a moratorium on town to sing and debate in russia's presidential poll a day before voters decided to leave the country after weeks of election campaign marred by vibrant rallies and protests to. the syrian army reportedly captures dozens of foreign mercenaries some of them from france during the fighting in the rebellious city of homs r.t. gets a firsthand account from an eyewitness to the horrors of war. a very easy. to convene a week from this. storm one of them a powerful israeli lobby seeks president obama's blunt answer on whether the u.s. would support a military strike on iran. ten

am in the russian capital you're watching r t with me marina joshie it's the so-called day of silence in russia had of sunday's presidential election all campaigning and political advertising is banned giving voters breathing space to make their final decision on who to cast their ballots for well it's now cross to the corresponding office can offer as it has got more on this now you gori of morning to you and this upcoming election comes on the heels of protests and a rise in opposition activity in russia making this campaign poll stand out from previous ones right. well absolutely this election is going to be quite different from all the other presidential polls russia's had in its history it's being held i

made. a series of mass rallies taking place across the entire country and a spike in social and political activity among the public in general it's basically started right after the parliamentary election early in december scores of people have been taking to the streets i mean accusations off the ballot fraud and this has led to a massive social campaign for a transparent presidential poll and indeed quite a lot of effort has been done in order to make this election as transparent as possible over ninety thousand polling stations have been equipped with what cameras which will be feeding feeding videos of how the vote is conducted from these polling stations onto what portals for any internet users to use or to be able to watch online see through ballot boxes have been introduced several hundred thousands of servers have been invited and. this spike in the

social activity i very high voter turnout is expected as well according to some polls it could be over seventy percent now five candidates are taking part in this election the winner will need to secure a fifty percent plus one vote if neither candidate manages to achieve that a second round and will be introduced in which two most popular candidates will compete for a simple majority of thoughts. ok or thanks very much indeed for bringing us that very latest and will be crossing back to you throughout the day for more on this. and of course we're going to have special coverage of russia's presidential election here on our t.v. so starting at one am g.m.t. monday we'll be bringing you live the latest results reaction from the candidates as well as in-depth analysis so do join us for that if you can but right now if i have more information on the ballot by looking on terror web site our team. well we have

a special section there devoted to the election and you'll find it and there's profiles whirls answers to questions such as what russian values are most in their future leader of all this and much much more is available at our team. now over one hundred foreign mercenaries have reportedly been captured by syrian government troops after regaining control of rebel held areas in the city of homs sources say the majority of them are french while the rest from several arab countries syrian authorities claim that life in the city that's been under siege for almost a month is getting back to normal but as the national reports there are serious fears the fighting is far from over. two days after the rebel fighters pulled out from gargamel neighborhood in homs things remain chaotic on the ground fears are growing on revenge attacks by the rebels the chief of the free syrian army has claimed it was true tactically shortly after that the opposition syrian national

council has warned on massacre claiming they would provide leadership to discipline ised fighters and to give them work friends arming the rebels has rarely been considered as a good idea by qatar and saudi arabia the twenty two nation arab league hasn't ruled out this option either humanitarian organizations have appealed to president bashar al assad to agree on a daily two hour ceasefire to allow emergency aid to be brought to the areas with the fighting still continues the rock insurgence that's the foreign supporters of the opposition may use these to green weapons to the rebels we're hearing about killings in homes to happen in but reports of conflicts in who's behind it the residents we've managed to speak to by the phone say gunman a killing people in the area known as hell media many christian families leave opposition activists reports about executive style killings and burning homes by the army but these reports are very hard to be very far in the international red cross and the syrian red crescent have reached the city of homs badly damaged and

almost month old siege really an emergency aid food water and medical supplies but they couldn't and baba amr area the area that's been taken by the rebels for weeks and that scene is clashes between them and the authorities but they are staying in homes providing help to people in the cities are the areas reports in this situation on the ground remains catastrophic. if a national reporting their residents of homes and eyewitnesses say horrific scenes of carnage have become a part of everyday life there are she spoke to a russian woman who spent over a week in embattled city picture painted by the media is now always match their reality. i spent nine days in the homes with the syrian red crescent and so with my own eyes the killing the bloodshed under god is on the streets but the media often faces the numbers out of thin air the rush to report schools the victims of violence simply impossible to tell how many people were killed when a building collapses i did take several days to retrieve the bodies of most of the

