if.

top stories on r.g.p. russia has accused forces outside syria have encouraged rebel groups to continue fighting and stay out of peace talks that's ahead of the u.n. general assembly vote on a resolution aimed at the assad regime. up and surrenders to the last of the demands only to be kept in limbo and presented with more trucks and sturdy leaves greek hospitals struggling for the military still. lost siraj display of nuclear progress and all talks are dismissed by america and israel as bluster response to severe economic sanctions.

two pm in the russian capital you're watching r t thanks for joining us now our top story activists in syria have accused regime forces of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas where the city of daraa the latest target well there are on verified reports of explosions and machine gun fire there meanwhile the announcement of a referendum on a new constitution does not appear to have helped 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 and it in new york a new draft resolution on syria to pressure the ruling regime will be put to a vote at the u.n. general assembly well moscow was warned it won't about the document unless it suggested amendments are taken into consideration all the changes have already been dismissed by some arab delegates are just not. in a fortnight of reports now from new york the one hundred ninety three member body will be voting on a draft text that was drafted by saudi arabia and circulated by

egypt this draft essentially supports the arab league plan for syrian president bashar al assad to step aside and relinquish his powers now the assembly draft essentially demands five key things from the syrian government including that the government stop all violence release all those detained during the past eleven months of violent unrest does the government withdraw all armed forces from cities and towns guarantees of peace peaceful demonstrations and the assad government allows unhindered access for all our of league monitors and international media this draft resolution being voted on in the general assembly thursday is very similar to the draft text that was proposed within the security council about a a week and a half ago the resolution adopted by the general assembly essential we have no

legal force when it comes to the security council they are still divided with russia and china both wielding vetoes at the last vote that took place about a week and a half ago and russia maintains its position and that is that it's best to have both sides halt violence put their guns down and come to the table to engage in dialogue should do is move you can always find a compromise but only negotiations this is what some from the opposition refused to do dissuaded by and so my external players who burned a huge responsibility for the ongoing violence for some peaceful civilians so we will see what happens with the journalist simply come thursday and how that action will subsequently affect what will take place possibly again within the security council. well the white house has criticized the syrian government's promise to hold a referendum describing it as laughable and accusing the regime of making

a mockery of the unrest well that's about a swelling chorus within the u.s. calling on washington to supply anti assad fighters with weapons and. reports many believe that would make peace possible impossible. hawks in washington calling for the arming of insurgents in syria we should start saying all options including arming the opposition i give them training i give them communications equipment and then automatically 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 would be asked political strategies that the more. lied 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 leading to

a cease to be civil settlement there encouraged i think very much by the united states the civil war in lebanon went on for fifteen years absolutely appalling bloodshed and you could easily see that that could happen in syria like the u.s. all qaida has indorse the rebels fighting in syria under president assad syria has been a secular state some analysts argue there one of the reasons why al-qaeda supports the violent uprising in syria is that in the last secular environment it's easier to recruit new terrorists if the government holds we'll be looking forward to just a very long period of complete disintegration and they will be able to attract more and more fanatical recruits look at the civil war in iraq in two thousand and six and seven it was absolutely appalling the calls to arm fighting groups in syria sound even more all army. given the u.s. history of arming radicals afghanistan one example 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 those fanatical fanatical enemies of the united states so these these alliances a totally cynical and totally opportunistic there's not a shred of principle in the middle but despite the hawks 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. michel chossudovsky from the center for research and globalization says foreign intelligence operatives on

the ground are helping to start a political chaos in syria i certainly know it's the fact that the government. that's its combat but to solve it by the constitution that introduced politic a multi-party system but the people who out while fighting the government are not interested in multi-party democracy and they are they are directly as we know they are directly backed by date so i have only six of the cia. operatives which are present all the drought collaborating with with the rebels the free syrian army is not something which is representative of the opposition the purpose of of this all of its aggression is to create political instability which will subsequently lead to to dealing to a biased. the syrian government destabilize syria as a nation state what they don't like about syria is that syria is not

a proxy us states though that like with washington is those big all those it's a secular go look it's a country of tremendous religious progress well let's turn to a country now which the arab spring has already passed through amnesty international has accused libya's ruling national transitional council of failing to stop human rights abuses it says thousands of moammar gadhafi supporters are being held without charge and tortured by former rebels well since september it's reported at least twelve prisoners have died as a result of torture well the report comes as libya prepares to mark the first anniversary of the start of its nato backed revolution but despite the celebrations the m.t.c. is struggling to get the situation under control the former rebels are now vying for power efforts to dis on the civilian population have failed and the country's economic is in ruins after the war dr muslim from bethlehem university says serving the interests of the libyan people isn't on the list of priorities. the situation

