we've prepared well both physically and tactically but athletic have an advantage as they're on a good run and in the middle of their season playing too much is weak look i'm going to use biggest signing during this break roman pavlyuchenko will not be able to help his side as he has already played for tottenham in the europa league this season however locust top scorer dmitry situ of has already netted six goals in europe so far the second highest in the tournament yet the reading greens have a disaster as record against spanish clubs with just a solitary victory in twelve matches and that win was against real madrid educate ago they must be weighed side has not played in the spring face of a u.f.o. can petition since two thousand and six after being knocked out by another spanish sylvia but are confident they can succeed this time. our coaches have provided enough information about our opponents we have studied their strengths and weaknesses now we have to use that knowledge on the pick which is much harder but

we can do it well i thought it bilbao i have reached the round of thirty two for the third time the basque side may only line ninth in spain's la liga but remain a formidable prospect the lions have all to reach the final of the cup of the rate where they will face holders barcelona they bilbao a team have scored in their last stand games and i eager to increase their tale in this their first ever meeting against locomotive the winners of the tire will take on i.x. or manchester united in the round of sixteen next month and athletics manager for madge and tina defend them marcella bielsa ironically nicknamed el loco says that neither snow nor plastic beach scares this charges have both teams are in the same boat and any defeat can be excused by the weather conditions all the artificial pidge there are no key factors it's a match just like any other will play the way we do in. brainless and used to seems

quite despite poor statistics against spanish sides and the lack of match practice what committees will be king to take forward one page of familiar weather conditions and artificial bit of the stereo ahead of next week's away org inside about out of. moscow. meanwhile another europa league ties this thursday manchester city have travelled to portugal to take on defending champions porto but the build up hasn't been ideal for the english premier league leaders with manager about a month cheney hitting back at derogatory claims by controversial striker carlos tevez while the twenty eight year old isn't with his teammates after a returning to the club this week following three months of self-imposed exile in argentina that followed a falling out with mancini last september when he allegedly refused to warm up in city's two male champions league defeat by munich however ahead of his return to has told argentinian television he'd been treated like a dog by mancini that was something the italian denied adding thursday's match with

porter is one of the biggest in the round i'm not that i disagree with god knows what we say because i have never treated him badly. maybe it's the opposite we didn't do well for us i think that is the one of the big game in this stage because. we play the board on that thought the amy used to play jungle league i thought many times in your body going to jump your leg is very difficult to play because i don't want to be very is very strong. well like manchester city porto have also dropped down from the champions league and have a couple of selection problems brazil struck a club is a major dance due to illness and left back immediately after yellow is out to the long term injury but still why these absentees porto believe they have the quality to progress. they were aware of how powerful they were but they have excellent

players an excellent one we want to contradict that because we also have our will and as our victory. it's inside the pitch that we will have to show which team is the best and we're going to work to be the best well meanwhile manchester united are also preparing for life in europe's second tier club competition they go to dutch giants i.x. after they also flopped in the champions league this competition is the only one in which their alex ferguson has never led ninety to a victory in drawing four previous encounters with the last player scoring for united in what was the wife of cup was goalkeeper peter schmeichel in the one nine hundred ninety five one however ferguson has embraced the upcoming challenge. we have an opportunity to do better than this second half this season and the europa league is you look at the teams that it is a challenge some very good teams and. hopefully we can do well. well meanwhile strike at the ministry but again is in the right form to help my x.

overcome their stiff opposition and says he wants to put at least two passed united the thirty two year old former russia star open for the amsterdam side in saturday's two know when a struggling brenda i aks are currently just sixth in the dutch league despite this coach frank a us a cup winner himself in one thousand nine hundred two believes his side can beat anyone when they play the i.x. way. hopefully we can play our. philosophy you know and try to pressure the problem and john brown of and try to create chances of course. technically. capable to do that when we are capable to do that i think we can beat everybody almost now moving on to the champions league and the man should return from injury to bag a brace including the last gasp when a as a need came from behind to beat benfica three two on wednesday in the home leg of their round of sixteen tie well if there isn't a goal to china's plenty said his players had a lot of cost and i talked to a game played in subzero temperatures in some petersburg twenty minutes in and keep

it moving you have not had a champions league debut to forget his fumble allowing maxi pereira to put them seeker head however moments later shirokov grabbed an equaliser for side against a maximum back heeled one the goal for the home side to one up then three minutes from the time it looked like the game would finish in a draw one another's power ensured oscar cardoso made its team to show rock up again say to steal his brushes with seconds to go hunting on the defensive ara to give his side a narrow victory however with their way to go away goal advantage i should say but . there's everything to play for in next month's plan. so we know it was a hard game and we were playing on a hard pitch the aerial game wasn't going well and we conceded three goals which means we played badly defense but we scored twice away from home now. it is an achievement for our midfield and attack i want to emphasize again that the

