here in england this is the highest court in the land that we're in now he could then take his case the european court of human rights but that's by no means guaranteed but i see no reason that he wouldn't do that having taken it this far i mean news today then why not take it however the european court of human rights is struck but has been in the headlights recently i've been doing some reading and it turns out that there's a backlog in strasburg of up to eight years so he could be hanging around in this sort of bizarre limbo if he doesn't win here for another eight years while he waits for his case to the kurdish drugs but probably it's not clear whether his the strict bail conditions under which he's being held would be relaxed but that's a month's time and maybe still have to report to the police station every single day that kind of thing you have to stay one place to see the real sort of bizarre jimbo's because of allegations that he has always maintained a politically motivated that calls us those in greatest fear that he would be an

extra scientists from here to sweden with his feet literally wouldn't touch the ground in the suites and then sent him straight to america which of course has a vested interest in this he's always said that these allegations are not to be worked with wiki leaks where he he released a huge number of very embarrassing files for the u.s. government and other governments around the world and international businesses so we'll have to wait and see what he does and how how he's going to pass the time and indeed he does decide to continue with despite. his endorsement outside the supreme court in london thank you. the blunders of u.s. politicians have inspired jokes and parodies for decades and with the presidential election campaign heating up there's a whole new supply of munitions but as art has more in a fortnight reports some believe the comments are displays of ignorance and disregard for world affairs and are no laughing matter. every four

years america's top job is up for grabs. with each new election comes a new batch of candidates with compromising foreign policy credentials when they ask me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stands banned i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border you can actually see why russia from land here in alaska africa was a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos geographically illiterate us candidates have supplied comedians with endless material but all jokes aside some presidential hopefuls vying to lead the world's most powerful armed forces know very little about america's military interventions so you agree with president obama libya or. libya.

forming a cohesive sentence on geopolitics can be a struggle i do not agree with the way he did it for reasons. i. know that's that's a different one differentiating between friends and enemies is also a challenge obviously got to stand with our north korean allies in the case of republican candidate mitt romney mixing up presidents and prime ministers can be common i think that president bush represents a real threat to the. stability and peace of the world the overarching ignorance on international affairs has caused american political commentator bill maher to conclude i think anybody could be president in this dumb contrie ok sort of like at this point now where i think if you're gonna be it when you register to be a candidate you also have to go take a test about foreign affairs and if you fail the test we might get you one chance to take it again and then i'm say sorry go run you know for city

council in your little town in alaska if a country with the world's highest national g.d.p. is being represented by politicians with a deficit on international affairs the biggest consequence is likely to be america's credibility around the world and even who we target in let me finish this i just get lost in a blizzard of words there this is where it gets really dangerous for united states of america it's like wait a minute how could they possibly be right about terrorism how could they be right about north korea are going to be right about iran so-called nuclear program when their candidate doesn't even know that there's a north and south korea i think the us is why and so then the world has this very paranoid view of the united states because of the candidates not understanding basic facts or understanding basic principles of international law which unequivocally prohibit torture and if i were present. i would be willing to use

waterboarding i think it was very effective me and i agree the consistent streak of foreign policy blunders made by us presidential hopefuls is quite humorous but it can also be considered a national tragedy if most candidates campaigning to be leader of the so-called free world simply don't know enough about the world outside of america's borders. far before we get to dimitry with a business or let's do the world of good for you some of the international news in brief will start with pakistan where the supreme court has decided to charge the country's prime minister with contempt for his failure to reopen an old corruption case against the president if convicted. he could face six months in jail and lose his office the court has long to monitor reopening of the case dating back to the ninety's or the government has refused insists the president enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. the united states has made the surprise

announcement that it will hold cold but operations in afghanistan earlier than expected u.s. the defense secretary leon panetta said the country wants to switch to a role of supporting and training local forces before the end of next year afghan officials claim the decision to ruin the whole transition plan and force preparations to be rushed through one thousand seven hundred american troops and tens of thousands of civilians have died since the two thousand and one invasion. a ferry carrying three hundred fifty people has sunken off papua new guinea's northern coast rescuers plucked from the sea at least two hundred nineteen survivors but others a still missing the ship's operator said it lost contact with the vessel on thursday after a center distress call most of the passengers were students and trainee teachers.

