according to latest reports fighting has actually intensified in the syrian city of homs shelling has actually been the worst that it has been over the past five days but also there are some unconfirmed reports saying that the army troops are moving towards the center but of course most of these reports are coming in from sources which are affiliated with the arm syrian opposition none of them can really be confirmed as there are really no reliable sources on the ground in syria syrian t.v. at the same time is reporting that armed rebels have taken to have a tax on oil refineries just outside of homes and have said those on the fire of course of that all of this comes. right on the heels of the recent visit of the russian delegation to syria following which president bashar al assad has said that he is willing to go to great lengths in order to reinstall for peace in the country he has promised to go through with major reforms among them a referendum on constitution which should take place some time in march he's also

but he's also said that he is more than willing to sit down for talks with the with the syrian opposition on their part that the syrian national council which until now has been refusing for a negotiations with the current syrian government saying that it is illegitimate now the syrian opposition has said that they are willing to sit down and and carry out a dialogue with the syrian government but they have said that russia must provide a road map for those negotiations in fact both sides in the syrian conflict both the government and the opposition are saying that russia must perform and mediating duty in order to resolve this conflict all russia has stressed the importance of putting pressure not just on the current on the current government in syria but on the opposition as well russia's foreign minister has expressed that thought in damascus and he has reiterated that third earlier today that if there's a that we have suggested that certain parties capable of influencing the opposition groups especially those based. side serious tried to convince those groups to begin

negotiations parties with influence on damascus have been trying to convince the authorities to do the same as i have mentioned the syrian authorities confirm they are ready to begin negotiations without putting forward any conditions. but instead of putting pressure on the opposition most of the world community seems to be pulling out its envoys of from syria france italy and spain are among the latest countries to help recalled their ambassadors to syria they're also the gulf nations which have not just recalled their own voice to the country but have sent out syrian ambassadors from their respective countries there by effectively ending diplomatic relations with damascus and of course there is the the. unbending rhetoric from of the from washington the white house it seems determined that the president bush are last six days are numbered they're saying they're they're not they cannot imagine they cannot imagine any negotiations with the current syrian

government and the message that particularly the western countries seem to be sending to the armed rebels in the country is a green light for them to intensify the fighting. going to reporting right in the light of the recent security council fallout of the moscow and beijing blocked a draft resolution on syria we spoke to russia's envoy to the u.n. for tali chuckin explain that one of the main reasons for not letting the text pass through was that it put pressure only on the syrian government while russia believes the rebels must also be held accountable for the escalation of violence. the latest round of military confrontation in syria started a couple of days before that resolution draft resolution was put to vote and the reason i'm here i'm not trying to justify anybody but simply trying to be analytical is that as they amounted to a mission of that i believe was there and that as the situation was evolving

everybody saw that the government troops were pulling out of certain towns or sort of quarters and in cities that territory was taken over by armed rebel groups and that would mean that the the armed confrontation will continue and escalate and that was the reason for which were brought our amendments to the text of the draft resolution which would not only require the government to pull out its forces from from this it is but would also would also require the opposition forces to show restraint and not to exercise their military quote that was in fact the key issue over which our efforts to have a consensus in his aleutian of the security council failed and some members of the syrian opposition are asking arab countries for money to boost their armed forces and ya'll is the sarah professor on middle eastern and african history at televisa university says the build of syria's conflict is dangerous for the entire region.

clearly this is a regional struggle it's not on the there is the struggle inside syria and there is the region the struggle between you can argue iran on the one who supports the regime and the some arab countries mainly the gulf states and also turkey that support the rebels but once again i think that eventually this will be the syrian people that will dictate fate because i don't see anyone that can really interfere effectively what is going. to possible collapse of the regime may affect jordan which is following very closely devinsky in syria may lead you know to. unrest in jordan may lead also cool. to the entire region that may be affected by you know coming even seen in syria no

doubt about it. while here at r.t. we also have an entire section dedicated syria on our website r t v dot com and online we're also asking for your thoughts about the outcome of russia's struggle to untangle the knotty situation in the country here come the numbers fall this hour from the website and more than half of you believe the west will find a way to remove our sad regardless of peace talks about a fifth think that even if agreement is reached the opposition won't on a writ and the rest of us are split almost evenly between whether talks between our side and the opposition will fail while the regime and opposition of all the reach a much needed compromise to cast a vote now at r.t. dot com. they determine it's past the hour here moscow outrage sweeps britain after the european court of human rights blocked the deportation of abu qatada dubbed osama bin laden's right hand man in europe it's the latest in

