the foreign politics but it's the people who are feeling the squeeze surfer through ports from damascus. trying to shine a light on what's happening in the country the observer mission looks set to continue now for another month but every day here is proving more and more of a challenge to the people. due to the european sanctions conceiving argued syria we don't have any tourists we don't have any for most of the e.u. has no one pays its eleventh consecutive round the sanctions this time putting a travel ban on people and businesses linked with the assad regime is we've been finding out the cascade of sanctions this woman syria's struggling economy actually they are punishing the syrian people in a way or another i mean if they have governmental sanctions to be imposed by big business with the syrian government not with the people but the power is completely outside this door in the center of damascus at the moment and this is one of the

main criticisms aimed at the economic sanctions is that this simply affecting the way so every day syrian people in fact most businesses in this area now are dependent upon these types of diesel generators that are needed because our cars have become a not make debug of people's lives where the not everyone can afford the back up at home with his wife and children and then says when the power cuts out the family simply have to make a generator is very expensive it costs like. sixty thousand three hundred pounds as i know it's not cheap and it's not just families and small businesses that are being affected oil production has fallen dramatically after an exports in buy ok and the cost of raw materials here has risen as one official from the chamber of commerce tells us a plummeting currency and mizen prices have pushed many businesses to take their

trade and money elsewhere in the business of money don't put all the money in the business keep somebody maybe maybe. this is the. market because norm or cash money money for. and true to recent form halfway through our interview the lights go out. oh. yeah. i have. but your who. stops. spy cools it's been political and economic pressure on the country that's been favored in attempting to resolve the. the arab league observers mission has also made little headway safe then they say they were there simply to investigate and to

reports there have been numerous calls for even more observers to be allowed into the country i think the real issue is that the syrians need to allow in a much much more neutral a much more wide ranging a much more forceful international observer mission if they've got nothing to hide if it's generally not killing innocent people but one of the go to the the sanctions impact is heavily contested this need doubt that they are putting pressure on an increasingly isolated government many people in the country it will say made an already desperate situation even worse. damascus syria. the u.s. and its allies accuse the syrian regime of cracking down on peaceful protesters but the mask claims its fighting a foreign funded insurgency political analysts say says the opposition is receiving weapons from abroad and becoming increasingly violent. of course there are certain

parts of the opposition that should share the responsibility for the there are a good amount of syrians who are dedicated to peaceful demonstrations who have been showing up on the streets and have been you know resisting calls to violence but then there are also many dangerous segments of the opposition who have used violence we see this as school nation more and more especially over the last several months with a lot of weapons coming in through foreign borders to opposition that's becoming increasingly militarized and carrying out some very devastating attacks on syrian infrastructure sharing government institutions the police and also innocent civilians are getting killed in syria and so really the violence now is a two way street. more on the arab world coming up in the program with renewed violence breaking out in the bia we report on this is fighting between feed or this interim government forces as fears grow that the country is descending into civil war. and when fear of lawsuits comes at the cost of human life rescue

services in the u.s. are criticizing a number of cases where they looked the other way during emergencies. iran says an oil embargo imposed by the european union is doomed to fail on monday the e.u. delivered on its threat to ban the import of crude from the islamic state in response to its nuclear program the latest round of sanctions prohibits any new oil contracts downs for existing deals to run into july the e.u. buys around eighty percent of all the rain crude iran has been told may be lifted if it returns to talks. which the west suspects is a nuclear bomb but russia has dismissed the new sanctions on iran as counterproductive around only a threat to block a vital oil supply in the gulf when the embargo comes into force the u.s. navy is poised to reopen the strait of hormuz by force if necessary columnist and

asia times correspondent. says iran is unlikely to back down. the p five plus one as it's called the five permanent members of the security council as germany does should sit down theoretically by the end of this month with iran in this whole series brokered by turkish to start talking again about the iranian nuclear program but i wonder if iran has any incentive at the moment any friendly hard line there is it there are say exactly that. the sensors are fully implemented on july first we are going to close down this street of hormuz as a reaction this is something that they need to see terms. their internal public opinion because they're being pressured all the time by the europeans the americans in the europeans to any really easy billion iranians are asking themselves what is our government doing to defend it in effect we have the right to develop a peaceful nuclear program and there is no evidence either you we're so glad you

