even. the father of a former f.s.b. officer poisoned in london six years ago says accusing him of being behind the death was a mistake to get the story for. the u.n. considers a new draft of a resolution on syria which softens calls for president assad to step down following criticism from russia. and egypt police fired tear gas at a group of protesters as people there rally against security forces handling a riot at a football match on wednesday that left seventy four dead as you can see here these are live pictures from tahrir square where demonstrators continue their rally into

the night despite clashes with authorities. and broadcasting live director from our studios in central moscow this is r.t. i'm sean thomas glad to have you with us in an unexpected to change of heart of the father of a former f.s.b. officer poisoned did london in two thousand and six has backtracked on accusations that russian president vladimir putin was responsible for his son's death lived in yankee says his claims were driven by hatred saying he had no idea his son alexander worked for british intelligence or. went to meet him. this is how we found like that many and co praying in his tiny italian apartment no

electricity no gas no cold water what. if it wasn't for the help of his people i would have died from hunger over a reason to death the last time i took a bath was on christmas eve. we expected more because six years ago after his son former f.s.b. officer aleksandr litvinenko was poisoned in london he will stay can carol by some very powerful patrons like self excel tycoon boris berezovsky and ahmed zakayev and a tourist former chechen militant both hiding in the u.k. . courtships month period of time we brought. yet extremist dorsett there he's given yet here to receive. one by three pm co sent a letter asking to be interviewed by russian television we expected more of the

same but instead. we're going to dinner. if you watching this program please forgive me for all the slander the times said and wrote about the hatred. only i had known my son worked for british intelligence that you would not talk about his death he could easily have been shot as a double agent but. what else can i add to the. only risk of. the u.-turn vaulters says came when his sons we don't marina been and co revealed to the british media that her husband had worked for and my six further details followed when a news paper launched its own investigation alexander litvinenko was receiving a retainer of around two thousand pounds a month from the british security services at the time he was murdered it is understood that sir john scarlett now head of m i six and was 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 to town on putting the full at officer and fierce critic of the kremlin alexander litvinenko spent twenty three days in a london clinic 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 kissing 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. and the idea you have to take polonium to london brink over some heads and leave traces everywhere and they're suspect. you're not a fool either way it was anger and blind hatred speaking inside of me viper now believes his son fell victim to his own game of double agents now he wants his words to be heard but the media outside russia which once beat down his door for

interviews now won't even reply. to his requests. why is that. because they like all of the real team i was a root treasure for the movie the whole there are very few people who would say as many horrible things are. going to. be in two thousand and eight but that it's been young call for what russia for sanctuary needs really has settled in the sleeping quiet town of sinegal 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 was their lives when young co is still afraid to open this door not because of putin though but because of his landlord to whom he owes a lot of money this miserable life has made him a slave of his sanctuary but surely the namco 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 after the

seventy three year old had buried his wife but are now fears here a casket could be removed because he hasn't paid the cost of a barrel plot and it's been months since the electricity was shot on here to his flat he was lost for two euros went on a gas canister and that is gone to the work of the us navy this is how most of us talk at that i'm going to let the southern wind in sight. there is east only as russia. learned. i want to go home to russia. the truth i do want to stay here. in the great show of an art city got eataly journalist neil clark a contributor to the guardian newspaper in the u.k. told us earlier that russia phobia was fanning the live in young girl's story in

the west. it seems that the british media and i'm talking about serious newspapers they don't seem to want to cover stories when they don't fit the narrative and the dominant narrative of course back in two thousand and six was the evil tyrant. and ordered the f.s.b. to come to london and hill. without any evidence and when you think about it you know there are lots of explanations for this much and actually the least likely is that it was a would by president putin the time of the murder there are all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around attacking russia and putin for this there was a real russian public campaign in the west media there are people called the neo cons i think they're right wing thinkers who really resent russia's revival under president putin and medvedev and these people use anything to discredit russia russia really is a counterbalance to u.s. global domination russia is friendly with iran stopping military intervention in syria as i speak and so there are

a lot of people. in the upper echelons of power in the west who are very keen to discredit russia and they will use anything bill to do that the draft resolution on syria under discussion at the u.n. security council is being softened to take into account russian concerns it's likely to have references to president assad stepping down and an arms embargo removed from the text are to. have the details from new york. moods definitely seem to be shifting over here at the united nations headquarters you know amidst screams trying to attack russia for being counterproductive for blocking this arab and western resolution it looks like russia has really been a game changer behind closed doors and it looks like its voice has definitely. changed the game altogether we're hearing that considering the fact that russia and china have been very expressive in saying that they would not support every scene changed resolution against syria that

