalized the on the stick of a peaceful protest as those occurred on license for weapons and army defectors who turned themselves in before the end of the month the move comes in accordance with the arab league peace plan earlier accepted by the regime meanwhile un chief ban ki moon has demanded that the syrian government holds its climb down on protesters

with reports suggesting they look at least seventy people were killed last week but one goal and his call comes as cottons leader back to military intervention using our special forces in syria if it's the only option to the but should the first arab leader to openly indorsed such a step sorry moosic a middle east research or had some accuse universities as this however exposes qatari double standards. 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 royal autocratic government there 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 with you know who is who are the arab troops going to shoot if they enter syria. so you as a long time ally turkey is among the increasingly vocal chords calling for president assad to step down and it's lending its support to the armed opposition and keeping its own troops at the ready near the border but as a few notional reports ankara might not be getting an accurate picture of what's

happening in syria. the bloody street is calling the syrian crisis maintained for months she is a growing the violence may start spreading beyond the country's borders especially with its close neighbor turkey wants to close friends too but now a harsh critic of damascus on. syria's first priority should be to listen to its people and their demands not to denounce others instead of massacring its people we should listen to them. glitter glue is a harsh critic himself but 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 aimed at overthrowing the regime of bashar al assad it supports a buffer zone and a humanitarian corridor which some fear could bring turkish troops to syrian soil what does that mean according to international law it means aggression against

a country it means war but any intervention would be different from the one in libya since russia and china have made it clear no more no fly zone resolutions which means the role of visual players like turkey increases dramatically but for new claims and korea's behavior is irresponsible and risky it has larger implications beyond the bilateral context of turkey syria as such the situation in syria must be handled with great care by all powers and unfortunately i don't see that cache. sufficiently especially on the part of our government. works with a middle eastern studies center based in and kyra it's sponsored by the turkish foreign ministry to help shape policy and its opinion on syria it's clear syria is killing their own people. not always that's clear nobody has objectively

information what is going on in syria the center specialists haven't been to syria for over a year it means the picture they paint for officials in ankara isn't likely to be an accurate one 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 with the sources of these videos are often questionable so it's easy to be misled and get a false picture of what's really happening but there does. researchers 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. and later on r.c. we hear from the author what's been described as a blueprint for nonviolent revolutions in the next hour cain sharp explains whether he's peaceful revolution concept is a match for the arab spring reality. and also in our time we'll look at how washington's last american burger man has warmed the hearts and homes of off a million people in. the year a struggle for survival got that much more difficult this week after a major credit rating agencies slashed the credit scores of nine either nations the downgrades handed out by standard and poor's come amid growing concern that the euro zone's failed to rein in its runaway finances and debt crisis and austria were especially hard hit losing their prestigious aaa status that made them a safe haven for investors the reaction from leaders was buried with some calling

the move unjustified while others except of the decision and called for urgent action economists across the us glass across the year rather are now waiting for monday when markets open to gauge how much damage has been done and john laughlin from the institute for democracy and cooperation in power is believes the euro project has reached out and. the downgrading of france but not of germany obviously means that the franco german axis is no longer a turn of all proposition what we see in the euro is are those that there's only one country calling the shots not true 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 look you 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 mess. debt problem in europe and i think when the euro finally collapses as it will do surely within the i would think probably the next year that we will see this day this announcement downgrading of france or as having been one of the decisive moments and investment analyst patrick young says he believes the rating cuts were well. 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 euro 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 marshall space probe called for this current has fallen back on earth but away planned it remains unclear what is pete oliver has been on the mission which has cost one hundred seventy million dollars. it's a merge there appear to be three theories as to where the remnants of phobias grow and 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 the module 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 plushy where it gets its name from food is good and basically meaning phobos 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. insurgent radio communications intercepted by pakistani armed forces have indicated that the leader of the country's taliban. has been killed in the u.s. drone strike the official town of a spokesman in the country denies the report american drone strikes resumed on wednesday having been suspended after a u.s. attack detonated at a pakistani army base last november they've been sparked an international outcry and course pakistan to freezing nato supply routes through its territory and to shut down an american base that it's not about also promise to shoot down any

territory that defense analyst is eight hundred told r.t. that this supply stuck in pakistan tell a different story of america's attentions 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 fast buck and this government is now on the verge of collapse which is also called lapsing the us strategic games in the region basically what the americans are trying to do is their past the responsibility of their freely years and of one this time upon pakistan this is also corroborated from the fact that the nato supplies that box time has blocked the day in pakistan then the military hardware which is an invasion level hardware almost nine armored fronted divisions and their support 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 the docking or piecemeal of

