promised a reform in syria fails to silence and us of rhetoric in washington has a u.s. secretary of states as the syrian leader they said war criminal status. with just a few days to go before russia's presidential election revisit to neighboring regions whose political loyalties could wife for a party. and a spirit here greece and spain brace for more public anger with athens starting to implement the latest belt tightening measures and spain set to follow a similar path plus. then the as economic growth drops to its lowest and almost three years we have all the details in business and twenty minutes.

from moscow one pm here on marina joshie the u.s. is intensifying its campaign against the syrian regime despite of course for reform adopted by the government of a conflict torn country and the latest verbal attack secretary of state hillary clinton said president could be labeled a war criminal because of this year in violence that's just as the syrian leader 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 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 coming up later in the program similar complex but different attitude. so they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called palooza the capital of terror. i made constant reports of carnage from the

syrian city of homs which is a look at the u.s. approach to the crisis in iraq from two to ten years ago where american troops fought with the government and against militant forces. syrian activists say regime forces continue to show off strongholds killing more civilians meanwhile the free syrian army claims it has received weapons and to aircraft missiles from french and u.s. sources the government accuses the rebels of being terrorists acting out a foreign plot as marina financial reports from syria 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 aggressor and you are 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 kill 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 may well put these horses main concern and that little details 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 month history the authorities have claimed that many of the so-called free syrian army have in 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. 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. while the international community condemns the 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 investors involved it's clear that the crisis thresh is far beyond these

borders refn are reporting from syria now what obligation does the international community have to syria the responsibility to protect in there should have put under the microscope later today on cross talk here's a preview. 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 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 five myriad international treaties since then recognizing some role for the international community in intrastate affairs and that starts are all i welcome the problem i. disagree with what i've been saying this idea of the sovereign impunity is purely there 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 it begins to implement a sturdy cuts under the latest bailout deal and hysterically backlash is also mounting in spain one of the most indebted states the crisis also led to a crash in spanish real estate with thousands of new houses standing am to banks struggling to unload the property or the sarah for a three ports. lifeless and empty welcome to one of spain so crude ghost towns these are supposed to be life in your apartment blocks in the town is sustained year when the crisis started. the real estate bubble. phased out 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 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. so. what made you want to buy 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 in economic crisis asking people to pay back through a stereotype money that was wasted by the government has caused widespread anger

and brought people into the streets in their hundreds of thousands. it's crazy the cost one hundred eighty million euros and it's empty no one is working there. was back in. cheap prices might be able to breathe much needed life into the area everything can be fixed with clever marketing many people in the country now feel that the banks and the government selling off not just a nice houses but the peaches as well towns like the sun you're unique all across spain right now you see these large areas of me build homes now that hopelessly abandoned it's a sign some say that the country often described as too big to fail already had. the time to send us. on a sour art he talks to spanish economists on how close the euro zone fourth largest economy is to the brink now whether its future at all lies within the block.

now the interpol website has reportedly become the latest target of a so-called hacktivist anonymous group which advocates internet freedom the attack came as interpol an ounce arrested twenty five suspected hackers from the movement in europe and south america well for more on the story let's now cross live to our correspondent tests are still here and a brussels will test is just the latest in a string of scandals involving anonymous so what massachusetts are they trying to send. well that's right this is just the latest in a lot of stories linked to anonymous and the message is clear that they've been repeating in the past that their activities will not stop even with such reports of arrests now we're going back to these arrests interpol had said the twenty five alleges members of the anonymous online how king activist group or hacktivist group were taken into their custody right after their own website was attacked now right

after the announcement was made their own web site again failed to load an act. of wrote on their twitter feed not the message interpol down so there are speculations that this is their response to these reports of arrests this is room in a sense of that widespread angry response from anonymous hacktivists after the arrest of the founder of the popular megaupload file sharing website so again we see a repeat of a certain activities of an anonymous in response to police action and this police action is just the latest in a more in a bigger operation that intergovernmental and police operations hoping to crack down on the activities of a non of us in recent months we've seen certain bills so-called people in the act are all arguing in favor of protecting intellectual property rights however this man made a lot of people angry had polarized opinion saying that passing such bills will actually infringe on the speech as well as the openness of the internet these are

precise precisely the issues that anonymous claims to be fighting for and the latest a big story linked to anonymous is the recent a wiki leaks publication of about five million emails from struck for an intelligence firm now it's been speculated that it was with the help of anonymous that these documents were in fact taken into poverty if we cue the. anonymous had been boasting in the past of being able to successfully hack stratfordian. at work so again this is a link to that group but at the end of the day such arrest again will not stop their activities they repeated several times in the past that no arrests can be made on ideas so we can see definitely a continuation of activities on both sides on anonymous a continuing hacking of websites of fighting for freedom of the internet openness of the internet as well as the police actions of tried to stop their crackdown on them. for

