three. three. three. three. three broke. the story your media project the free media john karr tetons tom. western and arab supporters of the syrian revolution meet in turkey to press the assad regime with some of the members pushing for further militarization of the conflict. a hot mike moment between the leaders medvedev and obama sees us republican hawks spoke with a volley of anti russia rhetoric slammed by moscow as a cold war cliche. and hast already riots and protests break out across spain as the government announces massive new cuts unparalleled specific internship at general franco.

nine m. in moscow i match reservation you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t calls for more arms to the syrian rebels growing louder today with saudi arabia saying supplying weapons is a duty that says one of the major opposition groups appealed to syria's neighboring states to allow the transit aircraft the request comes ahead of the seventy nation friends of syria meeting in turkey which is r.t. sorry for ports could prove a stern test for the host nation. taking the hub of activity of the name into as it prepares to play haste to the friends the syria meeting countries once again found itself at the center stage of the push to pressure the assad regime it has a history common history that syria source certainly feels justified because great thing to fear to a certain extent probably as well as was contained spiraling fully built up close

economic ties to syria and sharing more than one hundred kilometers a border with its neighbor a distance between the two countries is now a gulf with take a stance seemingly closely aligned to that of arab countries such as qatar and saudi arabia and their strong calls for regime change. or very early in the case of syria we might remember. very quickly and very confrontational. on. the struggle against him and. meanwhile the syrian national council themselves are battling their own fears divides in fact the group lost a number of members recently as accusations mount that they're not representative of the interests of the syrian people this isn't seen as. also i have no insight here. in one. of these the monist muslim brotherhood.

member before was. also. the syrian opposition desperately trying to bridge their own divisions turkish government is now left in a difficult situation is more after these things that people observe the only team that thirty can push is a regime change otherwise it is capacity or one or into the arab world through syria every be very very constrained and as take he gears up for the meeting. when it comes to understanding the complex syrian crisis and take his role in it they still left to guess what's really going on behind closed doors it's a key to once again image is a major regional power syria is said to need for even at thirty thousand feet very much the way it applying pressure and it's called lights put an end to the violence that many hate in the turkish government so. that a wrong we've now could lead to

a confrontation with the syrian army i mean escalation of an already incredibly volatile regional situation. it's campbell. the u.s. is one of the countries supporting special envoy kofi annan peace plan but still continues to push for regime change it's a stance that's not helping end the war so i started going to or my or from the center for research on the arab world it is the main goal of washington actually. the government of bashar assad's. ouster the very positive response which kofi annan splined has received they could not just do anything else but supported also but the latest comments are still we are very skeptical. the syrian government has taken the view they have to stop the fighting immediately again it's the same position they are taking vague blame all the

responsibility for the fighting to syrian government whereas the kofi annan plan clearly says just as russia and china. both sides have to stop fighting. now syria hovers on the brink of civil war we revisit one of the most controversial events of the arab spring. so many. who have interests the it doesn't too should be silenced photo of a do the man who engineered the libyan regime his downfall says the grisly end of moammar gadhafi may have been about more than just revenge. and washington decides to leave north korea hungry having announced it'll suspend food aid for the damaged country in response to pyongyang has plans to launch an earth observation satellite but the u.s. calls it a missile test. but first america's missile shield plans emersion again this week to form a stumbling block between russia and the u.s.

the pentagon now wants to expand their defense system to asia and the middle east this is president advent of president obama held key talks at an international nuclear security summit in seoul. a microphone caught obama's private remark asking for a space until november as u.s. elections past his republican rivals though immediately became using him of secretly plotting with moscow but as more hawks jump on the anti russia bandwagon artie's guy reports that their war cries aren't resonating with american voters. ah the run up to the presidential election in the us. a perfect time to drag down the good old cold war skeleton from the closet. russia this is without question our number one geopolitical foe in the world of the

presidential hopeful mitt romney russia is america's prime enemy while its president elect you should read i mean. i think their president represents a real threat. to the. stability and peace of the world. that's seen the world of mitt romney what about well america there is no evidence of any popular support for bashing russia for hostility towards russia so this idea that somehow or another russia is a concern for americans it just doesn't add up at all with a very small sliver of people asked about romney's comments president medvedev advised him to stop reverting to olden days hollywood stereotypes and take a look at the calendar. but it is all u.s. presidential candidates to make reasonable statements it wouldn't do them any home to do so and such if they will choose it's the year two thousand and twelve

