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top stories on our violence in syria escalates as a high ranking religious leader is assassinated in damascus allegedly for his pro-government stance our correspondent as a part of advance in the syrian capital. fears of pending confrontation between tell a vivid tehran and throw fall with reports that ring answer arrested over recent thailand bombings were targeting israeli diplomats. and athens fulfills the last of the e.u. bailout amounts but many greeks feel the nation vote for cover from austerity measures which harm their health care system leaving the military on skating.

south of four pm here in the russian capital this is r.t. now the syrian opposition have accused the government of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas with the city of daraa the latest target meanwhile a high ranking religious leader was assassinated in the capital damascus reportedly for his political views now this comes after the president's announcement of a referendum on a new constitution which could create a multi-party system in the country but the proposal doesn't seem to have helped curb the violence as artie's body of financial reports from syria. says a damascus has started with a new so this is a nation to shake up one of the mosques over done one of the districts of the capital was killed as far as local we do is reporting he was shortened with five shots this area may dawn where we are right now he's famous to be very conservative people living here are supporting a very much pro-government procession but at the same time there's been many office

dition people living in this name. hold as well and tensions between these two sides have been very hard specially the recent the just last month this area saw suicide bomber a type one twenty six people were killed and more than sixty others injured speculations appeared as well that they say was killed because of his political views violence is continuing in the southern part of the country we are hearing from the opposition activists that the army of bashar al assad has attacked the city of daraa targeting free syrian army soldiers and as a respond the sources say. rebels are firing checkpoints inside the city and also targeting military and police buildings altie has actually just traveled to the city of daraa on wednesday and we've been able to speak to the governor over this area on the ground and with many military there and they've told us that there is no free syrian army in this region right now and actually in generally they say

that it doesn't exist such a thing as a well coordinated opposition military force they've confirmed that they're fighting every day the military of ration but they're fighting against separate armed groups which are. mostly consisted they say of army defectors and foreign soldiers. now the u.n. general assembly is to vote on a non-binding resolution on syria sponsored by arab nations to put pressure on the ruling regime all the texas thought to be similar to the one a veto by russia and china at the security council more than a week ago well moscow has warned it won't back that new document unless it stops putting all the blame for violence on the authorities making no mention of armed opposition groups operating in syria which you wish but those we've been asked to vote on a resolution that only asks government forces to withdraw from cities and basically hundred them over to armed groups but it's very unclear who these groups are there

are muslim brotherhood members army desert areas but there's also al qaida it's not by chance that al qaeda leader has called on everyone to unite in a fight against syrian president assad's regime. who would hand syria over if such an approach won you can always find a compromise in conflict but only through carrying out negotiations this is what some from syria's opposition refuse to do being dissuaded by some external players who bear a huge responsibility for the ongoing violence for the deaths of peaceful civilians . now the u.s. has criticized the syrian government's promise of a new constitutional vote describing it as laughable and accusing the regime of making a mockery of the unrest lots of it a growing chorus within the u.s. calling on washington to supply anti assad fighters with weapons and as artie's game reports it's a move that many believe would make peace impossible. hawks in washington calling for the arming of things surgeons in syria we should start thinking all options

putting 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 the more that happens the less likely it is that they'll be a negotiated solution leading to a cease to be still settlement they're encouraged i think very much by the united states the civil war in lebanon went on for fifteen years absolutely appalling bloodshed and you can 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 that one of the reasons why al qaeda supports the violent uprising in syria is that in a less secular environment it's easier to recruit new terrorists if the government folds or you'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 alarming given the u.s. history of arming radicals afghanistan want example that it was a placing itself in alliance with the mujahideen including osama bin laden and arming these people who now of course it is lately been deploring as fanatical fanatical the enemy is that the united states said these these alliances that totally sent. i'm totally opportunistic there's not a shred of grounds. 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 further radicalization and would make a political solution virtually impossible a number say washington might support arm supplies indirectly through 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 r.t. . michel chossudovsky from the center for research and globalization says a foreign intelligence operatives on the ground are helping to stir up political chaos in syria. i certainly know that the government. that's its commitment to vote by the constitution did introduce politic a multi-party system but the people who are well quite a bit got a bit of a no interest multi-party democracy. there are directly as we know they are

directly backed by doing so since the. operatives which are present. collaborating with the rebels the free syria the o.o.b. is not so big which is representative of the opposition because of this oh it's aggression is to create political instability which will subsequently lead. to. the syrian government destabilizing syria as a nation state what they don't like about syria is that syria is not a proxy us state it's still the line with washington so it's not a big all those it's a secular government it's a country of tremendous religious tolerance and celeb on our team the arab spring has already run its course in libya but a year on claims of post-revolutionary atrocities cast