a string of questionable judgments that have. overruled domestic decisions salty's laura smith explains patience with the e.u. is fast running through. a still for inland with its queen its own currency and its own parliament was made by someone else this building houses what we in the u.k. call list supremum courts but in practice it supremes in name only despite being the highest court in the land when it comes to human rights if you don't like the way your case is going to home you can take his abroad to france and decisions made in strasburg could leave the room any may taya the european court of human rights was set up after world war two to avoid the persecution of minorities by the state but now it's been derailed and it was never never anticipated off the second

world war after the holocaust off the terrace perpetrated by certain tyrannical governments but the court now would be protecting the criminal and not the victim. delays in control of a sea have dogged the european court in stroudsburg there's a backlog of up to eight years and when cases are decided judgments are written bizarre in two thousand and ten the court decided to give prisoners the rights to vote petition by john hirst who spent much of his life behind bars after killing his landlady the u.k. is still refusing to implement the ruling it makes me physically ill it would probably mean to give the vote to anyone who is in prison aside it could also cost of the last time that we looked at this the cost of complying with judgments on the european convention of human rights was about two point one billion pounds

a. yeah that's three point three billion dollars plus another two point eight billion in a susi ated one off costs in other areas an immigration ruling means a convicted nigerian rapist gets to stay in the u.k. because of his right to a family life. and most recently the european court of human rights ruled hate preacher abu qatada dubbed bin laden's right hand man in europe can't be deported back to jordan where he's now g. to be released on to the streets of britain this is somebody who stands up and publicly. hatred about everything our democracy is in stands for and yet we can't get rid of him because of the european convention on human rights sitting in strasburg a forty seven judges one from each country so far so fast exams that none of them were elected by the people of the countries they're making law for

we've got a system of law and order in this country it's worked for many many years for the seach or the mother of all parliaments why do we need strasburg brussels to tell us what we can and cannot do the answer is we don't so therefore british law for british people those who aren't calling for the u.k. to pull out of the european convention on human rights altogether are demanding reforms to stop strides burke making decisions on what should be sovereign issues the court process to be more focused on fundamental civil and political rights not interfering in the daily lives. and in the ministration of the criminal justice system in the member states of the council of europe without reforms there's a risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater as nations pull out of the human rights court undermining it leaving those in countries with weak a human rights protections entirely vulnerable nora smith r.t. london. it's good to have you with us today r.t. is coming to you live from moscow and still ahead for you this hour questioning

virt legality of u.s. drone attacks on pakistani territory they've been slammed for hitting civilian targets and violating pakistan's sovereignty we discussed the issue in light of a recent strike that killed ten suspected militants. and frozen. death biting cold is ukraine in icy grip as the country suffers its most severe winter in years it's at this point killed more than one hundred people that was in last week alone. and egyptian military delegation has abruptly pulled out of a visit to washington in the latest sign of rising tensions between the two countries nineteen americans are among forty three angio activists banned from leaving egypt and accused of illegally using foreign funds to fuel the ana rest washington has already called the scandal quote a slap in the face and threaten to withdraw its military aid to egypt financial

reports. egypt's new government crackdown on n.g.o.s has raised many questions and it may want is why now the groups many which funded by washington have been on the ground here for a while now they were at the vanguard of the uprising even barak that eventually brought the supreme council young forces to power last february and no one has ever seems to care about their sources of income that is until they directed their criticism to the new military leadership may mackoff for the slow pace of reform some of them are used by this of the. they are quoting people they are working. and they are the ones that evolution they have their tactics now when the radicals live there this is very much a dangerous war the rhetoric this is especially led to prosecutors raiding seventeen offices of advocacy groups forty three activists including americans

germans and egyptians are now facing trial for illegally using foreign funds to promote unrest in the post mubarak country activists how would claim they are the victim of scarves reluctance to give up power with dreaming the people about with their brights with the scaf looking for enjoy. some agent against the regime and old mind the round up of activists has also noted the son of u.s. transportation secretary ray la hood for the fueling tension between cairo in washington. isn't simply because. of them in a sort of plans for. i don't think that. i think. so this is a game and there it was military aid to egypt reaches one point three billion dollars annually has been very serious there has been weeks to condemns car one in the days of blank checks are over or they condemned mubarak tons of times but at the end of the day the continued on flowing that the provide that support also

continue to flow we don't buy or washington's so-called support for democracy here in the middle east and washington wants to step in always the situation as much as possible in order to guarantee its interests they don't care about democracy meanwhile even those on the streets protesting against car share the council's concerns about the engineer's motives the usa has had a hand in chips policymaking for years but the whole n.t. and your campaign has become the first serious disagreement between america and the countries of your storage space cairo wanted to send washington and message that it's no longer the silane dog it was under mubarak but an independent state which will last tolerate any outside interference some doubts though they really minute the end to military movement growing ever bigger you can see it over there this is in council of the armed forces or scaf now running egypt is in a very vulnerable position and this nationalistic pronouncement may just be and

