when choice matters to everyone. the serious first steps to democratic reform are ridiculed by the u.s. as washington just shy of labeling president assad a war criminal pumping weapons into the war torn state. france spain greece the czech republic and belgium and protests hit the. hack and slash policies leave economies on public patients at the point of collapse from madrid a little later. in the meantime a man charged with murder a prominent russian journalist anna politkovskaya says the killing. them a fugitive russian businessman and a suspected terrorist those are top stories this hour.

international news and comment live from moscow this is twenty four hours a day. syrian military says the army has now reestablish control over the battle torn city of homs it's also reported various rebel groups that fled the city have been surrounded near the border with lebanon it follows a claim by senior rebel general that these militia groups have been supplied with french and american weapons and even. on the diplomatic front earlier u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton compared syrian leader bashar al assad to a war criminal but stopped short of directly making the accusation his 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 there are fears that outside interference is fueling

further bloodshed. 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 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 weapons here to destroy our nation he tried 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 that 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 your business 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 azores is main concern and make little points 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 the border with jordan just several kilometers away from here and numerous reports suggesting that foreign weapons and troops get 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 have in fact come from across the border. that they appear shoot and kill and then they disappear immediately they arrive from abroad but they are not from jordan they use this country's border many of them are from africa. we'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 but this what we confiscated killing innocent people and even more so. while the international community condemns the and supports its opponents many believe all sides in the conflict should be held responsible. for syria and with so many foreign russians involved it's clear that the crisis thresh is far beyond these borders raef notion r.t. reporting from syria. member of the syrian social club told me a little earlier that he believes there's a very big difference between what the people of syria see and what the international community sees. we've noticed since the very start of this problem in syria that the west in general did not welcome and ridiculed actually every single reformist step that the syrian government promised to do or actually took all these steps were either not mentioned at all by the international media or pretty kewl

somehow as being either too little too late or not sufficient or you know their credibility are not ok this is i believe to try to undermine the syrian government's commitment towards reform what the international community needs to understand is what syrians view on the ground is very different apparently from what everybody here is in the international media mainstream media and in that sense people i wouldn't say totally united behind the current government but they view it as their best option so was not for the country not to collapse because everybody is afraid of what to come next should the central government collapses and that's exactly what's keeping this interim government in its place and intact for the past year or so. a lot of people of illinois been asking his cross-talk guess just how far the international community can go when interfering in syria's domestic affairs and his attempts to what's coming up for you in that discussion

program later this hour. but the power of the security council is precisely the problem in these situations we've always had great power interventions which are 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 myriad international treaties since then recognizing some role for the international community in interesting affairs and i stutter all i welcome the problem i. disagree with in saying this idea of. sovereign impunity is purely there to protect governments so that they can slaughter their own people and have no international accountability the idea of non interference isn't about protecting genocidal governments. keep. it. to.

cross talk a little later this hour for you here in r.t. it's a day of mass protests across the e.u. with tens of thousands running against austerity and economic hardship in paris five major unions organized a massive march to pressure brussels to tone down its a sturdy stance and instead focus on pro growth policies in the czech capital prague thousands of students are protesting against planned but controversial university reforms even in the bureaucratic heartland of the e.u. thousands gathered to demonstrate against brussels insistence that cuts are the only way to financial recovery. he's in athens with more on what's been happening there. the greek parliament you can see behind me is no stranger to protests and indeed have been protests throughout the day and throughout greece today. staged. many public sector workers local councils were occupied the cross. greece of across

the territory here with the message really that these cuts these cuts in pay these cuts in pensions are simply going too far we're talking about a twenty two percent cut in wages across the board in the minimum wage really really tough cuts going through here also to pensions those really hard to stomach for many people and unions have turned out very very concerned over that protesting outside the parliament and outside that the european commission's building here a lot of flak being directed at perceived interference from brussels from other eurozone capitals in what is perceived to be greek a greek problem that should be sorted out by greeks i was talking yesterday to the federation police chief the police protesting here in central athens they're usually on the other side of the barricades and he was telling me that some of his

members are facing a terribly bleak future not even able to put their meals on the table and he didn't said the police federation wouldn't rule out even perhaps withdrawing some of its services essentially a pass or partial strike from the police this is the strength of feeling here and they want to try and send the message that these economic measures must not come without consideration for the human cost here. in spain people are angry at their governments deep cuts in the effect they're having on their own bleak future prospects and today students and teachers are out in force railing against the strong impact austerity has had on education more so firth is in madrid and joins me from there live right now so sara what has been happening around spain today. we can probably see thousands of protesters behind me here gathered on the central square in the trade now they're protesting this evening against the government's

