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 he was 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 as double what it bought in two thousand and ten and it could be in the market for more investment and investment manager francis lund 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 limits wanting the government to diversify is holding of foreign exchange china's economy is still. that of the u.s. and china has about nine percent economic growth why the u.s. has about one point nine percent so it's good to diversify some with the foreign exchange holdings into something not a u.s. dollar basis 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 financial straits 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 at the moment presidential candidate visited troops and says a runoff in the upcoming election is possible but but believes it could these stabilize the nation's political situation find out how he's preparing for the poll . dot com also online feed. 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 border an american jewish woman it was saying is that my husband shouldn't have married me but the emotional response was just ouch. this is one of three ads sponsored by the israeli government and eight across the united states that evoked more than just an ouch 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 hunker the implied suggestion was that jewish identity has been diluted in america and that angered many jews who live there. or. support cannot lots of points

or two. missiles and so for them. shows a toddler calling daddy daddy to his napping is really expected father who finally wakes up only when he sons which is 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 bothers 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 its radius 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 fail 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 is truly alienated 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 a 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 even 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

thousands 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 living 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 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 something that's next. thanks bill hello you're watching a business r.t. live from moscow and source said to be the most hyped i.p.o. in years facebook is expected to file the paperwork for its 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 cash world where as we are now more inclined to talk about president bush war definitely facebook is not delivering this much money and right now so. maybe a self-delusion or might might be deliberate exaggeration of 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 there's 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 briber givers second to chinese. second to the markets crude is a mix this hour light sweet declining eighty seven cents per barrel brant is up thirty four cents that's after china reported that it was not manufacturing index unexpectedly rose music speculation that the world's the second largest group consumers withstanding the european debt crisis. u.s. stocks are up as 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 note on reports the european central bank could help reduce greece's debt by returning gains on greek government bonds originally purchased at a discount and here in moscow also a second consecutive positive session with the ati has an average gaining around

one hundred percent still going towards moving the my sex and money may move is this gazprom up almost a percent profit rose or. forty one percent in the first nine months of last year predicts full year profits will be of twenty five percent and oil pipeline. shares were weaker than the market preferred shares the company plans to invest thirteen billion dollars into infrastructure by twenty twenty. is in the weather report says russian sales fell twenty one percent in january here's a mock rubinstein from i have seen that triple. risk rally in all classes of assets and russian markets is now is no exception in fact this is the high better market so when the race for alan begins russian market usually outperform or so they competitors today we see basically growth across all master classes and across all regions it was a strong p.m.i. number of china then we store a bit stronger p.m.i. numbers out of euro zone but in the main reason is that the general tide for us is

increasing and that's of course happening against the backdrop of all for there has to be his asian situation in the crisis in europe. now the new 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 and it's a competitive they had a voice of bursa 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 plants in this 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 the fourth the day of thursday morning

a twenty moscow time join us for an update if you. can a time like a well trained army. villages in ruins. for thailand where time stands still.

all becomes a scene of nothing. the mysterious sons of russia. are. live from moscow this is our t. top stories now the moscow says it will not back a weapons in bargo on damascus because of the armed opposition groups operating in the country that some un members refuse to acknowledge responding therm on its opposition to any military intervention in syria saying it will vote against any u.n. resolution that could aggravate the. u.k.'s high court considers the fate of wiki leaks founder julian assange choose wanted in sweden on allegations of sexual assault that we can expound says the case is politically motivated and the response to his website publishing secret u.s.

cables. and israel's ad campaign insults jews based in the us suggesting the jewish identity is being diluted by the country they live in but many are already feeling alienated by israel's policies of expansion and treatment of palestinians. those stories in half an hour from now in the meantime cross-talk debate syria's future whether any foreign intervention could help break the stalemate or make things worse he did abate next on r.t. . blow him welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle siri on the brink as violence escalates in this in battle country the calls for strong sanctions and even a military intervention grow in intensity what is at stake the protection of innocence or regime change that transforms geopolitics of the region.