a dark cloud over anniversary celebrations. the thai police say israeli diplomats were the target of a group of rain and arrested after prematurely setting off explosives in bangkok and the claims are expected to further fuel and to rein in rhetoric that television has ratcheted up after a bomb attacks targeted israelis in georgia and india and israel has also indicated it wants washington to hammer iran with tougher sanctions before its nuclear program reach as what it called a point of no return now this came in response to terror and demonstrating the progress of its atomic projects on wednesday iran in turn says it's one hundred percent ready to. issue six party talks on its controversial program which the islamic state insists this peaceful a while concerns that israel might strike nuclear facilities grow some experts believe such an attack would only achieve a full scale confrontation. the real problem here is that there's 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 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 us into a very long term military engagement. meanwhile tehran house has spoken to stopping oil supplies to some e.u. states due to the extremely cold winter in europe the measure had long been contemplated in response to the blocks of bargo and radiant crude exports due to come into force in july but the founder of the trends research institute gerald celente says imposing such sanctions in the first place is equal to a declaration of war well here's a taste of his interview coming up in full in twenty minutes. the united states

again with the national defense authorization act part of that was that president obama affectively has declared war against iran the latest legislation put sanctions on foreign companies dealing with iranian banks defectively putting in a bar go. wrong it's an act of war go back to world war two it's like when the united states stopped japan for being able to buy oil now the iranians can't sell it if they lose just twenty percent of their of their ability to sell oil you're looking at sixty percent of their g.d.p. comes from oil sales you're putting a bad a business. there greece has fulfilled the last conditions demanded by the e.u.

in exchange for the second bailout but still there's no rush in brussels to release further aid as the decision has been postponed until monday well athens push through final cuts of when safe and committed to a written promise to stick to the asserted plan after elections however frustration is growing among greeks and other european politicians the president lashed out at the e.u. questioning what right countries like germany holland and finland have to criticize athletes or british. brussels as tried to bring afghans to heel. what are you is now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general . actually i'm not satisfied with getting rid of the last democratically elected prime minister and putting a puppet in the forwards to papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right parties or 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 we saw one of the commissioners commissioners nearly cruz said the other day that if greece left it wouldn't be a man overboard situation so even at the top there is now a crack beginning to appear and very interesting really what i've seen in the european parliament is for the first time in years we're hearing real criticism and the the socialist criticism is that these austerity cuts are damaging living standards to such an extent that they now want to acceptable so i'm beginning you know i'm not the lone voice anymore in this place that these policies are mad all the assert the measures accepted by greece in the face of public outrage have hit the health care system pensions and public sector workers and while the human cost of cuts keeps rising medo secretary general anders fogh rasmussen heads to athens

to secure the country's military spending well the nation has one of the largest military budgets compared to its g.d.p. with only the u.k. spending war as artie's jake agrees reports nato chiefs there's a degree suggests the military may remain largely. flamini athens has been a battleground in recent years fighting against unpopular stare to sunday's events are showing there's little hope for a ceasefire 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 or turkey remain for some as ever present a threat as a card debt crisis or nato park 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 that is the nato chief arise in athens the talks over things may be on the table among them weapons but you're meant to believe i mean there is a kind of negotiation if i may say sure between major partners which are germany or france. if we should really be ignoring you procurement of course that major part will be to france and germany france since the major critical 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 for treatment this problem persists in other hospitals i've worked in dimitri's account comes on the back of cuts slashed medical staff pay a letter desperate shortage of equipment including affordable prescription drugs this is the very human face the term austerity measure and increasing number of

people caught 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 soft. the treatment is first before you 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 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 midget

defenses protecting them. it's. well it's been no secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany has spearheaded the austerity drive and the original argument was that cuts were necessary and pay a consequence like fifteen thirty g.m.t. the issue gets the kaiser treatment but max and stacey. germany's carthaginian terms for greece now embrace evans pritchard of the telegraph says the last time germany needed a bailout from world creditors it secured better terms than shattered greece last week so nine hundred fifty three we call there was a london debt agreement whereby creditors for all of germany's debt agreed to take a fifty percent haircut on german debt yeah well this is interesting isn't it a bit of a double standard here the germans got a huge break on the debt back in one nine hundred fifty three the other countries rallied to give them a break because they felt that it was in everyone's best interests now here we are

