old ties with president assad they have assembled there sort of a sort of a coalition which they call friends of syria basically anybody who wants can enter washington and its allies primarily france and the united kingdom and their calls for assad to step down and to hand power over to civil authority what is also important to mention is the fact that right now looks like qaida is actually going to be on the same side as as washington and its allies because the head of al qaida has just issued a statement saying that he supports the rebels the armed rebels in syria and he has also called on muslims in the entire world to support syrian rebels as well russia has been repeatedly saying that syrians are the only people who can solve the situation in the country they have said the diplomatic solution is the only possible solution and they are very vehemently against involving outside armed

forces in this endeavor in fact they do support the previous plan by the arab league they do support the arab league observers mission their blood unfortunately the russians did have the summers of ration as to whether or not the arab league observers were really quite all that successful as the morning during mission of that i believe was there and as the situation was evolving everybody saw the the government troops were pulling out of certain. homes or sort of quarters and it is . he was taken over by armed rebel groups that would mean that the the armed confrontation will continue and the russian delegation was in damascus earlier this week they have entered talks with president assad who seemed to be more than willing to start to start reforms in the country in fact just on sunday. has. new constitution is way that they're being discussed.

with the syrian opposition primarily with the syrian national. all that keen to enter any sort of negotiations with president assad so again the situation in. the arab league here in cairo looking. at ever growing problem. well with ongoing violence reports of growing casualties in syria hard to verify with even the u.n. stopping trying to estimate the body but there are those who believe the figures are being manipulated to push a regime change agenda. 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 the same name the original group was hijacked by opposition activists to posting military deaths 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 the center and mostly in english several foreign news outlets have assume they're one and the same thing quoting the fake sites casualty figures the consequence a very different perspective of the crisis the original cites latest figures showed just over five thousand one hundred civilian deaths against almost two thousand military casualties the rival site claims well over six and a half thousand civilians have been killed and barely six hundred troops a difference many claim suggests this is a lot more than just

a numbers game i don't think even the people using these figures are have any objectivity really they have an agenda a clear agenda is there just the fire by any means possible that assad regime is a brutal massacring regime and it needs to fall a soon as possible and we can see the united nations security council when that human rights strategy for regime change doesn't work how annoyed western governments are how have got arab league monitors the original observatory strickly 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 they're imposters 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 of the is 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 whilst 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 the case 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 stop counting the death toll claiming it is 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 either bennett's party london. to greece now where police are far to go and stun grenades into crowds of protesters who've throwing stones and for bombs at them there have been reports of several injuries during the scuffles outside parliament in athens lawmakers are debating a choice between tough new cuts or an imminent default which the country's prime minister says would lead to chaos the e.u. creditors want an unpopular new austerity bill passed in return. the one hundred thirty billion euro rescue package candidate has cleared the plan but lost six ministers or deputies in the process and some coalition and piece of threatened to vote against it if it does go ahead though the fifteen thousand civil servants will

lose their jobs and the minimum wage will be slashed thousands of greeks have been protesting against a deal throughout the week but let's not talk to investment adviser patrick young. as we're seeing here on our screens at the moment fels and come out in front of parliament to protest against these planned cuts we've seen more violent clashes there today do you think that great law makers will listen to what the people want or will they clear this new austerity package when you know a lot of people have been talking about the fact that greece is the country that first gave us democracy and of course it also gave us first of all that work for tragedy and also it give us that famous charm up eric victory where you basically won something but actually ultimately it wasn't worth it in the first place and that's where we sit today because actually i have no idea what's going to happen in the parliament per se of course we're looking at the richest parliamentarians in the whole of the european union these are people who are making way way in excess of ten to fifteen thousand u.s. dollars per month once all of their expenses are in and ultimately what they do is

not going to matter one iota because in every possible respect greek is greece is not a tragedy and it is due and the reason for it doesn't matter who can go to our state with a reasonable way that they are going to be able to implement whatever austerity they're talking about this weekend against such a backlash of public opinion and given the fact that we've got elections coming up and here and for anybody who reads the opinion polls they'd make very very same good reading if you're one of the european union creditors because what we're talking about is the communists the hard left their polling thirty five percent the existing people who are in the cabinet and stayed in the cabinet and of agreed to this austerity package that we're never going to see being implemented their polling low single figures. ultimately greek's is a tragedy is all about to default and in fact regardless of what happens on the streets this weekend there is no way we can avert this tragedy unfortunately greece about to default you say there's no question about it what are the implications not

