lighting in anger over education cuts and in defiance of heavy handed police tactics in an earlier rally. plus more u.s. officers are killed in afghanistan during a fifth day of violence in protest of the burning of the koran in america's military base. here in moscow you watching r.t. with me kevin no it in our top story is the violence in syria rages on seventy countries led by the u.s. so united in their efforts against damascus by agreeing to step up sanctions the so-called friends of syria group also shun supporters of the assad regime who weren't invited to the meeting in june is here and that's indeed one of the reasons russia refused to return to saying it cannot support a one sided approach to the crisis moscow wants a peace deal that involves both damascus and the opposition with no foreign

pressure applied fighting between rebel forces and government troops is escalating with dozens reported killed on saturday and of a breakthrough poll in the country parties rif an ocean as their. preparations for a national referendum are in full swing here in damascus on sunday people are expected to vote on the country's new constitution posters and banners calling on them to come and cast ballots out river where here in the capital and as far as the information minister has said for the first time it only invites people to come and vote without urging them to vote in a particular way the draft of the proposed constitution has been made public days before the referendum itself they have been many public debates on that open for everybody there have been debates on t.v. and internet as well and hundreds of copies of the new constitution have been distributed among people to let them know what are the changes actually in this to document it includes the fourteen new and force. amend articles and one of the main

changes is in the article number eight actually and are almost almost fifty year long single party rule here in syria proclaiming that now political system here in the country is based on pluralism and multi-party system is permitted the article number eighty eight is also very important it sounds that the president of the country could only be elected for two seven here terms that in another article emphasize that it will only come into force after the next elections for the had of the countries set schedule for two thousand and fourteen it's managed to meet the majority of democratic demands of the people of syria the opposition has already called to vote could they vote and to go on strike violence is continued in the country in clashes between the opposition and the authorities still taking place in several parts across the country here into moscow's with we've been hearing several

warnings not to go to polling stations because they think could be explosions and bombings and terror attacks there the interior minister has said that fourteen thousand polling stations have been set up for this referendum and about fifteen million people have the right to come and vote but it's very hard right now to predict how many will actually come. in damascus refreshen of there will among the reaction been hearing is that western powers don't want a diplomatic solution to syria because assad crossed them and therefore determined to see him out of office. policy of the worst now is not about a negotiated settlement it's not about reaching progress on the reforms that were being talked about it's about regime change because from the point of view of the west assad's major klein has been nothing to do with human rights and nothing to do with reform between to do with his pursuing

a line that is independent of the line that is to be imposed on the entire middle east if it was about human rights and reforms then people would be interested in engagement because it's quite clear from everybody that there's been violence of violent situation indeed a potential civil war if you're sincere about wanting to avoid a potential civil war then you wouldn't go in talks you do have to stop one potential side in that civil war as an alternative government in exile underneath ect incite a push towards for regime change even by violence you respond to the diplomatic signals that are coming out and you try to pursue a peaceful solution it's quite obvious that washington and london are at present not interested in that negotiated solution and we're talking more about solving syria in a few minutes to on the program as moscow stands firm over how to tackle the conflict russia's prime minister hits out it's america's position on the crisis and

does the same over iran and missile defense to what it has about that just ahead. developing story tonight next though thousands of students in spain turning out once again in valencia against planned education cuts earlier this week the police were accused of heavy handedness when similar demonstrations ended in clashes our correspondent sara first reports from the east coast city. i think down the line in spring and you can see thousands upon thousands of people. afraid. to. come to the job of. the young. boy.

they say the braves. believe. some of the braves. love. love love. love. love love love love. love love love the public. love. life and even. to get. the father.

of the one great. read. first reporting for us while the other side of the mediterranean greece is also racing against ruin later we all just how much. people are willing to help. now no doubt in my book. as long as that other european countries the ok with a really nice day out i mean they will find out now time as it is that i am having to bail out another country day. residents new yorker gauges opinion on whether yet more bailout billions can ever stop the rot. presidential front runner vladimir putin has reaffirmed russia's position on syria insisting moscow will not bow to western pressure the premier said the kremlin will play along to seek a balanced solution involving all sides in syria it is not the only issue over

