corruption tackle poverty as he begins his pursuit of the president. in a business that's our european equities turned positive in late trading our french government successfully sold treasury bills for more on that in our business for the. welcome it's nine pm here in moscow my name's kevin irwin our top story at r.t. this for you the arab league is divided over a qatari proposal to send troops into syria cheers is president is warning could see violence flare up across the whole region there mayor of qatar is calling 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 his rule in libya meantime syria's announced a release from prisoners jail during the uprising this move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november sarah first reports from

damascus on. three. strings of people leave the syrian prison into the arms of waiting family and friends. who have been seen for many months prisoners delighted i'm relieved to. hear this prison on the outskirts of damascus these are the prisoners being selected for release. 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 of it of course for everyone he's not being released from detention questions being asked 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 for the honesty is a good step i just hope it includes everyone. yeah. 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. u.n. 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 a security section and that the country is succeeding in implementing the plan agreed by the arab league. position great is being little more. to me when all political prisoners are number one arrested since the beginning of

the crisis have been released then the amnesty will have been affected but the answer is c. does not consider this the start of a dialogue but you know if you. just you. can just wait for the coming days but outside the prison walls people in the country. in a situation. in which. sir. there must this. times correspondent pepe escobar points out that the arab league itself mostly consists of oppressive mana case of air pressure on syria's got to do with worries about democracy. don't forget that all these regimes are all doctor sees that the local populations have no possibility at all for political expression some of them their own populations like in the case of the rate seventy percent shiite population they're treated as second rate citizens and now we have the

persian gulf water peace trying to teach the world lessons on the markets but the whole sink the whole scheme is sampson looked me up served to start with so can we imagine if we had what we seen in syria inside easter saudi arabia for it's. all business no calls for democracy no calls for deposing the government like qatar is saying now a days imagine not not only imagine look at what happened sobering since the 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 are saying now to the world we must intervene only behalf of people in syria they would smash their own people in any possibility of an arab spring in any of the six special ghost markets. well if you'd like more news perspective from syria we invite you to or visit the blog of artes international correspondent sara first you'll find that on our website r.t.

dot com while you're there these stories getting clicks to a twenty first century titanic story this is in the we get the latest information about the ongoing rescue operation is taking place off the tallying posts where a cruise ship capsized with four thousand people on board with a big job to write about that ship and they also online as well lashing out over a thousand demonstrators caused mayhem in peru caressed last couple days angry at the government the latest wave of stare at the cuts we've got the video along with many others and i you choose channel two. as a rant of 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 even bugger 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 so 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

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. we're interested in what you think today we're asking what the e.u. ban on radio imports is really all about go to r.t. dot com to take part in our latest global web poll and what you've been telling us this hour the options all fairly much as you can think they are opening on the front of you almost a third of you saying it's a strategy that will not benefit the you in the long run so if you're think it's a move that will simply force around to find new words oil twenty three percent of you this is telling us it's an empty threat that means nothing in the minority they're saying it's a move that will scare around into compliance and go online cast your vote good to hear. and while you're at considers its next step in its standoff with iran the

u.s. media is already deep in a conflict with. only two options bomb around or let iran get the bomb american journalists are accused of once again hyping up tensions between washington and its next enemy when 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 with him a putin voiced his vision for russia's future and addressed issues raised by opposition parties at his or when it reports. well in a lot of ways this was a statement which was directed as a response to the existence of statements made by the opposition leaders during the protests 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 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 it's dull comprises up to thirty percent of the population in russia where is during the soviet times that number was significantly smaller so what was 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 improved 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 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. russia has served as a bridge between the east and the west for centuries russia has lot of experience in that area and of course also 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 kill so basically i underline 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 really good there well the article by vladimir putin's available if you like to see more of it in full on our website dot com. european markets remain stable monday despite the wave of credit downgrade across the eurozone late last week by the ratings john standard and poor's it slashed the credit scores of countries on friday including france which lost its aaa status and austria too but other ratings agencies fish and moody's say they are set to maintain for now at least france's top rating there was no panic among e.u. leaders least publicly french president nicolas sarkozy said the downgrade will not defy his policies wolf more on this there's talk to author and financial review my phone bill is going to put a plug on the way should we all throw gobs of money wall street the death of the american century where you've got to see tonight europe you're going to have

