humanitarian aid to the syrian. government forces pushed from the stronghold but local reports suggest the rebels are still in the area still killing. the presidential hopeful vladimir putin says and. helps the government respond to the public mood but he does reject calls for an early parliamentary election. the majority of nations sign a deal to make economic discipline compulsory but critics fear the realistic expectations will hit the struggling nations.

this is with me the syrian government forces have allowed an aid convoy to enter the city of homs after capturing the rebel stronghold. this follows a call from the un security council to allow immediate humanitarian assistance to the worst affected areas supported by russia china. spoke to a resident of the perceived city who gave an eyewitness account of what she described as atrocities committed while the rebels were in charge. international red cross and syrian red crescent has reached hosts it's brought food water and medical supplies to the city that suffered from an almost month old siege humanitarian agencies are also expected to create injured from the area many people have been killed in homes as well their bodies have never been taken away and that

will be another part of their mission which used to be one of the opposition's main strongholds here in syria is now under the government's control local media reports that in the tunnels under these homes the army has discovered the fighters based kind of command and control center of the electronics weapons and explosives the reports also say that they've found hundreds of bodies with multiple injuries and torture marks this edition of the ground still remains dramatic and skill to infrastructure has been badly damaged homes there is no water no electricity and no food no mobile coverage and length life has also been badly damaged after many attempts were finally managed to speak by phone with holmes presidents the woman has called herself the leader without giving us her last name she has said that local residents are afraid to leave their houses. are real granted they can shoot in the back of the queue people rather have one can be shunned for no reason

we are afraid to go into the country and our car can be stark and we can do short the q. both young and on the people from their home using champlin to condemn and planting a bag and threw them out she has also said that while retreating from baba amr area the rebels have moved to another neighborhood in homes known as the media have killed many people there and most most of them are christian families. i mean civilians are tired of syrians and want peace and they. but the syrian soldiers who protect us are being killed every day we've heard the mercenaries from france tunisia love and ongoing we don't go anywhere. people are. trying to ask the rebels was draw one of this really mean opposition groups formed military council to organize. resistance and provide rebels more weapons the faster just shows and proves how to play militarized the conflict in syria has become

recently as the country is very close to a civil war what is more information about reporting well meantime. the project coordinator for the beirut based conflicts forum she says of the mainstream media is still failing to balance the reports of atrocities being committed inside syria i think there is growing recognition that some of the very fundamentalist islamic groups who probably make up about thirty percent of beyond insurgence that they've been able to you know as much sort of brutality and terrible action and some of the accusations against the syrian army these have been documented in various reports we need to be careful of some of the mainstream media coverage in fact the i.c.r.c. and its local the syrian red crescent have been distributing humanitarian aid medical supplies water for some days and how much and home and for example they did

get ambulances through to take the injured journalists out of homes there are lots of on the ground reports including from al jazeera who've confirmed that it was actually the free syrian army who stopped ambulances going into to regulate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there and you could really cook over who has just come back from homs says that she witnessed a scene of chaos and carnage in the war torn city. i will of on third but i spent nine days in homs with the syrian red crescent and saw with my own eyes the killing the bloodshed and the bodies on the streets many of the people in homes have not sided with the government all rebels they just want to be left alone and survive but the humanitarian situation is dire with no water no power and little food the conflict in homs itself is divided into with regime supporters on one side

and the islamised opposition on the other i saw many lebanese mercenaries i spoke with members of the syrian army who told me about tunnels it into between homes and lebanon which are used by mercenaries who are paid a lot of money to fight me on it but from what i saw the blame for the violence lies equally with the government and opposition rebels who also fire missiles indiscriminately at government forces. so i don't know the european union has recognized the syrian national council as a legitimate representative of the people there with foreign powers taking sides but the future of syria will depend on international policy exam not and syria developments well that's the view of james corbett the editor of the independent news website a corporate report. as we see there is still a lot of wrangling going on at the international level in the u.n. security council and other united nations organizations and friends of syria and all of these other international organizations that are putting various types of

