the u.n. no forges ahead in its efforts to mediate peace in syria with russia backing the push for a diplomatic solution. that the syrian opposition admits it's been on from abroad while some continue the calls for military intervention. the government attack an afghan a government delegation visiting the site where sixteen civilians were killed by a rampaging u.s. soldier leaving one dead and three injured. and as the e.u. approved the second bailout to greece to stave off bankruptcy we report on how the nonstop flow of regulations from brussels is forcing firms out of business while

the giro zone crisis rages on. it's good to have you with us here in arts he. live in moscow as the international community remains at loggerheads over a solution to syria russia is bolstering its push for peace moscow wants a cease fire without preconditions and is endorsing the joint u.n. arab league peace effort led by kofi annan meanwhile damascus is going ahead with more democratic reforms with parliamentary elections now due in may with details as artie's paula slayer. we continue to hear reports of spiraling violence with new reports of dozens of people being killed on both sides we're hearing from the leaders of the syrian opposition saying that they have been promised weapons from abroad but they are still calling for

a political and diplomatic solution the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has expressed his concern that these weapons could end up in the hands of al qaeda is also said that calls from qatar for some kind of military intervention are absolute and so far all attempts to reach some kind of cease fire have proven to amount to nothing on monday yesterday the united nations security council minutes and their moscow expressed grave concern and said that it was of most importance that a cease fire is reached immediately now the former head of the united nations kofi annan was in serbia over this weekend where he did meet with the syrian president bashar assad to try and map out some kind of agreement and we've heard from the man that he has reportedly put forward concrete proposals on the table at the same time the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has urged that this proposal lead to something he has called for the bloodshed to end immediately but he has said that

he needs to be a pragmatic approach it's taken this and the people who are fighting in syria against the government. there one of them you have this free syrian army there are reports that some groups of i'd go. and they do have arms in the us so if the us used to say that acid is responsible for everything the four humors just like a dispute is maybe it's something which could choose the i or the people who watch t.v. but eve. this if you're an eagles is not a boat or rating such public opinion but is a boat stopping the bloodshed then we must be a bit more primitive is largely a media blackout in syria which means it's very difficult to know what's happening there a difficult to confirm sources and particularly on the issue of sources a lot of the mainstream media reports and quotes and concerns sources so it's very

difficult to know exactly what this means and who the sources are we also constantly hear these conflicts in reports about what is happening for example the leadership says that there is no crackdown they say that they are fighting stalin funded terrorism but then on the other side we hear of our ports of massacres and that is coming from the opposition we've been following up a report with the whole office with three members of the beirut office of al jazeera who have resigned over what they say is unfair biased and propaganda live reporting particularly over events in syria and this is just one example that shows just how big and how difficult to manage this information war is how does iraq of setting the news agenda fitting the news agenda being set by it's a channel once held it is a mouthpiece of freedom and change is fast becoming an instrument of political pressure and propaganda that's been ongoing since last april when you know of two

thousand or whether they're senior people for being you know the head of the bureau and. many other people because of the coverage and and out right into the government dictating editorial policy over libya and now syria when he quit a year ago the head of the bureau civil channel had abandoned professional and objectively porting claiming it has become an operation room for incitement and mobilization. and i do believe that al-jazeera and other channels were not balanced in dealing with the events all are responsible for instance with the. the events in syria in bahrain we started to invite guests from america who only criticize the regime in syria and support the regime in bahrain and persons who justify nato intervention this is unacceptable. set up fifteen years ago al-jazeera is owned by the state of qatar its initial language spinoff launched in november two thousand and six three in english channel when it was said iraq was always intended to be

a much softer version of the arabic trammell of the channel lightly and largely set out to. show very clearly there were a few critical programs compared to arab people just zero it seems now both are working in tandem the channel is seen as widely influential in the middle east what i some sixty million people it's been void by the recent arab uprisings that critics claim it's increasingly become a tool of khatami and western policies and feel it's very disturbing to hear al-jazeera is now becoming this regional player for a foreign policy in a way that some would argue be say the b.b.c. and others have been for decades the well jazeera arabic has covered the story of syria is completely one sided. a charge backed up by another al-jazeera

staffer who complained my e-mail that his bosses refused to publish pictures of armed fighters clashing with a syrian army the formal jazeera they would correspondent to the channel often ignored if arindam on a new constitution in syria as for libya leaked reports suggests that some of the channels coverage and set up some tripoli were fake. last year the channel was miraculously granted access to the american media market after initially being banned in the united states word is that american officials saw how influential al-jazeera was in covering the arab spring but it's raised a number of our brands and given weight to those critics who say the channels changed its tune taking the question whether al-jazeera is once we've illusionary voice has been drowned out and now did noise the agenda of its sponsors r.t. contacted al-jazeera his head office but the channel was unavailable for comment coarsely r.t. tel aviv meantime the us administration and its allies are reportedly still

