including the city of homs activists are accusing the government of a massacre saying that hundreds of civilians here have been killed in something that's hard to verify meanwhile the u.s. is setting an international coalition aimed at supporting rebels and their struggle these so-called group of friends of democratic syria will involve countries willing to proffer the opposition and pile more pressure on the regime although direct military action is has been ruled out some reports suggest the british and hans are a special forces are already in the conflict so there are now calls from washington to arm the opposition and as our team is marine up for now i reports that the region has been flooded with weapons from the u.s. . at the united nations security council america holds one permanent seat but when it comes to weapons the world's largest arms exporter is often seen as sitting on

two chairs they say there isn't an international embargo on arms preventing them from doing that that is a fact but that doesn't change the immorality of supplying a dictatorial regime that is killing its people in massive numbers every day and we are are deeply concerned about that as u.s. officials continue publicly scolding countries over relations with syria critics say the accusations are being thrown from a tremendous glasshouse the us is a hugely difficult in this regard because they've long been the largest arms dealer and most of those weapons the us sold the story clearly more than four hundred billion dollars worth of since the one nine hundred sixty s. have gone to the middle east and you can't argue. seriously that it's made the region any more stable in the past few years nearly fifty percent of u.s. weapons exports have been flowing to the middle east many countries with the

biggest appetite for american weapons have also made headlines for carrying out brutal crackdowns against dissidents and opposition groups if you are here ok in france they are thugs you're not i mean this is for all of us who have been overseas the duplicity and. of american foreign policy is painfully. evident according to congressional figures america has sold one point four billion dollars worth of weapons to bahrain since two thousand and america struck its single biggest arms deal when saudi arabia ordered sixty billion dollars worth of arms the us has long subsidize the israeli military and recently supplied them with bunker buster bombs experts say this strategic arming of middle eastern. is aimed at iran and extending u.s. dominance in the region with. these going on. against your own it's not all over you know human rights. it's all about

some geopolitical f.b.i. whistle blowers sibel edmonds has accused america of playing particularly dirty while leading a campaign for regime change in syria and it's not some kind of. simultaneously op rising situation where people are rebelling and then suddenly they are mysteriously armed and mysteriously arms are being smuggled into syria from turkey well who who is providing this arms nobody is asking in the us media all these are u.s. arms shipped to turkey this is the u.s. military complex flush with record revenue continues to lobby its interests on capitol hill arms manufacturers or some of the biggest companies in america there are some of the most powerful lockheed martin not only do they make it so for the defense department around the world they're a federal contractor and many other levels are you going to vote in elections this

statue outside the u.n. headquarters is a symbol of global peace and nonviolence but critics say the idea has been twisted by the u.s. which goes around advocating peace while arming countless conflicts all for the sake of profit marina point ny r.t. new york. well for more on this we can now talk to curtis doebbler he's activist and international human rights lawyer joining me in geneva while the free syrian army is split over whether it wants to claim responsibility for those latest attacks in the syrian city of aleppo what does it turn us about the lack of unity in the the ranks of the opposition. well as you know the opposition is made up of many different people most of them in fact outside the country and many of them have been outside the country for some time and i think that it's unfortunate to him since whenever anybody is killed in an armed conflict and when such a killing like this happens i do think that we need to investigate to get to the

bottom of it the syrian government has said that they are willing to investigate i hope that any other parties to the conflict would also be willing to investigate but i think what is important is in any country people have a right to participate in their government but that right does not extend to the use of violence against their own people and we see that in fact when that happens and when it's complemented by foreign intervention more people die than ever would have died if there was an indigenous solution to the problem talking about that foreign intervention and you mentioned the possibility of that investigation going ahead about the recent blasts if the free syrian army was found to be behind those boss do you think it will change nato states attitudes towards the armed opposition groups in the country i hope it would but as we've seen in the past their attitude seems to be more reliant on their political objectives than it does on international law and i think that that has been international law has been one of

