the u.n. . draft resolution on syria with moscow saying it is vague leaves the door open for foreign military intervention. rocked by a return to a dozen dead and thousands wounded in egypt as protesters at. the military's grip on power. in russia hundreds of thousands gather for rival rallies ahead of next month's presidential vote with massive pro and anti-government marches. plus occupy wall street is kicked out of a washington park police. early morning. with

today's top headlines and recapping this week's top stories this is r.t. with our weekly update glad to have you with us russia and china have given a firm no to the latest u.n. security council resolution on syria moscow has defended its move saying the draft fails to deliver a balanced approach to be unrest and will bring even more bloodshed that says those who were behind of the document are now ganging up against a veto states. reports from new york. in a matter of just five minutes after the meeting began russia and china both wielded their veto powers not supporting this draft resolution that was written by the arab league european countries while the draft resolution was supported by thirteen

members of the security council russia was asking for some amendments according to russian foreign minister sergei lavrov those amendments were not excessive and mr r. lover of said that russia was urging the west to accommodate moscow's concerns to reach a compromise on this draft resolution china during the meeting that supported russia's amendments and said for the council to approach a vote knowing there was a divide it did not help maintain the unity or the authority of the security council if russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said that moscow does not support using the security council as a tool to intervene on a sovereign country experiencing an internal conflict he believes that could create chaos in international affairs so as we see there was to veto this resolution

it did not go through and it's because russia believes that as the draft resolution was presented it had a lot of imbalances in it when it comes to the current circumstance in syria russian envoy to the united nations vitaly churkin did go into detail about those imbalances but about the security council has not yet reached its conclusion that you know the draft resolution does not adequately with the real situation in syria that consumes. the co-sponsors of the resolution and would take into account the syrian opposition they must distance itself from extremist groups committing violence. on state your ability to use their influence to prevent such. no have taken into account that with was drawing the syrian forces from the city to . be a means to attack. state institutions. nor has the being support for affording more

flexibility to get into. states to increase the chances of a successful political process the russian delegation was forced to vote against this draft resolution we seriously regret this outcome. minister is scheduled to visit damascus on tuesday to meet with syrian president bashar al assad this is a move. to hopefully reach some type of peaceful approach or solution to the conflict still in syria the arab league is also addressed the media at the security council at the stakeout saying that they are extremely disappointed. but they will continue trying to work with the security council with the united nations to try to reach some type of consensus now u.s. president barack obama did also issue a statement of his own before the meeting began. that you know the united states is

on the side of the syrian people that are posing the syrian president and his government and he said quote the assad regime the time has come for the assad regime to. change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china are reporting for us there from new york now sticking with this story jason the editor of antiwar dot com says the resolution about syria was doomed after the fallout from the libyan conflict. the resolution itself was was probably not going to accomplish much anyway it seems to have been at best an effort to kickstart some international backing for intervention in the country which obviously russia and china were not going to support i don't think it was ever going to get anywhere and now it seems

like with the arab league having withdrawn all their monitors from the country in favor of this resolution they sort of shot themselves in the foot here and don't have a lot of options laughs it might well put an end to this crisis and create another potentially worse crisis as it did in libya where it's you know. to me that what the security council is is liable to do with syria is to continue arguing the point to continue putting forth resolutions that have no chance of passing and giving long winded speeches that don't really get anywhere opposition activists have claimed over two hundred people were killed in the syrian city of homes just ahead of the vote at the u.n. security council asia times correspondent pepe escobar questions the accuracy of those reports and don's timing was a coincidence. the timing of this alleged massacre in the holds of more than two hundred people killed just as the u.n.

