moscow says it won't back a weapons in bargo in damascus because guns would still find their way to armed opposition groups bridge some u.n. members refuse even to acknowledge. a diplomatic battle at the u. went over a resolution on syria calling for president assad to step down russia says no to regime change and pushes for talks instead all the details from new york just ahead in the program. kerry's high court considers the fate of the killings founder julian assange shoes wanted in sweden on allegations of sexual assault. doesn't always make its case is politically motivated it's great that it spread to sweden to america more coming out. israel's ad campaign insults

jews based in the u.s. already feeling alienated by their spiritual home policies our top stories this hour. international news and comment live from moscow this is russia will not agree to an embargo on weapons to syria moscow says doing so would not prevent the continued arming of opposition groups in the country there's deadlock at the u.n. security council where russia is refusing to back any military intervention or resolution that could aggravate the conflict well for more on this we can talk to jack enough who is in new york to explain moscow's position on this. well russia says it won't accept even

a hint of an embargo on arms embargo when it comes to syria and its reasoning for this is pretty simple it says firstly that the weapons and arms are that russia provides to syria cannot be used against demonstrators thus don't influence anything that goes on inside syria when it comes to this conflict now secondly russia says that it is only following its legal obligations it's following its international contracts with syria and it's not breaching any international laws at all and most importantly it says that the lessons of libya need to be large because when an arms embargo was put in place on libya what ended up happening was government forces were embargoed but the opposition groups continued to receive openly arms from abroad and this is something that they don't want to see in syria and russia says it's time for the west to stop pretending like armed groups don't exist over there. because i was it would seem logical if there's a conflict let's not supply arms where we saw what happened in libya in an

imperfect world this would have meant the following no weapons with the government opposition fighters could get them from anywhere that's what that would mean especially now our security council colleagues refuse even to admit the presence of armed groups because they will not condemn them or acknowledge they are being supplied with weapons then we say ok we'll break all our contracts alone relations with syria but they will start supplying even move to opposition groups and that's just what they did in libya. so honest as it is any sign of a break now in the deadlock over a u.n. resolution for syria. there's no sign of a break in deadlock just yet the arab and western backed regime change resolution calls for the. syrian president to step down if this does not happen within fifteen days further measures could take place and russia says no thanks we've seen this

similar scenario in libya in this particular case moscow says what's important is for talks for syria to exercise its sovereignty for the opposition and the government to sit down together moscow has offered russia as the center stage for these negotiations but it's important to say that russia still believes that a consensus can be found within the united nations security council it says that broad resolutions that are dangerous should not be put on the table that can split the council and really aggravate any sort of conflict and it continues to call for the importance of arab servers to remain working on the ground. to check and i thank you very much indeed that reporting from new york well for more on this i can now talk to john glaser he's an assistant editor of antiwar dot com joining me now from washington moscow is against an arms embargo in syria drawing parallels to what happened in libya where the west all and the opposition

france admitted to doing so quite openly despite a u.n. embargo do you agree with russia's stance. well i agree with that partially but if we're if we were accurate here russia's position is not all you know sunshine and lollipops they they are arming and paying the assad regime which is committing terrible atrocities and there are sort of their aim in this is not you know out of concern for the syrian people they want to push back against western imperialism and they also want to maintain their puppet dictator assad because it affords them a lot of influence in the region but russia is concerned is it not over the humanitarian crisis it wants both parties to cool to get together despite the pressure otherwise from the west and the u.s. . maybe i mean saying that russia has humanitarian concerns

is really no different than saying the u.s. has humanitarian concerns what's what matters is what the interests are and i think that the u.s. yes has an interest in intervening in syria the same way it did in libya especially because they have an interest in perhaps replacing assad with a more sunni oriented pro western to their ship. and that should be condemned outright obviously it would lead to all kinds of horrors and unintended consequences and in a protracted war but russia like i say is funding the assad government even as it commits atrocities against the syrian people and their opposition to intervention is more about pushing back on the western imperialism in the region and again making sure they have a stake right in the middle east where there were syrians but that is a fair point when they say that western states fall into the habit of using the u.n. as a tool for regime change that is

a point that isn't it. yes absolutely and that is what they're doing i mean the language of this resolution doesn't explicitly call for military intervention but it certainly leaves it open. again that that would be a terrible terrible mistake and not to mention the fact that it's not the business of the u.s. or the u.n. security council to go around implementing regime change that's not what they should be doing all sides should and support for all sides and encourage dialogue and an end to violence why won't the opposition except any help in terms of the negotiation offer from moscow is it because of that pressure from western countries saying that they shouldn't enter into negotiations or is it because they're pretty close to their goal is we've seen them in the outskirts of damascus at the moment almost achieving what they want to achieve and that is the fall of a sad. yet could be a number of things i mean they they don't want to negotiate with someone that they

