resigned to the opposition demanded he step down over accusations he accepted a list of favorites while serving as governor of lower saxony think looting a private home loan from a friend's wife on thursday prosecutors asked parliament to lift the president's immunity from prosecution over the loan scandal chancellor angela merkel has expressed regret at wolf's resignation and says she'll seek agreement with the opposition on the new president. the leaders of britain and france plan to discuss an increase in practical help for syrian rebels which could involve giving them military advice david cameron and nick of us all cozy will hold a summit in paris to talk about what can be done to aid the free syrian army now also signed a major deal which would see the two nations work more closely and civil nuclear technology and announce joint plans to develop new on man stealth aircraft. armed gunmen from the radical islam a sect of boko haram have stormed

a nigerian prison freeing one hundred nineteen inmates one guard was killed in the ensuing gun fight after the group blasted through the prison gate and using explosives authorities have recaptured around twenty five of the escaped prisoners the sect has been blamed for killing almost three hundred people this year alone as it fights to establish a real law and nigeria. leaders from afghanistan pakistan and iran are is in islamabad for talks on ending the decade long war with the taliban in afghanistan afghan president hamid karzai wants pakistan's help to organize talks with the group and the nato chief said he did you know if negotiations were possible but vow to continue military pressure on the taliban nato and the u.s. are training three hundred fifty thousand afghan police and the soldiers to take over when they withdraw in two thousand and fourteen. greece has more or less accepted a demand from euro zone leaders who want greater oversight of the nation's.

announce us before they hand over the next one hundred thirty billion euros up bailout cash the looming threat of debt repayments is pushing the government into even deeper cuts leading to more public protests athens is trying to find a way to trim spending by another three hundred million euros amid reports that some fellow eurozone leaders are doubtful that greece can meet its obligations it's a situation that's left some european countries more than a little glad they decided to stay out of the single currency us tom barton found out. a day's shift nearly over for forty three year old team leader jimmy carlson lorries keep rolling off the production lines here its county is main works but one dose weeds know there's a crisis on their way to with the market hard up in profit making cars in fact scam you was hit by the eurozone crisis when economic trouble loomed many laurie orders were cancelled the black headlines came we have

a crisis in the euro and the euro is. maybe going down and so on and then our customers get very hesitant but the lorry maker like sweden overall recovered fast from the initial downturn and has so far managed to dogs much of the pain felt further south in two thousand and three swedes shocked other review members by voting against joining the euro it was just one factor which now sees the country with one of the world's lowest government debts and one of the healthiest looking economies in europe. with pathetically changed our problems with the fiscal side so we don't have all those debt problems and budgetary problems that many other countries have but big debates lie ahead of the rest of the u.s. still by far sweden's largest trading partner here as elsewhere everyone is watching the embattled euro as a guide to their vote in. a possible future referendum some put it simply mike

economist rolf england who campaigned against the euro back in two thousand and three i think the euro will collapse before sweden will join the whereas around eighty percent of swedes say they're glad they're not in the euro the figure is reversed for their politicians most europhiles argue this crisis isn't the euro's fault it's about debt if you compare sweden which has been outside of the euro for just over ten years and fiddlers which has been a member of the euro for the same period we have warbirds identical we could all be developments both politicians and people here seem to think that there will be another referendum on joining the euro sooner or later but what their choice will be assuming there is still a euro left choose is anyone's guess. this is

a swedish kronor coin it's become a symbol of that momentous no vote of swedish prosperity versus the chaos of the euro but sweden can't ignore that its economic and political fate is tied in extra to europe and also predicting the future of the krona well flip a coin tom barton r.t. more billionaires live in moscow than any other city in the world it's no wonder that the entertainment real estate and luxury goods market is geared up for major spenders in the russian capital this week our moscow team takes a look at the lifestyle of the mega rich here's a preview. what i can honestly say that this is the largest sweep i've seen in my entire life but alone here in russia about four hundred eighty square metres this monster of a room costs just under half a million people nights before taxes roughly around sixteen thousand dollars

whether we're talking about world liberties or simply the filthy rich i think multi-millionaire would enjoy staying here. terry is here with the latest business news. thank you for joining me this hour e.u. officials are in lisbon to check if portico deserves the next fifteen billion euro tranche it's paying out the bank is that goldman sachs is up to fifty put in to sit through the next few years as the situation. all she's done you push all the problems facing the next year as saying stay in the firing line. inspectors' a rover the seventy percent chance portugal will quit the single currency indicate