just for the greeks themselves but also for the eurozone the implications are quite enormous i mean bear in mind ok it may take until the elections till it happens but certainly it is not only a matter of time the implementing the implications for the euro zone are quite simply does greece try to state in the euro zone in which case it's going to be persona non-grata but not paying its debts or does it basically leave and could together its own currency whatever happens there the problem for the rest of the euro zone is that not only we have to basically prepared to defend the whole integrity of the euro and actually if you read what's been said behind the behind closed doors this week of the euro zone and indeed from the summit you can see there's a spirit that you know what we may have to do three things we may even have to end up ditching portugal from the euro zone but we're we have to defend nine is italy and that's really going to fall on the shoulders of the technocrat mario monti and

this is going to be our cataclysmic event during the course of at the latest april does the euro survive at the moment i think probably a shrunken euro it sixty forty it can do but ultimately we're going to see swinge in recession even worse of the recession read out of we've already been receiving for the course of this week through why do european union and not bad for everybody in the world you talk of the mention or perhaps behind closed doors sentiments of ditching greece on purpose but is it probably more clear than that because we're actually not seeing a great deal of support from brussels are we they're withholding the bailout fund they're saying look you have got to meet these measures these measures they're questioning whether greece really can do you think that is a feat. within the top level of the eurozone officials that they would rather do without greece altogether well of course i mean we actually saw that this week there was a pivotal moment earlier in the week needy crowe's she's

a dutch woman european union commissioner and she's one of the people who's always had a huge political sense she understands what the people are feeling and she realizes that the people in northern europe aren't going to go any further with bailing out and her statement was absolutely incredible to paraphrase her it was very simple it was greece we love you we'd like you to be in the euro but you know what if you can't stay in that it's not going to be really our problem and ultimately you're quite correct what's taken place at the summit on thursday evening was fascinating because actually all of a sudden not only were we discussing what the numbers are and what's the situation for that next be alive but actually somebody from the european union and indeed the german finance minister was amongst the went back and said hold on a second you're supposed to have actually privatized huge swathes of the the government sector by now if you haven't done this we need you to complete these deals before you're going to get more money look the truth is if you're trying to sell something and you're trying to sell an asset particularly in

a country like greece where the political situation is already in charge it will be impossible to get those sold even by the time greek greece reaches the final point of default which is somewhere around march and one final thing on those numbers look the whole greek economy is a farce the whole numbers they're fiction we don't know what they are even this week we've already had fifteen or thirty billion extra might be needed from the next belied ultimately there are northern german pensioners who can't use their swimming bars and can't get into their libraries because the german government cut back to spend money on greece and that is no longer going to wash with the electorate and the european union late realize that and that's why we've got lots of what happens today regardless of what the vote is ultimate. within the next maybe eight weeks greece is going to be forced to default and that's going to be quite cataclysmic patrick young investment adviser joining us live there in poland thank you for your thoughts always good to hear from you while still ahead here on

r.t. a year since the toppling of barack but instead of celebrations across egypt a general strike has people feel betrayed by the military rulers and want to change that still hasn't come. and realty politically active russians take the matter of election transparency into their own hands organizing voters league. story still to come 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 terror and would never stop enriching uranium run 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 piling up sanctions against iran but on the dinner jihad warns that europe's planned all in bargo will backfire spain one of the biggest consumers of iranian oil since the sanctions would hurt it more than any other european state based journalist will grow and

your but i do believe that 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 to go to to pollute 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 in making 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 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 the political move your opinion actually had a very good. relationship essential the economy and trade with iran it was on t.v. in the last twenty years the connections that have really lost after the iranian revolution the situation was improved until we came to the new tension that has

been in my view to a great extent artificially created. on the first anniversary of the ousting of former president hosni mubarak egypt activists have called for a general strike to ramp up the pressure against the ruling military council they want me council to step down immediately saying they are blocking reforms the military said it won't accept any ultimatum and will transfer power in june presidential elections are scheduled many people fear they will remain in power beyond the state government's journalist bill true says egyptians have every right not to trust the military. people are unsure about whether actually transfer power in jean and so far the military the 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 shot and maiming protesters there's been

absolutely no reform of the police was provided by the football disaster a few weeks ago which saw seventy four people die so essentially we've seen very little reform since mubarak stepped down and people are basically anxious that nothing will change and that will just slip into a new new dictatorship i think most people here would say they do say that the revolution never ended but it's called the continuance of 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 in egypt security forces pushing protesters pushing for change they haven't seen yet. here with r.t. will come to you live from moscow with twenty four hours a day still to come this despite mounting some plans for an early withdrawal the number of nato airstrikes in afghanistan could actually be increasing we explain why in a few moments. and hero for some villain for others the u.s.