which russia's proposal accords with the u.s. either peter all of the reports now. he was really addressing his standpoint on key foreign policy issues of course that election for president is coming up in just over a week's time and he was saying basically where he stands now with regards to syria he said that russia would not play along with anybody that they wouldn't just follow along with the herd when it came to opinion on the ongoing crisis in syria but it wasn't the only issue vladimir putin was addressing for a little while now the major fly in the argument between relations between moscow and washington has been the united states proposed missile defense shield in eastern europe now to me a puritan very strong words for him from the prime minister here saying that the united states needs to realize that russia had enough strength that they are the united states should be looking for a more constructive approach to finding a solution to the current impasse well iran was also on the lips of the prime

minister vladimir putin saying this the allegations that iran was developing nuclear weapons was being used as an excuse to try and initiate regime change in the country and that russia's relationship with iran was different from other countries and so this is really as they just over a week before the elections now let me approve an outlying his stance on those key foreign policy issues and questions remaining tonight over iran's nuclear program after u.n. atomic official said to rome fail to cooperate with many countries suspect iran's building an atomic bomb but iran insists it only has peaceful intentions to create an energy supply but the u.s. and its allies been imposing tough economic sanctions nonetheless while israel's even threatened military action against iran's nuclear sites but that's being reported that america's intelligence community knows dope's over the nuclear allegations i spoke to reza marashi from the national rainin american council he's also a former u.s.

state department officer he told me iran hasn't made the decision to build nuclear weapons but the west should offer. positive in juice once or it may change its mind . the american intelligence agencies and for that matter the israeli intelligence agencies and many other foreign governments intelligence agencies are saying is that iran is not made the political decision to pursue weaponization and that's a very important distinction it doesn't mean that the iranian government's nuclear program isn't a cause for concern but it also means that they haven't made the most troubling decision and and that leaves time for diplomacy to be pursued to find a peaceful solution that's beneficial to all parties involved the primary sticking point the primary truck problem that we see is that nobody trusts one another people and the people plus one don't trust each other iran doesn't trust anybody in the peace five plus one so in an effort to try and move things forward and shift that paradigm from the negative to the positive you know we need to get creative and international leaders need to find ways to take risks for peace anything from

broadening the agenda to discussion issues not just focus on iran's nuclear program but things that iran is also interested in regional security energy security things of that nature just of bringing in some outside actors who the p five plus one and iran do have trust within turkey and brazil being to keep samples of the parties that could play that kind of mediating role if positive inducements are not offered to iran and if the west doesn't seriously consider whether or not offering those positive inducements to iran are in america's interest europe's interests i'm negotiating fail because iran will not like. the way making a fast buck ramping up the fear factor on our id ignorance. most people don't understand the problems with computer and data security most people in washington don't understand it specifically most people in congress don't understand therefore the quote unquote beltway bandits are in

a position to create the problem to state the problem. to u.s. military officers have been shot dead. afghanistan interior ministry in karbala bit a fifth day of nationwide anti-american protests nato is ordering all its personnel to leave afghan ministries now to avoid further attacks dozens of people have been killed and wounded in clashes during the week sparked when burned copies of the qur'an were discovered at the u.s. airbase washington admitted a mistake had been made with both the white house and nato officials apologizing to kabul but i think tank director in neighboring pakistan told us the u.s. that alliance will be hard pressed to restore its reputation after this. in the decade that the u.s. military has been in the buttons done by the burstein even if you have smaller places and provinces and towns wherever there is u.s. presence ordinary afghans are laying siege to these places until now the americans for the seeing the various insurgent resistance groups the of the taliban but now after this incident we're seeing ordinary of course pitched against the u.s.

will be presence but also u.s. trained police men and u.s. trained soldiers no one ordinary american working in afghanistan today doesn't know whether he should expect a bullet from afghan taliban and al gun policeman or not gun soldier than he might have trained earlier even after ten years it seems the americans don't know who they're dealing with they don't know the get on very well the u.s. military are increasingly treated into what i would call anti islamists and they're constantly sort of indoctrinated into into into treating islam disrespectfully i sail to see how the u.s. military personnel and the of the east end of gun or army personnel would be able to restore the level of trust that existed let's say five days or six days ago with news in brief now at

