in the palm of your. jobs call. humanitarian aid into these syrian city of homs after government forces push the fighters from their stronghold but locals report that rebels are still in the area and are still killing. from the presidential hopeful that in the putin says an energized opposition helps the government respond to the public mood but rejects calls for an early parliamentary election. plus the majority of e.u. nations on a long delayed deal to make economic discipline compulsory critics fear unrealistic expectations will hit struggling nations our top stories.

international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. with 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 un security council to allow immediate humanitarian access to the worst affected areas a motion supported by russia and china parties where if an ocean a spoke to a resident of the seed city who have 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 homes the army has discovered the fighters of a style of command and control center highly religious warnings 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 kill sick infrastructure has been badly damaged homes there is no water no electricity and no food no mobile coverage and limbs life has also been badly damaged after many attempts were finally managed to speak by phone with homes presidents the woman has called herself the leader without giving us her last name she has local residents are afraid to leave their houses. the self-proclaimed revolutionaries are real grandad's they can shoot in the back the people rob one can be shot for no

reason we are afraid to go to the country and our car can be stopped and we can do short the queue both young and on the people from their homes in chop them into pieces 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 have they've killed many people there and most most of them are christian families. i mean civilians are tired of syrians want peace and be loved. but the syrian soldiers who protect us are being killed every day we've heard that mercenaries from france tunisia. we don't go any. just. freed of. people like. shortly after the rebels there's draw one of the syrian main opposition groups formed military council to organize. resistance and provide rebels with more weapons the fact that just shows and troops how to play

militarized the conflict in syria has become recently as the country is very close to a civil war. the russian foreign ministry has called on the un to look at the calls to arm rebels in syria coming from several arab league states a spokesman suggested that may go against the un's goal of fighting terrorism actually burn the project coordinator for the conference for believes atrocities committed by opposition fighters are being ignored i think there is growing recognition that some of the very fundamentalist islamist groups probably make up about thirty percent of the armed insurgents that they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality terrible actions 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 holmes and for example they did get ambulances through to take the engine of 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 into to evacuate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there. a katrina who has just come back from home so she witnessed a scene of chaos and carnage in the water on city. on thursday 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 you slam mr opposition on the other i saw many lebanese mercenaries i spoke with members of the syrian army who told me about tunnels that it's been dark between homes and lebanon which are used by mercenaries who are paid a lot of money to fight the army 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. which are the european union has recognized the syrian national council as the legitimate representative of the people and with foreign powers taking sides the future of syria will depend on international politics not interior developments very much corbett editor of egypt based independent news website a court reporter. 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 admitted support for these supposed it 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 you confirmed reports from various different news agencies confirming that iraqi officials were admitting that certain will a 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 which once again take on this or some other city i think it's really dependent on the extent of the aid that they're going to receive if the international community loses stomach for it and to

institute regime change and syria i think will see the end of the opposition. by the way you can find more footage from syria on our web site r.t. dot com that's what it's some disturbing pictures from another conflict scarred country and this video leaked from post gadhafi libya appears to show a group of africans locked in a zoo and forced to eat all flags. and 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 those stories for you right now that article called. let me push in is called any attempts to arm the syrian opposition unacceptable and

system 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 is attitude to domestic opponents and russia's foreign relations were among the issues he faced questions on going to spin 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 regime stressing that seeking sides in this conflict is not how we have to resolve it 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 the 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 reset has fields of mystery 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 learned to avoid global conflicts since the second world war when a country begins to think it's invincible to a retaliation strike 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 for the presidential poll said to take place as soon as this sunday and what was your point in taking part and naturally 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 sweeping place across the entire country since the

parliamentary election in december and what you were reporting 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 but it was it has also commented on one of the opposition's. demands which is to hold new early parliamentary elections following accusations of fraud during december quarter and the prime minister has completely ruled out holding a new election saying that. is determined strictly by legislation. later in the program we've got more on the election process here in russia. which is supposed. to check out the very important ways of attracting votes as the internet becomes the arena in the battle for hearts and minds. start

a company but first less than two days before the polls open peter neufeld takes a closer look at what's at stake. 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. he's going to win organize that he wins whatever the voters do so i think there's 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 caves in on itself erica if i can go to you i mean it's just hard for the outside world to understand the drive to me of building this research popular. well there's something very embarrassing for the journalists we've heard a lot in the western press about how putin was losing his 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. the full of a sort of cross talk is coming your way nine hundred thirty g m t months of talks and confrontations a history in our disunited e.u. is probably underwater the fiscal pact remains as opposed to the forced tough new budget rules but britain and the czech republic found the idea too much to take a correspondence a silly has more on the pats future. what's next is that the a contracting parties will now have to resend 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 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

of one hundred 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 our ally who loves 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 i want to use that implementation the question is really is that we speaking can this countries actually implemented meeting those targets set out by this pact realistically only germany luxembourg and then let me meet these targets and the rest are very happy 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 here is more on that. it's been talked about for months claimed as a solution to europe's crisis if you still come with car park new from after

another two day summit this fiscal stability compact is signed sealed and delivered . most e.u. leaders have agreed to give it to go ahead and 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 people budget deficit of three percent or less enshrined the balanced budget rule international 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 budget start and he's going to police all the bridges 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. a population that's already been forced to accept one tough austerity measure after another all good according to some of those that if you are doing everywhere you go towards crisis. is no tackling problem because if we are cutting expenses they were crushed where nobody's consuming nobody's interest groups the point of this truth is a continuation. of a looksee. so we are exactly going back to work we haven't done that. in this e.u. leaders see the budgetary discipline the school civility pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the eurozone structural imbalances and help quizes it countries ease their way out of their predicament but it's a one size fits all approach that has worried about the impact it could have on

