this is artier very warm welcome to you well straight to our top story now syria's president has granted an amnesty to prisoners for what he says are crimes committed during ten months of deadly antigovernment protests the honesty also applies to army deserted where tens of thousands of people have been detained over the past year but a sara furth report sits on the clear whether it will be enough to stop the continuing conflict. strings of people leave the syrian prison. family and friends. prisoners i'm relieved to. hear this prison on the damascus these are the prisoners they've been selected for at least. you can see the signing on this is being overseen by

the arab league. this is part of the amnesty president but of course for everyone he's not being released from detention questions that he why they were detained in the first place. i've been in prison for four months i was accused of weakening national security i didn't protest they brought me here by mistake to use a good step i just hope it includes everyone. i had some weapons i had inherited from my grandfather and was accused of bearing illegal weapons i've been here three months when people heard about the amnesty they were ecstatic they never thought this could happen. here in the. military intervention in syria the. president of the bloodshed. in the arab world.

some critics statements claiming in a highly volatile situation the amnesty shows that syria is trying to find a political solution rather than a security solution and that the country is succeeding in implementing the plan agreed by the arab league. is being little more than a gesture. to me when all political prisoners are number one arrested since the beginning of the crisis have been released then the amnesty will have been. yes but the answer is c. does not consider this the start of a dialogue but you know if your family just is welcome you can just hope to be freed over the coming days but outside the prison walls people in the country remain trapped in a situation of escalating violence in which they father seems. so.

they must this. independent journalist. so is the on this team means a person submitting to foreign pressure it's being received in a kind of mixed way by the syrian syrian people course these people they were by no means just peaceful protesters according to the syrian government they were in fact . they were people who had set things on fire destroyed many government buildings and these kinds of things the reaction is very much seen as though the president is being very generous he is releasing more people despite that the situation in some parts of the country is still very tense there are concerns among some sections of the syrian population that among the many people who are being released there will be some criminal elements who will slip through the net people understand that the president is under a lot of pressure especially international pressure to respond to calls to release

these prisoners but the same time there is very much a concern that it could be a dangerous move. well still ahead this hour the thousands of british children caught in the cold campaign to turn around and knives of growing numbers of poverty stricken families. and back to work somewhere fragments of the failed russian probe that should be in its way to mars by now finally fallen from orbit with more details up ahead. but they were putin has answered his political opposition's demands and outlined how he perceives russia's future russia's prime minister has published the blueprint in his campaign for a third term as president this year. has the details. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed there's a response to the existence of statements made by the opposition leaders during the protest when president has pointed out that russia has already gone through an

abrupt and very drastic change a very similar to a revolution during the collapse of the soviet union and that brought the country down into decline essentially into shambles and it took a very long time to get out of the dire situation but russia has succeeded in doing that as with which and in fact the education levels went up employment has also risen over the past fifteen years as the whole is standards of living for eighty percent of russians have increased there's also the emergence of the middle class says it's dull comprises up to thirty percent off the population in russia where is during the soviet times that number was significantly smaller so let me put it has borne essentially people in his statement to be wary of that of the statements and slogans of which sound very lucrative may sound very lucrative by the opposition leaders but he did mention that such a such an abrupt change in the governmental system may have diarrhea effects on the country and he did talk at length about the situation the very much improved

situation which the country finds itself right now but of course he also mentioned that some some problems do remain on the table there is the very well known problem of corruption there's also a lack of civil society overall in the mindset of people also unfortunately from ten to eleven percent of russian population still live below the poverty line that is also something that needs to be taken care of and of course the country's dependence on natural resources oil and gas something which needs to be slowly taken step away from there's of course the progress into the high tech world and creating more jobs in that sphere also talks more about creating civil society and contributing more to charity and of course he'll see talked about russia a becoming a major and being a major player on the global political arena. russia has served as a bridge between the east and the west for centuries and she has got experience in that area and of course also is a major contributor to two key aides g twenty and the united nations and the role