considering military intervention in syria as they ponder all options i listed all the foreign editor of the independent newspaper in london says that's currently a last resort however given past experience you know it was very reluctant involved in syria not least because it's a hugely difficult conflict more difficult than libya and of course the criticism that has come under after the libyan conflict. has been has been pretty harsh you know i mean how many more people have to die well you know the question of military intervention is only really been raised since the siege and. a massacre in home sort of the last sort of six weeks or so if there were intervention i'm sure it would follow a similar pattern for that we saw in libya last year where. the more. troops and their flies are make it very difficult for us to move these troops around i think the appetite is very very small and i think people are very

reluctant to move for. any sort of military intervention but as time goes by it's becoming increasingly inevitable. but from moscow this is coming your way later this hour making space travel plans. missions to the moon to venus to jupiter on to mars all part over plans by the russian space agency for the next eighteen years. in afghanistan not one person has died and three others have been hurt when an afghan government delegation came under attack while traveling to the villages where a u.s. soldier shot dead sixteen civilians on sunday the u.s. has apologized for the incident and the unnamed thirty eight year old star sergeant is under arrest being held at an undisclosed location the shooting has severely strained relations between afghans on foreign forces and anti american rallies reflecting widespread fury meanwhile u.s.

president barack obama is to hold talks on afghanistan with the british prime minister david cameron focusing on a timetable for pulling out alliance troops but it's artie's guy nature can reports the patience of the afghan people may well be running out. sixteen innocent afghan villagers slaughtered in cold blood nine of them children u.s. officials are going out of their way to present the american surgeon to apparently committed the massacre there's just one bad apple. this incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the united states has for the people of afghanistan this is not who we are in no way does he represent. the ethics and morality of the american servicemen and servicewomen and i think afghans understand that but afghans don't seem to be buying that at all. the rage and humiliation felt by

afghan people appear to be way beyond what apologies can make up for they've heard them all before in the last few months all too often and each one very similar to the next just weeks ago the white house apologized for the burning of the copies of the koran by u.s. troops an incident that triggered a surge of violence this was a deeply unfortunate incident that does not reflect the great respect our military has for the religious practices of the afghan people and weeks before that in january apologies again over footage showing u.s. marines urinating on dead afghans but these actions do not represent the values of the vast majority of coalition forces who serve their nations on ripley contrary to what u.s. officials say some analysts believe that those incidents are symptomatic of how the military operation in afghanistan works it is increasingly the case of this is looking like. a brutal occupation which is killing a large number of afghans were afghans thrown selves humiliated insulted and

instance like this will be regarded as simple the exactly what is wrong with the american not basically it is an absolutely cynical operation to say that they can't keep the place. in afghanistan for another three years how many more people will die how many more instances like this the only solution to this is to bring the troops no money for these for these governments the stockmen's of painting in countries where they have absolutely no rights and of a copious apologies handed out by the administration don't seem in. when to appease war critics back home let alone the afghan people but what about the whole idea of been aiding a country and occupying a country and disturbing their country creating hundreds of thousands of refugees and suffering this it ever get to a point where apologizing about the qur'an is rather minor to some of the other problems that we have to have created the taliban has vowed it will take revenge

and analysts expect a fresh surge of violence children shot in the head women slaughtered it's incidents like the latest soldier's rampage in afghanistan that extremists of all kinds used to it new people to their ranks those new recruits go out to kill not even the most heartfelt apologies can change the minds of people dead set on revenge it becomes a vicious circle that breeds even more danger spreading far beyond the borders of afghanistan i'm going to shift our reporting from washington markey. now these latest killings could have dire consequences for the u.s. led mission in afghanistan because according to journalist and author neil sherry. in some ways it has greater potential for damage in afghanistan because of the way that people are not necessarily linked into their own information systems and they're not going to be able to find out about this on their own so they're going to hear it through a strange sort of tribal and local village rumor mill and when they go to the

mosque on friday and hear from the militias who knows what kind of story this is going to be spun into so it could take. just monstrous proportions it's just going to really threw a wrench into the system and i think they've already be at the end of the americans had a lot of trouble arguing over the fine details of which are all and even handing over control of the prisons and things like this so i'm not sure what this will what kind of pressure this will bring on to karzai but it certainly puts the americans on the back foot in terms of what they're going to be able to ask for an extract from their allies and if they have to spend a whole lot of time dealing with the fallout and putting out little fires and dealing with riots and they're not going to be able to do the other things that are really the crux of the mission. we always i love it when you get involved with us here at r.t. we would like to find out what you think about the situation in afghanistan if you go to our web site r t top cop you can participate in our latest a worldwide web poll that's see how the numbers are stacking up this hour from our