reacted calmly to the news of the downgrade is saying there why such a muted response was that to be expected. i think it was generally expected the role that the u.s. based radio agencies have played since the greek crisis erupted in december all nine has been what many people here see as a brazenly political role and it happens to be that they preemptively downgrade greek sovereign debt just when european leaders in march of two thousand and ten were coming to an agreement in principle they downgraded to junk status forcing a massive sell off of greek debt by pension funds and now just at the time that the italian and spanish bond markets are beginning to recover in the french. they downgrade france from aaa and downgrade of course italy is saying so you say they're not to be trusted. well i don't think they're there on bias i don't think they're the independent agencies that they portray themselves to be they enjoy

a very serious role in being blind to the. problems in companies like g.e. just before the september two thousand and eight explosion there the calls the global systemic shock and as well be the background to the whole subprime crisis they were asleep at the switch many times when it comes to the interest of the wall street banks the so-called gods of money banks like goldman sachs or others they tend to be rather lenient and when it comes to the interest of european institutions they tend to be rather aggressive which leads many europeans that i talk with to think that the rating agencies are simply an extension of the u.s. political apparatus the treasury and wall street are mostly told to what is their real view about the state of france's economy at the moment the rating agencies decide president sarkozy says he's a tried to play down the importance surely there's still a huge question marks of france's economy and the other question marks over france

of the qana me but that doesn't equate to a french sovereign debt default like you had in russia in one nine hundred ninety eight or various latin american countries in the eighty's so argentina so it's it is a far cry from anything close to a danger of a sovereign debt default that french economy is going into a mild recession or is already in one how much damage can they said downgrade do for france now. very little as i see it i've talked with people today who said it's virtually water off a duck's back because it was so widely anticipated in the markets from the prior announcements by s. and p. s. unclear as standard and poor's has played a rather blatant and aggressive role in this whole unraveling of the european euro crisis and its december little nine so people here are beginning to get used to it and if any one of those is in the end it's going to be the credibility of institutions like standard and poor's and moody's who will seem to politically what

you think fitch and moody's didn't go along with has done great. well i think perhaps they thought it might be a little bit too obvious or too brazen i can't i can't say you have to ask them now the c.e.o. of investment bank j.p. morgan referred to europe as the biggest threat to the global economies called for an asian solution so the fact comment though considering the nations that the e.u. countries are already trying to take to deal with a big problem well i don't i think that's a political comment by jamie dimon but it's certainly not a accurate assessment of the european economy the german economy the powerhouse of europe is extremely strong despite the turbulence in the world economy if any economy is in danger i would put the focus on the american economy which is simply going down the tubes every month every week every day so there the situation has no prospect of getting better in the next forseeable several years from so she is going back to a europe again european leaders plan to meet again at the end of the month to work

on agreements made in december including tighter budget controls more penalties for the biggest spending but how much hopeful recovery can we pin on that meeting. well that meeting pre-sale not sure that we can pin a lot of hope on recovery but the. excuse me the economic activity on the ground in the real economy is what's going to count at the end of the day the greens the greek economy is the disaster zone italy is is far from a disaster zone it has problems but it's not a disaster spain has a huge overhang of the real estate from the real estate boom several years ago but going on for me there but overall the european economies i think are basically fairly robust unless we have a huge spike in world oil prices and something. in the persian gulf in the next always good to get your in for use william f. william angle sorry about that well thanks for being on the line from frankfurt

there pretty like you like you. as a ram and the u.s. in gauging a political standoff america's mainstream media are being accused of fueling the fire sanctions over to rand's nuclear program and uncertainty in the gulf provided news outlets in the states a platform to speculate over the likelihood of war and its artie's got a teacher can reports next 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 for a host of hardline speakers on us mainstream media seem to be pushing the audience to believe that war is inevitable and the better way to prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons is to attack its nuclear weapons program directly although experts say war with iran is far from being inevitable i don't think that we are very get that is to say at the precipice the media are already preparing the grounds for it

