in capital damascus now controlled by opposition forces. the arab league observe a delegation is in cairo at the moment presenting their findings that the spy the arab league observers mission mandate having finished you can see they continue to travel around the country to look at what's going on been seen as further evidence by some people that this mission is to continue possibly for another month one of the observers that i spoke to earlier of camera when i asked whether they would be staying here longer whether the mission would be extended he said it looked like it would be this is the area that you see the cycle free syrian army take control of and in the past few days a temporary cease fire because between the government forces and free syrian army sweeping into the city to see what's been happening certainly it's an area extremely divided on one side you've got the government in control on the other side the free syrian army the arab league observers have been meeting some of the

government officials here in downtown started on the to try and start to see exactly what it is has been happening in the city where the children have been showing us some of the bullet casings that they've found around the area all the houses in this part you can see the destruction from the fighting this be going are very very dramatic. this very nice was extremely concerning the people who are still living her to extremely dangerous situation it's not really clear who exactly is in charge being killing hate and that makes the situation very very dangerous indeed this is the remains of one of the houses the civilians to thank were targeted by security forces people careless faeces never done a chance saying a cooling phrase fish even close to the conflict in syria has been devastatingly high and absolutely essential for everyone right now is to find some kind of resolution that prison and the might is the. by the way. that is done.

opposition activists from syria's national council have formally asked the arab league to refer the crisis to the u.n. security council but as are often an hour before there are doubts over whether it's peace the hour after. howlett ho jeff from the syrian national council the country's main official opposition body says making the people's voice louder and bring in an end to the violence is what the essence he was created for our main goal is to help the syrian people there present them and their to national community in order to reach this syrian people freedom although it's been run by paris based example that hamdani in the absence he has been recognized as the country's legitimate government by the new libyan authorities and supported by some and nato countries which has made some doubt the council's innocent intentions with

regards to libya the promise that nato made to the national transitional council perspective leaders was that they be given a major seat at the table in a new libya so there is power broking going on behind the scenes and i absolutely wager that the same thing is happening with syria they've either been bought off financially or they've been promised a major role in a new syrian regime libya's national transitional council and the syrian national council and it's not just their names they have in common supported and sponsored from abroad think he writes opposition forces and their major goal is to overthrow the regime but there is a difference to the absences huts courters are not in damascus but here in istanbul we are not talking about democratic regime if i go to syria now we have. you know we have to be executed there howlett says he spent fifteen years in jail in the one

nine hundred seventy s. and eighty's just because his father supported the opposition he claims nothing has changed since then and the oppression has to stop but how is another matter claiming they're only going to rely on political and diplomatic pressure the asson see to is. now copywriting with the free syrian army fighters who have defected from assad's military in was a clear shift from the u.s. and sees initial entirely nor armed peaceful stance to the cows who also sees humanitarian corridors and buffer zones as options to protect civilians in syria even though these might mean foreign troops arriving this isn't made to istanbul patios operation where to syria that the gas is being used to activists inside jeddah they need to ensure that because they don't want they want to destabilize syria because they want syria to be part of nato at least lead to maybe the opposition claims is just

a matter of time before the joint after his sooner or later will force president assad out on his attorneys to stay but the question remains exactly how long should these people have to wait for the bloodshed to stop and how many of them will actually see the end of it. turkey. and coming up later in the program here in r t when the rose tinted glasses of the revolution give way to a crystal clear view of reality. here gats new political face with islamic parties dominating the recently elected parliament sparking concerns the country will now become a diplomatic headache for the west. and you know also check out our website arche dot com for more first hand reports from countries where arab spring if oriel quickly gave way to disillusionment and outcry testaments.

now this week saw more clouds gathering over the standoff surrounding iran the u.s. and israeli officials held close talks on friday regarding the tan situation in the persian gulf while the exact contents were not disclosed the u.s. was expected to have urged israel not to rush an attack on iran while washington tries to garner an additional global support against iran before that israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu urged the. oil as quickly as possible over to iran's alleged nuclear weapons program meanwhile iran has been threatening to block a key trade route out of the persian gulf if sanctions are imposed on its own exports the u.s. has been amassing forces in the region with thousands of troops sent to israel for war games and two battleships groups arriving in their arabian sea philip giraldi from the council of foreign national interest in washington says that while the