pressure on the syrian government and or the syrian opposition groups and so it's absolutely up in the air at this point and it really depends on the extent to which the international community really wants to continue pressing ahead with the ongoing inundated support for these supposedly opposition rebels that have supposedly spontaneously arisen in syria but as we now know have been being funded and armed and trained and equipped by the international community for some time now certainly last month there were a number of multiple and confirmed reports from various different news agencies confirming that iraqi officials were admitting that certain well long established smuggling routes were being used through iraq to funnel arms money and even jihadi syria to take part in this uprising so once again whether or not the opposition is able to regroup and to act once again take on as are some others that i think it's really dependent on the extent that they're going to have to receive if the international community loses stomach for attempting to institute regime change in

syria i think we'll see the end of the opposition. and you can find much more of the ground footage from syria just on our website www dot com as well as some rather disturbing pictures from another conflict scarred country but this video here leaked from post the libya appears to show a group of africans. and being forced to eat old fly. by google is at loggerheads with the e.u. as the internet giants ability to snoop point users raises fears that prissy is being pushed aside. it is only ten minutes past the hour a lot of me has called any attempts to arm the syrian opposition as an acceptable

insisting it would undermine peace efforts a prime minister and presidential hopeful was speaking with members of the foreign media ahead of sunday's presidential vote his attitude to domestic opponents and of russia's foreign relations were among the reissues that he faced questions on the details now throughout he's able to persuade. of course this was a meeting with foreign journalists international affairs were speaking about syria has called on the international community to pressure the syrian opposition into holding peaceful dialogue with gene stressing that seeking sides in this conflict is not a way to resolve it is also said and called on the international community not to supply weapons to the syrian rebels saying that this only leads to more bloodshed and sets back any possible peaceful dialogue between the authorities and the opposition they're speaking about the relations with the united states the

prime minister has said that the reset has worked economically wise but when it comes to washington for the anti missile defense system in europe the reset has failed i've missed out on it which is one of the sides wants to become totally invincible undermine the strategic balance of forces in the world we think it's highly dangerous history teacher balances let us avoid global conflicts since the second world war when a country begins to think it's invincible to retaliate straight from another country it leads to a lot of conflicts and aggressive behavior and it's not just because america is an aggressive country because this is the way life is the presidential poll said to take this sunday and i'm taking court and naturally the political situation in russia took center stage at. foreign journalists especially in light of the numerous opposition rallies which have been sweeping place across the entire country since the parliamentary election in december and what the report said that

he's taken more of the opposition's demands on board actually describing the entire protest movement as a positive thing for the country was sort of energizes the afterwards but it was it has also commented on one of the oppositions. demands which you early parliamentary elections. of fraud during december the prime minister as completely ruled out holding a new election saying that. is determined strictly by legislation. later in the program here i'll tell you we have more on the election process here in russia. you. know. which is an r.t. and logs on to check out the very modern ways of attracting votes as the internet becomes the battle for hearts and minds. and there was less then just two

days an hour before the polls open these people of l takes a closer look at what's at stake. for the average russian voter is there such a person is relatively apathetic partly because they think there isn't much of a real choice and secondly because they think that he's going to win. organize that he wins whatever the voters do so i think this will be probably more so even if even if he wins and even if we give even if he wins it's rigged i mean it seems to me that kind of argument caved in on itself erick if i can go to you i mean it's just hard for the outside world to understand the drive in your building is popular . well there's something very embarrassing for the journalist we've heard a lot in the western press about how putin was losing his popularity how all the facebook protests in moscow in the demonstrations meant that the regime was on its

way out and of course when the polls which i can't give any numbers on but the polls have certainly shown a very substantial rise and that mr putin is going to sweep to victory in the first round. the full episode of course all coming your way next hour here on r.t. if you stay with us for that most of talks confrontations are history and i was a disunited us proudly signed the watered down fiscal pact but the agreement was supposed to enforce tough new budget rules written in the czech republic found the idea seem much to take but of course one of the. more the packets. what's next is that the a contracting parties will now have to present this treaty to their own parliaments and have it ratified but what is needed for this treaty to come into effect are twelve euro zone now ratifications for it to be if implemented on of the contracting parties now twenty five to twenty seven have signed on to this treaty

what they are saying that this is a positive political statement that the euro is the currency of the european union on one hand it could be seen as a political statement on the other hand critics will see that two countries a did not want to sign this treaty the u.k. and the czech republic the u.k. has been very critical from the very start and you have arlen who wants to hold a referendum on the treaty so a lot of the leaders here are widely expecting the treaty to be ratified and the question is how smoothly will it go through this process i want terms of implementation the question is really sickly speaking can this countries actually implemented needed those targets set out by this pact realistically only germany luxembourg and finland may need things targets and the rest are very having very little room to maneuver so while leaders here are saying that they're out of a crisis mode really it is very difficult to say that this in fact solves europe's crisis now here is more on that it's been talked about for months as

