the first us marines reach australia as america's military moves in on the asia pacific region to challenge china's growing influence. russia warns against arming the syrian rebels with peace efforts underway saying they can topple president also and it will only lead to carnage. on the hague's rejection of palestinian requests to investigate alleged israeli war crimes on their territory doubt over the court's impartiality.

it's five pm here in moscow this is r t coming to you live from the snow way with our top story and the first u.s. marines have a right in australia as america boost its military presence in the asia pacific region more than two thousand personnel will be deployed here over the next three years and adds to america's military footprint in such countries as the philippines and singapore all in china's backyard well for more on the story i'm joined by james corbett editor of the credit report an independent news website based in japan and james thanks for being with us once again also defense minister insists there are no u.s. military bases in the country and they're not in the plan so what is the cooperation about here. well as i understand it that wasn't exactly what was said by defense minister smith i think the phrase that was used was that it was a long term prospect for it the giving of the cocos islands for any airstrip for

unmanned aerial vehicles by the by the use of the us but certainly i think one has to take what the defense minister is saying there with a certain grain of salt because there's no doubt whatsoever that the that the nexus of the asia pacific region in terms of a military seriously strategic armenian staging base for the us is going to be australia in the future i think it's really just a question of what what terms that arrives at and how it's introduced to the public so i think they're probably not i'm unveiling a little plans right from the get go but i think the idea that the u.s. is going to be staging a much greater military presence in australia is pretty much taken for granted that's right even if you don't call them military bases they're still going to be in the region and with the us around china i mean how long is beijing going to sit back and watch this. well to a certain extent they already are and they are certainly becoming more aggressive in the south china sea where of course they basically almost the entirety of the

south china sea is their own territory and have been more aggressive in recent years in enforcing that and through their navy and making more more overt threats i think they'd see other players in the region so i think that's why i'd be out to cocos islands that are going to be extremely important territory in australian territory in the indian ocean that's going to be a staging base where us on man the aerial vehicles and that's that's particularly important because that relates to the air sea battle plan that the u.s. unveiled last year as the pentagon's full spectrum dominance idea for the south china sea in that area obviously being specifically spoken but obviously i think it means something is it that those that weaponry and that those battle plans will be directed at china the obvious dominant power player in the region that they're struggling against they just went so certainly i think china has to understand and does understand i'm sure that this is very much aimed at and i do you think that with any kind of ask elation. certainly i think that that's the only predictable

outcome from this type of move i mean the staging of more or more troops in the area can only lead to two to a greater chance for a confrontation if nothing else and and again that's a perfectly predictable result of this and i think we're seeing right now the deliberate locating of of a new nexus as it were a new a new battlefront for it for the u.s. forces in the asia pacific region and i think we've seen that increasingly reflected in the diplomatic rhetoric with secretary of state clinton last year of course saying egypt as if it was going to be the locus for change and growth in the world to the nexus of the world economy in the twenty first century so certainly we are seeing a lot of things turning to this region and australia is going to be important part of that in a new key american ally not just gravely james some of the asia pacific nations seem quite happy to receive a bigger u.s. military presence in the region so they already understand what they're getting into here. well that's a that's a good question and i think that it's

a case of real politic and i think that there are certain governments that believe that they can they can benefit from this and they are likely to side with whoever is going to be. over it perceived to be is going to be eventual winner in this type of confrontation so obviously at this stage america has a clear superiority when it comes to conventional naval assets for example let alone cyber weapons and all of the other tools in warfare that are being deployed to your goals so i think the u.s. is going to be obviously the dominant player here and a lot of governments will. double as it were even if they don't agree with all of us policies they'll certainly go along with it in order to get certain kickbacks on the diplomatic side. bit editor of the corporate report independent news website based in japan thanks a lot for your analysis. russia is accusing a group of western and arab states or supporting the syrian opposition undermining

peace efforts gulf nations are calling for weapons to be given to the rebels or moscow says the opposition will never defeat the army even if it's armed to the teeth or maybe it's correspondent polis they are brings us the latest to tell. these comments by the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov come just as the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has restraints to the united states position that they want the syrian president bashar assad to step down immediately against the backdrop of the ongoing peace talks clinton stated that he was one to decide to strip down in any situation and the sooner the better now is the same time we are witnessing increasing support for the opposition inside syria with the prince of syria replating commitment and support to rebel fighters we're hearing from the gulf nations from qatar and saudi arabia that they are willing to pay several million dollars each month in salaries to rebel fighters the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says what if this undermines peace efforts on the go those