as i said now time for the business with dmitri. thanks rory a radical improvements in the business climates will be the urgent task of the next administration if let him a future and wins the presidency in march speaking at the troika dialogue forum in moscow the prime minister says the country needs to jump from one hundred twenty of twenty of place in the rating of investment climates business artie's money in the cost of reports. it sounded like a school reports a bright student but more excel bad must try harder not amir peretz and highlighted once again that russia has a lot of potential but it's failing to get their results he said most of the studies place the country in the top five in terms of its its to get more investment but in reality it's investment promise please is russia in the one hundred and twenty eighth position something he called

a shameful that he said that russia should become the type the law should be any facts and not only when the pumps in the friendship he said others be a different culture over business consumption and in as much as an example you mentioned creating an energy revolution which would be followed by a drop in oil prices and other hydrocarbons and one of the other changes to the pharmacist is setting up and that's men who with their responsible to protect the rise of on super newer is not just foreign investors and he couldn't help but mention the situation that is on rattling around the world and how it's affecting the country he's complained that excessive government that in the us and europe poses a real threat to the global economy particularly for the major exporters in the emerging markets and europe that by saying that the next ten years would see a transformation of the global economy and would see the emergence of new financial centers and goes up to a mistake that russia would be part of those. now at the same forum x.

of finance minister has also been urging speedy reforms he says without them greater fool be kept even with a high oil price. russia is not ready for a bounce in economic growth for the next three to five years with liking some legal states management and market conditions really if the new government decides to improve these it still means a transition period of three to five years they would be ready for a bounce and a return to growth rates for six to seven percent. time now to move to the markets and european indices are flat after sort of performance in the previous session greek government is also trying to come to a deal with their creditors who are putting pressure on the e.c.b. to join the bond swap are being negotiated. the russian markets are showing a negative dynamics of the two sessions of growth the r.t.s. is down half a percent of my six point two percent financial stocks however some of them are

gaining or have to leave as the world burbank is down by not to be tb is up two percent that's on news that prime minister putin said a buyback from minority shareholders is possible the stock and energy majors are also stronger gas form is off point six percent. to exchange rates now and the euro is coming back versus the dollar of the european union official said the block has asked the euro zone to help provide an extra fifteen billion euros for debt ridden griggs. so for now the headlines are next on r.t. with rory to stay with us.

old means of protection can be used. when global supremacy is at stake. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine u.s. has spent fifteen billion dollars in the prostate for the entire program that we are dealing with right now here in two thousand and eleven is another hundred fifty billion dollars that's larger than many country's entire military budgets when all things becomes the best form of defense.

well for the future of science technology innovation all the news developments from around russia we've got the future covered. this is our to live in the russian capital to show. promises to pass the deals and not stop selling arms to syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups from abroad that any despite being bought by russia or is out of money for the meantime it will blog any un resolution which doesn't rule out military intervention. the german leader takes euro blows eastwards as she tries to convince china not to write off the e.u. who is also support for an oil embargo against iran calling on china to use its

influence to persuade iran to abandon any atomic weapons. and egypt to mourn over seventy football fans killed in post match clashes fans are rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port after the home team beat egypt's top club setting off clashes on the stampede and investigation into the tragedy is under way amid claims of police action. i do stay with us here on r.t. as we next talk to the senior editor of the new statesman magazine. he tells us that finding a solution to the crisis in syria will not be easy and will not be seen as legitimate without a un resolution this is art. today i'm talking to mehdi has the he's the senior political editor for the new statesman

magazine where the me talking about the violence that's going on in syria at the moment and also the developing situation in iran may have some thank you very much for talking to me today now we've seen observers being sent into syria who seem to have done nothing to stop the violence in fact the death toll has risen from twenty to thirty people that day how good do you think the observers are implementing their mandate i did a very good given to one of the leaders of the mission where originally went in was a sudanese general who's been accused of carrying out war crimes and ethnic cleansing a doll for which slightly hobbled both the legitimacy of the mission and the trust of a lot of syrian opposition groups and in the arab league mission since then the saudi arabians have complained about the mission they've pulled out their observer they're pulling out their a bus and i mean the arab league has really been all over the place on syria on the one hand it's condemned syria it was praised for the first time condemning a fellow arab nation and putting a resolution in a few months ago since the mission has been criticized for among other things the personalities deployed and its inability to stop the violence 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 genuinely not killing innocent people what have they got on it and what about sanctions the u.k. recently proposed tougher sanctions on syria things like travel bans asset freezes what effect if any do you think that have it depends how targeted the sanctions are more on the fence over sanctions given the experience we have with iraq for over a decade of sanctions which cause more suffering to the people than to the saddam regime i support sanctions targeted against regime members targeted against people who are indicted for human rights violations or war crimes fine if they squeeze the country itself from the people who've done nothing wrong and i think that's a mistake i think we have to think much more creatively about syria i'm not one of those who support military action in syria isn't libya it won't be easy. be legitimate without a u.n. resolution and more and more innocent people will die than have already died but that doesn't mean you just turn a blind eye to the violence that's going on more than five thousand people have