a bomb then why would be americans need a bronze and one a one man battle tanks and almost nine armored infantry divisions in afghanistan to fight an insurgency where they are blocking all these deals. but here a report released this week says the u.s. military operation in afghanistan is doomed to failure it directly contradicts the recent optimism expressed by the department of defense u.s. troops are said to leave the central african asian rather country in twenty fourteen but an american a think tank on peace in afghanistan believes the actual pullout well take far longer it has been ten years that has not unified the country i said should have been it looks like there's no chance where i put americans to see here government standing on its feet however this could prolong americans be honest on for quite a number of years i would say the years are unknown at this time but it looks like

it's going to be a long time that there are 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 off that stain that you know we should not really hear rush in clout sassed as we can. polling booths across kazakhstan have now closed millions of people cause their votes to choose the country's new parliament and those votes are now being counted their actions come a little less than a month after all workers staging a prolonged strike over poor pay while locked in fatal clashes with security forces elections were set to take place in august but the president dissolved parliament last november and ordered an amazing it as a poll so that their brooding near our town policy has an ac one percent of the vote with its closest competitor coming in at seven percent and that party will now

become the second political group to enter parliament and as that sort of boycott reports preempting violent unrest is a priority in kazakhstan having learned disturbing lessons from the arab spring. if it wasn't for the snow and the freezing temperatures stands capital of aston i 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 its architecture having a distinct arabic flavor like many arab countries kazakhstan's primary sources of income are all in gas and it is that acts for that allow this country the luxury of building its new capital city from scratch in fact kazakstan is now producing about as much oil as libor 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 are well being the countries who are evolutions took place have gone back ten to fifteen years economically speaking the town of journos 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 it got it worse because extern has a semblance of. 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 prize and began was to switch off the mobo networks and the internet connection before the people even demanded it out loud because i have the riches 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 they were just have approved millions of dollars worth

of programs to give the rest of cd a facelift and create new jobs but you need. 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 and now after a brief look at some other stories making headlines around the world a bomb blast has killed at least seventeen people and wounded twenty in eastern pakistan the explosion happened during a religious procession in which hundreds of shiites were knocking there and a period of mourning believe the bomb was planted ahead of the gathering and timed

for maximum impact after the blast and mourners began throwing rocks at the police who in turn is tear gas to control the crowds. an old residential building has collapsed in lebanon's capital beirut killing two people and trapping at least assaulting ten others have already been rescued from the debris but officials are saying the number of casualties is likely to rise the buildings age and the event of construction projects we have i have the names as possible causes of the incident the army is evacuating over buildings in the area say i have evacuated out of other buildings in the area saying they're also in danger of collapsing. not the two bodies have been pulled from the stricken cruise ship costa concordia bringing the death toll to five earlier three survivors were rescued from the vessel out of about four thousand people on board fifteen remain unaccounted for the ship capsized late on friday near the italian island of gilio police have to change the

captain who was seen drinking in the bar of the time of the incident and he will face charges of manslaughter and abandoning the ship leaving passengers in danger. over hundred forty people have been arrested after members of kosovo's radical self-determination movement clashed with police five kilometers from a border crossing with serbia the activists were heading to their fronted to block a good shipping from shipment from serbia but was stopped and pepper sprayed by police border disputes between courser and said there have caused tensions in the region for their decade of great has made a series of concessions to cross what you say is ambitious to ambitions to join the e.u. but as r.t. is eager are going to ordinary reports they come to the expense of ethnic serbs living in this self-proclaimed state. it's a checkpoint in northern kosovo may not look like an obvious triumph of peace but here is the same spot just two weeks ago since the summer you backed kosovo

albanians tried to take control of the border between serbia and kosovo the serb minority erected barricades in response they don't recognize course of independence so in the old bailey and dominated province is still part of serbia now both sides are for a new agreed that the border will be jointly policed. very cold 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 rasho answers 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 bill graves 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 in just before they are getting the kind of a status that's why they are squeezing serbia exacta trying to achieve something more than than usual we are asking the candidates. just meters from the soldiers. asked serbian militia many here have been engaged in conflict with albanians since nine hundred ninety nine when an ethnic war divided their territory into they have been coming to this roadblock since july and say they will carry on despite a border deal and only for those 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 there are no party kosovo. and i have a special report on them growing ethnic conflict in kosovo coming your way shortly before about a quick look back at the headlines in just. the

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welcome to the week's main news an aussie. terror on planes the u.s. and israel what was behind that fascination with a range of new best scientists in the city and the big countries and tonics program but that's a mounting tension between america and islamic are they. serious president assad releases the first political prisoners held during ten months of unrest one international pressure intensifies the ground secretary general political monistat .