tackle poverty as he begins his pursuit of the presidency. welcome it's eight pm here in moscow my name is kevin know it in first this hour the r t the arab league is divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria to misuse president has warned that it could see violence flare up across the whole region of qatar's leading the calls for hour about change 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 his rule in libya meantime syria's announced the release of prisoners jailed during the uprising this move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november r.t. sara first reports from damascus. strings of people leave the syrian president. family and friends.

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. president of it of course for everyone who'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. is a good step just hoping to do 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 if the by the. president. in the arab world. some critics say this. 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. great. political prisoners number one arrested since the beginning of. the honesty will have enough. yes but the answer is c. does not answer this start. looking like a family just kids welcome can just folks will be free for the coming days but

outside the prison rules people in the country remain trapped in a situation that escalating violence in which they father seems to be listless they searched. enough this place to live to jordan and talk to political analyst allie how things are going on our take good to see you the arab league is pushing for intervention we've just been reporting that despite president assad's announcement of this prisoner amnesty and other steps like letting the observers in in the first place surely that weakens the case for sending in troops anytime soon doesn't it. i think despite what is happening in syria this is one of the league or of the. league is exact you would think of there are learns.

to work with the growing. on syria says the syrian security before. really. the what is going on now is approved they want to go in their decision. in the year two thousand two thousand. which are took a former minister of meeting that took place in new york without the presence of any summit and they are a big firm and they took this it didn't do that they showed me something to. the regime of syria so it was in the year two thousand and eight and i published it myself so it is the job that they have to do and then the students go they have to do the job. i'm not sure if you can still hear me have you got your piece in there very much hearing you just said. ok let's

just let's just get the piece back into mr hatter's acts otherwise he can have it must have taken he had me i thought well if they can tell this interview here you know i understand that i know you can't hear me either but thanks for thanks for being on the program ok we're trying get back some bit later get some more thoughts . to get some more news perspective from syria you can visit the blog of artes international correspondent sara furtherance at r.t. dot com this is what else we've got on our website for you as well if a story yesterday thankfully not too many people died but it was still a big story twenty first century titanic we're calling it you get the latest information on that rescue operation taking place of returning a cruise ship capsized with four thousand people on board and off on line for most some lashing out over a thousand demonstrators caused mayhem in caressed angry at the government the latest wave of a stereotype cuts to watch the video along with many others on our you tube channel . as

a rally on the west put 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 he would bargain want to rein in oil will be in place by the end of the month bennett reports now 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 so whilst the iran oil embargo won't have any detrimental effects on britain's economy or europe's really this play by iran definitely could because a third of all seaborne oil trade goes through those straits and that could increase oil prices and have a detrimental effect and severe consequences on already fragile western economies

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 for 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 this complex game of brinkmanship. have a better day learn there were those interested to hear what you think about our stories particularly this one today the question we're asking online what the e.u. ban on radio imports is really all about what you think it's all about r.t.

dot coms a place to tell of our latest global web poll which is really telling us so far almost half of you say it's a move that will scare around into compliance about what you are claiming it's a strategy that will not benefit you in the long run this alice a tie between those if you think it's an empty threat that means nothing and those of you view it as a move that will simply force around to find new buyers for its oil go online right now that it's no good thing. while europe considers its next stand the standoff with iran the us media is already deep in a conflict of its own. story two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb american journalist ricky group once again hyping up tension between washington and its next enemy to win public support. russia's prime minister set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing one of the country's leading newspapers putin voiced his vision for russia's future and addressed issues raised by

opposition parties artie's or when it reports. 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 protests. as 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 overall 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 of the population 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 to 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 tacked on the country and he did talk at length about the 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 something which needs to be slow to take a 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 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 are going to say since it is something which also should be taken into account and feel so basically underlined this statement by saying that the country has to come out of the post soviet year and 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. ridiculous because then just like you know that article by vladimir putin's about it wolf you fall in a web site up to comb they are a one party system in kazakhstan is now over after sunday's preliminary election

results two more political factions are heading into the lower house of the country's parliament o.s.c. observer said the vote was undemocratic despite the fact that the president's party no longer holds all the seats bringing some of that on this one exam a boy reporting now. 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. 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 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 the seven percent tree is that a bias opponents say that it is just a question 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 bland any public discontent over it because i sense a political system that may and rise in the future all. these elections were test of confidence for those are self 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 in the. past

this. european markets remained stable monday despite the wave of credit downgrade across the eurozone by the ratings giant standard and poor's it slashed the credit scores indeed of naivety e.u. countries on friday including france which lost its aaa status and also austria sued another ratings agency moody's says it though will maintain france's top rating but will continue to review the position despite all that there is no panic among e.u. leaders at least publicly germany's foreign ministers even proposed europe gets its own credit agencies commentator jim rogers told us that faith in u.s. base rate and companies is fast running out. you shouldn't 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 carpenter and somebody who can examine and decide who is who is solvent and who is not so you know it's only until a few months ago that they had the united states as 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 the s. and p. and moody's have had a semi monopoly for decades they have gotten corroded and lazy and sloppy and they're no longer cooperating. as a rat in the u.s. in gauging our political standoff america's mainstream media are being accused of fueling the fire sanctions over to run its nuclear program and uncertainty in the gulf and provided news outlets in the states a platform to speculate over the likelihood of war and result is going to teach you can reports now it's not the first time american viewers have been led to believe that conflict is inevitable. try to actions 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 get that is to say at the precipice of the media are already preparing the grounds for it some survive misinforming the public as 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 here futile like a fiend formation 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 ease spector's 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 the 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 in the us 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 prole invasion voice was dominant jeff cohen says not much has changed in u.s. mainstream journalism since the iraq invasion there's no doubt that mainstream media are crucial in this idea of selling this idea that the

u.s. is going to be on a per actual war media analysts say since the intervention in libya and 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 at 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 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 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 an american ship 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.