the big casualties in these situations and i hope to be able to mitigate the damage that is done in syria and in the future we return back to those principles of international law which are mean means that every party every country has to respect those principles he talked much about the foreign interests and the intervention that is supposedly happening now in syria is that not still a genuine grassroots movement within syria by syrians to see a sad being removed. i think there's a grassroots movement in syria as there are in many countries including the united states for people to be able to participate more in their institutions of government and that's a movement that i think myself and many human rights defenders around the world support very much but that is not something that entails the right to use force except in very very isolated instances or incidences and this is not one of them for example the postin ians have been recognized as the international by the

international community as having a national liberation movement with the right to use force to achieve self-determination there are very few other national liberation movements in the world that have. that right if you will in syria i think it is a matter of there are some very legitimate interest in the country of people who would like to be able to participate more in their government and i think the government has made some effort to respond i think it needs to make more of an effort but i don't think that comes through foreign intervention it comes through indigenous processes of the people in the country if we look back to see what happened in libya foreign intervention was based on the grounds of a humanitarian crisis unfolding therefore there was a humanitarian mission needed that we're now seeing the u.s. and its allies looking into supporting the syrian opposition including the rebels and. what they're talking about again citing humanitarian grounds as a reason behind it sounds very similar to that no fly zone over libya now moscow's

very concerned about any of that kind of intervention happening explain what you think reasoning is behind it and what the consequences could be. well i think moscow has explained their reasoning but i think the comparison to our most recent example of such allegedly humanitarian intervention is libya and before there is any foreign intervention in libya and even if you take the last fifty years by the standards of the largest and most vocal critics there were maybe five thousand people killed after the intervention there is an estimated one hundred thousand people killed in libya we don't even know many people have been killed there in fact if you look at any foreign intervention over the last several years you see that after the foreign intervention many more people died then could have possibly died through any type of indigenous process even one involving violence and i think that moscow and some of its allies on this matter are very wise seen the

pitfalls of foreign intervention and as the u.n. charter makes it very clear the use of force should only be the last possible means of trying to deal with the consulate just very briefly because as you talk about moscow's concerns very keen to get negotiations on the table that will negotiations happen do you think or is it too late very briefly. no i never think it's too late and i don't think we've made even a real effort to negotiate a peaceful solution to this conflict so i think that that is the way that this will have to be resolved and i hope it will be. activist in international human rights lawyer joining us live in geneva great to hear your point of view thank you for being with us live here on r.t. . thank you. greeks are venting their anger at even more planned cuts which the e.u. is demanding in return for vital funds to more greek ministers or quit over the deal making it three resignations since its announcement police clashed with protesters

in athens firing tear gas in response to stones and bombs there have been reports of some injuries around seven thousand people gathered outside parliament law ten thousand comments supporters marched in another part of athens today a two day union strike brought the country to a standstill after a tough multi-party deal the parliament is expected to vote on the austerity package on sunday but a junior coalition partner says it won't back the new plan eurozone finance ministers put the second bailout with one hundred thirty billion euros on hold saying they want to see concrete action without it now things will go bust in march financial analysts max keiser says that debt athens has to pay off was forced upon it. all of the toxic debt that has been accumulated on banks' balance sheets around the world in germany and the u.k. and the u.s. have been put onto the balance sheet of greece and now the government of greece was the people of greece to pay for this toxic debt the debt in greece did not originate in greece it originated in these other countries that have used greece as

a toxic debt dump to dump their debt now they want the greeks to pay the debt the greeks of course will be on able to pay the debt the greek government is in place by the bankers the previous greek government was put there by the bankers he was trained in chicago the same place christine legarde was trained the greeks have not representational government and. in quite some time they need to take a page out of the arab spring they need to stage a revolution they need to become self-sufficient and regain their sovereignty again by staging some kind of coup. still to come for you this hour innocence lost in afghanistan you can find out why the latest strike has sparked the afghan president's condemnation of foreign troops also still to come this hour separation anxiety. they are now living under

