reportedly concluded iran is not building a nuclear weapon but america's main news outlets refused to drop the entire iranian scaremongering. a fortnight before russians choose a new president the front runners face of flooding the streets of london we'll tell you why. russia's markets and friday's session on the very bullish note with the ts up four point nine percent of my six three point seven percent as oil keeps up its winning streak at seven sessions now more on this in business outside in twenty minutes. i'm in moscow i matras a good to have you with us here on r.t. our top story this hour the friends of syria meeting that's designed to find a solution to the country's crisis could instead be used to push for a military intervention and israeli web site known for its links to intelligence

sources says the western lead meeting serves as a means to bypass moscow en beijing's u.n. security council vetoes they gather when the gathering is underway in tunisia we get more details from our teaser murray if an ocean a joining us live with more from damascus so there are high hopes on the outcome although not everyone is optimistic what is the feeling inside syria where you are . mary if you can hear me what's the feeling on the ground inside syria. apparently we don't have an audio connection with maria there. however she did file this report earlier let's take a look. the meeting of the countries calling themselves friends of syria raised many questions before it even started why would iran seventy arab and western nations gather in tunisia has been a mystery till the last moment. and if they are real friends they should not think

about economic sanctions that really affect syrian people and a negative way. i hope the arabs will play a role in mediating dialogue between the opposition and the government priority is to facilitate the humanitarian the livery of the humanitarian assistance and we have some proposal on the table to prepare. the best way to deliver this assistance as quick as possible. the u.n. estimates about six thousand deaths in fierce clashes between the government forces and the armed opposition with the humanitarian situation described as a catastrophe allowing aid to get in and immediate cease fire are key points of the friends of syria ultimatum tak age but some claim the friends have an ulterior motive so this meeting serves as a media campaign to cover up the frequent set backs with western countries held by the us have suffered in the intervention in the syrian issue it is trying to find

a new way of intervention from the outside. to force assad to go is on the agenda of the friends gathering they want to believe and they want to fight to divert to the next country geopolitical position because he is important. to hizbollah this is a. plan against syria but alby have a democracy we have a. china and russia still among the few countries in dialogue with the assad regime has refused to attend. position has been invited to participate in the tunisian summit because none of the. government representatives were invited that means the interests of a large portion of the population will not be represented in this case i doubt that this conference will lead a nationwide dialogue on ways to resolve the internal crises. a

regime making war on its own people families suffering in cities under siege a nation brought to the brink of chaos we cannot allow the obstruction of a few countries to stop the world community from coming to the aid of the syrian people and as with all of them want to start a war against syria known as yet ready they only cyber could do that is nato and even they are not ready the syrian national council is not ready they gather to unify pressure and efforts to get justification for an operation in a mosque at a given me to go into news it is a meeting of. friends surprisingly enough an internet search of the friends of syria reveals a totally different community this website claims to reveal the truth and collects evidence of and to government activity among syria's enemies are the country's name in themselves friends friends of syria get together across the sea to thrash out

their solution to the conflict many here wonder if their own stories will really benefit the people on the ground or is it a case of with friends like these who needs enemies. national party damascus syria. and we have reestablished our live connection with maria for an ocean or so there are high hopes on the outcome of this meeting although another war is optimistic what's the feeling on the ground in syria. well matt on my way to a studio here in damascus of in passing by many cafes in the old town and i've noticed that everybody inside was cool chain live coverage from tunisia well people here on the ground people here in syria are following this event but the country is divided on what to expect from this meeting of friends of syria in tunisia and what kind of solution these countries may bring to them here on the ground some still hope that the nations taken part in this event will be able to get together the

opposition to the authorities and force them to start dialogue and through this dialogue peace and stability will finally be restored here in the country but others are still concerned that it will not be the case and fearing that their western countries are actually planning a military action and they can do that on behalf of this particular meeting on behalf of this particular group the friends of syria and i have to tell you that these fears are not groundless because we've been recently hearing reports indeed about. foreign intervention considered by international community as a possible solution to the to syria's own go in crisis and just recently the syrian national council this is syrian opposition based abroad has been calling on the nations taking part in this event the friends of syria to assist the free syrian

