let's let's say everybody gets a free college education this country like they do in the rest of the developed world. so that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website. free speach dot org. and also check out our two you tube channels there are links. and this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and you can visit. download the audio podcast of our daily noon to three radio show. and we have a free i phone i pad app in the app store. you can set his feedback on twitter. on facebook or on our blogs message boards and telephone. and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag you're it.

the u.n. general assembly prepares to vote on a resolution targeting the regime in syria and despite pledges of democratic reform politicians in washington want the opposition up and. then surrenders to the last of the demands and to be kept in limbo and presented with more terms as all sterile tea leaves greek hospitals struggling with the military once again. plus iran's display of nuclear progress and all. of this missed by america and israel as bluster response to secure the economic sanctions.

here with r.t. news on air and online twenty four hours a day welcome to the program now activists in syria have accused regime forces of stepping up attacks on the rebel held city meanwhile the announcement of a referendum on a new constitution does not appear to have help stem the violence the vote which will take place at the end of february is aimed at significantly curbing the power of the ruling baath party. is in damascus for ati. the date for the people's referendum on the country's new constitution has been announced on wednesday it is expected to be held on the twenty sixth of february the syrian government has been working on a draft for this new constitution for quite a while now and it has sad that the most important thing about this new constitution the most important change is that it implies the end of monopoly of the ruling party in syria the gulf party has been in power in the country for the last fifty years actually since the beginning of the uprising here in syria last

march protestors have been calling for democratic reforms and for amendments to the country's keilor no way called a violence that followed in the show demonstrations peaceful demonstrations many opposition leaders have been only demanding president bashar assad to go and they will not be satisfied with this meeting going to the mall with this particular month random this news it's how has come to me numerous reports about violence all across syria we've been hearing reports from the city of hama north of the capital damascus from the opposition activists saying that the tanks of assad's army have been deployed in the city and we've also been receiving reports from another troubled area from the city oklahoma where reportedly there have been explosions at the oil pipeline since almost all these recalls have been coming from

one source from the opposition they has been a feeling that another part another side of this conflict in syria has been kind of ignored. well a new draft resolution on syria to pressure the ruling regime will be put to a vote at the un general assembly later on thursday moscow has warned it won't document this its address to the militants or taken into consideration it once wrote sides of the conflict held equally responsible laws or. not. the changes have already been dismissed by arab delegates at the un russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says foreign countries are intervening and part of the blame lies with them. you can always find a compromise but only through carrying out negotiations this is what some from the opposition refused to do dissuaded by some external flares a huge responsibility for the ongoing violence for the deaths of peaceful civilians

. but the white house has criticised the syrian government's promise to hold a referendum describing it as laughable and accusing the regime of making a mockery of the unrest that's made a swelling chorus within the u.s. calling on washington to supply fighters with weapons as artie's going to chicken reports many believe that would make peace impossible. hawks in washington calling for the arming of insurgents in syria we should start thinking all options including arming the opposition i give them training i give them communications equipment and then ultimately i give them weapons. experts say arming the fighting groups among the opposition is a sure way to drag the country into a protracted civil war it will also further marginalize those in the opposition who have advocated nonviolence or who advance political strategies that the more. plied

to the to the factions of the syrian opposition and the more that happens the less likely it is that they'll be a negotiated solution or some kind of agreement leading to a cease fire and the peaceful settlement remember that the civil war in lebanon went on for a lot from nine hundred seventy five it went on for fifteen years absolutely appalling bloodshed and you can easily see that that could happen in syria given total lack of interest in the in the armed factions among the rebels to have any kind of meaningful effort towards peace and of those are encouraged i think very much by the united states like the u.s. all qaida has indorse the rebels fighting syria under president assad syria has been a secular state some analysts argue that one of the reasons why al qaeda supports the violent uprising in syria is that in a less secular more islam is the environment it's easier to recruit new terrorist

sort that if the government bolz. in syria you'll be looking forward to just a very long period of complete disintegration the pulling bloodshed you know situation disintegration they will be able to attract more and more fanatical recruits prepared to kill themselves in public places look at the civil war in iraq in two thousand and six and seven it was absolutely appalling the cost to arm fighting groups in syria sound even more all army given the u.s. history of arming radicals afghanistan one example that it was of placing itself in alliance with the mujahideen including osama bin laden and these people who now of course it is lately been deploring as fanatical fanatical enemies that the united states so these these alliances a totally cynical and totally opportunistic there's not a shred of principle in but despite the hocks outcry the obama administration is

