nations are supporting syria's revolution meetin turkey to thrash out plans to help the opposition build pressure on the assad regime this while turkish police dispersed supporters of the syrian leader. also in the week's top stories a lot like exchange between barack obama and. it leads to an see russian rhetoric coming america's republican presidential candidates are trying to muster was slammed as cold war hollywood cliche. and spade adopts its toughest budget cuts in decades despite a nationwide strike and mass protests the result of involving clashes and dozens of

arrests. are the stories that made headlines this week you're watching the weekly with me reception saudi arabia and its allies are thought to have agreed to pay salaries to rebels fighting the syrian regime now the decision came as around sixty nations all harsh critics of the syrian government met in turkey to discuss how to bolster the opposition and intensify sanctions against. the u.s. and its allies blame the syrian president for violence in the country whereas damascus says it's fighting extremists sarah ferguson following the talks for us in istanbul now joining us live on the program sara what else what else came out of the meeting. i think it's. not.

easy for the fighting. companies to make that call and. direct this simple. split is similar to the time. they find nothing. like. think that it's not the mission it's not. looking.

forward to apologize or i'm sorry sort interrupt your obviously the weather it's quite blustery where you are when it calms down a little bit we'll get back to you because you just got too much noise on your microphone off you surf for the nest of all thank you are we do apologize for that some things are entirely out of our control now political analyst patrick henderson says that by backing the opposition the friends of syria are not bringing peace but rather making things worse on the ground up. it's unbelievable how it's got to this point where it seems ok to fund the opposition whatever form it is and let's not kid ourselves the u.s. and the u.k. have been backing guerrilla forces in syria for the last year that has been happening that's been admitted by the u.s. state department it's been admitted by the u.k. foreign office and all the sudden they're backpedaling now saying that it's all you know nice arab spring nonmilitary intervention and we're going to help the

opposition it doesn't work if they want to help syria they need to engage the syrian government in diplomatic talks on neutral ground it's quite quite clear that president assad is not going to. you know accept the kofi annan peace plan as the western countries are still giving aid to the opposition has already been caught through proxies smuggling arms over the border into jordan but also his poems going over the border in lebanon these are coming from the u.s. the u.k. their allies in the region they're doing this through third party. not out of libya one hundred fifty killed four hundred injured there now this is the result of clashes in the past six days alone in the country and this is followed by rebels and tribesmen battle it out of power in the upper hand the nation's government has now broken a cease fire but in reality it is little it has little power rather over the vast number of groups left over from the revolution in libya is

a former prime minister who's led the uprising against moammar gadhafi and believes that the libya might be taken over by extremists mahmoud jibril also says it's the result of nato abandoning the country off of the former regime was toppled later this hour our exclusive interview with jabril sharing his view on cafes death as well as the future of libya. but there are many parties who have interests. if he doesn't talk that he should be silenced for ever with that who was killed by the foot and into the libyans who are libyans and they are from others after the regime fell down and most of the with some countries feel that their mission has been accomplished they neglect the fair there could be a. political vacuum can be filled by anybody in the world and it's a fertile and saw you know foot extremism to grow or. you're

watching r.t. guarantees for an arms race president medvedev delivered a clear choice to washington this week over its missile shield plans in europe that says the u.s. also announced similar systems for asia and the middle east to retreatment if america obama discussed the issue at an international nuclear security summit in seoul and part of the private conversation accidentally went public. but. the two leaders exchange was captured by t.v. cameras word for word and it was seized on by barack obama's republican rivals with mitt romney even declaring russia as america's number one enemy but as more hold on the russian bandwagon he's got a chicken reports their war cries are not exactly resonating with american voters.

