in them. humanitarian aid enters the syrian city of homs off to government forces push the armed fighters from their stronghold locals report that the rebels are still in the area and are still killing we get a lot of reaction on this a little later here on r.t. prime minister and presidential hopeful vladimir putin says an energized opposition helps the government response of the public mood i reject schools 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 unrealistic expectations will hit struggling nations our top stories.

international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours at the syrian government forces have allowed an aid convoy to enter the city of holmes after capturing the rebel stronghold of. 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 an ocean a 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 both its 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 fighters based under command and control center highly religious or exporters and explosives the reports also say that they've found hundreds of bodies with multiple injuries and torture marks the station on the ground still remains three mattick i was killed 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 many attempts we finally managed to speak by phone with homes further dence 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 really bandits they can shoot in the back of the queue people rob houses one can be shot for no reason we are free to go into the country as our park and we start and we can do short the

coup both young and on the people from the chant them to put them in plastic 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 most of them are christian families. to go and are tired of syrians and want peace and love bush. put the syrian soldiers to protect us are being killed every day we've heard of mercenaries from france tunisia love an ongoing we don't go anywhere. just think. people like. shortly after the rebels was droll one of the syrian main opposition groups formed a military council to organize an armed resistance and provide the rebels with more weapons the fact that just shows and proves how diplomats rise the conflict in syria has become recently as the country is fearing close to a civil war between

a critic who has just come back from homs so 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 cited by 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 islamist opposition on the other i saw many lebanese mercenaries i spoke with members of the syrian army who told me about tunnels that intel between holmes and lebanon which are used by mercenaries who are paid a lot of money to fight me on it that 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 that mr rich of. the more in the situation in syria are now joined by tunick ali he's a historian author filmmaker and middle east expert joining me there in london homes as for the rebels are in retreat it is a sad certain to stay all know well he is not going to be remorse after all it's not possible to remove them immediately that is obvious the key used thing is whether inter major e not aligned with either side are capable of pushing both sides stroke on from the stable to agree to a solution to this crisis it seems to me but things are got very hard on both for. assad regime carries on as if it doesn't realize how heated it is by some stay comfortable very good and the opposition which is armed now increasingly by the

west by oh it's on you it's going out there and saudi arabia and turkey are turning nasty as your report makes clear and there's no other course from the region every . so made clear and this does not help anyone in syria if it goes on like this it's becoming more and more sectarian if minorities christians whoever else are being targeted by the so-called liberation from forces of the country so i think what it suggests is a negotiated settlement and for people to push both sides to sit on the road to a negotiated settlement resulting in a sound going or would the country not be better off and indeed the region would be better off if he stays on well this is open question in my opinion of course the assad family frogger and son are responsible for a great deal of bloodshed in syria and the role they play in the region

cannot be used as a counterbalance to about when the bulk of the people in your country say to you in heaven's name go we don't want bloodshed but go been an intelligent leader decides that if you just go and for him to be replaced by someone else from within the regime and it's just him who can ben let go she it would be your position i think sooner or later we'll have to go because the m.b.p. and stay in power now is through more bloodshed and his enemies are many but on the message being sent to him from outside the country the latest development russia and china they've now joined the rest of the u.n. security council in condemning the humanitarian situation there what kind of message does that does that send to a sad he is in effect running out of friends now well i think it sends a very clear message do not take our support for granted we veto

a foreign intervention that is called the facto did and they were right to do so russia and china but they're saying to us but don't take our support for. granted you know quite capable of changing our opinion and it's an important pressure because i think both china and russia are in a strong position to even more pressure on the assad regime to back down and to organize a ceasefire if he backs down organize a cease fire what happens next no tarik everybody is very concerned about a post a sad syria is the opposition really in a fit state to take control i don't think it is and i think that what is interesting is that though to regional powers that are pushing for a military solution so be it be empathic or are hardly shining examples of democracy i mean if it worked then one could at least stick them at face value but