taking a more cautious stance with regards to syria we don't think more arms into syria is the right answer some analysts say arming the very much fractured syrian opposition would contribute to its for the radicalization and would make a political solution virtually impossible a number say washington might support arm supplies in directly so its arab allies as if now the administration denies having such plans but will that position hold i'm going to shut down reporting from washington our team. on the show. from the center for search and globalization says foreign intelligence operatives on the ground are helping to stare up political chaos in syria i certainly know it's the fact that the government. that's its combat but to vote by the calls that usually introduce ball to the multi-party system but the gay people who are well quite a bit government are not interested in multi-party democracy and they are they are

directly as we know they are directly backed by date so there are six that see. operatives which are present. collaborating with the rebels the free syrian army is not so big which is representative of the opposition because of. the reaction is to create political instability which will subsequently lead. to. the syrian government stabilize syria as a nation state what they don't like about syria is that syria is. still the like with washington so it's not a big all those it's a secular government it's a country of tremendous religious tolerance. and for an example of how the syrian uprising could end up we take a look at libya the country prepares to mark one this is the start of its revolution its economy a shambles the rebels fighting each other since

a former gadhafi supporters into the prisons. and the overseas demand for indian summer get screwed drew pools as a recession who parents struggling to pay the u.s. price tag. greece has fulfilled the last few preconditions needed to secure a second one hundred thirty billion euro bailout and that cash injection may yet prove to be in this if greece push through final cut some wednesday committed to a promise to stick by austerity ofter and actions that's not enough for the. one sackings to sometimes want to make sure it's for doing the terms of the bite out issue may well complicate things larry and distrustful greeks and that's resentful at a lack of support let me pay not too far says it's all part of an effort to bring afghans to heel. what the e.u.

is now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general election not satisfied with getting rid of the last democratically elected prime minister and putting in a puppet in the form of mr papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right party is unless you vote for parties that are happy to be subjugated do you control we will not give you the rest of the money and you will go bankrupt i suspect that despite the dissatisfaction that is felt by many german politicians i think the german parliament just as the greek parliament did last sunday will continue to toe the line and continue to say that buy it out so the answer as far as i'm concerned it's rather like saving accounts or not saving the patients. but the human cost of you mandate austerity in greece is being felt like never before cuts and spending slashes left hospitals short of medicine workers short of cash many sick greeks out of luck but as our team reports the military business is booming. the mini athens has been

a battle ground there recently is fighting against unpopular stare t. sunday's events are showing there's little hope for a cease fire. one shot being fired by those discontent is a discrepancy in spending when it comes to the military something serving m.p.'s from a defensive on. relations with turkey remain for some as ever present a threat as a card debt crisis nato partners don't seem very keen to help us not to need to spend so much i mean think about it really have been through we are being threatened from a member of the alliance that we belong and the alliance doesn't do anything. so we have to spread huge amounts of money but that is the nato chief arise in athens the talks other things may be on the table among them weapons but you're meant believe i mean there is a kind of negotiation if i may say so between the major partners. of

course in france. if we spend a little bit more and you procurement of course a major part probably to function general jim france she's the our major creators such potential buys include a contract for greece to purchase a number of french frigates still under review but was torched remain afloat another threat looms it be may nice but what we've been advised to do is to sell copies of medicine relations of patients are being forced to put their hand in their pockets to treatment this problem persists in other hospitals i want to dimitri's account comes on the back of cuts slashed medical staff by a letter desperate shortage of equipment including affordable prescription drugs is a problem only likely to worsen as the job loss increase a few people were able to afford private health care this is the very human face

that their team. measure and increasing number of people call on the treatment need the current health care system and desperation to turn to aid agencies like this a regime known for caring to athens immigrant population the midday queue at this center shows just how sort after the treatment is first of all who see more and more people coming to us that are those that we might see up to three hundred people and the numbers of the greeks are also increasing in the past we have known many greeks but lately we see more than twenty percent greeks coming this cleaning though present many greeks remain too ashamed of the situation to be filmed those wanting to be heard paint a grim picture of. greece cannot recover from what's going on right now if you ask me greece is finished. it's a situation that has a country verging on implosion all during

