well coming to ten pm here in moscow my name's kevin zero in first this hour at r.t. the arab league is divided over qatari proposal to send troops into syria should if he is president has warned it could see violence flare up across the whole region the america tour 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 is rule in libya meantime serious amounts to release prisoners jail during the uprising this move complies with the arab league peace plan which syria accepted in november r.t. sara first reports from damascus on. free at last strings 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 being selected for release this evening you can see the signing on this is being seen by some of the arab league observers here. this is part of the amnesty announced by president assad of it of course for everyone he's now being released from detention questions being asked about actually why they were detained in the first place you know. i've been in prison for four months i was accused of weakening national security i didn't protest they brought me here by mistake the honesty is a good step i just hope it includes everyone. i had some weapons i had inherited from my grandfather and was accused of bearing illegal weapons i've been here three months when people heard about the amnesty they were ecstatic they never thought this could happen. here in the. the announcement

follows calls from fatah leader military intervention in syria if the violence doesn't stop when general secretary thank you mean president assad to end the bloodshed and set the age of ten a season one man rule in the arab world and some critics however feel these statements risk inflaming in a way the highly volatile situation must be amnestied 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 the move being described by some opposition groups as being little more than a just. listen to me when all political prisoners are number one the rest said 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 dialogue but you know if your family just is welcome or can just hope to be freed over the coming days but outside the prison

walls people in the country remain trapped in a situation of escalating violence in which so far this seems. the nastiest. few times correspondent pepe escobar points out the arab league itself mostly consists of oppressive monarchy so the pressure on syria has got nothing to do with worries about democracy. don't forget that all of these are genes are doctor sees that the local populations have no possibility at all for a 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 person gulf monarchies trying to teach the world lessons on the markets like the home saying the whole scheme is sampson literally upsurge to start with so can we imagine if we had what we seen in syria inside easter saudi arabia

for instance all because no calls for democracy no calls for deposing the government like qatar as they nowadays imagine not not only imagine look at what happened sobering system beginning of the pro-democracy protests in manama almost a year ago there were oppression was total with help from saudi arabia and the emirates so the same persian gulf banner kids were 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 sixpence and go mark. i just let you know if you'd like to get more news more perspective from syria you can visit the blog about his international correspondent sara firth it's on our website r t v dot com the stories there to the twenty first century titanic that's what the big story of the week was and you get the latest information on the rescue operation that's still taking place off the italian coast with that cruise ship capsized with over four thousand people on board also lashing out over

a thousand demonstrators cause mayhem in bucharest as we've been reporting over the past couple of days they're angry at the government the latest wave of a stereotype cuts there watched the video along with many others on our you tube channel. as a run of the west stepped up their war of words over the islamic states nuclear program the u.k. is refusing to rule out taking military action foreign secretary william hague also spoke of his confidence that an e.u. would bargo on a rainy an oil will be in place by the end of the month parties are the bennett reports 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 the 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 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 threat 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 all very

interested in what you think and today we're asking what the e.u. ban on a rainy and on a rainy imports is really all about show you got your views and let us know what r.t. dot com you can take part in our latest global web poll this is what you're telling us this hour over a third of you saying it's a strategy that will not benefit the e.u. in the long run come a close second the opinion that iran will simply find new buyers. as you see there almost a quarter of you believe it's an empty threat that means nothing with a view to night as well and a minority saying it's a move that will scare around into compliance you can go online cast your vote right now. so while you are up considers its next step in that standoff with iran the u.s. media is already deep in a conflict of its own. story two options. or let iran get the bar american journalists are accused of once again hyping up tension between washington and its next enemy to win public support got more mother head. why thousands of

children across britain are finding themselves left in the cold this winter. russia's prime minister has set out his campaign plans for a third presidential term this year writing in one of the country's leading newspapers putin voiced his vision for russia's future and addressed issues raised by opposition parties but he's a really good report. 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 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 police and in fact the education levels when the 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 more in 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 as such an abrupt change in the governmental system may have diarrhea effect on the country and he did talk at length about the situation be 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 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 he'll see 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 not experience in that area and of course our also is a major contributor to g eight twenty and the united nations and the role of these are going to say so it's something which also should be taken into account and he also 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. just like you know that article by vladimir putin's available for you in full if you'd like to catch it on our web site t. dot com. european markets remain stable monday despite the wave of credit downgrade across the eurozone by the ratings giant standard and poor's slashed the credit scores of ninety you countries on friday including france which lost its aaa status and also austria too but other ratings agencies fitch has moved to say they're set to maintain france's top rating for now there's no panic among e.u. leaders at least publicly french president nicolas sarkozy said the downgrade will not damage his policies author and financial analyst says that u.s. based credit agencies and losing their credibility in the role that the u.s. agencies have played since the greek crisis erupted in december all nine has been what many people here see as a brazenly political rule so i don't think they're the independent agencies that

