moratorium on. debate in russia's presidential polls a day before voters decide on who's to lead the country after weeks of election campaigning by. protests as well. the syrian army reportedly captures dozens of foreign mercenaries some of them from from fighting in the rebellious city of homs we get a firsthand account from an eyewitness to the horrors of war. a very very clear message to the in a week from this. a powerful israeli lobby seeks

president obama. on whether the u.s. would support a military strike on iraq. world wide news for live from moscow city center. with me roll receipt showing it is the so-called day of silence in russia ahead of sunday's presidential election as a blanket moratorium on all campaigning and political advertising by giving voters breathing space to make their final decision on who to cast their ballot for and 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 mass rallies being held in the country and a spike in social and political activity among the public in general it started

after the problem and she election only in december scores of people have been taking to 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 we've also seen various rallies in support only 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 have been a good cameras was heaving videos 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 to the to the spike in social activity

by voter turnout is expected as well according to some polls it could be over seventy percent just to remind you five guys are taking boards in this election the winner will need to secure fifty percent plus one vote if neither candidate manages to achieve that a second round will be introduced in we stream or sparkler candidates will compete for simple majority vote for. going to miss california fire and we are going to have special coverage of russia's presidential election right here on our t.v. starting at one am g.m.t. monday we'll be bringing you the live and latest results reaction from the candidates as well as in-depth analysis to join us from. the right now though you can find much more information on the ballot by logging on to our web site it's the top can we have a straw. the section that they're devoted to the election if you can see right there you'll find the contenders profiles as well as answers to questions such as what russians would value most in their future leader all this and much much more

of the hearts of people. over one hundred foreign mercenaries reportedly being captured by syrian government troops after regaining control of rebel held areas in the city of homs where sources say the majority of them are french with the rest from several arab countries syrian authorities claim that life in the city has been under siege for almost a month is getting back to normal but is on his way financial reports there are serious fears the fighting is far from over. two days after the rebel fighters pulled out from baba amr neighborhood and homes fears are growing of revenge attacks by the rebels the chief of the free syrian army has sad but thursday's withdrawal was a tactical one of your position syrian national council who was recognized by european union as a legitimate representative of the syrian people has warned of massacres claiming they would provide leadership which is a good sized fighters and give them weapons the opposition groups already formed

a military council to coordinate their weapons supplies these reports both free syrian army claims that it's already received weapons and empty aircraft missiles from 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 view this as an option if the violence doesn't stop here in syria humanitarian organizations have been refused to president bashar al assad to agree on a daily hour ceasefire to allow people to tarry and 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 weapon supplies local and regional media has been has been reported involves more than one hundred foreign offices detained in homs most of them reportedly french our

troopers meanwhile humanitarian situation in the city that suffered from an almost month long siege is the theory to 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 of emergency aid they're also expected to evacuate injured people and to take away the bodies of those many who were killed during the clashes in homes. so here's my financial reporting that well i mean time residents of homs and i witnesses say that horrific scenes of carnage become a part of everyday life there we spoke to one russian woman who spent over a week in their battle city she says the picture painted by the media does not always match the reality on the ground they have a sense nine days of the homes because syrian red crescent and so with my own eyes the killing the bloodshed under god is on the streets but the media often spends the numbers out of thin air the rush to improve schools the victims while it's 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 said on 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 sides 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. and actually. project coordinator for the beirut based conflicts forum says that 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 would probably make up about thirty percent of the armed insurgents but they've been guilty of as much sort of brutality and terrible 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 holmes and for example they did get through to take the injured journalists out of homs where 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 in to to evacuate both injured syrian civilians and insurgents but also the foreign journalists who were there. watching are to use could have your company today are still a few in a program internet crackdown in the u.k. . prime detectives are targeting file sharing websites but the threat of prison

terms usually reserved for only the most extreme. plus in the hall a crackdown on widespread child trafficking results and a ban on international adoption despite the smiling faces here the decision has proven costly. the world's largest pro israeli lobby is gathering in washington this weekend to put more pressure on grok obama over attacking iran over the jewish state intensifying war rhetoric threatening military action against the islamic republic the us has been accused of being ambiguous on the matter. now reports on the conflicting pressures on obama from those who are 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 u.s. military i think all elements of the united states. on iran not only would be

premature. on the other hand president obama keeps saying the war with the brand is still an option and that he is not quote unquote bluffing the 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. the very clear message this week from. the wall. and we say president obama still here to go along with this really plans on iran might hurt him in the election the president carried the overwhelming majority of the jewish vote and fighting back in two thousand and if he is perceived as an enemy of. 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 an ovation many u.s. lawmakers slammed the rhetoric of the obama administration which they just 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 iran and. seem to be tired of the administration's ambiguity if we are in big us it could very very badly we don't 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 we're not going to support them they do it they will be on their own the consequences will be theirs because the price will hold pay if they start a massive war which the iranians interpret as being done without a connivance would be disastrous for us in afghanistan in iraq in the terms of. stability in the middle east more generally this post that was paid for by the emergency committee for israel. many in washington they campaigned very obviously pushing for a more affirmative response from president obama on his readiness to go to war with iran in the run up at this year's elections he might want to. make those statements but maybe it would make a mockery of diplomacy in their words then president obama's nobel peace prize as well for that matter. brian becker from the coalition

says it's not iran which we consider 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 how iran does not have a nuclear weapon israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons iran subscribes to the i.a.e.a. international atomic energy agency its nuclear program is monitored israel won't sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty israel routinely in the agent's name was as it has over the past four decades iran has never started to work 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 high arrogating to itself the greatest scrape hasn't been in iraq in one thousand eighty one of its 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 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 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 be too promptly in terms of carrying out unilateral military aggression and i still have you on the program here in our with some believing that u.s. decision making is influenced by forces outside the government our president reporter on the streets of new york find out what people think about state or media promoting ideology. from if there is people that saw it want you to believe something that everyone else follows like sheep people start their own personality and look at the facts and details make their own opinion that's what they should do . well quarter past the hour here in moscow moody's the ratings agency has again spoiled the party for e.u.

