humanitarian aid enters the syrian city of homs after government forces push the fighters from their stronghold but locals are appalled that rebels are still in the area and are still killing. the prime minister and presidential hopeful putin says an energized opposition helps the government respond to the public mood but he rejects calls for an early parliamentary election. plus the majority of e.u. nations signed a long delayed deal to make economic discipline compulsory but critics fear that unrealistic expectations will only hit the struggling nations.

our seven o'clock on a friday night here in moscow this is the life with me rule receipt showing 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 access to the worst affected areas motion supported by russia and china. spoke to a resident of the city who gave an eyewitness account of what she described as atrocities committed by the rebels when they were in control. international red cross and syrian red crescent has reached posts it's brought food water and medical supplies to the city that suffered from an almost month 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 this will be another part

of their mission which used to be one of the opposition's main strong calls here syria is now under the government's control local media reports that in the tunnels underneath post the army has discovered the voice of command and control center highly religious warning spotters and explosives the reports also say that they've found hundreds of bodies with multiple injuries and torture marks the situation on the ground still remains dramatic and kill the tick infrastructure has been badly damaged homes there is no water no electricity and no food no mobile coverage and landline has also been badly damaged after a million times we finally managed to speak by phone with homes for as a dence the woman has called herself to leave it without giving us her last name she has said that local residents are afraid to leave their houses. are really bandits they can shoot in the back of the queue people rob houses one can we shall

die for no reason we're afraid to go into the country as our car can be sparked and we can go short the queue both young and on the people from using charge them and to actually put them in plastic bags and then throw them out she has also said that while retreating from baba amr area the rebels have moved to another neighborhood in homes known as somebody a hand they've killed many people there and most most of them are christian families. i mean civilians are tired of syrians and want peace and the last question i think but the syrian soldiers who protect us are being killed every day we've heard that mercenaries from france tunisia love and. we don't go anywhere. just. people like. shortly after the rebels was draw want to remain opposition groups formed a military council to organize. resistance and provide rebels was more weapons faster just shows and proves how diplomats rise the conflict in syria has become

recently as the country is fearing close to a civil war. for national reporting. project coordinator for the bay reproduced conflicts for the mainstream media is still failing to balance the reports of atrocities still being committed inside syria i think there is growing recognition that some of the very fundamentalist islamist groups who probably make up about thirty percent of the armed insurgents they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality terrible action 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 homes and for example they

did get ambulances through to take the injured journalists out of homs there are a lot of on the ground reports including from al jazeera who've confirmed that it was actually the free syrian army who stopped ambulances going in to to evacuate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there. who just come back from a sense that she witnessed a scene of chaos and carnage in the war torn city. you know well of on third that i spent nine days in homes with the syrian red crescent and saw with my own eyes the killing of bloodshed and the bodies on the streets many of the people in homs 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 but the conflict in homs itself is divided into with regime supporters on one

side and the islamist opposition on the other i saw many lebanese mercenaries i spoke with members of the syrian army who told me about tunnels that entails between homes in lebanon which are used by mercenaries who ate a lot of money to fight we are each from what i saw all the blame for the violence lies equally with the government and opposition rebels and also fire missiles indiscriminately at government forces. or most richard and the european union has our recognized syrian national council as a legitimate representative of the people and with foreign powers taking sides or the future of syria will depend on international politics not interior developments of us the view of james corbett editor of the japan a based 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 the 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 and needed 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 certainly last month there were a number of multiple confirmed reports from various different news agencies confirming that iraqi officials were admitting that certain will have a long established smuggling routes were being used through iraq to funnel arms money and even jihadi can syria to take part in this uprising so once again whether or not the opposition is able to regroup and to which once again take on their some other city i think it's really dependent on the the extent of the aid that they're going to receive but if the international community loses stomach for attempting to institute regime change in syria i think we'll see be at the end of the opposition

. and you can find more on the ground footage from syria just on our website artsy thought com as well as some rather disturbing pictures from another conflict scarred country for example this video right here leaked from post death the libya it appears to show a group of africans locked in a zoo and been forced to eat old flags. and google is our logo heads to the e.u. is the internet giants ability to snoop point users raises fears that prissy is being pushed aside. let me put in has called any attempts to the syrian opposition as unacceptable insisting it would undermine peace efforts the prime minister and presidential

