a moratorium on canvassing and debate in russia's presidential poll a day before voters decide on who's to leave the country after weeks of election campaigning marked by vibrant rallies and protests as well. the syrian army reportedly captures dozens of foreign mercenaries some of them from france during fighting in the rebellious city of homs we get a firsthand account from an eyewitness to the horrors of war plus. some of the really really clear message to the a week from this is. what makes them powerful israeli lobby seeks president obama as

a blunder on whether the u.s. would support a military strike on iraq. it's good to have you with us today this is a real research a life and nascar it's the so-called day of silence here in russia just ahead of sunday's presidential election there's a blanket moratorium on all campaigning and political advertising skipping voters' breathing space to make their final decision on who to cost the ballot for and that you go to is going to 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 hand is being held in the wake of our series must rallies be 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 various rallies in support early against the candidates there's also been a massive social campaign for a transparent presidential board and indeed quite a lot of effort has been made in order to make this poll transparent as possible over ninety thousand polling stations are going to get what cameras was heaving beals of how the vote is conducted at these polling stations on what for any internet user to be able to watch online and several hundred thousand observers have been invited due to the spike in social activity

a high voter turnout is expected as well according to some polls it could be over seventy percent just to remind you are taking courts in this election the winner will need to secure fifty percent plus one folds if neither candidate manages to achieve that a second round will be introduced in any shame or starkiller candidates will compete for simple majority all sorts of. special coverage of russia's presidential election right here on r.t. starting at one am g.m.t. monday i will bring bring you live latest results reaction from the candidates of course. for that right now though you can find much more information on the ballot by just looking on to our web site at odds he called. well we have a special section devoted to the election you will find the contenders profiles as well as on through the questions such as what russians would value most in their future leader all this and some marginal seats.

over one hundred most in areas have been reported were 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 but 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 it's all teasing or if the national reports there are serious fears the fighting is far from over. two days after the rebel fighters pulled out from dakar a neighborhood and homes fears are growing of revenge attacks by the rebels the chief of the free syrian army has sad but those draw was a tactical one position syrian national council who was with noise by european union has legitimate the presence of the syrian people has warned of massacres claiming they would provide leadership to discipline a spider's and give their weapons the opposition group already formed

a military council to coordinate their weapons supplies these reports for the free syrian army claims that it's already received weapons and anti aircraft missiles from the u.s. and french sources arming the rebels has been considered as an excellent idea by qatar and saudi arabia earlier with a twenty two nation arab league also viewed this as an option if the violence doesn't stop here in syria humanitarian organizations have been accused to president bashar al assad to agree on a daily hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to be brought to the areas where prices still continues but the rock concerts that the opposition supporters abroad may use these to bring weapons to the rebels meanwhile it seems that the foreign nations involvement in this crisis in syria stretches far beyond weapons supplies local and regional media has been has been reporting about more than one hundred foreign offices detained in homs most of them reportedly french paratroopers

meanwhile humanitarian situation in the city that suffered from an almost month long siege is deteriorating the international red cross and syrian red crescent are both working on the ground they've brought seven trucks of food water medical supplies and all of the emergency aid they're also expected to ever create injured people and to take away bodies of those many who were killed during the clashes in hopes tartars more often or what i mean time residents of homs and eyewitnesses say that horrific scenes of carnage will become a part of everyday life. one russian woman who spent over a week and then back in the city she says the picture painted by the media is not always much there without. i spent nine days in the homes with the syrian red crescent and still with my own eyes the killing the bloodshed under bodies on the streets but the media often thanked the numbers out of thin air they rushed through it would cause the victims while it's simply impossible to tell how many people

were killed when the building collapses and it takes several days to retrieve the bodies most of the media are also i said i'm blaming the army for all the violence and it's not my exact opposition fighters are no less responsible for killing people and committing atrocities many rebels in homs used german made rockets to target army guys 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 at the time that we talk about ashley and his approach a coordinator for the beirut based conflicts for she says that the crimes committed by rebels and homes 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 armed insurgents that 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 and homes and for example they did get ambulances through to take the injured journalists out of homs there are lots of on the ground reports including from al jazeera who've confirmed that it was actually the free syrian army who stopped ambulances going in to to evacuate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there. this is artsy and still ahead for you in the program here internet crackdown in the u.k. that's where organized crime detectives target file sharing websites the threat of prison so usually reserved for only the most violent of