media also i thought on blaming the army for all the violence and it's not like that opposition fighters are no less responsible for killing people and committing atrocities many rebels in homs used german made rockets to target army and kill soldiers all in all the humanitarian situation in the city is dire with no water no power and little food and the most terrible thing is that people there are becoming used to these conditions. ashleigh environ has a project coordinator for the beirut based conflicts forum says crimes committed by rebels in homs must not be underestimated. i think there's a growing recognition that some of the very fundamentalist islamist groups who probably make up about thirty percent of the insurgents they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality horrible 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 in 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 have confirmed that it was actually the free syrian army who stopped ambulances going into the river accurate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there so i have for you on the program internet crackdown in the u.k. already organized crime police squad targets file sharing websites with the threat of prison terms usually reserved for only the most violent of criminals. plots in the park crackdown widespread child trafficking results in

a ban on international adoption but despite the smiling faces a decision has proven cost. the world's largest pros really lobby i pad is gathering in washington this weekend to put more pressure on iraq obama over attacking iran with a jewish state intensifying war rhetoric threatening military action against the islamic republic the u.s. has been accused of being ambiguous on that matter are just managed to counter reports on the conflicting pressures from those for and against war. president obama's walking on a razor's edge on one hand members of his administration keep saying the war with iran would be a mistake to u.s. military i think or something that states. on iran not only would be premature but on the other hand president obama keeps saying the war with iran is still an option and that he is not quote unquote bluffing powerful israeli lobby

which president obama will be addressing shortly expects to hear a blunt answer to the question is the u.s. ready for war with iran and will washington back israel should it decide to attack first the only way to stop the. police. is a very very clear message. from. the war. and we say president obama's failure to go along with this really plans on iran might hurt him a deal action the president carried you know the overwhelming majority of the jewish vote and fighting back in two thousand and if he is perceived as an. enemy of israel or. the issues. for community here in this country it could have.

adverse impact on the funding of votes. really prime minister netanyahu speech in the u.s. congress last year was greeted with innovation many u.s. lawmakers slammed the rhetoric of the obama administration which the guess that there is still room for diplomacy with iran many in israel believe that if we wait too long we'll be at the point of no return it seems to me to be painfully obvious that this administration's policy is not only the same but that it's failed to achieve a core objective but both those who would back a strike against the random. those who wouldn't seem to be tired of the administration's ambiguity and. it could very very badly we need to go to war and we have to make very clear to our israeli friends are not going to go to war they're not going to go to war by flying over our airspace over iraq under support if they do it will be on their own it consequences will be theirs because the price will pay if they started massive war. interpret.

connivance would be disastrous for us in afghanistan in iraq in the terms of oil stability. this post that was paid for by the emergency committee for israel you. see in washington the campaign very obviously pushes for a more affirmative response from president obama on your readiness to go to war with iran in the run up to this year's elections you might want to hear from the powerful israeli lobby and make those statements but for many it would make a mockery of diplomacy in their words and president obama's nobel peace prize as well for that matter i'm reporting that. brian becker from the answer coalition says it's israel and not iran which should be considered a major threat in the middle east. i don't think israel's assertions are real at all i think it's part of the game plan that's part of

a coordinated assault how iran does not have a nuclear weapon israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons around it subscribes to the i.a.e.a. the international atomic energy agency its nuclear program is monitored israel won't sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty israel routinely invades its neighbors as it has over the past four decades iran has never started to work so when you look at all of these natural found she would say the real menace to peace in the middle east is israel iran is not a menace is iran is being targeted and i think this is part of the israeli high arrogating to itself the right to strike as and then in iraq in one thousand nine hundred one of its nuclear facilities as it did in syria in two thousand and seven as it would like to do the united states government is somewhat afraid that if israel carries out a unilateral scrape with the middle east this will play out as a paradigm by the israeli zionist government against the middle eastern country and those lines all of the middle east will unite against israel and so the united

states. is concerned that israel might go to promptly in terms of carrying out unilateral military aggression still had here in r.t. with some believing u.s. decision making is influenced by forces outside government our resident reporter on the streets of new york finds out what people think about state or media backing or promoting certain ideologies. from there is the people that saw it want you to believe something very one else follows like sheep people start their own personality and look at the facts and the details make their own opinion that's what they should do. movies ratings agency has against spoil the party for years as a downgrade agrees to the lowest rating on spine scale right after a summit in brussels and was all e.u. states except britain and the czech republic have signed up to the so-called fiscal pact supposed to keep the country's deficits within the limits of tough new budget

