stalemate the u.n. is closer to a syrian peace plan to make both sides lay down arms the u.s. threatens more pressure on the regime if it doesn't comply. but to lose a gunman is suspected of killing seven people has been confirmed after being holed up in his flat for two days in just the past one hour police stormed the house tense five. spending plan is fine because of budget with a hike in fuel prices dealing a heavy blow to small business is driving to be a. sign

is an activity for thinking about. worldwide news around the clock this is r.t. . live in moscow where the u.n. showing a united stance on syria after months of deadlock the u.s. has threatened damascus with more pressure and further isolation unless the latest peace initiative is carried out endorsers special envoy kofi annan peace plan including an immediate cease fire by both sides also access for humanitarian aid and the start of political dialogue. opposition leaders admit that some foreign states are selling weapons to support the rebels let's get more of this now from

journalist and author neil clark is joining us live from the u.k. thanks for coming on our team today good to see you now the u.n. finally appears to have a more unified stance over syria but do you think this could soon. unravel with the u.s. and its allies backing the rebels us some might say that seems a bit one sided very much so really think you know let's just contrast this new u.n. statement with a u.n. resolution that american its allies aggressively try to push through in a month or so ago that really was a regime change resolution and it's very interesting to see the shift has come from the west and i don't think you can excite the importance of this what's happened is that the plan very clearly was a regime change in damascus the rest was patently false the plan was was to drive forward for intervention and it didn't succeed cracks to russia and china so now the west should be checked i think and this new. resolution is good news i think

around what are some experts saying that president assad's agreement with kofi annan peace plan could actually help to keep him in power at least for some time but what's what's your take on this well you know elections have been scheduled for the seventh of may. president assad has made it quite clear he wants to go down the democracy route and now the emphasis must be on the opposition who know what they're against they're against the regime that will now come out and stand for the elections what something that the west if it was really responsible and really wanted to end this situation in syria easily why while encouraging the rebels to take part in the elections who already have a framework for a peaceful solution here but certainly you know there are many. analysts who say that the opposition itself is rather fractured there are several different groups all claiming to be part of the opposition ok what rights groups have accused the syrian rebels of carrying out abuses including torture and killings and yet these

are the people the u.s. and its allies hope will eventually be at the helm out of the frying pan and into the fire what i mean is quite outrageous the fact that the u.s. and the west is cheering on the. human financial support training i mean in. magazine january political route cia field office actually documented what's been going on west back into these rebels some of which are linked to al-qaeda terrorist attacks are taking place in damascus and it's terribly irresponsible and wrong the west we support of these people where we have a democratic path available to us through the election process and these rebel groups now lay down their arms and take part in elections let the syrian people decide and the fact of the matter is is that president assad does have large support in syria five percent of people in the cold so they want to stay eighty five percent of syria's support to the new constitution so you really it's time to call the rest of our democracy the west nose around the world lecturing other countries about democracy let's have democracy in syria leave it to the syrian

people to decide who should run their country when you bring up the issue of democracy here i mean i must ask you how realistic are the democratic reforms being pushed by president assad taking into account of the opposition still refuses to lay down arms well the point is is that president assad is calling the opposition's bluff and i think it's a very good move is he saying look let's have elections and i mean you know he's confident that he could with these elections is confident enough syrians and it's not just the shia the sunni people support large sections of population seventy percent of syria still lowered to the regime the christian community so i think president assad is the correct thing here russia has been good to. russia's call for dialogue all along i just mean the west that it's been actually thought in a peaceful solution to the response by continuing to drag resistance as you've been as you've been saying the west is absolutely focused and has been focused just for good toppling the assad regime if we can just take

a slightly broader scope here there are some international analysts who say that it's not so much about regime change in syria as it is about getting a stronger foothold there in order to further isolate and pressure iran and what's your take on that that's what it's all about and it presents a sad. you know then in the situation in bahrain let's just contrast the western position to bahrain where the demonstrators have been brutally repressed and yet the west hasn't called for intervention or a military change in the west hasn't been backing the rebels there and so so basically the starts is the syrian regime has to go for the rest that's the strategy so that they will then bring for their attack on iran and as long as the syrian regime stays in power in charge of the attack on iran very much less all right a journalist and author neil clark a life in oxford thank you so much for coming on r.t. today and you are well the violence in syria is spilling over to neighboring lebanon dividing its people on the crisis across the border. now explains how