main danger is a spike in oil prices the standoff could escalate into something much more serious . good for iran even makes an attempt to block the straits of hormuz oil prices will probably double or treble this saying is that the real danger here is that it could produce a shooting war if the united states does follow through on its resolve to keep the straits open which will be that easy and i think that it virtually guarantees that iranian naval forces and u.s. naval forces would come into conflict with a worst case scenario was world war three i'm afraid the problem is that iran is is surrounded by a number of countries that are are essentially hostile to it and some of them are nuclear armed and this is a perfect cauldron for for starting something with a very minor relatively minor incident that escalates and escalates and escalates and wanted to present as a major war with regional tensions simmering people are an adjutant not only in

iran but also in israel as policy reports many there are expecting a war at any moment and some experts say covert warfare is already underway. from this rather spartan recording studio in jerusalem one israeli jew has been reaching out to people in iran for fifty two years ties between tel aviv in tehran off a bit in but it's never stopped menasha amir from reading the news in farsi every night and hosting a weekly show for listeners in the persian world to share their views he thinks around a million rain ians tune in and the topic they most want to talk about the possibility of a foreign attack on iran and they are very much afraid that the iranian nuclear installations will be bombed by a foreign powers where they're israel or the united states or any other country but it's not only the rain ians who are suspicious of israel or america taking action people here in israel since something's in the air you can see signs of wink and

nod from israeli officials when talking about it israel is signaling to the world. if the world doesn't do anything if the wall doesn't call for more fierce actions or more crippling sanctions quoting the secretary of state clinton then israel would take the initiative and strike along some wonder if israel hasn't already declared an unofficial war on terror and what suspicions waste further after the assassination of another iranian nuclear scientist earlier this month while on his way to work putting everything together it is clear that whoever it is but if someone or somebody or some agency is very successful in infiltrating understanding last sabotaging the iranian nuclear for the attack is the latest in a series of mysterious accidents linked to iran's nuclear program two aircraft accidents in the space of three years scientists disappearing equipment damaged and computer viruses unleashed and the fingers pointing at israel. and the united

states this is a very respectable grimmer nation but. iran has made many moves. is as good as mines it's not beyond imagination adding fuel to the fire the plan for israel and the united states to conduct the biggest joint military drill before the end of the year it would see thousands of american troops deployed in israel for you ran it's the most blatant sign that in a text coming but no one in israel will come on record and say there is a covert war on the run all talk of an israeli strike is limited to the air waves. jerusalem as if sanctions sabotage and a military buildup near its borders were enough yet another front has opened up for the embattled islamic republic tehran's english language news channel gets the boot

from british airwaves as patients with its alternative stands runs their details are coming up next hour on r t. police clashed with protesters in the capital during an anti e.u. rally ahead of sunday's referendum over whether the country should join the european union at least three people were arrested in this couple which erupted as the task force tried to take down an e.u. flag in the center of the city some of the demonstrators were reportedly injured by police a recent survey showed at least forty percent of gracious population are against joining the euro. to similar scenes now remaining which this week has had some of its biggest protest in years outraged with pay cuts and corruption people gathered in the streets of bucharest to call on the country's president to step down friday hundreds were arrested and dozens injured as police used tear gas to disperse crowds bucharest dumbarton has the story. night and day they come to scream their defiance biting austerity and the feeling the government isn't

listening have spilled over into anger even violence not even. of come here for the pain of their mean people the pain of the entire country for twenty two years old they have done is destroyed the entire country our youth has no future they have no jobs. mostly water is sixty she's worked all her life in a textile factory in book arrest but now she is forced to pay for her social security out of her small pension. whether you're young or you're a pensioner you need a pension when you get old they need to give us a fair pension and not tell us they're borrowing the money because they don't have it. is not just here for herself her son left her mania but it's illegal to try and find work young rumanians feel trapped and directing most of their anger at the president try and. protest as accuse him of trampling over democracy and

presiding over a political elite riddled with corruption. who wants to descend down down with disaster as parents left us with a heritage and we are leaving our children to just debt the problem it's the younger ones let me too to have a. good life you know mania. and we are not allowed to have peace because of stupidity of the high levels of government that parliament. and international monetary fund loan in two thousand and nine came with tough conditions unlike in greece the remaining in government has tried to force its financial house into water budget benefit cuts slashed pay pension freezes falling living standards but some say it's the people who are now by. forced to pay for the mistakes of the few who stayed the country economic disaster. this was done at the