rules but financial analysts karl denninger it doesn't but we've the agreements will be infinite. talk is cheap and we've seen who round after round of business but the truth is you have nations over in europe and here in the united states for that matter that seem to think that they can spend more than a taken in taxes and you can't do this people say that austerity is going to collapse economic demand well the truth is that governments have been borrowing money and spending what they don't have so they've been falsely representing economic demand for three decades and now it's time to pay the check so to speak if we have to eat our broccoli or as obama says earpiece. i don't believe that it's going to actually be implemented i believe that the greeks will continue to say they'll do it but when you really get down to it it's not going to happen in the same thing's likely to occur in places like spain where you have term one point of problems i think it's inevitable that greece is going to default i don't see how they can get out of this mess other than by defaulting they spent the money they

don't have it they can't contract their government spending an economy you know the able to pay it back and so the obvious thing to do is to walk away and say so sorry so sad we're not going to pay you the knock on effects again depending on what other nations decide to go down the same road could be extraordinarily severe. and some countries are forced to go over the top to cope with the economic crisis a small spanish town refuses to go to a pod by reading the lancet it's a growing counties. discover how their stays in crisis fights financial hardship some like. the bolshoi theatre of brains ballet to the web launching a you tube channel which has already soared on to the top one hundred list so find out when you can log on to see the first live transmission action dot com.

grads organized crime police have shut down another file sharing website raising concerns over a complete government order crackdown of the internet for anyone who has downloaded content from our exclusive dot com crime unit is threatening prosecution was jail sentences mostly reserved for violent offenses are used laurence smith has more from london. if you downloaded this song through the website r. and b. exclusive it's not just the prisoner of love you got to be afraid of instead of finding the usual blog comment tree and links to r. and b. and hip hop music recent uses of the site was shocked to find their online activity was under police scrutiny and they could be jailed for ten years more than the

usual penalty for many violent crimes and a ten year prison sentence you would expect that to be and they don't for very serious offenses serious sexual assaults and rape manslaughter very violent offenses. and you would normally expect it to be handed to own respective. musical legally the u.k. government serious organized crime agency or soka confirmed it rested this but wouldn't talk to us about why it's threatening users with a decade behind bars instead they sent this statement secret audience organized criminal enterprises profiting from the explosion of the u.k. public in legitimate businesses much of the music offered for download by the r. and b. exclusive dot com website was illegally obtained from its leading industry to attribute losses of approximately fifteen million pounds per year to this site's activity

that's raised questions about how the police became the personal enforcer of the recording industry standard gods to protect corporate profits and it's also given those concerned with internet freedoms an unpleasant glimpse into a more regulated if the treaty to protect against online copyright infringement and piracy goes ahead pick claims that your ip address was being monitored so you could be monitored and tracked again this was. move which seems quite unprecedented in the united kingdom i'm afraid that we're going to see this kind of abuse on the scale to comes to pass after a shock response from internet campaigners the government agency has now taken down the harsh message and replaced it with this simpler one which just taking control of it in maine but it's already caused much worry and distress on twitter many

users appear not even to have known they were visiting a dodgy site and certainly didn't think they'd be liable to time for it internet campaigners say that this was meant to frighten and in reality severe penalties couldn't be applied to casual downloads they also say there's nothing to link current be exclusive with criminal gangs so why. even involved if this is what they're really pulling serious organized crime what traditional serious organized crime was as most people understand the morgue for drug dealing as far as i think the public concern that crime still happening on our streets opposition to act outside of course around europe this month centers on fears that cyberspace will fall under strict government control and while the serious organized crime agency through this is its efforts on r. and b. and hip hop fans many worry that serious organized criminals are getting away with

it. or thirteen. next we bring your other major stories from around the world a u.n. report says leaving rebels committed war crimes against humanity by finding one market out these forces that are still targeting former loyalist of the leader the report published on the un human rights council website also points out that nato has insufficient investigative air rage which killed civilians three member commission which carried out the inquiry blame cut off its forces for reasons too but they said the new even authorities did not provide information of how the former leader was killed shortly after the capture and that further investigation was needed and still. awaiting government says there's been a high turnout in elections for the country's two hundred ninety seat parliament with results due later on saturday however preliminary returns suggest that conservative rivals of president ahmadinejad's resistance front party one and many electoral districts the current leadership's main competitor is the united front of

