election fever grips russia has tens of thousands take to the streets of moscow to show their support for the various presidential candidates. and concern over the effectiveness of sanctions targeting iran's nuclear program grows as tehran's biggest partners in asia resist western pressure to join the economic warfare. two pm in moscow i match reza good to have you with us here on r t our top story the u.n. humanitarian chief will head to syria to negotiate the access of aid to the conflict torn country this amid reports of increasing bloodshed and growing fears of a humanitarian disaster and the latest incidents opposition activists claim more than seventy people were killed as the army escalates its assault on rebel bases authorities blame the violence on armed terrorist for carrying out attacks on

security forces and civil institutions meanwhile the leaders of an influential opposition group based outside the country have raised their voices in support of foreign military intervention saying it may only it may be the only way to stop the fighting inside syria though there's concern such calls with deep in the crisis are these marie at the notion of reports. time to change tactics with fighting in homes entering its third week the syrian opposition based abroad and its foreign supporters seem to have run out of patience the foreign military solution to the country's crisis always considered as a last resort might now become a realistic scenario we are really close to seeing this military intervention as the only solution there are two evils military intervention a protracted civil war the opposition outside they have contact with the external powers and they don't have contact with the with the with the syrian syrian people

directly for baker corbett is going to play mujahid not his real name has been fighting the assad regime for months he went to all protests and spent many days in jail but now he says the crisis has gone too far. as for me i give up actually because the is not just does not just. a war we are losing we are losing buddies even in this engine i started to you know really give me i'm ready to give up and it will and waiting for the for the promises but not everyone is ready to compromise with the death of two journalists and homes an american war reporter and a french photographer pressure from overseas has become more tangible we need to the international community needs to do more to help the the syrian people but there are fears that this helping hand may also be carrying weapons we should

consider every option ranging from sanctuaries to seeing that weapons are brought to the hands of those who are resisting us so they can defend themselves look here in syria the home of position seems to strongly oppose the idea of foreign help. we don't want any interference from abroad these countries may think that they can use this for their own interest for the syrian people will not allow that but to be able to resist strong political reforms are needed and with a vote on constitutional reform around the corner many here is certain any military intervention will derail the political process aimed at ending the crisis according to r.t. sources here in syria the fighting in homes is now over with the army taken control of the city if it's confirmed many agree the political discussion between the authorities and the opposition will become more realistic but only if foreign

intervention can be kept at bay refinishing r.t. damascus syria thereafter of international studies at hartford stranded in college in the us v.j. pressure claims peaceful rallies in syria have free really been hijacked by those seeking foreign military aid. the syrian national council always wanted foreign intervention you know they had followed the script of libya in other words you have an uprising in the city and then you called for the cruise missiles an f. sixteen zero the united states and nato to give you a cover so that then you can ride into damascus on the back of a cruise missile that was always in a sense the strategy for the syrian national council that was not necessarily the strategy for the mass of people who are gathering in the streets and for whom you know whether there's a billion was peaceful or not it was certainly militarized very quickly by the free

syrian army not to bring in militarization is going to create further destruction bad of the foreign affairs committee of russia's lower house of parliament spend meeting with opposition groups in damascus he spoke with r.t. about the syrian conflict interview coming your way later this hour here's a preview. large crowds of people have taken to the streets of moscow today supporting opposing candidates in the upcoming race for the presidency several mass rallies happening in the capital in a spike of political activity ahead of next month's election it's going out artie's peter all are standing by in central moscow with more so here what kind of messages do these demonstrators want to get across. all thursday's been a day of political rallies across the russian capital the largest of those rallies has been taking place well just where i am right now at the lucia nicky stadium now

this was a rally by the groups that want to see a lot of the of putin elected as the next president of russia the prime minister addressed the crowd to receive the raucous reception as he stepped on the stage from the tens of thousands inside the luzhniki stadium originally. this rally having fun to be held on many when the center of moscow right next to the kremlin however organizes say they expected around one hundred thousand people to turn up and that would have really shut down the center of the capital so they moved it here which has the capacity to deal with this is of course where most of the top level football is played in moscow they used to these kind of crowds but you know this wasn't the only rally taking place today now we also saw rallies by the. liberal democratic party of russia who want to see veteran firebrand politician politician. elected president also the communists holding a rally today as well that the those were fired wolf by the numbers that we've seen

