syrian rebels refuse the regime's demands for guarantee you still lay down arms for damascus recalls its own troops. the ultimatum from damascus comes less than forty eight hours before the united nations and states a complete withdrawal ahead of the planned ceasefire all of these held in just a few moments. all of egypt's presidential hopefuls have now submitted their applications to fight it out for the vacated seat of hosni mubarak. and moscow valves to secure the return of victor that's after a u.s. judge sentenced the russian businessman to twenty five years behind bars for

conspiring to kill americans. but the stories that made headlines this week you're watching the weekly with me wrong reception the u.n. backed peace plan for syria is in jeopardy just days ahead of a ceasefire deadline to mask says it went on the right side of the deal to stand down the military unless the armed opposition provides guarantees that it will follow suit however the free syrian army is refusing to meet the regime's demand our middle east correspondent paula has the latest. this follows last week's understanding that the syrian regime was prepared to accept a cease fire put forward according to the former u.n. chief kofi annan and according to that cease fire comes this choose day the masses will withdraw all its troops from the major cities and then it will be up to the

opposition to meet a final deadline of six a in. which they would have stopped or fighting following the group would have been paved for negotiations between both sides but what we hearing from damascus is that over the past few days there has been an increase in violence and that violence is largely being perpetrated by armed opposition groups and that's why today sunday we heard from the syrian foreign ministry saying that there had been a wrong explanation given in terms of their commitment to pull troops from the cities by tuesday in fact he said that there had been no undertaking or no commitment given by coffee in terms of the opposition fighters been prepared to lay down arms and cease because to ditties last thursday we heard from the united nations security council in a statement and what should threaten that there would be surface steps if damascus did not end here to its side of the coffee and peace proposal and according to that

proposal to distance point peace plan both sides need to cease of hostilities he needs to be political dialogue there needs to be imagine terry uncovered always but against the backdrop of efforts at this kind of dialogue we have seen open support for the opposition and that has come in the form of friends of syria which really can be interpreted as the friends of the syrian opposition and they we've seen the united states and its allies as well as other countries like turkey saudi arabia and qatar pledging increased support for the opposition and we've heard a statement from turkey saying that they may take certain steps if the violence does not stop but we've heard from others and international community that moscow warning that as long as you have countries clayton support to supply weapons and provide its salaries to opposition fighters they can be no way that the syrian crisis is resolved. party's policy reporting well i mean time michel trotted off

director for the center for research on globalization says that now the syrian rebels fed with weapons from abroad simply are not interested in giving up the fight the free syrian army are the foot soldiers of the western military alliance and there are. foreign military handlers we know that special forces on the ground french military officers were arrested in late february that the thing was hushed up the truth is that the western military alliance has been waging a cold bird war using the free syrian army for more than a year and. this free syrian army doesn't represent anybody in syria the opposition is not an opposition is a bunch of thoughts and terrorists that paid by the western military alliance and the trial cities which are blamed on the government are committed by the free syrian army and ultimately the free syrian army is on the pier all of the western military alliance so that you can have

a ceasefire called by the so-called international community when the members of the international community are in fact involved in the conflict. but from moscow this is r.t. now the doors of egypt's electoral commission have now closed for presidential hopefuls to submit their applications of this ahead of the first round of the vote next month several candidates are hoping to fill the shoes of hosni mubarak was ousted now it's been more than a year ago in cairo as artie's or we're going to go with more on this so joining us live on the program arena tell us what sort of face is in prospects were egyptians looking at in this presidential race. well you can divide the candidates into essentially three groups the first group are the liberals who are essential who are those who have the support of mostly the young educated people who were out on the a year ago and who refer to themselves as being in the revolution then you have the second group who are essentially hailing from the old guard from the camp of hosni

mubarak the ousted president we have his former prime minister running for president as well those are going to move he's also known not only as the former foreign minister in egypt but also as the former head of the arab league is also vying for the top job as well as the former head of the intelligence service of egypt omar still a man who was somewhat of a surprise candidate since he said that he was not going to run for the presidential post and then three days later retracted his statement announce his candidacy saying that he did so by popular demand and finally we have a third group who probably have the loudest the most rowdy supporters in egypt and they are the islamist parties oh you have your muslim brotherhood who from the get go from the first days of the revolution said that they're not going to put forth a candidate for the presidential race a year later not only do they hold the majority of seats in the parliament but they're also so they have also submitted applications for no less than two