nationalist show put on to calm the people down and to win back a shred of credibility. we've not seen cairo. and many believe that egypt's regime changes also damaged the previously well established ties between cairo and tell of eve and next hour a former top israeli diplomat shares his views on his country's policies that's coming up shortly. the pakistani army has met with nato and afghan forces in an effort to improve coordination along the pakistan afghanistan border the talks come just hours after a u.s. drone attack in northwest pakistan killed ten suspected militants washington has been criticized for its cia led aerial strikes with some allegedly targeting pakistani civilians and funeral services chris woods senior reporter the bureau of investigative journalism thinks it won't be long until the legality of these

strikes is tried in court. the does seem to be an indication though that these drone strikes are happening despite what pakistan wants not because of what pakistan wants because of causing huge problems we're going to pakistan we're showing about this is that civilians are being killed in these attacks there is an issue but the united states about the strategic achievement of these drones versus the military achievement they may be killing militants but the long term consequences i suspect we're going to start could be really problematic united states court has ever looked at the legality of these drone strikes and there's a reason for that every time a case has been brought in the united states that has attempted to look at work that the strikes are legal or not the united states is claiming something called state secrets privilege but that's where they say actually this is a covert operation and we can't discuss it we can neither confirm nor deny that this operation even exists really does need to be an accounting here and an examination by the u.s.

courts about the legality of these drone strikes at the time i suspect it's coming quite close given the pressure in the us right now. nearly twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow this is r t european leaders nervously looking to greece as it keeps delaying the decision on a new austerity package athens needs to accept another painful set of cost cutting measures to get a second cash lifeline from its international creditors greece has until march to secure the funding or face default and already agreed to cut fifteen thousand jobs a move that met with fierce resistance from the greek people thousands gathered in front of the parliament building on choose dates of protest the layoffs investment advisor young says hopes for a positive outcome are fading fast even so. this is truly finally the brink we are on the cusp of the great era of standards detroit good the group of people the world by european union people they're all at the point where they know they're just totally exasperate in the rest of the world. as to why they should be

paying for a greek economy and the greek state that is totally completely and utterly byproduct has been completely and utterly mismanaged for decades and ultimately tragically the greek people themselves are going to end up suffering as they already are don't problem is that all went wrong because a group of rather well rather heads in the sky kind of dreaming pie eyed individualists saw that there could be one single europe and they rush to compress everybody interest single currency and ultimately none of the countries were actually removed compatible economically in order to make that giant leap that's where it's going wrong and this is a tragedy for europe and the european union. or before we get to katy in the business as a check out some other international news for you in brief in the r.t. world update the mall deaves in a new president has called for a unity government to be formed a day after the previous owner stepped down the ousting of mohamed nasheed was

triggered by a police mutiny and popular protest over his controversial decision to arrest a top judge of the new head of state has pledged to protect not shoot from retribution but added he would not need he would not interfere rather with any police or court action against his predecessor. about it's been pulled from the devery of a factory in eastern pakistan it two days after it collapsed the number of the dead in the incident currently stands at eighteen with most of the victims women and children the building was reportedly destroyed when several gas cylinders exploded the factory was set up illegally but continue to operate even though with already is how to close it down three times. argentina's president cristina fernandez has to lodge a formal complaint with the u.n. security council accusing britain of militarizing the falkland islands the u.k. has sent a navy destroyer to patrol the south atlantic archipelago it's thought a nuclear submarine is about to be deployed there as well. engines have been high

in the run up to the thirtieth anniversary of the deadly nine hundred eighty two conflict over the disputed territory of the falkland islands. well call him out cold snap eastern europe is suffering severe weather conditions as ukraine is smothered with snow it's enduring its harshest winter in recent history a bitter subzero temperatures have claimed more than one hundred lines in the last week alone in auntie's alexy going to shift scale. when the thermometer hit minus twenty seven degrees celsius last week got very frightened homeless and with a child to care for she feared they would both freeze to death until she found a public key in a key of park look at the. schools were closed because of the trees and i had no way to take my daughter i was scared at first when to train station to get but we were kicked out things got we found this heated tent but there were many ukrainians