is gathering to vote a result lucian morales establishing what the arab league says is a roadmap for peace and syria is a suspect well coming back to what this resolution is all about it so now alliance between nato basically led by washington and london and paris and this six person go for monarchies of the gulf cooperation council their agenda from the beginning for months now is reaching change in syria no matter what they knew that they can never get the u.n. security council resolution authorizing and most lies over syria for number of reasons first of all because that did assad regime is not so bold bardi its own by the regime with me so this is not something to do with the syrian peace process and all and not only. developing countries i don't think it's now up but from russia and china would syrians themselves began being very specific look we don't trust

this big silence council would like to organize ourselves and will like to discuss with the guys sit down with the go and discuss a real map for peace but between ourselves between syrians it's not happening. and just a little bit later in the program we report on what could be a much more explosive powder keg in the region. iran is ready to cause chaos in the world markets as a top government minister says he's certain an embargo on oil imports to some e.u. countries will take place. saturday was a day of demonstrations across russia hundreds of thousands gathered in moscow st petersburg and elsewhere to voice their political views ahead of next month's presidential elections two rallies that took place in the capital one was an opposition march officially aimed at calling for a fair election but also saw protests against the candidacy of the current prime

minister vladimir putin the other gathering was pro-government with slogans calling for stability saying what the opposition wants is a ukraine style orange revolution both rallies went off peacefully martin mccauley who's an expert on russia at the university of london says the only hope the opposition has of winning is to unite unite behind a single candidate. just result of the election of course we are very very important because what these demonstrators want is if you like a clean election an absence of fraud and so on and it's up to the authorities to ensure that there will be cameras there and so on and therefore it's probably will be a fair intellection but what is important is that it seemed to be fair and that these people have no cause to claim that the election on the fourth of march with a reputed wins of the first that has to be seen to be fair and to be clean otherwise would be tremendous protests on the levels of the opposition will not

come together they don't want to compromise they don't want to arrive at a single candidate the only way they go to defeat. on the fourth of march just have a single candidate who is accepted by the whole. opposition and there's no likelihood of if it looks are ready as if they're not he's a goner the con is going to they will come up second as he always does and the divisions of the third or fourth and so on and we have proper would bring up the rest because he is there really only to appeal to the middle class. while one plan to put forward to ensure greater voting transparency at next month's election is to install webcams at all polling stations it follows the massive protests after the parliamentary election in russia late last year but as artie's you've got a piece going off reports not everyone is convinced it will be effective. inch after inch mile after mile big brother is preparing to cast his eyes on polling

stations as the massive campaign to install web cameras is in full swing across the entire nation but actually sometimes but i don't know why i asked my central electoral commission which is to install web cameras at all polling stations across the country so that everyone could watch online what's happening there almost twenty four hours a day. earlier. the idea was put forward following the biggest protests in russia since the collapse of the us a song with tens of thousands demanding fair elections so wiring up over ninety thousand polling stations is a skill and around a half a billion u.s. dollars is the price tag. the system is not be made only for one day we hold this project want only develop elections acknowledges but will also help modernize telecommunications infrastructure across the entire country. all cameras will be feeding the videos the film to local digital storage facilities after computer

processing will be then sent to seven large storage and distribution centers via cable radio and satellite these centers will then broadcast the information to several web portals it's estimated that all together the cameras will film and broadcast four hundred ninety years of video information in good quality however there is still down to this technology will help make the vote more transparent. you'll get us down i'm sure the observers won't be able to check advance if these cameras work or not. everyone knows about cameras in supermarkets but this still doesn't stop robberies from happening. it's that every ballot box will be monitored by two cameras one with the general view and another with a close up of the slot there are many ways to rig a vote and the cameras don't provide one hundred percent guarantee against them but

using them should still make it much more difficult to stuff boxes course there's nothing new in c.c.t.v. or web cameras. using them to monitor elections on such a scale is a first for any nation and regardless of the success of the idea everyone will be able to monitor the vote online and not to mention no one is against having more real life observers on the spot is going off r.t. moscow. of course more details on everything we're covering can always be found online at r.t. dot com step today through our website let's have a look at some of the stories waiting for you there right now. and american inventor says it's only a matter of decades actually before romance is between robots and humans become commonplace read about this unusual vision of the future. and anti act of protests sweep across europe and bear their first breath as polish