a time of peace not war but was the nation remains sick cuts have a real damaging impact on the people's well being is an illness that could spread as fresh measures may reduce spending on outpatient drugs for one billion euros putting greeks health at risk despite the sizable military defenses protecting them . greece r.t. athens. well it's been a secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany has been spearheading the use austerity drive the original argument was that cuts and pain were necessary i think seven thirty g.m.t. next and stacey focus on that. well actually wolfgang schauble cording to this article he was actually quoted caught on tape anyway talking to a portuguese finance minister in which he said to the portuguese minister don't worry we're not going to do this to you this our treatment of greece's in order to appease our population at home right exactly this is amazing it's coming through now that the policy makers in germany that are applying this scorched earth policy

to greece are doing so to appease their local constituents who want blood for some reason they're just bloodthirsty which then brings up all kinds of other questions about is this the germany of old is this to germany we remember from world war i wanted to is this the imperial genie out of the bottle once again. israel wants washington to run a tougher sanctions before its nuclear program reaches wants is described as a point of no return it came in response to tehran's demonstration that its atomic project is progressing iran says it's willing to restart its nuclear talks with world powers and the financing it down to mystically produce nuclear fuel rods instead of the centrifuges to enrich uranium this was that we can scale this is a u.s.

state department which dismissed the claims as hype they so what's to become. yes grating situation around iran has some worried about a military outcome. from the national iranian american council believes a military strike one twenty pound to its nuclear capabilities. the real problem here is that there is this escalation towards this military action that's not going to actually take out the nuclear capabilities of iran if israel bombs iran it sets the program back a couple years and then they have to go in and bomb again and then have to go in and bomb again and you just have this cycle that really the end of the day. this ends in full scale occupation total war there's no clean strike that happens this is if this happens it's the beginning of a long confrontation that really it's going to make you rock in afghanistan look like a cake walk and it's going to plunge the u.s. into a very long term military engagement. well we'll have more opinions on the israeli

iran standoff you in about fifteen minutes when we talk to joe solenn today the founder of the trends research institute has a preview of what he has to say. if the united states israel or nato attacks iran's nuclear facilities. it will be as i said before the beginning of world war three syria may be the other is. because who syria's top out. are wrong. and as we have seen from reports that came out. the united states and the west has been very instrumental in getting the syrian government even before the latest uprisings have begun. amidst international has criticised libya's national transitional council for human

rights it says uncounted thousands of supporters are being held without charge tortured by former rebels at least twelve prisoners pointed to being killed by torture since september. is prepared to go first of this year the start of its revolution so far the n.t. seize control over the country's questionable. regular police while struggling to control the ship or it's the rebels who are united in their fight against gadhafi. the council also has to rebuild the damage done by essentially putting together a new economy health care education and judicial system based political scientist. predicts years of turmoil in the p.a. gadhafi was only a puppet in the hands of the western countries he was buying his the his stance he was buying everybody out so cozy berlusconi and all of the other western leaders

his time got expired and this is why they got rid of him because he was paying enough but not good enough we all know about what's happening the recession in europe and what's happening towards the oil and the gas so what they want is the ad to get to get control of everything in libya. i see a very grim future in libya i see a civil war in libya i see it's never going to have a good stable. environment there and this is exactly what the western one once they have been because they want to get control of all the oil all the natural resources there when i website dot com you can find out how the shock waves of the arab spring are still being felt a year on. the case of brain protesters who took to the streets calling for democracy reform with the write down. also online with haste. to protect moscow's musa vending machines

for. the double hits of infertility and recession forcing some to be parents to get creative in the u.s. it costs as much as one hundred thousand dollars to use a surrogate mother to start a family on the plane and it could be much cheaper. one such couple. arrogances and forward and all coming to india from texas two weeks ago india is a bit of a challenge for someone who's used to travelling in the states that in europe. but you figure out your way around the world and they're not here to see elephants and

