promising reform in syria fails to silence and us rhetoric and washington as the u.s. secretary of states has the syrian leader may fit the war criminal status. sturdy here greece and spain brace for more public anger with out and started to implement the latest belt tightening measures and spending is set to follow a similar path. and with just a few days to go before russia's presidential election we visit two neighboring regions whose political loyalties could live further apart.

what you are to live from moscow with me we're going to josh the u.s. is intensifying its campaign against the syrian regime despite of course for reform adopted by the governments of the conflict torn country and the latest verbal attack secretary of state hillary clinton said president assad could be a labeled a war criminal because of the syrian violence and that's just as the syrian leaders signed a new draft constitution which promises democratic change. 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 would end the ruling party's 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. reporting there and coming up later in the program similar complex but different attitude. what they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called solution of the capital of terror. and 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 twenty years ago where american troops fought

with the government against militant 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 anti-aircraft missiles from french and u.s. sources the government accuses the rebels of being terrorists acting out a foreign plot and as marie ivanovna now 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 they were reports of weapons being smuggled through to arm president al assad's opponents one thousand dollars for a truck full of weapons capable of delivering house sale destruction and death

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 our 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 that an hour over the border is a fact that some believe has determine 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 your business confiscated thousands of bullets dozens of guns and hundreds

of kilograms of little metal pieces like this one used to make a world but the azores his main concern i'm a little close 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 it all started here and it continues to play a role in the country's crisis with the border with jordan just several kilometers away from here and numerous reports suggesting that foreign weapons and troops going is only flow through it 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 months of history the authorities have claimed that many of

the so-called free syrian army having fact come from across the border. 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're showing the weapons allegedly seized in military operations now usually 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 to kill even more. while the international community condemns the regime and supports its opponents many believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsibility for violence across syria and with so many foreign russians involved it's clear that the crisis threshers far beyond these borders refn ocean r.t. reporting from syria. now while geisha does the international community have to

syria the u.s. responsibility to protect initiative is put under the microscope later today on cross here's a preview. 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 involved ability 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.

greece is bracing itself for another wave of public anger as a begins to implement a spirit cuts under the latest bailout deal the backlash is also mounting in spain one of the most indebted states a crisis also led to a crash in spanish real estate with thousands of new houses standing empty banks struggling to unload the property artist era for us reports. lifeless and empty welcome to one of spain so-called 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 by big billboards announce the bargains and you won't have any trouble with noisy neighbors because well there will 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 are 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 my is an economic crisis asking people to pay back three will start money that was wasted by the government has caused widespread anger and brought people onto the streets in their hundreds of thousands. it's crazy the cost

one hundred eighty billion 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 your unique all across the bay right now you see these large areas of new build homes now. this the abandoned it's a sign some say that the country often described as too big to fail already had. the time to send us a letter this hour here in r t we talked to a spanish economist on how close the euro zone's fourth largest economy is to the brink and whether its future and all lies within the block. now coming your way in just a few minutes here on our team geographically close by politically far apart we

explore why there was a huge gulf political support to neighboring russian regions and whether the same can be expected of the presidential polls this sunday. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

the world with the true science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. wealthy british style it's time to. go. to. market why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars a report on our. russia's presidential campaign is answering the homestretch with 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 contrast in needs and but with a preference us are all over now reports. the tale of two regions more dorthea in the exam lie side by side however 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 while they took less than forty percent in that is down with just a few days to go before sunday's presidential vote whoever 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 more davia 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 sirte and a cement manufacturer is the major employer will of water 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 d.c. and blame local government prove that your fellow we're sick of carpetbaggers here and resign we've had one governor come from a different region than 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 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. is only of the latino work there for twenty eight years she tells a story of a very different life than what we saw in moore dorothea fisher way mccord 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 heating something we

got a pension right but it is not enough. never mind 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. in you which he has his 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. school whoever wins sunday's presidential election is to try to eliminate discrepancies in quality of life and bring people the stability they crave. it explore all the stories we're covering here in doubt that there is plenty more in store discover why that happened with anonymous has launched yet another attack this time rain down the interpol website. that has google holding contests offering

a million dollar reward people who can successfully happen as chrome browser will find out why the search engine giant is so sure to have a security breach at our dot com. now returning to our top story the crisis in syria the world's media is flooded with stories and images allegedly depicting the bloody results of this year and army's assault on the city of homs but few have drawn similarities with food edge of another conflict that of fallujah iraq which happened nearly ten years ago and saw u.s. troops fighting against insurgents are just lucy tough enough 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 laming in the violence on criminals and terrorists here's the chief military spokesman for the u.s. forces in iraq we will hunt down the criminals we will kill them or 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 will be seen for those who