don't trust and that they've seen has been murdering many civilians in the streets but also yet maybe they see some momentum behind them and possibly some factions would like an intervention from the west although not all factions i've heard many syrian opposition groups explicitly say they don't want western intervention however it should also be noted that they feel this momentum potentially because of the help that they're already receiving from places like turkey in lebanon on and although it can't be confirmed yet it is possible that the u.s. has lent support to the opposition so just very very to see how that very briefly john your antiwar dot com you'll be editor of that there is the argument that the violence is going to continue unless you don't have that foreign intervention is not a good argument just very briefly. it's a terrible argument because as we've seen with western interventions particularly

u.s. led interventions they turn into all sorts of extra violence that we cannot be contained and all sorts of unintended consequences that that should just be an immediate game changer for any intervention is an editor at antiwar dot com joining us live there in washington thank you for your thoughts and your time. the world's top whistleblower is taking his long legal battle to stay in the u.k. to the country's supreme court where he's appealing extradition to sweden during the signage is wanted on allegations of sexual assault dating back to august two thousand and ten which he denies that we can expand insists the case is politically motivated artie's laura smith reports from outside the high court in london. as often happens on the first day of these hearings you only hear one side of the story and what's happened today is that today in a sound his team has given that evidence they have that point his lawyer diana rose's seems to be quite convincing in front of the seven judges they were sort of

noting she texted if she reached the proceedings which i don't know if this is for a change and she was talking mainly about judicial authority when in the swedish prosecutor had the judicial authority to issue the european arrest warrants under which. extradition has been requested she said does the specificities prosecutor have it as somebody who is party to the case is actually who has a vested interest in the case and her argument was that the swedish prosecutor come to me impartial and independent to say that goes against the fundamental principle of no that's been in place ever since new existed basically himself. during the hearing he listened very attentively and then he left at the end of the day looking fairly relaxed in the building the you see behind me to see if we can go he's basically just chop suey julian assange as far as his british legal fight has is that he's been going on. as we know he's going up through the space recently

at the high court he's suddenly at fifty priem cold he may have if he doesn't get his way here he may have recourse to take this year pinnacles of human rights but that by no means a given post this this is all about the fact that he's wanted for questioning in sweden a for sexual assault allegation he has always maintained that this is a case that is politically motivated in connection with his work for wiki leaks when of course he released an enormous number of files that were very embarrassing for several governments and many international businesses his major fear really is that he could be extradited from here to sweden and then straight to the night. state that my colleague tom barton has been sweden has taken a look at what the relationship between sweden and the united states is the face that launched a thousand leaks julian a son does exposure of tens of thousands of secret documents has embarrassed

governments the world over but the wiki leaks phenomenon is no longer his most pressing concern swedish authorities want to question a songe over allegations of sexual assault dating back to august two thousand and ten prosecutors have been criticized by a sound his supporters and international civil libertarians with allegations of a cumbersome contradictory and slow legal process huge arguments have also broken out over the nature of some of sweden's laws on sexual offenses such as those a son faces it's going to be a closed course and leading up to the trial is going to be held. while the prosecutor asked for him to be held in solitary confinement it's just. so there are so many bizarre aspects of the why in which the matter is being conducted up till now. from our perspective i just can't see how he would get a fair trial others have gone beyond legal arguments saying that the storm raised

by our sons through wiki leaks has made him a target for political interference across the atlantic u.s. or thora te's enraged at having their secret documents exposed may seek to have a son extradited there to stand trial but surely sweden's famed neutrality would stop such a thing but i would disagree whether it in this country sit in a very clear cut. proximity and collaboration even. in military operations with such campaigns initiated by nato you have for instance the city's presence in afghanistan you have a clear cut it brought nato policy on a part of sweden and that is not to try to do with some u.s. politicians branding a sound a cyber terrorist and calling for the death penalty it could get

a lot worse for the wiki leaks founder the problem is not that we have too much wiki leaks too little. i think we'll see people agree with for who international public polls indicate that very large majorities applaud and support the effort we could leaks to why do worry is that with or without julian a son governments around the world with something to hide will now launch full scale assaults on internet freedom in order to keep their secrets secret but for now the focus is on the man not his website killing our son just connections with sweden have raised many questions about what really happened in august two thousand and ten but now with a son just future as uncertain as ever questions are being leveled at sweden's legal system and its relationship with the united states which could prove crucial

