increasing the numbers and also by providing training by the u.n. to these officials now we've actually been following them for the past five days and what's become extremely clear is that certainly what is needed now is more facilitation of dialogue between all these different groups that you see now in the country between the opposition between the government one of the major questions being raised at the end of this particular mandate was just how successful the mission had been in sort of advancing the situation here in the country need that's where the u.n. training is going to come and play a very pivotal role because what's desperately needed in the country right now are people who are very experienced conflict resolution to stop promoting genuine dialogue now between all the many different sides nuclear really was the need to bridge these widening gaps than in the town of zabadani we actually visited there

yesterday with the if that is he remained in the country this is the area that you see in the so-called free syrian army take control of and in the past few days a temporary ceasefire because between the government forces and free syrian army so we've seen inside 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 but it's actually an actual fight very very difficult to know exactly who is in charge here the people's houses that we were showing in the city center had been absolutely devastated by the fighting with the children who have been showing us some of the bullet casings that they've found around the area at all the houses in this part you can see the destruction from the fighting that's been going are. very dramatic. in this area and that's what's extremely concerning the people who are still living hurt externally dangerous. situation it's not

really clear who exactly is in charge of his think killing hate and that makes the situation very very dangerous and this human cost of the conflict that there has been devastatingly high at absolutely essential for everyone right now is the fight that kind of resolution the president had been invited by the crowd was out there. that the dow there had. meanwhile the opposition syrian national council says it plans to press the u.n. security council for intervention in the country to repair part by an arrest the council believes the arab league observers have been useless in ending the crisis and insists that foreign involvement may be the only way out as artie's for murray if an ocean reports there are doubts though about the opposition leader's motives how he told us 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 s. and c. was created for our main goal is to help the syrian people there present

them and their international community in order to reach this syrian people freedom although it's been run by paris based exile. in the absence he has been recognized as the country's legitimate government by the new libyan authorities and supported by some even and nato countries which has made some down to 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.

also well it's not just their names they have in common support and sponsor from abroad think he lives 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 well we have. you know we have to be executed there hallett 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 copper age and with the free syrian army fighters who have defected from assad's military in was a clear shift from the essences initial entirely known armed peaceful stance. 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 is a top is all parents operation where this year that the gas has been used to at us and i just made to watch it because they don't want they want to destabilize syria because they want syria to be part of nato at least late to label the opposition claims is just a matter of time before the joint efforts sooner or later will force president assad out his a term and 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. alastair cook to rescue director of conflicts forum in beirut and a former e.u. middle east peace mediator tells r.t. earlier that despite the syrian opposition efforts many think western interference

would end in disaster. b.-o. position is is deeply divided the syrian national council which was set up to model the libyan benghazi transitional council does not reflect the painting on the inside syria and it's very clear and by that i mean opposition inside syria you know most of whom on not starting to see. even though they are very much in favor of reforms and demanding reforms that take place they fear that external intervention certainly anything on the libyan model would be a disaster internally and would carry the state towards either sectarian civil war deputy leader of libya's ruling national transitional council says he's stepping down after a series of protests against the country's new leaders saturday crowd stormed the council headquarters in benghazi angry at the slow pace of democratic change and

demanding the government's resignation protesters threw stones and metal bars at the building in the first acts of violence against libya's interim government demonstrators had been rallying for weeks in benghazi the center of last year's revolution against the khadafi regime they accuse the leadership of lacking transparency and want to know how libya's assets are being spent adrian cell bucci an expert on north african affairs and international consultant doesn't think the non-elected government is pursuing the people's interests. mission in libya for example who's not in the country libya already had the highest standard of living in all of north africa where libya does have is the largest global oil reserve and the oil reserve in africa and that is what the national transitional council are being supported for in order that they should promote western oil companies western financial interests in libya and the people will just have to be rolled out but people have already been killed a little vulnerable genocide has taken place as we've seen in iraq so in