died according to the un's own figures and our side is about it clearly is not backing down you look at some of his interviews you know he's not as bonkers as colonel gadhafi but he says some pretty crazy things about how it's nothing to do with me not my orders these are all armed rebels everyone who's dying and let's talk about the opposition for a little bit there appears to be three some distinct blocks that the free syrian army has a kind of external opposition that's people in the streets do you think they'll be able to form any kind of well that's one of the objections a lot of people are having against any kind of external military action which is where is the legitimacy in libya you had a opposition movement which despite being consisting of different groups secular religious etcetera indigenous those outside the country they did for a you know it should opposition for the purposes of getting rid of gadhafi and they controlled territory it's what prompted the intervention to begin with in syria they don't control any territory they don't control any cities or towns and there is this division between the external opposition figures like the leader of the syrian national council is based in paris and those who are on the on the streets

who have said again and again to western reporters to human rights groups that we don't want military intervention we are opposed to both syrian president were opposed to the assad regime and were opposed to western intervention we saw what happened in iraq and the syrians what's interesting about the syrians is that they saw up close and personal the effects of western intervention iraq because hundreds of thousands of iraqi refugees fled into syria they know the consequences of a kind of ill ill timed ill thoughtout heavy handed western intervention which just exacerbates the violence and the free syrian army as far as you can see what are they fighting for does it look like genuine democracy there's a huge debate about the f.s.a. and how much first of all how many defections there are going on because they claim to be getting dozens and dozens of the fact that every day every week from syrian armed forces and yet all the independent observers not just the assad regime but it's apologists i said well. it's a trickle and they're exaggerating there of strength in order to again justify a western intervention if you look at the history of western interventions so-called humanitarian interventions you always see there's an equivalent to the

f.s.a. on the ground whether in libya or if you go back to kosovo in the k.l.a. which also said you know give us the government give us the support and we'll do the fighting and in afghanistan you have the northern alliance and actually it turns out that these groups tend not to have as much legitimacy as they claim and be not to have as much military strength as they claim and the free syrian army is accused of killing people itself isn't it do we have any idea of sort of the number of these casualties will again without wanting to overdo the composer did libya and syria one of the things you see when you do support rebel groups sometimes i'm savory groups you know my enemy's enemy is my friend you support people who are perhaps not the greatest defenders or advocates of human rights themselves in afghanistan we supported all sorts of unsavory warlords and still do in libya the opposition groups and the national transition council there in libya was accused by human rights watch during the conflict of carrying out all sorts of killings and abuses of prisoners which still haven't been resolved to properly accounted for do we then want to lurch into a syrian conflict where again we are ignorant of what's going on on the ground we're not experts on who these people are what these groups started for and the

f.s.a. of course if you consist of defecting soldiers from an army that's carried out human rights abuses then a lot of those defectors will be part of those human rights abuses that's just a horrible reality of the world we live in and in terms of the actual people do you see a link between the libyan islamists and stays on the ground in syria well there's been reports of as you know where as with all these conflicts you know they're great and they're murky that libya does live as groups fighting in libya finished fighting in libya have transferred over to help some of the syrian opposition groups and do you see an external move towards intervention since the new year my position is changing and i can imagine a scenario where we are where nato is asked or the british government american governors are asked to enforce a no fly zone to enforce some kind of safety corridor or look which which would be would be lost until they were protected rights all will. good but would push us into all sorts of areas of the middle east we don't want to be involved in because syria for example is a much bigger player in the israel arab conflict it's

a much bigger country and tougher to overcome and beat militarily for took us along to beat libya how long did it take us to syria how far do you think syria is already essentially a battlefield between iran and the west israelis have been clear for many years that if you can pull syria out of orbit you will weaken iran which they consider to be the number one enemy the number one menace in the neighborhood the number one threat to israel's strategic interests so if you can get syria away from iran either through a diplomatic deal which they tried for many years all through regime change which seems to be the direction of travel mel that would definitely weaken iran and all roads in the middle east right now or do seem to lead back to tehran and saudi arabia's relationship with iran is increasingly hostile and it is iran of supporting create this protesting shiite minority how do you think that compare saudi arabia's own position is brazenly one sided brazenly self-serving and hypocritical here you have saudi arabia having pulled its ambassador out of damascus having complained about the arab league on the ground of its human rights

observations what first of all the saudi arabians have their own human rights abuses to deal with at home their own oppressive regime but even if you take the arab spring the saudis are throwing their weight behind the syrian opposition to us and yet have done their utmost best to stop the arab spring to stop the revolts and all of the other countries in egypt in bahrain where saudi troops went into bettering are still in very suppressing protests in bahrain and in syria they're supporting the opposition if that's not one sided as i don't know what it is and that shows you the saudi arabia's own interest of nothing to do with human rights or democracy of course and how could so to really be interested in such issues it's about trying to deal with iran and we know from wiki leaks that the saudi king told the american government cut the head of the snake a deal with the snake that is iran in his view and iran has been threatening recently to block the straits of hormuz which of course we know is the main export gulf oil. do you think the political consequences of that can be deeply and genuinely worried about what will happen if the iranian chop the strait of hormuz as they promised i think you'll have a situation where we start sleepwalking into war on both sides where there are

