fails to silence. washington as the u.s. secretary of state says the syrian leader may fit. the mud of. london by a fugitive russian businessman. starting to implement the latest belt tightening measures. to follow.

with just a few days to go presidential election we visit. political. a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at. the u.s. . the syrian regime despite the course for reform adopted by the government of the conflict torn country in the latest of verbal attacks secretary of state hillary clinton said president assad could be labeled a war criminal because of the violence just as the syrian leader signed a new draft constitution which promises democratic change. has details 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 he's gone they can report still to come on the program for you here are similar conflicts but a different picture. but they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called the loser the capital of terror amid constant reports of carnage from the syrian city of homs we take a look at the u.s. approach to the crisis in iraq. that was now ten years ago where american troops fought alongside the government against militant forces. syrian activists say regime forces continue to show opposition strongholds killing more civilians meanwhile the free syrian army claims it's received weapons and missiles from french and u.s. sources government accuses the rebels of being terrorists acting out of foreign plot and as for national reports from syria there are growing fears within the

country that outside interference is feeding. 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 weapons being smuggled through to arm president al assad's opponents one thousand dollars for a truck full of weapons capable of delivering wholesale 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 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 they 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 a world but the horses main concern i'm a little pours 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 for the 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 what it was 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 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 a for a chanst 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 weapons involved it's clear that the crisis thresh is far beyond these borders refinish nasty reporting from syria. also why what obligation does the international community have to syria the un's responsibility to protect and they should have is put on of the microscope later this hour on cross talk here's a preview for you. the part of the security council that's 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 hundred forty five myriad international treaties since then recognizing some role for the international community in intrastate affairs and that's that's all i welcome the problem. with what i've been saying this idea of. sovereign impunity is purely there to protect government so that they can slaughter their own people and have no international accountability the idea of noninterference isn't about protecting genocide or governments. ten minutes past the hour here in moscow this is r.t. greece now bracing itself for yet another wave of public anger this as it begins to

implement austerity cuts under the latest bailout deal the answer austerity backlash is also mounting in spain that happens to be one of the most indebted e.u. states the crisis sorceror led to a crash in spanish real estate with thousands of new houses standing empty with banks struggling to unload the properties of the story. life listen and welcome to one of spain so crude ghost towns these are supposed to be life in your apartment blocks in the town. when the crisis started. the real estate bubble. failed. and of course companies started going back dropped the whole of the whole economy 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 won't be many.

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 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 into the streets hundreds of thousands for the rest of you 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 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. and the next hour here in r.t. we talk to a spanish economist on how close the euro zone's fourth largest economy is to the brink and whether its future at all lies within the block. or the manhunt for those behind the murder of prominent russian journalist and the political sky may stretch beyond the country's borders a new lead in the high profile case after one of the men charged with masterminding

the crime testified that a fugitive russian oligarch and a suspected chechen terrorist both living in london happened to be involved artie's laura smith has more from the british capital. the man who's making these allegations is a man called colonel dmitri. who is charged with organizing the killing of an appellate court hears a former senior police official he is supposed to have planned that killing but the people who he say ordered it now are bodies but is the oligarch who is living in london akhmed zakayev who is a suspected terrorist who is also living in london now russia has requested the extradition of these two people on numerous occasions. on charges of terrorism on charges of fraud now that extradition has never been granted by

britain and what. this former senior police official is saying is that politkovskaya who of course was a prominent journalist. and believes that it was journalism that in fact in particular revelations of human rights offenses in chechnya what what people saying is that quarreled with. his old ski in london and that that is what led to that essentially ordering. lots of people have been arrested for having organized the killing but nobody has so far had the finger pointed at them for ordering it so this could be a key development but certainly particularly for betty is obviously this is not the first time that his name has come up in connection with the murder of public it's come up lots of times before. with reporting there from london where you want your life from the interpol website is reportedly become the latest target of the

so-called activist anonymous a group which advocates internet freedom and the time came as into poland now instead arrested twenty five suspected hackers from the movement in europe and south america in brussels reporting is. interpol it said the twenty five allegedly members of the anonymous online how king activist group or activist 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 us a wrote on their twitter feed not the message interpol down so there are speculations that this is their response to these reports of arrests 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 a certain bills so call the sofa people and act are all arguing in favor of

protecting intellectual property rights however this is a man made a lot of people angry and polarize opinion saying that passing such bills will actually infringe on the speech as long as the openness of the internet these are precise precisely the issues that anonymous claims to be fighting for but at the end of the day such a rest again will not stop their activities they repeated several times in the past that no arrests can be made on ideas. reporting there will be very minor you can always i always explore all of our stories we're covering here in depth that are plenty more in store for example protests prohibited by the u.s. government and you could see some demonstrations entirely outlawed those do you tell us standing by for you on our web site. plus a google holds a contest offering a million dollar reward to people who can successfully hack its chrome browser and find out why the search engine giant is so eager to have it breached those details

