but every day here is proving more and more of a challenge for the people. due to the european sanctions in syria to argue studio we don't have any tourists we don't have any foreigners the e.u. has no one pays its eleventh consecutive round of 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 has swamp 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 i depended upon these types of diesel generators that are needed because our cars have become

an almost daily blow people's lives where the not everyone can afford to back up at home with his wife and children and then says when the power cuts out the families simply have to make do generator very expensive costs like. sixty thousand three hundred pounds as i know it's not cheap and it's not just families a small businesses that are being affected oil production has fallen dramatically after an export in buggy and the cost of raw materials here has risen as one official from the chamber of commerce tells us a plummeting currency and rising 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. mic in the market because norm or cash money for money. entry to recent form halfway through our interview the lights go out. oh. yeah. i have. but your who. stops. are on one. spy cools the dialogue it's been political and economic pressure on the country that's been favored in attempting to resolve the crisis 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 if they're generally not killing innocent people but one of the the the sanctions impact is heavily contested is 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. for us and its allies accuse the syrian regime of cracking down on peaceful protesters for the massacres claims it's fighting a foreign funded insurgency political analyst. 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 more and more especially over the last several months with a lot of weapons coming in through foreign borders to the opposition that's becoming increasingly militarized and carrying out some very devastating attacks on syrian infrastructure syrian government institutions the police and also innocent civilians are getting killed in syria and so really the violence now is a two way street. still to come this hour when the fear of lawsuits comes at the cost of human life her rescue services in the u.s. are coming under fire after a number of cases where they looked the other way to new virgin says. in libya checkpoints have been set up around the capital tripoli it's in response to the fighting between supporters of former leader moammar gadhafi and forces loyal to the new government so far at least five people have been killed and twenty others wounded as gadhafi loyalists seized control of the town of bani walid earlier the

national transitional council's leader warned that the country was on the verge of civil war here in d.c. has already been struggling with violent protests in its stronghold of benghazi which forced its second most senior official to resign demonstrators many of whom help overthrow the previous regime are angered by the slow pace of reform and a lack of transparency in the handling of the country's assets battery hayes a reporter for the online magazine spiked so the worrying events in libya are not surprising. now i find that very interesting actually because well what 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 helicoptered in when get afy was gotten rid of so the thing i find very striking here actually is that the n.t. c isn't doing itself any favors into the pro-democracy campaign is also seeing off the. supporters as well though warnings for

a long time that this could happen in bani walid people were saying very least two months we may get a pro get off the uprising here and the entity did nothing about it they were warns and now bani walid has been taken so it's not surprising and it does seem like the n.t. is impotence and it's reflecting the needs and desires of anyone in libya at the moment there was a lot of congratulates free talk 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. now there's more trouble ahead for libya or any other can stop the country plunging back into civil war that assessment from russia's presidential envoy to africa has just been to libya where he gives us his insight in next hour but here's a look at what's ahead. it has to take goodwill from all the sides which

were involved in a very long lasting conflict which to my personal opinion will serve and in some areas of libya the civil war is not a work in the self there is the whole desert area as an area of the certain extent no man's land it's out of control of new government forces its own of tribes it's a zone of uncontrolled arms trafficking so i think that the difficult time for libya will last for quite a significant period of time if libyan political elite is not ready to sit at the round table. a british students fate hangs in the balance as he faces extradition to the u.s. it's due to the controversial agreement between london and washington but allows america to demand anyone be handed over to the justice system on the grounds of reasonable suspicion alone and his arteries are prevented our reports treaty

originally designed to deal with terror 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 but counters copyright infringement in the u.s. for the judge that was enough for richard's mother it was devastating. perry's going to get back to golf today i don't think that you brigid site t.v. 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 he even treated unfairly slightly. here because he was just pro extradition for well after it all about but i'm just going to go with the other side anyway so. all that work that we put in. there and all but you were there when he's i'm not sure if you were there last time time before when he said made a good strong argument but all went out the window completely. you know giving him no no we can't go. into. 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

veteran 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 that of an american so it's and at the moment you think it's like i'm in no doubt that it's out of bounds rich or a draw innocently caught up in something which was never intended to deal with people like gary mckinnon case is another that's left british m.p.'s crying out for change the asperger's sufferer has been fighting extradition for 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 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 either bennett r.t. london. for more stories from britain and around the world at r.t. dot com this hour big trouble for big band russian developers could be called in to help stop london's iconic parliament buildings from sinking. and learn how some candidates in the south carolina primary have received the support of almost a thousand dead voters the details of that story and much more on our website party dot com.