team. so far forty one percent of you say the surge and tensions in afghanistan will make the human cost of war even higher. third believe it will bring afghanistan back into taliban hands another view that increased attention will force an early u.s. withdrawal that comes with about fifteen percent of the place in lost just over eleven percent is the opinion it will encourage the u.s. to stay several more years to go online and cast your vote while you're on the web site check out some of the other stories we have outlined for you there right now for example obama has a ratings go up in flames as the latest report showed him losing people support over gas prices also on our web site. cheese all world no photos as the authorities in some petersburg use of cameras and video equipment in the cities metro system find all those reasons why that article.

in about ten minutes time it's dimitry with the markets but for now the e.u. has given the green light for the one hundred thirty billion euro dig out for greece saving it from economic death by debt for the time being as the crisis hit spain is now in focus more than ever after saying you can't meet austerity targets by the u.k. independence party european parliament member says it's time the southern european countries set sail. recent serious trouble i mean you just got to look at the amount of people who are out on the streets demonstrating at the moment suicide rates are up to what minimum wage has been cause there's not homelessness in the country at the moment all the european union is doing you can go down the slide it's encouraging the cradle of civilization to head towards revolution because

that's what will happen if we continue with these austerity measures there's only one answer and nothing at least comes out of the all altogether gets back onto the track. the values are thrown exchange rates are comparisons of level get this exports moving the idea that greece spain portugal and all these mediterranean countries could exist within the same eurozone as a country like germany was completely facile from the start. i said it we predicted this it was impossible logic away so the only way that this thing can move on is for probably the north or country for form their own eurozone countries to fall out altogether to go back into their own countries and in southern europe the euro dream is fast becoming a nightmare in spain there been huge protests against austerity cuts new labor laws which opponents say will make it easier for workers to be fired but this in a country where unemployment rates are among europe's highest but the financial crisis isn't stopping new regulations from brussels as our correspondents are our city of reports. there's much ado about these feathered creatures.

on january first of this year the european commission's welfare of laying hands directive that the use of battery cages like this and now requires that the sudden hundred fifty square centimeters of cage per head. because. they look at the amount of investment to make they will say no thank you i will not work this to my life to create a bank so some and it's the medium and small but still completely completely was a. they're going to be taken over by the bigger ones among welcome scenario and already crisis hit e.u. countries but michelle is one of the lucky ones he shelled out more than three million euros to build the new cages i thought it was was not something i

was around forever on their sleeves was. i think i was. i they also now have to be trained to lay eggs in a special master which isn't exactly easy called ok fair enough this was. really bringing a lot more. with the issues extend beyond these stages manufacturers in france for example have called for urgent help after several farms were forced to stop egg production for failing to comply with the rules and that drove prices up by as much as seventy five percent in just four months in belgium union say prices of more than tripled since january a level not seen since the two thousand and three avian flu outbreak and while there's all the ruckus about having to follow new rules in fact farms and thirteen

countries including belgium and france still haven't complied the e.u. commission has launched infringement procedures against the states which could go all the way to the european court of justice if needed but the fact that we have taken the procedure is a clear sign of the commission will not back down in the meantime these cheaper illegal eggs could still make their way onto the market and much to the dismay of more of the dns member states in our country they spend four hundred million pounds of drug money getting there that she says things legal and of course they've been very very worried when they look across the english channel and they she hoped it would reach fifty million. stupid illegal thank you kate with media calls but coming up that is what british producers are so obsessed with that it pays to disobey the law. a law that has ruffled more than a few feathers in the industry but at least some can go about their business

slightly happier i guess or cilia artsy brussels. before we go to dimitri with the markets let's go to the arthur was up there some other global news in brief for you we'll start with pakistan and american drone attacks kill six suspected militants in pakistan just along the afghan border as you can see here at the pakistani army has been trying to clear the region of militancy still have bases in the area american drone strikes aimed at local terrorists began in two thousand and eight would have killed many civilians as well as mum about criticizes the remote controlled air attacks publicly by the government is believed to have supported the cia run program. israel and the palestinian militants have agreed to a cease fire after four days of deadly clashes the deal was mediated by egyptian intelligence officers after separate negotiations with each side at least twenty five palestinians are being killed and thirty five israelis wounded in strikes and