peace efforts of course initiated by the former u.n. chief kofi are not in the lavrov says that they are hampering the peace if it's because they're encouraging the parties to engage in fighting and not engage in that and not engage in peace in response to the gulf nations court or he will fight us to arm themselves so they live rob had this to say eat it's clear as day that if the opposition is armed to the chief it will not defeat the syrian armed forces but instead will be slaughter mutual killings for many many years we've heard from these syrian government that they have actually started implementing the conditions for the scorpion and peace plan and they have begun withdrawing the troops from more volatile cities where the troops are moving to the perimeter and in qana cities we've actually seen some of the troops returning to the army bases but according to this cease fire implementation after a four to ten the armed opposition will have forty eight hours in which they will

have to cease their own hostilities and not be hearing from the syrian regime is that while they've committed they need to be the same kind of commitment coming forth from the opposition in terms of wanting to see this violence changed. benjamin charge from the center of research on globalization believes the practice of the syrian opposition gas from parts of porters is a strong incentive not to lay down arms. caches. take getting so many signals that so many forces from the outside are on their side why would they have an interest to do to make a compromise with the government everyone is blaming the government for the violence there will be silence and come to actions in order to cause for intervention we saw what happened in afghanistan after u.s. intervention we saw what happens to iraq we saw what happened to libya state that

is falling apart now. if if syrian national council of so-called free syrian army will actually succeed to take over the past we will most likely face. very serious serious story in syria with all these different factions fighting each other like muslim brotherhood salafi extremists representatives of certain minorities etc. in egypt the islamist muslim brotherhood is now fielding its presidential candidate despite widespread condemnation charges cross-talk later argues whether it could put a dampener on the country's track for freedom here's what's ahead for you at three pm g.m.t. . in the wake of america's so-called war on her which. the muslim brotherhood pushed the muslim brotherhood. to the party. and officially in the political landscape. i want.

no no no no no right now but the brotherhood has been underground for decades going back to the idea of going all of the nasa so i mean i'm not quite sure where in the bill is getting is going the fact. international criminal court has turned down palestinian request to investigate alleged israeli war crimes on their lands this will cause for the rejection is that palestine is not a un recognized state of helper a co-founder of the israeli committee a council house demolitions says that past a shadow over the whole international justice system the palestinians exist in a kind of a limbo because they're not a state they don't have access to all the instruments of international law or of the un system but at the same time. international law that does apply to the

occupied territories it's intended to protect them especially the fourth geneva convention is not enforced by the international community so on the one hand they don't have the instruments of protect themselves and the other hand the international community doesn't accept its responsibility to afford protection for the palestinians the problem with the palestinians is that occupation was only seen as a very temporary military situation maybe lasting lawn to three years until it's over this is a forty five year occupation and international law simply isn't geared towards dealing with it so the fact that the palestinians aren't a state i think. completely destroys their chance to use international law and if in fact these millions of people are left without any defense or any ability to leverage israel through international law it certainly dense the credibility of the entire system. he regards the line from moscow still to call

for freedom of progress see it lawmakers have another go at controlling the internet despite a constitutional right to free speech and privacy. and we report from britain where having a temple is proving terminal but the indians way over how to call time on the country's phone binge drinking culture. first the decision not to do a russian passenger plane is now considered the most likely cause of monday's deadly crash in western siberia the aircraft came down just minutes after takeoff killing thirty one of the forty three people including all the crew doctors are fighting to save the trove critically ill survivors investigators say the plane's engines were functioning when the plane hit the ground three day period of mourning for the victims has begun the first funerals taking place today.

we continue to keep across all developments into this plane crash in western siberia on our website our to dot com and we have more stories on my new community how to handle presidential primaries. and pleasure to speak to all of you. and to have a microphone that i can see. feel free to transmit this to. if you see him. brock obama laughed off last week's incident when a rather sensitive conversation between him and president if was caught on a hot mike. and the american ambassadors are against russia's foreign minister brown's on the u.s. envoy in moscow for saying european missile plans will plow on guard this of what other nation state. and enough is enough for a seventy seven year old group pensioner who kills himself because of financial

