british science it's time to. go. to the. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars reports on. the e.u. seeks to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president assad or u.n. draft resolution that was blocked by russia and china. russia's foreign minister calls western reaction to the veto decent and hysterical ahead of his trip to damascus aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis and ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister putin lays out his plans to upgrade russia the bocher see a day after mass pro and anti-government rallies sweep the country. and pressure on all greek coalition government in deadlock over adopting new austerity measures

necessary to secure a second ballot while the e.u. says time for a deal is running out for athens. speaking to senior any of this about the reasons for europe's shortage of gas this winter the business news is the twenty. nine pm in moscow i matras a good to have you with us here on r t our top story the e.u. and u.s. are calling for tougher sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime that assertion came after russia and china vetoed the latest u.n. draft resolution on syria moscow and beijing say the wording took sides in the conflict as it solely blame the government for violence without mentioning armed extremist groups in syria opposition leaders claim at least fifty people were killed in a fair. wave of attacks by the army on the city of homs the government denies the

assault an amateur footage showing the alleged shelling can't be verified as are you sorry for of course an absence of credible credibility in video evidence from the country where he says questions as to exactly what's happening there you may find some of the images in this report disturbing. each and social networking sites have for the past ten months being one of the activists he means is offering the world glimpses of the violence this tool in three syrian activist groups reports how we got the bridge you know up to and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the person of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. you got a very very low grade fever he thinks. writing a. head is the u.n.

security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seemed to reach fever pitch with activists refusing a massacre in homs that was live in the headlines and watched with horror by people worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred you see there could be as many as two hundred dead just in the last hour or two that was later significantly downgraded strict access policies they have made it difficult for many foreign networks to get their correspondents into the country to collect evidence at the end of last year i level discrete citizen at the foreign ministry spokesman we've never been in the media by the way. because objectivity we've been filtering a bit how can you justify for instance you on the people who are relying on you tube and broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube you have also atrocities committed by. the. it's true that to

a large extent mainstream coverage is the trade of the canned has been pretty spun this graphic video appears to show every poor being hanged with the clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now to know what the western allies that the un basing their assertions which is not really about genuine concern for human rights and democracy this is all about regime change dissatisfied with the wording of the resolution china v tahj the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya russia and china believe the do or a pin for foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized they miss is imposed from a poll to try and put an end to the violence again has to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya seems to be backing one so i. mean looking

like the world. are not. indecent and hysterical that's how russia's foreign minister characterized criticism by some western countries of the russian china double veto sort of lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where he is scheduled to meet with the country's authorities tuesday archy's peter all for house more. this was continuing on from that decision by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow for off saying that russia had asked the un security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr lovett off to complete his trip to damascus now they were that request were turned down by the u.n. security council so he left off heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president dmitri medvedev a message that's believed to request the assad government make strong democratic

changes in the country now the foreign ministry very unhappy about this the russian government very unhappy in fact going as far as to call it disrespectful to allow the not allow the vote to be delayed until. a level of completed that trip now. with regards to the comments that it be made from around the world following that the session by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution we've heard condemnation from the united states from france from great britain the foreign secretary in great britain going as far as to say that this meant that there was blood on the hands of those that had vetoed it well so very unhappy about these comments he was speaking at a press conference alongside the foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments made from abroad some western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council syrian resolution vote sounded decent and almost hysterical in this connection i recall the old saying that those who are angry are really right

why these hysterical statements attempts are being made to blur what is really happening in syria and what's really happening is that there are several sources of violence in syria not just one it seems that the resolution cool authors who rushed the vote despite the odds are more interested in simply finding somebody to blame drawing attention away from the armed group. there are receiving weapons and other kinds of encouragement from abroad but with regards to why russia vetoed the resolution over the weekend twelve russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the assad killed and the the opposition talk and want them both sides to put down their weapons and come to the table for talks now as far as russia will come soon the resolution was on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any requests from the the opposition to lay down their arms and as far as russia concerned that's not acceptable when it comes to a u.n. resolution on syria let's get more reaction on the situation in and around syria