army private accused by washington of treason receives a nomination for the nobel peace prize. but first fair and transparent that is help people in russia want to see the upcoming presidential election in march polling stations across the country are being equipped with web cams to avoid any wrongdoing but a group of proactive citizens has decided using technology alone is not enough he would appear going to explain how they're planning to secure honest voting. 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 and scores of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the allegations are still to be proven in courts tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets demanding fair elections with march's presidential vote is just around the corner events are unfolding quickly when. people want to vote responsibly and to know where their villages go they want

political competition independent courts and media forming voters league is not our achievement the idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists and bloggers activists artists writers and other public figures and statements made g.d.s. like t.v. host and now activist. and ladies' advocate or the head of a charity fund and blogger. 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 similar position there are the better the leagues main goal is to ensure fair elections it's 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 middleton another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak you have to go on willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand league observers we've also arranged to put together a unified database tick. the election practicals 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 if limitations not to teach sides of the political process. the league's founders say those shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into

a political movement 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 afghan president hamid karzai cues nato of killing eight children in an airstrike on wednesday officials launched an investigation nature 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 this strike could stoke already strained relations between congress and its western backers over a mounting death toll documentary filmmaking clayborne thinks that despite the

condemnation civilian casualties in the country will continue to rise. he had certain pretenses. have any by have bill and he is 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 demands to change from here this kind of thing obviously doesn't win hearts and minds this happened in the same area were afghan soldiers killed french troops on ports and i think because the us is playing a pullout even movie next day for him because the french 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 of 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 as a law website for the moment. there you 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 the pentagon urgent. but also a lot of the moment a year of rebuilding has pulled from the rubble these pictures showed the streets immediately after last year's earthquake and tsunami and what they look like today . personal stories of survivors and more of these images for you right now at r.t. dot com. some other international news in brief this hour israeli on the gaza strip one

civilian dead and four others injured the man killed was a guard of the farm israeli army confirmed the bombing saying they were aimed at sites belonging to terror groups and were a response to a short range rocket attack from gaza. has deported the 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 the twenty three year old could now face execution. with. pop legend an actress whitney houston died at the age of forty eight is found in the beverly hills hotel room on the eve of the grammy awards in los angeles a career was marred by turbulent marriage and drug abuse authorities 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 research 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 who leads the icelandic nomination says exposing crimes shouldn't be regarded as one. but demanding to so this honor because he has been criminalized for a long whistle on war crimes but it's not a criminal higher law most war crimes or to blow the whistle on any crimes we feel bad. now by these leaks for example leo collateral murder. the world. and in particular repeat the people that have. put their name to the war and afghanistan in iraq through the government need to know what is going to go

in on there and by knowing what is going on there and we citizens can apply more pressure on our governments to be accountable for the crimes that have been conducted in our lives we do know. about the bradley manning case being because of his in just treatment of the records of silencing all the people the courageous people want to do their civic duty by reporting on crimes the corporate states or military. shortly we discuss whether u.s. drone strikes in pakistan are helping or holding attempts to bring stability to the border region with afghanistan i'll be able to recover the week's top stories with me in just a few moments stay with us this is all to moscow. russia

would be so much brighter if you knew about some move from funds to pressure. t.v. dot com. for. most

of this is on t.v. top stories now the arab league is expected to call on the un to create a joint peacekeeping force for syria as a group aims to pressure on president assad free syrian army says it expects official recognition from arab gulf states. police in greece for to go into crowds of protesters who are once again running outside the parliament will make his ascent for a tough choice for more public cuts 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 its only pursuing atomic energy for peaceful purposes despite

the long list of western sanctions imposed against it. will be back for another summary for in fifteen years from now the meantime we talk to pakistan's foreign minister who explains why she thinks that u.s. drone strikes in that country are only making things worse instead of helping fight insurgency. she's the youngest foreign minister and of all but has to deal with some of the toughest security challenges he not rabani khar pakistan's foreign minister is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time minister it's been more than ten years since pakistan joined the u.s. military operations in afghanistan do you think that was the right thing to do you see if. you would you know things look very different but of course. the collaboration that pakistan has had in the last ten years pakistan has to be.