promise of reform in syria fails to silence end to acid rhetoric in washington as the u.s. secretary of state says the syrian leader may says war criminal status. austerity hit greeks plan to vamp war anger on to the streets of athens with police and firefighters joining the protest against the belt tightening measures which include tough salary and pension cuts. and with just a few days to go before rush presidential election we visit to neighboring regions whose political loyalties could lie for the harm.

it is ten am in the russian gavel you're watching our team with me we're going to joshua welcome to the program now the u.s. is intensifying its campaign against the syrian regime despite the course for reform adopted by the governments of the conflict torn country and the latest verbal attacks secretary of state hillary clinton said president assad could be labeled a war criminal because of the syrian violence now there's just as the syrian leader signed a new draft constitution which promises democratic change parties got it she can has more from washington. secretary of state hillary clinton says syria's president bashar assad fits the definition of a war criminal she was testifying at a senate hearing on tuesday take a listen based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category but she stopped short of saying the international community should bring up charges against president assad pointing out that such a step often makes it difficult for

a leader to step down it's very much obvious that the goal in washington with regards to syria is regime change although the administration claims they are seeking a political solution the policies that they pursue basically undermine all efforts on the part of the syrian government to actually reach that political solution washington discarded the results of the recent referendum in syria where the majority of syrians voted yes to a new constitution a constitution that within the ruling parties fifty year monopoly and pave the way for free elections but the signal from washington to the armed opposition groups was to carry on fighting and to undermine the results of that landmark referendum which could bring about that very political solution that everyone says they want for syria and its reporting there and coming up later in the program here in r.t.s. similar conflicts by different attitude. what they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called palooza the capital of terror. and the

constant reports of carnage from the syrian city of homs we take a look at the u.s. approach to the crisis in iraq saluja ten years ago where american troops fought with the government against military forces. syrian activists say regime forces continue to shell opposition strongholds killing more civilians meanwhile the free syrian army claims it has received weapons and aircraft missiles from french and u.s. sources the government accuses the rebels of being terrorists acting out a foreign plot as more enough an option reports from syria there are growing fears within the country that outside interference is feeding the turmoil. but the borders doors and windows do est despite international isolation syria's borders have remained opened and easy to pass through and that may have played a crucial role in the militarization of the country's conflict almost immediately after the crisis began here last march there were reports of the reference been

smuggled through to arm president al assad's opponents one thousand dollars for a truck full of weapons capable of delivering household destruction and that's how much al qaeda will pay to smugglers usually iraqi or lebanese drivers according to ziad ismail chief of the customs service on the border with lebanon. these people bring we are here to destroy our nation to try to get syrian people on the syrian territory to enemies. syria has more than two thousand kilometers of front here with five states a stroll iraq jordan turkey and lebanon the syrian cities where the most violent clashes have taken place homes and there are all over the in an hour of the border is a fact that some believe has determined their fate or destiny is this is one of three checkpoints on the three hundred fifty kilometer syrian lebanese border in the last

year as we've been told here there were only three attempts to smuggle weapons across the offices confiscated thousands of bullets dozens of guns and hundreds of kilograms i have little metal pieces like this one used to make worlds but there's always his main concern and let little questions like this one but parts of the border where there isn't any security at all but here look at this in the middle of nowhere there is nothing only one road across the road right now and at the same time are crossing the border and i'm already in lebanon. and further south she remains extremely vulnerable the city of daraa the cradle of the syrian. uprising that's all started here and it continues to play a role in the country's crisis where the water was jordan just several kilometers away from here and numerous reports suggesting that foreign weapons and troops going to is only flow through it that are has become one of the weakest points in the country's security the city has become the scene of fierce and bloody clashes