to the fate of the world's most notorious whistleblower tom watson r.t. stockholm sweden. coming up here on r t in the next few minutes for you israel employs professional tactics to do american jews back to the motherland but critics say it needs to fix the problems that drove them away first. but first dozens of people were injured in clashes outside egypt's parliament in car on choose day where protesters gathered to demand an end to military rule it was stopped from reaching the doors of the building by supporters of the muslim brotherhood which holds the majority of seats dr yousef saddam editor in chief of the christian with tunny newspaper in egypt has told me that he thinks incidents like this show the future of the country is still unclear we are on the road map to the transition. yet christians and moderate muslims are

concerned about how the coming months reveal because as we all know according to the constitutional amendments that took place last march a joint committee will be formed from both floors in the parliament shura council and the people's assembly and this committee will be assigned to write out a new constitution where will bearing in mind the islamic oriented majority of christians and moderate muslims alike are skeptical about who will be represented in this committee and what will be the criteria of the coming constitution seen continuously reveals demonstrations sit ins and revolution going into. similar squares in our major cities. and we're staying in egypt for

a world update this hour where a football match has turned deadly at least forty people were killed in the city of port played when fans stormed the pitch following a match in the top league players and supporters were caught up in clashes with sore stones and bottles thrown some of the dead were security officers the two teams involved have a long history of rivalry and violence has been common in recent years. also in a world of rival militia groups have been involved in a gun battle in the center of dubious capital tripoli this is a report heavy and light weapons exchanging fire in the city road along the coast has been blocked and smoke was seen rising from the scene of the fighting former allies were fought and fought together to al to moammar gadhafi last year and now engaged in the battle for influence in new libya. government of attack to paramilitary checkpoint in southwestern pakistan killing eleven soldiers and wounding a dozen the troops return fire but it's unclear whether the attackers suffered any

casualties shortly after pakistani fighter jets bombed the hideouts of militants along the afghan border killing up to thirty one suspected insurgents. two people have been killed and five more injured in senegal's capital during an opposition rally there used to gas to disperse a crowd gathered to protest against a court ruling allowing the nation's elderly be there to run for a third term constitutional revised soon after he was elected in two thousand to impose a two term limit the president argues that since you're already in office when it took effect it should not apply to him. china has been taken over by gold fever it's believed beijing already the world's fifth largest holder of gold snapped up around five hundred tonnes of the precious metal in two thousand and eleven that's double what it bought in two thousand and ten and it could be in the market for more investment and investment manager francis long believes that beijing is wise to step away from the weakening dollar. china has the largest

foreign exchange holding of any country in the world about one trillion u.s. dollars most of their u.s. dollar for several years now chinese see how limits wanting the government to diversify is holding of foreign exchange china's economy is still. of that of the u.s. and china has about nine percent economic growth why the u.s. has about one point nine percent so is good to diversify some with the foreign exchange holdings into something not a u.s. dollar like gold but of course together with. china we would need to have a say in. the global financial situation right now. by europeans and the world. and china has reverted to say in global

financial matters and i think that you will have to change expression the u.s. and europe in such dire find and so straight if you want china to participate fully in the global financial system i think you really need to bring china into d.c. to organizations. don't forget we've also got the world covered for you on our website it's online all the time here's what's there the moment presidential candidate visited putin says a runoff in the upcoming election is possible but but believes it could be stabilize the nation's political situation find out how he's preparing for the poll . dot com also online. imprisonment and deportation from america just for making a joke on twitter read the story of a couple whose tweets all of them treated like terrorists by u.s. authorities. the united states is home to the second largest jewish community in

the world and many american jews feel increasingly alienated from their spiritual home in israel thanks in no small part to ad campaigns funded by the israeli government. explains. the beckerman is could be the family featured in an advertisement recently pulled from american t.v. goal israeli married to do an american jewish woman it was saying is that my husband shouldn't have married me but the emotional response was. this is one of three ads sponsored by the israeli government and aid across the united states that evoked more than just an hour from american jews when who is really grandparents ask what festival it is the american granddaughter happily on says christmas instead of the jewish festival of hunka the implied suggestion was that jewish identity has been diluted in america and that angered many jews who live there. and support you cannot lots of points or to insult bomb or.