with dr omar to xabi a lecturer and professor at the lebanese american university of beirut so why do you think the u.s. and e.u. rushed to put the resolution on syria to a vote even to russia asked for a delay until foreign minister lavrov met with the syrian government. well i think there are some political objectives behind that but let's let's just clarify that the that the russian position and the chinese position was not to support the city and to support the the heart of images that are coming from syria on the contrary quite the opposite it was to stop this bloodshed and interview of russia and china to stop this bloodshed is to stick to the you and charter and the principles of the u.n. charter and to stick to the united nations as an organization that works with peace and therefore and that that encourages dialogue and that with that i think is the

position of russia and by actually saying that there should be more time to actually for the term the russian attempt to model minister lavrov is going to be. in syria he would attempt to bring the parties together closer together to actually sit down on a table and solve things in peaceful ways if there are some of the forms that should be done on the on the part of the regime but also there are obligations on the part of the civilians to give up their weapons that they are using against the syrian army that this is i think they should be more time and this is why the russian position was all firm and so clear for confident because they believe that there should be time and then opportunity for a peaceful settlement because as minister lavrov said there are there is not one side using violence there are several sides and if so you are actually call upon

president assad to step down president assad represents what is left of the central government that is. keeping syria together as a country that is supposed to provide services to its people if you remove it east central government then there will be care. all over syria and there would be a situation that would be almost impossible to control and the whole region will see into more bloodshed and the i think the russians have enough knowledge of the region to actually know what to expect and that is the wrong move forward if the united nation truly wants to set the situation with and to stop the bloodshed there should be a direction two words dialogue and two words negotiations and towards a peaceful settlement for this problem that is becoming ugly day after day and we are seeing very disturbing images on your screen a few minutes ago russia and china over

a period lee said the syrian government and the opposition share blame for the ongoing crisis some western and arab states are stepping up the diplomatic offensive but only against the regime why do you think that is. well obviously i go back to my main answer there are some political objectives i think that there are political objectives on the part of the united states and to some european countries in syria. ironically they are using the principles of human rights and democracy to actually push forward all this and move and by you know supporting these armed groups and this is ironic because they have been in support of the assad government in the past and. not much has changed in fact if there is something the change in syria is that since the houses that are said the regime was in power until today there were more reforms in syria and there was an ease to the secret police there was a more economic freedom there is more freedom of expression insidious so i think

they should have waited more to see if these reforms are going to become more concrete president assad promised that he would make these reforms more concrete. wasn't given a chance. for critical measures against the assad regime because of the violence in syria it doesn't have although very spotless human rights record itself do you think saudi arabia is in a position to make such a call. i think saudi arabia is in a very difficult position because saudi arabia there are some problems inside saudi arabia old soul and there is the issue of and that was never raised in the security council the saudi army the saudi army entered the territory to actually help the bahraini police to oppress people who were calling for democratic reform and behind that was never involved and that was never discussed in the security council

and that shows a clear. selective justice selective interference. in the name of democracy which actually makes it lose its meaning it makes it really clear that the americans and their western allies are not sincere when they talk about freedom and democracy they are inconsistent and they are selective where it suits their interests they push forward where it doesn't they try to hide it and and in and that is a continuous oppression. continuous problems demonstrators are just calling for dialogue with the king so that they can have a settlement that is suitable and in the lines of democracy and freedom and that is not accepted so i hope the saudis would review their position i hope that everybody will take a few steps back and try to think about the suffering of innocent civilians in syria today there are thousands of people suffering this must stop immediately

remove all of the. present i said will not to make this stop there is a minister lavrov and i repeat said that there are several groups using the violence in syria hands moving one a group will not help but the only solution forward is to actually sit on a table and discuss the democratic reforms or a doctor or a shabby lecturer professor at the lebanese american university of beirut thanks for your insight. stay with us here on r.t. still ahead this hour a whistleblower is nominated for the nobel peace prize a u.s. soldier accused of releasing secret files to weeki leaks now want to list of candidates for the prestigious award. and there's a brief it appears in court sharing shocking comments as survivors look on in disbelief. but first with less than a month to go before russia's presidential vote emotions are running high and the