a solution to europe's crisis fiscal compact with dr parkman used. after another two day summit this fiscal stability compact is signed sealed and delivered . most e.u. leaders have agreed to give it the go ahead it's expected to be ratified by at least twelve years of nations this pact comes with tight budgetary rules that must be strictly adhered to a else face automatic sanctions member states must maintain a balanced budget or have a surplus people budget deficit of three percent or less. and schreiber balanced budget rule international legislation within one year firmly within the constitution it budgetary targets or not mpt a guilty nation could be brought to the european court of justice and be obliged to make penalty payments the reins of strict budgetary oversight will be in brussels hands now we've in europe in brussels we've got our first saw and there's a budget stock and he's going to police all the judges all the member states and

these member states will lose sovereignty in the field of budgetary policy now is the population going to accept this. population that's already been forced to accept one tough story masher after another good could in the sniffles or if you are doing everywhere you go towards crisis. is no tackling probably because if we're keeping american spends and everywhere then you crash in the boonies consuming nobody's and busting their growth is the point of this truth is a continuation of pure liberal orthodoxy. so we are exactly going back to what we have done in the last fifteen years. in the us either read or see the budgetary discipline this is the civility pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the result structural imbalances and health crisis in countries ease their way out of their predicament but it's

a one size fits all approach that has some worried about the impact it could have healthier economy has improved lead to huge fiscal consolidation bias. even those countries to try to see if the school situation. closely the peace corps accounts beach can depress become a community that's a. bank space problems and the doing the two you want to and not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are gross and employment just are cilia r t brussels and the euro zone finance ministers have once again also delayed greece in its second bailout things must now wait another week pending the approval of discount old private investors who have now lost up to seventeen percent of their investments in the greek bonds and i feel for our jamie opinion leader of the u.k. independence party believes greece is not well and truly on the brink. no one doubts

that tough decisions need to be taken in greece you know that's obvious but you've got to have some stimulus as well and the only way that will happen is by leaving the euro i just remember three weeks ago eighty thousand people storming the barricades of the greek parliament trying to get in and we saw five thousand armed police keeping them out with the evidence of this in spain in portugal i mean come on we saw an arab spring last year was the absolute no reason why similar things can't happen in southern europe it is difficult to stomach tough austerity america's tough government if it's your own elected government but to be dictated to by angela merkel. mr barroso is for millions of people just totally unacceptable ok just a moment i'll get to katie pilbeam news here in r.t. for now though the r.t. world cup it for your starting with iran elections ongoing alpha members of the country's two hundred ninety seat parliament is the first nationwide vote since the

disputed reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad in june of two thousand and nine. vote rigging in that poll last protests were organized largely through social media this election is widely viewed as a contest between two conservative groups other supporters of the current president and supporters of the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. flooding continues to affect large parts of southeastern australia with fifteen hundred people now forced to leave their homes in the state of victoria the army has been called in to help ferry food water and sandbags to stranded residents there are warnings that ten rivers in the region could soon burst their banks in neighboring new south wales people are preparing for the possibility of the heaviest rainfall in over a century. slogans promises and pledges all the usual attributes of any presidential campaign but this year's race in russia has seen some brand new creative weapons under aged the internet has become one of the major battlegrounds

over the content can sometimes be scandalous and not entirely innocent parties in a culture and i looked at the online arsenal. there is been a lot of singing dancing drawing and even cooking this election season as presidential campaigns go it's been hot and creative. with your opposition is a ford hard in the online wars from rapping and slating the point in the bed of tandem to posting not so innocent medio fakes. charges against putin include embezzlement financial fraud and abuse of office.