leaders as well and great greece to the lowest rating on its arms. and it comes right after us on him russell's oh my it's only you states except britain of the czech republic and sign up to the so-called fiscal pact it's to keep the country's deficit it's within limits with tough new budget rules but financial analyst and collins doesn't believe the agreement will implement it officially talk is cheap and we've seen you round after round of business but the truth there are those 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 taken in taxes and you can't do this people say that austerity is going to collapse economic command well the truth is is that governments have been borrowing money it spending what they don't have so they've been falsely representing economic came in for three decades and now it's time to pay the check so to speak if we have to eat of 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 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 chant contract their government spending an economy you 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 for example a small spanish town refuses to go to a port by renting an association and growing marijuana i discover how other states in crisis fight the financial hardships to someone. else or the

bolshoi theatre brings ballet to the web launching their you tube channel which has already soared into the top one hundred list but also dot com you can find out when to log on to see the first live transmission. this is artsy britain's organized crime police have shut down another file sharing website it's raising concerns over a complete government ordered crackdown on the internet for anyone who's downloaded content from our n.b.a. exclusive dot com now the crime unit is threatening prosecution with possible jail sentences laura smith reports of london. if you downloaded these songs through the websites or and be exclusive it's not

just the prison of logs 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 handy don't 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 downloading music illegally the u.k. government serious organized crime agency or soccer confirmed it rested this site but wouldn't talk to us about why it's threatening users with a decade behind bars instead they sent this statement secret law 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. exclusive dot com website was illegally obtained from artists leading the industry two hundred lawsuits of approximately fifteen million pounds per year to decide 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 in the treaty to protect against online copyright infringement and piracy goes ahead they claimed your ip address monitored so you could monitor them 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 if back 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 taken control of the domain 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 no time for it internet campaigners say the notice was meant to frighten and in reality severe penalties couldn't be applied to casual download as they also say there's nothing to link r. and b. exclusive with criminal gangs so why even involved if this is what they're illegal in serious organized crime what serious organized 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. fourteen. let's get to the world update for you some other global news in brief we'll start with libya a u.n. report says libyan rebels committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while fighting more market forces and are still targeting former loyalists of the dead leader there put published on the un human rights council website also points out that nato hasn't sufficiently investigated air raids which killed civilians the three member commission which carried out the inquiry blamed a kid after his forces for abuses as well but he said the new libyan authorities

did not provide information on how the former leader was killed and that a further investigation was needed to do was. the iranian government says there's been a high turnout elections for the country's two hundred ninety seat parliament results are due to come just a bit later on saturday however the preliminary returns suggest that the conservative rivals of president resistance front party i did win 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 that was marred 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 nine people dead officials warn the death toll could rise as rescue workers continue to search for victims just just the past year alone in america twisters have claimed almost six hundred lives. well debate rages in the

u.s. of a religion in politics all of this going on during the presidential campaign we've been to the streets of new york to ask people if they think that it's proper for government or media to support particular ideologies original reporting on 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. i think that the government is there to serve the people in 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 can come out and say they support it but i think they can do different ways though if you support more subversive ways. that's probably what they do anyway right. probably

people are choosy about who's supporting their cause. absolutely their. people are too easily swayed probably propaganda is that people that want to believe something they want to like she feels 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 follow 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 really 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 so why do some people when they hear their point of view being spouted

think it's just this being time but then if they don't agree with it they call it propaganda. well. that's is 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 end that's their. stance 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 beliefs. so it's good to have you with us you are watching artsy new laws tacked on trial trafficking in nepal that had a catastrophic effect on the country's orphanage and many in the country are running out of cash after a ban on international adoption. sports 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 a polish capital katmandu. home should be given rations for the children but the caretakers would take half of it for themselves well giving those only a small portion of it but it 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 kathmandu to meet it fifteen thousand children living in orphanages. investigations have uncovered that around eighty percent of the kids actually have parents opt in times living in rural parts of nepal will sell their children to traffickers who they believe will give them a better way and you have a traveller who goes to a village and says very poor people people electricity no 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 in return we will bring them to help when we were given excellent education. traffickers are known to buy in a poly child for around fifteen dollars and then sell them to orphanages that are not monitored by the government area then sold on for up to twenty five thousand dollars to families from abroad while they're living in the orpen inches many of the children are reportedly abused and forced to work some are even sexually assaulted and were forced to work in the fields would be woken up early every morning to clean the house and also to look after the cats and it was in from trials the nepali government admitted that almost half of the country's orphanages were involved in illegal international adoption but since then things have changed . nepal has banned international adoption well child advocates believe that this will help prevent the trafficking of children organizers of orphanages are worried

about how they're going to continue to run without money from abroad remains the only works for nepal children's organization which runs eleven legal or and inches across the country he says that before that we are on international adoption is orphanage in katmandu five thousand dollars for every child that got adopted by a foreign family. and it 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 ability to today many years are trying to reunite trafficked children with their family but many lection moment and barely remember their real siblings and parents anymore preassure at their artsy kathmandu nepal. just a moment here on our see it is an election themed edition of spotlight first off the headlines in just a moment. the

enemy.