desperation that's moved so. suicide rates in the debt ridden country his tragic story and much more at our t.v. dot com also we expect to hear from our correspondent with more details on that suicide. american lawmakers are having another crack at regulating the internet despite the recent embarrassing climbed out of public outrage. piracy clamshells a cyber security bill aims to combat hacker attacks like those which have plagued government and financial websites because it actually can reports privacy activists are worried that their fears over privacy are now being realized. the u.s. government continues spending millions of dollars to support freedom of the internet around the world but is it freedom for all we can leaks which to many has become the symbol of you are now free them as been under fire from u.s. officials and lawmakers because we teach published documents which embarrass the american government in many ways we can reach

a country enemy the us has reportedly issued a secret in guy meant against julian assange the head of the website which leaves hundreds of thousands of documents revealing embarrassing details about wars in iraq and afghanistan five major u.s. financial institutions he said master card pay pal western union and the bank of america have tried to economically strangle we here lease by blocking donations to the web site until recently peter van buren has served as a foreign service officer in the state department he says he was fired over the book and the blog that he wrote about the feeler of u.s. policies in iraq and the state department since two thousand a has spent seventy six million dollars overseas on internet freedom giving tools and support to bloggers and journalists and online people around the world particularly in countries that we have difficulties with at the same time the state department has spent all that time and all that money supporting those bloggers it has found internet freedom to be inconvenient in the form of we just work just as hard and

spend probably more money trying to shut down free speech that it opposes supporting free speech that it feels furthers america's own political goals overseas we call that a partnership but it's not just a leaking website is that the u.s. is after but also their sources critics say this administration has embarked on an unprecedented campaign against whistleblowers in this culture with this administration is going after whistleblowers in a precedented way we all have an obligation to protect our sources i have to say that i myself really about the safety of some of the people that i talk to. as a journalist to cover social security i'm talking all the kind of people that work in the intelligence and the military community use a shockwave to the community while trying to stifle inconvenient leaks at home the u.s. perceives the internet and social networking platforms as major tools for spreading democracy and spends millions of dollars to help people in the middle east and

trying to get around iran and blocking fire was at the same time ironically enough american companies provide bahrain saudi arabia and kuwait with the technology to effectively block websites a lot of which we can call that are used by governments are provided by american company by different citizens or corporations for better or worse talk about profit as their motivation the government ok however the american government talks about freedom and democracy as its motivation when in fact in many ways you can see in the uk we'll see direction some argue that left uncontrolled the export of surveillance inside blocking tools by american companies could undermine here in everything the same way as arms exports undermine the peace initiatives as far as the us government efforts to secure our freedom there seem to be two kinds of freedoms freedom that they encourage and freedom that they punish but is there such a thing is to freedoms and fairness trickle reporting from washington party. coming

up to eighteen minutes past the hour let's take a look at some other world how the lines of how things are very loaded in pakistan killing at least six people and wounding nine others three of the injured are in critical condition for still say a device was planted inside the keyboard district which is also known to be an al qaeda and taliban. every class is being gunmen in the western movie and fifty of us have killed at least four people and injured several others from member of the national transitional council says the situation is critical of the city which is being hit by rockets from near. by towns in the past week a hundred and fifty people have died and almost four hundred others from getting clashes between rival militia in the south. towns respected militants have been seized in several police raids in france a day after charges were filed against thirteen other alleged islamist terrorists president sarkozy to take

a tougher line after about two months rooting dead of four people have a school in the murder of three french soldiers although there's a lot over the radical anti immigration problems he's been promoted by french leaders. and there's terror in texas is this this tornado ripped through the state causing more than a thousand interest psyco destroyed homes as well as overturned and cross two vehicles in its path april is peak of storm season in the u.s. which last until june. now britain suffering a nasty hangover from a nationwide bargain basement binge low cost alcohol is being blamed for a spike in drink related deaths some lawmakers think tackling supermarket sells is the solution but both the industry and and drinkers say price won't put them off as ivor bennett explains. this is your average friday night now in which it is not yet midnight but many

people have already drunk well over the limit of what is considered binge drinking the now i drink about two thirds of line on time and. fifty percent yeah take pipes yeah. maybe a couple shots about it probably will be maybe fifty sixty it's this kind of heavy drinking that's being blamed for the soaring numbers of deaths for a liver disease in the u.k. eleven and a half thousand people die each year from the disease twenty five percent more than just a decade to get according to medical data most of those deaths are down to alcohol abuse so how much is too much the recommended daily limit is four units of alcohol so around two points of peace that even if you drink double nights so points appear to be binge drinking and according to experts seriously damaging your health even lease is nothing compared to what many get free come last orders.