new labor reforms they say that's going to actually increase unemployment in the short term here in the country now earlier in the day of course we still student protesters mobilized across the country here in madrid that they marched down by the education ministry we did see in other parts of the country in barcelona clashes break out between the riot police and some of the protesters there to images of some of the bins that have been set on fire by the protesters extremely concerning it seems that was somewhat a repeat of what we saw last week happening in valencia again riot police clashing with the protesters and that's caused a lot of anger and a lot of condemnation of the police's actions which the protesters say forty heavyhanded certainly this morning was not a large police presence tonight this morning there was a notably larger riot police presence and that has been a previous rallies perhaps a change in approach on the police thing with the new government remember the government has only been in power for a couple of months where actually joined by

a member of one of the smaller opposition political parties here in the country rocky thank you very much for joining us the government says that these new labor reforms are going to actually increase investment productivity and job in the long term in the country so while the opposition figures their real thing is their reform they just approve is yes increase him there they fired i mean it's almost free for any company to fart any. any employee not to know mark how long he is being working full of them because it's almost free you don't have to pay anything like maybe one month two months of salary and you know have. been and you don't need any particular reason to fire people so that's why we're here because that's reform it's only through to improve the the condition of the

companies not the workers the workers even worse and worse condition and they're there are so every month more and more unemployed people so they just explain that it makes no sense for is incredibly high unemployment here in the country especially for the young what are the protesters actually calling for the government to do what they want to see happen in the country well people mosul that people here are asking for a strike to yes to try to defend the rights of the workers and they want. they rights to remain like they are they want spotty kerrick a.c.m. they want beatles new ones to be able to come work for all their lives not just one month or two months three months work if it has not it makes no sense because if you need to pay your college you need to pay your bills. do or how are

you supposed to do that if you don't know if you will be working in tomorrow's and that's what's happening here most of the people are not working and the one there is working doesn't know if it's going to be working next month thank you very much for joining us it is incredible unemployment figures here in the country at nearly twenty three percent overall unemployment as we said over forty nine percent of youth unemployment here in the country staggeringly high figures and of course the general consensus is that these are necessarily bad reform say the right for full. completely the wrong time when the country on the brink of recession and already struggling so much you tell people the unemployment that's get even worse you bring in the sort of measures and well you can see the result behind me on the street there are thousands of people taking to the street to say that discontent sara thanks very much indeed for that live report there from madrid. well in the next hour or two you will be talking to a spanish economist about how close the eurozone fourth largest economy is to

collapse and whether its future lies within the block when just a few minutes from now here in r.t. anonymous revenge a wave of hacker arrests in europe and south america sees a quick response from online activists in a tourist group struck back at interpol. russia's presidential hopeful says the opposition in the country is rocking the boat head of the election and called on every political power to be cautious. those stories to come first a fugitive russian tycoon and a suspected terrorist both living in the u.k. may be linked to the murder of the celebrated russian journalist anna politkovskaya revelation comes from a former russian police official currently on trial and charged with masterminding the killing or smith reports now on the latest twist in the 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 skier he is 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 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 what public jenkins is saying is that politkovskaya 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 the finger pointed at them for ordering it so this could be a key development but certainly particularly for betty is also key 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. grossmith are in london and you can track the entire course of the trial by logging on to our website www dot com and here's what our stories are just a click away for you at the moment europe's political exodus. twenty seven ambassadors from roots as a diplomatic fallout between the country and the union grows it's. bringing destruction from a bomb scientists warn the earth may need to protect itself against a giant comet it could smash into the planet in the twenty four she discovered the chances of that at r.t.

dot com. the hacker group known simply as anonymous claims to have brought down the international criminal police organizations website it crashed shortly after interpol announced the arrest of twenty five hackers in spain and latin america as a part of the agency's operation unmask. has more now on the latest battle in an ongoing cyber war. interpol it said the twenty five alleges members of the anonymous online hacking 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 website again failed to load an act of us 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 than a bigger operation the 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 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 the. north korea says it suspending all nuclear and long range ballistic missile tests pyongyang would also stop the rain enrichment and let u.n. monitors in to. back into the country now this is the first step towards negotiations on north korea's nuclear issue under the new leader kim jung and to discuss this we're joined live by eric von braun got me he's an expert on north korea from canada so one of the reasons for this breakthrough is the country really

