media outlets quoting false information as to rivals fight the same name in the original group was hijacked by opposition activists to posting military deaths alongside civilian one thus both sides claim there the official observatory this is the original site in arabic with an english version on facebook and this is the fake site launched in the center and mostly in english several foreign news outlets have assume they are one and the same thing quoting the fake sites casualty figures the consequence a very different perspective of the crisis the original sites latest figures showed just over five thousand one hundred civilian deaths against almost two thousand military casualties the rival site claims well over six and a half thousand civilians have been killed and barely six hundred troops a difference many claim suggests this is a lot more than just a numbers game i don't think even the people using these figures are have any

objectivity really they have an agenda a clear agenda is there just the fire by any means possible that assad regime is a brutal massacring regime and it needs to fall a soon as possible and we can see the united nations security council when that human rights strategy for regime change doesn't work how annoyed western governments are how got arab league monitor the original observatory strictly opposes military intervention the man who hijacked it's name disagrees. used to translate at the real observatory he was fired after falsely claiming to be an official spokesman and using a live interview to call for a no fly zone since then he's launched a smear campaign against the original group claiming their impostors as are we and his figures have been quoted by the b.b.c. c.n.n. and a.b.c. australia the other groups say they try to pass some political of the is censored by calling for not. flies on for international intervention and we need to clear

a sit on server tree for human rights that original organization is that we are i guess an interventional we are against a no fly zone all we need is to stop the bloodshed in that is going on in syria as always and his group refused to speak on camera stating i cannot waste my time talking about this is the moment whilst people are dying in homes there are my priority right now he did refer us to another opposition group based in london and they too refused to comment on the ownership of the observatory but they did confirm that reporting military deaths was not in their interest it's not our position to report. of. government troops the b.b.c. and the guardian had to withdraw material after falsely quoting is always the human rights observatory the un stopped counting the death toll claiming it's too difficult to keep track of but its human rights chief also said five thousand

civilian deaths should be enough to provoke international action the real observatory still documents the deaths civilian or otherwise but it may be too late for the numbers to matter i've been it r t london. heart for more on the situation in syria we can now talk to ali risk of middle east expert joining us live from beirut thank you for coming on r.t. today an israeli website reports that british and qatari special forces in syria that they're assisting the rebels now if these claims are true considering western states and the arab league saying they're against a libyan style scenario in syria where could this lead to do you think. i think it tells you how desperate actually the forces have become whether it be the u.s. or whether it be israel or whether it be the so-called arab moderate certain arab sunni states i think that there are up to the russian veto would offer the chinese

veto a bill to severe blow to their own now they're in a desperate in a state of disarray should while they're pretty well there are probably stop at nothing to try and regain their momentum once again because as i said they've lost a lot of momentum due to the veto so this will probably mean more escalation on the ground some more covert military operations out on the political level we've also heard that some arab league countries all the arab league in very little is intending on the officially recognizing the syrians are additional council leader syrian political opposition body so i think it has something which is what we expected i don't question the i see that more violence will be in the making because of the state of dispersion which are so does are such foes fear fear they are in right now however we also do hear that the russians for example are providing the most assistance is possible they can to the syrians to deal with this issue now don't forget that the russian side has cautioned time and again of the rise of islamic fundamentalists all the presence of islamic fundamentalists inside

syria those who oppose a syrian regime and syria has also spoken of them as well the son of a sudden the members of al qaida we have to remember here that russia has had its own share of problems in the past with islamic fundamentalists like in chechnya for example so i think russia here at the time where the rest of the violence who has kuwait and some arab sunni states will try and get more and more involved and cause more casualties i think at the same time we're going to see russia also furthermore assisting the syrian leadership to deal with these people to live with these and as you say you know as you say they also you discussed the fact that russia has had a policy history with islamic fundamentalists as we all know moscow's been trying to bring all sides of the conflict to the negotiating table do you think this will work out with the armed opposition still receiving strong political backing from western and arab states. the problem is that in order to have negotiations you need two sides to be ready to accept negotiations now until now as

we heard bashar assad after the meeting with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov expressed his readiness however the other side is not expressing its readiness there are some members of the syrian opposition who are expressing readiness however there are other sides a lot including the muslim brotherhood who don't want to who actually don't seem to want to participate in the gauche ations and are setting preconditions are saying you know the cost to enter negotiations assad must fall and i think that is part of a what's to those on the have noticed that over the past few days actually ever since the russian veto was used if you follow for example the american newspapers you hear you see a lot you read a lot about how the situation in syria from the from the point of view of a western from a point of view which israel is a way to curb iran to curb what we call here in the region as the resistance block iran hezbollah in syria so if you listen to what commentators are saying they are saying that the viewpoint the political political stance is that if we overthrow