a way the same pattern is repeated over and over again. where there's a double standard they say that they are promoting democracy but what they are basically doing is promoting the financial and political interests of the global power elite embedded inside the united states britain the european union and israel stay with us here on r.t. still to come this hour another country trying to rise from revolution in egypt now facing the consequences of democracy its pot so hard for as islamists sweep the board in recent elections. but first anger reaching a boiling point in romania which is seeing its worst violence in years as anti austerity protesters clashed with police for the second week running people have been demanding that the president and government step down this against a backdrop of wage cuts and tax hikes in the e.u. second poorest country struggling to meet the demands of international creditors artie's tom barton has the latest from bucharest. night and day they come to screen their defiance by a single stare at sea and

a feeling the government isn't listening have spilled over into anger even violence . our youth has no future they have no jobs. motive water is sixty she's worked all her life in a textile factory in bucharest but now she is forced to pay for social security out of her small pension. they need to give us a fair pension and not tell us they're boring the money because they don't have it . or is not just here for herself her son left romania but it's illegal to try and find work young rumanians feel trapped in the directing most of the around the president. protesters accuse him of trampling over democracy and presiding over a political elite riddled with corruption. we want to take dissent screwed down down with disaster our parents left us with

a heritage and we're leaving our children with just debt an international monetary fund loan in two thousand and nine came with tough conditions the remaining in government has tried to force its financial house into water budget and benefit cuts slashed pay pension freezes falling living standards but some say it's the people who are now being forced to pay for the mistakes of the few who steered the country to economic disaster. this was done at the expense of there are many in state and now those who hadn't been guilty for this situation they didn't even profited from it had to pay 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 storm all around us unfortunately is a mighty tempest with economic consequences that inevitably affect us too. not good

enough said the opposition who argue of course that they could do better every day discouraged inefficient government stays in power as a dane last for rumania or judy is to shorten the period as much as we can honest fast as we can by fair elections with many now accepting there is no escape economically politics for them offers the only hope of change and that leads straight back out onto the streets. these. are not the words of the foundation of the world on like it was for. them there was tara to watch it and the fear of the president about to have it here and you can see why when many want to tear it all down. i don't start today yet on boston i am going to read romania yeah it is now staying with europe it's decision day in croatia where people have been voting their on e.u. accession polls have just closed the results are due later tonight the outcome hard

to predict as recent surveys show the country split down the middle on saturday police clashed with protesters who tried to pulled out of new flag ahead of the referendum if the result is a yes croatia will join a bloc by july of next year but only if its membership is approved by all twenty seven member states investment advisor patrick young says it's easy to understand those opposing the move because croats see their euro neighbors facing tough times . the key consideration here is that when we look at the croatian referendum there's been barely one m.p. in the entire parliament who's actually been turning round to the publicly saying anything against the e.u. itself so the fact that we have this amazing groundswell of support at something like forty percent easing credible it demonstrates the fact that the political classes are completely and utterly touch with what the people are thinking and what the people are thinking is quite simple they've seen neighbors big seen similar who are emerging european countries such as themselves people like slovakia slovenia is

stony up all coming into the europe european union they've joined the euro zone and they find it the worst poison chalice imaginable because slovakia nurses and pensioners are not getting paid a third of what they would get paid if they were working in greece and to add insult to injury they're actually paying money to the greeks in order to support their euro zone bailout so they see neighboring countries such as hungary i mean the government of hungry for the past two weeks have been vilified by the european union i'm not going to get into the argument to find out whether or not the prime minister is right or wrong there but certainly people get very very unfairly very uneasy about things that are being said. patrick young talking about e.u. pressure on hungary and on saturday crowds of more than one hundred thousand took to the streets of the capital budapest supporting their government which recently came under fire from the e.u. for passing what brussels thought to be anti-democratic laws it also stalled bell out of talks with the i.m.f. prompting threats of court action this week hungary's prime minister backed down in