of these are going to say since it is something which also should be taken into account and he also basically underlined this statement by saying that the country has to come out of the post. that that period is over and not just for russia but for the world as a whole so more global and a new approach to the situation not just in the country but also in the entire world should be taken. where you can read once that in that putin had to say in his full article which is online. america's mainstream media is being accused of playing with fire playing up the prospect of war between iran and the west it's a sensitive time with a military standoff in the strait of hormuz and sanctions or iran's nuclear program but it's going to take on reports of us in the states so repeatedly hearing how is virtually unstoppable. troy two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb

with tension between iran and the west as high as ever a host of hardline speakers and us mainstream media seem to be pushing the audience to believe that war is inevitable and the better way to prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons is to attack its nuclear weapons program directly although experts say war with iran is far from being inevitable i don't think that we are very get that is to say at the precipice with the media are already preparing the grounds for it some by misinforming the public the new york times wrote that the international atomic energy agency said iran's nuclear program has a military objective but that's not what the i.a.e.a. reported the watchdog said iran might have the technology to develop a nuclear weapon if it wants to or here's another public misconception due to a lack of feed from ation it would be saying to the iranians you to open up those facilities you begin to dismantle them and make them available to the inspectors or

we will degrade those facilities through air strikes in fact i erase spector's have already been in the country monitoring iran's nuclear facilities when you american people hear information over and over again and sometimes it is often these subtle subtleties you are not providing the context of the i report or not putting in some of the doubts back in two thousand to two thousand and three about the iraqi w m d programs that that kind of slanting of the news does have the effect of altering how the american public use in issues the u.s. mainstream media have proved to be cheerleaders for war jeff cohen was a senior producer of a popular t.v. show before the iraq invasion he says they were under pressure from their bosses to root for because their owners benefited from it it was a constant pressure campaign. to make sure that the pro invasion voice was dominant jeff cohen says not much has changed in u.s.

mainstream journalism since the iraq invasion there is no doubt that mainstream media are crucial in this idea of settling this idea that the u.s. is going to be on a per actual war media analysts say says the intervention in libya u.s. media have been instrumental in making americans get used to the idea that washington will continue to intervene militarily in foreign affairs i worked at newsweek and as goes a.p. and other major u.s. news organizations and the and what i saw especially in a place like newsweek was this idea that the media was actually part of the establishment that it was what it was it was that the american people were to be guided more than even informed it seems most american media are so used to talking wars that went after a decade of the inconclusive war in afghanistan the white house announced the necessity to negotiate with the taliban you have to have a political solution at some point the message and the words political solution

came out as somewhat alien peace talks with the taliban it's come to this tell us more about these proposed peace talks and that may sound a little weird to some of our viewers it seems that words political solution don't belong in the u.s. media they can be larry two main reasons one moring and second some very powerful people are behind a kind of trigger happy pro-war journalism too many times in history the media did the bidding of war profiteers we can go back more than a hundred years and look at how the american public was primed for war with spain over cuba media tycoon william randolph hearst falsely hyped up the story that the spanish sunk on american ships when in fact it's something because of a coal bunker explosion it was then that hearst told his illustrator in havana. you furnish the pictures and i'll furnish the war more than a hundred years on the phrase still sounds relevant but it doesn't have to be that

way and some argue political solution although not popular words in the media vocabulary is better than war and death i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . kazakhstan is heading into a new political chapter in sunday's election season three parties head into the lower house of parliament the president's group previously held all seats has retained a huge majority the poll was brought forward after parliament was dissolved last autumn and one of the last month's deadly clashes between police and striking oil workers on the book reports. this elections were never expected to produce any surprises and in fact they did and the biggest surprise of all was the fact that they were indeed held it was. himself last fall dissolved the country's parliament reach a point consisted exclusively of his own supporters and called for that snap elections. has been in power and for twenty two years just last year his security

at the now there five year presidential term with more than ninety five percent of the vote now he's nor party also won these elections with an overwhelming majority and retain control over the lower chamber of parliament but this time around it has some very modest opposition the main reason why i. want to have this elections in the first place was he's declared intention to make the country's political system a little bit more representative a little bit more democratic and this time around the elections were held under new rules guaranteed a second place to party at least two seats in the parliament regardless of whether or not it clears this seven percent tree. buyers opponents say that it is just that exchange that was in part prompted by it he's in these in this over what happened in arab countries and he's attempt to sort of preemptively blind a neat public discontent over it because i sense a political system that may and rise in the future all. these elections were test

of confidence himself especially following december clashes between protesters and the police in the west of the country that had seventeen people killed and more than a hundred injured and judging by the very high turnout and the results. are indeed past this. more news twenty four hours a day at r.t. dot com has just some of what's on the line at the moment israeli agents in disguise the story of how mossad intelligence officers are prosiness cia agents to recruit and train iranian terrorists to attack the terror own. killing of post-mortem poke a new if i die on the case from facebook that some users submit their status update the twenty first century twist on a deathbed confession got the details of don't call the post this place more produce on you tube channel.