by being coles they also came to meet peter for the first time their new baby boy it was a bit easier pregnancy i'm right. although peter is genetically they're being susan didn't actually give birth to. an indian surrogate who they never met did around ten years ago we decided we would try to have a child and didn't happen naturally we pretty much given up hope and we spent a bunch of money. and that's why we risked realized indian surrogacy was actually something that was reasonable surrogacy is the latest trend in the outsourcing relationship between the west in india since the recession began doctors here say they've seen a demand for their services quadruple and most of that interest is coming from abroad that's because the price tag of serapis e is a quarter of what it cost in the united states eric and susan found this deli fertility clinic online while they were at home in the us they paid the clinic

twenty five thousand dollars which covered everything from the sarah get to the lab work in the united states they would have spent four times that much one hundred thousand dollars for sarah got herself received anywhere from six to eight thousand dollars for the job an amount of money that is hard to say no to for many of these women who are poor and on educated. people it's a huge amount of money much more than they could possibly make in the whole year after no one child and husband left her serious and see the best way to support her two kids and good. at the end of the deed they do would be want and i get the much needed money. but it's this sense of desperation that critics of these women vulnerable that because women are poor because they are. for you know because they have the challenge said vi. i and four just said why would they have to sell do it and get out people who are exploiting it for american citizen however the

issue isn't so black and white they're happy that they're indians gave them a shot at completing their family you know she didn't seem all upset she seemed like she did something really nice in this far as i'm concerned she did. ending their ten year journey to have a baby in a place they never expected priya sridhar r.t. new delhi india. there are a couple of other stories making headlines around the world the south ninety nine point seven percent of serbs and moving closer to a project to the group from pristina in the referendum called by the serbian authorities pro-grade condemned the referendum however saying that this would create dialogue with the breakaway state last summer in the north are set up barricades to the front of the course of a government into clashes with nato peacekeepers around forty thousand still in the region which broke from said four years ago. the one

juror surprised and porfirio has suspended prison officials and promised a profound investigation into a prison fire which killed three hundred fifty people in mates were the suffocated to death some managed to escape by breaking through the roof and jumping from the building. for the business update with katie is up next. thank you carrie hello and welcome to the business program at this hour the united states is looking to cut iran's financial life blood by removing it from the financial clearing system in a swift it will rack up pressure on iran as the country's leadership with a new progress on its nuclear program but is all done you a bushel of polls america's action could end up backfiring on its people. this is a bid to kill iran's economy washington's move to ban tehran from the swift world transaction system would choke its ability to trade internationally swift interbank

payments orders the worlds of business that all the world of business they use by practically every company and state in the world to exchange financial in for the legality of america's move is highly question its unprecedented political interference in a network which has always said such issues should be handled on a national level what is clear is barack obama's frustration the sanctions aren't working iran hasn't backed down in the nuclear dispute in fact it's now announced in richfield production new tensions mean more misery for u.s. consumers brant his six month highs last night over one hundred nineteen dollars a barrel cutting iran out of swift will again hit not just the energy price but the recovery of the world's economy b.c. is entering into a new deal with russia the british all john to of course skulk of all high tech help to improve the efficiency of crude oil refining the announcement comes just days after british lawmakers called on the westminster government to show warning

against doing business russia however the head of b.p. in russia david payne say dismisses such concerns saying his company's in russia for the long. i'm not a politician i'm in business representing b.p. and i would say b.p. set a very successful business investment over twenty years inside of russia we have to be in russia for many decades to come we have a successful business and we have the support of the russian government and the u.k. government. let's take a look at the markets now with started with oil and it's in the red this hour despite reports iran halted shipments to europe in retaliation for plans of lasik including ventris decline for the first time in four weeks in the u.s. moving over to a you see how they're getting on it right now it's a mixed picture after a second decision on the greek bailout was postponed although some just but he says are getting support from a relatively weak yen so the nikkei is slightly out there here in russia the

markets closed in the blacklisted by higher crude prices by the arts as a my segues and it is going a cochairman off from our capital told us what he's expecting on the day has. basically the market has gone through to watch the greek problem again very close look as well as the data on u.s. labor markets some recent data on the u.s. acquiring was a bit disappointing however was to feel like boob economy is going to expand by at a bit moderate pace than most people expected like one or two miles before. russia's largest lender has finally found a key to get access to the european market spell bank is closing the law waited till to purchase austria's vaults bank international artie's dmitri medvedev has. sped and has finally got the platform for foreign expansion after more than a year of searching and to go see.