willing to support the rebels and pressure damascus into submission some analysts believe washington's desire to bring down president assad could spell disaster for syria. but united states and european allies are interested in regime change in syria and they won't stop at anything. that does not deliver a different government that they hope will be more sympathetic to western interests which is quite naive really when you think about it because the people in syria are likely not going to be more sympathetic to american and israeli aggression throughout the region the free syrian army is the armed opposition it's conducting very violent acts against civilians in syria against both the government and you know i don't think the syrian people are really going to appreciate you know an outside exile group arming and training these people and it's frightful to think of what could be coming next if an externally force power is is suddenly

implanted in syria is not at all representative of the people and syria could lead into another iraq so it's just really quite devastating right now the way things are progressing damascus says it's conducting an anti terror operation in the city of homs aimed at rooting out what it calls armed gangs opposition activists disagree and say the army is shelling residential areas in discriminately but syria's deputy foreign minister alleges that the massacre was actually orchestrated by armed opposition groups to influence international opinion. believe it or not i mean those people who are who are have been killed are people who supported the government and people who were could know. by the armed groups and they were massacred i believe that and then sure that the instructions were given to these armed groups to commit this message.

to mobilize. the international public opinion and to encourage those countries to use such a thing in their statements before the security council because everybody in the world or those who are at least interested in following the developments in the region could listen to them the mounting death toll in syria is hard to verify due to the foreign media blackout and even the un has stopped trying to estimate the body count making matters worse syrian opposition groups themselves are often split over accounts of what's actually happening at this hour bennett has a story. in the syrian observatory of human rights syrian observatory for human rights the syrian observatory for human rights it's one of the most widely quoted sources of syrian casualty figures but it's not always telling the truth and ownership the syrian observatory for human rights is left several media outlets quoting false information as to rivals fight for the same name the original group

was hijacked by opposition activists to posting military deaths alongside civilian ones both sides claim they're 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 the 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 monitors 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 very 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 tried to pass some political views so far by calling for no fly zone for international intervention and we made it clear that

sitting on the server three for human rights. origin organization is that we are i guess an interventional we are against the no fly zone all we need is to stop the bloodshed in that is going on in syria as always and is 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. these awful. government troops the b.b.c. and the guardian had to withdraw material after falsely quoting as 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 other than it are to london. and he always find more news and the latest updates on the situation in syria on our website r.t. dot com here's what else is waiting for you there right now. the day of rage against new anti-piracy loss has rocked the world with protests taking place and dozens of cities across the planet. also online a south atlantic growled wired in tennessee as military threats from the u.k. around the disc. balkan islands. in cairo thousands of people joined a general strike in protest against the ongoing military rule exactly

a year after president mubarak stepped down demonstrators want the supreme council of the armed forces to cede power to civilian government they are unhappy with how the generals have been running the country with fewer forms made and escalated repression of the opposition dozens of protesters were killed over the past few months in clashes with police across the country and the parliament's been elected and is drawing up a constitution while the military says it won't step down before the end of june but why arab experts told r.t. that gyptian people have already made it to. what you see is more or less pressures on the street. very much reflects the frustration of the protesters with the mismanagement or the management of the transitional period by the i think the supreme council is willing to be followed in the and but with very strict conditions conditions that ensure that it has reserved

a means of power in terms of national security policy in terms of foreign policy in terms of legal and constitutional immunity for its leaders and in terms of the economic interests and the economic the budget that establishment owns during a meeting with a top u.s. military officer in cairo egypt's chief general the fan of the clampdown on u.s. and other non-governmental organizations the country's armed forces want to restrict the work of n.g.o.s and have ordered a probe into their conduct claiming some are working to destabilize the country or even off in their reports from cairo. egypt's new government crackdown on n.g.o.s has raised many questions and they may want is why now the groups many which funded by washington have been on the ground here for a while they were at the vanguard of the uprising against mubarak that eventually brought the supreme council of the armed 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 lehmann skaf for the slow pace of reform some of them are used by the other because. they are quoting people they are working. and they are the ones that evolution they have. won the radicals who live there this is very much a dangerous war the rhetoric this is question led to the prosecutor israeli seventeen offices of advocacy groups forty three activists including americans germans and egyptians are now facing trial for illegally using foreign funds to promote and arrest in the post mubarak country activists however claim they are the victim of scarves reluctance to give up power with dreaming the people about with their brights but the scaf looking for inge all. subdivisions against the regime and all the mind the round up of activists has also not a sign of you asked mr taishi secretary ray la hood for the fueling tension between

cairo and washington. isn't simply because. of them in a sort of plans for. i don't think that. so this is america whose military aid to egypt reduces one point three billion dollars annually has been very serious there has been a week to condemn this car when in the days of blank checks are over or the. end of the continued on flowing that the provide that support also continue. or washington's so-called support for democracy here in the middle east and washington wants to stop it all is 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 engineers motives the usa has had a hand in tips policy making for years but the whole n.t.