at least twice in the conflicts twelve month history the authorities have claimed that many of the so-called free syrian army have in fact come from across the border. that they appear shoot and kill and then they disappear immediately they arrive from abroad but they are not from jordan they use this country's border many of them are from africa. we are showing their weapons allegedly seized in military operations now. in the army we don't have weapons from israel and america sniper guns and night vision binoculars advanced developed weapons we don't have it in syria this what we confiscated was killing innocent people and kill even more so while the international community condemns the el assad regime and supports its opponents many believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsible for violence across syria and with so many foreign russians involved it's clear that

the crisis threshers far beyond these borders region ocean r.t. reporting from syria. well as the international community have to syria the un's responsibility to protect initiative is put on the microscope next hour on crosstab here's a preview of. the power of the security council is precisely the problem in these situations we've always had great power interventions with or without security council approval for the idea of sovereignty is being inviolability is totally out of date and has been for at least twenty years the notion that states consider themselves to be beyond any external interference i mean we had the genocide convention in one thousand forty myriad international treaties since then recognizing some role for the international community in intrastate affairs and that starts a rule i welcome the problem i. disagree with what i've been saying. over and impunity is purely to protect governments so that they can slaughter their own

people and have no international accountability the idea of noninterference isn't about protecting genocide or governments. and greece is bracing itself for another wave of public anger as it begins to implement a stare any measures under the latest bailout deal the belt tightening includes cuts to minimum wages and pensions as well as a reduction in health and education spending the second phase is athens has made have already been called the biggest by any country in peacetime and as artist tom barton reports the outrage is attracting new recruits all the time. think you should expect. to see. i was. having.

issues. about this in greece we're going to have a crew shoot back to him we don't want to be the pathak goodness to fly when we want them to let us do our job instead of using us to post their measures which are very hard for the greek citizens in this case so she's to. take this. case. this is because. they could. just go. out.

of this. now they and charity backlash is also mounting in spain one of the most indebted states now they face even tougher measures and more pressure from the law after the country officially announced it missed the twenty one budget targets the crisis led to a crash in spanish real estate with thousands of new houses standing on tea with banks struggling to unload the apartments are key sarah further reports. lifeless and empty welcome to one of spain so crude ghost towns these are supposed to be live in your apartment blocks in the town. when the crisis started. the real estate bubble. failed. and of course companies started going back dropped and the whole of the whole economy blew up these apartments are now in by the banks that have resulted to selling them off a cup prices to try to entice in the buy is big billboards announce the bargains

and you won't have any trouble with noisy neighbors because well there won't be many. such low prices these are going to fill up quickly and with very young people looking to buy one for our son. we're going to. yes i think so. what made you want because it's. elsewhere in the country and there's no hiding the empty airports the flamboyant but unnecessary building projects all that have cost the taxpayer billions but given little return it's a legacy of government waste. the government's recently changed with the country now my age an economic crisis asking people to pay back through a story to money that was wasted by the government has caused widespread anger and brought people on to the streets hundreds of thousands for the. it's crazy the cost one hundred eighty euros and it's empty no one is working there.

was back in the cheap prices might be able to breathe much needed life into the area not everything can be fixed with clever marketing many people in the country now feel that the banks and the government selling off not just the nice houses but their futures as well towns like the sun you're on unique all across spain right now you see these large areas of new build homes now let's hope this the abandoned it's a sign some say that the country often described as too big to fail already has served . the town. now later this hour here in our team we talk to a spanish economist on how close the euro zone's fourth largest economies to the brink and whether it's future at all weiss within the bloc right now also ahead in the program geographically close but what is going far apart we explore why there

was a huge gulf and political support in two neighboring russian regions and whether the same can be expected of the presidential polls this sunday.