the dispute saying the legislation will be changed. artie's tom barton is on top of the events in the region and you can follow all of the latest developments by his twitter feed you can check it out at our t underscore codd along with his personal tweet twitter page for the latest on one hundred just deal with the e.u. also the latest on the croatian referendum which he says drew fewer people to the polls have been extracted all that click away right now. europe and the u.s. have expressed their willingness to return to talks with iran over the country's controversial nuclear program but despite this the e.u. seemingly still set to approve an embargo on iranian oil france even says the time to avoid military intervention is running out as for the u.s. this week it strengthened its president presence in the region sending a second aircraft carrier to the arabian sea it's reportedly planning to sail through the strait of hormuz which iran has threatened to block in response to sanctions the straits a strategic waterway which the majority of oil exports from the gulf to the west

passes through brian becker from the antiwar answer coalition things washington maybe deliberately escalating the situation to create the pretext version change. the united states government has created an artificial crisis that's first and foremost it's a manufactured crisis iran is complying with the i.a.e.a. iran does not have a nuclear weapon iran is not threaten its neighbors iran has not started a war with any of its neighbors israel on the other hand has hundreds of nuclear weapons and unlike iran refuses to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty does not allow. inspectors into its country so there's not really a nuclear menace or a nuclear danger from iran and so what is the cause what's the cause of the crisis of the artificial crisis the real goal is the united states government has embarked on a course of extreme economic aggression against iran with the hope that by creating

economic suffering economic isolation economic misery that part of the population will rise up or become disenfranchised with the government so that the u.s. can do as it has in history carry out regime change in iran was the main issue discussed by u.s. and israeli military officials when they met friday the two allies are at odds over the need for a preemptive strike against iranian nuclear sites with washington urging tel aviv not to rush into an attack policy reports there are those in israel still expecting a war at any moment with indications that covert warfare may be already underway. from this rather spartan recording studio in jerusalem one israeli jew has been reaching out to people in the ran 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 iranians tune in and the topic they most want to talk about the possibility

of a foreign attack on iran they are very much afraid that the iranian nuclear installations will be bombed by 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 action for more crippling sanctions quoting the secretary of state clinton then israel would take the initiative and strike a blow some wonder if israel hasn't already declared an unofficial war on terror and what suspicions raised 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 project 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 grumbly nation but. iran has many enemies. in mind and it's not beyond imagination adding fuel to the fire the plan for israel and the united states to conduct their biggest joint military drill before the end of the year it would see thousands of american troops deployed in israel for

a ran it's the most blatant sign that in attacks coming but no one in israel will come on record and say there is a covert war on iran all talk of an israeli strike is limited to the airwaves policia r.t. jerusalem. twenty minutes past the hour still to come here on r t espionage embarrassment for the u.k. is moscow reveals the secret of britain's spying stone but why it took london six years to finally come clean after the kremlin showcases rock solid evidence. but first the u.s. congress has recalled two controversial anti-piracy bills this week after a massive internet blackout and hacker attacks on government websites millions of net users and web giants such as google and wikipedia joined together to stand against the proposed legislation which was dubbed sopa and pipa if the laws had passed they would have allowed top media conglomerates and copyright holders to shut down large parts of the web at the same time the anonymous hacker group retaliated against the shutdown of the file sharing site mega upload claiming to

have brought down the f.b.i. and white house websites in response barrett brown who's worked with the anonymous on various operations and is sometimes seen as the face of the group believes the mega upload showdown to shut down shows the government can take action even without new laws in place the problem is that the track record of the us and all governments. is such that giving them power to do one thing is almost always interpreted by themselves as a means of power many other things so and the way that you know this that the raid on megaupload cars in this opens it shows that even without sopa already in place here they are already arresting and resting the owners of megaupload and shutting it down and in the future a very near future as you'll see there will be a number of other groups that will pop up using more. military not goods and situation gets worse in the grass until such point as the notable civil war in the us occurs. take