authorities decide to suspend the anti online piracy legislation. iran will definitely halt oil supplies to some european countries warns tehran's oil minister the move comes in response to that use earlier decision to impose sanctions on the islamic republic that are to come into force in july at the weekend tehran that launched massive military exercises in the country's south near the vital oil route of the strait of hormuz tensions have been rising amid suggestions that a military operation against iran is an increasing possibility reports emerged on thursday that the u.s. defense secretary leon panetta said israel could strike iran in april may or june director of the center for research on globalization michel chossudovsky says the latest developments show the u.s. and its allies are determined to start war. what.

it is is a bill that. also. calls for these sanctions ghosted you. should thinks that we. will have the u.s. military troops going to israel. you know. naval forces go. well you know it states wants. to be is our guys some kind of a green light which will give a human face the world will. a dozen dead and thousands injured the bloody aftermath of three straight days of rioting in egypt and it all began after an outbreak of violence at a football match early of us week an episode that claimed the lives of seventy four people and let's now go to tahrir square the heart of egypt's revolutionary

movement for more from our correspondent to maria fun otieno now maria thanks for being with us it's been a very chaotic last few days there in egypt what is the mood like now. well shone it's an early morning here in the egyptian capital cairo and this time the square that i hope you can see behind me may look quite calm and peaceful but you're absolutely right these few days have been absolutely devastating absolutely chaotic for egypt and tragic as well as far as the egyptian authorities are reporting since portside massacre when seventy four people died in heat add one of the cities who post hydrants twelve of the people have been killed in the bottles that followed and twenty five hundred others have been injured it's worth to point out that since mass protests took first took to the streets of the capital cairo last january. people actually have been on the streets literally all the time protesting

and demonstrating against military rule but these poor incident this massacre has triggered new waves a new wave of clashes and violence and has given. fresh polls to continue in regular. street protests here in capital and everywhere throughout the country. the general frustration over the military ruling here in the country the ruling of the supreme council of the armed forces that took power from mubarak when he ousted last february has combined with this anger over the portside eat and people have been actually very quick to condemn this for she is to accuse the interior ministry of agents of allowing this to happen or deficiency and actually sometimes even instigating these fires in

order to preserve this instability in order to eventually just to follow the authoritarian rule here in the country hard core football fans known as old choice that have always been. in. the forefront of the uprising against mubarak have come right after this happened portside have come to the building of the interior ministry here in the central cairo just some blocks away from here calling for justice for the middle transition of the power from the military to civil institutions and for. actually presidential elections and since in the last four days the standoff between police and protesters has never actually stalled it's still continuing right. at this very moment actually we've been there it's a complete disaster i hope you can see the pictures right now it's a narrow street. street one the streets that lead into the wards the building over the interior ministry the realm of people the chance of alatri and ministry slogans

from time to time police firing tear gas and protesters but it never comes as a surprise for than this why many of them are wearing gas masks and if no it's all of them. many of them are carrying bottles with special liquid that may help in this situation and they're so. pieces of cotton like this one this is actually what they gave me there they're soaking it in this liquid and sniffle into all the time to be able to breathe normally so it's complete disaster let's listen to what people there have been saying here people are just protesting in addition to teaching. the council the biggest unbelievably in fact people keep in mind that there is nothing each day children everything today a journey that. that might occur and they don't she think. that the chinese the

seventy seven year old china it's over a new one then enough what they're doing to the protesters and the doing to the world to the country and the children must be. another protest they came. to me. showing these two. i hope you can see it right now claiming he was injured. to his left called so as you can see station very tense very complicated but there was is that we can expect . even further. all right maria for notion we know that things are tense there in cairo and the country as a whole and we'll be coming back to you as that situation continues to develop. on saturday police one of the sites of the occupy wall street anti-corporate movement in the u.s. officers wearing protective gear cracked down on a camp in macpherson's square in washington early in the morning they removed tents

