britain reveals his plans to battle corruption and tackle poverty as he begins his pursuit of the presidency. from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching r t with me and you so now it's four pm here in the russian capital our top story the arab league is divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria to new president has warned it could see violence flare up across across the whole region then your account our is leading the calls for arab action in syria to put a stop to the ten month long finding bear he was also a key player in the arab league's role in opposing colonel gadhafi is rule libya meanwhile syria has announced a release for prisoners jail during the uprising is move compliance with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november are two saraf earth reports now

from damascus. streams that people leave the syrian president the arms of waiting family and friends waiting to see loved ones who haven't been seen for many months prison is delighted i'm relieved to give them back their freedom this prison on the outskirts of damascus these are the prisoners they've been selected for at least the season and you can see the signing on this is being seen by some of the arab league. this is part of the amnesty announced by president assad a bit of calls for everyone he's not being released from detention questions being asked about exactly 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 the honesty is 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. schools. our military intervention in syria if the by the. un general secretary thank you president of the bloodshed. in the arab world. some critics of these statements claiming in a highly volatile situation. the amnesty shows that syria is trying to find a political solution rather than the security side and that the country is succeeding in implementing the plan agreed by the arab league. position rates as being little. jimmy when all political prisoners are number one the rest since the beginning of the crisis have been released then the amnesty will have an effect yes

but the answer is c. does not answer to this. but you know if you. just you. can just freeze over the coming days but outside the prison rules people in the country . and the situation. in which they. serve. you must just. want to get more news and perspective from syria you can visit our first blog at our two dot com and here's what else you can find on our website right now a twenty first century titanic get the latest information on the rescue operation that's taking place on the italian coast for a cruise ship capsized with over four thousand people on board also online. lashing out over a thousand demonstrators causing mayhem and bucharest angry at the government for the latest wave of austerity cuts watch the video along with my. the others on our

you tube channel. four news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. charlie corporations rule the day. now as they run in the west step up their war of words over the islamic states nuclear program the u.k. is refusing to rule out taking military action foreign secretary william hague also spoke of his confidence that an embargo on iranian oil will be in place by the end of the month let's get the latest on these comments from artie's bennett who joins us live from london ivor these latest statements from london come as any sort of surprise or has british policy been building up to this. well the mention of

military action is never to be taken lightly of course but this really was the expected next step in a dispute this rapidly deteriorated in recent weeks the mention that military action is still not hasn't still been ruled out still in the table has come from u.k. foreign secretary william hague in response to iran's refusal to halt its nuclear program and continue to enrich uranium which he has mentioned labeled as increasingly dangerous so now it's just a threat. the u.k. says it will continue to pursue a diplomatic attack i.e. increasing sanctions with the hope of bringing iran to the negotiating table after talks over its nuclear program stalled a year ago but that tactic has been tried for the last year hasn't seemed to work tactics have actually seemed to encourage this dangerous game of brinkmanship each side countering the other's threat and what with one of its own the stakes getting higher and escalating each time so this mention of military action still being on

the table is really the latest play in that game the u.k. important allies than one percent every branch total oil output what's in this for britain why such the strong rhetoric. well exactly. it's all imports just one percent from iran the rest of europe also similar levels italy is the most just seven percent of its oil imports come from iran so they've got that to play with there they can and so what they're doing is is threatening to. put in embargo on iran's oil exports and that's really the latest play in this game of threatening countertrend that i mentioned that and william hague mentioned that that will hopefully be in place by the end of the month. but what's happened is that iran has countered that threat with one of its own it says it will close down the strait of hormuz which is a crucial oil shipping lanes so whilst the iran oil embargo won't have any

detrimental effects on britain's economy or europe's really. played by iran definitely could shutting down the strait of hormuz because a third of all seaborne oil trade goes through the straits and that could increase oil prices and have a detrimental effect and severe consequences on already fragile western economies so the u.s. has already said that any any such tactic from iran will be considered an act of war so this threat of military action saying it's still an option from the u.k. is really the latest play in this game of threat and counter threat the question is though how far is each side willing to go here seems that's the big question on everyone's mind at the moment as this standoff gets more and more intense i ran it live from london thank you for that. well while europe considers its next step in this standoff with the wrong the us media is already deep in a conflict of its own. really two options. or let iran get