lebanon has been and continues to be affected by the ongoing conflict. it's an air of c.g. on the mediterranean with pancham for everything green lebanese tripoli looks a lot like its libyan namesake and increasingly it's being drawn into the revolutionary violence it's home to sizeable alawite and sunni communities and with the syrian border just half an hour drive away tensions are already boiling over the road separating the alawite and sunni communities here in tripoli exactly mean this serious street and attitudes to what's happening there wives lebanese and more than anything else this country stands to lose the most from the distance gratian of its neighbor we have another proof of that came just a few weeks ago when one night bullets started to flow across the street the clashes claimed the lives of two people and pushed the rest deeper into their ideological trenches residents of these alawite raised money to put out this

impromptu memorial to their leader and the countries they consider their protectors . thank you russia there is also no second guessing on whom they consider that enemy america a euphemism for american interests they don't see human rights of freedom. serious ruling baath party has its regional office here its chiefs meeting bashar al assad in person was the most memorable event of his life while the prospect of a un sanctioned foreign intervention in syria is now minimal he says behind the scenes syria still remains a front here for regional powers syria is from europe maybe half an hour or so and we see everything in our eye with the weapons going. to syria with going from lebanon to syria. from jordan from there

from everywhere across the street in a hospital. all run by a sunni charity attitudes are strikingly different most of the patients here are young men from the harms province and some like muhammad don't hide their affiliation to get free syrian army he's take on who is responsible for the bloodshed is not hard to guess. i have a warning for the russian people that if they don't change this will cut all ties with them once their revolution reaches its victory you still have time to make the right choice on the hospital's administrator shows are some of about five hundred patients they've treated since the uprising began. allegedly committed by assad's regime amount to crimes against humanity but when i ask him whether their revolution is worth all the suffering and destruction his response is not exactly humanitarian but we have many destruction and now we have

more to no more than eleven thousand as we hear you. i think. evolution has to pay. something. and changing. the life to keep it you were in community is a part of the lebanese government has dispatched an army contingent to the cd for all its resemblance of the libyan capital lebanese tripoli is still trying hard to avoid the libyan scenario it's not going to see tripoli lebanon. he is coming to you live from the heart of moscow and harder to do so government suspected of killing seven people has now been confirmed and just the past hour police stormed mohamed merah flat where he had been holed up for the past two days the interior minister said

a fire fight ensued the suspect was hiding in the bathroom he shot at police then jumped out of the window while still shooting three policemen have been reportedly injured in the final assault now let's talk to paris political writer diana johnstone good to see you a pleasure to have you on our team today but the police waited for almost two days in the hope of capturing the suspect alive now he's confirmed dead in a gunfight with police do you think they were right to wait so long i really can't go there i'm going to great britain because i'm an american and united creepy would probably bomb go whole neighborhood i. kept alive good work. not a great three and the whole operation. but do you think do you think. with the influx of radical fundamentalism in france certainly since the uprising in

libya and just parts of north africa many immigrants have been flooding into france could this have maybe painted a lesson to those who might have radical ideas if indeed the french intelligence intelligence authorities had gone into the house immediately instead of waiting for forty eight hours send a lesson to his comrades. well i am i don't really believe in this sort of less than i don't i i don't think that's the word works i mean when somebody commits murders the police have to try to catch and then of course you want to deter other people you know i don't want to make money but i'm on your i mean. psychologically compare this event with that happened eight years ago in madrid remember. the train bombing where one hundred ninety one people were killed and nearly two hundred two thousand wounded and it was a much larger terrorist operation and it was also just before an election and fraud

is very interesting is just the reaction of the faddish people to that. in fact but also the right wing government and bring in social government because simply and mediately screwed up their practice a patient in the war in afghanistan and i think that meant this benish interestedly recognize this this was. coming home to roost and chickens coming home to roost operation that this was in essence. so i realize you're implying that you're implying i just pull a judgment dropping but perhaps you reap what you sow but i need to ask you about five finding a fine balance is because i'm being oppressed but i'm going to interpret it that way i want to make a stance that the pen is still the right of way and interpreted that way but that's not the rain's going to be interpreted here. where you go you bring up the issue of