to cross-talk of ends and folding in syria we have marwa dowdy in princeton she is a departmental lecturer in politics and international ations of the middle east at the university of oxford in washington we have david pollock he is a senior fellow at the washington institute for near east policy and in montreal we cross the maximillian forte he's a professor of anthropology at concordia university in montreal all right folks this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but ok first i'm going to go to david david the the white house says that it is inevitable that assad will fall so by saying it does that make it inevitable now i don't think thing it makes it inevitable i think what makes it inevitable the situation. where the syrian people most of them are

rising up against the regime. i think we've seen in other countries in the region and elsewhere in the world when almost the entire population of the country rises up against the government sooner or later that government will david do we know that the the majority of the people are rising up in syria and we know that. yes we do we know that we know. but just looking at the situation the country. of thousands of people all over syria risking their lives to demonstrate week after week month after month against the regime we also know from research being. people who really think. there's a media blackout i think it's still pretty hard to say ma if i can go to you in princeton has the west decided to support a side in this conflict in syria that is rapidly looking like

a civil war well clearly there is an uprising which has continued unabated since about a year and now we're heading towards the first anniversary of the start of the uprisings. there has been a brutal repression on the part of the regime and so far about six thousand civilian casualties killed in this repression so clearly there's a situation that here they are peaceful protesters who have been crushed by the regime security parrott us and that has drawn attention internationally so there's been a side taken in the sense that there are human rights violations and i would say it's true that the uprisings have taken you know have continued and a large part of the population is supporting it you also have a part of the population which still doesn't know which side to take because they are afraid of what would come next and this is the part of the population which still needs to be comforted that there will be a peaceful transition to democracy ok and max if i can go to you do you think the

syrians still have a chance to negotiate an end to this conflict before there is this push for another humanitarian intervention and we all know what happened in libya and what is happening in libya today. now. well i think that's extremely don't fall as a matter of fact because just recently russia offered to host negotiations between all of the different parties and as we know the syrian national council you know one of the main opposition blocs has essentially rejected that offer possibly with some foreign encouragement behind them because one of the stipulations that they made one of the preconditions for the talks was that assad should resign so they wanted an old come of the goshi ations the outcome of a process as a preliminary condition and so that possibility of negotiations is very unlikely

and from my point of view it's starting to resemble a bit what was happening in libya where the opposition consistently refused to engage in any sort of peaceful negotiations. so i think that's highly unlikely peter david david go if i can go to you i mean we've brought up libya here do you see that you see this turning into a libya like scenario where you know we go down the slippery slope of intervention when they say of what no fly zone means one thing then the reality on the ground in the bombing is another thing. no i don't think this resembles the libyan scenario partly of course because unlike the security council. given the threat of a russian and maybe also the chinese veto will approve any kind of

military intervention in syria but i think if one is looking for a peaceful resolution it's very easy to imagine how that could happen and that would simply be. his ruling clique found asylum in moscow that would resolve the situation very quickly and very said he you think that's going to happen yes i do actually sooner or later i think that would be of great benefit to the syrian people and i think that russia would be able to preserve its interests in syria and in the wider region more effectively by negotiating that kind of outcome marlen by the opposition if i go tomorrow actually i said regime is willing to negotiate with russia even if they're not willing to negotiate with us said ok tomorrow if i go to you why do you think that the the international community to quote the whole

international community meaning nato and its allies she did to determine who should leave who should be in power and who should leave power and this is turning into a pattern i think i would. right the libyan example is not a good case study for syria i mean there were there were calls by the transitional council for military intervention and that led to the nato campaign which by the way has created civil war today in libya there are still the spoils of war which are being fought for between the different rebel groups in the case of syria this is not a scenario which is favored by the majority of the syrian population there have been calls for a no fly zone scattered calls but i would say the majority of the population rejects any foreign military intervention with the fear that this would lead to the fragmentation of the country and in fact the start of civil war now we see that the conflict has started to become militarized because the civilian population is defending itself it's being besieged but this is

a dangerous path and i would say if there is any transition towards a successful democratization there would have to be a choice that is made by the syrian people themselves and in that case they would have to claim in fact ownership of this revolution and if there is a piece one way out which means that the assad family relinquishes power peacefully and finds a way out why not that would be in fact the ideal solution but that would mean still that there would not be delaying tactics you know talking about negotiations while repression goes on because the repression still goes on and at the same time trying to maintain itself and power that would have to be a real way out of the conflict but that would have to be decided by the representatives of the syrian people the syrian national council but also all of the opposition movements their local coordination committees and other groups on the ground which are the ones in fact suffering on a daily basis from the repression ok. the west has jones they decide here it's what people called rebels or protesters that are actually and we have desertions in the