prince was backing ayatollah ali how today is the first nation by vote since the presidential election of two thousand and nine which was followed by violence down after allegations of vote rigging. a series after nato has been tearing through the northeastern u.s. already leaving at least twenty eight people dead officials warn the death toll could rise as rescue workers continue to search for victims states of emergency how been declared in five states twisters claimed almost six hundred lives in america last year alone. while debate rages in the united states over religion and paul these during the presidential campaign there have been on the streets of new york asking people if they think it's proper for government or media to support particular ideologies a resident reported the big gavel to find out. when is it ok for a government or the media to support an ideology this week let's talk about that i

don't think it ever should have. i think that the government is there to serve the people of the media's there to report the booms like editorial direction of the record i don't think it's right to take them out say they support it and they can do it in different ways though if you support morris is the first way. that's probably what they do anyway right. probably think people are choosy about who is supporting their cause. absolutely their. people are too easily swayed probably propaganda is the people that want you to believe something bad one else follows like sheep peels out their own personality and look at their own facts and details make their own opinion that's what they should do and not just followed everybody else there's a pretty great principle in psychology that you start and finish where you are so you like what you like and you don't like the other guy for liking something

different but that's just human nature but i mean that the crucible of democracy it's unusual it's a kind of a crazy idea that you can get wacky people like your enter your crazy sister and you just a line them up by the millions and you somehow assume that all these crazy people acting together will have a wisdom greater than the kid do you think governments try to impose a will through propaganda without a doubt so why do some people when they hear their point of view being spouted think it's just this time but then if they don't agree with it they call it propaganda. well. that's is the nature of this is the nature of rhetoric in general your your opinion is always right and everyone else's opinion is always propaganda in that circumstance whether or not you believe it's ever ok for a government or the media to support an ideology the bottom line is we should all remember it's all too easy to become hypocritical when it comes to support of our

own beliefs. new laws to act on child trafficking in nepal have had a catastrophic effect on the country's orphanages and many of the country are running out of cash after a ban on international adoption explores the controversy. today fifteen year old chin morgan child there is all smiles but it wasn't that long ago that the teenager with living in an illegal orphanage in nepal the capital katmandu you know is the is that the homes would be given rations for the children but they could take as would take half the food for themselves well giving those only a small portion of it they would also get drunk pizzas. moment is now living in a home run by the umbrella foundation and irish and geo working with nepal's government to keep track of kathmandu after needed fifteen thousand children living

in orphanages. investigations have uncovered that around eighty percent of these kids actually have parents oftentimes families living in rural parts of nepal will sell their children to traffickers in the bay believe will give them a better life if you have a traveller who goes to a village and says very poor people people high illiteracy in order to pay for they're told if you give us your children receive a small amount of money from an international family or in return we will bring them to help when you will get an excellent education. traffickers are known to buy in a poly child for around fifteen dollars and then fell them to orphanages that are not monitored by the government they are then sold on for up to twenty five thousand dollars to families from abroad while they're living in the orphanages many of the children are reportedly abused and forced to work some are even sexually assaulted and forced to work in the fields and woken up early every morning to clean the

house and also to look after the trial and the nepali government admitted that almost half of the country's orphanages were involved in illegal international adoptions but since then things have changed. nepal has been an international adoption wild child advocates believe that this will help prevent the trafficking of children organizers of orphanages they're worried about how they're going to continue to ride without money from abroad remains show me works for nepal children's organization which runs eleven legal orphanages across the country he says that before the ban on international adoption has orphanage in katmandu five thousand dollars for every child that got adopted by a family. it has been difficult for us to run the home after the suspension of international adoption because we still have to provide for the daily necessities of every child in the home and to care of the magical ability to today many kids

are trying to reunite trafficked children with their family but many lection mohinder barely remember their real sibling from parents anymore preassure either r t kathmandu nepal. and i'll be back remind you of our headlines and just a couple of minutes.

this was a vote for president archie list of the five running for the kremlin top job picture and it's. considered jimmy rono fair russia on the record the former senate speaker was a strong supporter of loving your person for ten years but in two thousand and eleven called putin's united russia the party of crooks and feeds plan for the presidency free education and health care progress of tax collections to replace government appointments controversy previously described himself as a pro kremlin candidate ready to run for the presidency abroad. for opposing russia's accession to the w t o presidential election two thousand and twelve on forty.