fallen into a deep recession. than a human rights judge bolitho sarkar sought has been convicted for ordering the illegal recording of corruption suspects talking to their lawyers are sought has now been barred from practicing for eleven years with no chance of appeal against the decision the spaniard gained international fame for his attempts to extradite chile's former dictator augusto pinochet in nine hundred ninety eight. branded clothes on ships off the ukrainian coast have had to be airlifted to safety after their vessels became trapped in past ukraine's emergency services say one hundred twenty six ships on the sea of us are occurring with stranded temperatures are fluctuating between minus eleven and minus seventeen degrees celsius the severe weather is part of a cold snap in europe that has caused dozens of deaths. a dallas year on apple founder steve jobs released by the f.b.i. includes allegations of drug use and former friends describing him as deceptive not

august the previously classified files were put together when jobs was being considered for a sensitive job as a trade consultant to president george w. bush the computing pioneer who died in october after a long struggle with cancer also received bomb threats according to the report. and israeli citizenship law is denying thousands of palestinians the right to permanently sell down with their israeli spouses and children the government says the wall was designed for security reasons but supposedly are now reports it seems the battle against terror could be doing more harm than good tearing families apart this is the document that's ruining law in his life it makes no mention of a university degree one husband or two children it simply states she's palestinian and therefore illegal and wanted in israel i have. to breathe and eat and drink. and for me it's not the law. but

lorna chooses the nonlife because it's where her husband and children live by law very israeli whereas the rest of her family live across the border in janine palestine. during. what. i have to walk. until now known as move between the two worlds with temporary visas issued by television but she's afraid there could stop as the government tightens its grip on an eight year old law denying permanent citizenship to palestinians married to israelis it's trying to limit the graphic in growth of the arab citizens encourage. citizens who marry palestinians from the west bank in gaza or from jordan to actually immigrate to actually leave israel israel says the law is for security

purposes and it's trying to prevent palestinians from taking advantage of being able to get an israeli id through marriage and then carry out attacks on israeli citizens but human rights groups don't buy that they petitioned the law arguing that in the last fourteen years more than one hundred fifty thousand palestinians entered israel because of family ties with israelis only fifty four of them were ever found to be a security risk. in upholding the so-called citizenship law the israeli supreme court president said it was one of the most difficult questions in the state's history the battle against terror while at the same time maintaining the nation's democratic nature we are talking about thousands of family that as a result of the decision of the supreme court that validated upheld the law they are now living under the tangible threat of being forcibly separated from their spouses from their children from their parents so we are indeed talking about

a huge issue with a huge effect on thousands of people this law is thinking about it. i mean one of. degree before having your very jewish. but in the meantime it threatens to tear families apart as lawn interests now face the very real danger that they might not be able to continue living together policy r.t. israel. when winter comes to town moscow can look like a fairy tale city albeit a cold one so our moscow team went to try to sell winter themed activities on the outskirts of the russian capital from magical forests and husky dogs to snowplows and tiny villages here's a preview. i

want to. join the moscow team in an hour's time here on our team before that we'll have a look at what's happening in the. hello and welcome to business here in r.t. thanks for joining me the european central bank has kept its key interest rates at a record low one percent on thursday that's the rate it charges the banks for borrowing the move could help the eurozone stave off recession and recover from the

global financial meltdown e.c.b. has mario draghi expects europe's economy to gradually recover in two thousand and twelve in addition to lower interest rates the european central bank earlier flooded the market with cheap loans this was intended to raise fears of possible government defaults and bank failures despite all the efforts and many analysts say the region is likely to slip back into recession and greece could remain a constant source of problems. russia's second largest lender v.z. will buy shares from its minority shareholders at the price they paid back in two thousand and seven during its i.p.o. the bank will buy back a maximum of seventeen thousand dollars worth of shares from individual investors and legal entities the move will cost the bank around six hundred million dollars will be implemented in the next three months the buyback at a preferential price only applied to small shareholders. for more capital says that

this could be a stumbling block this initiative creates were all this student active arbitrage opportunities which are north to call before it is a purely market and almost practices when you see the sea costing different amount of money you can buy cheaper we somewhere and so it more expensive somewhere else if the certain category of shareholders are ground to prove which it must be explicitly explained why the other category of shareholders are not. it of the t.v. hundred courses says that they have taken into account all legal risks and the buyback will be carried out in full accordance with the law meanwhile other analysts believe that the decision to buy back minority shareholders will not affect the bank's credit profile at least that's the view of international ratings

agency standard and poor's it's not really into going to the strategy of the bank itself and you wouldn't expect this to happen again in this case really is not something that that makes much of a difference from the way we started poised to look at the institution and look at its credit profile for potential performance in the future. we'll be bringing you the latest updates on this story as we get them check the markets crude is falling from a three week high as concerns about europe's debt crisis outweighs signs of an economic recovery in the united states when blend is trading at over one hundred and eighteen dollars per barrel while is that over ninety nine dollars a barrel markets in asia dipped down after greece approved the long awaited austerity agreement. losing over half a percent while down over one one point two percent financials are broadly lower carmakers were weaker in tokyo with toyota motor pulling one point three percent.

