sarah firth reports there's a desperate need for mediation in the raging conflict. crucially it was also expected to happen is that they're going to be bolstering this mission by 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 was become extremely clear is that certainly what is needed now it 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 that's been 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 doesn't mean 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 you is that if he remained in the country this is the area that you see in the so-called free syrian army take control of it in the past few days a temporary ceasefire because between the government forces and free syrian army so we've seen in sadr city to see all streaming 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 fact 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 all the houses in this part you can see the destruction from the fighting that's

been going out there to see very much. and this is a. that's worth extremely concerning the people who were there living heard extremely dangerous situations not really clear who exactly is in charge think killing hate and that makes the situation very very dangerous and this human cost of the conflict there has been devastatingly right at absolutely essential for everyone right now is the fight that kind of resolution the president had in the invited. by the way. that he does there and. meanwhile the opposition syrian national council says it plans to press the u.n. security council for intervention in the country where thousands have died in the unrest the council believes arab league observers have been useless at ending hostilities and insists that foreign involvement is the only way out but as artie's maria financial reports there are doubts about the opposition leader's motives

holly told john 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 international community in order to reach this syrian people freedom although it's been run by the paris based exile. in the absence he has been recognized as the country's leader to make government by the new libyan authorities and supported by some easy 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 brokering going on behind the scenes and i absolutely

wager that the same thing is happening with syria it is the been finance. really 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 thinking right 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 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 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 to the cowsills who sees humanitarian corridors and buffer zones as options to protect civilians in syria even though these might mean foreign troops arriving this isn't a top istanbul paris operation where this year that gas has been used to add a vessel that generates a 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 league to label the opposition claims is just a matter of time before the joint africa sooner or later it will force president assad out 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. dr omar ashour bay

says one thing the observer mission to syria has accomplished is to show abuses how that have been committed by both sides. i think it's time in syria for dialogue and the president president assad has created the platform for such dialogue in the same time the arab league has declared that extension for the monitors mission the out of monitors mission in syria the arab monitors mission is as your report just stated a few minutes ago that it's lacking manpower it's lacking equipment it's lacking training it needs more time to actually build a comprehensive report on what's there however the first report the trillium in a report has been leaked to the media and i have i have had access to parts of this report this report shows that the there are some grave violations on both sides.

the opposition or what the so-called city and free army you have been also using heavy gunfire against civilians it's time for the opposition for face. shows a positive sign because it is of the interest of no one of no one's interests that need to or steps in they will be destruction and they will be chaos as was the case in libya and as we have seen recently in libya things are not really turning into the beautiful democracy that everybody was dreaming off and the same will happen in syria. now to developments in libya a deputy head of the country's national transitional council has announced his resignation is as a series of protests against the new government continue. has been accused of being an opportunist who switched allegiances from the gadhafi regime as the uprising. on saturday crowds of protesters stormed the m.t.c.

headquarters and angered by the way the council was handling the country's assets demonstrators threw stones and metal bars at the building breaking windows and damaging the car of the head abdul jalil real mass rallies have been raging for weeks in benghazi considered the cradle of the revolution that toppled colonel gadhafi. a spokesman for british civilians for peace in libya says the council is failing to unite the country. the gadhafi regime could control the whole of libya could find peace amongst all the tribes the new regime cannot even control something in one town or one area i mean they turn libya into a war and of the hunting of black skins they're selling off the oil and natural resources and so ranty to nato and now the thieves that is the rebels they're all falling out with each other they can't even be paid by their own masters in what they have done which is actually perform regime change on behalf of the former colonialists of libya now if you don't want to believe what gadhafi said about what was going to happen after the regime fell and everything that i would say that he