political reasons certainly i personally saw cozy campaigning hopeful reelection on his part he's been discussing quite a lot of hard right and the immigration sentiment how does that tie now into what's happened with this gunman into these do you think he might step back a bit or even use that to his advantage. well i did see is he's already used it to his advantage because he's completely dominated the television screens for a couple of days the result of this and shoved the other candidates into the into the shadows. at a time when this is simply the beginning of a campaign so as a matter of fact sarkozy did by being present everywhere has already profited from this. part of that so let's talk about you mentioned a moment ago about foreign campaigns whether it's spain old friends here the suspected gunman claims of links to al qaida he's been trained in afghanistan trained in pakistan but he is

a french citizen and do you think homegrown terror in front of me is it a big problem do you think i don't think it's a big problem the only president to think that being only the only campaigner was wearing a. nike help or a slightly i really i i can't predict about fact all of the candidates that we were hoping this is very interesting when they first killing took place actually i thought right away that it was a saturday well it was that it was the chickens come home to roost. but the general reaction of politicians was that the whole this is racism oh dear answered oh it's making a big statement about how they were against right wing racism and that wasn't good at all but that's what they write it to be because they love to make speeches against rightwing racism various things because they

don't want to alienate the muslim community. which is quite large here and they're making a distinction that this is not this big difference there are you saying that there's a vast generalization going on here that ultimately it's easy to stereotype the most. population when it comes to one belt of radicalism medina jordan as we've been talking to you we've been looking at live pictures on r.t. as the police continue to ultimately clear out the cordoned off area we can see the security forces there as well the ambulance to the left other security personnel whatever the case there were today gun siege comes to an end diana johnston a political writer thank you for joining us on our team today. of the u.s. has issued a list of countries that could suffer from it sanctions on tehran china the biggest buyer of iranian oil tops are just barely in washington said it was exempting ten e.u. states and japan from the sanctions that would block access to america's banking

system financial expert francis luna so it's washington's approach simply is unfair . foreign policy for its allies and the e.u. . set the rules for other countries like china. such friendly terms with the u.s. on. the question is another set of rules so even though china here is purchased. by almost half so you still bring the sanctions on china. create a huge improvement expected between china and the us this is said to us think taking their foreign policy be global agenda for everybody i was there you know with me or i can see this is this is really what u.s. . policies are. they would apply you could you do surely if you would not.

do something. it's a good to have you with us today here on r t we're coming to you live from moscow now motorists and the elderly will be feeling the pinch in the u.k. as the government has unveiled its two thousand and twelve budget measures freezing it pensioners allowances have been dubbed a granny tax well there's criticism that only large corporations on the rich will be protected when their story is ati's laura smith. the government's calling this a fiscally neutral budget which basically means that they're giving with one hand and taking away with the other labor the opposition party is calling it a millionaire's budget and people think that it's tempering around economic disaster just dealing with the edges of it the top line of this budget is really this tax cuts for the very richest people in society from fifty extensible surprised to sense hugely controversial the government says the tax is not making any money anyway but groups like the occupy campaign say that it's basically

a tax cut for the one percent another very controversial thing is this this issuing of one hundred year or even perpetual boring money it only needs to be paid back in one hundred years' time the government says it's doing that to look in low interest rates but the critics say that it's numbering our children essentially with our debt not just children either grandchildren great grandchildren one of them is controversial parts of this but it is the raising of the tax on fuel again later this year that has a huge impact on the economy and in fact it's a measure that according to some polls seventy seven percent of people in this country are against create tens of thousands of jobs at no cost what government could say no to big case coalition government apparently as it sticks to another rise in the tax on fuel to take effect in august small business owners are feeling the pinch. over the last few years is really really crippled and crunched on our

bottom line but according to the fair few campaign cutting the tax on fuel by just four cents would get the economy motoring and could put one hundred seventy five thousand people back in work the creation of the jobs would take off to go to fix. these jobs to be created more trucks going out spending more money etc but they seem to be ignoring that concentrating on things like fifty p. top rate of income tax for the rich people meanwhile small businesses. found sound and chapman run a company which sells an install spence's to keep your pet in your garden it employs seven people full time and runs four vans in which engineers deliver train pets to use the fences the guys can working hand share one day and then the next day depending on when we're a customer wants us first of all we have increasing p.h.a. which obviously is going on top of fuel as well and then the actual fuel duty is well. you can't bring