extremists on both sides who want a conflict who would love a conflict because it would serve their purposes in the west there are people who want to take out iran both for america's national interest so-called and of course for the israelis and in iran there are hardliners who see that the islamic revolution is failing to see the green movement popular who are seeing lots of people protesting of the regime and see a foreign war seeing who see the idea of being under attack as a way of uniting the country so they're hardliners on both sides and i think the people in the middle have to be careful that we don't allow the hardliners to kind of allow us to sleepwalk into war where they shut the straits of hormuz and the americans who i suspect don't want to go toward an election year are forced to come in in order to secure the oil and to protect the israelis if israel were to attack iran as well which is the sixty four thousand dollar question you mentioned that this year is of course an election year in the u.s. do you think that the u.s. is likely to wait until the election is over when in doing so it could get israel by not acting sooner well that's the interesting question i think of their own free

will i don't think they do want to go to war think obama is running on a campaign of trying to energize his base saying we're the guys who ended iraq we're the guys we're going to bring troops home from afghanistan with the guys who took a backseat to libya didn't put boots on the ground the idea that you would then kick off a conflict with iran but there's one american general put it you know if you loved iraq if you liked a rock in afghanistan you love iraq i mean it would be a major conflict and i think if you listen to for example defense secretary panetta saying recently that actually an attack on iran would have unintended consequences would be a backlash against american troops in the region clearly he's not keen on it and yet if the israelis were to strike iran and iran were to strike back then the americans would be drawn in whether they like it or not because they can't abandon israel because of others or for strategic purposes they certainly can about israel election in we're in very shaky economic times globally at the main. but what no one seems to be talking about is what's the economic consequences of a war with iran would be in an age where we are facing a double dip recession possibly another great depression where oil prices are

already so high we could see an attack on iran pushing oil prices above one hundred fifty dollars a barrel some analysts say even a record high above two hundred dollars a barrel which really would tip the entire world economy not just ours but the asians the chinese back into a major major recession major. and i think people are kind of turned a blind eye to this and only recently with the radio threatening to block the strait of hormuz we think the third of the world's seaboard oil passes through people started to go away to the what the hell is going to happen to all prices and i think that's a factor the american government's raising as well perhaps less i mean these are any government's reasons he has very much thank you. i am. was shot four times i'm told.

there's a. series of boards are still in the lobby. people should be allowed to be. gone from. these people are now. basically. i'm sorry you know the public comes out here and this makes it go bang and if what you hear is going to. that's all the really really crazy and. chilling what i want to philadelphia these are the streets. hopefully we will never have to use the weapons for self defense but we should be put. they are not full class including the teacher i think it was. seventeen students. thirty one are seven boys told.

mission free accreditation free transport charges free. range from and free. free free studio time free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and a free video don the r t dot com you.

the headlines are on odds he moscow promises to honor past deals and not stop selling arms to syria saying weapons will still reach opposition groups from abroad despite very involved it was and russia is adamant it will block any u.n. resolution which doesn't rule out military intervention. the german leader takes euro eastwards as she tries to convince china not to write off the e.u. anglo merkel is also urging beijing's of support for an oil embargo against iran calling on china to use its influence to persuade iran to abandon any atomic weapons ambitions. and egypt mourns over seventy football fans killed in post-crash

classrooms some fans are rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port after the home team beat egypt's top seven off clashes understand the investigation into the tragedy is underway amid claims of police in action. and more more on the story with you know next with a sports. thanks rory gripper have you with us let's take a look at some of the stories we're across this hour. on the field more than seventy fans are killed following a football match invasion in egypt. net game maria sharapova trains in moscow ahead of a rare take up i think progression. dreams our team meets one of

vs big medal hopefuls for the soft winter olympic games. three days of national mourning have been announced in egypt after more than seventy people lost their lives other top flight football much on wednesday violence flaring up in the game between al musri and when supporters some apparently armed with knives ran onto the pitch the visiting team were chased into the changing room but players were kicked and punched as they fled officials say the death toll could yet rise with more than two hundred injured in violence at football matches in egypt is on the increase since political unrest swept the country more than a year ago at least deputy health minister has described it as the biggest disaster in the country's footballing history. ok let's move on to english football where newcastle have got back to winning ways in the premier league moving up to fifty in the process to victory over a block burn on the magpies moving above liverpool on are still in the tape.