the e.u. has delivered on its threat to ban the import of crude oil from iran responds to its nuclear program washington is also impose new sanctions but iran is apparently finding ways to keep business pumping let's get the details now from prefer to do new delhi pre-owned confirmed reports say are wrong to keep the oil flowing to one of its biggest customers india but will get payment to go not dollars now that's not going to go down well europe and the u.s. says it was in direct he doing that. that's absolutely right kerry actually just last week a delegation from india went to iran to try to figure out exactly how that payment plan is working about report there showing that india has actually already bought oil excuse me from iran with coal now india and iran have actually had

a very close. i'm afraid they have some technical difficulties there as you can see we'll try and get back to previous when we can. standing by houses burn and police watching while people drown a spate of incidents in the united states has sparked concern over what kind of society is becoming it's going to chicken reports sticking to the rules and fear of the to get peer to be trumping fear 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. if you hadn't by decision the five dollars but 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 mothers my grandmothers my great grandmother's were all are in the same happen to be keep belle from tennessee firefighters stood by and idly watched her trailer home burned because she too hadn't paid the seventy five dollars fee now once they were in fact dispatched. they felt they were all safe. in the u.s. foreign 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's not inside the city limits for a fortnight to 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 they get in a situation like this it just shows you that we've become far too concerned about about every single dollar you know and also that it just shows it's really kind of a it's an all about me you know we just don't live in the community anymore this is like 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. other than 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 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 in 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 paid 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. let's go back now if we can to peer should a lie from the indian capital new delhi and these are unconfirmed reports that iran will know the oil flowing to one of its biggest customers india will get payment in bold and not dollars appreciate tell us more about this. that's absolutely right kerry so basically india actually has already bought iranian oil using gold instead of u.s. dollars and this is extremely significant because every year india actually spends twelve billion u.s. dollars on iranian oil and now actually beijing is also saying that it might want to jump on board with the new italian also look into some sort of agreement with iran to continue to get oil new delhi and beijing actually account for forty percent of the imports of iranian oil the e.u. only counts for twenty percent obviously we've been talking about all week about this oil embargo that the e.u.

announced on monday that they're hoping to roll out and put into place by chill live first and obviously if new delhi and beijing find a way to continue trading with iran using gold instead of u.s. dollars this would severely hurt what the european union in washington is trying to do also i should point out that russia has also said that it wants to continue trading with iran using domestic car and seize instead of u.s. dollars so. ok well we got as much as we could from there but i will of course try and bring back a little bit later on in the program a few gremlins there we apologize. well that iran says all 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 response to its nuclear program latest round of sanctions prohibits any new oil contracts but allows for existing deals to run until july but rise around eighty percent

overall iranian crude iran has been told may be lifted if it returns to talk so its nuclear agenda which the west suspects is aimed developing a nuclear bomb russia has dismissed the new sanctions on iran as counterproductive iran had earlier threatened to block a vital supply route in the persian gulf when the embargo comes into force the u.s. navy is poised to reopen the strait of hormuz by force if necessary economist 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 plus germany d. should sit down theoretically by the end of this months with iran in this stumble the whole thing is brokered by turkey to start talking again about about iranian nuclear program but i wonder if iran has any incentive at the moment any find a hard line there is interest say exactly that. after the sanctions and if they are

fully implemented on july first we're going to close down this street of hormuz as a reaction this is something that they need to see terms of their internal public opinion because they're being pressured all the time by the europeans the americans and europeans any really an eighty million iranians are asking themselves what is our government doing to defend it in effect that we have the right to to to develop a peaceful nuclear program and there is no evidence anywhere by the i.a.e.a. by national intelligence estimates in the united states that they are developing a nuclear weapon. some world news in brief for you now this. car bomb attacks of killed eight people and injured thirty two in iraq the first blast targeted an early morning gathering of workers mainly share in baghdad and it's later a car blew up near a pastry shop in the same district at least one hundred seventy people have been killed in similar time since the beginning. turkey has vowed to retaliate after the

