reveals his plans to battle corruption and tackle poverty as he begins his pursuit of the presidency. i'm global equity markets are mixed after weighted savings he's done it and poor's downgraded ninety two countries france and austria and austria losing their plans to play greats join me for a closer look because. it's five pm here in moscow this is our to coming to you live with me and he said now a our top story the arab league is divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria tunisia as president has warned it could see violence flare up across the whole region but the emir of qatar is leading the calls for arab action in syria to put a stop to the ten month long fighting bear he was also a key player in the arab league's role in opposing colonel gadhafi is ruling libya meanwhile syria has announced the release of four prisoners during the uprising the

move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november. first reports from damascus. free at last strings of people leave the syrian prison into the arms of eagerly waiting family and friends and waiting to see loved ones who haven't been seen for many months prisoners delighted i'm relieved to be given back their freedom here at this prison on the outskirts of damascus these are the prisoners being selected for release this evening you can see then that signing on this is being seen by some of the arab league observers who have been here 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. is a good step i'm just hoping today everyone. i had some weapons i had inherited from my grandfather and was accused of bearing illegal weapons have 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 if the. un general secretary. president of the bloodshed. in the arab world. statements. highly volatile situation the amnesty shows that syria is trying to find a political solution rather than a security section and that the country is succeeding in implementing the plan agreed by the arab league. as being little.

jimmy when all political prisoners are number one the rest and since the beginning of the crisis have been released then the amnesty will have an effect but the answer is c. does not consider this the start of a dialogue. just. over the coming days without the. people in the country. in a situation. in which. this. but you get more news and perspective from syria you can visit our first blog on our to dot com 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 where a cruise ship capsized with over four thousand people who are also online. lashing

out over a thousand demonstrators cause mayhem in bucharest angry of the government the latest wave of austerity come and watch the video along with many more on our you tube channel. four news today violence flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule the day. as iran and 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 embargo on iranian oil will be in place by the end of the month bennett reports from london. in response to iran's refusal to halt its

nuclear program it continues to enrich uranium which he has mentioned as 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 the tactics have actually seemed to encourage this dangerous game of brinkmanship each side countering the others threaten 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. has also said that along with other european governments it plans to block iran oil exports by the end of the month in other escalating step in this game of threat and counter threat iran's oil exports only make up one percent of britain's oil imports

the most in europe is italy with seven percent of it's all coming from iran so there's a lot to play with there in that respect which will severely damage iran's economy however iran has taken steps itself threatening to block the straits of hormuz which is a crucial oil shipping lane which in itself could severely damage already very fragile western economies through the increase of oil pricing if that occurs now that the u.s. has already said that any such move from iran will be considered an act of war and the question is though how far is each side willing to go here. and while you're on considers its next step and it's standoff with the wrong the us media is already deep in a conflict of its own. story two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb. american journalists are accused of once again hyping up tension between washington and enemy public support. and why thousands

of children across britain are finding themselves left in the cold this winter. but first russia's prime minister a set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing in one of the country's leading newspaper reports and voiced his vision for russia's future and address issues raised by opposition parties. has more. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed as a response to the accusations of 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 says as with. the education levels employment has also risen over the past fifteen years the standards of living for eighty percent of russians increased

there's also the emergence of the middle class it's dull comprises up to thirty percent off the population russia where is during the soviet times that number was significantly smaller so boring essentially people in his statement to be wary of that of these statements and slogans 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. on the country and he did talk at length about the situation be very much in. in which the country finds itself right now but of course you 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 the country's

dependence on natural resources oil and gas something which needs to be slow to take a step away from there's of course the progress into the high tech world in creating more jobs in that sphere also talks more about creating civil society and contributing more to charity and of course feels he talked length about russia a becoming a major and 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 you also basically underline this 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 website are two dot com. the era of a one party system in kazakhstan is now over after sunday's preliminary election results to more political fractions are heading into the lower house of the country's parliament oh i see observers said the vote was undemocratic despite the fact the president's party no longer holds all seats. 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 it was. 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 is expected to face some very modest opposition the main reason why i. 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 the seven percent tree is not a bias 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 his attempt to sort of preemptively blind any public discontent over that because i sense a political system that may and rise in the future. these elections were

a 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 on the past this. european markets have remained stable on monday despite the wave of credit downgrades across the euro zone by the ratings giant standard and poor's and slashed the credit scores of ninety e.u. countries on friday including france which is aaa status and austria another ratings agency moody's says it will maintain france's top rating but will continue to review its position despite all this there was no panic among leaders at least publicly germany's foreign minister has even proposed europe gets its own credit agencies financial commentator jim rogers says that faith in the u.s. based rating companies is fast running out. you shouldn't vote 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 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. as iran and the u.s. engages in a political standoff america's mainstream media are being accused of fueling the fire sanctions over tehran's nuclear program and uncertainty in the gulf have provided news outlets in the states a platform to speculate over the likelihood of war that's going to camera ports