expense of their remain in state and now those who hadn't been guilty for the situation they didn't even profited from it had to play for those who had profited the government blames international economic conditions however for the country's worse. let's not forget that we're in the eye of a storm of an economic european still full around us unfortunately is a mighty tempest with economic consequences that inevitably affect us too that's not good enough said the opposition who argue of course that they could do better or more every day discourage inefficient government stays in power as a dane last for rumania or jews used to shorten the period as much as we come on fast as we can by fair elections with many of them accepting there is no escape economically politics for them offers the only hope of change and that leads straight back out onto the streets. to know what is the foundation to

build on. this territory up should. the president about to be here and you can see why remain yeah want to tear it all down yeah and start again yeah. and coming out a little later in the program the battle for scotland sovereignty yeah hell one of them has switched its p.r. machine into full throttle in apparent effort to suppress cottle's growing clamor for independence. plus the upcoming presidential election in russia stirs up political life in the country we'll look at the twists and turns of the campaign trail. from an organized internet wide blackout to some of the biggest hacker attacks on top media and u.s. government websites. this week saw an unprecedented internet revolt over new web

censorship legislation you know out of us hacker group was retaliated against a shutdown of file sharing sites and claimed to have broad down the websites of the f.b.i. and the white house millions of net users and web giants such as we can join together to stand against the proposed legislation so. the laws have passed would allow top media law marriage and copyright holders to shut down whole swathes of the web travel to tampa from the electronic frontier foundation says these laws go far beyond just fighting piracy. but fortunately the provisions were written so broadly that they would probably end up censoring millions of innocent users who never even thought about copyright infringement and the worst part was it wasn't going to stop online piracy. you know the bills didn't go directly after the owners of these sites they kind of went around everything around it so it was going to be censored domain names or they were going to be listed from search engines on the orders of the government or corporations were going to be allowed to cut off payment process

or an advertiser from these sites just basically an allegation in and out of court order and then again there was going to be broader community for a net service providers to enforce these bills so they could end up over blocking sites and capturing innocent users and even blocking sites voluntarily just on the unofficial orders of corporations so that there was a lot of a lot of free speech problems with these bills overall goal of stopping online piracy you know it's it's it's something everybody agrees with but the way they want about it was just completely. expansive and quite frankly ridiculous and if you want to give your opinion on the protests that have washington reeling or read up on the anonymous have to this group there's plenty more on our website at r.t. dot com.

the battle over of scotland's sovereignty is heating up in the u.k. with the scots being told they may hold an independence referendum only if london gives its blessing it comes as the british government fearful over a losing north sea oil reserves unleashes barrage after barrage of rhetoric against the bit but as artie's laura smith reports london's desperation is playing into the hands of scottish nationalists. britain a three hundred year old union that once ruled the waves and tossed the known world but on home soil the country's closer than ever to a messy divorce. this is the man who want scotland to go it alone nationalist party leader alex salmond's promising scots will get a say on being single but london wants to call the shots and get it done and dusted . very soon they don't want to talk about the substance i sometimes feel when i

listen to them it's not a referendum they want it's a never ending question travel debate and that's keep our country together. but why would scotland want to separate itself from a britain that still among the world's richest economies scotland always retained its own distinct national identity and the earth and peace feels it's almost time to take that one step further i hope yes from the scottish people would mean scotland would gain control over its own north sea oil and gas and represent itself on the international stage but it doesn't want to hold a referendum until two thousand and fourteen and that delay is letting london ramp up the scare stories telling scotland it'll have to pay the price such as the billions of pounds british taxpayers spent keeping scottish banks alive that it would have to find its own currency and lose thousands of jobs when the navy heads

south not that it seems to bother scots who see their country as having been strangled for long enough i don't think it's any of his business that we present a strong enough case to be independent then i can't see that he can argue against. his shock i think a shutter i don't think you should have any say in the fires of. scots have never taken kind. only to hearing stern words from the mother of all parliaments down in london but for the nationalists it's a boost to the lack luster thirty percent support for a split. but it's completely backfired it's actually been the best recruiting. i think. margaret thatcher. in the last seven days with. so you know up to now the u.k. and scotland's key players will continue to cross swords at stake but alex salmond