camps are running into high gear following a day of demonstrations in russia a prime minister and presidential candidate glad to hear putin continues laying out his electoral program this time it's more about web shaped democracy with the initiate is allowing people to suggest their own laws online or. well the main idea of the sort of go is that civil society in russia has grown and developed and become much more active most importantly compared to say ten years ago and what comes to the state well it's a lagging behind at the moment people do want to be more active and have more influence on the political life and one of the mechanisms providing them with these opportunities is the internet and this is not only about the tens of thousands of people who now take to the streets for this or that rally is about millions of internet users in russia who over the past few years have been very active there is stories of blogs and forums and videos of all internet wars between political

movements and all of them are going on on the web and the prime minister wants to see the role of the internet is influenced increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper bases for public discussion and not only on initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft law and if it gains say one hundred thousand approval signatures from other users it has to be reviewed by the parliament the internet also gives another opportunity to evaluate civil servants for example if locals of a district of any city are not satisfied with the way the head of the local police department works or a judge or even a principal of a local school they have to be able to voice their concerns on the web be heard by the authorities so that the civil servants can be substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on other initiatives like reintroducing the elections of local

governors was initially put forward by the president supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering new political parties which should make waiting for more competition but now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries. civil servants in exchange for their complete transparency and put together a list of the most corrupt jobs and if in the ninety's many people wanted to become all the guards now there a need for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money quick and important to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well. the name private bradley manning a u.s. soldier accused of passing classified material to whistle blowing web site wiki leaks has occasionally made it into the headlines mostly in connection with his trial but now his name is on a different list that of more than two hundred nominees for the nobel peace prize to discuss the nomination and what it could mean enjoying life in new york by

clark's activist professor and artist who dedicated much of his work to the manning cause so what private manning did leaking secret information in what way does that equate with the idea of promoting peace to you. well i believe that bradley manning is accused of the greatest act of civil disobedience least in my lifetime and what he is accused of is leaking documents and video that has led to the end of the iraq war has led to pro-democracy rallies and uprisings all over the world and. i think it's much deserved that he he receives this nobel peace prize. if obama gets the why shouldn't he. done very little for peace even though he promised it and obama is also taking credit for ending the iraqi war when actually that's not the truth for the truth is. the iraqi

government did not want to allow legal immunity for u.s. troops after january first and the reason that they didn't last immunity is because of what they saw in the cables and the videos showing civilian deaths that were being covered up in the corruption by the u.s. government so yeah i definitely believe that he will probably be one of the highest . vote getters for this nobel peace prize and. i'm hoping that he gets and i'm pulling for him and you devoted some of your work to manning's imprisonment and conditions there do you think the nomination should somehow improve the situation for. i definitely believe that would improve. it would be hard to. put him in prison after winning a prize like. he's currently facing a very unfair trial i'm not really sure anyone can be impartial after obama said

that manning broke the law. even when your commander in chief has already you guilty before you face trial i believe that a trial needs to can just and immediately. you know is not the role of a president all right clark stay active as an artist speaking with us live from new york thanks piers. thank you. the greek prime minister struggling to get coalition party leaders to buy into harsh new international bailout terms the talks have now been postponed until tuesday this is pressure mounts on athens with the european commission spokesman saying the deadlines already passed the country must now expect accept even more painful cuts of its to get off hundred thirty billion euro second lifeline from international creditors if the deal falls through and greece is expected to default by the end of march trevor evans' professor at the berlin school of economics and law says more measures watch staring measures may only make the situation worse. but at the moment it's

a very close play they're putting great pressure on greece to make these cuts greece is having enormous political difficulties in making the cuts but furthermore if they do make these cuts it's just going to drive greece into an even deeper recession which means it will have even less money to meet its foreign debt repayments the only possibility of greece but also portugal or ireland repaying their debts he's if they get long term financing that means that they can begin to invest in projects that have a future based on skilled labor not on cutting wages and driving the country into a recession with ten years of euro massive imbalances built up in europe germany built up a massive trade surplus of two hundred billion euro the countries of southern europe greece spain italy and portugal built up deficits of between one hundred fifty to two hundred billion euros failing to deal with those imbalances is that