the american journalists are accused of once again hyping up tension between washington and its next enemy to win public support. russia's prime minister has set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing in one of the country's leading newspapers putin voiced his vision for russia's future and addressed issues raised by opposition parties argues a reader who reports. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed as a response to the accusations and statements made by the opposition leaders during the protest. 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 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 in fact the education levels of employment has also risen over the

past fifteen years the overall is standards of living for eighty percent of russians have increased there's also the emergence of the middle class it's dull comprises up to thirty percent of the population in russia where is during the soviet times that number was significant the smaller 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 act on the country and he did talk at length about this situation the very much of the situation which the country finds itself right now but of course he also mentioned that some problems do remain on the table there is a 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 of the country's dependence on natural resources oil and gas something which needs to be slowly taken step away from 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 as being a major player on the global political arena. a russia has served as a bridge between the east and the west for centuries as it has a lot of experience in that area and of course. is a major contributor to g. eight g. twenty and the united nations and the role of these organizations is something which also should be taken into account and also basically underline the statement by saying that the country has to come out of the post. 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 well the article by vladimir putin is available for you in fall on our web site r t v dot com. there are a one party system in kazakhstan is now over after sunday's preliminary election results with two more political fractions heading into the lower house of parliament oh i see observers said the vote was on democratic despite the fact the president's party no longer holds all the seats are 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. for himself last fall dissolve the country's parliament reach a point consist of 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 is expected to face some very modest opposition the main reason why you want to have these 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 is that a bias opponents say that it is just a kiss magic change that was important problem to bite he's in these in this over what happened in arab countries and his attempt to sort of preemptively blonde any

public discontent over that because i sense a political system that may and rise in the future all. these elections were test of confidence for himself especially following december clashes between protesters . 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. indeed past this. european markets have remained stable on monday despite the wave of credit downgrades across the eurozone by ratings giant standard and poor's it's watched the credit scores of nine countries on friday including france which sponsor its aaa status and austria another ratings agency moody's says they will maintain france's top rating but will continue to review this position by all this there was no panic among the leaders at least publicly germany's foreign minister has even posed to europe gets its own credit agency financial commentator jim rogers says that's the faith in us face reading companies and fast running out. you

shouldn't but bother to pay any attention to the rating agencies everything they've done in the past fifteen or twenty years has been wrong the fact is you do need somebody competent and somebody who can examine and decide who is who is solvent and who is not soft you know it's only until a few months ago that they had the united states is a aaa credit united states is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's absurd that it's true as was aaa so you just need somebody competent who can go in there it doesn't matter whether it's russian or australian american or european just so you have somebody competent and these guys s. and p. and moody's have had a similar really for decades they have gotten corroded and lazy and sloppy and they're no longer cooperating. well while the eurozone downgrades did little to shake investors' confidence in europe it has caused a few jitters in the russian markets for more reaction from the trading floors we

have our business correspondent reena on standby for us what's happening today. yes and then my six kicked off the trade in session in the red and they're now making a slow comeback but a new announcement from a ratings agency this time about could bring the jitters back i'll tell you more about that in business shortly that's right will be joining the business for a live update in under ten minutes was iran and the u.s. engaged in a political standoff america's mainstream media are being accused of fueling the fire sanctions over to iran's nuclear program and uncertainty in the gulf have provided news outlets in the states a platform to speculate over the likelihood of war is going to can reports it's not the first time american viewers have been led to believe that conflict is inevitable. story two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb with tension between iran and the west as high as ever a host of hard line speakers on us mainstream media seem to be pushing the audience

to believe that war is inevitable 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 yet that is to say at the precipice of 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 information it would be saying to the iranians you to open up those facilities you begin to dismantle them and make them available to inspectors or we will degrade those facilities through air strikes in fact i e-s. specters 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 kind of slanting of the news does have the effect of altering how the american public use an issue 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 war because their owners benefited from it it was a constant pressure campaign. to make sure that the prole 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 selling this idea that the

us 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 well as a.p. and other major u.s. news organizations and the and what i saw especially in places like newsweek was this idea that the media was actually part of the establishment that it was 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 a 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 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 all furnished the war more than one 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 of a cabbie larry is better than war and death i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t.