midnight and sometimes it even the current leaders of the two countries may have long delayed the cold war to aggress but for some it's just too good to lead. boy to return to those cold war simple days. russia is not the only foreign policy bandwagon the republican presidential hopefuls are capitalizing on the list also includes china iran's syria each candidate except ron paul trying to sound tougher than the other the strategies they put forward warming arming isolating threatening i want to lead china i want to go to war with china these guys are ranchers and at the end of it but instead of looking for ways to have it to work to harness of course should take military action to spawn acceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon but what if all of what the trigger happy candidate suggest on foreign policy actually happens i worry about the world in which romney became

president because i think he would adopt a more militaristic foreign policy as world is depicted in the picture sketch it's some kind of mythic cool i'm going to really do the world if america takes up a much more aggressive stance towards lots of foreign countries it will be a much more dangerous world ability to be dangerous for america because we can't afford to do that mitt romney will most likely win the republican nomination and america will face a choice between him and president obama polls show the majority of americans disapprove of obama's policies but most experts agree that he will remember to really win the ally pally because too many americans are just plain scared of having someone like romney as their future leader i'm going to take our reporting from washington our take. risk assessment consultant daniel wagner so stoking tension with russia will ultimately benefit no one and even the most hawkish

republicans realize this. it's easy for politicians in the heat of an electoral campaign to pander to the lowest common denominator of the american populace with cold war rhetoric that's exactly what mr romney is doing i tend to wonder how thoughtful he would be on these larger issues if he were to get into office and it also says to me that he's not particularly sophisticated when it comes to foreign policy it's almost as if he's been handed lines by his advisors about what to say and that it's intended not to necessarily make progress but to get himself elected the fact is that america and russia much better as allies ultimately whoever is in the white house will ultimately go away from the extreme come toward the center and make some sense in what he's talking. stay with us here on r.t. still to come this hour of violence erupts again in the middle east. brutal clashes in the middle east market landay commemorated by palestinians who see it as

a symbol of the struggle against israeli occupation. and france for the french ideological arrests imprisonment deportation country's presidential campaign turns to a hard line competition as politicians tell on realistic solutions to very real problems . but first some of the biggest riots in decades swept spain this week with mass protests coinciding with a nationwide general strike over austerity but the government remained under it announcing twenty seven billion euros worth of cuts the next day spending on education social safety nets and every other sector will be slashed by about seventeen percent furthermore tax hikes are being introduced across the spectrum state workers will be hit with a pay freeze to critics of the cuts the most draconian since a dictatorship of francisco franco three decades ago economic analyst michael moore auspex ultimately measures but. what i can see is that to what those men want to make the spanish government is not only visitor to pill it's also

impossible when you look at the private sector private sector is truthfully you get more or less bankrupt when you look at the beings overdo it then quote central bank then from government also mourners being put on can you be implemented as cover to pitch in these circumstances so everybody will see it is a rule this won't work but what i what i see is that spain is the last nail in the euro zone coffin and polluted sions are talking about adjustment adjustment is such a nice word but it means in reality that people there have to become poorer they have to become poorer this is the adjustment that i mean so again this could easily lead to a domestic reaction and this route could also trigger more problems in the other seven countries here in europe. meanwhile oil prices around the world continue rising amid growing tensions over the west sanctions enter rhetoric against iran it

is especially worrying for the e.u. which has been weakened by austerity and now with the mercy of market mandated prices from the national iranian american council the things of the sanctions were just a costly kneejerk reaction through a problem here is that the u.s. and the e.u. have passed these unprecedented sanctions without a real strategy or understanding of comes next we're sort of making this up as we go along and we're finding that the same issues that we put in place to try to restrict iran from profiting off of oil sales is really actually backfiring on us and that iran has tremendous leverage against us if we're going to take this confrontation to one to energy so i'm skeptical of the ability of the united states and france and others to actually mitigate this president obama has even said a number of economists have said that the fear of a war with iran has actually added about twenty dollars to the price of a barrel of oil so this concern that israel may strike iran or that the united

states may end up in a war with iran is one of the driving factors of why it is so expensive and simply addressing the supply issue is not going to mitigate that. french police have carried out a series of nationwide raids arresting nineteen suspected as limits and seizing caches of weapons arrests came just a week after mohamed merah a frenchman of algerian origin was shot dead by police in toulouse after he gunned down seven people last month as are he's tests or so he reports the case is dominating the race for the country's presidency. mama mira was killed by police after thirty two hours seizure him to lose his life may have ended that day but his story has given france's presidential hopefuls an excuse for electioneering with ever more radical rhetoric. that's given rise to a huge political debate and what's made it to the foreground of the discourse is mary background. from anyone who regularly consults internet