both improving and part of the main reason for this is basically the libyan revolution has come with violence instigated from outside the problem with this is that it was a concocted group of people who were put in power basically to topple. because simply he was an unreliable dictator for the worst basically the power struggle in libya now is a struggle of good really the struggle. for more of libya's oil and this is a struggle of dividing libya's resources among greedy people. taking libya's resources and giving it to the libyan people all on our website r.t. dot com you can find out how the shock waves of the arab spring are still being felt. in some. rain where protesters took to the streets calling for democracy

reforms we're confronted with a part of this crackdown. that also one life for you vandals with a taste of find out the security measures needed to protect boston's newest vending machines off of that caviar touch of a part. of greece has fulfilled at the last few preconditions needed to secure a second one hundred thirty billion euro bailout but that cash injection may yet prove to be elusive question the final cuts on wednesday are committed to a written promise to stick by a surgery after elections but that's still not enough for the e.u. which now wants financial moderator's sure the terms of the bailout are being followed or the greek president got all this but the u.s. lashed out at the e.u. questioning what right countries like germany holland and finland had to criticize greece british. says it's all part of an effort to bring athens to heel. what he was now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general election

not satisfied with getting rid of the last democrat. elected prime minister i'm putting in a puppet in the for the us to papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right parties the less 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 the cancer and not saving the patients well human cost of a series of greece is being felt like never before cuts and slashes and spending have left workers short of cash hospital short of medicine and many greeks out of luck as artie's jacob leads reports that visit to greece suggests the military will remain largely. flamini athens has been

a battleground in recent years fighting against popular stare to sunday's events are showing there's little hope for a cease fire one shot being fired by those discontent is there's 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 current debt crisis may top of most don't seem very keen to help us not to need to spend so much i mean think about it we have been through we are being threatened from a member of the alliance that we belong to the alliance doesn't do anything. so we have to spend huge amounts of money but there is the nato chief arise in athens that talks over things maybe on the table among them weapons but you're meant to believe i mean there is a kind of negotiation if i may she sure between major partners which are german of course france. if we should really be ignoring you

procurement of course that major part will be to france and germany france. major crito but was talks 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've worked dimitris account comes on the back of cuts slashed medical staff pay and lead to a desperate shortage of equipment including affordable prescription drugs this is the very human face the term austerity measure and increasing number of people call up on the treatment need in the current health care system and desperation to turn to aid agencies like this regime nova care into athens immigrant population the midday queue at this center shows just how small. after the treatment is first of

all you see more and more people coming to us that are there is that we might see up to three hundred people and the numbers of the greeks are increasing the 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 despite the sizeable military defenses protecting them. r.t. athens. well it's been no secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany has spearheaded the e.u. is a sturdy drive all the original argument was that cuts were necessary and pain a consequence wax our backs and stacey focus on the. 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 is 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 the 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 who is the germany of all is this to germany we remember from world war one and two is this the imperial genie out of the bottle once again. simplified transparent and more competitive election. the purpose behind a new parliamentary bill introduced by president dmitry medvedev with

a draft proposal and visions an election process with less bureaucracy and more representation that will also take into account the country's vocal online community correspondent peter all over has more on the proposed changes. this bill is being put forward by president proposes a major overhaul of the electoral process in russia now some of the key points that are in this bill if it is put through the deal where it becomes law what will mean is it will establish rights for observers at polling stations to video and photograph what is happening there also allowing of course the the web cams that we will see across polling stations across russia that will not just be broadcasting the life of the polling stations but also the count taking place where those votes are added now the system of proportional representation in russia will remain as it is however we will see changes to how the country is divided up now what is being

put forward has been put forward is two hundred and twenty five electoral districts the country will be split up into all of them roughly equal. it's expected to. see a lot more parties from all over the country. going for two seats in the duma now many more parties means much more competition means much more pressure on the politicians to do what the people want from the bill that's been put forward by president is the full bill regarding electoral reform in the country some of those will start being debated in the duma on the twenty eighth of this month and all of this really comes after the elections in december of last year which resulted in many people being unhappy and what they saw was electoral irregularities protests on the streets of russia president medvedev said he would address the issues that had been brought up over those elections and this is why he's put these bills to

the state duma. all israel wants washington to batter iran with tougher sanctions before its nuclear program reaches what it described as a point of no return it's a response to terror demonstration that it's atomic project. saying iran says it's willing to restart nuclear talks with world powers but only after announcing it can now domestically produced nuclear fuel rods and state of the art centrifuges to enrich uranium this was met with skepticism by the u.s. state department which dismissed the claims as hype in the face of western economic pressure the escalating situation around iran has some worried about a military outcome but your body from the national iranian american council believes a military strike wouldn't wipe out 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 they have to go

in and bomb again and you just have this cycle that really the end of the day this and 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 us into a very long term military engagement. more of the israeli iran standoff are you going to talk to general solenn to the founder of the trends research institute well here's a preview of what he has to say and the full interview is coming up in about ten minutes. 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 new insurer because who's serious topics. are wrong.

