a moratorium on town missing and debate in russia's presidential cold a day before voters decide on who's to lead the country after weeks of election campaign marked by vibrant rallies and protests to. the syrian army reportedly captors dozens of foreign mercenaries some of them from france during finding in the rebellious sea of palms party gets a firsthand account from an eyewitness to the horrors of war plus. a very clear message that the evil we instill in this. world still more than a powerful israeli lobby seeks president obama's blunt answer on whether the u.s. would support the military strike on iran.

in the russian capital you're watching our t.v. on marina joshie welcome to the program but today it's the so-called day of silence and russia have sunday's presidential election and there's a blanket moratorium on all campaigning and political advertising giving voters breathing space to make their final decision on who to cast their ballot for as it work is going off reports the upcoming vote clearly stands out from others in previous years. this election is going to be quite different compared to all the other presidential polls russia's head is being held in the wake of a series of must rallies being held in the country and a spike in social and political activity among the public in general it started after the parliamentary election early in december scores of people have been

digging into the streets amid accusations of ballot fraud russians seem to be taking a far greater interest in politics than they used to and the degree of political life in the country looks to be the highest since i would say probably the ninety's also seemed very rallies in support and against the candidates there's also been a massive social campaign for transparent presidential poll and indeed quite a lot of effort has been made in order to make this call transparent as possible over ninety thousand polling stations have been equipped with work cameras which will be feeding videos of how this visit at these polling stations on to work for any internet user to be able to watch online and several hundred thousand observers have been invited to the to these social activity a high voter turnout is expected as well as some polls it could be over seventy percent just to remind you five. boards in this election the winner will need to

secure fifty percent plus one vote if neither candidate manages to achieve that second round will be introduced in which two most popular candidates will compete for a simple majority vote. reporting our going to have special coverage of russia's presidential election here on our t.v. starting at one am g.m.t. monday will be bringing you live the latest results reaction from the candidates as well as in death of an hour to do join us for that if you can but right now you can find more information on the ballot by a log on to our website party dot com we have a special section there to. voted through the election and you'll find the contenders profiles as well as answers to questions such as what russians would value the votes in their future leader this is available at r.t. dot com. now over one hundred foreign mercenaries have reportedly been captured by syrian government troops after regaining control of

rebel held areas in the sea of homs sources say the majority of them are french or the rest from several arab countries syrian authorities claim that life in a city that's been under siege for almost a month is going back to normal but financial reports there are serious fears the fighting is far from over. two days after the rebel fighters pulled out from baba amr neighborhood in homs things remain chaotic on the ground fears a growing revenge attacks by the rebels the chief of the free syrian army has claimed it was through tactically shortly after that the opposition syrian national council has warned on massacre claiming they would provide leadership to disagree ised fighters and give them friends arming the rebels has earlier 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 still happening in the conflict in on who's behind it the residents we've managed to speak to by phone say gunman a killing people in the area known as hell media many christian families leave opposition activists reports about execution style killings and burning homes by the army but these reports are very hard to be very far and the international red cross and the syrian red crescent have reached the city of homes badly damaged following an almost month long siege really an emergency aid food water and medical supplies but they couldn't and area the area that's been taken by the rebels for weeks and that's seen as clashes between them and this or aziz but they are staying in homes providing help to people in the cities are the areas reporting but this is on the ground remains catastrophic. or even pouring in from syria residents of

homes and eyewitnesses say horrific scenes of carnage have become a part of everyday life there are these poker russian woman who spent over a week in the battle city whose picture painted by the media is now with match the reality. nine days alone with the syrian red crescent and so with my own eyes the killing the bloodshed under god is on the streets but the media after the numbers are out of the air the rush to uproot the victims while it's simply impossible to tell how many people were killed when the building collapses would take several days to retrieve the bodies most of the media also are subtle 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 rockey to target army wives and kill soldiers nor 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 actually burned has a project coordinator for the viewer base 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 islamic groups who probably make up about thirty percent of the armed insurgents that they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality and terrible actions some of the accusations against the syrian army there's a brand 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 to medical supplies water for some days and and homes and for example they did get an violence is through to take the injured journalists out of homs there are lots 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 and surgeons but also the foreign journalists who were there. so i have for you on the program here in our internet crackdown in leave a where you were nice crime squad targets file sharing websites with the threat of prison terms usually reserved for only the most violent of criminals. plus in a ball a crackdown on widespread child trafficking results in a ban on international adoption but despite these smiley faces decision for the cost of. the world's largest the lobby aipac is gathering in washington this week to put more pressure on barack obama over attacking iran with the jewish state intensifying war rhetoric threatening military