here dilution of the stadium there's also some smaller parties that have been holding rallies of the still ongoing at the moment now sit this is all part of the build up to the the presidential elections which will take place in just over a week's time really since the parliamentary elections at the end of december we've seen a real spike and political activism here in russia just following those elections there were mass protests in. in the russian capital as well as elsewhere around the country and even just last weekend on over the weekend we saw col rallies around the center of moscow on saturday a rally in favor of law to me and putin being the next president on sunday want to get the prime minister taking over the top job in march now being elected into the top job in march now coming up on sunday we're also going to see another protest by the the group that want to see free and fair elections in the country and also opposed to the current political system now that protest will take the form of

a human chain around what's called the golden ring in moscow now this is a ring road that goes around the downtown area of the city and it's around sixteen kilometers all the way around in those demonstrators are going to form a human chain and say going to stand in relative silence and in solidarity to put forward their point see what they believe in so yes i think political activism on the pier in russia ahead of those elections taking place in march right archy's peter over live for us in central moscow thanks very much for that update. remember you can watch live footage from the pro putin rally on our website our team dot com also download video free of charge in our free video resource that's free video dot r t dot com. free. range from three. three.

two to three i wrote below for your media project c.e.o. don carty dot com. israel has rebuffed warnings against striking iran which have consistently been coming from the international community the country's foreign minister says israel's business alone whether or not to carry out an attack the anti iranian rhetoric was again stepped up after the u.n. nuclear watchdog mission in tehran brought no results televisa specs iran's atomic activities may have military purposes repeatedly saying there is a need for a preemptive strike its western allies haven't backed the idea saying tough economic sanctions against iran need time to work but there are growing doubts over the effectiveness of the penalties the message is clear if iran's intransigence continues it will face increasing pressure and isolation the west is branding up the pressure on new delhi to follow its lead in stopping imports of iranian oil and

dealing with its central bank but india refuses to follow suit it is not possible to pick a need. to see. you don. yes you can only. grow. a requirement of their marketing you're a former u.s. state department official said that india's failure to stand with the west on the oil embargo is a slap in the face for the united states and raises questions about india's ability to lead but despite all that indian officials won't budge on the issue india is there on the largest oil customer with an annual trade of twelve billion dollars officials here in new delhi are negotiating with their counterparts in tehran to continue that trade using rupees instead of dollars to get around the one thing since and it's not just india ignoring the west's wishes with four asian countries collectively buying two thirds of iran's oil while the e.u.

buys just twenty percent whether the sanctions work or not is book in guess concern these are sanctions imposed by the united states of the opinion they didn't consult us from the impose these sanctions so it's that's the american problem not all those issues the role for the people of that energy needs that's why many say the things sions will be totally ineffective if the asian giants won't play ball countries which are sort of holding onto the future already in their internal sanctions would not bite sufficiently enough to achieve restraint going for his objective they've turned over not to come on board edu us think they're designed to isolate iran but if asia won't play that game the question arises what will or can the west do next preassure either r.t. new delhi india. stay with us here on r t coming up in the program silenced the truth or go on trial we were revealed the tough choice facing u.s. whistleblowers as a new set of standards aims to classify alleged crimes under the guise of national

security. plus protester and deadly in afghanistan is a controversial so called the error by u.s. led troops continues to fan the flames of conflict. but first the heavens may have opened up over the greek capital but the wet weather is failed to dampen the spirits of thousands gathered for the latest protest there this is a greek lawmakers are set to vote on legal changes that would clear the way for a debt restructuring part of the latest deal the agreement means more sacrifices for the country with almost a decade of painful cuts to calm. the anger also mounting in other parts of the debt ridden euro zone with tens of thousands of students protesting against education cuts in spain for more on this i'm joined by next week is economic and international attorneys so private creditors are expected to voluntarily take up to seventy percent losses under this debt restructuring plan why are they involved met there are some very good reasons for them to be involved as part of this second

memorandum bailout there are two aspects the first one hundred thirty billion dollars because of the facility basically loans and the second is the reduction in about one hundred three billion worth of private sector holdings that's necessary because greek debt dynamics are anything but sustainable so that has to be sliced off from reduced. very large sum and as you described it probably really means about a loss of seventy four percent for private investors why is it in their interest to participate well if there is a messy default that may get nothing so it's better to take these do secondly they if there is a lot of pressure from sovereign states the central banks for them to go ahead and do these and at the moment there aren't that many better options if they go to the market and try to sell. now greece must reduce its debt by a hundred and twenty percent of g.d.p. by two thousand and twenty this means almost ten years of belt tightening for the