wealthy british soil. because. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to your report on our. now russia's presidential campaign is and during the homestretch was just a few days left before the election the candidates are redoubling their efforts to win the hearts and minds of voters across the country but this is a tough task as people even in neighboring regions often have contrasting moods and political preferences as artist peter oliver now reports the tale of two

regions more dorthea and lie side by side over the life there is quite different in the two thousand and eleven parliamentary elections united russia wrong turn with over ninety percent of the vote in more doria well they took less than forty percent in that is down with just a few days to go before sunday's presidential vote to have a steps into the top job will have to win over russia's regions each having their own wants and needs evidence of redevelopment is clear to see in mordovia including the building of a new stadium which will be used in the twenty eight team football world cup finals in a village near the city of surrounds a cement manufacturer is the major employer will ignore the car during per store we were paid in coupons not money the country was in chaos we didn't get paid in currency were got coupons that we could take to the store in exchange for goods that's pretty difficult to imagine today considering how good we have it it's

expected that prime minister vladimir putin can count on support from the area in his bid to become president. our life keeps changing for the better every year the elections are coming up and i'm going to vote for putin and i think most of us will the cement factory isn't only an employer the company also provides loans to help those who work there buy homes like this one however half a day's drive from one region into the next and we see a different story. when you cross the boundary from more into reason the difference is a clear the road quality for one is far inferior on this side and along side those roads stand emptying villages and the bund and trees so why is there such discrepancy between the two regions those living in daisy and blame local government. we're sick of carpetbaggers here and resign we've had one governor come

from a different region then another one when the new governor came into office the region had a public debt of one hundred million dollars now it's almost five hundred million so many businesses are shutting down we have a lot of places here that only exist on the map the actual villages are deserted all the residents have moved out just outside the city of busy and we find another village with another cement factory. zoe of the latino work there the twenty eight years she tells a story of a very different life than what we saw in more. fisher i'm called you my dear it's very cold here we don't take off our clothes day and night even in bed life is not great but there's one thing we desperately need something we got a pension right but it is not enough sure. voters in the clear about what they want from their elected officials. still the town has been given

a facelift but it's not enough there's not enough confidence either she knew what she has is life is rough and my pension is so small i'd love to get more i'm sixty one and i still have to work at being that we need stability pensioners need a better life it's simpler for the young people but we need stability. the school who have the wind sunday's presidential election is to try and eliminate discrepancies in quality of life and bring people the stability they crave peter all of the. in and explore all the stories we're covering here at r t dot com and there's plenty more and store the end on of us a group brings down the interpol website in retaliation to the arrest of twenty five suspected hackers across the globe. while google offers to pay one million u.s. dollars for those who hacked their browser prone to expose its weak spots find out more at r.t. dot com.

returning to our top story now the crisis in syria the world's media is flooded with stories and images allegedly depicting the bloody results of the syrian army's assault on the city of homs but few have drawn similarities with thought of another conflict that of iraq which has been nearly ten years ago and saw u.s. troops fighting against insurgents artie's lucy explores the perils and differences shared by the two conflicts. well they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called the capital of tear different conflicts that share more in common than actually meets the eye now each is the third largest city and its country in each the site of a bloody urban war one of them now in history books the other still raging as we

speak now in homes as in fallujah poorly armed insurgents faced off against a superior military well equipped soldiers armed with mortar snipers tanks and airpower and in both cases officials claims that only heavy handed force could bring peace in the violence on criminals and terrorists here's a chief military spokesman for the u.s. forces in iraq we will hunt down the criminals we will kill them we will capture them and we will pass a far future and here is syrian president bashar al assad. our priority now is to regain security which our country has enjoyed for decades this can only be achieved by using the terrorists with an iron hand it would seem for those who are using weapons to kill well civilians now in both countries that iron hand targeted a sunni muslim opposition in wars that took on increasingly sectarian tones if

illusia us forces and the shia iraqi troops were seen as infidels in syria their religious wrath is aimed at assad's alawite forces according to some disparaging comments salah white monkey is satanic troops those are just some of the many slurs now amid the violent clashes gut wrenching images like these showing the human toll of war streets littered with bodies of the wounded not to mention those of the dead but this is where the similarities and civilians did suffer most in both wars and yet the stories of pollution innocents remain largely untold most reporters in two thousand and four were embedded with the u.s. troops today the few who do sneak into syria often stick with the rebels and the difference in the coverage is self evident. americans hate the military it's the reason there's even. more of them by actually i mean during