said has come to pass then listen to you probably about to resign if he's not assassinated like the military head of the thought the units had said libya is in danger of descending into a bottomless pit so really this is the chief of freedom and democracy by nato it's all become very clear people of syria and the people of lebanon and the people of the global south have to see what's happening in libya is coming to them if they're not able to defend themselves and stop this ruling western aggression against other countries in the global south. well counting is underway croatians historic a referendum on joining the zagreb signed any u.s. session treaty last year and it could become the union's twentieth member by july two thousand and thirteen if all member states ratify the deal party's town barring is encouraged with more on that. sixty six percent of the population who did vote voted for the four croatia to join you about thirty three percent

against that's not as much as was predicted even a couple of years ago it was about seventy eight percent in favor so there has been a slide away from that but it seems most likely that the you will now go ahead to join the e.u. next july a lot of the more conservative element of society here feel very passionately that they do not want to join another union they see brussels is essentially another belgrade as far as they're concerned that could rule from a fun you have to bear in mind when you look when you're talking about croatia it's parsed especially in these last twenty years since the end of communism in the former yugoslavia croatia has fought very hard for the independence it has now of a group of protesters who felt extremely strongly that the that this referendum in the the next session would essentially hand away would handle way

croatia's independence to the e.u. was their central message of course is this this is a very strong debate that will go on about what the economic consequences are of for joining the e.u. for croatia a lot of strong feelings about the e.u. have been felt here in pro aisha they've also been felt in other countries just a few days ago i was in remain here this is the second poorest country tree in the moment and they have been the largest protests there. since remaining the fall of communism. 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. with our youth has no future they have no jobs. motive 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. they need to give us a fair pension and not tell us they're borrowing 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 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 take dissent screwed down down with disaster 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 their 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 and. fortunately is a mighty tempest with economic consequence is that inevitably it think this too is not good enough say the opposition who argue of course that they could do better every day to screw up the inefficient government stays in power is a day lost for rumania or jews used to shorten the period as much as we can as we can turn elections with many of them accepting there is no escape economically

politics for them is the only hope of change and that leads straight back out onto the streets. these. days are the. stereotypical what should. the president about to be here and you can see what made you want to take it all down and start again. here about when you last have expressed their willingness to return to dialogue with iran over its nuclear program but despite that the e.u. seems about set to approve an unprecedented embargo on our brain in oil france says tougher sanctions are the only way to avoid military action the u.s. in its turn has strengthened its presence in the region by something 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 seaway is a strategic passage for the majority of oil exports from the gulf to the west brian becker from the anti-war answer coalition says washington is deliberately escalating the situation to create a pretext for regime change in iran. the united states government has created an artificial crisis that's first and foremost it's a manufactured crisis iran is complying with the. iran does not have a nuclear weapon iran is not the. you know 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 the run 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 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 american and israeli military officials when they met friday with washington opposing any unilateral israeli action against nuclear sites but as policy flare reports it's not only are around the fears the military strike people in israel are also on edge. 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 the 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 be rainy and 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 for 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 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 and last sabotaging the iranian nuclear program 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 many enemies. is as good as mine 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 an 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 policy r.t. jerusalem. brown's relations with the u.k. have been further strained this week over lunch and decision to take iranian english language news channel press t.v. off british air iran called the move a clear example of censorship british officials say the channel broke broadcasting rules of editorial control and it failed to pay a fine imposed last year but press t.v. believes it's being silenced for just sent to you so recently u.k. based author and media analyst believes the channel is another victim of an ongoing campaign against iran so much. if this had been separated from geopolitics no this would not have happened some kind of sanction would have been

would have been made and the deal would have been struck so i think the press t.v. has been viewed through geo political terms so that is the breakdown of relations between britain and iran at the end of the day i think that most of the criticisms of press t.v. ad been due to its coverage because you know it sees the middle east very differently for example than the mainstream media in britain this repeatedly comes up probably is really groups repeatedly complain about it we know very well that the british government at the very highest level was discussing with the american ambassador how to limit press t.v.'s output in britain so now what we've got is we've got a real limiting of dialogue in the me in the british media and i think that's a tragedy and certainly a tragedy at a time when british relations are at their lowest ebb for a long long period. well across of the atlantic a freedom of speech battle of a different kind was underway the u.s. congress buckle to pressure and recall to 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 wikipedia and google joined together to stand against the proposed legislation have passed the sopa and people laws would have allowed top media conglomerates and copyright holders to shut down large portions of the web without involving the courts 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 barrett brown who's worked with anonymous on various operations believes the mega upload shutdown shows the government will take action even without new laws in place. the problem is that the track record of the us and all governments. is such that given the power to do one thing is almost always interpreted by themselves as a means of power many of the things so and the way that you know the rate on