that desperate for food aid now or we would assume the first positive effects of the changeover the helman pyongyang. i think it's partly both. countries always short of school. right now probably not as desperately in need as it was a year ago they have just received in january some hundred thousand tons of food from china so this is not the number one priority for this particular action that's happening right now this is been actually in. discussion already last year and just prior to the death of kim jong il the u.s. it was going to make an announcement about a food a process with north korea so this is nothing to do with kim jong un now being in power as you said this was decided before kim jong il's death i don't know the

details of what was the agreement earlier in december so there might be a new aspects right now to a disagreement but as i said this has been in discussion for quite some time clearly a positive step but can the world community really trust north korea not to go back on its word and pursue nuclear ambitions as as we've seen in the past. well this is not a formal agreement we have here right now this is more in line with what the north koreans like to call words for words and actions for actions so it depends not only on north korea and what they do but it also depends on. the u.s. is going to react in the next period of time and whether or not the six party talks process gets back in on track and what happens in that

regard so it sort of is a tool in addition to north korea the other five parties also have to do their part or right the onus as you say to be one of the parties and apart from north korea the u.s. and south korea at the moment a bigger military drills right on north korea's doorstep and that they're planning more exercises i mean that doesn't exactly contribute to a peaceful environment for future negotiations doesn't it. no it doesn't but again the drills are an annual event. and it has to do partly with north korea and the threat from north korea but also partly the u.s. asserting its power in the region and so it has as much to do with facing china and protecting its allies in that if you station as well as protecting economic interests there the u.s. asserting its presence there in the region how will take that do you think.

well they've never. exercises in their regions so they're likely. to appreciate that very much as well it depends on whether these exercises are going to be increased. the number of us military that's involved the hardware that's involved or aware that this is sort of regular run in the belt and the exercise so you don't think we don't like very much and which they are always protesting against but still there is a kind of. an acceptance of the fact that these do happen from time to time so it is interesting i don't think that by the u.s. defusing tensions with north korea could actually increase tensions with beijing just very briefly i don't think that's going to happen. very good to hear from you thank you very much for your time erica weingarten a canadian expert on north korea

thank you very much you're welcome. presidential kind of the vladimir putin is one russians of likely provocation by the opposition and call on the country's political forces to stay calm ahead on the weekends paula alexian a chef he has the details on what the prime minister had to say. 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 alexei and the very popular blog in russia who said openly in an interview to a russian channel that he supported the escalation 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 definitely 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 problem to happen after the election that is probably they would even regular votes and try to pin that on the authorities they would even go as far as killing somebody as the prime minister said and then try to pin it 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 in all of russia to bring the latest details to all of us. thank you there

time now to check the stock markets all prices and currency retailers all of that out of the business to what's happening a moment to the financial world well in the financial world the top story today bill is all about the european central bank in the house allocated almost five hundred thirty billion euros in low interest loans into the blocks banking system it's the second long term we finance operation by the e.c.b. the first one took place in late december when banks poured almost four hundred and ninety billion euros so why is much there the extra funds are hope to make banks stronger and encourage them to loan money to businesses and consumers. are allowed to walk from capital believes the move will give only short term support. you don't solve a problem boy increasing levels of. levy short term constraints in the money

markets and short term funding constraints. address the longer term problem if the economic situation within the eurozone worsens especially for the stronger countries then there's likely that we could see another round of. funding coming back into the markets. we're going to take a look at the markets now of the european markets closed lower as you can see just lloyd's of new k. among that disclosed the biggest borrowings of the e.c.b. record loan offering we are talking about the u.s. stocks are in negative territory this despite data showing the u.s. economy grew three percent in the final report of twenty eleven that both the dow jones on the nasdaq indeed in the red and the russian markets hit closed off in the block a different story the president show alexion drawing near xmas is saying that we're seeing a rally from investors showing they're showing their support so their confidence thousands say positive territory for the artists and the my folks let's take a look at some individual. action is their income jumped fifty five percent

a record nine billion dollars last year needs to be bank was high on positive news from europe i go. to the news beat the bank intends to buy a part of the company it's move on to the current says and see how they're faring this well as you can see the euro is lower against the dollar after the offer from the c b the ruble is losing value against the greenback and the euro despite strong crude prices so let's have a look at those crude prices are all right now. as you can see it's a mixed picture for you just after weekly u.s. government report on than expected increase for crews in bench. data for this is indeed from the business to move back tomorrow with all your markets where you find your business joyce and thanks for having us.

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