more. parts of a few. of you. and you can cut an amount six times more than what's considered safe by alcohol the voice critics well there is a very great deal to address the al called misuse issue in the united kingdom the short and long term side of his on the short term you know the issues around you getting weight getting in trouble potentially putting yourself at physical risk or you know violence or something along those lines those are all short term issues that need to be addressed then you have the longer term health issues which are issues around heart disease cancer liver disease the government blamed supermarkets to selling booze rock bottom prices just twenty pounds can buy you as many as forty cans of strong cider it now wants to ban these multi buy discounts and impose

a minimum price of forty pence per unit it will fall supermarkets to effectively double their prices on the cheap drinks but the industry's adamant it's not cost that's causing the trouble the heaviest rain caused people to drink problematic levels a least likely to be to drinking but cross rises in france a minimum unit price would do is raise the price for millions of ordinary consumers live there is a section of society likely to be holistic it's the poor it's the lowest income so it seems very unfair on a policy that's not actually going to be successful in tackling the problem drinkers at the moment that falls to the police that punch drunk punch ups a familiar sight come closing time the government claims ending bargain boozing would instantly cut crime and messily reduce alcohol related deaths but with the poker binge drink is already paying over the proposed minimum it's clearly not the temple bar the from having another destructive knowledges of the tiles on the

bennetts. from the business that's with an update the sea of red is getting deeper and deeper on the markets what happen. out there well no partying on the markets first right investors are really in a gloomy mood at least one and a half percent drops all over the world as it seems the stimulus is not sir is not in the making it neither within the fed or within the e.c. be because the latest minutes released from a fed meeting suggest that no quantity of easing was on the horizon in russia or the mood is a dampened by latest capita outflow figures a second look at them. the country has seen capital flow double in the first quarter of twenty twelve compared to the same period last year it reached around thirty five billion dollars now that's almost half of what the country saw in the whole year two thousand and eleven the central bank hopes this trend will reverse as soon as may after the new government is formed. let's take

a look at what's really happening on the russian market indeed a lot of selling going on with the r.t.s. declining just under three percent a nice sixty two point six percent among the interesting stocks on the market is ross hydro down three point seven percent on the nice legs as it's a two billion dollars sale of shares to the government basically has been postponed m.k. is down one point nine percent reversed its gains and preferred shares of after as are pretty much the only ones bucking the trend are up more than one percent on the release of a new car model the first car since the teaming up of after vice with sam. so what's going on in europe and indeed the footsies down one point four percent of blacks more than two percent rising unemployment manufacturing slowing down and the interest rate scare potential one percent by the e.c.b.

this is not providing any optimism for investors and europe. on the currency markets the euro is therefore losing massively versus the dollar while the ruble is losing against the dollar but gaining against the euro pretty much in line with that global trend on the commodities market not much support seen neither for the russian currency nor call the market in general light so we declining another dollar thirty cents to one hundred two dollars seventy cents already which is around three dollars lower than the opening of the previous session. all right let's now take a look at the fact that despite all efforts of russian government to cut natural resource dependency local businesses say it's only getting worse according to a poll of around two thousand small and medium sized businesses fifty two percent said raw material prices were the most important factor for their companies as

compared to forty. seven percent a year ago. and the bodley i.p.o. could take place in the russian market as soon as this month the country's top sparkling wine maker but i would your source says it's preparing to offer up to ten percent of its shares and the company estimates itself to be worth around one hundred million dollars so. that's what i have for you this. thanks a lot for that update you of course we're back next hour with more. we take a very short break here on r.t. and i'll be back with today's top stories stay with us.

head to execution dates in believe me or just a one to cheer situation dave is enough in a battle to my life to. know more than fifty percent of the people here if he isn't a fish are not. like you know live in north africa was never. this snatch and you know we execute our convicted capital murder we have the highest execution rate in america we're not afraid to do it we do it well this becomes a point when death becomes. our ever new hope. our get a letter your dad is due to be executed next week then as appears scary moment for

using no you can loose here want to be appearing with the in a manner of me saying that say it's time to go. and i would lead them into this for the death chamber. come it's trade till afterward it. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like you think you understand it and then he lives something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is off you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. book limbo. live. their lives.

the speech. he gave. her her. mum will. ultimately be limitlessly and good luck. good luck lifts the money. come out of bottom a little. the emission free couldn't take should free things for charges free to make humans dream.