and your campaign has become the first serious disagreement between america and the countries you authorities cairo wanted to send washington and message that it's no longer the silent dog it was under mubarak but an independent state which will last so the rate any outside interference some doubts though they really minute the end to military movement growing ever bigger you can see it over there this it didn't kill us all the armed forces or scaf now running egypt is in a very vulnerable position and this nationalistic pronouncement may just be a nationalist show put on to calm the people down and to win back a shred of credibility. in artane cairo still to come this hour here in r.t. shooting itself in the food for state express cern's doubt that you could end up at the losing end up with a bargain on iranian oil. say or a center of the man accused of being wiki leaks source of american secret is banned

as branded a terrorist by some while others nominate him for the nobel peace price. the greek pm. because papa davis has warned of uncontrollable konami chaos if parliament does not approve a plan for fresh cuts on sunday new a stary measures have already been adopted by the greek calendar to secure one hundred thirty billion euro bailout from the e.u. and the international monetary fund without it the country could default in march six ministers have already resigned in protest over the new const package and some m.p.'s from two major coalition parties are threatening to vote against it in parliament the draft bill suggests firing pin fifteen thousand civil servants and lowering the minimum wage rhesus two biggest trade unions have held a forty hour strike against the new measures while demonstrators clashed with police on friday margaret governorate of the financial advisory from a stamp partners in chicago believes that a new bailout will only delay the greek economy collapse. greece is either going to

commit to last year or the measures which i and many economists argue still is not it now to guarantee that recent deep balls or it will default just sooner rather than later a lot of people are talking about disorderly default i don't think the european union nor greece is going to allow that to occur because frankly i think the markets have been reeling themselves the last six months by thinking that there is a better or option i think what your first point is the much like greek economists have been saying is a shrinking economy of poor to buy percent this year think about what that means for country already on the brink of you know social not necessarily collapse but definitely definitely instability and economic not through it but certainly you know it's certainly not growing things certainly aren't getting better a decrease of mortify percent of growth combined with the measures combined the political pressures of the european union will definitely distort disrupt result significantly in two thousand and twelve artis financial analyst max keiser

believes greece has become a convenient scapegoat for some other countries. the creditors who are going to take a haircut on their debt already have that fully insured in the credit default swap market and they're going to make money no matter what they don't take any risk that's why greece is in this problem to begin with 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 wants the people of greece to pay for this toxic debt the debt in greece did not originate in greece and it originated in these other countries that have used greece because a toxic debt was dumped to don't they're dead. now we'd love to know your opinion on the situation in greece so log on to our website r.t. dot com to have your say in our latest poll well today we're asking what impact will the latest rescue measures have on the greek economy and here are the votes so

far so as you can see almost half of the respondents believe that the new measures will do nothing as the greek economy is already do over a third thing it will only need further hardship for the greek people nine percent of voters think that won't allow me to collapse and a minority are now believes bailouts are the only way greece will survive all those figures are constantly changing you can also always let us know what you think on this issue by a log on to our website r t v dot com. as greece struggles to control its economic crisis the e.u. turns up the heat on iran over its nuclear program the european union has announced a series of financial sanctions including plans to stop importing iranian oil from july meanwhile iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad announced that the islamic republic would soon reveal major advances in its nuclear program he also warned

that europe was playing a risky game by cutting off trade with to iran because e.u. consumers account for around twenty percent of iran's oil output the spanish ambassador to iran said that sanctions will hurt this country more than any other european state and madrid based journalist miguel any of rado says the e.u. embargo serves only the interest of the u.s. . what we're seeing here is not a decision that comes actually from 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 and he's not just to spain and italy also greece imports lots of oil from iran 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's now become an economic issue and can

have even more. destructive effect if the iranians decide to say cut off 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 iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes repeating that it was open to talks with major world powers but political analysts come out new things that iran has already been tried and found guilty all the inspection by the nuclear agency. found that iran is actually weaponize in their system they are actually following the nuclear agreement there is no violation to that end but no matter what they saying that sanction are coming because their suspicions are there nor no matter what they are justifying or

