syria's first democratic reform a ridiculed by the u.s. as washington stops just shy of labeling a war criminal. pumping weapons into the war. raging against austerity nationwide protests expected. greece as governments. point. of murder a prominent russian journalist. russian businessman and a suspected terrorist. have

you with us today this is. with me. a source in the syrian military says the army has now reestablish control over the city of homs it's also reported various rebel groups that fled the city have been surrounded near the border with lebanon that follows a claim by a senior rebel general that his militia group had been supplied with french and american weapons and even. on the diplomatic front u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton compared. to a war criminal but stopped just short of directly making the accusation her latest rhetoric aims to downplay the reform adopted by syria to make the political process more democratic and give the opposition

a voice and. reports from syria. the outside interference is further fueling the closure. of the borders doors and windows to a state 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 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 weapons here to destroy our nation to try to kill syrian people in the syrian territory to arm 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 the in our 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 your business confiscated thousands of bullets dozens of guns and hundreds of kilograms of little metal pieces like this one used to may well but the azores is main concern and make little pellets like this one but parts of the border where there isn't any security at all like 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 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 daraa 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 with the world many of them are from africa. we're showing the weapons and legibly seized in military operations. in the army we don't have weapons from israel and america

sniper guns and night vision binoculars developed weapons we don't have it in syria this what we confiscated killing innocent people and even more. while the international community condemns the other side and supports its opponents many believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsible. and lose so many for the russians and it's clear that the crisis thresh is far beyond these borders raef notion r.t. reporting from syria and coming up for you just a little bit later in the program here on our. comparing conflicts. but they now call homes the capital of the revolution just as they once called the capital of terror as fighting continues in the syrian city of homs that we take a look at the u.s. media's approach to iraq's crisis in full lou sure now ten years ago we saw

american soldiers fighting with the government and against militant forces. it's a day of mass protests all across the e.u. as people rail against austerity cuts and economic hardships which they say are simply not their fault in the czech capital prague thousands of students are protesting against planned university reforms if passed they would give businesses and politicians unprecedented power over curriculums and funding crush demonstrations also bring across greece the government seeks to implement the drastic austerity measures other came with the latest round of our correspondent in athens. he has details on this. this iconic building behind me it's not become an icon for particularly good reasons but in that fretful parliament behind me and in the streets around that have been so full of ferment a day of protests today not a surprise

a lot of people across the country in public sector unions there are doctors out on the street at the moment and there's also a lot of words a lot of alarmist words for a financial word that didn't used to mean a lot that is suddenly taking on very serious meanings indeed one of them the d. word default and today later on today a meeting of the international swaps and derivatives association which sounds boring could turn out to be very important indeed it may decide that the greek government is not capable of paying out and that essentially means that technically greece will have defaulted which is exactly the kind of financial disaster the government has been trying to avoid all this time yesterday the greek government force through very painful cuts i spoke to a predator federation police chief who is protesting yesterday normally the people trying to stop protesters and he said this could force our entire service out of

business this is this is meaning that my colleagues are struggling to put food on the table really really serious messages here and a feeling of exhaustion after two years of austerity after all of these painful cuts it seems that life is only going to get worse here whether inside the euro zone or not the message here is please this is enough. that is tom barton reporting right there while in spain people are angry at their government's deep cuts and the effect they are having on their own bleak future prospects today students and teachers both out in force are rallying against the strong impact austerity has so far had and will continue to have on education and r.t. sarah ferguson madrid where crowds have gathered to voice their frustration. well the students have gathered at this. the protests are expected to continue for a while you can see groups of the students sitting around here we've been speaking

to them they said the focus is to keep this demonstration peaceful but they want to get the point across that they're not going to be spending cuts affecting public services such as their education they feel it is unfair the little point when the country is on the brink of another recession that that being asked to pay for the debts and they say the price that they're being asked to pay is simply too high that it's their futures a risk speaking to the people here they will tell you exactly what it's like to be a student in a country that right now has more than foolishly nine percent of the u.s. unemployed that sixteen to twenty four age bracket really struggling i mean it's a very bleak picture this being painted for them as the government continues to introduce these spending cuts will tell you that really they feel that they're being punished the years and years of government waste and the debt now is being dumped on them and they're being to pay for this with their futures really very very concerned about what the feature holds of them and indeed around the country you can see evidence of years of this government waste as we've been finding out