healthier economies and could lead to huge preschool costs through dish and bias so even those countries that have a healthier fiscal situation they have your course with their fiscal accounts which can depress coming. at a time when banks face problems and they do want to tell you want to lend not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are growth and employment or cilia archie brussels euro zone finance ministers of water once again delayed greece's second bailout how things are is now wait another week pending the approval of disgruntled private investors who've lost up to seventy percent of the investments in greek bonds. and leader of the u.k. independence party believes that 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 when you've got to have some stimulus as well i mean 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 cowled happen in southern europe it is difficult enough to stomach tough austerity measures tough government keep 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 to some other stories making headlines around the world this world updated to us protests over the burning of the qur'an of an american air base in afghanistan last month have now spread to southern pakistan members of a right wing is known as party who organize a demonstration one ties with america cut it's a creation of the muslim holy book thirty people have been killed so far in weeks

of demonstrations in afghanistan and despite an apology from president obama clerics want someone held responsible and put on trial. iran is electing members of the country's two hundred ninety six parliament it's the first nationwide vote since the disputed reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad in june two thousand and nine calling allegations of vote rigging in that poll mass protests were organized largely through social media this election is widely viewed as a contest between conservative groups between two of them 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 has been called in to help carry food water and sandbags to stranded residents the ones that ten rivers in the region could burst their banks may greet you south wales people are preparing for the possibility of the heaviest rainfall in over one hundred

years. 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 not entirely innocent parties are katrina to turn over looks at the online arsenal. there is been a lot of singing dancing drawing and even cooking this election season as presidential campaigns go in hot and creative. issues oppositionists afford hard in the online wars from wrapping and slating that put in the bed in tandem to not so innocent radio fakes.

charges against putin include embezzle meant financial fraud and abuse of office. compact to the grassy anti crowd income painting the pro putin video skin scene and little to please. make. me love. you if you believe. our ears. to. the topic of ukraine not paying for 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 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 on the contrary if there is putin

their free 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. get the last word in sunday as yes. where bush. wants to see a mole notches down the zero zero. not it was right before. me who the candidates videos are annoying it seems that they hired the cheapest directors to film this fast food is horrible quality this 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 doll ritual they have to go through which they don't really want to spend too much money on. so what the real candidates they're really putting in an ad for it supporters or opponents are taking the lead using the internet as

a free medium to play a politics however when we go off why grid t.v. is set aside giving way to clear images advantage of camera angles and easily understood slogans a tried and tested method which has steadily secured votes for several generations up politicians in this country. if there had been five candidates breathing down each other's necks then every creative video could win votes from the other in our case there is a firm core of put in support us thirty or thirty five percent which is very hard to shake and i cannot imagine what could in his office could do in the last few days before the election to lose these votes funny videos won't change anything the other in 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. display. and you.

good girl. take her away. if you're going to be carol. we have sound. good good the next morning here you sit in a gradual our chief who. just turned twenty four minutes past the hour in the russian capital now where to close your business to us so tell us how did the russian markets get on today the last day of the week well i actually finished up on a high actually bill off to soaring twenty four percent since december making the world's best performing stock market of the year with the ruble also close to a six month high so let's take a look at the state is so you can see the r.t.s. on the my sex did indeed finish in the verbal lack. of the r.t.s.

will sort of puts a negative bat on the my six point seven percent our head of the and election ok let's have a look at the stocks as you can see russia's national telecoms operates telecom was among the top performers following news of an acquisition deal last nasa finished down despite the company's net profit rising to almost eleven billion dollars upon earth a down one point two percent in positive territory choppy day that are down. just a fraction down they've called. program is due to start on the twelfth of march earlier we spoke to hawk sunshine from i've seen much problem he said that although we might see a rally of the election we're going to see the rally even godless of who wins 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 was seen of the last couple of weeks as because of

increasing confidence about elections look at be part of the significant increase in the world prices also played a very material. talking of all we're going to see how the oil is fairing of the sap our as you can see it is indeed down but in the long time it is performing incredibly well it's a bad thing for the u.k. though and its manufacturing sector which contrasts of by almost one percent in the last quarter of twenty eleven experts say that if they continue seeing rising costs that we could see mon's it will make sustaining output growth and job creation why did difficult all prices are said to be rising at the fastest rate in nineteen years that said it's perspective that this is slightly different picture in support still and where the economy showed signs of growth during the same period the g c g.d.p. rather grew by your point one percent in the final quarter of twenty eleven fueled

by x. force despite the soaring swiss franc which is interesting no mates or just hates a strong current say ok the second route to the markets is see as you can see europe is indeed down both the city and the dots have recently closed footsie was down around a third of. as us was attacked actually even though e.u. ministers are declaring a turning point for grays for the area investors didn't look too optimistic about ok let's see how the u.s. is getting on there indeed i painted the bases around the middle of the trading day and they are down although technology firms are posting strong gains but it's the energy stocks that are unimpressive today and exchange rate is the dollar is edging edging. high against all these major rivals including the euro that i kates the greenback is low and it's high and i can see european cars say. russia is a gas giant gazprom offered ukraine

a natural gas price discount of ten because cents to remind you the two countries are in heavy talks over the price formula for russia's gas exports a gas problem that reduced gas price by a tenth the sum of its a european part. and the deadline is over for those interested in getting a piece so most days the months he has if i add course tell us it turns out so i believe on company will support after all a modest russian investment holding its theme up here it is over time as judged by looking to get over five billion dollars for the airports but no one seems to be willing to dish out that much money. that's how the business world looks for this hour i'll be back later on the updates in staterooms all say the headlines are next to.

get our selections to the story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't. charge welcome to the big picture. is. here.