and as we have seen from reports that came out with the leaks. the united states and the west has been very instrumental in undermining the syrian government even before the latest uprisings have begun. and now here's a quick look at some other stories making headlines around the world egypt's ruling muslim party could scrap a peace treaty with israel if washington carries through a threat to halt production eight well america could stop the money in response to recent rains some n.g.o.s operating in egypt and which might team u.s. citizens were arrested and put on trial cairo accuses the nonprofit groups of contributing to the anti-government movement at igniting fresh unrest. almost one hundred percent of serb voters in northern kossovo rejected a rule from the cost of the capital pushed not a locally organized referendum the e.u.

when serbia were against the vote saying it would complicate ongoing discussions with a breakaway state around forty thousand serbs still live in kossovo which unilaterally broke from serbia almost four years ago. a crowd of young tibetan activists have attempted to force their way into the chinese embassy in new delhi to demand independence from beijing they were blocked from entering and driven away in police vans that follows a wave of unrest in recent months in western china which has seen many tibetans setting themselves on fire in protest about new year's celebration is due to start next week are expected to stir up more demonstrations. on our news from stock markets across the globe and much more in our business. welcome to the business program at this hour the u.s. is looking to cut economic lifeblood by removing it from the world financial

clearing system known as swift it will rack up pressure on toronto as the country's leadership reveals new progress on its nuclear program but as artie's daniel bush over polls america's action could end up backfiring on its own people. this is a big coup. washington's moved from the swift world transaction system would choke its ability to trade internationally swift payments orders all the rules of business all the world of business practically every company and state in the world to exchange financial info the legality of america's move is highly questioned it's unprecedented political interference in the work which is always such issues should be handled on a national level what is clear is barack obama's frustration the sanctions work in iran hasn't backed down in the nuclear dispute in fact it's no one else in. production mean more misery for u.s.

consumers brant six months over one hundred nineteen dollars a barrel. with not just the price but the recovery of the world's economy. let's have a look at the ore prices and now and they are indeed in the red despite u.s. crude inventors falling for the first time in four way it is over one hundred one dollars per one hundred eighteen point to do. and now going to go into the currency is the year is trading lower to the u.s. dollar. after those talks. and. the ruble is losing value against the european and the u.s. . markets are losing value this hour on news moody's investors service has directed to downgrade one hundred fourteen financial institutions in sixteen countries and as greece remains a concern the footsie is. it does is

a vote one down the russian markets they too are indeed in the red this myself. and to get themselves other negative territory but haven't managed to stay all day but see what's happening on the individual and on the my sex truck major come out is. losing ground on profit taking after adding over twenty percent at the beginning of the weight energy majors are tracking down market sentiment and are posting moderate losses banking stocks are also under pressure bank is theirs in just under one percent they're looking ahead to the coming trading sessions question miles off from our capital tells us what it's like to say that. i would favor so immoral as large energy distribution companies so i would favor gas prong which still looks really cheap and which is we would shoot through the fire in terms of technical picture and also would serve several style my below to truck to . russia's largest lender has finally got the k.

to access the european market spare bank is signing a long awaited tilter purchase vaults bank international says agreeing that position back in september us bank has managed to drive down the final price by eighty million years to five hundred five billion the bank's head sees no risk in entering the european market despite the current debt crisis if humans use the for financier's the greek default has already happened the current restructuring of greek debt is a trial to find a way out of this default we're now more interested in what's happening in the south of europe portugal spain italy but we're not present in these countries the countries where we are present we have clear macroeconomic picture and policy. the battle between the owners of the world's largest mobile of right of import calm is over now we can tell an oil has regained dominance in the company is now vimpel coms largest shareholder with a thirty six percent stake tellen or has withdrawn all claims against simple com

and has other rosters ultimate kinds came after vimpel com agreed to merge with autonomy and wind in twenty leva tele north of the deal fairly deprived of some control in the company. b.p. is entering into a new deal with russia the british old giant will work with the skolkovo high tech help to improve the efficiency of crude oil refining in ousmane comes just days after british lawmakers called on westminster to issue a warning against doing business with the country however the head of b.p. in russia david c. dismisses such concerns saying his company is here a little. 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. i'm out of the business news now i have more updates in about fifty five

minutes time.