is a reputation built on restoring a proud scotland for prime minister cameron is the potential to become the man who led the united kingdom come apart laura smith r.t. . at last hour we report on the international blows to the u.k. at british if it comes clean about spying on russia admitting the country used a fake rob to snoop on the kremlin that's after six years of stony silence. and while public discontent and the u.s. boiled over on the internet it continued bringing people to american streets we report on the latest occupy protest in the shadow of the u.s. congress. this week russia has seen a build up of political debate for the country's fifth presidential election looming arches or in english go look at how rival camps and candidates are lining up ahead of the vote with what important setting out his vision for the country

s.e. eyes a return to the top job with just under fifty days before the march presidential election and major campaign is still simmering in the candidate's headquarters mr putin decided to unleash his powers of persuasion on the electorate and nonpublic speaker for change he's decided to be more scholarly picking up the pen for the first in a series of articles lining his vision for the future of russia what he's calling economy built. the reputation way for all that it's well like standing welcoming political dialogue in the strengthening of civil society in russia putin however said people should concentrate on just what candidates are promising to do rather than the theater of personalities we need extended dialogue about priorities about long term choices national perspective and development this article is an invitation to such dialogue it's important to say

that prime minister has never denied the possibility of establishing such a dialogue and i just recall from his revenues and this is what is making people take the initiative into their own hands this week some of the most prominent participants of december's post-election protests pulled together to form the league. constituents where should the new public mood has blossomed people are showing a desire to make an educated vote to know where their votes are going on the understanding that the country needs competitive politics those behind the new group are quick to point out they're not going to turn into a political party but do hope to become a major support group for anyone wanting to make a difference with their vote i didn't have the political activists are nothing without this type of newly found public support there to help them are the key to public support is the media and that's with him in found himself during the card criticizing one of russia's most popular radio stations and go from being two

protester in its coverage of the prime minister told its editor in chief not to take offense at his words since you don't get mad when you cover me with liquid crap from dawn till dusk on at the government. for it all thing to realize they have to think fast and act quickly in order to get the ball rolling but the presidential election is just around the corner so if they're hunched down with something that for years the political life in russia and roaring in wealth go go r.t. . the political tension across the atlantic is also on the rise as the u.s. presidential primaries bring their first surprises early results suggest that new game which has been rival republican contender mitt romney in the south carolina primary romney have been widely seen as the front runner in south carolina is a significant indicator as a winner there has won the nomination for the presidential candidates each election since nine hundred eighty that means gingrich could be the man to challenge barack

obama in the november election. right wing nationalist have clashed with thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of the portuguese capital lisbon protesting a stare and cuts but he's had to intervene and form lines to prevent the opposing groups from attacking each other portugal is locked into a three year program of debt reduction with a turn for a bailout package from the e.u. the i.m.f. . egyptian activists have been calling for nationwide street protests saying the revolution is not over and the country has a long way to democratic world this comes after islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of seventy five percent as they won the country's first post mubarak parliamentary elections the newest sample is due to sit for the first time in just two days and yacov locked in a reporter at the jewish one post says it shift will be much more hostile to the west the old regime. people have called for democracy in egypt this is the result when people call for democracy they may not always just realize that the electorate

has a very different vision of how they would like their society is run than in other places such as western europe we have islamist hard line parties coming to power and it's going to be an earthquake for both egypt and for the region the muslim brotherhood has been preparing for this moment for decades they have a very. detailed agenda for how they wish egypt to look like and it's a very different egypt from what we've known until it's going to. the a much more religious conservative place and much more hostile to the west and a few minutes we'll bring you a special report on the oil industry nigeria and what it cost to extract the black gold and that's coming your way after a quick update of the top stories in the week state this.

but. back here with a. here's a look at the top stories of the arab league is said to decide whether to give the go ahead to another month of the year of monitoring mission in syria while the opposition wants the u.n. security council to get involved. pushed to the edge of the internet or robs in a few or over plans to expand web censorship striking back with internet why blackouts and massive hacking attacks. israel and the us talk tactics over a possible conflict in the gulf as they gather forces at around the borders while

the even the fears of the world bar go over to ron's alleged nuclear ambitions. and to romania public anger spills over hundreds arrested and dozens injured as police violence amid a massive ongoing anti-government protest up next in a special report from the jury holding a huge part of the world's oil reserves the country is crisscrossed with pipelines and rife with corruption violence and pollution and while fueling the world it can feed its own people. it's like a model of cut off from everywhere accessible only by helicopter.