megaupload cards in this opens it shows that even without sober already in place you know already you're resting and resting the owner's megaupload and shutting it down and in the future the very near future as you'll see there will be a number of other groups that will pop up using more. military methods and situation it's worse in the grass and smells of war and the notable civil war in the us. now look at what else is making news around the world the sound or yemen's president. saleh left his nation after a farewell speech in which he apologized for his mistakes and said it's time to hand over power he's leaving the country to have medical treatment in the u.s. after which he's expected to return as head of the general people's congress party yemen's parliament recently approved immunity from prosecution for who's been accused of suppressing protests and killing many demonstrators. another

bombing on saturday night in the north nigerian state of which he has killed eleven people including several police and army personnel controlling a checkpoint two churches in the area were also a torrent meanwhile the death toll from a series of bombings income no on friday now exceeds one seventy and continues to rise islam the sect boko haram has claimed responsibility for the majority of the violence that's plagued the northern nigeria area since christmas. beijing rings in the chinese new year in spectacular fashion from a bell tower in an ancient part of the capital it's tradition to sound the bell one hundred eight times to herald the start of the lunar calendar year the night sky was also lit up by fireworks displays across the country as more than a billion people celebrated bringing in the year of the water dragon. this week russia has seen al build up of political debate ahead of the march

presidential election rival camps and candidates are lining up with putin setting out his vision for the country and some members of the public increasing their efforts to ensure a transparent ballot. has more with just two hundred fifty days before the march presidential election in need you can be simmering in the candidates quarters. to put in decided to unleash his powers of persuasion on the electorate and nonpublic speaker for a change he's decided to be more scholarly picking up the pen for the first in a series of articles outlining his vision for the future of russia what he's calling for its new economy to be built. the gravitation away from dependence well i 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 ravenous 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 protest pulled together to form the league of constituents so they all know where children and the new public mood has blossomed people are showing a desire to make an educated vote to know where their votes are going to standing up the country needs competitive politics those behind in their 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 boost them are the key to public support is in media and that's recruiting found he fell to a record while criticizing one of russia's most popular radio stations and called moscow for being too protester in its coverage the prime minister told its editor in chief not to take offense of those words since you don't get mad when you cover me with liquid crap from. i'm told the school and the government the opposition and the electorate all seem to realize they have to think fast and act quickly in order to get the ball rolling with the presidential election just around the corner or host down which some say lasted for years the political life in russia is up and roaring in moscow it even goes go. and i'll be back with a recap of this week's main headlines in just a few minutes stay with art. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture. down the official auntie up location to on the phone i pod touch from the dumpster . which all she lives on the go.

video on demand on cheese my gold coast's and ownerships feeds now in the palm of your. questions on the dot com. thanks for being with us a round up of the week's top stories in today's headlines the arab league calls on syrian president bashar al assad to surrender some of his powers to his vice president and form a national unity government but the opposition says comes as the league extends its observer mission despite a lack of progress. and doing almost a year of violence. early results show croatia has voted in favor of joining the european union as comes as yet another member of the financially stricken union of romania rises up against its government and measures. in other stories that shape

this week tension over iran's nuclear program reaches new highs as the e.u. debates an oil embargo and the u.s. stops its military presence in the region. and the power of the internet and action a massive all mine 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 american politics lobbyists are the people who know exactly how it works jack abbott used to be one until he was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud in an extensive corruption case he now tells us what he thinks of corruption in washington. i'm sitting down with jack off once the most powerful lobbyist in washington.