assad then we've built a severe blow to iran's presence i would go to a severe blow to his below two of the usual staunch enemies so i think the fact that many people or many syrians minister in opposition are not ready to participate in the garage is the fact that the whole thing for the west is not about negotiations is about overthrowing the regime which is a part of the i vote a bloc which washington or which some western states western powers want to get rid of including israel also wants to get rid of them so i think because of that i think that i strongly i do apologize for the running very very long time here there are many political analysts who do bring in the iran issue if indeed there is a regime change in syria it would enable western powers to get more of a clinch on iran but do forgive me were running low on time here i must ask you one question we've got reports today that lebanon's a security officials say that a suspicious cargo containing huge amounts of u.s. dollars guns and passports that been seized in beirut from the u.s. what's your take on that discovery because a couple of minutes ago you made the you made the mention about covert action

ongoing in syria. yes actually i did hear that report about about this issue the eve of the u.s. dollars and money lebanon from the very beginning has been a big part of unfortunately all of the infiltration into the border and of weapons are smuggling you have to remember here that the syrian regime. does have his fair share of enemies inside lebanon he has his allies like possible law but he also has enemies like saad heidi the former prime minister and the march fourteenth movement who i think find it in their political interest to assist as much as they can to overthrow bashar assad and he was also said that this march fourteenth alliance is joining forces with the salafist so hard with the religion of religious fundamentalists so this comes as no surprise that the syrian ambassador to lebanon made a very clear one week ago when he said that most of the weapons and most of the infiltration most of the smuggling is coming in from eleven and unfortunately as the escalation

from opponents continues all inclusive i think that we're going to discover more and more smuggling and more and more negative growth from some lebanese in the syrian issue or indeed there certainly reports in recent days and weeks about whether it's being smuggled over the border from neighboring to iraq and lebanon i'm afraid that's all the time we have for a middle east expert at the risk i thank you for coming to us live from beirut. what europe has become more dependent on oil imports from iran new research suggests the e.u. countries bought more oil from the islamic republic in two thousand and eleven with the biggest customers being spain and italy but with the e.u. planning to cut off trade in july in line with the international sanctions against tehran many on the continent of voicing concern the move could backfire serranos also warned europe that it is shooting itself in the foot the view is shared by spain's ambassador to iran who says his country suffers the most from the continuing e.u. pressure against the islamic republic and some in madrid believe the oil embargo

has been forced upon europe. what we're seeing here is not a decision that comes actually from the european countries to spain never want to disembark go to to prove to be put in place this is something that comes externally from the united states pressure on the european union the european union actually had a very good relationship in terms of the economy and trade with iran it was retrieved in the last twenty years the connections that have been lost after the iranian revolution and the situation was improving until we came to these new tension and he's not just to spain and italy also greece imports lots of oil from iran and it could be hard hit in a way that would bring them bankrupt in the coming future that would be a complete disaster for the european union and for the euro and that can happen because of these of these political move it has now become an economic issue and can have even more. destructive effects if the iranians

decide to say cut of the strait of hormuz or even if they now decide to beat europe to it by. by by cutting off their oil now because we need this time to find alternative supplies if they cut the supply now we want to be able to find them there will be a huge recession in europe. here with r.t. still to come for you this hour financial troubles prove a health hazard in the united states as manufacturers gamble on america's caffeine dependency often with disastrous results that story coming your way just a little bit later on today. we explore the sky high ambitions of the russian region that pioneered the country's aviation industry that'll be in our upcoming close up series. one of the most senior al-qaeda chiefs in pakistan has been killed by an american drone strike along with three other suspected militants the attack took place in the north waziristan

a tribal area close to the border with afghanistan but is suspected of killing dozens of people in the country and abroad that comes after the bureau of investigative journalism found hundreds of civilians died because of similar cia ordered aerial attacks chris woods who compiled the report thinks the u.s. is simply ignoring the condemnation over its deadly drone policy. the cia has been saying for some time now that it hasn't killed a civilian in pakistan since at least two thousand and ten every news agency out of pakistan every credible news organization that's looked at this is finding that but it's not the case we know that civilians are being killed in pakistan with these drone strikes that does seem to be an indication here that these drone strikes are happening despite what pakistan wants not because of what pakistan wants because of causing huge problems within pakistan 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 these strikes are legal or not the united states is claiming something called state secrets privilege that that's where they say actually this is a covert operation and we can't discuss it well it's somewhat been blown out of the water by the president himself going on google recently and talking to americans about the existence of this so-called covert program. quarter past the hour now here in the russian capital let's go to some other world news for you brief this hour a greek leaders finally reached an agreement on new austerity measures without the cuts the country wouldn't be able to get the crucial one hundred thirty billion euro bailout from the e.u. and a first default a spokeswoman for the prime minister's office said the deal will allow alternative cuts to those rejected early thursday the main sticking point was proposed deep pension cuts. a criminal court in the mall deaves has issued an arrest warrant for ousted president mohamed nasheed this comes