a couple of the presidential palace in southern yemen is killed at least twenty six just hours after the country's new leader was sworn in president hadi was the only candidate running in the poll and served as vice president to ali abdullah saleh to step down after thirty three years in the months of violent protests salopek of the fourth arab leader to be pushed from office by the arab spring. a corruption case against former italian prime minister silvio berlusconi's been thrown out because too much time elapsed before the action was cruel he was accused of bribing is u.k. lawyer to lawyer in court to protect his business interests in the one nine hundred ninety s. but the scotti denied any wrongdoing. claiming it's a smear campaign the billionaire is being tried separately over tax fraud and sex with an underage prostitute it. but attack on a police headquarters in the nigerian town of gobies left twelve people dead and five others wounded in prison was also targeted there no one's admitted the attacks but they thought to be the work of the radical islamist group it's blamed for

killing over three hundred people this year alone as it fights to impose sharia law throughout the country. after wave of hack attacks took out several u.s. federal websites officials have been quick to point out there's a new terror battlefront that's the internet the worry though from day to rick's but is it the threats being blown out of all proportion by those making big bucks by playing on people's digital distress if the caffein off reports for auti. it may seem like a quiet day in america but it's the scene of a raging battle invisible to the naked eye but there is war under way right now on the internet this is cyber war is the u.s. ready for a full scale cyber war a question asked at the highest levels of the u.s. government by fears of a new type of w m d a weapon of mass disruption in a world where acts of terror could come not only from a few extremists in suicide vests but from a few keystrokes on the computer the f.b.i.

warns that those keystrokes could soon be more dangerous to america than terrorism itself the cyber threat or equal or surpass the threat from counterterrorism in the forseeable future a future that's got the world's military superpower preparing for the fight ahead of the next pearl harbor that we confront could very well be a cyber attack that cripples our our power system certainly our grid cyberwar cyber pearl harbor frightening language for a hypothetical scenario one that could happen but hasn't yet and some security experts like jim harper warned that it never will no chance whatsoever that nuclear power plants will be hacked that electric infrastructure will be hacked and taken down for any six significant period of time so the worst we can expect is disruption that's not war it doesn't really terrorize so the threats are serious but they're not to the level of war or terror yet some of the key leaders in the war on terror are now in the business of cyber war michael chaired off once ran the

department of homeland security and he now runs a. a cyber security consulting firm you could have a cyber attack that would be as consequential in terms of the economy maybe even in terms of loss of life as things we typically your service here with more frightening once america's top spy chief mike mcconnell now oversees cyber operations for defense contracting giant where the most vulnerable nation on earth to a cyber attack and anti-terrorism czar richard clarke went from advising presidents on cyber security to publishing books about the coming cyber war for once it would be nice for the united states to be able to get out in front of a catastrophe to be able to prevent that catastrophe we know how to do it we just need to spend the money and the money is flowing the u.s. government will spend more than ten billion a year on cyber security by two thousand and fifteen you know worldwide market

that's estimated at eighty to one hundred forty billion dollars a year the budget that we're releasing today it's one of the few areas where the white house plans to increase spending despite other defense cuts and that some say is the problem it's going to be even more tempting for folks and you know the defense contracting community for example to hype cyber threats because that's one of the few stream that money you know sort of still exists forbes magazine contributor shawn lawson is an expert in cybersecurity is a classic case of an attempt to sort of motivate a response by rally the troops by appealing to fear uncertainty and inside the beltway fear and uncertainty can lead to big business and big bucks most people don't understand the problems with computer and data security most people in washington don't understand it specifically most people in congress don't understand therefore the quote unquote beltway bandits are in a position as to create the problem to state the problem and offer their own

services as a solution. at battle. does reach here invisible to the naked eye a war for money contracts and power. r t washington. take a look at r.t. dot com tonight plenty for you this weekend our team working hard to bring you the best stories but a rocket a holy place to a gas and stun grenades used against stone throwing palestinians in jerusalem's flashpoint the mosque compound we've got the latest pictures as religious tension reaches a peak it's online from us also if you fancy a bit of high tech from days gone past way gone past actually as high tech goes moscow's mike museum is a die hard out of his twenty year collection of computers gadgets and rarities most of us would have put him in the big. room of that house also while being of winter with a pancake pageant russians are welcoming the upcoming spring with the annual mass limits of festival learn about that if you fancy to put on some weight. comb.