ah the run up to the presidential election in the u.s. . a perfect time to drag out 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 enemy while it's president elect you should remember. i think president represents a real threat to the. ability of these world but that scene in 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. and you can call us presidential candidates to make reasonable statements it wouldn't do them any home to do so. it's the year twenty two look at midnight and seventy's and even the current leaders of the two countries may have long delayed the cold war to. yes but for some it's just too good to like girl 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 he ran 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 be china i want to

go to war with china these guys are ranchers and in and out of it and then looking for ways to do it to want to harm a ship or should take military action it is unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon but it would give all of what the trigger happy candidates suggest on foreign policy actually happens i worry about the worlds in which romney became president because i think he he would adopt a more militaristic foreign policy is to do it to them it's a sketch it's some kind of hidden if it's cool and i'm real view of the world it's america takes up a much more aggressive stance towards lots of foreign countries it'll be a much more dangerous world also be dangerous for america because we can't afford it you know 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 we were there literally win the election because when many americans are just plain scared of having someone like romney as their future leader i'm going to take our reporting from washington r.t. . live from moscow this is r t it's good to have your company today what's been happening today is the friends of syria meeting in istanbul are the friends of syria ultimately choosing to put more pressure on the assad regime i get more. to the syrian opposition let's have a look and see what happens from this meeting today and approach through to all these are. the final details of today's meeting sara. thank you mr because the congress. let's listen directly still is going to be provided to the syrian opposition not serial such and not told to the free syrian army the armed opposition being inside the country t.v. arms today becoming such a still on the fly if it was asking back by

a number of gulf countries that has a lot of concern about further fuel conflicts and save the nascent full pledges come today in the times about financial aid in the full set that's going to be in the fullness of the multi billion a multi-billion dollar fund that we know a number that goes. where they call the for. the syrian. state. backs the full. military. the foreign minister said that. people who are coming into the villages that they can take it into whatever is necessary to the very survival but it's told that that's not going to be. any sort of statement in its supplying arms to. basically countries if. russia china.

today they dismissed the friends of syria conferences being cut you want sided big the french syrian opposition. all the syrian people and the french to me to. this is a. deal breaker. much like behind the the told. the opposition. to violence in the country. is that it's very blustery where you are i do hope you can still hear me but we understand that the syrian opposition. very divided four or five different factions all making up the opposition they managed to put on

a display. during and after the meeting. to try to. see that actually. comes from the syrian national council. thank you. but as the u.s.

republicans take a hard line stance on a foreign and nation's presidential hopefuls and for all and the coming down hard on domestic issues still ahead for you here on the program in the wake of radical islamic terrorism on home soil the candidates push on constitutional change with threats of arrests and deportation. by the private profiteers of bleeding in britain's health service dry like u.k. lawmakers voted for reforms paving the way for firms to make millions for medical care. some of the biggest riots in decades swept across spain this week mass rallies back to a nationwide general strike as millions walked off the job to protest against more austerity dozens of people were injured in the ensuing clashes almost sixty arrested by the government it remained under water analysing try to seven billion euros worth of cuts the very next day it's one of the toughest budgets of spain's introduced in decades which includes tax hikes and

a salary freeze for public sector workers but economic analyst michael ross thinks that ultimately the measures just won't work. and if you've ever heard of a politician who is promises came true otherkin we're latina future and we not and what i can see is the do what those men want to make this government is not only is it is also impossible when you look at the private sector private sector is totally over that mourners bankrupt when you look at the bearings over the central bank bankrupt government also mourners bankrupt how can you be implemented authority pickett's in these circumstances so everybody will see this rule this won't work but what i what i see is that spain is the last nail in the euro zone coffin politicians are talking about adjustment adjustment is such a nice word what it means in reality the people there have to become poorer when

you are a government and you have to tell it to the people the people are feeling that they are becoming poorer you are in a big big difficulty this could easily lead to a domestic interaction and this could also trigger more problems in the other countries here in europe. in addition to the deepening debt crisis in the e.u. there are also growing concerns over soaring oil prices following the west's sanctions against iran france britain and the us all considering releasing oil reserves on to the market to drive down costs jamelle from the national iranian american council believes the sanctions were just a knee jerk reaction with the repercussions only now being felt real problem here is that the us 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 sages 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 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's so expensive and simply addressing the supply issue is not going to mitigate that. they're watching the weekly on the french police carried out a series of raids against a suspected islamic terrorists throughout the country nothing nineteen arrests but a crackdown comes just a week after one hundred or a french one of algerian descent was shot dead by police in toulouse after that is