french senate approved the bills making it a crime did not pay for the massacre of armenians by the ottoman empire nine hundred fifty genocide both houses of the french parliament of pass the bill which still has to be signed off by president sarkozy in order to become law proposed to make the denial of genocide and war crimes recognized by french law punishable by up to a year in prison by media says one of the half million people were killed in the massacre turkey says the figure was much lower rejects the term genocide. to kenyan presidential candidates will stand trial at the hague on charges of crimes against humanity then are among four prominent kenyans accused of orchestrating a deadly wave of violence in the country's two thousand and seven election more than twelve hundred people were killed in the country's post-election clashes more than half forced to flee no date has been set for the trial.

the creators had with all the business. thank you kerry it's twenty three past one pm here in moscow welcome to business here at r.t. the rally you know oil prices is continuing traders await the next move in the escalating dispute between iran and the west tehran has responded to the decision to impose an oil embargo by threatening to close the straits of hormuz twenty percent of the world's crude supply passes through it however and want that back from platts believe that the warning and they should be seen as bargaining points. the award thing also says that they'll be a review in may so that 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 this things to happen because europe right now is very weak. financially economically the last thing that you're

really wants is a conflagration because there will be even more disruptive for the economy here the oil that was supposed to come to europe from iran will go to a shell oil that was going to. start west africa or even russia will now go to europe so europe can always switch the oil that's not the issue the issue is the level of pain. let's look at the numbers now almost fluctuating below one hundred dollars a barrel in new york and speculation that u.s. stockpiles game last week is way against those worries about iran trading at over one hundred and ten dollars a barrel stocks in europe are lower with banks and miners leading the downside investors also fret after eurozone finance ministers reportedly rejected an offer from private bondholders over greek debt pleases losing one point eight percent pushing the. german dax is shedding half a percent by three percent

a loss for heavyweight siemens which reported a drop in fiscal first quarter profit. from the russian markets are trading lower in the afternoon the r.t.s. is losing over half a percentage point eight percent per second look at some individual. most of the blue chips are lower with banking and energy stocks the main decliners media he's losing over one percent one point two percent the company plans to invest more than one billion dollars in oil which trips to call field instead of siberia and the chemical group is among the gainers it's reported an almost five percent increase in production for the year two thousand and eleven michael stein from a clue to says that the upcoming davos economic forum a bomber speech and the u.s. corporate results will keep investors busy all week long. given the improved outlook for the oil price because of the iran news that we saw yesterday and given the very low value. as 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 we'll be quite a busy week on the external side and then here at home in russia investors and pick 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 natural polish and m.k. . the financial woes of european banks are affecting their business abroad one of germany's biggest lenders is leaving the russian market it's selling a fourteen percent stake in one of the top fifteen local lenders problem says back

so this part of the effort to increase its capital by roughly five billion euros to come quiet with european explanation. well that's it for now but remember you can always go on to our website r.t. dot com slash business and find more stories. if the. pillars of nature and discover its beauty in the the

the lead a communicate with the wild and let the. test yourself and become free the. see what nature can give you the. the. the litmus. tests please it's. just some a. pig if

it's. the female. coming. to the headlines for you the e.u. imposes more sanctions on syria as damascus rejects arab league calls for president assad to step down mounting international pressure purse of their for the syrian people are feeling the squeeze. new violence in libya gadhafi loyalists clash with interim government forces in the town of bani walid phares grove a slide back into civil war the fighting follows weeks of protests with libya's new

leaders struggling to unify the country. and derided for being one sided the extradition or between the u.s. and the u.k. designed to help bring terror suspects to justice fresh calls for a view made british anger it's a one way street for american jails. when i started takes you to see this stunning scenery of caucuses nature in southern russia that's in our special report don't go away. southern russia. he didn't away in the mountains this faraway place can only be reached by helicopter. the first few special permission.