the root of the problem and that's the european union and mrs merkel and president sarkozy address this problem they will not get to grips with the crisis. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe romania's prime minister has stepped down and dissolved the government saying he wants to preserve social and economic stability in the country this after weeks of protests over austerity measures introduced in two thousand and ten to secure financial aid from the e.u. and i.m.f. the pm urged the country's politicians to bridge their divisions and vote in and vote in a new government as soon as possible. anders breivik the norwegian man who had made it to killing seventy seven people last july has told a court that he deserves a medal of honor for the murders the extremist also demanded his release survivors and relatives of the victim said it on the last film an area hearing before the full trial begins in april said the attack was against traitors who he claimed are embracing immigration to promote quote an islamic colonization of norway. and

palestine's two rival factions islamised hamas and secular fatah have reached a deal to form a joint interim government they have agreed to it will be led by palestinian president mahmoud abbas before the general parliamentary and presidential elections the deal brokered by qatar is seen as a major step toward reconciliation between the opposing groups after more than four years of separate governments in the west bank and gaza israel's prime minister has slammed the agreement saying palestine has abandoned the way for peace. daniels' up next with all the latest business updates stay with us here on r.t. . welcome to business russia's goes from has acknowledged that it temporarily reduced just supplies to european customers at the end of last week deliveries to some countries will cut by ten percent this is due to high demand in russia calls were unusually cold weather the energy giant says it's now made up the shortfall in

supply to europe and is pushing production to the maximum to discuss the issue we're joined by maria biloba from the energy center bridge thanks for joining us could goes from be penalized for last week's cut to europe now absolutely corps the . reason is that they have the long term contracts and they. have different their nominations and now european company are asking for more guests according to the deal in them in nations but they just months only. on a monthly basis or even half a year basis and if you have the same amount of gears delivering. half a year everything is a who do you blame for the situation whether. they were wrong. and so the other answers the. european companies european parliament and commission can be blamed on this situation course they didn't do their homework what they really did

they will have they're going to create their underground storage is commonly infrastructure infrastructure but what they really did. speak clearly to no different export. options from iran from there but now book and other projects course because prawn has to cut off some supplies to you. in the course of europe such as yours. for more gas because of the cold weather but in practice tell us how we use it to switch up the the tops and increase supply well technical is not there to use it course once you decide to increase the production somewhere in the mall peninsula it will take you three four five days to bring this mount of gas to europe so. what should you do to avoid

a repeat of the situation again. according to my opinion. in europe have to show the clear signals how much gas will it need for not for the show a period of time like today they need some extra gas because there is no enough guess at the spot market. but to show the long term prospects of the ghost supply in europe and according to this. perspex was committed by a european commission but by european companies guess sprong will easily increased the investments to new gas fields like stop. and. provide extra gas thank you very much indeed you wait and see how the e.u. will react to that was maria bello verson its senior analyst from spoke of energy center thank you for joining us. let's check out the markets brant has edged up over one hundred fifteen dollars a barrel but investors remain jittery

a key meeting of greek leaders on the new bailout has been postponed until tomorrow traders fear for you to do a deal with confidence cutting demand for crude went to the u.s. markets which opened down on the back of bad economic news in greece and europe there's also profit taking going on after a strong performance in new york last week european shares have recovered a little but they remain down for the day concerns over the greek economy is the main drag on the seas again russian markets had a late surge meanwhile to end the day floods let's take a look at some of the main movers on the my six on monday gazprom followed the overall market into the black in the last hour of trade precious metals producers rules on the rise the price of poly metal reached an all time high earlier today although investors cashed those gains in the afternoon p.t.b. bank is down on news that will use its own profit to compensate the losses of minority shareholders the government has all the boy back shares for over one hundred thousand investors who bought stock in two thousand and seven roughly

double the current market price. for his gold is posting hefty gains that more than eight percent this hours after gaining a whopping thirty five percent on friday with the company's capitalization reaching almost nine billion dollars and it's mentioned a number of factors among them a possible merger with russian rival poly metal also the company is expected to buy about four percent of its stock from minority shareholders. that's all the business news headlines are next on r.t. .

it's. wealthy british style but it's not art.