army. in different ways including weapons this is something actually would also divide people here in syria and also position itself because the up with the home of opposition the national culture nation committee has been very much concerned about these attempts to militarize the conflict saying that this may only get things worse here. the ground meanwhile russia china as you know will not take part in this meeting of the friends of syria and this is why many say military solution will not be a possible option in resolving this serious crisis because russia and china already vetoed the u.n. security council resolution and they will not allow these intervention to happen well as you can see the wheaties and to go in right now in tunisia. caused many

questions even before it started and right now and in this very moment several hundreds of pro syrian government protesters demonstrating in front of the building of the palace where this meeting is taking place well it's a very contradictory event and. let's see what kind of solution go into. to bring us and to bring people here and see where our tears were if emotional life for us in damascus thanks for that a. coalition of states meeting later today in tunisia reportedly going to recognize the syrian national council as a legitimate representative of syrians who are seeking a peaceful democratic change now that opposition group is based outside of the country earlier political analyst professor ybor him told me it's being used as a tool to stir up civil war you can call it the meeting for the friends of the united states or the enemies of syria but you can call it their meeting for the

friends of syria this meeting is supposed to enhance the legitimacy of the syrian national council and that the same time legitimize them from outside the bond duties of the u.n. security council especially after the view that was pressed by russia and china so i think this is a free for employer. in which need not be that it might be a minute as at this knowledge in the sense of lending support to the armed gangs in the streets of syria now the syrian national council the exile in opposition is allowed is when it comes to foreign military intervention how in touch is it with the situation on the ground and what influence does it have within the country. well if somebody is giving you billions of dollars smuggling arms and providing political cover for the crimes that you are committing within that country then

certainly you will have some empathy on the ground the question then is is that sort of how things stabilize or destabilize syria and i think the obvious answer is that they are these stabilizing syria and they are doing that not then the end of peace and syria but the fomenting civil war that is unfolding right now before our eyes another country in the string of arab revolutions is preparing to inaugurate a new leader this week's presidential election in yemen was a four con conclusion only one candidate's name was on the ballot paper even so washington hailed it as a step forward in yemen's democratic transition artie's cross-talk later this hour discusses what's behind the u.s. support. one of the reasons why the u.s. state department congratulated the yemeni people on the election is because the united states will continue to use drones and fighting the. elements of al qaeda in

the country and states of course is interested in stability and instability and in a strong government figure that they can crush al qaida the problem is is that yemenis don't like strong government by anybody like their independence and. has wanted you know. is taking advantage of this resentment to gain support among certain tribal leaders and but at the same time the popular pro-democracy movement . the fears united states all this that this chaos is going to strengthen ironically weakened al qaeda because many people who might have been prone to support that kind of are realizing hey there's more power in massive nonviolent action than there is in terrorism. precious presidential election just around the corner but you won't find many pictures of the front runner on moscow billboards lattimer putin's campaign is relying on the recognition he's already achieved but it's

a different story abroad images of putin have appeared throughout london promoting a new book artie's laura smith gauges the growing interest in russia's prime minister. russians a used to seeing blood putin in all manner of surroundings not only in top level meetings also out in the wilderness and even singing to a hollywood a list crowd. but there are always new heights to scale and you currently find him looming large on a london icon the double decker bus. is coming it proclaims so may find the wording of the ad but slightly sinister but it's all to do with a new book which analyzes putin the man not the politician the books the result of a six year collaboration between a british author and russian journalist alexander. put in is probably the most

interesting political from in the world at the moment and yes the right people who feel him be violent towards the rebels who love him or those who do but the most important thing is that sort of more would you can see that they don't. although as it turned out that wasn't quite true. but it might be desperate or russia did a. little or so cozy probably appreciate you supposing the russians. i don't know that. i was a russian you got it but the authors say friday's book release isn't connected to next month's election in russia but it does come hot on the heels of two separate british documentaries involving putin one a look at the controversial political youth group nationally and the other a critically acclaimed full part counter through relations with the west during his

twelve years at the top there will be the world's attention on him again and people want to know is this a man we've seen before or is he changing. can he face the new challenges and how does the recent protest movement affect his politics and his outlook having his face still in double decker buses would help you save as russians prepared to go to the polls but love him only to putin's reputation is russia's strongman has captured the imagination of documentary make his and old tape in the u.k. and elsewhere whether it's fame or infamy it's an open question numerous mentality . stay with us here on r.t. just ahead after spending the better part of two years behind bars america america's military whistleblower is finally charged but the u.s. soldier facing life in prison for turning over classified documents to wiki leaks is the wrong guy in the dark say attorneys more in a few minutes. u.s.