twenty twelve and germany is in a position to return the favor but they bought. now as libya celebrates the first sign a verse or a of the start of its nato backed up rising its national transitional council struggles to take control over the country's volatile situation amnesty international has recently accused the f.t.c. of failing to protect human rights claiming that thousands of good office supporters are being held without charge and tortured all the group reports at least a dozen have died in rebel prison since september as a result of history reports from libya say former rebels want to take over power civilians remain armed as the economy has since the war political scientist dr tells or two but the country's future looks. 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 ones once they have been because they want to get control of all the oil all the natural resources there now these days who hold the economy control the world and this is exactly what they want i see no future no good future i hope i'm mistaken but i'm not unfortunately libya is going towards a incredible civil war people are going to be killing each other left and right taking a look at what else is making news around the world of us our government have freed nearly two hundred prisoners from a jail in central nigeria prison officials say a large group of men carrying weapons stormed the prison late wednesday details remain scarce but authorities do not believe the attack was the work of the islamist group boko haram who orchestrated

a massive jailbreak in two thousand and ten. north korea's military parade at the nation's capital to mark the birthday of late leader kim jong il they pledged to defend his son and successor kim jong un with their lives and crush any forces if attacked crowds have been marching making their way to the city's main square to leave flowers and x.'s portrait well since kim jong il died of a heart attack two months ago relations with neighboring south korea are at their lowest point in yours. of infertility of recession is forcing some hopeful 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 but get on the plane to india and it could be much cheaper artie's met one couple who did just that. arrogances and forward and all came 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. 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 there was a bit easier pregnancy i mean. although peter is genetically therapy susan didn't actually give birth to him. and indeed sarah get who they never met did ten years ago we decided we would try to have a child and didn't happen naturally pretty much given up hope spent a bunch of money. and that's when we 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 sarah to see 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 u.s. 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 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 here is a huge amount of money much more than they could possibly make in the whole year after no one child wins husband left her seriously seemed the best way to support her two kids and mother good. at the end of the deed they do would they want and i get the much needed money. but it's this sense of desperation that critics fear make these women vulnerable because we've been a pool because they are. for you know because they have the challenge said and for

just said why would they have to send it in and get out people who are exploiting it for eric and susan however the issue isn't so black and white they're happy that their indian sarah get gave them a shot at completing their family you know she didn't seem at all upset she seemed like she did something really nice far as i'm concerned she did ending their ten year journey to have a baby in a place they never expected preassure either r.t. new delhi india. news this hour karim is here now with a business update. how a welcome to business here in r t thanks for joining me this hour the u.s. is looking to cut iran's economic lifeblood by removing it from the world's financial clearing system known as swift it will back up pressure on tehran as the country's leadership reveals new progress on its nuclear program but as artie's

daniel bushell reports america's action could end up backfiring on its own people. this is a bid to kill iran's economy washington's move to tehran from the swift world transaction system would choke its ability to trade internationally swift interbank payments orders all the worlds of business there on the world of business they're used by 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 has always said such issues should be handled on a national level what is clear is barack obama's frustration that sanctions aren't working iran hasn't backed down in the nuclear dispute in fact it's now announced enrich fuel production new tensions mean more misery for u.s. consumers brant 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. let's have

a look at the markets oil prices are mixed to spike u.s. crude had been tories falling for the first time in four weeks the light sweet is trading at over one hundred one dollars per barrel brant as that one hundred nineteen dollars barrel now two currencies the u.s. trading lower to the u.s. dollar on thursday after talks over a second bailout for greece have been called off the ruble is losing value against both european and the u.s. currencies stocks in europe are down led by banks stocks fell off to movies and then investors service threatened to downgrade more than one hundred financial institutions in london heavyweight ages b.c. holding off one point two percent leave the forty point seven percent lower german automakers however point in the opposite direction that's after all reports showed that new car registrations in the european union in january declined over seven percent compared to the same period last year the russian markets have not managed to get into the black today the us is almost one point seven percent down in the

mines explained nine percent lower this hour let's check on the index movers on the rise six energy majors are tracking down beat market sentiment posting moderate losses while snapped is down quarter of a percent banking stocks are under pressure as well as losing over a percent this hour abusing the bank is also on the downturn its january net profit rose sixty percent but that's in russian counting standards looking ahead to the coming trading sessions a beginning which was there from the capital tells us what sectors he favors most. generally we feel like a true right time to invest into energy. consumer in russia because stocks look cheap we also can expect some positive fundamental drivers to merge and become in malls so probably in the consumer sector it's again in their activity which drove the market last year. and an energy some kind of stability

would deter full suit which is going to give huge upside to this conference so it's better to be right now going to be enough to. explode by twenty percent. russia's economy will have a dynamic start to the year it is such a loose stream in the second half at least that the verdict of standard and poor's ratings agency which says that the country's growth will drop to three and a half percent this year and one of the reasons of a central bank slowing credit growth cut inflation risks and continued capital outflow. and russia's largest lender has finally got the key to access the european market spare bank is signing a long awaited deal to purchase austria's folks bank international since agreeing the acquisition back in september spread bank has managed to drive down the final price by eighty million euros to five hundred and five million the bank's head sees no risk an inch.