is he. to. be official on t allocation your. talk from the shops to. watch all the. video on demand. old girls. and just read the palm of your. shit on the dot com. thousands of british your families are feeling the

trail stuck but though the poverty line and unable to meet soaring energy bills that's having an impact on the next generation who slipped through the government and that heating handouts laura smith reports from london. this is something that single mother of four julie henry can't afford to do very often boiling the kettle for tea hers is one of eight hundred thousand families in the u.k. in fuel poverty struggling to pay for heating and electricity in the last three years she says her bill has doubled and it's a constant juggling act there more go to the bill and for food and school uniform than you don't have not into safe so that's the difficult bit of what children have to eat for them have to eat and their school uniform i have to buy and on top of the. electricity use. i try to god there are so many. is no work in the warm home discount is a government scheme aimed at helping low income families heat their houses

adequately in the winter but charity save the children says energy companies aren't contributing enough to the fund meaning only three percent of families are getting the help they need with disastrous social consequences growing up in a cold and. has a really profound impact on children in terms of their physical health in terms of mental health in terms of their general wellbeing in direct effects in terms of educational time and their chances in life energy u.k. which represents gas and electricity companies in the media refused to give an interview but they did issue this statement following consultation with the government decided who will benefit from core funding under the new home discount scheme and those customers will get an automatic discount of their electricity bill without needing to apply for it save the children says that's not good enough currently only pensioners automatically benefit from the warm home discount scheme

and others must deploy which charities say is very complicated the scheme is underfunded and every year energy bills. up and up additionally and crucially poor families often use a pays you go you system for their electricity and gas which works out more expensive than paying monthly a poverty premium in action meanwhile julie sees first hand the other price of being poor if she can only afford to heat her house for two hours a day her children suffered school in wonder they're going to jump out to put on a new socks on the silken arsole would go to places to call and then go to bed late and we're covering late and they don't concentrate my twosome was in big trouble or the time too many detention tired sin is knowledge of the play call my feeble asmer save the children says it will carry on lobbying the government to help poor

families lead and julie henry and her children will go on fearing that the next energy bill they receive will be the one that drives them into debt laura smith london. now to some more headlines from around the world this hour violence has erupted with rather militia groups in the libyan city of guyana leaving at least three people dead and around fifty injured they reportedly used machine guns and rockets in the weekend shootouts fighting began when the local military council demanded the tribe members accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the interim government's attempts to broker a cease fire and failed to take hold. a car bomb has been detonated in the iraqi city of mosul killing at least eight people and wounding four explosion happened in a residential complex which houses displaced. most was known as an al qaeda

stronghold and saw some of the most brutal violence following the u.s. invasion in two thousand and three. nigeria's president has announced an immediate. this is to stem nationwide strikes and protests the trade union saying it's not enough used to end their industrial action the country's been paralyzed by stoppages since the government abandoned a longstanding fuel subsidy on january first i think to be doubling costs. italian authorities say six the body has been found in the wreckage of a cruise ship that capsized off the trees west coast male passenger was discovered wearing a life jacket in part of the bird that was not submerged the ship's captain is in custody and they face manslaughter charges it's claimed he abandoned the line of the four passengers and evacuated which he denies. now fragments from russia's failed mars probe first group fallen back to earth where

it's not clear exactly where most of the probe burnt up in the atmosphere about two hundred kilos of material made it through russia's military police that means landed safely go over a thousand kilometers off the chilean coast of ballistic experts claim pieces of verse could drop into the atlantic just off brazil one hundred seventy million dollar the probe was launched two months ago was supposed to collect soil samples from the martian moon. later on our t.v. look at how a change of power in georgia eight years ago impacted on the country's art and culture. when covered by the pressure leads to a grave accusation the world who is more is you know following way. the president isn't supposed to hide anything. were someone asking him why do you make

a secret of it when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different. when you get experiencing very serious problems off of the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three if you put it in a book that was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were often beason up and humiliated in public and one of the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger is that we have been deprived of the only means of earning a living i have got there originals of all the papers so we have them legalized the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop. watch our special report in full in just over the last time here out and in a few minutes we analyze which republican candidates will be chosen to take on barack obama for the u.s. presidency but first the business news with the touch.

