syrian troops in jeopardy opposition forces refused to guarantee a halt to the violence a new demand the government says is crucial for a troop pullout ahead of the u.n. deadline. controversy surrounding us gun laws gains momentum with the latest killing of an unarmed teenager triggering accusations that lots of legislation has led to some aside rate soaring in certain states. and that's reports suggest the deadly plane crash in western siberia a week ago was caused by the crew's decision not to be ice the plane the issue of training professional pilots in russia is thrust into the spotlight.

a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at r.t. in moscow i'm sure the agreed ceasefire in syria show jewels for thursday could be dead in the water opposition forces are refusing to give written guarantees they'll stop fighting which is the regime's new precondition for withdrawing its troops from cities and towns a peace plan drawn up by u.n. special envoy kofi annan requires the army to begin pulling back by tuesday and an end of violence by everyone within forty eight hours from there but each side is accusing the other of escalating assaults in the run up to the truce damascus also wants guarantees from qatar saudi arabia and turkey to stop financing armed groups

however beirut based political analyst says this demand is unlikely to be met. the so-called free syrian army and its supporters in the west and some other. groups that support that do not. consider that a proportion of the city in people support president assad in fact some some records claim that it is the majority now even if it's not the majority even if it is an equal number or a large proportion of the syrian population then one cannot have a stable syria without and one cannot have a dialogue without the ceasefire saudi the opposition groups or the so-called syrian free army that is supported by western powers and some arab countries and needs to. dissolve this matter of priorities it needs to set its priorities. and pull the international community and to everybody until the united nations is the priority actually have

a stable and peaceful syria and to actually build government institutions and all thought of course it would be more practically formed or is the priority. change now every inch of the syrian crisis is being monitored intensely by the country's neighbors whose future might be directly affected by any fallout in israel there are fears and alstom of the leadership in damascus could lead to a bloody conflict over strategically vital territories where the story is artist policy where. the golan heights stretching back a finger between the borders of lebanon and jordan and syria whoever controls these mountains controls this area. which is wells johnson's caption from damascus in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven but there's something more fundamental than security at stake much of israel's water supply comes from here the goal line is absolutely essential for for israel's water there's no doubt about that you can't

walk far without reminder of this land changing ownership. these are old syrian military houses for the jews it will hear now what happens next could be a matter of life and death at the water because it's polluted if they start pumping the water away he who knows there's a number of issues that that will be facing this scenario but it was totally unacceptable because it would also change the whole face of the landscape of the state of israel this is the largest freshwater lake in israel it supplies about fifty percent of the country's water from here the water is pumped as far as the same tech and south of the country where it is used for both domestic and agricultural purposes the water is the main reason for making or for running toward israel and mexico learn over thirty years ago it's never been internationally recognized. that serious instability has israelis on tenterhooks many feel they still ticking

a hole and whoever replaces president assad could prove infinitely worse for them it will be like changing the boston strangler for jerk the ripper or vice versa no notion in the world. to be important for roughly thirty five percent or for water resources and strategic vantage point the chief vital lifeline to a parched landscape for the syrians through to get back in the hands is unlikely to be quenched no matter how damascus his future plans are policy r.t. golan heights. you know gauging the reaction to the syrian crisis in the region paul asli also talk to us started up here he's from israel's institute for national security studies on the subject of conversation about what regime change could mean for syria's key ally iran before the interviewer coming away later this hour finale here's a quick preview of what he had to say. cuba has been. and the us the dream

has been iran's closest ally for over two decades if asad through june falls apart you run is standing to lose a very strong alley because any government would take place in syria was a. western ally and democracy which is not very likely all muslim muslim brothers were sunnis and were very hostile to. you on any ridge you would be either hostile to run or far from corporately we're going to run out of as much of the. us that routine has been. watching our to live from moscow now controversial us gun laws are coming under increasing public scrutiny of the latest outrage at lax legislation sparked by the

killing of an unarmed teenager in florida critics say the right to bear arms and shoot in the name of self defense go well beyond personal safety instead serving the interests of those producing and selling weapons to port and i has details. it's the second amendment to the us constitution had a soundtrack. the right to bear arms would best be recognized by gunfire. the land of the free is the most heavily armed nation in the world with two hundred ninety four million firearms floating around america hi i'm chuck norris well. as somebody breaks into my home i can use my roundhouse kick for a look down the barrel of my car since two thousand and five the freedom for gun owners to point and shoot in the name of self-defense has widened and for controversial legislation known as the stand your ground law experts say it allows gun owners to

use deadly force to protect themselves in public by sensually delivering a license to kill it tells people you know what if you're in a confrontation on the street with someone or getting into an argument or there's a physical altercation even if you could safely retreat from that just walk away and go home you don't have to we're going to let you shoot and potentially kill another human being and then the law will not only provide you with proper immunity from criminal prosecution but also immunity from any future civil litigations stand your ground first became law in florida but recently received national attention following the deadly shooting of seventeen year old trayvon martin the unarmed student was carrying candy and iced tea when he was shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer police released the gunman george zimmerman without charges trayvon was our son but trayvon is your son. a lot of people can relate to

our situation oh oh. and it breaks their heart just like you breaks mine he said let me. go continue to fight for justice for since stand your ground took effect the number of so-called justifiable homicides in florida have tripled as martin's parents mourn the loss of their son u.s. gun laws remain historically loose in many states citizens with criminal records and prior restraining orders are still able to receive gun permits. critics say easy access comes courtesy of the national rifle association or and or a gun rights organization and the tories sleep powerful u.s. lobbying group that reportedly spent more than seventy million dollars on political ads during the two thousand and ten us new term election paid for by the n.r.a. everything that the n.r.a. pushes at the state and federal level is designed to sell more weapons that's what this is about there's a lot of money thrown around whether it's an or