conditions were hard but we were still playing well in that time and in the midfield the final result will be set in the second leg game in lisbon at our home ground. so while benfica have a good chance of progressing off now with russia four nil it ac milan brazilians finally being here scored on either side of half time as a syriac champions dominated the game kevin prince by saying how i've been with a stunning strike after fifteen minutes was lost and he became of age and it a light falls off let's ask the manager arsene wenger said the defeat was a disaster for his opposite number less than any other a leg break into milan has called off. their baby two percent of five percent start to strictly chances but the. we have. to show a completely different performance and you never know what that's a really strict leave it is really really be out of this competition about what i want to pursue it i'm very sorry the score was greater because we've managed to score and we did make it so when you can score you should score especially in the

champions league two legged much we have a good lead but we have to be more clinical promt. and staying with football and china has taken a tough stance on corruption in the sport as for referees have been given time in prison for match fixing new zhang is arguably the biggest name to be convicted he officiated in matches at the two thousand and two world cup in south korea and japan and the sydney olympic games two years before but he'll now serve five and a half years behind bars after being found guilty of taking bribes to rig seven domestically games while the longest sentence handed down was seven years. finally prime minister vladimir putin has taken a ride in a bobsled during his visit to the pattern one of the track just outside moscow as the venue prepares to host more international competitions. well mr putin did not steer the ball at the training course it's just that he liked the experience on a more serious note as the prime minister also held the door try to bottom out of

that is due to host the season's the knowledge in the usual cup circuit next weekend the competition will also decide the european champions in the high speed sport. but then janko hoping to retain his title spite having had a mediocre season however the forty year old still prevailed at last year's world cup stop that i'm one of them. and that's all the sport bike and. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future.

stories on our t.v. fears of pending confrontation between television row following reports that iranians arrested over recent thailand bombings were targeting israeli diplomats. violence in syria escalates as a high ranking religious leader is assassinated in damascus allegedly from his pro-government stance a large force upon it is at the heart of events in the syrian capital. doubt that fulfills the last of the bailout demands but many greeks feel the nation won't recover from a sturdy measures which harm their health care system while leaving the military unscathed.

just after seven pm here in the russian capital you're watching are our top story type police says israeli diplomats were the target of a group of irradiance arrested after prematurely setting off explosives in bangkok and the claims are expected to further fuel and to ring and rhetoric that television has ratcheted up after a bomb attacks targeted israelis in georgia and india for more. goods is live now from israel what's the feeling where you are regarding this round up war rhetoric. well it seems like the battle drums are growing louder and louder with israel continuing to this really harsh rhetoric towards iran accusing them essentially of terrorizing the entire world community just today there was a harsh statement from tel aviv which called to impose paralyzing sanctions on

tehran all this while iran has just made it clear that they are indeed ready to sit down for talks to continue talks on its nuclear program but tel aviv seems to be deaf to these statements. the prime minister of israel has just made a statement saying that iran that are reigning aggression should be stopped so their course that brings forth many fears of the fact that the. the military confrontation with iran is imminent and nowhere are these fears more prominent than in israel because according to the latest polls listed two percent of the israelis support the idea of going to war with iran most of them believe that israel has enough problems of its own already already existing and they don't really need another confrontation with iran there is of course the issue of palestine which never really completely goes off the table then there is the rather strained

relations with the lebanon which some fear may escalate into renewed conflict and the latest of those concerns of course is the issue of egypt where the parliamentary majority of the islamic of the muslim brotherhood who have said that they are going to they might reconsider they might sever their peace accord which they do have with israel in response to u.s. pressure in regards with the angels scandal so a lot of people in israel primarily are thinking that perhaps israel should stop the rhetoric it does carry on right now and focus on its internal problems and the problems on its borders rather than really push forth with this really militarized rhetoric aggressive rhetoric towards iran all right well thank you very much for that our state solution go live there from tel aviv. well more on rhonda later this hour here on our team. in business we're looking at u.s.