it's twenty three minutes past twelve here in moscow and you're watching business on r.t. . there is a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to commerce onto crain key of is ready to sell one third of the national pipeline operator to russia in return for gals discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting one of the least half of the shares the newspaper quoted local energy ministry sources earlier kiev said it could not afford to pay the price specified in the current contract it also wanted to reduce by half the amount of gas it consumes russia's gas problem says ukraine could have reduced its water but only by twenty percent and if agreed at least six months in advance late on friday the european union joined in saying it's ready to play a part of the talks moscow and kiev are expected dark negotiations on tuesday and

analysts say ukraine's economy might not cope with reduced gas supplies. in the longer term. and with that you do pay expected by the i.m.f. to grow or at least forty percent per year. there's no way grade can just permanently come down its consumption to those levels i think it's going to to grow together with its steel and fertilizer sector and most of the fishing seguin's seem to be in the past already has ukraine usefulness you much more system to believe your meter is wrong from the fifty four last year it doesn't look like ukraine craze consumption is going to climb percent to stay with think it's quite likely to stay flat world but. it's but because most of the first savings are in the process. and live sound check out the markets oil first and it's gaining some experts and you continued tensions with iran as these. so-called permanent premium

that will be built into the oil price right now on at the moment the w t i a is up more than ninety nine and dollars a barrel brant is that one hundred mil levon and a half dollars and now onto equities europe first the indices are sliding after a series of s. and p. downgrades of major european economies including france and austria the footsie is down around half percent of the first hour of trade germany's dax is shedding roughly the same. and the russian markets are trading in the red on the s. and p. downgrade both the r.t.s. and the why six are currently losing ground however sound. and now on to the main movers on the my sexists our energy majors are outperforming all the stronger world prices the largest private old company lukoil is shedding over three quarters of a percent oil pipeline operator trans nafta has slipped into bread a struggling to keep last week's momentum banking stocks are hurting with spare

bank point seven percent in the red. the russian stock market lost twenty percent last year in defiance of its longstanding correlation with the oil price which actually gained twenty five percent chris weaver from tokyo dialogue says this year russia's equity markets will closely monitor the european debt crisis rather than fold the crude. the equity market is moving much more with the global trend rather than the oil price but that's only the case so long as your price remains above and acceptable limits for the budget which is proximately ninety dollars in terms of the deficit and below about one twenty five dollars which would then start to affect global growth so it's a background issue and we spend a lot of time talking about it but the reality is that it's much less important than how the stock market performs than what happens in europe how china's growth holds up and what the government actually does in terms of you know trying to

improve the investment in the business climate wants to new government takes shape in may russia's first duty free retail market is seeing its major deal of the year as swiss operator do free and russian rival red star embark on a joint venture the company will include twenty one stores located in moscow's airports analysts say the joint venture will become the country's biggest duty free operator when all of the outlets are linked up. the art market proved resilient to the economic turbulence of twenty eleven it turned out to be more profitable than the stock market they mean the art market brahman or the made most is our index jumped eleven percent last year while the s. for example game just two percent but earnings vary greatly for example chinese are tops the table with gains of more than twenty percent and impressionist paintings have always been popular gaining fourteen percent of value last year. and that's

all the latest from the business desk the update is about fifteen minutes about. he. has. to.

welcome back that's how the cuts are the main headlines now syria's president assad pardons for crimes committed during that ten month uprising against his rule when amnesty that also extends to all who deserted tens of thousands of people have been detained over the past yet serious to look to violence. but there putin has published his plans to fight corruption and overtake as well as create a more civil society for supporters to forging his push for a third term as president.