markets. and markets are losing over and under half of the banking energy's dogs pointing downwards this hour. a multi-billion dollar merger between russian miners miners. failed. sources close to the talks saying. terms the owner of russia's largest gold mine. that the firm doesn't need additional assets in the country the company now wants to merge with one of its. worth around seventeen billion dollars merger could have created the ninth biggest in the world. well some of russia's richest people may soon find themselves subject to one of tax prime minister putin says that a way must be found to close the subject of unfair privatizations in the ninety's he suggests that tycoons who took control of the country's resources should pay

something back knowledge is that the process of profit is ation after the collapse of the soviet union was dishonest there are one hundred fourteen billionaires in russia and many have made their fortune from commodities but i would say more of the shelf steel magnate says what his idea will be difficult that. was risky but really it's very important to understand how this idea can be implemented in reality who should pay the tax currency the ones who privatized the assets back in the ninety's plus many large enterprises the private millions of people this issue must be addressed the question is though how exactly this can be done well that's all for now but stay with us for headline news coming up right after this.

question is that so much i'm going to give each musician the power to find the mark when the feet oh in the battle for syria the international community is as divided as the syrians themselves when it comes to resolving

a situation. welcome back you're watching r.t. live from moscow these are the top stories america gathers a coalition of nations to help bring down the syrian regime and directly ask us what morely find their way to passive forces was no reached on syria the un america and its allies are piling pressure on damascus while supporting the opposition. read labor unions stage a two day strike in response to the latest wave of steering cuts which they say is pushing workers and the economy towards

a financial abyss the measures were crucial step toward securing a desperately needed one hundred thirty billion euro bailout package. a group of public figures from russia's civil society gather widespread support of their quest to keep the presidential elections fair and transparent after succeeding in establishing ties with both of these awards and the opposition the are planning to monitor the vote in march. they have lives here next peter asks his guest why the arab league seems so concerned about the protests in syria and whether there is any way to stop violence without turning it into a new libya or iraq crosstalk is next on our team. and you can. still. below in welcome to crossfire can you talk about the fate of and the battle for

syria the international community is as divided as the syrians themselves when it comes to resolving a situation that looks like a civil war with every passing day should there be an international intervention to stop the violence or would doing so make the situation even worse. and you can. start. to cross out the future of syria i'm joined by james carafano in washington he is the director of the heritage foundation's allison center for foreign policy studies in amsterdam we have nick autons he is editor of the atlantic sentinel and a special correspondent for the soul times and in los angeles we have james morris he's a political analyst commentator and editor of america hijacked dot com all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want jim and i to go to you first it seems like western powers have an agenda here they want to get rid of assad but they want to stop the killing as well aren't they mutually

contradictory. well this is a common problem we have seen this over and over again around the world we've seen it in libya just recently but you have to remember we had a similar situation in liberia we've had a longstanding problem in the sudan so in a sense it's not a new problem i'm not really sure of the world is that i think generally people agree that the syrian government has been excessive in its use of force and constructive so i do think in a sense there is yet unanimity in the people think what this government is doing is wrong ok what do you think about that james in los angeles here because we have kind of a new situation right now the u.n. security council didn't vote for the any kind of intervention a removal of assad is a precondition to move forward here so we kind of have a deadlock obviously i mean what what's the next move here because we're going to get a coalition of the willing that will just go its own way like the west dating led by the united states into iraq. well peter thank you for having me on crosstalk

what you have here in the middle east basically is an ongoing situation where we're fighting wars for israel and you have divide and conquer their agenda that goes back to the israeli look couldn't it boded you know on paper readied written a strategy for israel in the one nine hundred eighty s. and that's what these neo conservatives are following my good friend dr stephen snow gossipy head of has written about this in a book his book titled the transparent a ball and what we have are these d.-o. conservatives which are the vanguard of the pro israel lobby in washington and they've started with a rock and they wanted to basically divide and conquer israel's enemies they base that iraq conflict an invasion on the clean break agenda gins of the jewish institute for national security affairs which colin powell had mentioned was in control of the pentagon if you look at the washington post editor karen de young biographical book about him you can look at jenn's in the index people like richard perle who are associated with. douglas feith david wurmser and they all pushed for