missiles and so for them. as a toddler calling daddy daddy to his napping is really expected father who finally wakes up only when the sun switches to hebrew american jews felt insulted by the suggestion that israeli jewish identity was more pure than american jewish identity i think that that's really what bothered me about the ads is that they came from a place of almost fear mongering you know they were almost kind of trying to scare people who are living here israelis who are living here the ads were designed to encourage israelis living in the united states to come home but critics complained they smacked of arrogance ignorance and cultural disrespect for america instead of giving positive reasons for expects to return to israel they failed to address why many had left in the first place i think a lot of american jews look to what's going on in israel what's developing in the parliament particular in the field stream really needed from that and they say to themselves this is not the israel that we fell in love with this is not israel that

we want to defend american jewry has always been more liberal than israeli society they traditionally voted democrat and often open to a list off the docks practice of judaism then the israeli counterparts for years are. rift has been growing between the two much of it based on the aggressive policies of tel aviv towards gaza and the occupation these really palestinian conflict still shows no signs of compromise and consecutive israeli governments have been unable or unwilling to reach agreement with the palestinians leaving many american jews feeling more and more alienated from israel does some of what's going on in the israeli public sphere troubled some north american jews troubled them very very greatly i have no question but that's the case since the late one nine hundred sixty s. israel has built hundreds of thousands of homes here in the west bank more than half a million people now live in settlements television onstott was issuing tenders for thaws and more homes to be built across the green line evoking anger and condemnation from the international community. as many as

a million twenty eight israelis live outside the country in the last five years the number of people who choose to leave the holy land has outpaced those wanting to come and live in israel and although the ads are no longer on the air the reasons that they provoke such a backlash in the first place are far from resolved policy r.t. television. shortly cross-talk asks its panel of experts what should be done to bring stability to syria that's after the business of doing that's next. thanks bill how are you watching a business r.t. live from moscow it's all said to be the most hyped i.p.o. in years facebook is expected to file the paperwork for a public listing in new york as soon as today wednesday the social network will reportedly sell it and percent stake to raise up to ten billion dollars and this will be a record for a technology company but as with other high profile internet. you from north

capitol says this one looks overvalued. this is a valuation probably based on future world where as we're now more inclined to talk about president bush war definitely facebook is not delivering this much money right now so. maybe a self-delusion or might might be deliberate exaggeration of market while you are but facebook is definitely worth much much less than that amount. and a further effort to crack down on corruption president better has ratified the o.e.c.d. convention against a bribing foreign officials and business transactions is also a key step in russia's access into the paris based organization for economic cooperation development according to a study by transparency international russian businessmen are among the world's greatest givers second to chinese. second

to markets crude is a mix this hour light sweet declining eighty seven cents per barrel brant is up thirty four cents that's up to china a reported that it was not made to manufacture in unexpectedly rose music speculation that the world's second largest group consumers withstanding the european debt crisis. u.s. stocks are up as the a.d.p. reports one hundred seventy thousand new jobs an unknown farm sector were added in january marking the twenty fourth consecutive month of gains. in europe with a vote c. and the dax ended on a very strong no to report the european central bank could help reduce greece's debt by returning gains on greek government bonds it originally purchased at a discount and here in moscow also a second consecutive positive session with yahtzee as my six on average gaining around one half the sense of what's moving the my sex and among the main movers is

gazprom up almost a percent so it's not profit rose. forty one percent in the first nine months of last year predicts full year proof it will be up twenty five percent and oil pipeline. shares were weaker than the market preferred shares the company plans to invest thirteen billion dollars into its infrastructure by twenty twenty. is in the red the report says russian sales fell twenty one percent in january here's a mock rubenstein from i have seen that triple. risk rally in all classes of assets and russian markets is no is no exception in fact this is the high better market so when the race rally begins russian market usually outperform or so they competitors today we see basically growth across all asset classes and across all regions it was a strong p.m.i. naam bought of china then we saw or a bit stronger p.m.i. numbers out of eurozone but in the main reason is that the general died for excusing crazing and that's of course happening against the backdrop of all for

there has to be his asian situation in the debt crisis in europe. in other news the plans to create the world's largest stock exchange have been blocked by the european commission says a proposed nine billion dollar time between deutsche borse and new york stock exchange would be anticompetitive the head of the ija bosses says the decision is a quote black day for your. players will soon have an opportunity to spend their cash on russian sparkling wine and make a potential return one of the country's main producers and i would use all plans to list ten percent of its shares on the my six by april says the main goal of the i.p.o. is not the money but confirming the value of the company. or i that's it from the a business team on our c four to thursday morning a twenty moscow time join us for an update if it goes.

to. a soulless substance. in a touch like a well trained army. villages in ruins. for thailand where time stands still.