tackle poverty as he begins his pursuit of the presidency. it's seven pm here in moscow you're watching live with me and isa now way our top story the arab league is divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria president has warned it could see violence flare up across the whole region the emir of qatar is leading the calls for arab action in syria to put a stop to the ten month long fighting there he was also a key player in the arab league's role in opposing colonel gadhafi has rule in libya meanwhile syria has announced a release for prisoners jail during the uprising the move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november artie's sara firth reports from damascus. streams of people leave the syrian

prison into the arms of waiting family and friends. loved ones who haven't been seen for many months prisoners delighted i'm relieved to have been given back their freedom here this prison on the outskirts of damascus these are the prisoners they've been selected for at least. you can see the signing on this is being overseen by some of the arab league observers who have been here this is part of the amnesty by president assad but of course for everyone he's not being released from detention questions being asked about the 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 on the stand for those calls for. our military intervention in syria if the violence doesn't stop when general secretary banking president assad to end the bloodshed at the age of ten a season one man rule in the arab world and some critics however feel these statements riskin flaming away the 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. has been described by some opposition groups as being little more than a gesture. all political prisoners are number one the rest said since the beginning of the crisis have been released from the amnesty will have been. but the answer is he does not consider this the start of dialogue but for me and i think family just

is a welcome one hundred that hopes will be frayed over the coming days but outside the prison walls people in the country remain trapped in a situation of escalating violence the latest a father seems to be lethal as they surf. the nothis. well asia times correspondent pepe escobar points out the arab league itself mostly consists of oppressive monarchy is so their pressure on syria has nothing to do with worries about democracy don't forget that all these regimes are otaku see that the local populations have no possibility at all for political expression some of them their own populations like in the keys of the rate seventy percent shiite population they are treated as second rate citizens and now we have the persian gulf monarchies trying to teach the world lessons on the mockers like the home sink

the whole scheme is sampson literally upsurge starts with so can we imagine the if we had what we seen in syria and inside easter saudi arabia for its. obvious you know calls for democracy no calls for deposing the government like qatar is saying now it is imagined not not only imagine look at what happened sobering sister beginning of the pro-democracy protests in manama almost a year ago there were oppression was total would help from saudi arabia and the emirates so the same persian gulf monarchies were saying now to the world we must intervene on the behalf of people in syria they would smash their own people in any possibility of an arab spring in any of the six special goals mark. well to get more news and perspective from syria you can visit the blog of artes international correspondents our further she's there and you can find it at our to dot com here's what else you can find on our web site right now

a twenty first century timing get the latest information on the rescue operation that's taking place on your tie in coast where a cruise ship capsized with over four thousand people on board also online. lashing out over a thousand demonstrators cause mayhem in bucharest angry of the government for the latest wave of austerity because once that video along with many others on our you tube channel. the news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. joint operations room today. as the wrong and the west step of 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 e.u. embargoed on iranian oil will be in place by the end of the month. bennett has the latest from london. 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 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 the question is though how far is each side willing to go here so for now it's just a threat. the u.k. says it will continue to pursue a diplomatic attack i increasingly 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 with one of its own mistakes getting higher and escalating each time so this mention of military action still being on the table is really the latest play in this complex game of brinkmanship. well europe considers its next step in its standoff with iran the us media is already deep in a conflict it's. really two options bomb iran or let iran get the american journalists are accused once again of hyping up tension between washington and its next enemy to win public support. and why thousands of children across britain are finding themselves left in the cold this winter.

those stories coming up for you but first russia's prime minister has set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing on one of the country's leading newspapers uproots invoiced his vision for russia's future and addressed issues raised by opposition parties are reports. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed there's a response to the statements made by the opposition leaders during the protest has been 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 in fact the education levels went up employment has also risen over the past fifteen years 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 as such a such an abrupt change in the government the system may have diarrhea effects on the country and he did talk at length about this situation we 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 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 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 feels that talked 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 russia has a lot of experience in that area and of course to also is a major contributor to two g. eight 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 feel so basically underlie 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 as well the article by lies here putin is available for you

in full on our website r t v dot com. 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 its last the credit scores of nine countries on friday including france which lost its aaa status and austria another ratings agency moody's says it will maintain france's top rating but will continue to review this position despite all this there was no panic among leaders at least publicly germany's foreign minister has even proposed a europe that its own credit agencies financial commentator john rogers says that facing the u.s. base rate in companies is fast running out. he 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 often and who is not so you know it's only

until a few months ago that they had the united states has 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 monopoly for decades they have gotten corroded and lazy and sloppy and they're no longer cooperating. well coming up later this hour more on how those eurozone downgrades are affecting the markets here in moscow with kareena mini camp at the business desk. well the european equities of mixed following a slide early in the day the russian markets ended the day in the black joining me for the details in our prisons bulletin. now as iran and the u.s. engages in a political standoff america's mainstream media are being accused of fueling the