eat by national intelligence estimates in the united states that they are developing a nuclear weapon. well turkey has a valid to retaliate after the french senate approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the massacre of armenians by the ottoman empire nine hundred fifty was genocide ankara has already suspended military political and economic ties of paris with both houses of the french parliament to pass the bill still has to be signed off on this and sarkozy alone it's becoming more proposed in the set to make the denial of genocide and war crimes recognized by french nor punishable by up to a year in prison turkey denies the massacre that's considered by many to be the twentieth century's first genocide executive director of the national committee of america and parent says the measurable force and going to admit to the atrocities. so many countries around the world russia canada france of course italy sweden and

others recognize this crime so we think it's a step toward mounting pressure increasing pressure on turkey to finally come to terms with your imminent genocide both truthfully and justly i think of the support for the measure came from across the political spectrum in france as it has in so many countries everywhere around the world that there's been a vote the voters almost universally been to this crime recognize that the soul center of the mile is arc around i think there's. an inclination among turkish politicians to play to the lowest common denominator there is a very hardline element we've been talking about abusers as a matter of national pride there are others who see turkey made. may need to pay for its crime and they're fearful of that but it's certainly the lowest common denominator and it's taken turkish politics hostage and sadly particular american politics hostage is what president obama promised as a candidate as a senator you're going genocide immediately after getting like you were brought up

so we hope that this reminds the president was obligation to was on commitments and also reminds them of the news do the right thing and the congress should do the same. but british students fate hangs in the balance as he faces extradition to the u.s. it's due to the controversial agreement between and in washington that allows america to demand anyone be handed over to its justice system on the grounds of reasonable suspicion alone and as artie's other bennett reports a treaty originally designed to deal with terrorist suspects now appears to have gone far beyond its initial remit. from running a website in his bedroom with links to pirated movies to up to ten years in a u.s. federal prison richard o'dwyer is the latest victim of the u.k.'s controversial extradition treaty with america his actions aren't even a crime in britain that count as copyright infringement in the us for the judge

that was enough for richard's mother it was devastating. very very serious. about the gulf states i don't think that you brigid citv shack was seized by u.s. authorities last year this is what you see on the home page now he didn't host any illegal videos itself but posted links to where users could find them u.s. prosecutors claim richard banked two hundred thirty thousand dollars in advertising revenue from the site although he's never been to america they claim his actions had direct consequences there to be been treated unfairly slightly. here because he was just pro extradition for a while after it all about but i'm just going to go with the other side anyway so. all that work that we. and all the he would there when he's i'm not sure if you were there last time before he said made a good strong argument but all went out the window completely. you know giving up

no no can't give up. power to. the u.k. u.s. extradition treaty was signed in two thousand and three supposedly to bring international terrorists to justice but many feel it's unfair to british citizens it makes it far easier for america to extradite someone from the u.k. than the other way around so far extraditions of five to two in america's favor better and british m.p. simming campbell's leading a review of the treaty by his party the smaller partner in the governing coalition . what i argue for is that the position of a british citizen should be no worse than not the american to know the moment you think it's about i'm in no doubt that. richard was innocently caught up in something which was never intended to deal with people like him gary mckinnon scase is another that's left british m.p.'s crying out for change the asperger's

sufferer has been fighting extradition to seven years he's wanted for hacking into pentagon files that he claims he was searching for evidence of u.f.o.'s a recent parliamentary debate on the treaty was so one sided in favor of changing it that a vote wasn't even needed but what's happening in there is still not enough to stop richard pending extradition his case is certainly highlighted the need for something to be done but any changes could be too late for him his case is now in the hands of home secretary theresa may who has been accused of abandoning plans to change the treaty richard and his family will get the chance to appeal the decision at a higher court but their options are rapidly running out after bennett's artsy london for a trial date has been set for an american woman who shipped her adopted russian son to moscow with no more than a note saying she didn't want to many more torry hansen place the seven year old

transatlantic flight to russia or by himself claiming he had psychological problems and snow is being sued for child support by the world association for children and parents the trial set for the end of march the boy remains in russia where he is receiving professional care at a special children's village the instant sparked outrage and new adoption rules between the u.s. and russia. remember there's always more news on our website r.t. dot com has a look at two of the more offbeat stories getting attention this hour a case of mistaken i do. ditty find out how a botched russian police operations officers break up a local fund run thinking it through and get the pride parade also online. some time it's in the south carolina primary have received the support of almost a thousand dead says the terms and much more on our website r.t.