a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe in a farewell speech yemen's president ali abdullah saleh has apologized for making mistakes and said it's time to hand over power he's leaving the country to have medical treatment in the u.s. he evans' parliament recently approved immunity from prosecution for a solid who's been accused of suppressing protests and ordering the deaths of demonstrators he is not expected to return to the country. another bombing on saturday night in the north nigerian state of bouche he has killed eleven people including several police and army personnel patrolling the checkpoint two churches in the area also attacked meanwhile the death toll from a series of bombings in kaino on friday now exceeds one hundred seventy continuing to rights islam a sect boko haram claimed responsibility for the majority of the of violence plaguing northern nigeria since christmas. and presidential hopeful newt gingrich's convincingly won south carolina's republican primary in the us but when

it comes as a surprise since gingrich finished last in two other states south carolina is seen as a significant indicator the winner there has won the nomination for the presidential candidacy every year since one thousand nine hundred the turnaround closes a gap between gingrich and fellow republican contender mitt romney as both look to challenge barack obama in the november election. this week a former british official admittedly u.k. spies had been caught red handed by russia but it took six years from when the kremlin first made the allegations artie's eye for bennett explains how moscow left no stone unturned. it's not exactly the most glamorous of james bond gadgets but hidden in this fake stone was a high tech transmitted british spooks used to spy on russia the allegations from moscow have always been dismissed but six years on there is rock solid evidence the u.k. can no longer deny tony blair's former chief of staff come clean admitting british

spies were caught red handed the spy rock was embarrassing they had us bang to rights clearly they had known about it for some time and had been saving it up for a political purpose. the embarrassing revelations confirmed the findings of a russian television report in two thousand and six it showed this video of a man slowing down and looking at the rock as he passed apparently an agent beaming top secret intelligence from a mobile computer to a digital drop point concealed in the stone another man was filmed picking up the rug and collecting the data. the moment of was the one behind the exposé and left no stone unturned. at first i had to be dealt i thought it might be a fake story or a political game but we cross checked everything with multiple sources and it turned out to be true some footage we didn't include in the film was particularly

convincing for example there was a video of a british spy unit in front of the camera general's hidden under a tree in the songs lying nearby the guy wanted to look natural so he pretended that he needed to take a leak n.e.p. right in front of a camera before picking up a stone and leaving. but it was his word against his britain fiercely denied the allegations with tony blair laughing them off as russian propaganda the truth was buried inside the u.k. secret service headquarters supposedly never to be seen again so after six years of dodging the bullet why admit it now they're very embarrassing but i think that the british government has decided. to have bygones are bygones and say ok we made a mistake. and we want better relations from now on so i would see this as a first step on the road to improve relations with russia this is the home of britain's spooks m i six the government is

a broad their job may not be secret but how they do it is or at least should be so the embarrassment of these are relations is not so much the spying itself but the fact they were caught doing it a post cold war agreement supposedly forbids britain and russia from spying on each other no doubt they'll be more careful from now on either bennett r.t. london. if you minutes i'll be back with a recap of the main headlines stay with us here on r.t. .

when can uncomfortable question leads to a grave accusation towards who is more is enough obviously. the president who isn't supposed to hide anything. where it's someone asking him why do you make a secret out but when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different culture when you go experiencing very serious problems often the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three but if you will that

was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were all from beason up and humiliated in public and one of the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger in fact we have been deprived of the only names if earning a living i have gone to the originals of all the papers. the little guys the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop. says .

i am. sick of. coming. ten thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines arab league officials say their observer mission in syria that expired this week will be extended for another month and the number of monitors will also be stepped up this despite criticism from the syrian opposition that wants to see the u.n. step in. voting in croatia on whether the country should join the e.u. with the issue already sparking protests and some violent clashes as the bloc continues to be shaken by anti austerity rallies with people in romania now rising

up against their government and. other stories shaping the week tensions around terrazas nuclear program stirred further by e.u. plans to impose an embargo on iranian oil and the us building its warship presence in the region. and the power of the internet in action a massive online backlash over u.s. plans to expand web censorship leads to the suspension of pending anti-piracy laws . when it comes to big money in u.s. politics lobby ins are the people who know exactly how it works jack aber mob used to be one of them until he was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud for his role in an extensive corruption case he tells us now why he thinks washington may be corrupt to the core of the interview coming up. i'm sitting down with jack off once the most powerful lobbyist.