country what outcome do you predict and will all the sacrifices finally bring relief meg's the very tough call to reduce debt to g.d.p. from about one hundred seventy to one hundred twenty percent my is the middies that even in the best case scenario it probably won't be better than one hundred thirty percent however that doesn't mean you rounds of us that every year from now until twenty twenty it can be done very differently and hopefully you will what we really need is primary surplus is from this year on so that the state is not effectively spending more than it collects what we also need is very serious structural reforms to the tech system to eliminate corruption within the bureaucracy to simplify lewis and provide stability so we can encourage the private sector and importantly they have to be some sense reprivatize ations as well as we believe to attract capital

from overseas and the most critically i can use in your mouth so we can kick start the economy now if one of those things happen instead of focusing on data and austerity which only pressures demand pressures g.d.p. and results in lesser ability for the state to sort of a sense that then we may have some positive results at the end of the. research read to change its constitution and a right into a law that debt servicing is the country's top priority and goes before any other need do you see that as a threat to the country's welfare at this time. it's a bit of a threat to our sovereignty yes but we're not the only country doing that there are many of us and countries doing that at the moment and it will be a little bit better for the stability of the whole the eurozone and does bring aid and inspire a little bit more confidence of course the difficulty is that it's a bit of a fiscal straitjacket in the sense that yes you have to serve as your foreign

domestic that first but that may sometimes mean that you may be sacrificing very critical things like the welfare of your citizens or even your ability to protect your territorial sovereignty these under international laws is a little bit dubious but of course to change the great constitution any of these we need national elections first and a super majority in the parliament and then an agreement amongst very many political parties that isn't a done deal with the one. extreme is economic analyst and attorney thanks very much for your insight thank you. well there is no let up of anti-us sturdy anger in greece later today max keiser and stacy herbert take a look at how examples of public outrage have led to recovery. i say anger brings debt forgiveness and best recovery story icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in two thousand and nine demanding their leaders and bankers answer for

the country's economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger now their economy is upgraded by these rating agencies there are growing unlike these other economies like greece at that window of opportunity that iceland faced and met because the people have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for their sovereignty that sassed was presented to greece and they failed the test you don't get to take the test again you failed the test now you are vassal state and start eating wienerschnitzel because and get rid of the civil aki it's all over my stock of finished bratwurst today. a u.s. soldier thought to be behind the largest lead leak of state secrets in u.s. history is set to go on trial bradley manning has spent almost two years in prison waiting for the official process against him to begin among the documents claimed

to have been released by him was video footage showing u.s. forces firing on armed iraqi civilians critics say the trial is part of a system that hides alleged crimes and punishes those who speak out or tease christine for his hour reports. it was. nearly two years in waiting much of it in solitary confinement and private first class bradley manning stride is finally set to begin. among the twenty two charges filed against him aiding the enemy violating the espionage act and illegally transferring classified data to an unauthorized source wiki leaks. part of that was this video showing u.s. army pilots killing unarmed civilians including to avoid hers and points a video that had been classified by the u.s. military though the government accountability project just accept it never should have been you can also cannot go around classifying criminal activity that is not

proper classification and i haven't heard a single person claim that what the collateral murder video showed was not war crime a sentiment manning seems to agree with in an online chat conversation he said he hoped his putting the information out there would prompt worldwide discussion that he wants people to see the truth short time later bradley manning was arrested in the process becoming one of the clearest symbols to date of a new set of standards a system that now works against those who report wrongdoing and protects those doing the wrong quite often in the name of national security the pendulum right now is still very much a post nine eleven time national hysteria and limited civil rights and liberties and she would know the justice department whistleblower in the case of the so-called american taliban john walker lindh i had advised not to interrogate him without an attorney and not to torture him and when i blew the whistle i ended up