that are. quarter past the hour here in moscow russia's presidential campaign now entering the homestretch with just a few days left before the election and the candidates are redoubling their efforts to win the hearts and minds of voters all across the country but this is a tough task many people in for and in the neighboring regions often have contrasting needs and political preferences as are all of our reports. of two regions more dorthea into the lie side by side over the life 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 the days down with just a few days to go before sunday's presidential vote who are the 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 sands a cement manufacturer is the major employer will of water during priest roy 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 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 daisy 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 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. of the latino work there for twenty eight years she tells a story of a very different life than what we saw in. this way 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. 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. and you watching her says 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 that 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 of the r.t. if your car before we go to marina with the markets lester the. international news embry for this hour the european union has recalled all of its twenty seven ambassadors to belarus minsk all of the polish and e.u. envoy out of the country. by the move. in retaliation to sanctions imposed by the e.u. over the country's rights record the sanctions date back to the december the ten 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 president alexander lukashenko dubbed it by some e.u. 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 quote uneasiness in tackling the process denouncement comes just two days into the trial. now returning to our top story here on r.t. the crisis ongoing in syria now the world's media are 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 footage from another conflict that of fallujah iraq which now happened nearly ten years ago it saw u.s. troops fighting against insurgents there now we go to our catherine off with a story exploring the parallels and differences shared by the two conflicts to be

won however you may find some of the following images 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 the 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 for a 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 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 to me and the others. got more out of them by actually i mean during the main hospital and blocked in a key escape route they need help from the outside world medicine the most basic supplies so i witnessed acts of uncommon valor from the u.s. soldiers that i was 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 in one battle 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 our washington. right well let's get the latest business update here on out to let's cross over to marina standing by there on the business so good to see you so we haven't actually heard if any good news about economies in europe as of late can you do anything in your department to dispel the forecasts of doom and gloom oh i can't really spell the forecasts of their own gloom but i can say that the situation might get slightly better and that's because the european central bank has just inject the

low interest loans back into the blocks banking system and they amount to five hundred twenty nine billion euros which were given out to eight hundred banks now at the first time this happened was in late december when banks followed almost four hundred ninety billion euros and of course these extra funds are hope to make banks stronger and encourage them to loan money to businesses and consumers but analysts do say it's not just about restoring confidence in banks but also to keep them afloat and let's take a look at how this is affecting the markets and the currencies a second look at the exchange rates we see that the euro is trading higher against both the ruble and the u.s. dollar following that announcement you know the ruble is mr mallock against the greenback and that's despite higher oil prices let's see what's happening with oil we can see that it's a bounce him back from its lowest close in almost a week and that's as industrial output in japan and south korea has beaten

estimates and us consumer confidence was the highest in almost a year now. so if we see what's happening in the u.s. the stocks are closed mostly higher in fact it was some old five year highs there and basically investors they await a drop in oil prices against higher consumer confidence against the worse than expected drop in the orders of durable goods now if we take a look at europe you see it's a mixed picture although overall most stocks are higher and that's because as i mentioned earlier that you see the decision and banking stocks are mostly even the gains there and here in russia it's a positive outlook like in most of the other countries in the world with the stocks both e.r.t.'s and the mice that siding over a percent this hour and we're also hearing about a presidential rally which basically means that foreign investors are being tracked the to the local market ahead of the presidential elections of course on march the

fourth let's take a look at the individual moves on the my sex. basically because of the stronger crude prices we are seeing energy firms there in better north think a v.p. and that's a surprise because they just posted an increase of fifty five percent in its net income which was a record in the line billion dollars compared to last year the year two thousand and ten and that's when high oil prices and output gains and we can see that needs to be is also it's gaining and that's because from the positive from the if not let's move on and talk about gas from what in other news now we're hearing that it's thinking about taking part in product. in greece all of the energy assets there the gas giant has already met greek top officials to discuss the sale of gas company and grid operators and we do know that last year gas from showed interest in these companies but we don't have more information on that deal now also in other news india's economic growth has slowed to its lowest annual pace in almost

three years in the last quarter of two things. for those of you following the figure is that six point one percent and there was also the seven successively quarterly slowdown and that was mostly due to high interest rates and rising costs which minimize investment and manufacturing. and that's how business looks the south for more updates joining the us in fifty five minutes in the meantime feel free to check out our website artie dot com slash business and my colleague kate a pilgrim will be with you next hour bye for now.