the main hospital and locked in a key escape route they need help from the outside world medicine the most basic supplies witnessed acts of uncommon valor from the u.s. soldiers and always with protesters fearless protesters really. now those who dared show images of the civilian casualties in full loser were often dismissed as propaganda their viewers even got the following advice from the pentagon. change the channel to a legitimate authoritative on this news station the accusations from the syrian government are eerily similar. today lines in the media have gone beyond common sense some television channels have launched a profession. now it is often said that perception forms reality and nowhere does this ring more true than in syria and iraq and one battle of the press told the story of the besiegers in the other out of the besieged and in both cases

it would seem it's the truth that suffered most. of r.t. washington. now we've been reporting about the troubled euro zone and the backlash in spain and greece well for more on this let's now across our business desk aryans got the latest for us so is there any good news on the horizon well there could be marina because the european central bank has announced that it is considering injecting more alone low interest loans into the blogs banking system and that's going to five hundred billion euros and this wednesday is when they will hold their second auction and this will be the chance for european banks to get access to the cash the first round was held in late december one banks borrowed almost four hundred ninety billion euros and the extra funds are hoped to make banks stronger and encourage

them to loan money to businesses and consumers but analysts do say it's not about restoring confidence and banks but rather keeping them afloat now let's take a look at how all of this is affecting the markets and the currencies will start with the exchange rates for the euro is going higher because of the over from. but the ruble is trading lower against both the euro and the dollar now let's take a look at how asia is reacting we can see there that it's mostly higher and second all of the stocks of them particularly well and plus a drop in oil is also helping airline shares which are extending their gains. from the previous session in hong kong now let's take a look at oil prices they're bouncing back from their lowest close in almost a week and that's one reason thus far i'll put it in japan and south korea beat us the math as well as u.s. consumer confidence is at its highest level in a year so let's take

a look at the picture in the u.s. obviously it's a positive outlook there stocks closed at malta year highs and investors will wane a small hole in the oil prices with an increase consumer confidence again it's worse than expected drop in durable goods orders and here in russia the markets just opened and they're reversing the losses that we saw on tuesday both the r.t.s. and the my stocks are adding over a half a percent this hour and next hour we'll have a breakdown of the main movers on the my sets for you but for now let's move on to core news that is planned incident of us one point one billion dollars in russia that's why the production is one hundred and twenty thousand cars a year and the models will be based on quite brand new plants will be built and st petersburg and the course will be assembled with the help of russian truck makers zille and russia hope lenders burbank will be providing the financing and the plans take a stake of up to twenty now let's move on and talk about some energy use gas from

is thinking about taking part in the privatization of energy assets in greece the gas giant has made greek top officials to discuss the sale of gas companies and great operator. and we do know that last year gas from showed interest in these companies but we don't have any more information relating to this possible deal. but even on our russian telecoms giants istana is considering a lawsuit against the indian government now why is this happening that's because the country's supreme court has cancelled its telecoms licenses that were issued in the auction in c. thousand and eight as a semi has twenty one of those licenses and of course it's invested billions of dollars into the projects there and even though it's hopeful that there will come up with an amicable solution doubts that the supreme court will reverse its decision supreme court ruling that licenses should expire on the second of

june but it is up to the government to decide first of all how the auction should be held and it is possible for the government to conduct the auction before june second and therefore in the hypothetical it's possible the government states that it will probably take longer but hypothetically it's possible number one number two the government can grant extension can apply to or to get an extension of the grant extension themselves so it allows so more time through or organize so we believe that at least one of those two. will be pursued by the government. and these are the highlights from the business world we'll have another update for you in about fifty five minutes in the meantime stay tuned for the headlines.

had been is. and tragedy. devotion. and beatrice. family. and does a leak. on the bottom of

a coffee swath of. the. russian would be so much brighter if you knew about some from finest impressions. from stunts on t.v. don't come.