they are saying things to syria which they do not see through the bahraini rule. or to others in the region so that doesn't strike me as something very convincing and if what it wants to do to syria is what it just done to libya then one has to see it as a replacement for sirte will not be any different separate will be a different group of people carrying out record it's really interesting to hear your perspective on the latest events there tariq ali thank you very much for your thoughts there live in london thank you and by the way you can find out more footage from syria on our website our teeth dot com as well as some disturbing pictures from another conflict scarred country this video you're about to see now leaked from pushed gadhafi libya appears to show a group of africans not in a zoo and forced to eat all flags and. also on the

website google is at loggerheads with the e.u. is the internet giants ability to snoop on users raises fears that criticism is being pushed aside those stories and plenty. r.t. to come. on to putin has called on 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 ahead of sunday's presidential vote his attitude to domestic opponents and russia's foreign relations were among the issues he faced questions on this going on brings us more now. of course this was a meeting with foreign journalists so international affairs were discussed and speaking about syria by good fortune 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 always have to resort to pollution 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 a relations with the united states the prime minister has said that the reset has worked economically wise but when it comes to washington supplants for the anti missile defense system in europe the reset as field of nation which is 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 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 the presidential polls are to take place as soon as this sunday and taking part and nationally the political situation in russia took center stage at the session with foreign journalists especially in light of the numerous opposition rallies which have been taking place across the entire country since. action in december and what they were pushing said that he's taken more of the opposition's demands on board actually describing the protest movement as a positive thing for the country was sort of energizes the authorities but you know what it has also commented on one of the opposition's. just a whole new early parliamentary elections following accusations of fraud during december's votes and the prime minister as completely ruled out holding

a new election saying that. is determined strictly by legislation well later in the program we've got more on the election process here in russia. because. it's not. just. hard to log on to check out the very modern ways of attracting votes as the internet becomes the arena in the battle for hearts and minds. and there were the polls open on sunday putin of l. takes a closer look at what's at stake. for the average russian soldiers as such a person is relatively up asserting partly because they think there isn't much of a real choice and secondly because they think protein is going to win. organize that he wins whatever the voters do so i think there's probably more 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 to me of this research 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. and you can see a lot of cross talk in this next hour here. once the thoughts and confrontations the history now are disunited e.u. is probably signed a watered down fiscal pact agreement as opposed to enforced tough new budget rules

but britain and the czech republic found the idea too much to take a correspondent to syria has more on what perhaps future. what's next is that 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 are 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 arlen who wants to 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 meter those targets set out by this pact realistically only germany luxembourg and finland the may need these targets and the rest are very having very little room to maneuver so while leaders who are saying that they're out of a crisis moldova 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 he's called. partly new france 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 or else 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 of national legislation within one year preferred within the constitution if budgetary targets are not met 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 bunch of stock and he's going to police all the gotchas 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 good economy sniffles that if you are doing those thirty if you were to go towards crisis everybody is no tackling people because if we are keeping going to expenses everywhere then you crush it we're in the bodies consuming nobody's investing their growth is the point of this

truth is a continuation of a liberal orthodoxy. so we are exactly going back to what we have been in the last fifteen years. in the us e.u. leaders see the budgetary discipline this the school security pact is expected to bring as a step closer to solving the eurozone structural imbalances and help crisis that 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 and could lead to huge fiscal consolidation. even those countries that have a healthier fiscal situation of. course we do go to school accounts beach and the press becoming activity at a time when banks face problems and they do not tell you want to lend and not a desirable scenario where the new buzzwords are growth and employment just are cilia r t brussels euro zone finance ministers of also once again delayed greece's

second bailout in athens because now wait another week pending the approval of disgruntled private investors you've lost up to seventy percent of their investments in greek bonds bulging for aaja m.e.p. and leader of the u.k. independence party believes that greece is no one truly on the brink. well no one doubts that tough decisions need to be segueing grates 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 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 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 the german bad room for mr barroso is for millions of people just totally unacceptable. now to some of the stories making headlines around the world this anti us protests over the burning of the qur'an as an american air base in afghanistan last month have now spread to southern pakistan members of a right wing party who organize the demonstration when they want ties with america cut over the desecration of the muslim holy book thirty people have been killed so far in weeks of demonstrations mainly in afghanistan and despite an apology from president obama. someone held responsible and put on trial. iran is elected members of the country's two hundred ninety seat parliament it's a person nationwide vote since the disputed reelection of president mahmoud ahmadinejad in june two thousand and nine following allegations of vote rigging in that poll mass protests were organized largely on social media this election is widely viewed as a contest between two conservative groups supporters of the current president and