a screen for all angles for around seventy percent of the economy is small business because it meant says it's depending on firms like to rebuild it but growth and development is out of the question according to sam he says the price of fuel is throttling the price at the pump has already hit one pound fifty five a liter in some places that's two dollars forty six and although some of it is judy the geopolitical situation including the iranian oil embargo a staggering sixty percent tax it's an easy but damaging way to raise money is actually a very convenient target for governments because it's actually very difficult to avoid i mean one of the impacts is on labor mobility so how easy it is for people to travel to work or to actually get jobs that might be some travelling distance from home so it actually increase unemployment quite markedly if you choose to hide it's a problem that filters down into the entire economy ninety percent of everything we

have in our homes offices and shops is delivered by lorry with fuel do you see so high haulage companies are forced to pass those costs on to consumers resulting in higher prices for everything food clothes consumer goods piling yet more pressure on the recession hit british consumers nora smith r.t. london. now our web site r t dot com is where you can find even more news and videos let's have a look and see what's waiting for you on line right now just a click away cashing in on incarceration more federal jails in america go private as profits rise in line with the growing prison population but there's concern over the conditions for the inmates. plus siberian villagers discover an unidentified object that's fallen from the sky sparking rumors and speculation as to what it might be those details that are he thought. before we go to

katie with the market is there. some other global news in brief for you we'll start in new york where police have closed the city's union square to clear it of occupy wall street protesters for the second night in a row last night's raid has seen at least six people arrested activists moved to the square after they were forced to leave their previous bases you called he parked there demanding the resignation of the city's police chief what they call brutal tactics against the occupies. rebels in mali have appeared on state television saying they've taken control of the west african country they've announced a nationwide curfew and suspended the constitution troops staged a mutiny on wednesday taking over a state broadcaster and attacking the presidential palace soldiers are angry at the government's handling of a separatist rebellion in the north of the country. colombian troops of killed thirty nine rebels in operations over the past two days the defense minister

described it as the biggest blow against the revolutionary armed forces of colombia in the past five days and killed eleven soldiers in the area just a few days earlier the colombian government says the rebels are involved in cocaine smuggling arms trafficking and the manufacturing of gone. portugal has been brought to a halt by a twenty four hour general strike. subway and ferry services are disrupted while some public offices and schools will also be shot but workers are protesting against welfare cuts and tax hikes europe's thirty measures were adopted in return for seventy eight billion euros in international rescue cash that's as portugal sinks deeper into recession with growth figures are expected to drop. i know we go to. see you so are we still are seeing red in the markets we are indeed it's just ruby ruby ruby rory it really is i mean we've got markets

struggling across the board today let's get started with a brush with citi actual figures and you can see for yourself the l.t.s. is over then down now in the my six fairy just ever so slightly better one point seven percent in negative territory this hour so that moves us on to the stocks to see who is really suffering today and not the tech had a positive start the day there are gas produced here in russia but now they seem to be losing the fight point four percent blue color as well they're heading further down as over a percent in negative territory is that really is a red colors across the board today that means it's on that she year it was the how they're getting on and they're not doing much pressure a tool that the footsie just understand down the tracks one are down and it's the financial services that seem to take the bad and the mining stocks as well and that's off the back of the chinese manufacturing activity which posted a sharp losses so that data is taking its toll i can also tell you the purchasing

managers index is in germany and france also unexpectedly fell and as it stands at the moment u.s. stock futures are pointing downwards will have those figures in about three hours time officially and we move on so oil we can see that it is indeed down and that's after france said that industrialized nations are considering releasing strategic could stop pause counter rising prices and just talk about just the idea of sending the prices down at the moment if we look at the current says we'll have a look at the year dollar which is down at this hour we've got the ruble is mixed sentiment against the main currency is that is lower against the u.s. dollar and higher against the euro at this hour. moving on the other news america's historic grip on the presidency of the world bank is being challenge for the first time since one thousand nine hundred forty four the developing countries have put forward two credible contenders of their own so do who are these people i hear you

cry what we call the nigerian finance minister the former finance minister of colombia they can put forward. nominated as candidates before the deadline on friday that's because robert zoellick is retiring and remind you the world bank is the top avoid of a poor country and its head is one of the world's top policymakers. and russia's been right the forty eight most favorable country to run a business and a rating about by bloomberg hong kong spot and that's thanks to its free market policies corporate taxes the survey looked at wages start up costs and have a country controls inflation but russia's place in the top fifty might not sound fantastic but it's far better than last year in a rating by doing business by the world bank where the country took one hundred twenty year. so that is indeed

a business. thanks very much for. sure he will be looking at people who are america's financial inequality there of course with our economic crisis but i'll be back with the headlines just before.

wealthy british style. that's not on the side of. market finance come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our.