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

international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day syrian government forces have allowed an aid convoy to enter the city of homs after capturing the rebel stronghold of baba amr this follows a call from the u.n. security council to allow immediate humanitarian access to the worst affected areas a motion supported by russia and china for a notion i spoke to residents of the seed city who gave an eyewitness account of what she described as atrocities committed while the rebels were in control. international red cross and syrian red crescent has reached 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 syria is now under the government's control local media reports that in the tunnels underneath hopes the army has discovered the point is a basic right of command and control center packed with electronics weapons and explosives the reports also say that they've found hundreds of god is with multiple injuries and torture marks the situation on the ground still remains three matic kilty infrastructure has been badly damaged homes there is no water no electricity and no food no water while coverage and lens life has also been badly damaged after a million times we finally managed to speak by phone with holmes first a dense the woman has called herself galina without giving us her last name she has said that local residents are afraid to leave their houses. the self-proclaimed revolutionaries are real bandits they can shoot in the back of the queue people rob one can be shot dead for no reason we are free to go to the country as our car can

restart and we can be sure the cue ball young and on the people from their homes and chant them into pieces and 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 the media and they've killed many people there and most of them are christian families. i mean civilians are tired of slaughter syrians want peace and they love bush. put the syrian soldiers who protect us are being killed every day we've heard mercenaries from france tunisia lebanon. we don't go anywhere. it's wilfried of snipers people like. shortly after the rebels was draw one of the syrian main opposition groups formed a military council to organize. resistance and provide the rebels with more weapons a factor just shows and proves how diplomats rise the conflict in syria has become recently as the country is very close to

a civil war. the project coordinator for the beirut based conflicts forum so is the mainstream media is still failing to balance the reports of atrocities committed in syria i think there's a growing recognition that some of the very fundamentalist islamist groups who probably make up about thirty percent of the armed insurgents that they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality terrible. 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 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 have 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. katrina who has just come back from homes as she witnessed a scene of chaos and carnage in the water on city. i spent nine days in homes 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 years lowest opposition on the other i saw many lebanese mercenaries i spoke

with members of the syrian army who told me about tunnels that had been told between homes and lebanon which are used by mercenaries who pays 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 or is it. the european union has recognized the syrian national council as a legitimate representative representative of the people and with foreign powers taking sides the future of syria would have international politics not interior developments that's the view of james corbett and he's the editor of the japan based in the planet news website called the 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 admitted 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 you know certainly last night there were a number of multiple confirmed reports from various different news agencies confirming that iraqi officials were admitting that certain long established smuggling routes were being used through iraq to funnel arms and 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 which once again take on is there some other significance really dependent on the extent of the aid that they're going to receive if the international community loses stomach for attempting to incite instead to regime change in syria i think will soon be the end of the opposition.

by the way you can find more footage from syria on our website r.t. dot com as well as some disturbing pictures from another conflict scarred country this video leaked from post gadhafi libya appears to show a group of africans locked in a zoom and forced to eat old flags. course in the works of the moment google is at loggerheads with the e.u. as the internet giants ability to snoop on users raises fears that privacy is being pushed aside or that call. let me putin has called any attempts to arm the syrian opposition unacceptable insisting it would undermine peace efforts the prime minister and presidential hopeful was speaking with members of the foreign media are ahead of sunday's

presidential vote his attitude to domestic opponents and russia's foreign relations were among the issues he faced questions on r.t. as you go piss him off brings us more. of course this was a meeting with foreign journalists so international affairs were discussed and speaking about syria has called on the international community to pressure the syrian opposition into holding peaceful dialogue with assad's regime stressing that it's taking sides in this conflict is not a way to resolve it and we're going to put in was 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's plans for the anti missile

defense system in europe the research has failed at least on which one of the sides wants to become totally invincible but this undermines the strategic balance of forces in the world we think it's highly dangerous the strategic balance has let us avoid global conflicts since the second world war when a country begins to think it's invincible to retaliate and 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 but because this is the way life is for the presidential poll said to take place as soon as this sunday and for what you know which i'm taking part and then actually the political situation in russia took center stage. in a session with foreign journalists especially in light of the numerous opposition rallies which have been taking place across the country since the parliamentary election in december and what they were a person 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 authorities by which it has also commented on the one of the opposition. demands just a new. parliamentary elections following accusations of fraud during december and the prime minister has completely ruled out holding a new election saying that its timeline is determined strictly by legislation. later in the program we got more on the election process here in russia. which is a. very important ways of attracting votes as the internet becomes the arena in the battle for hearts. and with less than two days before the polls open putin of takes a closer look at what's at stake. average russian for such

