have been killed are people who support the government. people who were kidnapped by the two groups and they were massacred on the. evening after the. order due to the exact time of the meeting of the security council in new syrian authorities are also saying that the military support and financial support for their bills is coming of from abroad from various other states there have been reports that could sorry and the u.k. special forces are fighting on the sides of the rebel and also what with the with the recent announcement by the head of al qaida who said who called on all arab muslims and muslims worldwide to support syrian rebels those claims from the syrian opposition may not be untrue moskos very persistent and are continuing to press for the fact that it's that it's up to syrians themselves in order that the syrians themselves must be able to solve the current crisis of course they support the arab

league in its endeavors to try and stop the bloodshed in the country however russia's envoy to the united nations. had to say even in an interview to our teeth that perhaps the arab league isn't quite is effective at the moment as it should be as the morning during mission of that i believe was there and as the situation was evolving everybody saw that the government troops were pulling out of certain downs or certain quarters of the city is that territory was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the armed confrontation will continue and escalate there is also washington which increasingly which increasingly that makes its rhetoric a little bit sharper than before that they're trying to rally out countries in order to press on the syrian government for the president to step down of course but the recent developments with the support for al qaeda this is becoming more and more dubious situation with every moment while the violence continues people here

including the arab league in cairo trying to figure out what exactly they can do in order to stop the violence. political analysts talk to a girl similar a says the u.s. and al qaida have similar goals in syria. many branches of a car that are in fact related to the directly and many if you know the car they have been created or originally by the united states. or the regiment general accordingly i think that the it is behind the car that in syria as it was behind the car there in libya it is the same by the way and that's why you know i think cards are still trying to manipulate the arab people that iran is i guess there is it because it is some form of didn't compromise between the. two we have to put in mind also that the fundamentalists in general are only a very good relationship. regarding you know the issue of capitalism that

capitalism and fundamentally our allies if you like from and it did you can point view and also it is they are. i mean regarding their interests that's why the both of them are fighting the same in which is you know the syrian regime and especially and largely if you like the arab nationalism but ongoing violence reports of growing casualties in syria very hard to verify with even the u.n. stopping trying to estimate the body count but there are those who believe the figures are being manipulated to push a regime change agenda that is either bennett has more. the syrian observatory for 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 is not always telling the truth for an ownership or hours a syrian observatory for human rights has left several media outlets quoting if people see one nation as two rivals fight the same name in an op the original group

was hijacked by opposition activists to posting military deaths today alongside civilian one that's 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 december 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 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 zones. since then he's launched a smear campaign against the original group claiming they're the impostors as are we and these 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 censored by calling for no fly zone for international intervention and we made the clear a sit on their victory for human rights. original 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 his group refused to speak on camera stating i cannot waste my time talking about this is the moment people are dying in homs they're 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. it is of. 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 i've given it. them. thousands are out on the streets of greece once again as the parliament is set to choose between tough new cuts or an imminent default the country's prime minister has warned that failing to get more bailout cash would be catastrophic we can now bring you live pictures from athens where we can see foreign smoke and the crowds there and we're getting reports there bill. here gas canisters being fired at protesters by the police as the demonstrators are outside parliament at the moment live pictures there from athens and the e.u. creditors want an unpopular new austerity bill passed in return for the one hundred thirty billion euro rescue package the cabinet has cleared the plan but lost six ministers or deputies in the process some coalition and peace have threatened to

vote against it if that goes ahead fifteen thousand civil servants will lose their jobs and the minimum wage will be slashed. thousands of greeks have been protesting against the deal throughout the week and as we can see that the protests continue today as those clashes with police can be seen taking place in a lot of pictures here on r.t. and b. what i actually respect he says the greek government is not acting in the best interests of its people. all of the toxic debt that has been accumulated on banks' balance sheets around the world and 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 it originated in these other countries that have used greece as a toxic debt dumped their debt now they want the greeks to pay the debt the greeks of course will be on able to pay their debt to 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 had representational government 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. mexico is there and we can return to those live pictures there coming from the center of athens thousands of protesters have gathered outside the greek parliament it follows a week of demonstrations we can see them demonstrating right now the parliament the moment debating more deep cuts we're streaming the events in greece life you at the moment on our websites just go to our teeth dot com for more on that.