that where you know certain people and saudis are still here explains a fear of terrorism is playing a role in the nation's upcoming presidential election. mahmut marrow 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 giving rise to a huge political debate and what's made it to the foreground of the discourse is mary background she continually from anyone who regularly consults internet sites which promote or 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 in extreme is you it's not a crime we have freedom of speech in france and they don't see. to restrict its. was a french citizen any east family came to france a very long time ago so. obviously that kind of terrorism. from inside friends of society it's not just something that is imported from every culture me the least. and you cannot. take away french nationality from a french nation or this is not allowed under the french constitution and then there's marine le pen the far right national front party candidate having all pushed a more radical and immigration line call for the revival of the death penalty for child killers and the deportation of any foreigner who goes under 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 wage war on this from the mentalist 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 sold. for the election it goes to the one who proposes the most radical solutions which would aim supposedly at solving the problem but the problem is much deeper with our by 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 that are addressing an actual problem or simply the consequences of something more fundamental the core of the problem is

a tribute if you can do concrete because what is the goal the goal of the problem there doesn't seem to be much consensus and that either this or still here r t paris ok our time for you to get involved here the story of our trio we want to know what you think about the french crackdown on the domestic islamists so let's bring up the numbers for this hour from our dot com so far more than a half of you believe it's president sarkozy's pre-election move to pander to voters nearly one quarter think it's the start of an unseen muslim witch hunt less than ten percent say it's a kneejerk response to the to lose shootings well just twelve twelve percent now believe it's an attempt to finally address the threat of terrorism on french soil you can still have your say.

pyongyang has slammed the u.s. over its decision to suspend food aid to north korea calling it an overreaction quote beyond limit provisions were promised in return for the communist state halting nuclear and missile tests north korea has refused to hold back its plans to launch a satellite image april reportedly invited outside experts to prove it did what it's doing is for purely peaceful purposes however the u.s. and south korea believe the launch is really a long range missile test eric cirrhotic and co-founder of the campaign to end the korean war says that washington is acting against international law by using food aid in its political 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 and 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 one around. this is artsy a twenty year old palestinian that was killed when landay protesters clashed with israeli security forces on the palestinian israeli border on friday and comes a fortnight after an egyptian mediated truce to hold the violence between both sides was broken party's policy explains. this year the annual land day demonstrations turned violent with one protester killed in gaza several dozen injured across the west bank and at least thirty four people arrested in the event

and marks the killing back in one nine hundred seventy six of the six palestinians in a land confiscation policy other than israeli government palestinians complain that these ladies took arab learned and used it for building israeli settlements and since then this and the event has been used time night the plight of the palestinian people this year 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 i would israeli towns and israeli borders along the is well today new border some twenty thousand people gathered and more there were no reports of violence even certainly highlighted the palestinian struggle. party's policy reporting mind you can always i just log on to r.t. dot com for lots of other stories or news comment for example millions across the world switch the lights off for our event aimed at raising global environmental

awareness by some very cool looking pictures on our website our two top con. plus a correctness all just craziness new york over fifty words from school essays with dinosaurs dancing and birthday all making the black list see that in full there are two dot com. wealth before health that accusation against britain's government after the parliament voted in favor of controversial but the call care reforms many lawmakers in both have links to private suppliers which stand to benefit physicians and patients fearing for the future of free health care in the u.k. laura smith has more in 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 plum duff by profiteers 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 rest. of the shares in the company. and yet these vested interests or allowed to vote on the health and social care bill with these private health interests which is a conflict of interest. and institutional corruption at worst friends with benefits david cameron prime minister received two hundred ten thousand pounds for his party for nursing and care home tycoon dollar part and made him a lot part of 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 joe 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 logs and 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 . as through investments patronage 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 interests they should have been banned from voting local government code of conduct as anybody with an interest must never take part in a position that affects their interest this is all good driven it's to do with the enter pro-u.s. . prefer not to do with. inside westminster m.p.'s reportedly binds the table in jubilation when the reforms passed outside the bell tolled for free health care laura smith r.t.

london. i'm not about going to headlines in just a moment. and. there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum ridicule in fact. before the source material is what the.