a. plus in the paul but crackdown on not widespread it child trafficking results in a ban on international adoption despite the smiling faces a decision hasn't proven to be crossed. so i'm going to ten minutes past the hour now here in moscow where the world's largest pro israeli lobby is gathering in washington this weekend 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 he's got a chicken now reports on the conflicting pressures on obama from those for and against war. president obama's walking on the razor's edge on one hand members of his administration keep saying a war with iran would be a mistake to u.s. military or something. on 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 that he is not quote unquote blocking a 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. is a very very clear message this week from. the war. and we say president obama's failure to go along with this really plans on iran might hurt him a deal lachance the president carried you know the overwhelming majority of the jewish vote and funding back in two thousand and eight and if he is perceived as an enemy of. enemy of israel or. the

issues. for community here in this country it could have an 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 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 that it's failed to achieve the core objective but both those who would back a strike against the random. those who seem to be tired of the administration's ambiguity and take us. very very badly we 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. if they do it will be on their own the consequences will be theirs because the price we pay if they start a massive war. interprete. would be disastrous for. iraq terms of. this post that was paid for by merging see committee for israel. in washington the campaign very obviously pushes for a more informative response from president obama on he's ready to go to war. in the run up to this year's elections he might want to. make. many it would make a mockery of diplomacy and. president obama's nobel peace prize as well for that matter. are. from.

israel 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 it's part of a coordinated assault iran does not have a nuclear weapon israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons and subscribes to the i.a.e.a. the international atomic energy agency its nuclear program is monitored israel won't sign a nuclear nonproliferation treaty israel routinely neighbors as it has over the past four decades iran has never started a war so when you look at all of these actual founders who would say the real menace to peace in the middle east is israel iran is not a menace is the ones being targeted and i think this is part of the israeli high arrogating to itself the way to scrape as it did in iraq in one thousand he 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 strait within 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 israel might be too promptly in terms of coming out unilateral military aggression. from moscow this is our team still ahead for you though on the program with some believing that her u.s. decision making is influenced by forces outside the government our resident reporter on the streets of new york find out what people think about state media promoting certain ideology. from a propaganda is that people are taught want you to believe something very one else follows like sheep people start their own personality and look at the facts of the details make their own opinion that's what they should do.

the rating agency has again spoiled the party for e.u. leaders as it's downgraded. greece to the lowest rating on his bond scale that's right after a summit in brussels almost 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 limits with tough new budget rules that financial analyst cholodenko believes the equipment will be intimate talk is cheap and we've seen you around here for round of this purpose truth is there 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 par with money and spending what they don't have so they've been falsely representing economic to me and 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 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 the same thing's likely to occur in places 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 over the by defaulting they have spent the money they don't have it they can't contract their government spending an economy you know 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. 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 renting land to an association growing marijuana discover how other states in crisis are fighting the financial hardships

online. and the bolshoi theatre brings ballet to the web launching a you tube channel which has already soared into the top one hundred list but also you can find out when to log on to see the first live transmission. britain's organized crime police have shut down another file sharing website raising concerns over a complete government order to crack down on the internet of anyone who's downloaded a content from an r. and b. exclusive dot com now the crime unit is threatening a prosecution with jail sentences mostly reserved for the extreme offenses laura smith has more from london. if you downloaded this

song through the website or and be exclusive it's not just a prison of love you've 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 a ten year prison sentence you would expect that to be handed own for very serious offenses serious sexual assault rape manslaughter very violent offenses. and you would normally expect it to be handed down in respective downloading music illegally the u.k. government serious organized crime agency or soccer confirmed it arrested this site but wouldn't talk to us about why it's threatening users with