well still ahead here on r.t. a year since the toppling of mubarak but instead of celebrations across egypt a general strike as people feel betrayed by the military rulers and want change that still hasn't come. a group of politically active russians take the matter of election transparency into their own hands by organizing voters lee. those stories still to come in the weekly but first iran says it will soon reveal some major advances in its nuclear program speaking on the thirty third anniversary of the islamic revolution president ahmadinejad said tehran would never stop enriching uranium iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes but united states and its allies the e.u. and israel suspect iran could be pursuing nuclear weapons they've been piling up sanctions against iran but from a dinner jihad warns that europe's planned oil embargo will backfire spain one of

the biggest consumers of iranian oil says the sanctions would hurt it more than any other european state based journalist media and human audio believes the embargo has been forced upon europe. what we're seeing here is not a decision that comes actually from european countries to spain never wanted peace of bargo to to be put in place this is something that comes externally from the united states pressure on the european union so it calls into question spain's tanami foreign policy decisions and he's not just to spain and italy also greece imports lots of oil from from europe from iran it could be hard hit in a way that would bring them back in the coming future that would be a complete disaster for the european union and for the euro and that can happen because of the political move and union actually had a very good relationship the terms of the economy and trade with iran it was. 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 that has been in my view to a great extent artificially created. on the first anniversary of the else thing of former president hosni mubarak egypt activists who call for a general strike to ramp up the pressure against the ruling military council they want the council to step down immediately saying they are blocking reforms the military said it would accept any ultimatum and will transfer power in june when the presidential elections show july that many people feel they will remain in power beyond this date based journalist bill truces egyptians have every right not to trust the military. people are unsure about where they'll actually transfer. and so far the military really minute you count so has yet to fulfill any of its promises that said since they came into power also just generally on the streets we're seeing massive human rights violations towards protesters people expressing their freedom of speech and we've seeing excessive use of tear gas and cartouche

they call it here which is birdshot and maiming protesters has been absolutely no reform of the police as if they're to fight by the. disaster a few weeks ago which saw over seventy four people die so essentially we've seen very little reform since the barak stepped down and people are a basically anxious that nothing will change and it will just slip into a new a new dictatorship i think most people here would posit would say they do say that the revolution never ended but it's called the continuous or the ongoing revolution really since january even after mubarak stepped down this time last year they've been continuous sit ins and protests and violent clashes with egypt's security forces pushing for protest is pushing for change they haven't seen yes. the crackdown on western funded pro-democracy groups in cairo has been discussed by the u.s. is top general with egypt's marshal to tally of a four dozen foreigners have been arrested and facing trial for funding unrest in

the country but as griffin ocean reports it's the timing of the clamp down that is raising questions egypt's new government crackdown on n.g.o.s has raised many questions and they may want to is right now the group's many we funded by washington have been on the ground here for a while we were at the vanguard of the uprising against the baraka that eventually brought the supreme council. to power last february and no one has ever seems to care about their sources of income that is until they don't have that their criticism to the new leadership limits calf or the slow pace of reform some of them are used by this of the. they are quoting people they are working. and they are the ones that evolution they have. won the radicals who live there this is very much a dangerous world the rhetoric of this is species led to prosecutors really seventeen offices of advocacy groups forty three activists including americans

germans and egyptians are now facing trial for illegally using foreign funds to promote unrest in the post mubarak country activists how one would claim they are the victim of scarves reluctance to give up power with dreaming the people about with their brights with the scaf looking for enjoy. some agent against the regime and all the mind the round up of activists has also not examined you asked mr tahsin secretary ray la hood for the fueling tension between cairo in washington. isn't simply because. of them in a sort of plans for. i don't think that. anything at all so this is it and there it was military aid to egypt reaches one point three billion dollars annually has been very serious there has been weeks to condemn this car when in the days of blank checks are over or they condemned more. but at the

end of that the continued on flowing that the provide that support also continue. or washington's so-called support for democracy getting that in the east washington wants to step in always the situation as much as possible in order to get on to its interests they don't care about democracy meanwhile even those on the streets protesting against car share the council's concerns are the engineers motives the usa has had a hand in tips policymaking for years but the whole n.t. and your campaign has become the first serious disagreement between america and the countries your story takes 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 right any outside interference some doubts though they really minute the end to military movement growing ever bigger you can see it over there is a dream council of the armed forces of scholars 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 cairo. here with r.t. still to come this hour despite mounting civilian deaths and plans for early withdrawal the number of nato airstrikes in afghanistan could actually be increasing explain why in a few moments. and here over some vernon for others the u.s. army private accused by washington of treason receives a nomination for the nobel peace price. fair and transparent that's how people in russia want to see the upcoming presidential election in march polling stations across the country are being equipped with webcams to avoid any wrongdoing but a group of proactive citizens has decided using technology alone is not enough

you've got this kind of explains how they're planning to secure honest fighting. 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 where. people want to vote responsibly and to know where their votes go their own political competition independent courts and media forming the voters' league is not meant the 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 statements made in tedious leg t.v. host and now activist. ladies. or the head of