solves five misinforming the public games 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 field formation 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 back kurds have already been in the country monitoring iran's nuclear facilities when the 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 and two 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 your in the field 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 perch actual war media analysts say since the intervention in libya all of us media have been instrumental in making americans get used to the idea that washington will continue to intervene militarily in foreign affairs i worked at newsweek and as goes a.p. and other major u.s. news organizations and the and what i saw especially in

a place like newsweek was this idea that the media was actually part of the establishment that it was 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 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 song going to american ship when in fact it's something because of a cold banker 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. . the era of a one party system because externally is no over after sunday's preliminary election results two more political factions are heading into the lower house of the country's parliament with the president's party still holding a majority i always see observers who claim the vote was undemocratic but other international monitors have praised it is transparent and fair elections were held

after president nursultan nazarbayev dissolved parliament last autumn in order to make it more representative in december because it's done so violent clashes that killed sixty in the only town where workers were protesting against layoffs take you around the world elsewhere now first to pakistan where the supreme court charged the country's prime minister yousuf killarney with contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution now 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 further. violence has erupted between rival militia groups in the libyan city of god leaving at least three dead and around fifty injured clashes began when the local military council the mother to try to hand over members accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the fighting is included the use of rockets and machine guns 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 a woman gadhafi. a car bomb in the iraqi city of mosul has killed at least eight people and wounded six others now that 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 has left one hundred forty dead since last month. one twenty four pm moscow time a few minutes we'll look at how a shift in power in georgia eight years ago impacts on the country's art and culture the big impact they're more about than shortly after we caught up on all the day's a busy business corrina see an egg. hi welcome to business here in r.t. thanks for joining me european equities have turned positive in late trading after the french government successfully sold treasury bills that's the spike the fact that standard and poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine eurozone nations including france let's take a look at the numbers now you case once again over

a quarter of a percent as median publishing company pearson rose two point seven percent in germany the dax was supported by a two point nine percent gain for car make a dime or a two percent rise b.m.w. u.s. markets were closed on monday for new looking during the day. we were in moscow the markets ended in the black ignoring the fridge agency decision to cut the outlook on russia's debt rating from positive to stable the r.t.s. closed over half a percent higher demise it was up just the knowledge we combined trading volume yes animals exceeded ten trillion dollars last year that's the period to be the best result not only among c.i.s. countries but in western europe as well analysts say it was supported by the operational effect of the merger of russia's two main bourses now here are the main movers over my six energy majors were supported by from the oil prices the largest private oil company look oil and it just under a percent higher on monday preferred shares of pipeline operator transcript were down struggling to keep up last week's momentum stocks were on the rise spared by

again point four percent. from b. to b. capital wraps up today's trade. in the morning the market opened up and down 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 think it's natural from yield to from yields to maturity you see that. france already perceived by the market to be a more risky investment than germany bonds were the same reaction towards the end of the day the market more was flooded out than image because different across the board for instance gas promo. is in the day slightly higher it is manager of an buys trade for the oil price so for russia this remains a pretty big factor and it would be it will be closely watched by the investment

community now there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine according to commerce sites ukraine quoting local energy ministry sources he says now ready to sell one third of its national pipeline operator to russia in return for gas discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting on at least half of not to gus kiev says it can't 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 of snow has laid on friday the european union joined in saying it's ready to play a part in the talks last going to give her expected to restart negotiations on tuesday but analysts say ukraine's economy might not cope with reduced gas supplies . while that's all the business news but remember you can always find more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash this. last

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markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to the reports. to the top stories tonight bleak at loggerheads. intervention in syria other members warn could lead to region wide on the rest of damascus has announced a general amnesty for political prisoners and of course. the u.k. . pushing for a tough. which to run as promised accounted by blocking the bible from citigroup says it will take military action in the persian gulf if the islamic state carries out its threat.