islam is on the rise in many central asian republics but in kurdistan the increasing number of mosques hasn't led to a growing tolerance of muslims so residents feel the region's changing religious climate is threatening a day that traditional values artes of a boy who reports. it's a mix of religious compliance and teenage defiance ever since fourteen year old daughter had left the school half a year ago she never misses a chance to walk past it in full muslim dress. clothes put on teachers who wouldn't let me enter the school with my head covered or where i'm going to buy it so for the past three months that i was studying here i had to find a place to change before classes into secular clothes now i can be what i want to

be but that came at a cost in order to add here to the muslim dress code i had had to transfer to an adult learning center with follower educational standards she still wants to get a university degree but if she succeeds she'll be an exception. i personally know many girls who are muslims like myself and who faced with the ban on head cover just had to quit schools altogether and now stay at home here for our school doesn't require students to wear uniforms in fact their heart says none of your classmates was ever reprimanded for wearing short skirts or low cut tops the school officials are doing their best to draw a veil over this controversy they refused to comment saying only that they have to abide by the school dress code which bans students from covering their had so wearing any other religious symbols while in class this case is quite common for kyrgyzstan a former soviet republic in central asia that over the past decade has witnessed

a dramatic rise of the more conservative islam the country of five and a half million people already has around two thousand mosques and the state has little control or even understanding what is being preached in them. up to eighty percent of new mosques were built through some. sort of partnership with arab countries mainly cellier arabia or qatar and they provide more than money for the exploit their ideology here we already have politicians calling for the creation of caliphate. is this rapid change of cultural and religious norms that worries many of the country's liberals were not a bribe or teachers social scientists kyrgyzstan's most prestigious university. she says she was a strong supporter of religious freedom until she visited her home village last year or at lest there be a whole lot then they say when we lived there we didn't have a mosque now there are three all built by foreign donors as i was walking past one

of the mosques i saw three young women all covered in black i wanted to come up to them and say look around you can do so much with your life but i held myself back because who might tell them anything a minute later they came up to me and started saying sister don't turn away from and that moment i understood that my country has changed it's now a country where i can't tell anyone how to live their life but muslims feel they can be delivered we're not of fears that if muslims in kurdistan are given full really just freedom it would be just a matter of time before other basic rights are done away with still she says she would rather have all sorts of had to wear in her classroom than the risks students had been filled by the wrong lessons elsewhere it's not going to artsy kurdistan. the world's biggest ever debt swaps on the way as greece scrambles to get its desperate finances back on track banks and bond holders are set to lose out now to

the tune of at least one hundred billion euros because of it so he gets the view from the street shall we to ask how deeply we should dig in to save a nation in trouble. greece is getting another bailout one hundred and thirty billion euros is that a good idea this week let's talk about that do you know what's going on in greece right now. you know idea you got the wrong person do you think a lot of people know what's going on in greece no greece you know iowa got more geo big g.d.p. then then greece their butts out so what's greece is going to do to us i mean whether they bail or are there save that money matter of foreign is the third largest. g.d.b. in the world i mean got to worry about greece they only got good all of the greek all of i'm from germany and we have a strong. will and the greens have

a weak you all and so we should help to give your ok with that you don't feel like there should be responsible for themselves they should be let go but we should hope that if it was coming directly out of your pocket would you still be in support of the bailout no no doubt in my book. so as long as that other european countries here ok with that but really nice day out i mean they will tell you to have enough time as it is without having to bailout another country so i think we have to start to think globally and we all have to believe either out and try to get the same back on track for that means shouldering other people's responsibilities are you ok with that. yes or no you know part of me says you know i work hard i do what i'm supposed to do i've done how my parents raised me and work hard pay my taxes and all those things but if that goes then that affects me and affects my children too so sometimes not to quote hillary clinton but i guess it does take a village to bailout with the u.s.

car industry sort of had an ok ending and i was skeptical about that so i don't know i don't think i am quick to really say actually that's a good exam. people there because you hear bailout and it sounds like you're getting something for nothing but it's an example of one that worked so maybe this will work whether it's stepping into european union or whether it's going to be someplace in asia steps in public china china will invest in them so is that a good thing i mean now that we're all globally tied in and we see these kinds of situations arise the global economy a good progression it was a natural progression it's not as if then we could stop it when you have free trade we would i mean it's going to happen this when you have more interdependent countries at this point whether or not people even know what's going on with the greece bailout the bottom line is it's happening let's see if this one will make it different.

time will tell and we can support in full with kate a quarter of an hour for you before that artie's martin andrews visits the most popular fast food venues here in moscow to the father of low prices really do poor quality that's what's on the menu them for the next hour here on r.t. from moscow.

it's not going.

this is our team from moscow our top stories this late saturday night syria.