this invasion to secure the room for israel and it was based on the couldn't go to you know and divide and conquer when i would say this is jason jason really well but can you answer my question do you think that now if we look at the the not the libyan president but the iraq president that the united states and its allies in nato may try going it alone having a coalition of the willing and just bypassing the united nations because there won't be a u.n. resolution supporting any kind of intervention. well what i think will happen here peters you're going to have basically joe lieberman who's also part of the pros a lobby a pact american israel public affairs committee and similar and also senator john mccain has been a neo con hawk as well basically a mouthpiece for the neoconservatives i think the next step will be open arming the you know we have we've had arming of the rebels covertly coming in from turkey a former cia field officer and friend of mine philip raul is written about that i think you're going to basically see a call now for the rebels to be armed in syria and they going to try to engage the

syrian regime or the endgame of this for the neoconservatives in the rest of the pros are a lot b. is a take down that syrian regime before we go to war with iran for israel ok that's in the autumn why ok now and so i let me i don't know for sure you know and i'm going to make an answer damn here i mean it i find it very interesting is that i don't think i'll agree with jim in washington d.c. i don't think there's any love lost for this regime in damascus here but i think there are some countries important country in the world they're worried about what's going to happen afterwards just because assad leaves let's say a parent that equally it doesn't mean it's the violence is going to necessarily stop it actually could get worse yes actually i think everyone worries about what happens next in syria and which is why the russians and the chinese in particular they don't want to see the regime gone necessarily but to answer your question. i don't think that the united states and western powers nor israel particularly want to intervene in syria exactly because they fear what comes next we have

a very unclear understanding of what's happening on the ground. in fathers because the syrian regime limits international media entrance into syria. i don't think we know what they're getting ourselves into. if we were. the libya scenario it's very interesting you mention that jim if i can go back to you in washington it seems to me that we could have the possibility of a partition of syria well because i think a lot of people seem to forget that seventy percent of the country is sunni and the alawite so i'm with you in damascus supporting the current regime i mean there's no love lost between them either could you potentially see a partition there like this and they're selling necessarily mean it's good for anybody in the region or israel or any other country in the neighbors syria. well i think i think those are all very good concerns and questions actually if you go back and look at iraq and say two thousand and five and two thousand and six and

the problems that you saw come to the surface what happens when you take away a government which really doesn't provide much governance other than oppressing its own people we have deep sectarian divides we have all kinds of other divides we have a democrat sions when you have access from transnational terrorist groups when you take that away you get iraq and in two thousand and five the two thousand and six syria would essentially be iraq in a very small place it would be a very very difficult and problematic situation and i think that's why. people talk about this but i don't think anybody has a real appetite to go in there i must tell you i think from the u.s. perspective although the u.s. has interests in how things turn out in syria i don't believe you should only use force when it's in your vital national interest and i don't think that the u.s. has a vital national interest that would that would justify u.s. and u.s. military intervention we have. there are four countries that border this country which are very important iran iraq israel and turkey we have very good relations

with those countries turkey iraq and israel they have very vested interests in a solution that doesn't make that part of the world worse i think primarily what u.s. policy be doing is working with those three countries working on getting them on a common agenda and doing what is best possible for the region and for the people of syria but i think this discussion about a direct military intervention by a coalition of the willing is premature and and again very likely to lead to a really really difficult situation that make things look like somalia and other countries are just bad and i just remind people you know the closest we've had to this is bosnia and if you remember about the one thing about the european intervention in bosnia the europeans went in basically after the killing stop. i mean after the worst genocide was over after the sides had had split off and after everybody was exhausted then they went in and going in on the front ends

a very difficult and very different scenario very interesting james if i go to you in los angeles it already appears that the the united states and its allies in one degree or another in some of these countries are more directly involved have chosen the what's called the opposition there are a mixed group of people here whose agenda is not particularly clear and if i may have said that assad has to go it's ratcheting things up you can't turn around and say now all he can stay ok i mean do you think this is one of the fundamental mistakes had been made in dealing with syria because they they start from the wish the most important thing they want and then they work down instead of the other way around and jim pointed out and in washington very good point you know this is the bosnian situation in reverse yeah but you also have to look at what's happening we obviously had a we have a genuine situation in syria we do have ethnic strife i mean you've got the alawite it's in control of scholl assad and you've got the sunni with the muslim brotherhood and then you've obviously got christians and whatnot and there are. groups there that actually you know nobody believes in dictatorship i certainly