candidates as one of them may actually be disqualified for running for the top job because of his previous criminal criminal past who's actually been in jail on criminal charges so they have to have a backup candidate for him then there's the party who also have a very staunch very radical islamist. person running for the running on their behalf however they are afraid that he may also be disqualified because of all of his. rhetoric it turns out that he may actually have had a mother who may have held an american citizenship and your final. we have a third radical islamist party jama'a islamia we have also put forth their candidate who is actually banned from traveling in france because according to the french authorities he is a preacher who are inside religious intolerance and hatred so these are the three types of candidates that they gyptian civil have to be looking at twenty third you

have to remember that today is the deadline when they have had to submit all of their applications and now it's up to the electoral commission to look at the applications and decide which ones of these candidates are actually eligible to run and which ones are not and it will take them a couple of weeks to process all of this information and announce the final roster of the finalists for the age of soft order in a sort of a bit of a mix as you say some possibly with questionable backgrounds some coming from the mubarak era others are radical islamists tell us they were looking at any point strummed boost their image abroad. of course the mostly that concerns the muslim brotherhood and other radical islamist we have just recently been in washington d.c. making their rounds in congress and other and meeting with other american politicians insisting that radical islamist groups have been misrepresented not just in the us but in the west as a whole that they actually seek nothing more than to install

a sharia law in place of the constitutional law as a means of telling the bad from the good however you have to keep in mind that these are the parties who have said that egypt's future lies in islam past and some of the things which they have proposed to be put forth in egypt as the law is for example banning alcohol for everyone including tourists for arresting tourists for wearing to the swimsuits for segregated schools and making girls go to separate schools for boys and for lowering the age of consent to about twelve years of age and whether or not these are the types of laws which those who have been out on the streets. of cairo a year ago bringing about the egyptian revolution whether this is exactly what they had in mind when they called for liberty equality and justice of course that remains for the egyptian people to decide and actually some of them have spoken to are saying that they may actually voice choose to boycott. the egyptian

presidential elections because they simply do not see a suitable candidate out of all the more than you know a dozen faces which are on the roster at this point really close with a live in cairo thank you paula meantime a list of frank salvato sort of washington shouldn't be teaming up with undemocratic arab political gramps. the white house you know we would hope that they're looking at the best case scenario but they need to be a little bit more cautious about the worst case scenario and that includes arming rebels in syria the arming over and aiding of rebels in libya when in fact i mean we knew that they had ties to radical islamist groups and especially and specifically al qaeda a when you're talking about trying to divide the the islamic world in the arab world it's a very hard thing to do that you won't see ready allies for the west especially in some of the. i'm going to use the road for lack of

a better word regimes that have taken over in some of these countries that have experienced the arab spring they're not friendly to to western culture or western ideals although they might like financial backing but we're from there you see a lot of these the spec sions leaning towards the installation of shari'a law is something that is paramount in their constitutions so to try and ally with someone who is putting sharia law in place especially when it's so antithetical to our us constitution. requires twirly in the air and that. this is our team now security forces and fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters as thousands marched in support of a jailed human rights activist on friday he is serving a life sentence for taking part in last year's anti-government uprising and has now been on a hunger strike for two months middle east expert ali risks says the man's cause i

will help to have more pressure on the ruling regime. these hunger strikes i think they do contribute there you do achieve their goal because what they do is they reveal the real tactics which are being pursued by the regime but also to clamp down on the protesters show so more and more such acts i think call for that exposing the truth of all the truth practice which the regime use using and what they are that the fence was it puts more pressure on certain western countries also the european powers in order to change their stance because of the visibly the regime and the train the focus is all on syria and what's going on in syria who are setting aside play in are we all know that the fifth fleet. exists we also know and i think this is the main issue here that bahrain is a very close ally of saudi arabia and saudi arabia hence is one of the allies have been us so when we speak about the blackout being put on the train i think first and foremost that this is a saudi arabian wish because

a saudi arabians also fear that there might be a domino effect which could happen in the persian gulf beginning from her reign and then spreading spreading to saudi arabia the international community is still focused somewhere else that i think that all contributes to the anger which we're witnessing the popular anger which in the end i believe will achieve the end goals . watching out for you still to come for you in the program about a greece enraged this after an elderly man becomes the people's austerity marks anger boiled over in riots this week after the retired pharmacist killed himself in front of parliament his death and those said he had no more means for survival. of the twelve survivors from the two men the plane crash that killed thirty one not into new jersey of treatment in hospital as a failure to d.i.'s the plane is named as the primary cause of the tragedy. russia has pledged to bring home victor boot after the businessman was sentenced to