sites which promote hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison any person going abroad for the purposes of indoctrination in terrorist ideology will be criminally punished so that's in addition to sarkozy's policy of stripping a foreign born criminals of their citizenship for their tightening border control saying there are too many foreigners in france who clearly advocating the political change and it's from his view it's not a crime we have to freedom of speech in france and they don't see. the restrictive . while the french it isn't any east family came to france a very long time ago so. obviously this kind of terrorism. from inside friends of society it's not just something that is imported from the middle east. and you cannot. take away french nationality from

a french nation or this is not allowed under the french constitution and then there's money in the pen the far right national front party candidate having long pushed a more radical anti immigration line call for the revival of the death penalty for child killers and the deportation of any foreigner who goes of a suspicious trip to places like afghanistan how many mohammed merah are there in the boats and planes that arrive in france full of immigrants mohammed merah is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg it's time to wait. on these fundamentalist political religious groups who are killing our children if threats of islamic fundamentalism has been underestimated. i think all that's been announced after these tragic events are proposals put forward solely for the election it goes to the one who proposes the most radical solutions which we aim supposedly at solving the problem but the problem is much deeper with our now the growing number of

immigrants in france about six million of whom are muslims is being labeled as a problem by some prominent figures politicians are throwing around what they call solutions but the question is whether any of these policy ideas on immigration or security are realistic or addressing an actual problem or simply the consequences of something more fundamental the core of the problem is attributed to the creates because what is the goal the goal to pull in there doesn't seem to be much consensus on that either does or sylvia r.t. paris you're all our latest stories and videos on our website r.t.e. dot com so check them out online here's what's a click away right now. the threat of a devastating thirty meter tsunami looms over your pad as a panel of experts warns the country should prepare for a new mega quake. and the world goes dark for earth hour as millions around the world sacrifice modern day conveniences in the name of environmental

awareness. thousands of protesters clashed with israeli security forces at palestinian israeli border points friday while marking a land day event sees palestinians commemorating the deaths of six hours killed by police and demonstrations against land confiscated by israel in one nine hundred seventy six or he's also your husband. this year the annual atlanta a demonstration turned violent with one protester killed in gaza several dozen injured across the west bank and at least thirty four people arrested the event marks the killing back in one thousand nine hundred six of the six palestinians enjoying a land confiscation policy of the then israeli government palestinians complain that the israelis took arab land and used it for building israeli settlements and since then this and that event has been used to highlight the plight of the palestinian people this year it coincided with what was dubbed the global march to jerusalem and its all some eighty two countries participating the attention was

focused on numerous palestinian cities and villages as well as arab israeli towns and israeli borders along the. border some twenty thousand people gathered and while there were no reports of violence even certain highlighted the palestinian struggle among the groups there was a jewish group calling itself jews united against zionism and they were waving palestinian flags and chanting anti israeli slogans at the commander checkpoint which is the main checkpoint between jerusalem and ramallah it was violence starting from as early as new day friday here these raided police were using rubber bullets and tear gas to push back quickest is who were burning tires and also throwing stones at israeli border police. hundred fifty killed more than four hundred injured as a result of the latest throes of violence we've been libya's former rebels and tribesmen battle it out there for power the nation's government brokered

a cease fire but in reality it is little power over the reform of groups left over from the revolution as violence continues across the country there is a growing sense among critics for last year's uprising produced little real change coming up he's exclusive interview with the architect of caracas downfall it's a fresh look at the cost and reasoning behind the rebellion. for. too many. who have interests the it doesn't talk that he should be silenced for whatever you know who is trying to buy time. he sent to me and that's when you use one of them was bush who was sent to france who were. providing some sense of the what he called when when there's a solution with it he was killed by her foot and then killed by libyans who are libyans and they are from others i really don't know what put them say is that many parties who have the real interests that this he just keep silent for