dot com. in libya at least four people have been killed and twenty others wounded supporters of former leader moammar gadhafi seize control of the town of bani walid after clashes with the group the will to the new government the national transitional council's leader warned that the country was on the verge of civil war and d.c. has already been struggling with violent protests in a stronghold of benghazi which forced its second senior official to resign the demonstrators many of whom helped throw the previous regime angered by the slow pace of reform the lack of transparency in the handling of the country's assets patrick a reporter for the online magazine spiked says the boring events of libya not surprising. now i find that very interesting actually because well i mean the national transitional council itself was very much something that was already chosen by the west not something that was chosen by the libyan people it was very

much kind of put in place and then they were kind of helicopter didn't get afy was gotten rid of so the thing i find very striking here actually is that the n.t. sea isn't doing itself any favors into the pro-democracy campaign is also seeing off the. supporters as well. warnings for a long time that this could happen in bani walid people are saying very least tomorrow we may get a pro get off the uprising here and the entity did nothing about it they were walloons and now bani walid has been taken so it's not surprising and it does seem like the m.t.c. is impotence and it's reflecting the needs and desires of anyone in libya at the. moments there was a lot of you know excel congratulates he talked by cameron sarkozy and a bomber who kept a bit of a distance but was still involved after the fall of gadhafi i think they're going to be very reluctant to admit that what they didn't do was bring about democracy in the country. well russia's presidential envoy to africa has recently visited libya

he said that all sides have to sit down for talks to bring order to the country and avoid civil war you can watch the full interview in about ten minutes but here's a preview. it has to take goodwill from all the sides which were involved in a very long lasting conflict which to my personal opinion was a real civil war and in some areas of libya of this civil war is not over in the south there is the whole desert area as an area of the certain extent no man's land it's out of control of new governmental forces its own of tribes it's a zone all of the controlled arms trafficking so i think that the difficult time fully b.-a will last for quite a significant period of time if libyan political elite is not ready to sit at the round table. today marks

one year since the deadly bombing of moscow and yet of a airport that is seven people were killed in the blast carried out by a suicide bomber at the international arrivals hall investigators later identified the suicide bomber as a twenty year old from russia's republic of industry trained by islamist terrorists and this is what seventeen militants linked to the attack were killed in special operations last year and fourteen detained but one of the world's most wanted terrorists the model who claimed responsibility for the last amount of the bali is still on the run the attack was followed by an increase in security levels that major transport hubs cross the country. now fireman a standing by while it houses burn and police watching while people drown a spate of real life incidents in the united states a spot concern for what kind of society is becoming become a chicken reports sticking to the rules and fear of litigation appeared to be trumping care and compassion. jeanne chronics house burned down to ashes as

firefighters stood by and just watched they refused to save mr chronics home because he hadn't paid a seventy five dollars fire fee that the county requires i thought they'd come out and put it out maybe if you hadn't i just said the five dollars but thrown as the house went up in flames the cryonics were begging the firefighters to make an exception saying they were ready to pay whatever it took to put out the blaze but they were told it was too late things my mother and my mother's my grandmother's my great grandmother's were all there in the house same happened to vicki belle from tennessee firefighters stood by and idly watched her trailer home burn because she too hadn't paid the seventy five dollars fee no one said they were in fact dispatched. if they so they were on the same. in the us fire policy varies from state to state from county to county in south fulton tennessee if you don't pay you're out of luck and anybody that is not inside the city limits the

interest service that we offer. down behind numerous similar incidents lies a problem rigid local rules versus the responsibility of the government to help its citizens when they're in trouble or rather versus basic human compassion we're really poor in terms of humanity i mean when it's seventy five dollars that is the more important thing and i get in a situation like this it just shows you that we've become far too concerned about about every single dollar and you know and also that it just shows it's really kind of it's an all about me you know we just don't live in the community anymore there's an ick there's no sense of this like shared responsibility for the individuals in that community in california police and firemen watch the man drown saying they didn't have proper certifications for water rescue which would leave them open to possible lawsuits if they attempted to save him city officials blamed the incident on budget cuts so as the more. then an hour long tragedy unfolded

authorities stood there and did nothing this is the part where rules and regulations defy logic that was the end result of body washing up to the shore. so you think about it it's horrible how can we allow that to happen in the us is a very litigious society we have more lawyers per capita per capita than any other country and i think the world and so you know when you have to worry when you're a rescuer and you have to worry about a lawsuit and you cannot rescue a person as a result i mean that's that's really a problem if the firefighters had rescued the man even saved his life but somehow maybe broke a rib or hurt him in some other way you know they stand to be sued in court and that's just the way our system works even after the serve brought raymond zack's body closer to the shore firefighters refused to get in the water and retrieve the corpse so they waited until a passer by volunteered to do the job the logic you don't get anything unless you

pay makes sense to a lot of americans but when you have money and rules on one side of the scale and humanity the human urge to help on the other and money wins this is when one gets the says that something is wrong with the way the system works i'm going to check on reporting from washington r.t. . well some world news in brief for you the southwest to its knees west coast the bodies of two women have been recovered from the capsized costa concordia cruise ship bringing the confirmed death toll to fifteen rescue teams continue the search for seventeen people still missing experts are expected to begin pumping fuel from the ship within the next twenty four hours to avoid a potential spill the vessel is holding around one point nine million liters of fuel in its routine tanks. to kenyan presidential candidates from the stand trial that the hague on charges of crimes against humanity and among.