intelligence community is ruling out suggestions that iran is creating a nuclear bomb yellowy times reports sixteen special service agencies all reached the same conclusion but it's not making an impact on america's main news outlets as artie's marina porton explains many remain hooked on painting tehran as a bomb making bogeyman. in the u.s. capital of media and messages one particular story a unilateral strike keeps spinning round and round iran could attack the united states in a much more fearsome way iran a hypothetical national security threat growing more dangerous by the day suddenly that new york could eventually be on iran's hit list we have to assume that hezbollah would be the proxy for iran and who will carry out the attack as

assumptions about iran's potential plan of mass destruction floods us mainstream media more cops an automatic weapons are flooding specific areas of the big apple the new york city police department increased security around israeli government facilities and synagogues last week amid growing tension over tehran's nuclear program however the n.y.p.d. says it has not received any specific threat related to iran upping the ante a u.s. senator has called on federal agents to quote increase scrutiny and vigorously monitor the iranian mission through united nations but as politicians police officers and most mainstream journalists perpetuate a terrifying scenario for new york city officials in washington have thrown a wrench in this armageddon theme type news narrative by stating the facts about iran are surrogates will revelations of a much less threatening tehran was recently disclosed during intelligence briefings

the agency assesses iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict if they continue to develop their enrichment capability. but they've made a decision to proceed with developing a nuclear weapon. many experts have labeled iran america's new iraq critics then and now say washington paves the path and corporate media plugs the message was iraq and they're doing it again it doesn't matter if you. should resign it's the same strategy it's like oh well there might be things but. no no the intelligence say well no it's not really credible it's making. jack up his work so it goes well you combine all. these together you get is a meeting with everyone to impede the march to. scrutinize it but instead few of.

them again. according to recent polls americans consider tehran to be the u.s. is top enemy and nearly half of all citizens support a military strike against iran. when factor in human beings it's necessary for the internet i suppose with and these media and this constant drumbeat of piling on that. if you don't actually i mean sure. are to new york. and all the stories we're covering it. for a real picture of what's happening in the world and while you're there here's what else we've got wind up. there reality of relativity why i and star in celebrated period theory of light speed travel wins the first round is big bang scientists botch an attempt to prove the genius wrong. and why the ice isn't so nice for these rare pelicans whose food has been frozen out by the lengthy cold snap and we were

poured on the race to save the birds at our team. the u.s. soldier accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to wiki leaks declined to enter a plea during his arraignment bradley manning i was already spent nineteen months in custody but only just been charged he could spend the rest of his life behind bars if found guilty of aiding the enemy one of twenty two charges against him hundreds of top u.s. lawyers have voiced their concern believing the conditions manning has endured amounted to torture many think a fair trial may be impossible after president obama himself a markup of whistleblower had broken the law the next hearing is set for march fifteenth attorney kevin zeese from the come home america group thinks the wrong

person may be standing trial. well this is a case of very low level classified documents in fact there's questions as to whether they should be classified at all we have to also realize that when. they release the pentagon papers those are very high level secrets and even those who are not releasing any national security information that should have been kept secret all we're finding out from even the highest little secret of the pentagon papers in the lowest level secrets and meetings accused of is. unethical behavior misbehavior by the u.s. far by u.s. foreign policy we're showing our corporations and the government work closely together the support of corporate profit rather than public interest we're showing all sorts of inappropriate behavior by people like secretary say clinton who ordered us to matts to spy on u.n. officials when they came to meetings in the united nations that's the legal yet

she's not being prosecuted manning who is accused of the century telling the truth is being prosecuted facing life in prison while people who commit war crimes and other crimes are not being prosecuted at all. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe germany has withdrawn its troops earlier from a northern afghanistan outpost is after two nato soldiers were killed following protests over the burning of copies of the qur'an at a us air base protests this week have claimed at least twenty three lives left dozens injured president obama said an apology to afghan leader hamid karzai saying the religious books were destroyed by mistake. police in jerusalem clash with hundreds of muslims in the flash point ochs a mosque compound worshipers hurled stones at police who were supporting jews and christians into the holy site eleven officers and fifteen protesters were injured security been heightened after reports that an extremist jewish group was plotting to get access to the area which inflamed the tension. a retired british businessman

