even. british intelligence would not talk about his death a spy saw a good u. turn the father of a former f.s.b. officer poisoned in london six years ago accusing that of a puritan of being behind that there was a mistake. gets a story first hand. the german leader takes. to convince china not to write off the e.u. and get beijing support for the oil embargo against iran. and moscow promises to all up past deals are not stop sending arms to syria insisting and involved it would not stop weapons reaching opposition groups from abroad our top stories this hour.

international news and comment live from moscow this is. an unexpected change of heart the father of a former f.s.b. officer poisoned in london in two thousand and six has backtracked on accusations that then russian president vladimir putin was responsible for his son's death walter lippmann encodes said his claims were driven by hatred saying he had no idea his son alexander worked for british intelligence. over went to meet him. but. this is how we found mike that leads me and co praying in his tiny telling apartment no electricity no gas no water. what. if it wasn't for the help of various people would have died from hunger or

frozen to death the last time i took a bath was on christmas. we expected more because six years ago after his son former f.s.b. officer alexander litvinenko was poisoned in london he was taken care of by some very powerful patronize like self ixil tycoon there is berezovsky and i have and a tourist former chechen militant both hiding in the u.k. . yet extremist dorsett there he's give me a yes but here dorothy you will be. when vicariously namco sent a letter asking to be interviewed by russian television we expected more of the same but instead would be a mother would love to move out immediately if you're watching this program please forgive me for all the slander that i said and wrote about you for all the hatred i

had for you if only i had known my son worked for british intelligence i would not talk about his death he could have easily been shot as a double agent betrayers should be shot what else can i add to this. the u.-turn vaulters says came when his sons we doe marina bin and co revealed to the british media that her husband had worked for m i six further details followed when a newspaper launched its own investigation i was on the live in yonkers who's receiving a retainer of around two thousand pounds a month from the british security services at the time he was murdered it's understood scarlett's now the head of m i six and ones based in moscow was involved in recruiting him to the secret intelligence service. at first by turnitin and cole like many others claimed his son had been poisoned with polonium two ten on putin's order the former f.s.b. officer and fierce critic of the kremlin alexander litvinenko spent twenty three

days in a london cleaning slowly dying from a toxic substance possibly consumed through a cup of tea even before police in london started questioning suspects the victim's father was actively kucing the russian government today by their admits he was saying only what the west wanted to hear. of course i realize russia's f.s.b. or not it is enough to take plone into london sprinklers over some heads and leave traces everywhere and their suspect and they will go boy is not a fool either it was anger and blind hatred speaking inside of me vikram now believes his son fell victim to his own game of double agents now he wants his wants to be heard but the media outside russia which once beat down his door for interviews now won't even reply to his requests. and why. because they like it when i scold the regime though i was

a real treasure for the movie well there are very few people who would say as many horrible things about putin as i did. in two thousand and eight but the only thing uncle flett russia or sanctuary needs something is settled in the sleeping quiet town of city guy it offered a new anonymous life the man claimed putin was his number one enemy so hiding in europe he believed was the only safe solution today by the living and co is still afraid to open this door not because of putin though but because of his landlord to whom hill has a lot of money this miserable life has made him a slave of his sanctuary. likely dinny uncle sold everything he had in russia to come to italy he opened a small business several years ago but it went bankrupt things got worse when the seventy three year old had buried his wife marjorie now fears her casket could be removed because he hasn't paid the coast of a burial plot and it's been months since the electricity was shot up to his flat

he's lost forty euros went on a gas canister and that is gone. this is how i warm myself there was i open this door to let the southern wind inside. there is east and there is russia my homeland your. throat and i want to go home to russia. i don't want to stay here. he did a great show of our t. sity got eaten. iran's nuclear ambitions and the euro zone's debt struggles topped the german chancellor's agenda on her trip to china angela merkel is calling on beijing the biggest buyer of iranian oil not to buy more after an e.u. embargo and to use its influence to persuade to iran to abandon any possible atomic

weapons ambitions she also wants to offer reassurance that investing in the eurozone is still a safe bet and if you land in this crystal horse don't believe getting support for germany's economy is the main reason for the train. our chances on a triple are begging to if she wants money for europe she wants you know a support from beijing for the new un resolution which beijing is not going to give and she also wants beijing to cut off its own oil supply which beijing is widely not going to do and of course beijing has also to take into consideration that india its competition in the region is standing straight with iran and buying ever more rain in oil so i don't think she has any chance of you know talking china out of buying uranium oil or that we're not have been again i would say she will not put any much focus on it she will she will say that she will look to the ceiling and then she was smile and say let's talk business now her main focus in

this trip is german economy and she's wise to do that she will even not you know lobby very much for chinese investment into europe because she knows in our heart of hearts that this is truly a bad investment. coming up with the whistle blower's final appeal. charts but you know songs to the british judges like extradition to sweden on allegations of sexual assault well coming up for me in london and just to make. up for this is a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown in chaos. find out why the careless comments of u.s. politicians could be costing america credibility on the international stage. that's still to come for you but first russia's defense ministry has reiterated moscow is committed to agreements made with its international partners and will