a decade behind bars instead they sent this statement so it's organized criminal enterprises profiting from the explosion of the u.k. public and legitimate businesses much of the music offered for download by the are in be exclusive dot com website was illegally obtained from artists leading industry to attribute losses of approximately fifteen million pounds per year to this on its activity that's raised questions about how the police became the personnel in force through 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 each a treaty to protect against online copyright infringement and piracy goes ahead to claim your ip address was being 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're going to see this kind of abuse of moon industrial scale act a constant past aftershocks response from internet campaign as the government agency has now taken down the harsh message and replaced it with this simpler one which just taken control of the main but it's already caused much worry and distress on twitter many users the pair 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 the notice was meant to frighten and in reality severe penalties couldn't be applied to casual downloads they also say there's nothing to link be exclusive with criminal gangs so why. even involved if this is what they're illegal in serious organized crime what traditional serious organised crime is as most people understand it the more the mafia drug dealing as far as i think the public

concern that crime still happening on our streets opposition to act out 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 seen loveday. well let's get to some other international headlines for you this hour time for the r.t. world update will start with libya where u.n. report says that libyan rebels committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while fighting more market aphids forces and are still targeting former loyalists of the dead leader the report published on the un human rights council website also points out that nato hasn't officially investigated air raids which killed civilians the three member commission which carried out the inquiry blamed forces for abuses as well but they said the new libyan authorities did not provide

information on how the former leader was killed shortly after capture and that further investigation was needed into his death. he rodion government says there's been a high turnout in the elections for the country's two hundred ninety seat parliament with results too just a bit later on saturday however preliminary returns suggest that the conservative rivals of president ahmadinejad's resistance front party one in many electoral districts the current leadership's main competitor is the united front of principle its backing ayatollah ali khamenei is the first nationwide vote since the presidential election of two thousand and nine and that was followed by violence and a crackdown after allegations of vote rigging. a series of tornadoes have been tearing through the northeastern u.s. already leaving twenty eight people dead if it was warm the death toll could rise as rescue workers continue to search for victims but states of emergency have been

declared in five states twisters claimed almost six hundred lives in america just last year alone. now while debate rages in the u.s. religion in politics during the presidential campaign we've been on the streets of new york asking people if they think it's proper for government or media to support a particular ideology our resident reporter in 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 showed up. i think that the government is the sort of people of the media's there to report the news not make editorial direction on any of the record i don't think it's right take them out and say they support it they can do it in different ways though if you support more it's the first of ways. that's

probably what they do anyway right. probably 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 they want to as follows like sheep people shout their own personality and look at their own facts in the 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 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 that you can get wacky people like your answer 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 key do you think that governments try to impose a 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 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 and 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 the support of our own police. ok now twenty five minutes past the hour here in moscow new laws to act on child trafficking in nepal has had a catastrophic effect on the country's orphanages and many in the country are running out of cash after

a ban on international adoption. explores the controversy. today fifteen year old chen marvin childbearing is all smiles but it wasn't that long ago that the teenager with living in an illegal orphanage in nepal the capital katmandu. is that the homes would be given russians for the children but they can't take his would take off the food for themselves well giving those only a small portion of it but they would also get drunk the. moment is now living in a home run by the umbrella foundation and irish angio working with nepal's government to keep track of cap and you have to meet it 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 who they believe will give them a better life and you have

a traveller who goes and says very poor people. high illiteracy more education and they're told that 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 and have been woken up early every morning to clean the house and also to look after the. child in a poly government admitted that almost half of the country's orphanages were involved in illegal international adoption but since then things have changed. nepal has been an international adoption while 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 run 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 worked on it in katmandu me five thousand dollars for every child a cot adopted by a foreign family. and this has been difficult for us to run the home after the suspension of international adoption because we still have to provide the daily necessities of every child in the home and to care of the medical bills or to today many organizations are trying to reunite trafficked children with their families but many like shane mohammed barely remember their real siblings and parents anymore korea's shrader party kathmandu nepal. i got back with a reminder of our top stories on a special documentary in just

a. wealthy british soil. that's nothing to write.