are using weapons to kill al civilians now in both countries that iron hand targeted a sunni muslim opposition in wars that took on increasingly sectarian tones in fallujah u.s. 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 monkeys 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 well self evident. americans hate the military and murders. form more of them by actually i mean during the main hospital and blocked in a key group they need help from the outside world medicine the most basic supplies the star witness to 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 fallujah were often dismissed as propaganda their viewers even got the following advice from the pentagon. change the channel to a legitimate authoritative all honest news station the accusations from the syrian government are eerily similar. today lies in the media have gone beyond common sense some television channels have lost all shame and professionalism. now it

is often said that perception forms reality and nowhere does this ring more true than in syria and iraq in one battle the press told the story of the besiegers in the other that of the besieged and in both cases it would seem it's the truth that suffered most. of r.t. washington. now is take a look at some other stories from around the world and european union has recalled all its twenty seven passengers to belarus after a man ordered a wish and. the country belarus made the move in retaliation to sanctions imposed by the e.u. over the country's rights record the sanctions date back to the december two thousand and ten presidential elections in which more than seven hundred people were arrested after a massive protest against alleged vote fraud president alexander lukashenko dubbed by nations as europe's last dictator was declared the winner. now to egypt where all three judges involved in the case targeting local ngo

workers have resigned the defendants sixteen of them americans are accused of cooperating with foreign n.g.o.s in funding the unrest that's shaken the nation for over a year the judges haven't indicated the exact reasons for pulling out only saying they felt on these in this in tackling process the announcement comes just two days into the trial. u.s. presidential hopeful mitt romney narrowly beat rival rick santorum to win the michigan primary election romney was also victorious in the state of arizona and moves closer to the republican nomination to challenge barack obama in november as election the former massachusetts governor is pushing his economic plan promising to deliver more jobs less debt and smaller government rick santorum was second in both states while ron paul and newt gingrich finished and the bottom half of both polls. president obama. now we've been reporting about the troubled eurozone and the backlash in spain more on this we go through the business

desk so is there any good news on the horizon at all well there could be the european central bank is saying that it will inject new low interest loans into the banking system in the block and this could amount to around five hundred billion euros and this wednesday they will hold the second option and this will be the chance actually for european banks. to get access to that much needed cash and the first rounds of place relates in december and then banks almost four hundred ninety billion euros in funds are hope to make banks stronger and encourage them to loan money to businesses and consumers but analysts say it's not about restoring confidence in banks as much as keeping them afloat now let's take a look at the market reaction to this we'll start with the exchange rates force the euro is trading higher against both the dollar and the ruble and that's followed of course the offer from. the ruble is lower against the greenback and us despite

strong good food prices now for you more about that a little bit later first let's move on to asia markets they're closed higher although they minimized earlier against these stocks were doing particularly well we saw tokyo listed panasonic jumped around three and a half percent following the announcement of the new president and also the drop in the crude prices health airline fares like standard gains from the previous session now let's talk about oil now it's balancing back from its previous two always close and almost a week and that's when you put it in japan and south korea the testaments as well as increased u.s. consumer confidence and let's look at the u.s. obviously a much better picture there stocks clothes that multiply. and investors away in their options between a small pullback in oil prices increase consumer confidence against a worst than expected drop in dribbled goods orders and later in the day we are

expecting to get some data g.d.p. results from there so we'll see how the market will react to that but next let's move on to russia and see what's happening here we're seeing that the russian markets are reversing these days losses both the arts yes and then my sights are adding around one percent and experts are saying that what we're seeing is a sort of presidential rally which is drawing more foreign investors. to the market let's take a look now at some individual share moves on the my sex. prices again are helping to boost both gas. which are adding over three quarters of a percent this hour and of course positive news from europe is helping a boost which is adding around one percent now let's move on and talk about cars fiat's is planning to invest one point one billion dollars in plants that talk of production is one hundred twenty thousand cars a year and the models will be based on. the brand and the plants will be built in

st petersburg and the cars will be assembled for the help of profit makers and also . burbank providing the financing and a stable up to twenty percent and we have some energy for you this hour as well gas from us thinking about taking part in the privatization of energy assets in greece the gas giant has already met greek top officials discuss the sale of gas company as well as good operator desk and we do know that last year gas from we showed interest in these companies but we don't have any more information relating to the possible deal yet. and that's how business looks this hour for more stories you can always check out our website which is our. business but in the meantime do stay tuned for the headlines with marina.

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