hopeful was speaking with members of the foreign media ahead of sunday's presidential vote is attitude to domestic opponents and russia's foreign relations also among the issues that he faced questions on i with details on this as r.t.c. go to this kind of. of course this was a meeting with foreign journalists so international affairs were discussed and speaking about syria which in has called on the international community to crush your decision opposition into holding peaceful dialogue with. stressing that it's taking 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 to be of 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'm a student which is one of the sides once you become totally invincible but this undermines the strategic balance of forces in the world we think it's highly dangerous he was strategic balance his letters avoid global conflicts since the second world war when a country begins to think it's invincible to retaliate straight from another country if leads to a lot of conflicts and aggressive behavior and it's not just because america is an aggressive country but because this is the way life is for the presidential polls to take place as soon as this sunday and taking part nationally the political situation in russia took center stage. for journalists especially in light of the numerous opposition rallies which have been taking place across the country since. action in december and what they were pushing said that he's taken more off

the opposition's demands on board actually describing the entire protest movement as a positive thing for the country was sort of energizes the authorities by which it has also commented on the one of the opposition. just a new. parliamentary elections. of florida during. prime minister as completely ruled out holding a new election saying. is determined strictly by legislation. reporting on the program we have more on the election process here in russia. last. month. which is. very modern ways of attracting both this is the internet becomes the arena in the battle for hearts and minds. and with less than two days now before the polls open

takes a closer look at what's at stake. for the average russian soldier is there such a person is relatively obvious or take partly because they think there isn't much of a real choice and secondly because they think that he's going to win. organized. too so i think there's probably more even if he wins and even if even if he wins it's read to me it seems to me that kind of argument caves in on itself because i can go to you i mean it's just hard for the outside world to understand the drive i mean food 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 get any numbers on but the polls

have certainly shown a very substantial rise and that mr putin is what we can sweep to victory in the first round. to be a full episode of course or coming your way in about twenty minutes time all the months of talks confrontations history and so this united you is probably signed a watered down fiscal pact of the agreement is supposed to enforce tough new budget rules but britain and the czech republic found the idea too much to take our correspondents are silly reports in brussels on the pacts future. what's next is the a contracting parties will now have to present this treaty to their own parliaments and have it ratified what is needed for this treaty to come into effect our twelve euro zone their ratifications for it to be implemented on the contracting parties now twenty five of the twenty seven have

a sidebar to this treaty what they are saying that this is a positive political statement that the euro is the currency of the european union of one hand it could be seen as a political statement on the other hand critics will see the two countries that 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 our allies who also hold a referendum on the treaty so a while the leaders here are widely expecting the treaty to be ratified with 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 meet those targets set out by this pact realistically only germany luxembourg and finland targets and the rest are very happy very little room to maneuver so while leaders who are saying that they're out of the crisis mode really it is very difficult to say that this in fact solves europe's crisis now here's more on that. it's been talked about for months as a solution to europe's crisis it's called. the new free 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 euro zone nations this pact comes with tight budgetary rules that must be strictly adhered to. face automatic sanctions. member states must maintain a balanced budget or have a surplus keep a budget deficit of three percent or less and shrine the balanced budget rule into national legislation within one year prefer within the constitution if budgetary targets are not met the 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 good stock and he's going to police all the budget is on the member states and

these member states will lose sovereignty in the field of budgetary policy now is the population going to accept this. a population that's already been forced to accept one toughest study measure after another one group of them is in the rules that if you are doing or thirty everywhere you go towards crisis everybody is no tackling. if we are cutting expenses everywhere then you crush it with nobody's consuming nobody's investing but the point of this truth is a continuation of liberal orthodoxy. so we are exactly going to work we haven't done that i think three years. in the us the readers see the budgetary discipline the school stability pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the result structural imbalances and help prices it countries ease their way out of their predicament but it's a one size fits all approach worried about the impact it could have on healthier

economies you could lead to huge fiscal close relation bias so even those countries that have has your fiscal situation. closely at the end of the school accounts which can depress comic a.p.t at a time and banks piece problems and they don't have to be one to land not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are growth and employment class are still you archie brussels and eurozone finance ministers have also once again delayed greece's second bailout i things must now wait another week pending the approval of discount all private investors who are in our last up to seventy percent of their investments in greek bonds nigel farage i mean 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 just remember three weeks ago to eighty thousand people storming the barricades of the greek parliament trying to get in we saw five thousand armed police keeping them out we're seeing evidence of this in spain in portugal i mean come on we saw an arab spring last year was absolutely no reason why similar things carol happen in southern europe it is difficult enough to stomach tough austerity measures 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 for before we get to casey with the market update for the hour let's do the r.t. world update now and we'll start with iran now electing members of the country's a two hundred ninety see parliament is the first nationwide vote since the disputed reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad in june of two thousand and nine

thawing allegations of vote rigging and that poll a mass protest organize a largely through social media this election is widely viewed as a contest between two conservative groups namely the supporters of the current president and supporters of the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. and the 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 distracted residents there are warnings that ten rivers in the region could soon burst the ranks in neighboring south wales a new south wales that is people are preparing for the possibility of the heaviest rainfall in over one hundred years. slogans promises and pledges are the usual attributes of any presidential campaign but these he is in russia has seen some brand new creative weapons unleashed the internet has become one of the major

battlegrounds although the content can be scandalous in north and tali innocent. over now looks at the online. 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 poet in the dead of tandem to posting not so innocent b.t.o. fakes. charges against putin include embezzle meant financial fraud and abuse of office.