compact to the grassy anti crowd in complaining the pro putin videos can seem a little toothless. was making. me laugh. here you. down the path. to. the topic of ukraine not paying to russian gas proves that this video has been made on the kremlin's orders otherwise i don't understand who would be interested in spending money on this so even for putin is a useless with someone made up their mind to vote for which in this video definitely won't make them any firmer in their decision and on the contrary if they're against putin it definitely won't make them change their mind this prominent journalist and blogger believes it's not only losing the war of creativity other candidates look desperate to. avoid the latter swoon sound

as yes we're still virgins where bush really wants to see a mole not just only to see our son. no it was right with. me who the candidates videos are annoying it seems that they hired the cheapest directors to film this fast food and horrible quality only proves one thesis about these elections none of the candidates are striving for a victory one is the outspoken leader anyway and the others think of this campaign as a dull ritual they have to go through which they don't really want to spend so much money on. so what the real candidates they're putting in an ad for supporters or opponents are taking the lead using the internet as a free media to plea politics however when we go offline critique it is set aside giving way to clear images i'd like to just camera angles and

easily understood slogans a tried and tested method which has steadily secured votes for several generations of politicians in this country. if there had been five candidates breathing down each other's necks then every great video could win votes from the other in our case there is a foreign correspondent support us thirty thirty five percent which is very hard to shake and i cannot imagine what putting his office could do in the last few days before the election to lose these funny videos won't change anything during a small percentage of undecideds but some are willing to do whatever it takes to win over those voters right to the last minute. chance. to splatting for. a few. good girl.

take her away. right which you're going to do carol. we have sound. good now you're the next one here you sit in a gradual r. t. . try to check out and see how the markets are going or the. head of the k c o r k's you so are the russian markets how the numbers looking today all of the members are looking at pretty good in terms of a yearly performance because the russian markets the russian stock markets have actually seen a twenty four percent surge this year and also the ruble is doing rather well at a six month high but we look at this hour you can see it's a mixed picture but the l.c.s. in negative territory in the my stakes up around a quarter of a percent level that you can be closing up for two days i have a closing figures for a show in the see how the stocks are getting on see how they're faring this hour as you can see ross telecom is among the top performers after news on an acquisition

deal last night is down despite the company's net profit rising it's almost eleven billion dollars and last year he has dipped into the red as a company gears up for its buyback program which is set to take place on the twelfth of march as time with the markets many analysts are saying that we're going to see a rally after the election this weekend but earlier we spoke to hawks sunshine from i've seen metropolit and he said that although we're likely to see a rowdy we're going to see the rally no matter who becomes president on sunday the rally could be quite significant next week but it really depends on the global background we see quite a significant rally in the russian market over the last week or two i think it would be a mistake to was say that this rally was seen over the last couple of weeks as because of increasing carbons about elections they could be part of it but a significant increase in the world price has also played a very material role. now let's see how the oil prices are getting on the now as

we can see the light sweet is indeed in negative territory as is the brant pull this out but they do stay thank you so strong ok moving on and despite crude being in the red this hour as we've just seen in mid-term they do remain high and it's proving to be a bad thing for the u.k. and its manufacturing sector which contrasted by almost one percent in the law school to of twenty eleven experts say that if they continue seeing rising costs we could dumond's it will make sustaining growth and job creation quite difficult over prices are said to be rising at a full sister rates and nineteen years is. a slightly different picture in switzerland where the economy showed signs of growth during the same period the g.d.p. grew by zero point one percent in the final quarter of twenty eleven fueled by exports to splice soaring swiss franc which you know exporters of the world already

hates like a movie on let's see that part of the world in the first in the strike that they are indeed in negative territory at this hour finding it difficult to tax was very early around that is something small now moving on the us that they are going to come out for a short in just about five minutes time as you can see yesterday was a positive picture for you bought stock futures are four legs so that's an indicator as to how the u.s. is going to be or how those figures in the next hour the exchange rates will take a look at the dollar is edging higher first most of the majors actually including the year i bet the ruble is low against the greenback and higher against the european currency at this hour as i say next hour we have the opening figures for the us and we will also know how more to come. innovation then the russian invasion. startups who still have an easy way to get financial support the russian

venture company the r.t.s. most exposed and high stakes ross and i are setting up a joint venture to share trade shares of unlisted high tech companies become a business incubator for promising firms are willing to list on the russian markets . and. the deadline is also for those interested in getting a piece of moscow's at domodedovo airport and as it turns out so only one company wants to buy as a matter is a russian investment holding assume are the owners of that damage out of iowa looking to get over five billion dollars for the airport but no one seems to be willing to dish out that much money. to date it's a lot of money so i'll be back in about fifty five minutes before the i move because of us on the closing figure is it for the russian markets.