being put under criminal investigation where further to the state bar or some which i'm licensed as a lawyer and put on the no fly list but it wasn't. always this way in two thousand and two the time magazine person of the year was the whistleblowers and although the government tried to have him put away for life daniel ellsberg was hailed as a hero by the public for leaking information that became known as the pentagon papers classified documents he helped author that revealed what was actually happening in vietnam those were. what he revealed to the public what the public should have known from the government itself important knowledge important knowledge now often stifled both on and off the battlefield and the military a phone woman is sexually assaulted or abused or even raped she's supposed to go through the chain of command which will actually harm her and stead of helping her

outside of the military policies are also being drawn up to protect corporations the so-called whistleblower improvement act if passed would actually harm whistleblowers requiring them to report misconduct to their employer first before going to any regulatory agencies it would also remove any incentives to do so our government and. businesses are so intricately linked as hard to tell them apart both now working harder than ever to keep their secrets out of the public eye in washington christine for zero r.t. . wiki leaks has lifted the lid on another piece of classified data as we report on our t.v. dot com spy scandal unfolding as the whistleblower pledges to reveal documents they need to expose the swedish foreign minister as an alleged u.s. informer but. very first the very last lunch a first class passengers menu from the doom titanic up for grabs find out how much

you'd have to fork out for it at r.t. dot com. at least nine people have been killed dozens injured in protests over the burning of the koran by u.s. led troops out in afghanistan air base a senior commander has apologized for the controversy saying the religious materials were destroyed by mistake the deadly rallies prompted the u.s. to lock down its embassy and prevent staff from traveling defense analysts say you'd have made believe that incidents like this undermine the u.s. mission. this is the worst possible nightmare for the americans that so far they have been facing the resistance from the push to one elements but incidents like these that actually getting them out is in the money push to moments of those that these books who are supposedly allied to the amount of can so far hostile this is

basically the foreign out of this which the amount of times fear and became reality of what happened is that it will extend and expand the base of the students against the americans apologies i'm not going to look this is the worst disaster that the americans could have at this moment when they are the most wonderful is he not just the safety the outcome of the waterboard now depend on events like these they have been triggered and the fallout the domino effect is going to be intense as we sit down the bomb could not be more happier then the events that have happened in the if one is stunned if bellybutton could not defeat the amount of the american marines have them some of the big brave. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe iraqi capital baghdad iraq by multiple attacks that have claimed at least fifty lives assaults appeared to mostly target security officers a string of attacks started with a drive by shooting well least. popular soon after assaults come up just months

after the final u.s. troops left the country. a train crash in argentina has left forty nine people dead injured almost seven hundred the crowded commuter service slammed into a wall of the central terminal in the capital buenos aires after reportedly suffering brake failure rescuers have been working for hours to pull trapped passengers from the wreckage it's the worst train accident in the country for decades. divers searching the wreckage coast to can cordie a cruise liner have found eight more bodies including that of a five year old girl leaving seven people on the counter for more than a month after the vessel hit rocks and capsized off italy's mediterranean coast the ship's operator is currently under investigation over the tragedy with seven officials facing charges of manslaughter. the e.u. has suspended the ratification of a controversial anti computer piracy agreement questioning its legality that allowed be investigated to see if the document is compatible with human rights and

freedoms known as act the bill has been heavily criticized from web freedom activist sparking multiple protests across europe if passed legislation will customs officers at airports to examine all devices that may contain pirated data authorities also gain unlimited access to private digital information so far twenty two e.u. countries have signed on to the deal that was negotiated in secret bob best cancer from the online magazine and blog boy believes the law punishes those who use the sources of legally while failing to battle online piracy. the problem is is that the censorship the involved in these things is always vicarious when a something is targeted because people using it to break the law to pirate files or something it always brings down all sorts of other people who might be using the same service for perfectly to do legitimate reasons these laws never actually do anything to stop piracy the way the internet works as long as two computers can

connect to each other people are going to find a way to share files the internet works by copying data so what we will see is when these laws of passed there will be all these social harm and they'll be no actual prevention of piracy so the companies that want them will be back at the legislative trough a few months later. recap of our top stories in a couple of minutes stay with us here on r.t. the.

world to the future keep the peace of the looking glass at what will be the homes of the future where the walls might just be smarter than the residents every day trash protects you from the elements outside and the whole system works to save you money to shine the spotlight on the latest building projects all around russia technology i'm doing here on r.g.p. we've got the country. wealthy british style. that's not on the times.

markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the globe. financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our cheek. but. it.

is easy to. see. two thirty pm in moscow here are to have lights the death of two four injured.