the returns for investors to listen to it unemployment is at record highs moody's downgraded the country's rating to junk status and its recession is getting worse g.d.p. slumped two point seven percent in the last three months of twenty eleven what business of the eurozone are frightened is fear of contagion chief says greece's default has already happened for investors and we should be worrying about the real elephant in the room portugal. you are paying gas consumers want to get russian feel with a ten percent discount the country's gas monopoly gas problem says it's a greater price cut but force of course to increase the spot price component in its contracts the concession comes after the tragedy go she asians or some of the afghans biggest customers including france's g.d.s. us and when death of germany gas problems a long term supply contracts are indexed to the price of crude by the influx of

cheap spot gas prices has imposed and is customers to demand the companies switch from an oil based formula. let's take a look at the markets now we'll start with the currency is here is trading a bit higher to buy the dollar on the ruble on hopes greece will see a long awaited deal and next week the river's hard against a u.s. currency supported by stronger crude. so let's see how those all price is a doing now that they are heading for the biggest week they gave this year as in courage and signs from the u.s. the biggest consumer of crude with jobless claims dropping to the lowest level since two thousand and eight all of that is bolstering the outlook for fuel to model what i know at this hour is a mixed picture. in europe then see how the i guess you know and indeed they are with investors inspired by that upbeat data coming from the u.s.

and investors seem optimistic on the greece situation. the russian markets are indeed mixed this hour as you can see a strong going the direction they've been struggling for quite a few hours now as you can see the r.t.s. is up zero point eight percent doing rather well but the my sex is a fun it's a negative. let's check on the individual then on the mice that way and if the stocks are on the rise supported by strong crude gas from just a fraction there in the black holding on to gains is also off is point four percent up and over only a racing up by economist magazine schools is as the world's second best dog in terms of return on investment over the past decade i call mike after bass is also dating almost half of the second. here's a warning to the super rich if you're planning to buy

a mega yacht in russia do it now the finance ministry says it is working out a way to impose a new luxury tax next year that's after prime minister putin said he wanted to tax conspicuous consumption as the price paid for the not investing in the development of the country russian tycoons are well over their love of expensive boats but the new duty will also apply to things such as cars and houses. so for mason hour i'll be back on monday karina will be taking you through a little business and fifty five minutes time.

to.

culture is that so much given to each musician the person on the mark with syria and a smile violence why does the west refuse to describe events being played out in syria as a civil war why is there such meat. thanks for being with us as they are turning to a quick look at your headlines where russia says no to regime change in syria and votes against what it calls an unbalanced u.n. resolution that fails to address the dangers posed by armed insurgents government forces are reportedly stepping up their assault on rebel fighters across syria. fueling anti around rhetoric is really cute as the islamic state of targeting its diplomats after todd police a link to a group of iranians were two explosions in bangkok and follow similar attacks in

india and georgia earlier this week but tech ron fiercely denies any involvement. euro zone leaders are designing the terms of the next bailout package for embattled greece as the deadline for its debt repayments looms closer be economic crisis has engulfed much of europe but countries outside of the single currency like sweden are managing to avoid the worst of it. up next the ongoing crisis in syria comes under scrutiny and cross talk with peter lavelle.

blowing welcome to cross talk i'm curious about syria and the spiral of violence why does the west refuse to describe events being played out in syria as a civil war why is there such music since the finding a political settlement among the warring factions and will outside intervention eventual tear syria apart. could cross talk the situation unfolding in syria i'm joined by kurt worth miller in washington he's a research fellow at the center for religious freedom at the hudson institute in london we have patrick case he's a journalist and political commentator and in cairo we go to rami gerar he is a political activist and co-founder of activists news association all right gentlemen this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want patrick i'd like to go to you first in london there seems to be this amazing lack of

recognition that really what's happening in syria is a civil war and i'm looking at western capitals right now but when i think about what's going on there and i see the pictures there are two concepts two words that come to my mind one is militarisation and the other one is lebanese ation and i'm of course i'm referring to the civil war that played out in the in lebanon for such a long time that was so horrific for that small country i mean it is a civil war and we have such a good example of historical example you don't have to look at libya look at lebanon and you have a reasonably good fit. i agree that i think it should be seen in that kind of way as a civil war i also think you know it's a civil war a slightly different story because it is very difficult to establish exactly who the opposition is in syria and exactly how they came here and that is now do you think in terms of the struggle against assad that is one of the problems you have quite a split into this kind of chaotic situation in syria more so than you did in the