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 five 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 ease factors have already been in the country monitoring iran's nuclear facilities when you american people here information over and over again and sometimes it is often these subtle subtleties you're not providing the context of the 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 in issues the u.s. mainstream media have proved to be cheerleaders for war and 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 settling this idea that the u.s. is going to be in a perpetual war media analysts say 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 at a place 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 warrants a political solution don't belong in the u.s. media of accountability 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. . look at some other stories making headlines around the world first to pakistan where the court has charged the country's prime minister gilani with contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution proceedings were initiated for fault failing to carry out the court order to open a corruption probe against president off of these dari too long he has been told in court on thursday. violence has erupted between rival militia groups in the libyan city of daraa leaving at least three people dead and around fifty injured clashes began when the local military council demanded a tribe hand over members accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the fighting has

included use of rockets and. sporadic violence in libya continues even after the eight month long civil war which resulted in the deaths of thirty thousand people as well as the street killing of moammar gadhafi. 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 has left one hundred forty people dead since last month. the failed mars probe before with the ground 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 but 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 while some other experts claim there might be pieces of foam both in the atlantic just off the coast of brazil the probe was launched two months ago and was supposed to collect soil

samples from a martian moon to learn more about the felde mission head to our web site r.t. dot com. as the chill of winter sets in across the u.k. hundreds of thousands of families are struggling to keep their homes he did start below the poverty line and failing bridge falling between the cracks of government subsidies many children are finding themselves left in the cold war smith reports this is something the single mother of four julie henry can't afford to do very often boiling the kettle for tea 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 the 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 each one of them have to eat and their school uniform i have to buy and on top of the. electricity use. a try to cut down so many teen is now working. 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. has a really profound impact on children in terms of physical in terms in terms of general. educational time and. 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 take up and up additionally and crucially poor families often pays you go to 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 all the price of being poor if she can only afford to heat her house for two hours a day her children's school. jumper to put on. plays it to call and then go to bed late. late and they don't concentrate.

big trouble ordered to. tired of the plague. all muffy go asmer save the children says it will carry on lobbying the government for the help poor families need 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 that wraps up our main news block here in r.t. i'll be back with a recap of our top stories shortly after the latest business news with kareena. and i welcome to business here in r.t. thanks for joining me this hour european equities are higher following a slide early in the day the downturn came on fears that eurozone credit downgrades could have worsened the region's debt crisis late friday ratings agency standard

and poor's downgraded nine you countries with france and austria losing their prized aaa grades and portugal plummeting to junk status now let's cross live to our business desk now to see how the news has been affecting moscow's trading floors hello marina so are the russian markets reacting. hiker in the wall the russian markets are actually making a comeback after opening in the red about one percent for both the r.t.s. is now actually gain and over a half a percent now all of this of course began after s. and p. downgraded nine european countries including portugal but the russian markets were closed on friday when that announcement came out so what we're seeing right now is a delayed reaction but strong crude prices have helped prevent deep falls that we saw in other countries but we could see the numbers go into baghdad and that's because we had another announcement from the fiction ratings agency this time and changed its outlook on russia's credit rating from positive to stable and that's

mainly due to political uncertainty and global concerns over growth the didn't change the actual writing level it's still at triple b. but we could see some jitters come out of that. ok thanks for that update so that was business the tease marina and now on to the actual numbers we start with europe where stock markets swing in and out of positive territory traders are mewling on the impact of waiting downgrades for nine eurozone nations and a weight of french debt sales and it's a chopper trade for the russian markets will be r.t.s. gaining over a half a percent and i'm isaacs has reversed a two positive as well and now the main movers on my six blue chips are mixed energy majors are supported by strong the oil prices the largest private all company look oil is up half a percent preferred shares of oil pipeline operator transnet are down struggling to

keep up last week's momentum and banking stocks are on the rise with spare bank up almost point four percent this hour. but all is gaining some experts if you continue tensions with iran is the so-called permanent premium that will be built into the oil price at the moment is that. the ninety nine dollars per barrel and brant is topping one hundred eleven dollars bottle. the russian stock markets lost twenty percent last year that's in defiance of its longstanding correlation with the price of oil which came to twenty five percent chris we've heard from troika dialog says that russia's equity markets this year will closely monitor the european debt crisis following 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 the acceptable limit 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 once the new government takes shape in may. well that's our business news for this hour but i'll be back in about fifty five minutes with more obviates and a look at what financial news from. download

the official t. application on the phone the i pod touch from the q stops to. life on the. video on demand on tease mind old costs and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. position on the dot com.

so you live from moscow the headlines the arab league at loggerheads while counterpart 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. the n.t. against the wrong pushing for a tough all embargoed which their wrongs promised to counter by blocking a vital transit brut london says it will take military action in the pool.