and sleeping bags and arrested at least four people and forcing a ban on camping issued by local authorities earlier in the week the park was cordoned off and a helicopter was seen hovering overhead the occupy movement has seen some heavy handed police tactics including the recent taser shocking of a nonviolent protester in d.c. but excessive force won't scare activists away says kevin zeese from our economy think tank. who knows what's going through their head space on you know when we i watch that video available online and it looks like there was no justification for it when i went to make pearson today to ask about it people said the only thing he was doing was taking the signs around the tents and said no camping and so that was the rationale for tasering he was not being as threatening it looks like the excessive use of force my sense is that it's not going to provoke the campers that they're more. disciplined in the fall for that trap the occupy movement in

a few months. and show the american people that if they get mobilized and organized that we have power we can change the direction this country so the future's going to be an american spring that's going to explode out of the sea and become more important the presidential race in two thousand and twelve. now on to some other news making headlines around the world at this hour. the former cuban president fidel castro has made a rare public appearance in the country's capital to launch his memoirs but a book called good times is almost one thousand pages long and covers his first childhood memory was up until his rise to power in the cuban revolution in one hundred fifty eight it is the first time he's been seen in public since april last year after he retired in two thousand and eight following an illness. the cold weather in europe has now claimed two hundred twenty lives as countries struggled to cope with record low temperatures ukraine is being hit the hardest as more than

one hundred died when temperatures plummeted to minus thirty degrees celsius it is said that most of the victims there were homeless people meanwhile bosnian authorities declared a state of emergency in the capital sarajevo when snow caused power outages and closed transit routes in rome the coliseum is closed after the city's heaviest snowfall in almost three decades with italy's death toll rising to five. and there has been an unexpected u. turn from the father of the former f.s.b. officer alexander litvinenko who was poisoned in london six years ago he says he was wrong to accuse the kremlin of organizing his son's death and admits he just said what the west wanted to hear want to hear. story firsthand. how we found out that he. bring in his tiny italian apartment no electricity no gas no water. if it wasn't for the people who

would have died from hunger and today. 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 patrons like self ixil tycoon boris berezovsky and ahmed's archive and a tourist former chechen militant both hiding in the u.k. . you could be here just as much three of them we broke. yet you get extremist you know which of dorset there are he's just give me a yes but here doris you would be. the one vital european and co sent a letter asking to be interviewed by russian television we expected more of the same but instead we're going to a different if not deem even to be made of each if you watching this program please

forgive me for all the slander the thai said and wrote about you for the hatred i had will you even only i had known my son worked for british intelligence i would not talk about his death he could easily have been shot as a double agent betrayers should be short of story what else can i add to the holes in the risk of. the u.-turn valter says came when his sons we doe marina leap in and co revealed to the british media that her husband had worked for and my six further details followed when a newspaper 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 once 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 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 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. and the media you know have to take polonium to london sprinkle it over some heads and leave traces everywhere and their suspect and a little boy is not a fool either it was anger and blind hatred speaking inside of me vydra 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 one because

they like it when i scold the regime i was a root treasure for the movie the whole there are very few people who would say as many horrible things about as i did as well you know living in two thousand and eight was the only thing yankel flat russia for sanctuary in italy has settled in the sleeping quiet town of sinegal it offered to 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 lithuanian 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. but surely the namco sold everything he had in russia to come to eataly 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 her now fears her casket could be removed because he hasn't paid the cost of

a very old plot and it's been months since the electricity was shut off to his flat he was lost forty euros went on a gas canister and that is gone to your name this is how i wound myself of us talk at the number in the door to let the southern wind inside. there is east only as russia your home learned from tourists i want to go home to russia. i don't want to stay here. sit in the church over our tea city ghalia eataly. and i'll recap our top stories for you after a short break still thirty. feet

. more news today violence is once again flared up.