a living. now to another african country in the grip of upheaval and violence and ultimatum set by west african countries demanding mali's military junta hand back power to the country civilian leadership expires on monday military commanders seized power last week angry at the government's handling of a tribal rebellion in the country's north but the crisis is far from being solved with the rebels in control or some key northern cities political analyst lawrence freeman from executive intelligence review thinks nato bears responsibility for the fighting as the arms are coming from libya. mali this was an area that u.s. put a lot of military backing into and they were trying to fight the various forces known as. ok to have them a grid and you had a military low level officer carry out a coup so you have to wonder how strong is the government this is the continuation

of the arab spring into sub-saharan africa one factor there he is in the zealous nature of president obama and president sarkozy and prime minister cameron in their in can't they carry out regime change in libya and kill gadhafi when it was not necessary there actually help peace process because many of these rebels are coming back from libya very well on britain's health system set for a controversial overhaul after new reforms were passed critics think the bill could spell the end of free health care with allegations of some lords m.p.'s who voted for the changes put profits first or his laura smith reports on a system in need of a check up. it's a merry go round of self interest along for the ride members of parliament the house of lords and health care companies opening up britain's national health

service to plunder by profit is the jewel in the u.k.'s welfare state is under strain promising free health care but with criticism that it can't cope the government says private sector involvement is the only but some say it's not those in need of care but rather those in power who are set to benefit. the shares in the company. and yet they didn't first or allowed to vote on health and social care bill with these private health interests which is a conflict of interest. institutional corruption at worst friends with benefits david cameron prime minister received two hundred ten thousand pounds to his party for nursing and care home tycoon dollar a pop tart and made him a lot that gave the party twenty five thousand pounds just a week after the health reforms were announced andrew lansley health secretary got

twenty one thousand pounds to fund his office from joel nash who's the chairman of k u k which already gets ninety six percent of its business from the n.h.s. the list is long and illustrious it runs to nearly one hundred fifty names all sent m.p.'s who voted yes to opening up health care to competition and stand to gain from the results there may be more the research isn't finished yet and now that the bill has passed its detractors are powerless to stop private companies stepping in and making health care about profits not healing investigation show a number of westminster m.p.'s and a quarter of britain's house of lords have links with private health care provider . it is true investment patronage board membership and the parties in power conservatives and liberal democrats have received substantial funding from various private health care interests following the legislation those companies are

circling already we're starting to see a number of private health interests starting to look very seriously cherry picking some of the best most profitable parts of the national health service they were just waiting for this legislation to go through parliament and of course now ready to pounce the changes have been highly controversial and these people think they'll damage the quality of care many feel while m.p.'s did declare their interest they should have been banned from the government code of conduct as anybody with an interest must never take part in the front of their interest this is dog driven it's to do with private enterprises. profit says not to do with. inside westminster m.p.'s reportedly bangs the table in jubilation when the reforms passed outside the bell told the free health care.

r.t.e. london. young yang a slam to us as of the slam the u.s. overthe decision to suspend food aid to north korea blaming washington for breaching february's humanitarian agreement two hundred forty thousand tons of provisions were promised in return for the communist state halting nuclear and missile tests north korea announced this week that it refuses to hold back plans to launch an earth observation satellite in that april but the u.s. and south korea think the launch is really a long range missile test claims it's sending the satellite into space for peaceful purposes and has reportedly invited outside experts to prove its sincerity eric surat is a co-founder of a campaign to end the korean war says washington is acting against international law involving food aid in the standoff. just a week or two before we heard the administration in washington saying if this was a good deal it was going to get food to the neediest people in north korea and now we're playing politics with food food as

a weapon of war under international law has always been illegal to use and we really need to find a way back to the table not see individual acts as a provocation they certainly have a right to put a satellite into space as other nations do but let's demilitarized let's look at the base issues let's look at getting a peace treaty to end the korean war finally and then i think these kinds of issues will run. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe the muslim insurgents are those are suspected of being behind a series of coordinated bombings in southern thailand that killed fourteen people more than three hundred others were wounded after car bombs went off near main commercial hubs targeting shoppers and foreign tourists the southern provinces have long been a target for violence with thai authorities imposing states of emergency in the region in two thousand and five. lacasse advocate on sun suchi is expected to be voted into parliament in

a landmark election in myanmar. the opposition leader has struggled for decades against the military dominated government and spent almost a quarter century under house arrest sushi's national league for democracy party won a landslide election victory in one thousand nine hundred eight in one nine hundred ninety eight which was an old by the country's military last year though saw power headed over to a civilian government. let me back in a few moments with a recap of the headlines stay with us.

film maker. and. the. director's cuts of real life in prison on march. the low low .