a charity fund and blogger at the also known as dr lisa. or other school martha cordoning are 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. been sent to all presidential candidates asking them to cooperate with the week and even though the project is less than a month auld everyone has so far agreed including pledging little to another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak to go on willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand

league observers would also arrange to put together a unified database to keep track of the election through two cols 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 teach 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 voters league to establish ties with both the authorities and the opposition and with the help promise from candidates there we just may secure enough access to effect that we monitor the vote in march as long as it avoids taking sides and

protects its neutrality is going off r t moscow. the afghan president hamid karzai accused nato of killing eight children in an airstrike on wednesday officials launched a probe later claiming foreign forces wrongly targeted civilians after receiving an incorrect report that armed men were preparing an attack in the area the bombing came just a week after the united states announced it might stop combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected but this strike could stoke already strained relations between karzai and his western backers over a mounting death toll documentary filmmaker clay clay bourne thinks that despite the condemnation civilian casualties in the country will continue to rise. he has to put on a certain pretenses to have any viability in legitimacy as an afghan when something like this happens but he is basically a tool of the american occupation there so we can expect any real demand to change

from here this kind of thing obviously doesn't win hearts and minds this happens in the same area we're afghans so do you suppose we kill french troops on ports and i think because the u.s. is planning a pullout even movie next day for him because if banks are moving their troops out we can expect more airstrikes and more civilian casualties in afghanistan we already saw two thousand and eleven eight percent above two thousand and ten in terms of civilian casualties i'm afraid we're going to see that trend continue in two thousand and twelve precisely because they noted they have to pull out decisively because they noted again it's up. more expert opinion on u.s. actions in afghanistan is on our website for t. dot com online all the time they can also find out about america's massive defense costs the u.s. congress has approved eighty million dollars to build

a new bunker busting super bomb with the order from pentagon marked urgent. brussels farman pour cold water on plans to raise the retirement age as they soak policeman in front of the prime minister's office for more on that story and plenty of others go to r.t. dot com. some other international news in brief for you this hour israeli air strikes in the gaza strip have left one civilian dead and four others injured the man killed was a guard at the farm the israeli army confirmed the bombings say they were aimed at sites belonging to terror groups and a response to a short range rocket attack from gaza. malaysia has deported a young saudi blogger who's wanted in his home country for his remarks on twitter the journalist sparked outrage in the kingdom last week after he tweeted that he would not pray for the prophet muhammad clerics condemned his thoughts as blasphemous but twenty three year old could now face execution.

pop legend an actress whitney houston has died at the age of forty eight the performer was found in the beverly hills hotel room on the eve of the grammy awards in los angeles a career was marred by a turbulent marriage and drug abuse before it is have yet to determine the exact cause of death. the u.s. army private bradley manning accused of passing secret documents and evidence of war crimes to wiki leaks has been nominated for the nobel peace prize he's been put forward by a peace risk. center in the u.s. and an icelandic parliamentary group the twenty four year old is awaiting a court martial in the u.s. and faces life in prison and people to get to john's doctor who leads the icelandic nomination says exposing crimes shouldn't be regarded as one bradley manning.

is unaware because he is in criminal or along the whistle on war crimes it is not a criminal act to blow the whistle workaround or to blow the whistle on any crime and we feel bad. by these leaks for example the media calero motor. the well. and to clearly pete the people that have. put their name to war in afghanistan and iraq through their governments need to know why this meeting going on there and by knowing what was 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. let the bradley manning case be the person appears in just treatment to be the course of silencing all the

people the courageous people who want to do their civic duty by reporting on crime spear corporates states or military. in a few minutes we'll be discussing whether u.s. train strikes in pakistan are helping or harming attempts to bring stability to the border region with afghanistan that'll be after a recap of the week's top stories with me in just a few moments from now stay with us live here in moscow.

resistance is not a politics but a culture. it's couldn't get. through. on its own. cultures of resistance on march.

fifth. the arab league debates help to bring stability back to syria while the free syrian army says it expects official recognition from arab gulf states are also reports that western countries could be propping up al qaeda through the support of the opposition. are the top stories this police in greece fire tear gas into crowds of protesters we're bringing you live pictures from athens at the moment where those protesters are once again rallying outside the parliament nor makers are set for a tough choice of more public to secure a one hundred thirty billion euro bailout. and iran's president promises to reveal

major advances in its nuclear program saying to iran would never stop enriching uranium iran insists it's only pursuing atomic energy for peaceful purposes despite the long list of western sanctions imposed against it. so that's some of our main stories here in this week's edition of the weekly up next talks to pakistan's foreign minister who explains why she thinks that u.s. drone strikes in her country are only making things worse instead of helping fight insurgency that interview is next. she's the youngest foreign minister and a world that has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he nat 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.