don't i'd like to see democracy there as well but there are many sects there are at least several sex there that are comfortable with the status quo and there they feel very strengthened if that regime is overthrown but let me draw you to a website the passionate attachment dot com and there's a post there at the top and it's titled the israel lobby is role in pushing for regime change in syria i think it's very important and you can also go to the web site that many of my c.-span and similar calls appear neo-con zionists red dot com it's very important to de-stress who's pushing this who's encouraging i'm not saying who started it from the beginning what not or per se but who's encouraging this and again it's the pro israel lobby in america through its components such as you know the ned the national endowment for democracy you've got a former a.d.l. researcher there karl. gershman huisentruit roll that again go to that post israel lobby's role in pushing for regime change in syria let's look at the target it's not about dot com let's talk about israel nick do you do you see that the israelis

have a huge interest in seeing the assad regime go down because i i find that a bit dubious i mean they preferred that to deal with the devils that they know ok they liked working with the they like you language i mean let me finish a question they liked working with a mubarak in egypt because he was he was the devil that they knew go ahead nick what do you think absolutely and look at the situation in egypt now the israelis absolutely not they're happy about this they don't know what's going to happen they don't know if israel if egypt below its base to to hit israel and the strait and for good reason that is assad goes in syria and there is a sunni dominated government that is really more aggressive toward israel and will probably continue to support hamas in the palestinian territories so so i don't buy this argument that the israeli lobby in the united states is pushing for regime change in damascus when you think about the actual nic nic you're right james go. ahead and you've got to look at the nic you've got to look into you've got to look

in the james bamford's a pretext for war book then and what he talks about with the clean break agenda that was our co-author eyes by three a leading sponsor of the of the of the iraq intervention richard perle douglas feith and david wurmser i'm not saying everybody bill in israel believes this i'm talking about like could next that are following this you know and strategy like i said it was it was time of the strategy for israel in the 1980's and that's what these neoconservative warmongers are pushing now i agree with peter it's not necessarily a favorable situation if you talk if you topple assad because you can get the muslim brothers and here we're going to we're all going to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the unrest in syria state with our.

well. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've. covered. wealthy british style. markets. can find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to cause a report on r.t. . if you.

come across people about remind you we're talking about the under arrest in syria. and you can. go back to jim in a while in washington d.c. with the failed u.n. security council resolution jim what do you think the possibility is now on am very hypothetical again that we can we will see some kind of settlement on the ground instead of outside elements playing a role i mean does this give an impetus now i know the violence is horrific there but does it give it a new impetus to have the parties sit down somehow the russians are trying to mediate and we can see where that will go you know if there isn't hopefully i don't like to see an international solution with the use of force but telling the syrians that you have to start drawing lines and you have to start talking because every conflict is resolved with the gauche ations eventually. well i will make

a prediction and i do think in this situation what's going to drive internal events within syria as opposed to the extra pressure syria is in libya. is kind of the end of the world nobody really cared about his regime he was very isolated syria's very different syrias very good ties with syria they have good ties with iran they have access to the rest of the world so they're not completely isolated regime they can hang on i mean they they've proven determination hang on last time an uprising like this of ten thousand people were killed and we think estimates are about half that now so the regime may just hang on and crush everything else the regime may collapse and made of all that is so war but my guess is it's the internal events inside the country that are going to drive the future and the decision that the regime makes and the opposition makes and of course that's very complicated because that's a dynamic relationship neither one of them is and an actor but they're going to

determine the future of this country much more than the rest of us are standing in the sidelines that's why i really think with what the rest of us are standing on the sidelines with the united states and other countries should be doing is you know we can work to ensure the stability of the region and to deal with this crisis with every direction it goes rather than delude ourselves and that somehow we're going to tell the syrians what their future is going to look like a week or a month from now we are it was already mentioned at the beginning of this part of the program is iran and my suspicions are it's less about israel because i think israel actually is very worried because it's very confused about what's going on with the arab spring in general in the region because it's not as black as black and white as it used to be but iran is an issue here and we hear a lot of saber rattling right now in so let's look at the issue of syria and iran because there's a lot of countries in the world including the united states would love to see the iranians punished somehow one way or another you know take down hezbollah you mention to masala already i mean.