plans to remove iran from the world's financial clearing system known as swift and could this move backfire on americans themselves find out twenty minutes time. now the syrian opposition have accused the government of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas of 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 but if an ocean of reports now from syria. so there's a damascus has started within you so this is the nation the shake of one of the mosques over done one of the districts of the capital was killed as far as local me days reported he was short a dad with five scholz this area may dawn is known to be very conservative people living here are supporting a very much pro-government procession but at the same time there's been many

opposition people living in this neighborhood as well and tensions between these two sides have been very hard specially recently just last month or this every so has to start over a type one twenty six people were killed and more than sixty all those injured speculations appeared as well that they say was killed because of his political views people we have been able to speak to here on the ground have been telling us that this man has been supporting president bashar al assad's policies 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 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 almost every day the military operations but they're fighting against separate armed groups which are. mostly consisted they say of army defectors and foreign soldiers. now a new showdown is expected that the u.n. general assembly later on thursday as members are set to vote on a new resolution on syria the attack sponsored by arab states and supported by a number of western countries could put more pressure on the syrian regime let's cross live to our. new york merida russia has already warned it might not back the document and what exactly is dividing opinions over this proposed resolution. well this proposed resolution is of course being voted on within the general assembly of the united nations after resolution can get through the security

council it is essentially similar or very much the same to the draft resolution that was circulated within the security council that russia and china vetoed it basically endorses and backs the arab league plan that calls for syrian president bashar al assad to step aside relinquish his powers it also calls on the syrian government to stop all violence and release all those detained in the past eleven months since the uprising began in syria as i mentioned it's very similar to the draft resolution that circulated within the security council now the reason russia did not support it then and will not support the draft in the general assembly is because the russian front of the federation feels that the draft is not balanced it points all fault and responsibility on the syrian government and does not take into account that the opposition in syria has also been participating taking part in inflaming the violence this according to to moscow and so russia did propose some

amendments to this draft circulating within the general assembly that i should mention was written up by saudi arabia and circulated by egypt russia did propose some amendments similar amendments that were proposed to the security council draft reportedly those amendments have been rejected by the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov sticking to the same position indicating that the draft that is was voted on then and is being voted on now within the u.n. is not balanced let's take a listen to what he has said which. we've been asked to vote on a resolution that only government forces to withdraw from. groups but it's very unclear who these groups there are muslim brotherhood members. but there's also a. little kind of leader who's called on everyone to unite you know find it against syrian president assad's regime to whom we would. approach one.

foreign minister lavrov has also said that the syrian opposition is refusing to participate in dialogue with the syrian government saying that they are being dissuaded by quote external players that do not want to see possibly some kind of a peaceful result in syria instead inflaming this divide that we've seen going on for nearly a year we should mention tests of that this draft resolution that will is expected to be overwhelmingly supported by the general assembly it's non-binding it means it doesn't have a legal implication such as a draw such as a resolution adopted by the security council however it cannot be disregarded that it does send a symbolic message when the majority of the international community is supporting our certain way to approach the conflict in syria it will help put pressure on the assad government but it is nonbinding very much

a symbolic move that will be taking place later today right thank you very much for that update artie's ready to port my reporting live there from new york. 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 address well that's amid a growing chorus within the u.s. calling on washington to supply anti assad fighters with weapons and. reports of 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 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 would be asked 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 fire in a peaceful 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 the last secular environment it's easier to recruit new terrorists if the government holds that 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 one example that it was a 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 said these these alliances. totally cynical and totally opportunistic there's not a shred of good will. 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 of now the administration denies having such plans but will that position hold. down reporting from washington r.t. . and still had on r t for you the arab spring has already run its course in libya but a year on supposed revolutionary atrocities casts a dark cloud over anniversary celebrations. a greece has fulfilled the last conditions demanded by the e.u. in exchange for the second bailout but still there is no rush in brussels to release further aid as a decision has been postponed until monday the athens push through final say and committed to a written promise to stick to the a city plan after elections however frustration is growing among greek and other european politicians the very president to lash out at the e.u. questioning right countries like germany holland and finland have to criticize athens but british. says brussels is trying to bring out the us to heal. what will you 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 us to 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 the bailout 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 and he 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 big 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 well they're sturdy measures accepted by greece in the face of public outrage have you had the health care system pensions as well as public sector workers and while the human cost of cuts it's rising nato secretary-general anders fogh rasmussen heads to athens to secure the country's military spending the nation has one of the largest military budgets compared to its g.d.p. with only the u.k. spending more bizarre it is jake agrees reports the nato chiefs visit to greece suggests the military may remain largely. flamini athens has been a battleground in recent years fighting against unpopular stare to sunday's events to show 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 defense of our relations with turkey remain for some as ever present a threat as a current debt crisis nato partners don't seem very keen to help us not to mean to spread so much i mean think about it we 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 spend huge amounts of money but there's the nato chief arise in athens the talks other things may be on the table among them weapons for cure mint i believe that means there is a kind of negotiation if i may say sure between the major partners which are germany or france. that if we spend more and you procurement of course a major part will probably function general jim france since the major credit of

the last talks remain afloat another threat looms it bimini spot 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 put treatment this problem persists in other hospitals i've worked in dimitri's account comes in 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 i think creasing number of people 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 sort after the treatment is first of all are seeing more and more people coming to us that are there is that we might see up to three hundred people and their numbers of the greeks are.