a person is relatively are pathetic partly because they think there isn't much of a real choice and secondly because they think that he's going to win it will be organized if you win whatever the voters do so i think there's going to be probably more even if even if he wins and even if it is even if he wins it's rigged i mean it seems to me that kind of argument caves in on itself erick if i can go to you i mean it's just hard for the outside world to understand the drive i mean for this research popular. well there's something very embarrassing for the journalist we've heard a lot in the western press about how can was losing its popularity how well 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. crosstalk coming your way a little later here in the next. once talks and confrontations are history now a disunited e.u. has proudly signed a watered down fiscal pact the grievances post to enforce tough new budget rules but britain and the czech republic funny idea too much to take a correspondent as a silly has more on the past future. what's next is that the a contracting parties will have to present this treaty to their own parliaments and have it ratified what is needed for this treaty to come into effect are twelve years old now ratifications for it to be implemented on of 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 on one hand it could be seen as a political statement on the other hand critics will see the 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 ireland who was to hold a referendum on the treaty so while the leaders here are widely expecting the treaty to be ratified the question is how smoothly will it go through this process now in 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 agree need these targets and the rest are very having very little room to maneuver so while leaders here 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 is more on that. it's been talked about for months claimed as a solution to europe's crisis. prescribe park avenue for 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 and 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. face automatic sanctions. member states must maintain a balanced budget or have a surplus keep a budget deficit of three percent or less and trying to balance a budget rule international legislation with it one year preferred 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 budget start and he's going to police all the branches all the member states and these member states will rule 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 tough austerity measure after another good economy some of those if you are doing if you were to go towards crisis. it is no tackling probably because if we're cutting public expense and everywhere then you crush it we're in the bodies consuming nobody's interest groups the point of this truth is a continuation of a liberal orthodoxy. so exactly going back to what we have done in the last fifteen years. in the us e.u. readers see the budgetary discipline the school security pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the eurozone structural imbalances and help crisis hit 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 on healthier economies could lead to huge fiscal consolidation largess.

even those countries that have your fiscal situation. there and of course going to count which can depress coming. better than banks face problems and they do want to you want to land not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are growth and employment just are silly archie brussels. euro zone finance ministers have also once again delayed greece's second bailout i things must wait another week pending the approval of disgruntled private investors who lost up to seventy percent of their investments in greek bonds now due for a leader of the u.k. independence party believes greece is now 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 there were eighty thousand people storming the barricades of the greek parliament trying to get in and 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 there's no absolutely no reason why similar things celt happen in southern europe it is difficult to stomach tough austerity measures tough government if it's your own elected government but to be dictated to by angela merkel herman van rompuy oil and mr barroso is for millions of people just totally unacceptable. now or to some other stories making headlines around the world this are not updated on this electing members of the country's two hundred ninety six parliament it's a first nationwide vote since the disputed reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad in june two thousand and nine putting allegations of vote rigging in nepal mass protests were organized largely through social media this election is what i'd leave huge as a contest between two conservative groups 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 warnings that ten rivers in the region could burst their banks neighboring new south wales people are preparing for the possibility that it is painful but one hundred. slogans promises and pledges of the usual attributes of any presidential campaign but this year's race 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 and not entirely innocent is a country which overlooks the. there's 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 force hard in the online wars from rapping and slating to put in the vetted tandem. not so innocent video fakes. charges against it would include embezzlement financial fraud and abuse of office. compacts of the grass if and when campaigning broke out in video scanned seem a little toothless. was a. wild card. if you leave. a half an hour to. the top it could