the u.s. to work twenty five years behind bars moscow says it views the case as being political he was found guilty of conspiring to kill americans but maintains his innocence the judge stressed that there was no proof bhoot would have committed any crime but for the sting operation the seller is arrest now with more is artes and i still see a truck. here is spent fighting us to hunt down one russian man tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer cash forward into a sting operation snatched up from a third country alleged arms dealer victor boot was handcuffed flown to the u.s. and police in solitary confinement for months before trial found him guilty on all four charges one conspiring to kill united states nationals two conspiring to kill united states officers and employees three conspiring to use an acquire anti-aircraft missiles and for conspiring to provide material support to the for

the forty four year old russian air cargo businessman fascinated hollywood one of our original. request. that we are any other writer who lost his case in the court of u.s. public opinion long before his trial kicked off raising concerns of the fairness of his trial this is the lord of war. the merchant of death. and you've got him in your hands or he's in custody it's a great feeling u.s. officials were relentless in their efforts to get behind bars a so-called merchant of death is now a federal inmate american agents posing as far members a colombian group terrorist in the u.s. but not by many other countries and the un met with and then arrested in thailand in two thousand and eight after twice being found not guilty by thai courts the u.s. reportedly plea dirty arm twisting thailand into extraditing him to america they're willing to flaunt every international law to get what they want and that means

doing all these illegal things in the case of the extradite him or i should say kidnapping boot family also called us actions entrapment and kidnapping but i can accept the possibility that you might have some information that's might be of interest to someone but why is it that other countries don't just think to themselves that there is someone who has some interesting information and why don't those governments just drag these people onto their territory moscow's request to send him to russia for trial were brushed aside there was no official decision of an extradition russia called boot extradition illegal and question the validity of his conviction one of the main arguments of the defense that the u.s. lacked jurisdiction was ignored by the court which defense says the russian was aware that he was not in touch with real fark members and all he was trying to do was sell to all the cargo planes the magic crimes manufactured jurisdiction and manufactured evidence journalist george maps has attended every hearing in the case

he says is one of many victims of u.s. judicial power play feel that victor and his and its people charges that were brought against him that he is innocent so you know i don't i don't want any innocent man or whether russian citizen writable or troika to be you know sentence right or wrong because we're trying to commit it to boot is the second. since it is in the year since the sentencing on american territory for little crimes committed in the third nation he says me two presidents and represents worry us trying to see . the legal systems of other countries as they see truth in our hearts and. to go deeper into our stories just head over to see george calm as gambling in the u.k. becomes a game of russian roulette for many we were appalled online lady luck is merciless to thousands of addicts to throw the dice hoping to get their money back but rarely do. the discovery worthy of indiana jones or the construction of an olympic site in

sochi an ancient byzantine temple i read about the precious fine. a retired pharmacist became the most public victim of greece's austerity measures this week after the seventy seven year old man shot himself in front of parliament he left a suicide note blamed the cuts for destroying his livelihood some two thousand people came to pay their final respects to demetrius christophe's this morning on saturday some are comparing his death with murder suicide spot riots with the austerity protesters clashing with police and throwing petrol bombs officers then responded with tear gas greece has been a ramping up its spending cuts since two thousand and ten to secure vital e.u. and i.m.f. belts financial analyst patrick young says if the things wants to survive it needs to default on its debts and leave the euro. the greek government is bankrupt the

greek government cannot afford to stay in the euro and pay its debts it must default ultimately that may be a terrible problem for a great many financier's and investors but at the same time i have to say any bank bought greek debt in the course of the last ten years was stupid so making that absolutely clear the simple fact is greece must have thought on it it probably needs to leave the euro regionally it most deeply it its currency it is going to still have many problems but the truth of the matter is that when you do get to this sort of extreme only this sort of extreme measure is going to be possible to resolve your situation and ultimately it really beggars belief that we have a greek politician the most highly paid politicians in the whole of the european

union turning round and going oh well that's very sad one of our constituents killed themselves when they themselves made fifteen far as an euros per month without any difficulty whatsoever as a backbencher and b. which is a nafta managed to pay for dozens of pensioners every month in new austerity greece twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow still ahead for you in the program what unites political heavyweights with pensioners and of what a kiss that's what they're all getting their own political party reinvestigate the consequences of their growing up numbers shortly. and we'll look at how the buildup of american influence in the asia pacific region could break the delicate balance in the area. the few survivors from a plane crash in russia's two men region on monday remain in hospital but their conditions are said to be stable the aircraft went down soon after takeoff just