action against the islamic republic the u.s. has been accused of being ambiguous on the matter or he's going to count reports on the conflicting pressures on obama from those for 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 in the state. u.s. military i think all elements of the united states. and iran not only would be premature but crazy on the other hand president obama keeps saying a war with iran is still an option and he is not quote unquote blocking the powerful israeli lobby which president obama will be pressing shortly expects to hear a blunt answer to the question is the u.s. ready for war with u.n. and will washington back israel should it is side to attack first the only way to stop the. release. is a very very clear message that within

a week from. the war. and we say president obama's fear to go along with this really plans on iran might hurt him in deal action the president carried you know the overwhelming majority of the jewish vote and funding 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. an adverse impact on the finding 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 suggested 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 it's failed to achieve the core objective but both those who would back a strike against iran and. those who seem to be tired of the administration's ambiguity ambiguous it could very very badly need to go to war and we have to make very clear to our israeli friends we're 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 the consequences will be theirs because . they started a massive war which the iranians interpret. connivance would be disastrous for. iraq in the terms of. this post that was paid for by the virgin see committee for israel.

in washington they campaigned very obviously pushing for a more affirmative response from president obama he's ready to go to war. in the run up to this year's elections he might want to. make but to many it would make a mockery of diplomacy in their words and president obama's nobel peace prize as well for that matter. are the. prime backer from the answer coalition says 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 as part of a coordinated assault iran does not have a nuclear weapon israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons or one 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

a war so when you look at all of these actual facts you would say the real menace to the 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 hype arrogating to itself the right to strike as it did in iraq in one thousand need you want to gets nuclear facilities as it did in syria in two thousand and seven as it would like to do now in iran but the united states government is somewhat afraid that if israel carries out a unilateral scrape within the middle east this will play out as a paradigm by the israelis ion its government against the middle eastern country and those lines all over the middle east will unite against israel and so the united states as is concerned that israel might be too promptly in terms of carrying out unilateral military aggression. also it had for you this hour with some believing u.s. decision making is influenced by forces outside government our president reporter on the streets of new york find out what people think about state media backing

promoting certain ideologies. from across the candor is the people that saw it wanted to believe something. like she peels out their own personality and look at the own facts and the details make their own opinion that's what they should do. what is ratings agency as account spoil the party for you leaders as this downgrade agrees to the lowest rating on its bonds kaleb right after osama and brussels almost all east states except britain and the czech republic cite f.t. the so-called fiscal path supposed to keep the country's deficit within limits with tough new budget rules a financial analyst car that doesn't believe the agreement will be implemented talk is cheap and we've seen you around here for a round of this at the truth heroes you have nations over in europe in here in the united states for that matter that seem to think that they can spend more than a change 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 it spends 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 has obama says eat our peas. 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 things likely to occur voices like spain where you have term want to point to 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 and not be 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 e.u. countries are forced to go over the top to cope with the economic crisis a small spanish town refuses to go to pot by granting land to association growing counties and more discover how other states in crisis fight financial hardships online. and the boss choice here brings ballet to the web launching a you tube channel which has already soared to the top one hundred list. you can find out when to log on to see the first live transmission. and britain's organized crime police have shut down another file sharing website raising concerns over a complete government order crackdown on the internet for anyone who has downloaded content from r. and b. exclusive dot com the crime unit is threatening prosecution with jail sentences

mostly reserved for violent offenses artist or smith has more from london. if you downloaded this song through the website torrent be exclusive it's not just the prison of logs you got to be afraid of instead of finding the usual blog commentary 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 handy going for very serious offenses serious sexual assaults and rape manslaughter very violent offenses. and you would normally expect it to be handed down in respect to download music illegally the u.k.