a day after the leader was among dozens injured when of riot police used force against protesters as unrest deepened his ousting resulted from a police mutiny and popular protest over a controversial decision to arrest a top judge now she claims he was forced to resign at gunpoint and promises to return to office. so. troops have killed thirteen kurdish insurgents in two separate classes in turkey nine people died near the town of being goal and four others near the town of cook after rebels attacked a military station that it's less than a week since took us warplanes bombed three suspected rebel targets in northern iraq tens of thousands of died since nine hundred eighty four in the code's fight for autonomy in turkey's southeast in the u.s. when the economy needs a fix so do the people the country is now the world's largest consumer of coffee and this addiction to caffeine is being exploited by some unscrupulous producers so

in looking to boost their profit marina portnoy reports. in the city that never sleeps are perpetual craving for energy never eases i nearly every man hacking story you'll find two things a coffee shop and customers cutting their fix a liquefied legal stimulant that most can't envision quitting i feel like now i get it maybe. so i guess i am too are both of the three of us actually yes i don't know if i could give a i love. it five or six cups a day yes probably not good too much of anything good. you're still going to drink three cups. americans consume four hundred million cups of coffee per day making the us believe in consumer of coffee in the world according to medical experts daily intake of caffeine should stay below three hundred

milligrams or fifteen ounces of coffee one large cup of starbucks contains more caffeine than the daily maximum recommendation however in recent years the country's addiction to caffeine has grown both in portion size and means of consumption consumers no longer have to down twenty ounces of starbucks or sixty four ounces of soda to get an energy high. unconventional products such as five hour energy drinks and stimulant least gum have made caffeine america's most marketable legal drug because of the work imperative in america who are working really long hours people are chronically sleep deprived also so they're reaching for stimulants to get amid ongoing economic instability u.s. energy drink sales increased more than thirty percent between two thousand and ten and two thousand and eleven. the newest stimulant hitting the market is a slim a plastic inhaler called aero shot each squeeze dispenses around forty milligrams

of caffeine in your mouth no one country ordering. a caffeinated. meanwhile multi-tasker is feeling for the biggest serving are turning to a product called fifty one fifty juice one gallon contains sixty four thousand milligrams of caffeine the equivalent of four hundred red bulls whole objective for food program is to create repeat customers to get people to the product can be clearly an addictive substance and by creating all these products they're definitely appealing to a wide range of consumers and feeding into the larger problem which is you know happy over consumption of coke in a can because while going after new consumers one u.s. company created national controversy by packaging caffeine and liquor together there's nothing crazy about ok we took two legal products that americans love and

combine them caffeine and a butt load of alcohol heavily marketed among college students it turned out to be a deadly mix one family in florida who say four loko killed their son police say dozens of students had been sent to the hospital from these drinks amid lawsuits mounting criticism and eventually a federal ban the company subsequently removed caffeine from the drink. but the national demand for the natural stimulant remains on compromise with more and more americans looking for their legal high. art. nearly time for casey in the business mind you can always find more news online just by logging on to are just a click away some of the stories are waiting for you right now for example the anniversary army by egypt's new government is deploying more troops across the country just a year after the fall of the former president mubarak's regime. also the painful

aftershocks of the war fighters carry out a bloody attack on a refugee camp on the outskirts of tripoli you can read all about that online. we're coming to you live from moscow why do you join us now as we go on another adventure in russia with our very special close up. this time we've traveled about a thousand kilometers east of moscow to the only on off screeching of the main city is best known as the birthplace of vladimir lenin or during the soviet times the region flourished as the center of the country's current military and aviation industries at its current it has been finding out it has all the potential to win truck that reputation. it was in the late seventy's that you re out of skin aviation complex was created obvious star is one of the largest manufacturers of

passenger planes as well as re modernizing of existing cargo planes that travel worldwide their islam plane is one of the largest operating cargo aircraft originally designed for the russian military but when the soviet union fell a demand did too obvious star has been renovating existing response and are now planning a major comeback that the new construction line will launch which will cover the production and the modernization of unique airplanes in the world that are popular such as the roost one. voted new but airlines have used their response freighters to assist in un and red cross relief projects but they'll haul satellites yachts and even the sukhoi superjet two can imagine the two thousand killed those of those this brother who brought it from africa to. north from the europe for a. special celebration that he also transported one hundred thousand