the arab spring last year in say egypt or tunisia there's less of a sense of ok here in the opposition so i can understand why it's a bit hard to understand to define it in very clear cut but at the same time i think you know the west there were a few sort of see it in these kind of terms and to see it's almost in a very polarized way where you have solitude affectively now who was you know a couple of years ago seen as a reformer and was actually kind of welcome. you know the west very much saw themselves as being able to work with him now have kind of really polarized a situation and see him as a kind of ogre like figure similar to the way in which good afy was portrayed who is effectively just trampling on the syrian people and i think that polarized nation won't benefit anyone especially should it mean western intervention into the situation a kurd if i go to you i mean we had we had assad come out saying he wants to have a referendum on the twenty six of twenty seventh of this i'm sorry twenty six of this month and it was scaf doubt very much by western capitals again i mean want

why is there such resistance to at least try negotiated settlement to this conflict because if there is no settlement the deaths continue people continue to die and you know if you choose a side in a civil war which effectively is what the west has already done you still have more deaths i mean it's the worst of all possible worlds right now i think it is unfair to draw. a real clear parallel between cut off your course and bashar assad for one . reason and that is between us there's also a fairly comprehensive regime it's not quite the same person if occasion of the state that cut off it was of course there is of course the significant cult of personality that surrounded the syrian regime long before bashar assad came to power of course and so when we're talking here about the syrian government not just talking about bashar assad we're also talking about the entire back the regime

that's backing him up with all of their supporters and a pretty significant state apparatus and that's something that really needs to come into play or we're not just talking about a single individual who pulls all the strings of the state having said that i think it's fairly clear that there is simply too much water into the bridge at this point there been too many deaths there's been too much bloodshed and a tremendous amount of polarization between opposition figures. not necessarily in terms of just the leaders but in terms of the people who have been coming out to protest putting their lives on the line and in between them and this state that's been perpetrating these i mean there's a very if i can see if i if i go to romeo and cairo i mean again i'm very hesitant to make this guy by narry here i mean there are the protesters quote unquote protesters and some are pretty heavily armed now and they're killing a lot of people i mean there are even reports reports because not much is coming out of syria that we can rely upon of beheadings ok i mean this is there's

a radicalization on the protesters so i don't i mean these people are not you know solzhenitsyn with the kalashnikov ok i mean this is getting much more serious that's why i started out the program by calling it a civil war i mean there is there is violence being committed by at least two sides and i would say all sides what do you think about that. i'll definitely answer to that but if i could first go back to patrick saying with what he said there is one point to keep in mind syria is no exception from the arab spring from any other country that's taking part in the arab spring that these are revolutions and syria is not an exception the only thing that makes it an exception is the excessive use of violence by the syrian regime and the fact that the syrian government has has as managed to continue killing its people without anyone stepping in or able to protect the civilians the syrian people have tried themselves the international community has also tried but failed to do anything and in that case in terms of

syria now facing this civil war this is definitely over exaggerated this isn't this isn't almost as far as being claimed but what we're seeing in syria is the government basically placing this propaganda that there is a civil war coming in syria that it's already begun and that this sectarian strife the only party that actually introduced sectarian strife at the very beginning of the syrian revolution was the syrian government this was the only way that the government could get out of this situation that we're in this mess that they were in where people were going to the streets and simply calling for democracy and for regime change the government had to cover the up the only way they could cover that up is scare the minority. and if i can interject here i mean if you want to put it is water under a bridge ok fine but now all sides are committing acts of violence ok you want to say who started it ok fine ok but any state in the world is going to strike back at people that have arms ok and i'm not justifying the regime in syria but what i'm

saying is that all sides are using violence right now and that's why i'll go back to my keep hammering away at my point of why can't why shouldn't the international community be pushing for negotiations on the ground instead of having saudi arabia and kuwait and all these other countries turkey the united states and who knows what israel's role in all this is right now i mean why should we be focused on the folks on the ground first before this spreads to the entire region. i'm sorry but i wouldn't agree on the fact that there were there was violence being patrolled from both sides are so not the case we have one side that it's attacking its own people in peaceful demonstrations and another side which is formed of defected soldiers and maybe some recruited civilians who wish to protect these civilians these are defected soldiers they don't have a hillary or they or they have weapons ok forty seven is that the max maybe an r.p.g. but not tanks not gunships and if i go to pressuring in london now yes we can change that may change patrick go ahead. well i would just like to say i don't see what