militant rocket attacks since friday the violence was triggered by the israeli assassination of a palestinian resistance leader. according what tamara has sentenced a former special forces soldier to over six thousand years in prison over a massacre during the country's civil war pedro pre-marital rios was found guilty of killing two hundred and one people and thrown their bodies down a well by this in the village of course aronsen nine hundred eighty two was given a thirty years for each killing and thirty years for crimes against humanity after being extradited from california what a milo's civil war claimed almost two hundred thousand lives before ending in one thousand nine hundred six with most of the killings by the us backed army. and to atlanta airport in the u.s. now where a plane maintenance workers have had a rather bad start to the day a five am engine test ended up with or rather a little too much throttle applied when it would seem that the brakes were not on

full enough the empty passenger plane ended up a bit far outside the parking zone and no one was hurt other than the pride of the ground crew. but to boldly go where no one has gone before that is part of the ground plan for the future of russia's space program which has just been unveiled and includes research stations on mars exploration of other planets in the solar system with the details now as artie's people. ross cosmos the russian space agency laying out bare their plan for the next eighteen years will take us up to the a twenty thirty now we're going to see unmanned and unmanned network of research facilities on the surface of mars now they'll be there to gather as much information as they can and send it back to here to earth hopefully being one of the first steps towards. mankind being able to set up a base on mars another will also be missions to venus and to jupiter and we're

hearing that we could see a monday mission to the moon well as far as the current missions go what we're going to see is the international space station scrapped the i s.s. has been on the go since the late ninety's it has funding up until twenty twenty however well it is going to be an old piece of kit really by the time and it will lead replacing now what they're looking to replace it with of course is brand new technology a next generation of spacecraft unmanned spacecraft that will be able to travel further and retrieve more data than anything we have at the moment now all of this of course costs money and roscoe's more say that they have the cash they have the budget to be able to do it in fact under the new plan for the next eighteen years we're going to see around six and a half billion u.s. dollars ploughed into space exploration here in russia and what we're also going to see as the development of

a brand new cosmodrome as it stands at the moment soyuz rockets that go up to the international space station launched in baikonur that's actually the same launch pad is where eureka garren blasted off to be the first man in the space all those years ago however they can or as great as it is it's time to look a little bit tired they will see a new cosmodrome built in the far east of russia so those next generation of rockets those next generation spacecraft will be launched from the next generation of cosmodrome as well. all right as i promised earlier time for operations of the retreat at the business desk and russia's largest only when you produce a style has now lost its chairman has absolutely right a big sort of excellent beric has filed his resignation saying that the difference is that he has a tween with the company's management have led the company into a crisis situation now the company inter roussel has said that if the vets have got it for more than

a year now has been ignoring his obligations as the company's chairman has been very much participating in board meetings and therefore on march sixteenth there like they were likely to find a replacement for in any way also several aspects of the relationship between the victim actually better and the company's management notably the c.e.o. and i get it passed that we need to mention is because the management of the assets resell has got a price that's a stake in normals mikkel because victor victor very for a long time has been insisting that the stake should should be sold whereas. i was i was against this now also dividends the company has not been paying for for quite a few years now and these are several aspects that we need to keep in mind when looking at this resignation but we talked to robert mounds of creativity and he says the effect on the company will be short. i believe the situation has come

about because of the disagreements escalating you know between mr bergen mr deer prosper. we don't believe that that result is in a crisis situation. it's that is very manageable it's well positioned in the lumina markets so there is no crisis situation there the best for you believe and finally short term i mean this is this will put some pressure on the share price our longer term depending on who was elected the new chairman of the board who could be positive for the sure has. it also in the morning trading on hong kong with shares are trading we saw a drop of more than one percent and then the company picked up the phone and basically asked for shares to be suspended to avoid further drops let's take a look at how the markets are faring this hour in russia they're looking positive there's another twenty twenty minutes left on the clock to trade the r.t.s. up point seven percent of my six point four percent for a look at the main movers on the ice you'll see that roussel shares are the

outsiders of the day down almost four percent at the end of the session gazprom reversed into the red also as will prices turned red we'll look at them in just a second and survey and other financial stocks were leaders of the session in europe it's all rosy and positive but first a look at the united states of course figures there we're also seeing positive movement that's on of course the development of the greek bailout situation in europe and also with they're looking ahead and into the fed meeting with chairman ben bernanke he will be talking about the economy and also expect that interest rates to remain the same in europe as i started saying the movement looks looks pretty positive the footsies up point six percent of blacks point nine percent as e.u. ministers have agreed on the second wave money around one hundred seventy billion

dollars. and on friday that's all we have time for this hour more markets and business news around fifty five minutes time. well for british scientists. it's not surprising that it's fine if i had the right amount of. hype that. marc.