kilos of beaujolais wine from france to japan he says without ever breaking a single bottle many little boys dream of becoming pilots but the path to get there isn't always an easy one here the only one of six civil aviation school it's the only place in russia where one can get a higher education with courses offered in academics media or all. gee and over one hundred fifty hours of flight time. the students start their training these models which gives them the complete feeling of what it's like to sit in a real aircraft during flight. and it's true the images on the screen and vibrations of the simulator made even me feel like i could be a pilot i'm joined today by all the director of corporate communications of the united aircraft corporation thank you for being with us olga since obvious star has been in existence since one thousand nine hundred eighty how do you evaluate the development of the corporation today we are working together with. the

new strategy adopted in two thousand and eleven the new strategy comprises the development of two majors segments in the russian outer space industry its military aviation its commercial aviation and its transport of the short order the major perspectives the goals of other star anybody and i've scanned russia through out now we are working over the realization of the program of building of aircraft and we have to get first of all the thank you very much so you can join us a from aviation to automobiles where with close up takes you on the second part of our series where we discover the was jeeps and join the people who meet them and even take us on a wild ride bracing them karen taraji the ordeal of screech. and about her five minutes here in our team we talk to pakistan's foreign minister on the policy challenges that lie ahead for us there as i promised and the business.

thank you very welcome to the program we start with a story that has the whole of the russian market talking minority shareholders in the country's second largest bank the sea bay ought to get all the money back then vested in the company's i.p.o. in two thousand and seven that's despite the share price currently being hauled off the list price for more i'm joined by r.t.s. business analyst daniel busch i'll. tell you what's the latest on the situation to be will buy the shares at the price investors paid in two thousand and seven so-called people's i.p.o. thirteen point six copecks it's almost double the current price of seven copecks at the moment of libya putin says the money will come from the lenders profits not from state funds although the government will remain the main shareholder they both will buy up to sixteen thousand dollars worth of shares from each shareholder in

total the move will cost the bank up to six hundred million dollars that's one fifth of bt business profits some ordinary people do feel tricked by v.t. b.'s lavish advertising for the public i.p.o. back in two thousand and seven which suggested big returns with a low risk of losses will happen within a month in other words before mr putin stands in presidential elections or more to the fore some see the move as bowing the votes of d.t.b. minority shareholders paid for by the banks main institutional investors they're being excluded from this buyback and can feel hard done by this invest cafe calculate based on current financial performance the share price at the moment of seven copecks is actually the fair one both today acknowledge there may be lawsuits from institutional investors without giving reasons here as they have little chance of success. thanks for that done you will be monitoring the situation for you this is starting right now we're going to get over to the markets and see what's

happening with exchange right past the year is. gaining value against the dollar and the ruble falling signals that ministers will approve a second bailout package for. the russian currency is high against the dollar against the euro this our oil is coal mining that have been reports that the greek leaders have reportedly come to a deal in the austerity cuts. in the old prices right now added to that is freezing temperatures in greece also boosting demand for the saying you can see the light sweet just three quarters of a percent of cents on the brant is just on the hoffa sent up right now stocks in europe are on the rise as i say we've got those reports in that greece have come to some kind of an of agreement we're expecting a press release to come out shortly from the government but now you can see the foot sea is home of dissent and the point eight percent. there

in most of the muck his are down the markets will be closing the shortly you said they're heading for. close in the red so. percent down the my six further down three quarters of a percent in the red sea how the individual getting on it's no surprise we've got some red colors just call just a fraction the red. cross net is two point five percent down and. one and a half percent down. as if they can have the closing figures for you in the next hour for the russian markets also for the u.s. joining them.

but. let's try it for thirty australia and you know. there's no we're going to see the film on the screen if you want to have sex go and have sex.

pop past the hour here in the russian capital this is our time for your headlines at the u.n. is considering a joint mission with the arab league to end the bloodshed in syria but with ever conflicting reports of the number of casualties it's proving hard to get a true picture of events on the ground. as europe plans to oil oil from iran there are concerns that the move could hit countries most dependent on iranian crude like spain with some analysts convinced the measure its work force upon the e.u. by the united states. and several high profile al qaeda militants have been killed in pakistan in a recent series of u.s. drone attacks but the london based bureau of investigative journalism has found

that hundreds of civilians died in similar strikes a fact america seems to ignore. or turn next to an r.c. we speak to the pakistani foreign minister who tells us why the united states secret war on terror is actually doing more harm than good. he's the youngest foreign minister and a world that has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he not rabani khar pakistan's foreign minister is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time minister it's been more than ten years since pakistan joined the u.s. military operations in afghanistan do you think that was the right thing to do you see if. you would you know things look very different but of course. the collaboration that pakistan has had in the last in the pakistan has been the price for that but it is also.