is being extradited to the u.s. for allegedly selling missile parts to iran after losing his campaign against the order christopher tappan now faces up to thirty five years in prison if convicted he's accused of trying to sell twenty five thousand dollars worth of batteries for hawk missiles to undercover american agents posing as a runyon which he denies saying he was set up. coming up crosstalk takes on yemen's presidential election which saw only one candidate on the ballot as part of a transition deal but was still plays praised by the west as a democratic achievement first though the business update. oh and welcome to business artsy a bank funded exclusively by emerging nations is being discussed by the brics group of nations brazil russia india china and south africa suffered as western lenders pulled out billions of dollars in the wake of the credit crunch the brics bank

would fund infrastructure projects in the states the fastest growing economic walk in the world but also count away the dominance of the i.m.f. and the world bank which have always been headed by politicians from europe and the u.s. . it's bank bonus season that annual right of big money and even big egos but the party may be over in the russian banking sector the country's central bank is taking steps to avoid excessive payments he will make the fees depend on the financial performance and that's just the beginning reward systems will also figure in the ratings the future regulator also wants to fix half the bankers salaries the other half being performance based budgeting aynesworth from a rating agency was rating explains what's behind. russia. trying to harmonize its regulations with regulations that are in other parts of the world so harmonize ation of all regulators is something beneficial it does create an

environment in which all bikers are paid in a. fairly regular fashion and that may help. some of the smaller bikes in the media. to compete with the very large russian. fans move to the markets without with commodities oil is rising for the seventh day it's the longest winning streak since january twenty ten us weekly government reports showed a smaller than expected horizon in the trees investors but the fuel demanded may climb off the u.s. jobless claims held at a four year low and german business confidence of past forecasts light sweet this hour is up almost one hundred eight dollars sixty two cents brant is just one hundred twenty four. secular the us markets of this hour and they're also trading for the day with the dow jones and point to one point three percent well the dow jones as you can see that surpassed the thirteen thousand points well i don't think

we've seen that since two thousand and eight and that's ahead of the housing report . european markets somewhat losing their steam especially in london which is down by not frankfurt the still positive up point six percent shares in british bank lloyds were in the spotlight after the report of the net loss of four point three seven billion dollars which was largely due to a provision for compensating customers of a payment protection insurance and one of the tougher year to come and let's finally look at the end of the session in russia and it's positively r.c.s. up to four point nine percent of my sixty three point seven percent moving the my sex was traditionally energy shares and financial shares gazprom up three point six percent those higher oil prices v t v was the widely traded stock in the session up three point six percent and seven still up two point two percent on higher commodity prices the metal sector is seeing gains on high commodity prices it was

alexander the lead in for measurable it's the wraps up this week straight. from the beginning of the week when we have seen some. mission in the greece and finally in the greek it was actually not that much appreciated by investors as we have seen we have seen a slight correction for a couple of days after that but later on friday finally closer to the end of the day we have seen very firm growth for russia which was also basically. supported by growing the oil price way grow in russian currency and by some positive releases all the economic data from us and from europe. france's largest internet company e-mailed us reported a fifty three percent increase in earnings for the second half of two thousand and seven has benefited from attracting new users and selling premium services however it expects a slowdown in growth this year following a similar forecast by russian rival yonder are you. going to go back to some

numbers exchange rates the euro is higher versus the dollar this my concerns the rising oil prices could deal with the blow to the fragile euro zone economy and the ruble is see a very strong session gaining fifty copecks half a ruble versus the dollar and just around five kopeks versus the euro now alexander friedman from u.b.s. says keeping money in trash is not without risk as currencies indulge in a rich. message just to be very diversified because there is essentially a battle of which is the least ugly of the ugly major currencies and they're all pretty ugly so the euro has got a lot of structural problems we're all aware of until there's real fiscal integration and united states has a long term big structural challenges on its debts but i think the u.s. dollar looks much more attractive than the euro over the next six months at least the headlines are next on r.t. do stay with us.

culture is the same us you are going to go if i go on hurting them or so because we're tough to some even new boss same as the old boss this could very well describe what has happened in yemen after an uncontested presidential election what does the future.

use today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations to rule the day. seven thirty pm in moscow these are your r t headline friends or foes as the u.s. now.