lifeless and empty welcome to all of spain so crude ghost towns these are supposed to be life in your apartment blocks in the town a 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 and knowing 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 . 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. and what made you want to buy one of this because it's very cheap elsewhere in the

country and there's no hiding the ports the flamboyant but a necessary 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 three will start a money that was wasted by the government has caused widespread anger and brought people into the street hundreds of thousands maybe for the rest of you it's crazy neighbor the cost one hundred eighty euros and it's empty no one is working there. the flight 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 the peaches 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 left hopelessly abandoned the sign some say that the country often described as too big to fail already has served to the town to send us. and later this hour here on r.t. we talked to a spanish economist about how close the eurozone fourth largest economy is to collapse and whether its future still lies within the block and in just a few minutes here on r.t. event of anonymous revenge for a wave of arrests in europe and south america sees it with the worst spawns from online activists find out how a notorious group struck back after interpol. and russia's presidential hopefuls a lot of may putin says the opposition in the country is rocking the boat ahead of the election and called on every political power to be cautious. a fugitive russian tycoon and a suspected chechen terrorists both living in the u.k.

may be linked to the murder of celebrated russian journalist and the political and the revelation comes from a former russian police official currently on trial and charged with masterminding the killing laura smith now reports on the latest twist in this case. the man who is making these allegations is a man called colonel dmitri. who is charged with organizing the killing of an appellate court he is a former senior police official he is supposed to have planned that killing but the people who he say ordered it now all 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 public school most senior police official is saying is that politkovskaya who of course was a prominent journalist and it's believed that it was just journalism that in fact in particular revelations of human rights offenses in chechnya would probably tend to be saying is that quarreled with. that is all ski in london and that that is what led to that essentially ordering. now lots of people have been arrested for having organized the killing but nobody has so far had to think of pointed at them 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. artie's laura smith reporting there what are you can track the tire cost of the politkovskaya trial just by logging on to our website of

course r.t. dot com now here are some of the other stories just a click away for you now europe's political exodus the e.u. recalls twenty seven ambassadors from roosts diplomatic fallout between the country and the union grows. and bringing destruction from above scientists warn the earth may need to protect itself against a giant comet that could smash into the planet in the year two thousand and forty discover the chances of that at r.t. dot com. the hacker group known simply as anonymous claimed to have brought down the international criminal police organizations website and crashed shortly after interpol announced the arrest of twenty five hackers in spain and latin america as part of the agency's are ongoing operation and mask. now reports on the latest battle in an ongoing cyber war. interpol had said that twenty five alleged

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-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 medium of speech as well 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 arrests again will not stop their activities they repeated several times in the past that no arrests can be made on ideas. silly reporting from brussels well to get firsthand information on the ongoing anonymous raids on u.s. government websites just straight to our team got a call all the details for you there particularly as one of the groups of property spoke to us shortly after they shut down the cia and f.b.i. sites his discussions available twenty four seven online to his web page. it is so good to have you with us this is r.t. live from moscow presidential candidate vladimir putin has called on all russia's political forces not to preempt the outcome and conduct of sunday's election and

become involved in provocations and what exactly he meant. joins us live to discuss the upcoming call what is the prime minister's major concern here well definitely just days remaining before all of russia goes to the polling stations something certainly concern of the prime minister specially given the fact that some forces some political forces in russia have already started preparing for the protest action after the election night even given the fact that the election itself has not happened yet by that i mean the words of one of the key opposition figures that the very popular blog in russia who said openly in an interview to a russian channel that he supported the ass collation of the conflict that he supported the growth of the protest force and that i quote one day people will take to the streets and will not leave the end of the quote also we know that the opposition has been giving out tends to the population that is certainly in some

way replicate the scenario of two thousand and four in ukraine the so-called orange revolution and the. if you did these things warry the prime minister who reflected on that in rather a rather stern warning saying that the people these people the opposition would go to any deaths to provoke serious violence to provoke some serious provocations to happen after the election that is probably they would even regular votes and try to pin that only they would even go as far as killing somebody as the prime minister said and then try to pin that on the authorities on the ruling on the wrong party and those that power so definitely we're in for some turbulent days before and after the election and certainly our extensive coverage will be everywhere in moscow and all russia to bring the latest details to all of us absolutely all teams are actually on the show to go live in moscow thank you. now let's get to the world