a new document has been circulated among members of the security council this is according to the permanent representative of togo at the united nations the country which is presiding at the security council this month that this document is now being considered in thursday's negotiations and it's important at this entire time russia has been seeing what's key is for both sides of the conflict to get together for talks and in statements made earlier today the representative of togo said that the international community believes this to be very important in finding a solution to the crisis that the sides sit together and talk and this is exactly what russia has been calling for all along now there are no deadlines in terms of when any sort of documents would be voted on we are hearing that it's possible that monday is being considered as one of the days when a vote might take place the arab league observers mission documents basically accused both sides of the conflict of being responsible and this is something that the west and the arab league have kind of been turning a blind eye on and trying to not really bring to light some of these facts such as

the observer mission seeing that they've witnessed a civilian bus killing eight people a bombing taking place that killed eight people as well as a bombing of a train bringing diesel oil as well as an explosion of the of a police bus and this is something that the mission put in their report on the west and the arab league have kind of tried to brush aside and russia's been saying it's very important that this document acknowledges that armed forces and armed groups exist on the ground. and this is something that seems to be taken into account now with this possibility of a new documents being considered at the what. you're going to reporting for us there now dr marcus papadopoulos editor of the politics first magazine says it's not in western interests to listen to the report's findings. western interest in the conflict in syria isn't guided by. 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 ignoring 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 governments culture parallel should that happen is that it that would give a washington almost for we don't mince politically in the middle weights and it's what i would describe as a geo strategic chess cool it's 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. police have fired tear gas at a group of protesters in cairo they had been a rally against the way security services handled the riot that a football match on wednesday in which seventy four people died fans rushed onto the field in the seaside city of port side after the home team beat egypt's top club setting off clashes and the stampede mark professor of international relations from bill clinton university in turkey says that there are forces in the new egypt that want more clashes to erupt. the police are very demoralized now you took a beating if you like. they were defenders of his regime and. rid of him and much of the social order problems egypt crime attach and tourist attraction will give him more moree often i went on the fact the police seem to be tomorrow's to do much and many people have said that the police import slaves said it had

reacted with a heavy hand to stop this as it were going we would have been accused of being action on the other hand there are also people who say the police of course protected just like we allow a cruel trick and some who were possibly revolutionary crowds back in january last year and that maybe people want to use this for their own purposes that on the one hand the muslim brotherhood has accused the government assailing of being somewhat responsible for the rights they won the elections to parliament they want to put transfer part of them on the other hand what a few of the people in the streets protesting are happy about the muslim brotherhood literally elections and they may feel that disorder on the streets might give them more influence than they have actually with the electorate launched and then as i say that maybe people who say we need a firm hand and then lead the field marshal and provide it but either way it's not a happy prospect for a smooth transition to a better egypt. and remember you can always find more on our website r.t. dot com here's what's there for you right now. frozen water burst pipes inside

japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant despite warnings made months ago that exactly this could happen. and appraised as spontaneous protests that started on twitter the arab revolutions may actually have taken a decade of expertise to prepare and millions of dollars to fund the story along with many other it's available on our website at r.t. dot com. the u.s. has made the surprise announcement of that it will shift from a combat to a supportive role in afghanistan earlier than expected us to fend secretary leon panetta said the switch to backing up and training local forces will take place next year seen as a year earlier than expected before american forces plan to pull out in two

thousand and fourteen derek crowe of the nonprofit brave new foundation says it's still unclear when the troops will be completely withdrawn. hopefully what this means is panetta said something like this on the plane when he made this surprise announcement that it would mean troops moving out of communities and on to bases first like they did in iraq and then eventually be pulled out so it absolutely does not mean that we have a date certain for all troops to be out of afghanistan and that's something that our community that is working to end the war and get the troops home has to has to be very clear on we do need to keep continuing to pressure the government well i certainly think that the lives and the resources that were spent on the military first strategy were absolutely a waste what you've seen people say in the southern regions of afghanistan that they want is a fair elections process and aside from the corruption issue that means that you can't have people who are are blatant war criminals be allowed on the ballots in those regions just because they're u.s. and kabul allies. now let's take

a look at some more international news in brief for you this hour. a series of explosions have killed six people in vain northwestern nigerian city of maiduguri the islamist group boko haram is suspected just days ago eleven of the group were shot dead by nigerian security forces in the area. which seeks sharia law in the country has been responsible for attacks which killed one hundred eighty in the past month. pakistan's supreme court has decided to charge the country's prime minister with contempt for his failure to reopen an old corruption case against of the president if convicted. money could face six months in jail and lose his office the court has long demanded a reopening of the case of 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. it fairy carrying at three hundred fifty people has