more prominent kenyans accused of orchestrating a deadly wave of violence following the country's two thousand and seven election more than twelve hundred people were killed during the country's post-election clashes more than half a million forced to flee their homes no date has been set for the trials. and fifteen people have been killed and three others wounded of the gunman opened fire on several boats in the southern philippines government officials believe the men may have been attacked by rival fish and off they strayed into the fishing grounds the region is a stronghold for is the most rebels of the new thought is have ruled out militant involvement. with business is mixed with kareena. it's twenty four past ten am here in moscow welcome to business all is continuing monday's gains following the use decision to adopt an embargo against iran over its nuclear program or imports from iran to europe should stop in july as

a response the tool to the sanctions tehran is threatening to close the strait of hormuz through which twenty percent of the world's oil exports pass however jorge want to pick from platts believes that the warning and then bar go more of a negotiation point. the ward being also says that there would be a review of me so they're almost means that i am ready to do something in july but i can change my mind in may i don't think anybody wants these things to happen because europe right now is very weak financially economically and the last thing that europe really wants is a confrontation because that would be even more disruptive for the economy here the oil that was supposed to come to europe from iran will go to asia or it was going to. start west africa or even russia will now go to europe so europe can always replace the oil that's not the issue the issue is the level of pain.

let's look at the numbers now oil is fluctuating below one hundred dollars a barrel in new york speculation the u.s. stockpiles again last week concern that iran may respond to the one bargo when blend is close to one hundred eleven dollars a barrel while trading at over ninety nine dollars a barrel now into equities asia shares advance modestly with energy firms higher following the european embargo of iranian oil exports japan's in packs up two point eight percent in the consumer electronics sector is sony is losing almost three percent of reports about its tie up with the troubled olympus and hong kong and several other asian stock markets are closed for the living new year holiday. russian markets open lower on tuesday the r.t.s. is losing point one percent in the first minutes of trading column isaacs is shedding over a quarter of a percent michael stein from a criticize that the upcoming davos economic forum a bomber speech tell us corporate results will keep investors busy all week long.

given the improved outlook for the oil price because of your own news that we saw yesterday and given the very low valuations for russia generally and the fact that many of our clients continue to see fund flows into the. russian dedicated funds we think that the market will gradually melt higher that's it investors will pay attention to global events and this week there are a lot of them investors will look at the f one c meeting coming up president barack obama's speech in his state of the nation's address in addition we've got the world economic forum and more than one hundred twenty companies in the united states are releasing their fourth quarter financial results so will be quite a busy week on the external side and then here at home in russia investors and close attention from macro data most notably the unemployment report in russia for december in addition to industrial production figures on the corporate side will also see operating updates from metals and mining companies including metal police

and m.k. the financial woes of european banks are affecting their business abroad one of germany's biggest lenders commerzbank is leaving the russian market it's selling one fourteen percent stake in one of the top fifteen local lenders as bank comes by and called it up and russia several months ago this is part of the effort to increase capital by roughly five billion euros you know to comply with european legislation. that's all the business for now but i'll be back in less than one hour .

the be. the be lubed the best sleep. the beasts. the books.

the bulk of the sentence technology innovation all the rest i'm elements from around russia we've got this huge earth covered the big. welcome back this is our t.v. time for the headlines now damascus. rejects arab league calls for president assad to step down and form a new government the opposition has decided to extend its observer mission to the country as a ten month long unrest in syria rages on. iran stands defiant as the e.u. imposes its toughest sanctions yet banning the import of crude from iran response to its disputed nuclear program new oil contracts have been ruled out while

existing deals are allowed to run until july which the e.u. is hoping to secure turnitin sources of fuel supply. and derided for being one sided extradition law between the u.s. and the u.k. designed to help bring terror suspects to justice cases fresh calls for review it's been criticized as a one way street to american jails sometimes for princes not even considered crimes . now an in-depth look at the ongoing strife in the arab world and some possible solutions. speaks to russia's main envoy to africa. chairman of the.