. a look now at some other news making headlines across the world first pakistan where the supreme court has charged the country's prime minister gilani with contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution the proceedings were initiated for failing to carry out a court order to open a corruption probe against president also the dari johnny has been told to appear in court on tuesday. while it's a rush to between rival militia groups in the libyan city of gori yeah leaving at least three people dead and around fifty injured again when the local military council demanded to try and hand over members accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the fighting has included use of rockets and machine guns the interim government has made attempts to broker a cease fire in the area that has so far failed. a car bomb in the iraqi city of mosul has killed at least eight people and wounded six others the blast occurred outside a residential complex which houses displaced shia muslims this is the latest in

a string of bombings against the country's shia majority which is left one hundred forty people dead since last month. nigeria's president has announced a thirty percent cut in gas prices after a weeklong fuel strike paralyzed the country's economy leaders send soldiers to barricade the streets in order to protest which he says will lead to anarchy unions have canceled mass demonstrations but now to continue the strike until the government resumes the fuel subsidy that ended earlier this month protests began last week in the bonds to rising gas and transportation calls throughout the country. now the failed mars probe the group has returned to earth but nobody knows where exactly it's fragments have fallen experts say most of the probe burnt up during its reentry into the atmosphere by an estimated two hundred kilos of material is believed to have made it through russia's military believes the debris landed in the pacific ocean from other experts claimed there might also be pieces

of both in the atlantic just off the coast of brazil the probe was launched two months ago and was supposed to collect oil samples from a martian moon to learn more about the failed mission you can head to our website our to dock com. when a few minutes we'll look at which republican candidate could reach ozen to take on barack obama for the u.s. presidency but first let's get the latest business news with kareena. thank you nice alone welcome to business here in r.t.e. european equities mixed following a slide early in the day the down to a game on fears that the eurozone credit downgrades could have worsened the region's debt crisis like friday ratings agency standard and poor's downgraded nine countries with france and austria losing their prize to play grays and portugal

plummeting to junk status now it's cause live to artie's business desk now to see how unusual the acting moscow's trading floors. russian markets reacting to this news hiker in the wall the russian markets open the trading session on negative note both were losing about one percent but they have since been making a slow recovery though my sex currently clients wildly artsy as is gaining almost half a percent of course all this began after s. and p. downgraded nine european countries including malta and cyprus and of course the russian markets closed on friday before the news came out so what we're seeing right now this nervousness is the delayed reaction but we could see the numbers go back down because richard ratings agency just announced that it's revised its outlook for russia's credit rating from positive to stable it hasn't changed the triple b. level but. the outlook and that's mainly due to political uncertainty as well as

the global concerns over growth so we could see those numbers go back down later in the day ok business studies marina closer thanks very much for that and now on to the actual numbers europe is making a comeback the foods he's now flat to positive and germany's dax obviates gaining more than a third of a percent comic as are posting the biggest gains as investors await death sales in france and it's choppy trade for the russian markets there in the black this hour with the r.t.s. gaining nearly point four percent and was expressing positive and now the may movers although my xix this chips are mixed and as you majors are supported by strong oil prices the largest private oil company lukoil is up around half a percent preferred shares. operate transnet to lower struggling to keep up last week's momentum banking stocks are on the rise spare bank is almost over half a percent almost half a percent in the brackets are actually point four percent and all is gaining some

exports you continue tensions with iran us the so-called permanent premium that will be built into the world price at the moment. of the ninety nine dollars a barrel brand is topping one hundred eleven dollars. the stock markets lost twenty percent last year that's in defiance of its longstanding correlation with the price of oil which gained twenty five percent of course we far from truck a dialogue says that russia's equity markets this year will closely monitor the european debt crisis robin following quote 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 an acceptable limit for the budget which is proximately ninety dollars in terms of 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 and 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 deployment wants to new government takes shape in may. and other stories there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to common sense ukraine is now ready to sell one third of its national pipeline operator to russia and return for gas discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting on the least half of nafta gas and he's paper quotes quoted local energy ministry sources he has said it could afford it couldn't afford the price specified in the current contract and wanted to cut imports of russian gas by half but russia's gazprom insisted ukraine could have reduced its order but by no more than twenty percent and only six months advance notice late on friday the european union joined

in saying it's ready to play a part in the talks moscow and kiev are expected to restart negotiations on tuesday and i'll say grains economy might not cope with his gas supplies. that's why i have faith and i will be back in less than one hour with more here on business r.t. so hope you can join.

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the book . here with r t a line from moscow at four thirty pm these are our top stories the arab league at loggerheads all caps are calls for intervention in syria other members warn it could lead to region wide unrest meanwhile damascus has announced a general amnesty for political prisoners in accordance with the peace plan. the u.k. obviously anti against iran pushing for a tough. go which tehran's promise to counter by blocking a vital transit route.