a tangible threat of being forcibly separated from their spouses from their children from their parents. palestinians married to israelis fear the citizenship law in the jewish state could tear their families apart. those stories still to come this hour but first people in russia becoming more and more involved in the political structure in the country ahead of next month's presidential election a group of journalists bloggers and proactive figures have created a league of voters in a bid to make the upcoming vote fair and transparent. reports. it doesn't take long to find videos of alleged violations during the recent parliamentary vote in russia just a couple of clicks is enough years of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the zero additions are still to be proven in court tens of thousands of people have been taking to the street demanding fair elections with

marches presidential votes just around the corner events are unfolding quickly where. people want to vote responsibly and to know where their votes go they want political competition independent courts and media fooling the voters league is not . the idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists bloggers activists reuters and other public figures and stay with us t.v. host and now activist. or the head of a charity fund and blogger elizabeth to be unique. also known as dr lisa. or other school martha ordinator of the blue buckets movement fighting for equal rights on roads for everyone. our league is an opportunity to gather people who are not indifferent to what's happening the more people with

a civil position there are the better the league's main goal is to ensure fair elections is published a list of initiatives on the web divided into groups that everyone can be a part of public discussions and online votes are the key instruments and letters have been sent to all presidential candidates asking them to cooperate with the league and even though the project is less than a month old everyone has so far agreed including pledging that appeal to another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak you have to go i'm willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand league observers we've also arranged to put together a unified database to keep the check on the election principles according to its founders around ten thousand observers are needed to ensure a fair election in moscow alone. it's great that the civil society wants to be more active but it's critically important not to cross the line and observers not on their position it is serious so if the mutations are not to take sides in the

political process. the leagues founders say those shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into a political movement claiming they are keen to work with all candidates equally there's no doubt society has changed more people want to have more influence on russia's political life perhaps that's why it took less than one month for the vote was leaked to establish ties with both the authorities and the opposition and with the help promise from candidates the league just may secure enough access to effectively monitor the vote in march as long as it avoids taking sides and protects its neutrality is going off r t moscow. just to remind you plenty of news and eye catching videos twenty four seven at our dot com here's what's waiting for you online right now hungry for power of the muslim brotherhood demand egypt's military rulers sack the appointed prime minister and replace him with their own candidate. and cia spy jailed

a former engineer from the military cosmodrome gets thirteen years behind bars for selling secret data on russian intercontinental ballistic missiles to the united states more on that story for you at r.t. dot com. the afghan president hamid karzai has ordered an investigation into a nato strike that killed eight children on wednesday this comes a week after the united states announced it could hold combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected but this strike could worsen already tense relations between washington and a mounting civilian death toll journalist gareth porter thinks that foreign actions are to blame for the growing number of casualties. this is the price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on at best imperfect intelligence and worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and mistakes that are made which will

result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the tele band has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of their response has been to lay more and more i d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find to kill u.s. nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops. time to update you now on more news in brief from around the world this hour on eleven militants have been killed and over a dozen wounded in pakistan after local security forces fired artillery shells at their suspected hideouts the crackdown took place in the tribal region where dozens of died in fighting between soldiers and insurgents over the last few weeks pakistan's military has been conducting anti terror operations including since the

beginning of the year. a plan strike by police in rio de janeiro of a low pay could jeopardize next week's torrijos annual carnival spot and agreed pay rise of thirty nine percent over the next two years the war in force is a demanding double similar industrial action in the city of solved also the murder rate double with one hundred twenty killed during a nine day police strike thousands of soldiers may be deployed in brazil's capital to provide security. for. central bank is literally burning money to help keep people warm in europe's deadly cold snap the bank has been pumping wads of d'souza. notes in the bundles could be burned by those in need of heat have been provided as a free source of fuel for the past four years and it is particularly great now with hundreds personally conditions across europe over the past few weeks. marrying the person you love living freely with a maybe a basic right in most democratic countries but apparently it's not always the case

in israel israeli palestinian families say they face daily discrimination and risk being separated altogether and the country's insistence that it's only protecting national security a few people convinced. this is the document that's ruining lana's life it makes no mention of a university degree a husband or two children it simply states she's palestinian and therefore illegal and wanted in israel. have any rights just to breathe. and drink and for me it's not allowed. but a lot of chooses this non life because it's where her husband and children live by law very israeli where is the rest of her family live across the border in janine palestine. during.