supporters of the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. 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 it is a country which overlooks of the online awesome. 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 force hard in the online wars from rapping and slating to continue that it sound them to posting not so innocent video fakes. charges against it would

include embezzle and financial fraud and abuse of office. compatibly grass it anti kremlin complaining that broke out in videos can seem a little toothless. was making. me laugh. can you believe. you. can't. leave 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 way to have someone made up their mind to vote for putin there fully

won't make them any firmer in their decision 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 slogan such as yes we were told what abortion was a symbol not just don't see our stuff with you. not. like. 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 a victory one is the outspoken leader anyway and the others think of this campaign as a ritual they have to go through which they don't really want to spend too much money on. so with the real candidates they're only putting in an ad for supporters or

opponents are taking the lead using the internet as a free medium to play their chill politics however when we go offline grittiest start a site giving way to hear images advantage of camera angles and easily understood slogans a tried and tested method which has badly 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 win votes from the other in our case there is a firm kerfoot in support of us thirty thirty five percent which is very hard to shake and i cannot imagine what putting all 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 voters right to the last minute.

despite its. happening. and you can write a shame you. good girl. take her away. sure did the camera roll. we have sound. good now give the next one in here to do a gradual r.t.d. screw. and it's overdue so if you're not business desk and you're young this time to turn your fortunes for oriel yeah that's right the top story in business this hour is that oil has indeed fall in the most it's december as u.s. president barack obama said a preemptive strike on iran might generate sympathy for the persian gulf country which is easing concerns of attack will take place and therefore or prices as a result are going down we're going to see the figures right now as you can see

they are indeed in the red light sweet is now over one hundred six dollars per barrel the presence nearly one hundred four dollars per barrel so a change of fortunes very much indeed. and we're going to check the russian markets now it was a most working day for russia before the election campaign i wanted bess's remain optimistically l.c.s. just a fraction of the my six point seven percent are but these are the individual got on there will have a look. at it almost one and a half percent it is here we see bankers losing ground as the bank is paying for its buyback program due around march the twelfth i believe and you may just well also higher with gazprom finishing one percent in the black just. we was hoping to hawk sunshine today from i often see metropolit he said but indeed investors are expecting a rally but that will happen regardless of who wins on sunday. the rally could be

quite significant 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 say that this rally scene of the last couple of weeks is because of increasing carbons about elections that could be part of it but a significant increase in the world prices also played a very material role. and let's see how europe is doing right now europe is indeed loza first finish in new grads both the diets around a third and let's see how the u.s. is doing they are indeed still i ten so business and it's not such a great day for them yesterday investors have indeed changed their minds technology stocks are doing all that well but it's the energy ones that are pulling those numbers down exchange rates and the toll is higher against the euro and that's a lot to do with the fact that germany. is weaker than expected not score but it's

weighing on the sentiment traders in the region if we take a look you can see the ruble we've got the group will learn against the greenback and higher i can stay year at this hour. i do know the news russia's gas giant gazprom offered ukraine a natural gas price discounts of ten percent true monkey the two countries are in heavy talks over the price formula for russians gas exports gas gas prices by attempt to some of his european partners. and moving on to other ways. so much as a by the deadline is over for those interested in getting a piece of most of those dogs ahead of airports and as it turns out plenty one company wants to buy it and losses that russian investment holding sumach own is all but dollar debt of only can get over five billion dollars for the airports

thoughts no one seems to be willing to dish out that much money. but also from a out the rest of the business team here on our t.v. because they change all the headlines or get over to the website this currency that r.t. dot com slash business if i have great ads.