sunk off 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 a trainee teachers. at least six people have been killed and twenty wounded in a blast near a police station in southwest colombia this comes a day after eleven people were killed in an explosion targeting another in the neighboring city of mako officials have blamed leftist fark rebels for the attacks . the world's top whistleblower has made his appeal to the u.k.'s supreme court and now it's up to judges to decide his fate swedish authorities on day two rejected arguments by julian assange against his extradition to sweden saying that if he won the case it could turn european law on its head. reports from outside the

courts in london. the code into the supreme court said they will deliver the verdict in what they're calling a number of weeks so we're not sure whether that means two weeks or whether it means eight weeks but certainly we have now reached the end of this two day hearing in which both sides have put their cases to the panel of seven judges that are sitting on this case in the supreme court and this hasn't been about whether julian are songs committed the sexual assault that it's the sexual assault that is alleged that he committed by the swedish prosecutor this is being about the nitty gritty of how the legal system works as far as it pertains to the european arrest warrants and whether in fact the warrant has been issues to extradite julian assange it was valid to toll i saw his team say that the only people who can issue a european arrest warrant are judges who are impartial and independent where is this warrant was issued by the swedish prosecutor who is party to this case and on

the other hand the swedish prosecutor's team have been arguing that the european arrest warrant which the u.k. has of course signed up to can be issued by both judges and prosecutors it has to be that the jury in the cool of today particularly the judges appeared to have a little bit more time for our soldiers teams case that when it came to what the switch prosecution was saying they questioned a bit more they got a bit more and see and they were seem to have a little bit less patience for it where is diana raise for julian assange she might have to raise a bit of laughter and it seems like a bit of a lawyer to proceed take this is the last chance saloon for to lead us on in this country this of course is the supreme court is the highest court in the land has come up through other courts including race recently through the high court he's made it here if he does lose here and there is a chance that he could take this to the european court of human rights in strasbourg that's by no means a given but i mean he's always said that he would do that if he did lose in this country's course he's always maintained that the charges are politically motivated

he says that it's. connection with his what the wiki leaks of calls released not huge passive previously secret documents which embarrassed governments including the us government and also many international businesses but his greatest fear of course is that he would be extradited first to sweden and then once in sweden the swedes would find a way to get him to go to america where he would face his lips of what you don't serious charges it will be a number of weeks i say before we find out the verdict and then you know possibly on severe pig course of human rights possibly you know possibly possibly not we'll have to see. them next we talked to the senior editor of the new statesman magazine and mehdi husain who tells our team that finding a solution to the crisis in syria won't be easy and it won't be seen as legitimate without a u.n. resolution. today

i'm talking to mehdi has his 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 that he has thanks 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 a day how good do you think the observers are implementing that among. they are going they're very good given how 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 that a lot of syrian opposition groups have 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 ambassador and the arab league has really been all over the place on syria on the one hand it's condemned syrians praise for the first time condemning a fellow arab nation and putting the 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 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 are they got daryn 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 that targeted against regime members targeted against people who are indicted for human rights violations or war crimes find if they squeeze the country 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 but be legitimate without a u.n. resolution and more and more innocent people die than will 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 a man who 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 appear to be three some distinct blocs there's the free syrian

army there's a kind of external opposition there's people in the streets you think. they'll be able to form any kind of case well that's one of the objections a lot of people have 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 etc indigenous those outside the country they did for a united opposition for the purposes of getting rid of gadhafi and they controlled territory bengazi 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 thought out 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 defectors every day every week from syrian armed forces and yet all those independent observers not just the assad regime but it's apologists i said well actually it's a trickle and they're exaggerating their own strengths 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 of 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 guns 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 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 the. number of things 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 unsavory 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 libya was accused by human rights watch during the conflict of carrying out all sorts of killings and abuses of prisoners which still have to be resolved the public and to people don't even want to look into a syrian conflict where again we don't ignorant of what's going on on the ground we're not experts on who these people or what these groups found 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 have been part of those human rights abuses and that's just a horrible reality of the world we live in and in terms of the actual people do you see any link between the libyan islamists and days on the ground in syria well

there's been reports about as you know as with all these conflicts you know they're great and they're murky that libyan is lewis groups fighting in libya finished fighting in libya have transferred over to help some of the syrian opposition groups and do you see an extempore 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 companies 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 well and good but would push us into all sorts of areas of the middle east we don't want to be involved because syria for example is a much bigger player in the israel arab conflict it's a much bigger country and tougher to overcome beat militarily if it took us that long to beat libya how long did it take us to syria and he has very much thank you .

the closest team has been to the bar of. where the country's little wealth starts its way across the ocean. now our chief goes to the area. to lenin looking to a different character to represent itself. for local businesses are striving to build the aviation capital of russia. the four by fours are made and should be tested to the limits. welcome to the region. russia close up. the little.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.