of it here on our to some other international headlines in brief for us first to egypt where a man arrested a cairo airport has denied being a senior al qaeda commander official say saif al idel whose real name is mohammed ibrahim we was taken into custody after flying in from pakistan but the man says he merely shares the same name and although he was once an al qaeda member himself he is not safe dell a former egyptian army colonel is on the f.b.i.'s most wanted terrorist lists for the nine hundred ninety eight bombings of u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania. dozens of protesters from the far right serbian a radical party have gathered in belgrade to rally against membership of the european union the demonstrators marched to the office of the country's president boris tadic and were stopped by police it comes just a day after the e.u. foreign ministers recommended serbia should become a candidate to join up for the part he says has gathered more than two hundred

thousand signatures of those of posed to entry. and about to our top story now here on r.t. the ongoing crisis in syria the world's media flooded with stories and images allegedly depicting the bloody results of the syrian army's assault on the city of homs but few have been compared to the clashes and the massacre in flew sure iraq which happened now nearly ten years ago it saw u.s. troops fighting alongside the government against the rebels i should warn you be prepared to find out some of the images in this next report possibly 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 the

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 blaming the violence on criminals and terrorists here's the chief military spokesman for the us forces in iraq we will hunt down the criminals we will kill them we will capture them and we will pacify future and here is syrian president bashar al assad. what 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 no leniency for those who are using weapons to kill and civilians now in both countries that hire in 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 cording says some disparaging you tube 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 pollutions 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 the difference in the coverage is well self-evident americans hate the military and murders. more of them by actually doing during the main hospital and blocking a key 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 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 launched. 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. is a business update here on our two year course never occurred to you standing by for us in the program good to see you european bank reportedly getting some support from the big brother how much are we talking about yeah that's right rory actually the big brother bring the european central bank which has a lot at almost five hundred thirty billion euros and low interest loans into the blocks banking system it's the seconds there we hear long term refinance operation by the. first round to place in late december with banks borrowed almost four hundred ninety. the extra funds are hoped to make banks stronger and encourage them to loan money to businesses and consumers but monoglot from its capital believes the move will only give. supports. you don't solve a problem by increasing your levels of. levy short term constraints in the money

markets and short term funding constraints. address the long term problem and for that we need growth and we need measures taken so that if there is growth and. the debt levels are reduced accordingly but if the economic situation within the eurozone worsens especially for the stronger countries then it's likely that we could see another round of. funding coming back into the market. at this time for the markets european markets are high at this hour they are indeed still makes actually this is the german stocks that are advancing and are advancing for a second from the e.c.b. decision up and down this hour over in russia that the markets will be cozying up shortly and they're heading for a positive finish as you can see the r.t.s. and the my says are four out of the r.t.s. fairing better than the presidential election drawing nearer experts are saying

we're seeing a sort of presidential rally drawing foreign investors into the market let's see what we. are looking like this hour and if you firms are benefiting from stronger or prices. isn't benefiting there she can see in the red heading lower net news that its net income jumped fifty five percent a record nine billion dollars last year on high oil and. it's obviously not doing too well on the news or mind moving on free t.v. rank is high on positive news from europe is having a wild one and a half percent can see that on the currency so we see that the year is lower against the dollar off to the offer from the e.c.b. on the ruble is losing value against the greenback and the euro despite the strong crude prices. finishing up with oil as you can see heading. it's best best month since october in new york amid signs of economic recovery as well as

concerns a tension with the wrong threatens global crude surprise light sweet just a fraction of their flats of positive and the brands as you can see over one hundred twenty two dollars per barrel. india's economic growth was its lowest on your pace almost three years in the last quarter of twenty eleven for those following the figures that six point one percent it was also the seventh consecutive quarter the slowdown this was mostly due to high interest rates rising input costs which minimalized investment and i factory. all right then that's it for now i'll have the closing figures for the russian markets in the next hour to join me then in about an hour's time.

had been is. and tragedy. devotion. and betraying. family. and does a link. on the bottom of a coffee swamp.