a test thanks very much indeed for bringing us the latest stats are silly reporting from brussels. and you can explore all the stories we're covering here and have at our website let's take a look at what's available there today protests prohibited the u.s. government of kings and mean a bill that could see some demonstrations outlawed find out the details on our web site. plus google holding contest offering a million dollar reward to people who can successfully hackett's chrome browser find out why the search engine giant is so eager to have a security breach at. 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 and political preferences as artie's there all are now reports. the tale of two regions more dorthea into the lie side by side over the life that is quite different in the two thousand and eleven parliamentary elections united russia wrong to home with over ninety percent of the vote in more doria well they took less than forty percent in the. with just a few days to go before sunday's presidential vote to have the steps into the top job well enough 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 during per store

because we were paid in coupons not money the country. it was in chaos we didn't get paid in currency we 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 resign the difference is a clear the road quality for one is far inferior on this side and alongside those

road stand emptying villages and the bund and factories. so why is there such discrepancy between the two regions those living in d.c. and blame local government. 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. of latino work there the twenty eight years she tells a story of a very different life than what we saw in. space or what i'm called you might get 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. voters in the clear about what they want from their elected officials. the town has been given a facelift but it's not enough there's not enough confidence either. you knew what you have survived as a 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 task for whoever wins sunday's presidential election is to try and eliminate discrepancies in quality of life and bring people the stability they crave peter all over. if you look at other major news stories from around the world their opinion has recalled all its one sound of answers to belarus after minsk order the polish and in and out of a 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 some you nations as europe's last was declared the winner. now to egypt where all three judges involved in the case targeting local ngo workers have resigned but a phantom sixteen of them americans are accused of cooperating with foreign n.g.o.s in funding the rest is shaken the nation for over a year the judges haven't indicated the exact reasons for pulling out only saying they felt uneasiness in tackling the protests you know what 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 is a lecture 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 in the bottom half of both polls. and returning now to our top story the crisis in syria the world's media is flooded with stories and images allegedly depicting the bloody result of this year in army's assault on the city of homs but few have drawn similarities with food another conflict that of fallujah iraq which happened nearly ten years ago and saw u.s. troops fighting against insurgents are just losing confidence explores the perils and differences shared by the two conflicts i find some of the images in this report disturbing. 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 before i flew here 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 well civilians now in both countries that iron hands 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 self evident. americans hit the military the americans. form more of them by actually i mean during

the main hospital and blocking a key escape route 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 our washington. well we've been talking about the european financial troubles a lot today but it seems it's not only the euro zone which is struggling but for more let's talk to maria costa rica in our business desk we're hearing that something is happening in india tell us more yes that's right well according to latest report the country's economic growth slowed down to its lowest annual pace in almost three years and for those of you following the figures that's six point one percent and that was mostly due to higher interest rates rising input costs and of course that minimize investment and manufacturing but that didn't have much in the fact on the asian markets as you can see right now most of them and then on the higher notes technology stocks one among the best performers also results of the

drop in oil prices helped airlines shares as well which extended their gains from the previous session if we move on to europe there's also a positive outlook there because the european central bank is planning to introduce new interest loans into the banking system that amount could top five hundred billion euros on wednesday it will hold the second auction which is an opportunity for european banks to get access to that cash the first rounds of place in late december of one bank spar with almost four hundred ninety billion euros and the extra funds are of course 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 afloat now let's take a look at how all of this is a fact in the markets and also with the exchange rates will see that the euro is edging the higher against the ruble and the dollar following the offer from the e.c.b. and the ruble though is losing value against the greenback and that's despite the

stronger prices so let's take a look at the crude prices right now we see that they're bouncing back from their lowest lows in almost a week and that's the news industrial output in japan and the sell. who really have beats estimates and that was so high us consumer confidence the highest in the year let's take a look at the figures from a very us we see that of course they close the trading session with multi-year highs and investors were pretty much weighing higher consumer confidence as well as a small pullback in oil prices all of that against worse than expected drop to dribble goods orders and later in the day we are expecting to get updated figures on the g.d.p. results in the country now let's move on see europe it's now an hour into the trading session and we're seeing a little bit of a yoyo situation with the footsie but overall stocks are higher following the news from the e.c.b. the banks are leading the gains but everyone is a wait and see what happens with a second proof financing operation later in the day here and russia it's pretty

much most of outlook as well we've seen both the arts yes and the my six now again over one percent and experts say that what we're seeing is a presidential rally which is drawing more foreign investors to the market but let's take a look at some individual share moves on the my side stronger is of course a boosting for him such a gas problem and look oil which are adding but it's a different picture we're seeing k v p which is heading lower despite posting. fifty five percent that's an inclusive record nine billion dollars last year and that was on the high oil prices and output gains but now let's move on and talk about some other energy news and that is gas from us thinking about taking part in the privatization of energy assets ingrid's the gas giant has already met top officials to discuss the sale of gas company and grid operator desk phone we do know that last year gas from showed interest in these companies but at the moment

that's all the information we have according this possible deal but we have some other news for you that's relating to cars has signed a deal to invest one one point. billion dollars and. that's why the production is one hundred twenty thousand cars a year and the models will be based on quiet stores cheap brands and also we know that russia's top lenders will be providing the financing and take a stake of up to twenty percent. and. for more stories you can always check out our website r.t. dot com. states in for the headlines with a very. good

. story. and then. there's a big. wealthy british. it's time to. go.