fire so says 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 and is going to try to can report it's not the first time american viewers have been led to believe that conflict is inevitable. twenty 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 on u.s. 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 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 he ran 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 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 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 since 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 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 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 warrants a 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. . now a look at some other news making headlines around the world first to pakistan where the supreme court has charged the country's prime minister yousuf giuliani with attack contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution for proceedings were initiated for failing to carry out the court's order to open a corruption case of corruption probe i should say against president also of r.v.'s the dark money has been told to appear in court on thursday. violence has

erupted between rival militia groups in the libyan city of gori young leaving at least three people dead and injuring around fifty clashes began when the local military council demanded a tribe handover members accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the fighting has included use of rockets and machine guns sporadic violence in libya continues even after the eight month long civil war which resulted in the death of some thirty thousand people as well as the killing of moammar gadhafi. a car bomb in the iraqi city of model 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. nigerian labor unions have announced will suspend their nationwide strike against rising fuel costs this comes after the country's president announced a thirty percent cut in gas prices and sent soldiers to barricade the streets

firing tear gas and i mean ition protesters the demonstrations began last week after the government council the popular fuel subsidy leading to a rise in gas and transport costs throughout the country. the failed mars probe grew and has returned to earth but nobody knows where exactly it's fragments have fallen experts say most of the probe earth 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 also be pieces of phobos in the atlantic just off the coast of brazil the probe was launched two months ago and was supposed to collect foil samples from a martian moon to learn more about the failed mission head to our web site dot com as the chill of winter sets in across the u.k. hundreds of thousands of families are struggling to keep their homes heated stuck

below the poverty line in falling between the cracks of government subsidies many children are finding themselves left in the cold laura smith reports. this is something the 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 are 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 all of them have to eat and their school uniform i have to buy and on top of the. electricity use. i try to call down 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 to 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 and. 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 of the price of being poor if she can only afford to heat her house for two hours a day her children suffered school. jumper to put on and socks on the sill colossally would go to places to call and then go to bed late and we're covering late and they don't concentrate my two so was in big trouble or the time to run a detention tired scene is nala the play call. save the children says it'll 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 well in a few minutes cross talk to raise the pros and cons of cutting america's military budget first though let's get the latest from karena at the business desk. hello and welcome to our business update for joining me european equities are mixed following the slide early in the day and the downturn came on fears that the eurozone credit downgrades could worsen the region's debt crisis late friday ratings agency standard and poor's downgraded nine countries with france and austria losing their prized aaa grades and portugal plummeting to junk status and now all the numbers u.k. footsies nearly flat as media and publishing company pearson rose two point seven

percent in germany the dax is supported by not a two point nine percent gain for com make a dime or at two percent rise for the wattle b.m.w. u.s. markets are closed monday for martin luther jupiter day here in russia markets closed in the black with the r.t.s. finishing over half a percent of them was six of just the combined trading volumes on the r.t.s. and my six exceeded ten trillion dollars last year that appeared to be the best results not only among c.i.s. countries but it western europe too analysts say it was supported by the operational effect of the merger approaches to me for six. years the main movers on the my six day energy majors were supported by strong oil prices the largest private all covered in look. on dirt just under one percent higher preferred shares of all pipeline operated trance they have tweaked down struggling to keep up last week's momentum and banking stocks were on the rise as bear bag and gained over

four percent point four percent and all is gaining some experts you continue tensions with iran as so-called permanent premium that would be built into the oil price at the moment to the w.t. i as it more than ninety nine dollars a barrel brant is two is trading and topping one hundred and eleven dollars per barrel. there is a stock market lost twenty percent last year that's in defiance of its longstanding correlation with the price of oil which gained 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 been following crude. the equity market is moving much more with the global trend rather than of 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

a put 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 climate wants to make government take shape in may. there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to commerce and ukraine quoting local energy ministry sources kiev 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 at least half of nafta gas kiev says it can't have it cannot afford the price specified in the current contract and insists on cutting imports of russian gas by half but russia's gazprom says ukraine could have reduced its order but by no more than twenty percent and only with six months about snowden's late on friday the european union joined in saying it's

ready to pay up play a part in the talks and moscow and kiev are expected to restart negotiations on tuesday. say grains economy might not cope with a reduced gas lifes. well that's all that's all i have for you now but join me in about fifteen minutes for more here on this.

here with our t.v. live from moscow the headlines the arab league at loggerheads are calls for intervention in syria other members warn it could lead to a region wide on the rest mass chaos has announced a general amnesty for political prisoners in accordance with the peace plan. the u.k. ups the ante against the wrong pushing for a tough you oil embargo which tehran's promise to counter by blocking a vital transit route london says it will take military action in the persian gulf if deal.