forty kilometers from the port killing thirty one people a fairly a two d. ice the plane has been named as the primary cause of the tragedy seems to agree as reports from the same. i heard an explosion then we got a call and my commander ordered us to go to the scene in these few minutes you realize something was wrong but the magnitude of the situation hadn't quite sunk in among the first firefighters on the scene yuri immediately spotted one with few survivors with the first thing we saw was the plane debris on fire and we started putting the flames out there was this one man standing alone he didn't seem to have a scratch on him and we took him to hospital he really was shaking he said he was very cool kid when i asked him to turn the heater on even though it already was on . people lost their lives and the tragedy that shocked the country twelve survivors remain in a critical condition the investigation here continues but for

a brief moment those calls stop their work as family members arrive at the crash site a site where they lost their loved ones in the charts the pay their respects to say a farewell word out still to rule the calls of lights. the oh. yeah. thrust into grief relatives have been left searching for answers and already some think they know the most probable cause if it's true it's a tragedy that could have been averted. here. so my look but the investigation is far from over hasn't reached any binding conclusions black box flight data and the largely intact cockpit may provide answers team scour the flight's final minutes looking for clues relatives of the victims are

left to cold to play their loss degrees c. . starting with nigeria let's go to the r.t. world update some other international international news for you in brief a huge bomb right. splode near a church in central nigeria this happening on easter sunday at least eighteen people were killed in the blast witnesses and emotions and services so so no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far hundreds of nigerians have died in religious and ethnic violence in recent years most of the attacks being blamed on the radical islamists. afghanistan and the u.s. have it reached a deal concerning controversial night raids by american forces but means such missions will now be controlled by local leaders rates of fuel tension between the afghan government and the u.s. military with president hamid karzai condemning aerial bombings by foreign forces it's all ahead of a nato is planned withdrawal from the country by the end of two thousand and

fourteen. but our while in afghanistan the us is to creating its influence that's opposite to the story playing out in the asia pacific region as the first batch of a new deployment of u.s. marines has now arrived in australia more than two hundred it will be based in the north where that number could eventually reach twenty five hundred this adds to america's military footprint in the region an area barack obama has called a priority the u.s. is also in a hearts ago alliances with japan south korea the philippines and singapore all in china's backyard new zealand based ages its imperial war the hospitality backfire on the host nations will soon items faces very wide about the rise of china and is taking. into account now we have been reduced going into this tax base it may not have leaned cretin's of the base. years

ago but that's essentially what it is we have this fundamental problem or will decline in the united states in what is in china and then we have all these subordinate countries and planes. and. australia new zealand who want to know who they have to work out how they are going to go in this country is. who should be getting themselves into this. relationship material long term during a ship in the united states in china and then really need to think more seriously about it. this is r.t. political parties in russia are growing like russian president medvedev said initiative to ease their destruction has already seen pensioners and want to just creating their own movements former finance minister. is set to form an alternative to the current government and its artes and he said now reports there could soon be

too many wanting to get into politics. politics in russia may never be the same protest have become a common sight and new parties are registering left and right as political reform starts reason them so former deputy prime minister in the ninety's is no stranger to the white house. don't you know. he was long off the political radar until a sudden mass protest movement picked up after vast fraud claims against the december parliamentary vote now might be his chance to get back in the game or pressure only but other could just about see what my proposal is to any party with five hundred members there is instead a less than fifty percent of russia's regions should be registered democrats until i meet you on the strongly with them so once pushing for an easy party registration is already seen faults as it was

a distance from now there will be hundreds of part just registered hundreds of democratic socialist nationalist balance sheets will be kilometers long. and it's down there below it has been trying to officially get into politics for years but there are here are. known for his staunch nationalism russian marches and tough rhetoric they love could now have a good chance of getting into parliament and already has a plan that. there will be many nationalist parties registered sore first goal will be to get together on one ballot as one party to bring up a readings in use already popular aspects of a movement to win seats nationalist will have tough competition not least from a new face who has already proved to south billionaire. a sensation in the presidential vote announcing his candidacy just months before and coming in third

now promising to work hard for the middle class. more than five and a half million people voted for me and trusted me for that reason i will form a new political force a strong party. it seems everyone wants to do in the party and start one so exiled and want to breeze berezovsky in london and me feel good about so have both said they have plans to launch political forces for those looking for a lighter choice they may well be able to vote for a party of love subtopic raso or a party of friends of elliot but if before there were complaints of too few parties it may now well be too many perhaps putting the days of a so-called technical russian parliament behind but a new russian political system that works still some way off and he's now a r t nasca. and i will be here when i see the unhealthy mix of the euro crisis bailouts and all sturdy that's in our exclusive interview coming your way after the

headlines.