continue selling arms to syria russia as against the weapons embargoed saying it would not prevent the arming of opposition groups from abroad although progress has been made at the u.n. on syria resolution moscow is adamant it will block any draft which doesn't rule out military intervention was also words for the arab league observers recent report which accuses both sides of the conflict to be taken into account when the un debates syria it knowledge is the existence of armed groups involved in the killings of civilians and government forces to marcus papadopoulos the editor of politics first magazine says it's not in western interest to listen to the report's findings. western interest in the conflict in syria isn't guided by wanting to advance human rights democracy or the rule of law in the region if it was about that then we'd probably see an american naval flotilla off the coast of saudi arabia which happens to be one of the most repressive and brutal regimes in

the world it follows a pro western foreign policy the reason why western governments are we can all in the findings of the report is because it doesn't fit into their agenda syria is a huge player in the in middle eastern politics and the west principally america has a very problematic relationship with syria so it would be very much within america's interests for the syrian government for president assad to fall from power and for a more accommodating a more sort of pro western government to come to parallel should that happen. that would give washington almost four we don't moments politically in the middle way and it's what i would describe as a jewish chess board so it's not within the interests of western powers principally america to take into account what has been actually said in the in the reports of the arab league more analysis on the situation in syria is available on our website

r.t. dot com online all the time there right now for example the moment frozen water bursts pipes inside japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant despite warnings made months ago that exactly this could happen. praise the spontaneous protest that started on twitter the arab revolutions may actually have taken a decade of expertise to prepare and millions of dollars to fund this story along with many others right now on our web site party dot com. it's the last chance for the world's top whistleblower at the u.k. supreme court judge in the sciences appealing against extradition to sweden where he's wanted on allegations of sexual assault sanj denies the accusations and insists the case against him is politically motivated marty laura smith is outside the supreme court in london. we're not expecting to hear just station today we have heard already from documents released by the supreme court that although this

is day two of the two day hearing begins to be reserving judgment for what they term a number of weeks which stars like that could mean between two and eight weeks so we will have to wait to find out the birthday this is day two as i say into the nostalgia right this morning about out the full proceedings started again looking fairly relaxed just as he did yesterday saying hello to a few his supporters standing behind me who have braved the at today's subzero temperatures in done to turn out to show him that they are still. rooting for him yet today we heard his legal team giving their side of the story this case here at the supreme court is notes about whether or not associates guilty of the allegations that have been made against him it's about the nuts and bolts of the legal system and specifically about whether the european arrest warrant under which his extradition has been requested is valid the his team say that the swedish

prosecutor who issued the warrant doesn't have the authority to do that because it's party to the case and therefore it's not independent and impartial so they can use against a bundle of fundamental difference with the rule of law but today the swedish prosecutors legal team will be arguing that that doesn't matter and that in fact the a shingle thirty doesn't have to be independent and impartial we are hearing from the inside of the court that the argument of the swedish prosecutor's team is coming under a lot more scrutiny than associate teams argument did the judges the much more question of it seemingly less impressed by it that this is the final avenue for him 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 however there's a backlog in childbirth. to eight years says he could be hanging around in this sort of bizarre limbo if he doesn't win here the cool stuff does his greatest fear

is that he would be in and resign his from here to sweden with the his feet literally wouldn't touch the ground in this week's events sent him straight to america which of course has the best interest in this either with these allegations of connecting 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 will 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. the respect that the blunders of u.s. politicians have inspired jokes and parodies for decades with the presidential election campaign heating up as a whole new supply of ammunition but as a report some believe the comments are displays of ignorance and disregard for world affairs and 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 i ask me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stan stan 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. no

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 become and 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 country ok sort of like at this point now where i think if you're going to 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. 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 if i were president i would be willing to use waterboarding i think it was very effective. and i think the consistent streak of

foreign policy blunders made by u.s. 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 marina. new york. eighteen minutes past the hour now in the russian capital time to update you on some more international news in brief and we 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 use of rasika law he could face six months in jail and lose his office the court is known to man the reopening of the case dating back to the late one nine hundred ninety s. but the government has refused it insists the president enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. united states has made the surprise announcement that it will halt combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected u.s.