army i mean why should the outside world be getting involved in what is a civil war i don't care what people want to call it i mean you have a part of the population that is getting better armed through outside help. yes and all of that i agree peter very much. that the west has taken a side is that while it's been stated very clearly isn't stated by barak obama himself will who said that assad must leave you know that's a statement of preference for regime change. so there is an ambiguous that the saudi arabia has back to the syrian national council other members of the arab league such as libya have also recognize the syrian national council as the legitimate representative of the syrian people and so there are outside interests that have taken a side the thing to understand is we live in

a period of war. humanitarianism as has become the new ideology of imperialist intervention the united nations itself is serving as a kind of human rights the iter with a very selective attention and concern for particular countries and not for other countries and what distinguishes the selective ety in the concern shown is these are regimes that have been targeted by the united states that's where human rights really counts the united states wants to cast itself as being in a position as being the liberate or of arabs as being the force i will liberate arabs from themselves because they are fundamentally incapable of ruling themselves and so what we haveour is a kind of rehash of colonialists doctrine david what do you think about that. i think it's a very. speedy. search would to me

truly quote ridiculous why it's ridiculous why should we think why should we take it's ridiculous because it's ridiculous because it has no relationship to reality or to the fur coats whether in egypt or tunisia or anywhere or majority of syrians who are protesting in the streets came yes that's correct that's not a cliche oh if i go you mention before we get it it's a cliche because nothing to do with my wife i go to you before we go to the break here do the majority of the airports are actually majority of syrians recognize that the syrian national council is a legitimate body representing themselves how do we know that why do foreign governments recognize it but we don't know if the syrian people do well the syrian national council has gathered sort of a big spectrum of the different opposition movements you have islamist you have

secular as you have intellectuals you have kurdish groups so it tried to bring sort of a platform. sort of consensus platform but it is. you know divided and they don't have a united position this year a national council is seen as the leading opposition force but you have other of physician groups such as the national coordination committees and the two groups differ in their way they would see a way out of the crisis the syrian national council refuses dialogue with the regime because it says it has what i want just here to really get to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on syrian state party.

it was shot four times in total in the air war as it were and. sort of the boys are still in my body. and people should be allowed to defend themselves wherever they are guns in the hands of law abiding decent people are not a problem national rifle association was a group of basically retired military police loves to shoot holes in a i'm sorry if you know that the bullet comes out here and this makes it go bang and if what's in front of here is going to die and that's all the training you really really need raise your hand if you know something's been shot ok place to live what i want to the philadelphia horns or the streets. you can live without a gun hopefully we will never have to use the weapons for self defense but we should be prepared for the full class including the teacher as employers. seventeen

students as safe and one of seven or still alive. and. still. welcome back across a computer a little to remind you we're talking about events unfolding in syria. and.

ok david i'd like to go to you in d.c. you know you've been on the program before and you know i'm a cynic so i'm going to give a cynical comment in that quote i don't question this has nothing to do with the syrian people this has nothing to do with their rights it has nothing to do with the killing of innocent people except for except for this is all about geo political change in the region you take syria down and it's a boon for israel maybe but certainly for other countries where hezbollah is weakened in the next target the great prize of the mall is a ran that's what it's all about isn't it. yeah well that's. a point of view again has no connection with reality but what everyone is buying your so why do you say that you dismiss a theory when you know you want those who are rising up. as i started to say before you interrupted everyone can see that the syrian people are rising up and risking

their lives day after day week after week month after month thousands of people all over the country tens of thousands of people so you think there should be a military intervention should there be a military intervention and quote unquote stop this you know i'm not calling for i don't think there should be and i don't think there needs to be i think the. force of the people in syria will oust the regime sooner rather than later ok well we didn't get into your persona and you want to say well we'll have to die before that happened ok marwan what do you think about this is nothing to do with jeffersonian democracy we were promised that in libya morrow if i can go to you in princeton i mean how much of a say is that a geo political play because this is something the saudis are just drooling over there or they're just so pleased about this and have a lot of people in media don't like to talk about the shia sunni sunni sectarian difference here which is playing a very big.