they portray themselves to be many times when it comes to the interest of the wall street banks the so-called gobs of money banks like goldman sachs or others they tend to be rather leave me and when it comes to the interests of european institutions they tend to be rather aggressive which leads many europeans that i talk with to think that the. rated agencies are simply an extension of the us political apparatus of the treasury and wall street standard and poor's has played a rather late in aggressive movement in this whole raveling of the europeans euro crisis since december of zero nine so people here are beginning to get used to it and if anyone loses in the end it's going to be the credibility of institutions like standard and poor's and moody's. as a run of the u.s. a gauge of 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 and provided news outlets in the states of platform to speculate of the

likelihood of war it is that he's got it she can reports now 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 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 the 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 are 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 jeff cohen was a senior producer of a popular t.v. show before the iraq invasion he says they were under pressure from their bosses to root for war because their owners benefited from it it was a constant pressure campaign. to make sure that the 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 says the intervention in libya the 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 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 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 words 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 then war and death i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. the era of a one party system in kazakhstan is now over after sunday's preliminary election results to all 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 have claimed that the vote was a democratic but rather international monitors of praise that 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 of violent clashes that killed sixteen in an oil town where workers were protesting against layoffs. brief and first to pakistan where the supreme court charged the

country's province to use if the largely with contempt raising the possibility of his prosecution the proceedings were initiated for failing to carry out a court order to open a corruption probe against president asif ali zardari has been told to appear in court on thursday. as roughly between rival militia groups in the libyan city of guardian leaving at least three dead and around fifty injured clashes began when the local military council demanded to try and open and was accused of aiding colonel gadhafi the fighting is included 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 three thousand people as well as the street killing of one of the. a car bomb in the iraqi city of mosul has killed at least eight and wounded six others that blast happened outside a residential complex which houses displaced cheer 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. and the failed mars probe

returned to earth russian space agencies confirm that some of the debris fall into the pacific ocean most of the probe burnt up during the reentry into the atmosphere but estimated two hundred kilos of material did make it through no one was hurt by the falling debris despite earlier speculation that it could land an urban area of progress launched two months ago and was supposed to collect sole samples from a martian mood but who want to find out more about the failed mission won't take a journey over to our web site r.t. dot com got plenty more about that there tonight if you're interested. 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 and failing between the cracks falling weather to the cracks of government subsidies many children for themselves left out of the cold marti's 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 there more go to the bill and for food and school uniform then you don't have not interstate so that's the difficult bit of what you're going to have to eat all of them have to eat and their school uniform i have to buy and on top of that cloud down the electricity use and the live bill i 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 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 general. 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 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 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 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 where god late and they don't concentrate my twosome was in big trouble or the time to run a detention tired scene is knowledge of the play call mafia go us 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 r.t. london. he just a few minutes we got some inside analysis for you on the u.s. presidential race that's coming up in our latest interview right after rick up of

our a top stories in the latest business news right now with a new hampshire behind the curtain across america on the target a day after the news for you last week of course of the markets opening this new start of the week that's right actually european equities have turned positive in late trading after the french government successfully sold treasury bills and now all of that despite the fact that standard and poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine years of nations including france let's take a look at the numbers now u.k.'s foot seek gains over a quarter of a percent as media and publishing company pearson rose two point seven percent in germany the dax was supported by a two point five percent gain for a comic a diner and a two percent rise for wyvil b.m.w. u.s. markets are closed on monday for martin luther king jr day let's take a look at moscow now where markets seem to be north of agency decision to cut the outlook on russia's debt rating from positive to stable both the r.t.s. and markets close in the black although the my sixty just. the combined trading

volume on the odd chance and my six exceeded ten trillion dollars last year that appear to be the best result not only among c.i.s. countries but in western europe as well analysts say was supported by the operational effect of the merger of russia's two main bourses now you're the main movers on them isaacs on monday and a g. major is mostly high supported by strong but world prices the largest private all company look oil and it just under a percent in the black preferred shares of pipeline operator transnet were down struggling to keep up last week's momentum and banking stocks are on the rise again point four percent. for v.b. capital wrapping up today's trade. and warning the market opened up one percent mainly driven by sentiment from reaching downgrades in europe nine countries are. 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 german bonds with the same rating towards the end of the day the market more or less flooded and then emit because different across the board for instance gas from. slightly higher it is mainly driven by straight fuel prices so for russia this remains a pretty big factor and would be will be closely watched by the investment community and there's a new twist in the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine the cording to commerce and ukraine that quote local energy ministry sources is now ready to sell one third of its national plan operated to russia in return for gas discounts but moscow is reportedly insisting on at least half of death to gas key of says it cannot afford the price specified in the current contract and insists on cutting

imports russian gas by half russia's gas from says the crane could have reduced its order but by no more than twenty percent and only with six months of notice late on friday the european union joined in saying it's ready to play a part of the talks moscow in kiev are expected to restart negotiations on tuesday and say ukraine's economy might not cope with reduced gas lines. that's all the business news for now if i was stories on our website out to dot com slash business or watch.

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calls for intervention in syria could lead to region wide unrest meantime damascus is a. political prisoners in accordance with the peace. pushing for a tough. group says it will take military action in the persian gulf if the islamic state.