compatibly grassley anti crime income painting the pro quo to be and seem a little toothless. makes. me glad. to hear you. now you. can. hear. the topic of ukraine not paying for russian gas present this video has been made on the kremlin's orders otherwise i don't understand who would be interested in spending money on this but even for putin is a useless with if someone made up their mind to vote for putin this video carefully won't make them any firmer in their decision but on the contrary if there is putin it deftly will made 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 students such as yes we were told what

a. symbol much is the only see a stunning video. not. quite the first. to me who the candidates videos are annoying it seems that they hired the cheapest directors to film this fast food horrible quality this only proves one thesis about these elections none of the candidates are striving for victory one is the outspoken leader anyway the others think of this campaign as a 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 please their child politics. however when we go off why grittiest set aside giving way to clear images i want 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 creative video could windows from the other in our case there were a foot in supporters 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 a small percentage of undecideds. are willing to do whatever it takes to win over those voters right to the last minute. chance. to splatting for now tell. us. good girl. take her away. it.

sounds. good now get the next one in here you didn't catch our teeth. all right and i'll try to see how the markets are doing let's cross over to the business that's ground. zero as to how the rest of the russian market is doing at this hour well they're actually close now ross i'm going to give you the closing figures but this year so far it's been a positive year i mean the the the markets have seen a twenty four percent rise since december that makes them the best performing stock markets in the while the rebels also don't particularly well have a six month high so let's see how they close up today we'll take a look at the figures for you and i do believe they finished up positive net was it was a mixed day it was a choppy day of trade to say the least but as you can see it was in positive figures so russian investors can however and i speak just before the elections so

let's see how the interview share music got on that as you can see ross telecom they are out half a percent there wasnt over a percent in positive territory. and they're having a challenging time at the moment just as their company gears up for its buyback program which is just a place on the twelfth of march to stay with the markets many analysts are saying that we're going to see a rally after the elections on sunday earlier we spoke to who sunshine from i have seen much more and he's saying that he is expecting a rally but that will happen regardless of who wins the presidential campaign. 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 see that this rally scene of the last couple of weeks is because of increasing carbon it's about elections they could be part of the. increase in the world prices also played

a very material. so let's see how it all is doing at this hour as you can see it is slightly down but it's all relative very strong in the medium term light sweet that is over hundred seven dollars per brant over a hundred and twenty. four dollars per barrel now despite crude prices being in the red this hour as we've just seen a mid-term they do remain fairly strong and is proving to be a bad thing for the u.k. and it's not a faction sexo which contrasted by almost one percent in the last quarter of twenty eleven i expect to say that if they continue seeing rising costs and we could demand it will make sustaining output growth and job creation quite difficult or prices are said to be rising at a foster's rate in nineteen he is. a slightly different picture in switzerland where the economy showed signs of growth during the same period the g.d.p. grew north point one percent in the final quarter of twenty eleven fueled by exports despite the soaring swiss franc which normally goes against exporters but

not not not their. moving on that let's see how the europe region is doing as you can see the footsie on the sites i do down for this hour both that sell a dozen rounds a quarter of a cent in negative territory. move in and we're going to see how the u.s. opens up as you can see a negative open for them yesterday they had a positive finish they've gone down investors remain cautious let's move on then we'll see how the exchange rates are looking at this hour of the year is edging up higher verses its major rivals including the euro you can see that. because a weaker than anticipated german sells us going against the euro at the moment the ruble is we can get some greenback and i are against the year i. and move in on a russian initiative starts will soon have an easy way of getting financial support

the russian venture company the artist my sex schools and high tech for us not o.s.'s we have a joint venture to trade shares of alice is high tech companies analysts say it will become a business in cuba. you base a book promising firms are willing to list on the boston market is. on a deadline is over for those interested in getting a piece of moscow's dormancy as if apple is and it turns out only vote company will supply it's not russian investment holding sumach yen is all that dough majed if i only can get a five billion dollars for the airports but no one seems to be willing to dish sounds that much monday. ok i'll be back with more market news in about fifty five minutes time to join me.

as russia votes for president r.t. looks at the five running for the kremlin a top jobs picture and today to move money approaching a two time president now during prime minister and face the likes of russia party. the record to two points to stability he secured after the chaotic e.l.c. years praised for overseeing a booming economy the real starvation russia's presence of the world stage play the presidency modernization fighting corruption maximizing russia's impacts in international affairs controversy chris.