the problem is with the syrian people taking up arms against assad you know i do agree with me that you know in some ways you can see this as a continuation of the arab spring i think there is there's a slight difference in terms of the coherence of the opposition but. it is cracking down on particular areas in a very kind of brutal way it is difficult for people to get here and debate for example go to a kind of tired square like situation that you saw in egypt but i mean sometimes in these situations as we saw in libya people do need to take up arms against the state and to overthrow it i would defend that i don't think this necessarily can be resolved peacefully and you know attempts to negotiate could also put it on i i could put that struggle for freedom and democracy in syria which is going on you know on the on holds where i think is problematic though is where you have external forces effectively betraying the syrian people as vulnerable kind of like helpless

in the situation and unable to battle against assad for themselves i think you know it's very clear in my mind that the only way in which history can be made here the only way in which true democracy can be brought about in genuine leadership and coherent sense of ideas for how to take the country forward can really be established is through the syrian people doing this for themselves rather than having western intervention which effectively is trying to deliver democracy to that region it doesn't work like that it hasn't worked actually it's actually been with me every country where that's taken actually but it may be contributing to the violence because if i go back to kurtz in washington you may have elements within syria they're hoping for a western intervention and that's not good that's stopping them from the go sheeting and assad i mean you could look at it from a different point of view if there's going to be an intervention he's going to do as much as he possibly can now to make sure there's nothing to intervene about so i

mean this. prospect of outside intervention makes the situation even worse in the country you know i think one of the one of the difficulties not just in our conversation but in the broader conversation about syria is the definition of what we mean by intervention. and one of my concerns at the moment and i should say fairly fairly clearly i do believe that the i want to say the west but the outside world i think should be involved somehow i think there is some violence going on perhaps on both sides but it's clearly not not a parallel situation you know the free syrian army which is an entirely uncoordinated organization if we can even use that term by no means represents the same kind of power as the syrian state i don't think we can look at those in a completely parallel fashion but at the same time i think it's very clear that the state which has its has a responsibility to people to protect not to oppress has been using a far greater degree of violence against people some of whom are armed many of whom

are not. then has if we can use this term the other side so i do believe that we should intervene but i'm not talking about boots on the ground i'm not saying you know we should all go you know gung ho dropping bombs on the syrian army at the moment i think we can be much more imaginative in terms of how we talk about intervention. in a way to justice in terms of lives and i mean libya wasn't supposed to happen but libya happened ok all right gentlemen right we're going to go to a short break ok and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on syria stay with. i i. i .

any match one split is bound. to burn for ever more eternal fire is on think about the possible future. do we old wants to see this on forever. download the official location your i pod touch from the. video on demand. an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your posts question. dot com.

and. welcome back to cross talk time you'll tell to remind you we're talking about the war in syria. and if you. look at i to go back to rami and in cairo i started out the program saying how disappointed i am but i expected that the western powers wouldn't like to call what's going on in in syria's civil war because it has a very important political and geopolitical and clip implications but let's talk about another thing that western media and politicians don't like to talk about it

and it's the the sectarian strife there i mean this is about you you said in the first part of the program about defectors most of them at least i've been told are sunni what does that tell you. not actually the case of the country as cindy is so you would see a majority of defectors being cinese we've seen otherwise we've seen christian defectors that's actually not the case but what you have in syria now is the government basically portraying the sectarian violence and that's sort of provoking both sides what you're seeing is in the army i have to be detailed about this in the army with mobile phones only the allies are allowed to carry those mobile phones and only they are allowed to film themselves basically undertaking the trust cities against civilians we've seen these videos of soldiers beating civilians and they're mainly alawite it's not because only the other whites are taking part in this crackdown actually every element of the country taking part in the security when the security forces are taking part all the different sectors but this

basically points to the viewers that alawite so doing this and then when you're in an area like hamas in baba amr and you've been under siege for twelve or so days and without bread water electricity or any source of communication then that does sound to frustrate people now i'm not saying that that means that what you're going to see is sectarian violence again the government is over exaggerating the sectarian violence what we're seeing is in the army. because people are not able to defect they reach a point where they refuse to open fire at civilians and they won't be executed by the regime these people the same soldiers that were executed of them lifted in funeral processions by the regime claiming that terrorist elements sunni terrorist elements killed them if they were a whites that would probably be the scenario and that would cause a conflict the longer the syrian remain within it ok but if you want if you. really do it by mathematics then maybe most of the victims are sunni because the regime is not ok at least the leadership is.