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 has ruined the whole transition plan and fourth preparations to be rushed through seventeen 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 sunk off papua new guinea's north coast rescuers plucked from the sea at least two hundred thirty eight survivors but others are still missing the ship's operator said it lost contact with the vessel on thursday after it sent a distress call most of the passengers are students and trainee teachers the un has demanded israel stops building settlements on occupied palestinian territory and restart peace talks palestinians claim they're being terrorized by israeli settlers numbered and outgunned some are now turning tech savvy to defend

themselves poor the slip. this footage is being filmed with nassau only watches camera he's the palestinian who's been pushed to the ground fine israeli soldier just moments earlier his friend took his camera and started filming with. the theory was. really i know i've heard of a dozen or so it. was a little i don't believe it was the family oh no not at all other they are talking about i don't know closely and it seems like those happen almost weekly here in the hebron hills and across the palestinian territories for years they went unreported until an israeli human rights organization distributed cameras to nasser and dozens of other palestinians to capture glimpses of every day reality in an occupied zone the number one reason for. attacks against palestinians on their property is the lack of law enforcement by israeli authorities this sends a clear message to violent settlers they will act with impunity they will not be

made to pay to pay a price for their actions but more and more they've been called to book after footage like this has been made public most often strike in the dead of night sitting fire to mosques and painting wars with the words. the term is a threat to israeli security forces of the heavy price will have to pay if they try to break down settlements and. take control of all the land and expel palestinians the settlers let loose wild animals on the agricultural land will destroy the crops we've seen instances where something has run over palestinians with their cars and shoot at unarmed palestinians it's only increase. by batavia is an israeli activist who gave up his day job so he could volunteer full time to teach palestinians about the camera project he says settlers think twice when they see a lens pointed in their direction although it didn't stop the recently from breaking his arm and beating him all over his body at a protest in support of

a palestinian farmer who's amanda vanstone and by a settlement about fifteen. and the settlers in the wouldn't care about the camera actually. it's one of the people that they were with. on the ground there with their cameras. all the cameras are good i like not only did israeli police do nothing while bones were broken and one six they're tempted to knife or protester but israeli activists say police beat several of them up what's more for the first time israeli woman activists say there were six she her last and assaulted by both male and female israeli extremists but that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of nasa and others to form what's going on and hold the israeli security forces and settlers accountable when the settlers see the cameras of course they don't do what they would usually do the cameras haven't stopped or just changed the way the

settlers attackers now they do it mostly when it's impossible to show their checker from the side before they attack to see if we have cameras with us. the settlers are accused of carrying out violent attacks against random palestinian civilians damaging their property more recently however they're charged with targeting israeli soldiers and police and defacing the homes of left wing israeli activists israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has vowed to crack down on jewish extremism in the west bank but with his government supporting settlement expansion that promise means precious little to those on the receiving end of the violence policy r.t. television. shortly on r.t. we ask what should be done to break the stalemate in syria but first it's the business news with dmitri stay with us live here in moscow. thanks bill

a radical improvement in the business climate will be the urgent task of the next administration 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 terms of its investment climate to business that is moving the course reports. it sounded like a school records a bright student but marks a bad must try harder not amir peretz and highlighted once again that russia has a lot of potential but it is failing it soon get their results he said most attendance studies place the country in the top five in terms of it's the city get more investment but in reality it's investment climate but this is russia in the one hundred and twenty of position something he called a shameful that he said that russia should become the type of logically of the facts and not only when the bumps in the pension he said others see a different culture over business consumption and that's what we 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 promises is setting up and that's men who would be responsible to protect the rights of all on superman or it's not just foreign investors and we 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 most everything goes right through the global economy particularly for the major exporters in the emerging markets and you have got by saying that the next ten years would see a transformation of the global economy which would see the emergence of new financial centers and goes up to a mistake that russia would be part of those. and the main market moving story of the day the russian government is ready to buy back shares in the country's second biggest bank d.t.b. for minority shareholders who purchased the stock during an i.p.o. in two thousand and seven the government adds that it will do its best to ensure

investors do not make a loss and list price for the shares was fourteen point six copecks the current price is around seven heavy to be estimates the cost of the five. there are around one hundred fifteen thousand minority shareholders in the t.v. bank in order to believe that shares of around one hundred to one hundred ten pounds and minority shareholders will need some fifteen to eighteen billion rubles this. rising look at the markets will look at those shares in just a second russian markets third consecutive day of my six moderately up four point two percent now of course financials are the main movers of the day to be a one point after these this news about it was up three percent it ended the day up one point two percent prime minister putin announced this buyback potential buy back from minority shareholders lukoil is also up at the close despite being

slightly lower as the company shed light its preparing for listing in hong kong. now to some markets which are still open u.s. stocks are flat to positive bounce off the u.s. labor department reported weekly unemployment applications by twelve thousand now that is doing better point six percent. european indices also turn positive so this announcement from the u.s. labor department is the greek government is also still trying to come to a deal with its creditors putting pressure on the e.c.b. to try and bond swap would be negotiated and may move us in london glencore xstrata up ten and seven percent respectively and why is that the world's largest publicly traded commodity supplier glencore is in merger talks with xstrata both are listed in london glencore ready hold thirty four percent of extras which is valued at thirty five billion dollars now if that goes smoothly the combined company will have a capitalization of about eighty billion dollars and would be the first largest mining

company in the world. and that's all for now we will be back in fifty five minutes time. means of protection can be used. when global supremacy. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine us has spent fifteen

billion dollars in the price paid 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 went on things becomes the best for the defense.