government serious organized crime agency or soccer confirmed it arrested this site owner but wouldn't talk to us about why it's threatening users with a decade behind bars instead they sent this statement secret or gets organized criminal enterprises profiting from the exploitation of the u.k. public in legitimate businesses much of the music offered for download by the r. and b. seclusive dot com website was illegally obtained from artists leaving the industry to attribute losses of approximately eighteen million pounds per year to they saw its 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 and unpleasant glimpse into a more regulated each if the treaty to protect against online copyright infringement and piracy goes ahead to claims that your ip address

monitored so you could be monitored and tracked again this was. a move which seems quite unprecedented in the united kingdom i'm afraid that we can see this kind of abuse on the scale if actor 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 taken control of the domain but it's already caused much worry and distress on twitter many users a pair not even to have known they were visiting a dodgy site and certainly didn't think they'd be liable to do time for it internet campaigners say the notice was meant to frighten and in reality severe penalties couldn't be applied to casual down looters they also say there's nothing to link r. and b. exclusive with criminal gangs so why. even him paul if this is what they're really

being serious organized crime to traditional serious organised crime is as most people understand them or. drug dealing as far as i think the public concerned that that crime still happening on our streets opposition to act out for us around europe this month centers on fears that cyberspace will fall under strict government control and while the serious organized crime agency focuses its efforts on r. and b. and hip hop fans many worry that serious organized criminals are getting away with it. or teen learns it. well next we'll bring you other major news stories from across the globe a u.n. report says rebels committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while fighting normal get out his forces and are still targeting former lawyer was of the leader the report published on the un human rights council website also points out that nato has been sufficiently investigated air raids were killed civilians let's remember

a commission which carried out the inquiry blamed his forces for abuses too but they said the new libyan authorities did not provide information on how a formal year was killed shortly after capture that further investigation was needed into his death. 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 for conservative rivals of president ahmadinejad's resistance from party one in many electoral districts the current leadership's main competitor is the united front of prince was backing ayatollah ali how many it's the first nationwide vote since the presidential election of two thousand and nine which was followed by violence a crackdown after allegations of vote rigging. a series of tornadoes have 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 have 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 in politics 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 ideology is our resident reporter at the big apple went 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 happen. i think that the government is that a serve the people of the media is there to report the news not make editorial direction on any of the record i don't think it's right that they say they support it they can do it in different ways so if you support morris it's the first of ways . that's probably what they do anyway right. probably people

excuse the about who's 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 she feels out there own personality and look at the own facts and the details make their own opinion that's what they should do and not just fall of everybody else there's a pretty great principle in psychology that you 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 principle of democracy it's unusual it's a kind of a crazy idea but you can get wacky people like your enter your crazy sister and you just 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 will through propaganda without a doubt yes 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 just the nature of that's is the nature of rhetoric in general your your opinion is always. right and everyone else's opinion is always propaganda in the answer. 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. and he last to act on child trafficking in the paul have had a catastrophic effect on the country's orphanages many of the country are running out of cash after a band of international adoption artist priya shrewder explores the controversy. today fifteen year old chen mohan childbearing is all smiles but it wasn't that

long ago that the teenager with living in an illegal orphanage in a polish capital kathmandu. 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 or they would also get drunk. well when is now living in a home run by the umbrella foundation and irish angio working with nepal's government to keep track of katmandu activated fifteen thousand children living in orphanages. investigations have uncovered that around eighty percent of kids actually have parents oftentimes families living in rural parts of mccall will sell their children to traffickers who they believe will give them a better life if you have a trafficker says very poor people people. receive notification. if you give us your children you will receive

a small amount of money from an international family or an individual in return we will bring them to help when do we were excellent education. traffickers are known to buy in a poly child or around fifteen dollars and then sell 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 orphanage is many of the children are reportedly abused and forced to work some are even sexually assaulted who forced to work in the fields would be 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 well child advocates believe that this will help prevent the trapping of children organizers. orphanages are worried about how they're going to continue to ride without money from abroad remains me works for

nepal children's organisation which runs eleven legal orcon inches across the country he says that before the ban on international adoption his orphanage in katmandu made five thousand dollars for every child that got adopted by a foreign family. which has been difficult for us to run the home so after the suspension of the international adoption because we still have to provide for the daily necessities of every child in the home and to take care of the medical ability to today then you are going to chase are trying to reunite trafficked children with their family like many like shin mohanned barely remember their real siblings and parents anymore korea sridhar archie chapman you know hard. our mire of our top source is only a couple minutes away from you so stay with us here on our air.

force or votes for president archie looks at the five running for the kremlin top job picture and a date he's you've got over sixty seven turns the achievements of communism from before his time on the record seconds into. presidential elections since the end of the u.s.s.r.

the two thousand and twelve votes will be his fourth plan for the presidency free education is housing punish illegal immigration and introduce ethnicity stamps in passports controversy to colors communists usually vote with putin's party on the big issues no not broad or exploiting soviet nostalgia with pensioners and discontented in just three a working class. presidential election two thousand and twelve on parts has. come. from. to. use.