opening their facility there is some judgment already been rendered against your rant and i think before six months we might we might heading into a major confrontation in the burgeoning gulf. civil society stepping into the front line of russian politics with the aim of keeping the upcoming presidential election fair and transparent leading figures and members of the public are joining forces and most importantly they seem to have the support of all five candidates as well as the voters as cut off has the details. 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 of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the allegations are still to be proven in court tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets demanding fair elections with marches

presidential votes just around the corner events are unfolding quickly with a meter but not sure people want to vote responsibly and to know where their votes go the ones political competition which independent courts and media forming the voters league is not our achievement to be idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists bloggers activists artists writers and other public figures and statements made in tedious plague t.v. host and now activists. that riteish the african or the head of a charity fund and blogger is idea that bianca also known as dr lisa. 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. 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 it from the election because 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 really important not to cross the line and observers not only are positioned it is serious so for the mutations not to take sides in the political

process. the league's founders say they'll shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into a political movement gleaming 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 promised from the 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 and some world news now briefly this hour israeli airstrikes on the gaza left one person dad and four others wounded warplanes fired missiles at three different areas just after midnight on saturday the first field east of gaza city with another landing near the israeli border and a third near the city of harmony's the israeli army confirmed that the strikes

confirmed the strike saying they had targeted sites but longing to terrorist organizations. police in bahrain have fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters in the capital managua no injuries were reported but witnesses say at least one protester was detained. violence has been on the rise over the past few weeks as the country heads towards the first anniversary of a brutally crushed protest against king rule. in britain five newspaper journalists have been arrested over alleged payments made to police and public officials rupert murdoch the owner of news international says he is committed to keeping the tabloid newspaper the sun running the investigation as part of the country's phone hacking scandal that came to light last year it revealed that for some journalists a common practice. always all messages celebrities. legendary pop singer whitney houston has died at the age of forty eight the sixth time grammy

award winner was found in a beverly hills hotel room on saturday the former struggled with drugs and alcohol problems earlier in her career and and her rehab last year authorities have yet to determine the exact cause houston's death. the u.s. army private bradley manning accused of passing government secrets to weaken leaks has been nominated for a nobel peace prize has been put forward by a slender parliamentary group which said he should be recognized for exposing war crimes the twenty four year old has spent more than a year behind bars awaiting trial in the u.s. we're ghetto yon's doors here a member of parliament thinks manning has played an important role in helping to tackle war crimes committed by governments. bradley manning deserves this honor because he is being criminalized or along the whistle on war crimes it is not

a criminal act to blow the whistle on war crimes or to blow the whistle on any crime . we feel bad. now by these leaks for example the video calero motor. the wall. and particularly pete you people that have. put their way to war in afghanistan and iraq through their governments need to now what is really going on there and by knowing what is going on there then we citizen can apply more pressure on our governments to be accountable for the crimes that have been put out in our names we do not and let the bradley manning case be because of his injust treatment be the chorus of silencing all the people the courageous people who want to do their civic duty by reporting on crime spear corporates states or or military. and i'll be back with

a recap our top stories very shortly here on r.t. state this. resistance is not of politics but a culture of. its

couldn't rest. on its own. cultures of resistance on the march in. a mission free cretaceous and free transport charges free. range machine free risk free. to try free. old free blood just plug in video for your media projects for free medio daugaard teton tom you. get are sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry was. there's

a big picture. wealthy british soil some time to put on. the market. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports . soon which brightened

a few moments from phones to pressure. these firms don't talk t.v. don't come. what you are to live from moscow these are the top stories of the week the arab league is set to decide its few trafford's on serious violence escalates and the u.s. gathers a coalition of the willing. hundreds of people have reportedly been killed across syria over the past week. the spirit of revolution returns on the first anniversary . with thousands of protesters calling for an immediate step down by the ruling military council of the generals are playing on to power which they refuse to give up until at least june. the people of greece have marched on the streets and. girl

or a new set of cards is the government's problem is economy afloat parliament is now due to the bait a draft bill on the sturdy measures that managed by the e.u. and the i.m.f. . and russian civil society take center stage in politics as a group of public figures steps up to monitor the upcoming presidential vote with the backing from all of the candidates the goal of the so-called voters league is to the shore of payor and transparent elections. and now we talk to the pakistan's foreign minister he tells us why the united states secret war on terror is actually doing more harm than good. she's the youngest foreign minister in the world but has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he not rabbani 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. .