be crying 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 way to go if someone made up their mind to vote for putin therefore he won't make them any firmer in their decision on the contrary if they're against putin it definitely will make them change their mind this prominent journalist and blogger believes it's not only putin losing the war of creativity other candidates look desperate to. get the last students out as yes. what a. symbol not just on the cia stuff. not clear. right now but first this is me who the candidates videos are annoying it seems that they hired the cheapest directors to film this fast food horrible

quality it's only produce 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 too much money on. so would the real candidates barely putting in an ad for supporters or opponents are taking the lead using the internet as a free media to play their child politics however when we go offline crip t.v. is set aside giving way to hear images advantage of camera angles and easily understood slogans tried and tested method which has not only secured votes but several generations of politicians in this country that if there had been five candidates breathing down each other's necks then every creative video could we need those from the other in our case there is a firm core of put in support us thirty thirty five percent which is very hard to

shake and i cannot imagine what put in 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 but some are willing to do whatever it takes to win over those floating voters right to the last minute. chance. respond to. what. i thought happen you're right and you place. good girl. take her away. sure we can arrange. we have. good good the next one here you can see the gratitude of our t.v. crew. though it's time to see how the markets are performing this is on the business desk could you what's the sentiment ahead of this weekend that well it is

indeed the presidential election weekend as you know which means today was the last working day as far as the russian markets are concerned they finished. and as far as a yearly performance is concerned the markets have surged by twenty four percent since december and the ruble is actually at a nearly six month highs they're doing rather well let's have a look at the figures these are the closing figures thought today as you can see the artist and the my stocks were both in positive territory there see how the institution we've got on russia's national telecoms operator russ had a call was among the top performers following news of an acquisition deal a rosner have also finished up in positive territory despite the company's net profit rose to eleven billion dollars last year as well does not appear to be there if they manage to finish in the red they're having a challenging time because the buyback program which is to take place on the twelfth of march now because we've got the presidential election coming up many of

us are expecting a round table earlier we spoke to hawke sunshine from i've seen much paul and he said look we're going to get the rally we've got all those of who wins the election campaign 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 week or two i think it would be a mistake to see that this rally we've seen over the last couple of weeks is because of increasing car that it's about elections that could be part of it but a significant increase in the world prices also played a very material. i'm over on the topic of oil let's see how the oil prices are looking at this hour as we can be in negative territory. in terms of the fact that they remain very high in the media. now i should say in the rest fast as far as the u.k. is concerned it's proven to be

a bass thing and its manufacturing sector which contracted by almost one percent in the last quarter of it twenty eleven almost by one percent experts say that if they continue seeing rising costs and weakness of mons it will make sustaining growth and job creation quite difficult. and it's a slightly different picture for 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 despite the soaring swiss franc which normally has a negative impact on exports. and this is a look at how europe is doing that kind of again of their trading days it looks like it's a mixed picture for now though footsies recently got into the rise in the taxes just about holding on to gains you had the closing figures shortly as you can see america is in deed down now it's actually technology firms that are doing rather

well and as you found out her leg is down the stocks are down in general moving on they're going to get on and see how the exchange rates are looking at this hour now the dollar is higher. against all the major rivals including the year either as a for the ruble it's lower because the greenback and higher against the euro this hour. are moving on a russian innovative startles who seem to have an easier way to get financial support the russian venture company the r.t.s. my thanks both and high tech firm ross nano associate with joint venture to trade shares of a listed high tech company is let's say it will become a business incubator for promising is willing to list on the russian market. and the deadline is over for those interested in getting a piece of moore's those airports and as it turns out only one company wants to buy it and that is

a russian investment holding to see the owners of that dome of debt of zero are looking at to get over five billion dollars for the airport but no one seems to be willing to dish out that much money. now it's a lot of money that obvious back in about fifty five minutes maybe more it's in the u.s. this is how europe gets all about joining me that. russia votes for president our genius of the five running for the kremlin top job the

candidate journeys you got sixty seven chance the achievements of communism were before his time the record second in presidential elections since the end of the u.s.s.r. the two thousand and. well folks will be his fourth plan for the presidency free education and housing punish illegal immigration and introduce ethnicity stomps and cost courts controversy to killers communists usually those with putin's party on the big issues known abroad for exploiting soviet nostalgia with pensioners the discontented industrial working class. presidential election two thousand and twelve on parts his.