so the news headlines around the world now first pakistan where the supreme court charged the country's prime minister yousuf killarney with contempt raising the possibility of prosecution that the proceedings were initiated for failing to carry out the court's order to open a corruption probe against president asif ali zardari has been told to appear in court on thursday. marlins erupted between rival militia groups in the libyan city of god leaving at least three dead and around fifty injured clashes began with the local military council demanded a tribe handover members accused of aiding colonel gaddafi the fighting is increasing use of rockets and machine 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 killers of one market after. a car bomb in the iraqi city of mosul has killed at least eight and wounded six others the blast happened outside a residential complex which houses displaced shia muslims it's the latest in

a string of bombings against the country shia majority which is left over hundred forty dead since last month. as the chill of winter sets in across the united kingdom hundreds of thousands of families are struggling to keep their homes heated stuck below the poverty line and falling between the cracks of government subsidies many children are fun of themselves left in the cold laura smith reports. 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 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 eat for them have to eat and their school uniform i have to buy and on top of

the. electricity use and the library i try to cut down so many. 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. has a really profound impact on children. in direct. 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 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 that's not currently only. benefit from the discount scheme and. charities say it's very complicated the scheme. every year and take up additionally and crucially. pay. for their electricity which works out more expensive than. a poverty premium 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 under god jump out to put on and socks on the sill colossally would go to places to call and then go to bed late and where governor late and they don't concentrate my two son was in big trouble or the time

too many detention tired scene 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 r.t. london. america's half hour an hour to sit with a sport you're also looking at of a forthcoming u.s. presidential election prospects to catch up with a business now out of the mix trading as we've been hearing after gloomy news for europe last week crane has got all the details for you. hello and welcome to business here at t. that's right european equities have turned positive in late trade as french government says fully sold treasury bills that's despite the warnings of s. and p. which downgraded the credit ratings in nine eurozone nations including from let's

take a look at the numbers now you case footsies gaining over a quarter of a percent as media and publishing company pearson rose two point seven percent germany the dax is supported by a two point nine percent gain for comic dialer and a two percent rise for what will be m.w. the u.s. markets are closed of martin luther king jr day here in moscow the markets have almost ignored the decision of which agency to cut its forecast for russia's long term credit rating has finished over half percent lies exposed just the knowledge of the combined trading volume on the r.t.s. analyze exceeded ten trillion dollars last year that appeared to be the best result not only among c.i.s. countries but in western europe to analysts say it was supported by the operational effects of the merger process courses now here are the main movers otherwise x. energy majors were supported by stronger oil prices the largest private oil company will call and it just under

a percent higher on monday preferred shares of pipeline operator transmit have to go down struggling to keep up last week's momentum and banking stocks were on the rise as broadband gains point four percent. from p.d.p. capital wraps up today's trade. in the morning the market opened up one percent mainly driven by sentiment from reaching downgrades in europe nine countries were downgraded. the market is taking this a bit quietly given the rating downgrades were expected. probably even some some more drastic radiation was expected i think it's natural from yield to from yields to maturity you see that france already perceived by the market. to be more risky investment than german bonds with the same racing towards the end of a day of the market more was flooded out than image because different across the board for instance gas promo. day a slightly higher minute driven by straight fuel price so for russia this remains

a pretty big factor and would be it will be closely watched by the investment community now let's look at oil crude is gaining as we see some experts you continue tensions with iran as the so-called problem premium that will be built into the oil price at the moment is trading at more than one thousand nine and a half dollars a barrel brant is topping one hundred and that of dollars about. now there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to commerce and ukraine quoting local energy ministry sources keefe is now ready to sell one third of its national pipeline operator to russia in return for gas discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting on least half of the gas he if says it can't afford the price specified in the current contract and insists on cutting imports of russian gas by huff but russia says it could have reduced its order by no more than twenty percent and only with six months advance notice late on friday

the european union joined in saying it's ready to play a part in the talks. are expected to restart negotiations on tuesday meanwhile analysts say ukraine's economy cope with a reduced gas supplies. well that's all for this i'll be back in less than fifteen minutes with more here with a start. michael

moscow you're watching our t.v. it's our last night now this monday night thanks for being with us our top stories the arab league heads calls for intervention in syria other members warn it could lead to a region wide rest meantime damascus has announced a general amnesty. according to. the u.k. ups the ante against iran pushing for a tough deal with involve which to rand's promise to counter by blocking a vital transit route says it will take military action in the persian gulf if.