i have to walk. until now known as move between the two worlds with temporary visas issued by television but she's afraid they could stop at the government tightens its grip on a law denying permanent citizenship to palestinians married to israelis but strain 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. degrees before having your very you are jewish. but in the meantime it threatens to tear families apart as

now face the very real danger that they might not be able to continue living to go . policy r t israel. well known around five minutes from now it's time for some high speed snowfall just outside the russian capital do stay with us for this week's edition of moscow out but first she joins us with the latest business news. hello there welcome to the business program thank you for joining me this hour gold is losing value on stronger dollar lifted by fresh worries about the european debt crisis however the sentiment has been generally bullish for the body and with the price up around ten percent this year edwards from capital sees no reason to think a gold bubble is developing and that the prospects for the metal are still good. gold is twelve percent off its lows we should record in december it's only ten percent off it's hard it's been very volatile but if you look at the long term

chart for gold going over the past. fifty. two thousand dollars in the us now it's been a very consistent. many periods over that period of time and it's been going up in our currency which is the true definition of a bull market was living in the age of gold is still going to be relevant we don't see it breaking below fifteen hundred dollars an ounce and the end of the day is still a commodity there's a cost of production there's a cost of supply and it's still very very hard charging people think. have a look at the current precious metals prices now both gold. down as you can see helped by this slide in the year i can reset it could pay back a one hundred billion euro deal the country needs to avoid bankruptcy. let's see how the exchange rates are getting on the way the year is. uncertainty about the situation in. meanwhile we call is weighing on the revolt which is losing value

against the european and the us it says. oil well that continues to decline after news that the international energy agency twenty twelve global older model for cost money. doll killing economic outlook as they called it reducing prospects for growth amid supply concerns following the sign it shows on a rainy and oil. the us market opened. following on from losses across the board today. the european stock market is moving even into the red as of course greece is having its effect in that region for a very long to come up with a little it will continue throughout the weekend. european finance ministers are now holding back a rescue package demanding further commitments from us. and it's much the

same story here in moscow the markets closed in the red today my six was over a percent down the l.c.s. was two point thirteen percent down beautified my saves r.t.s. stock exchange could hold an i.p.o. in the fourth quarter of this year if market conditions are met. the individual moves than all the mice says gazprom finished a third of cent in the red as the company's gas exports. come out this was also down the company's net profit raised thirty three million dollars last year against a seventy four million dollars loss a year before. golden razor gains all the reports about his failed tie up with. the red colors today a multi billion dollar budget between russian miners poller us dolls the metal has failed but it mostly newspapers cite sources close to the talks the saying polly ross gold is not satisfied with the tabs of russia's the largest gold mine in

mccalla poker of claims the firm doesn't need additional assets in the country the company now wants to merge with one of its foreign rivals dolls and pulled a mess so our joint around seventeen billion dollars that merger would have created the nine biggest coal miner in the. sofa now be back in about fifty five minutes small market small business.

but. let's strive for failure australia remember. there's no wait until you see the film and. if you want to have sex go and have sex.

the twenty four hours a day this is r t live here in moscow top stories now this hour a split within the ranks of syria's opposition fighters at first they claim they were behind twin blasts in the country's largest city of aleppo which killed at least twenty eight people but another spokesman denied responsibility just an hour later. thousands of greeks lash out against more planned cuts as police fire tear gas to disperse groups he threw stones and people angry at more make his budget sacrifices after eurozone leaders put more bailout cash on hold. and russia's public figures come together to ensure a fair and free presidential vote by forming the voters' league to monitor

elections that challenge now is to stay in partial. but i'll be back when the summary of those news stories in about fifteen minutes from now in the meantime we show you how to shake off the chills and enjoy the russian winter stay with us for some silliness in the snow with moscow out. well some people embrace the winter and all the frost filled days for teas that come with it others like to hide and was staying in from the dark nights a low temperatures. sleep and relaxation just like various animals that hibernate is an escape.