who were not so lucky at least one hundred thirty five people are reported to have died because of freeze related injuries within only a week several thousand were hospitalized and have been on high alert upgrading the weather conditions to natural disaster status. the situation is serious but it is control of the emergency ministry has set up thirty two hundred heating centers nationwide. come here in ten days more than ninety five thousand people. this strong siberian cycle on hit many countries on the continent reaching as far as italy of course with such extreme conditions ukraine is not the only country to experience casualties but why so many dead experts say the reason for that lies not in the climate but rather in kiev social and economic policies with more and more homeless people on the streets the majority of the deaths were in

eastern ukraine the region with the highest unemployment rate. the government hasn't created any jobs has no social programs and doesn't replenish the state more people are finding themselves in the streets that's where there are so many did. heating centers help will save some people's lives but they won't solve the issue of deepening poverty such a figure there are moments that would not scare anybody. in this part of the world however meteorologists say that they expect at least minus thirty degrees centigrade over the coming weekend they already serious situation may be even more difficult with at least eighty five thousand homeless people roaming the streets of ukrainian cities. reporting from kiev in ukraine. just turning out twenty five minutes past the hour here now time for the business.

thank you bori and welcome to the program the world renowned scientists futurist and entrepreneurs are in moscow discussing the russian economy and its prospects of becoming a global financial hub most of them believe russia has a result as its is exceeded but a culture of reports not without reform. the auditorium was jam packed with business owners and exports hungry to get an outside view on russia's investment climate a walk can be done to improve it all the foreign specialists agreed on the one thing and that is that russia has a lot of potential but the problem is how to realize it more investors are buying their merchant you call them use like russia right now because they're seen as the best place to support cash given the economic uncertainty in europe and the u.s. at the moment of russia locks the global competitive edge and many of the russian experts here today said that the country has many internal problems which need to

be fixed and a symbol of the government should join forces with the business elite to make the changes required that believe that it's important to convince local businessmen to invest in russia rather than abroad and keep specialists in the country as well as create an atmosphere where unsupplied moors are appreciated another one of the main points they will see in the vacation russian state companies have significantly increased investment to wards that's the foreign specialists here say that russia has all the potential to produce the next generation of entrepreneurs and become the next silicon valley but it needs to act fast and start implementing the changes required now. russia's standing domestic debt grew in twenty eleven of the fall of just rage in fifteen years the money the state of the population has tripled over the last three is in two thousand and eleven domestic debt was forty two percent. one hundred forty billion dollars that's on top of

a thirty percent advance the year before despite the increases the government plans to continue raising the debt burden and it has plenty of room to do so russia's debt to g.d.p. ratio is around ten percent one of the lowest among industrialized countries let's see what's going on in the world of markets now we're going to start off with the exchange rates here is high against both the dollar and the ruble investors are keeping an eye on the greek debt talks agreement from athens to impose new spending cuts will allow it to receive the next allotment of rescue funds other variable has advanced to its highest level in five months against the dollar that's on the back of strong oil prices. and european stock markets are higher as greek officials prepare to finalize that did on a sturdy measures now if all goes to plan then an agreement between the countries euro zone partners and the i.m.f. will mean an extra one hundred thirty years in aid without the aid greece is

expected to de felt as you can see the foot seawall in london they're not too confident it's flat but the dax is more optimistic about the deals over half a percent in positive territory here in moscow the markets are gaining with banking and energy stocks lifting the indices on higher or prices of the say yes is up over one percent while the my sense is over half a percent here. let's have a look at the individual on the my sex those blue chips are gaining this hour with . almost two percent up now you call it is also higher supported by those stronger crude bucking the trend though is food retailer seven continents the company says it will buy back shares with a discount to the market price in negative territory there. ok then i'll be back here fifty five minutes join me then for more marc.

but i am. trying to sell you off. the island there's no way to see the film on screen if you want to have sex go and have sex.

five thirty pm here in moscow you're watching r t the headlines now russia insists that only by urging both the syrian government and opposition to lay down their arms can an end to the bloody conflict be found that's well western and gulf countries keep up their regime change rhetoric and recall their ambassadors from damascus. fury in the u.k. as a notorious terror suspect dubbed the al qaeda spiritual leader in europe is bailed and allowed to roam the streets of london that's after his deportation to jordan where he's sentenced to life in prison has been forbidden by the european court of human rights. and growing tensions between egypt and the u.s.

triggered by cairo's crackdown on western n.g.o.s lead it to an egyptian military tele cation cutting short a visit to washington nineteen americans are among the activists banned from leaving egypt and accused of illegally using foreign cash to fuel the recent revolution. those are the headlines on r.t. now or to get comfy as we take you all the way up to cloud nine next our special report on the wonderful world of hot air balloon. people couldn't fly for a long time i don't think because they didn't think it was possible we can learn how to do that without machines anywhere if we want to. use your online people here are remand to us they have generous schools. this is something out of this world and in terms of experience.