a campaign contributions to florida politicians or corporate money that can be spread around a number of different ways since two thousand and five the stand your ground law has been i adopted in twenty five states throughout america since ninety six you conduct being in particular said it's about a million people in our country you know if you do the gun violence murder and so you know as the most powerful nation on the planet richest nation in some people's minds the most democratic nation by this clearly something that you can see people should each other old selves americans since i don't believe in u.s. civil liberties and freedom have suffered in the name of national security new gun laws have some ulterior mistry made it easier for americans to arm themselves leaving the land of liberty locked and loaded up or die of heart see me or. it is a ten minutes past the hour here in moscow still to come in the program football in

freefall. ok really. not just those. spanish football teams face a whole new ball game as their national obsession feels the pinch alongside the country's new depth. of a standoff over a north korean satellite launch continues showed off its fully prepared rocket to foreign journalists but the u.s. and south korea are still not convinced it's for peaceful purposes. it's been a week since a deadly plane crash in russia's siberia left over thirteen dead technical failure has been listed as a probable cause of the incident but the crew reportedly choosing not to the ice the plane before takeoff currents are actually looks into the problems facing rushers aviation future. captain sygate died the day before his twenty eighth birthday his copilot. was only twenty four years old luminary investigations into

the crash of flight one twenty say one possible reason may have been a failure to d.i.'s the plane prior to takeoff it's a decision typically made by the captain of the aircraft the problems that we have today in aviation come down to the system that prepares and manufactures planes as well as those who train the pilots and flight personnel with only a handful of certified aviation schools across russia and the industry rapidly growing there simply aren't enough pilots in the seventy's it took only two years to become an aviator now it's a college degree and a specialized program that could take up to eight hears to complete opening just last year once all is attempting to turn back the clock and address the issue the primary goal of the arafat aviation school here in moscow is to fix the shortage of professionals in the russian aviation industry bad weather horrible equipment and even older models of planes have been to blame and recent crashes in russia however

here the primary focus is on the human factor the idea that pilots and copilots should be able to handle high levels of stress in order to land a plane safely on the ground or in the water. but even at this school it's painfully obvious that simply turning over pilots at a faster rate won't be enough russian airlines need at least eight hundred new pilots yearly while here it takes twenty four months to graduate just a fifth of that number of these state of the art computer based programs and simulators may fall short when competing with actual flight experience with you nowadays a pilot acts only as the operator of a plane he basically pushes buttons turning them on and off with the exception of takeoff and landing older more experienced pilots have this knowledge but also have skills that help them in other more unconventional circumstances and skills like those of pilots who perform miracles landings in two thousand and ten an electrical

failure crippled a plane traveling from siberia to moscow or the two middle aged russian pilots on that flight safely landed the aircraft on an abandoned military airfield against the odds all eighty one people on board survived. thirteen planes crashed in russia last year eight of which resulted in fate tallaght ease and those three were due to pilot error and most tragic and yet a slidell which killed all but one of the forty five people on board karen r.t. moscow. wonderful the full picture of the pastor in siberia just log on to r.t. dot com there you'll find that remarkable story of one passenger on board the fated flight dimitry spent three days in a hospital and identified before his relatives realized his name had been wrongly placed on a list of those killed in the crash more of his dramatic ordeal at our website r.t. dot com. no four feathers were certainly flying in celebration of

international pillow fight day enjoy a replay of all the action from around the world at r.t. dot com. time is the business but for now spanish football teams of found themselves sucked into the nation's debt spiral in a country widely seen as the next recipient of an e.u. cash rescue hundreds of millions of euros and under constant criticism from abroad well the trouble seen on a larger scale than are reflected in the country's most popular sport. supports. you list the many been born human to the beautiful game but off the field it's getting ugly top flight spanish clubs are struggling with masses of debt ninety

percent of all your pain teams of the bankrupt based in spain. presently to premier league clubs are either bankrupt or half bankrupt and this is a terrible result clubs have to realize that they can only spend as much as they have invested go to bed. it is not just the sports it's the hasher it's the thought of a nation but as with many other aspects as mannish life only safe thing financial ruin me treasure of a year and euro zone the nation sports minister recently said spanish clubs may be offered help in the form of debt restructuring refereeing the crisis german politicians appear to have kicked that idea into touch but one n.d.p. calling the move a threat to competition and asking german clubs to speak out i find it unthinkable we're paying hundreds of millions of dollars to help them recover from the

situation and clubs are trying to avoid paying their debts he cannot go on like this. proposal has since been dropped but the problem persists with spanish clubs owing more than seven hundred fifty million euros in unpaid taxes rayo vallecano is one such club in a ministration struggle to pay all displays wages. i think the spanish players outraged when we talk about destroyed it is obvious that spanish football is going through a really difficult time and inability to pay salaries is something affecting many clubs last year prompting plays the strike wages are only part of the problem is spending to met the world's greatest talent amounting to four hundred million euros in the top league and those who lead teams from the boardrooms think something drastic needs to change under the now spanish football and astonish economy need investments from abroad it's not only about football but also spain as

a whole off the pitch a similar scenario is being played out like an uncompetitive economy is not yielding many positive results and while some accuse football clubs of taking that always a football many are saying the same about the nation's leaders to griefs party dritte spain. spain struggles to contain as budget deficit government's austerity measures continue to anger the public the financial and emotional stability of people in europe wide are being tested on a daily basis later today here on r.t. our cross talk show examines the link between wealth and misery. good relationships are happier people who are in abject poverty less happy people who have lots of friends are happier people who do you and who do lots activities of what's likely to lives are happier such as volunteering or thinks if it having friends makes you happy which clearly does it having a religion makes you happy which clearly there's what is the policy relevance of

this come the come the government introduce some sort of theocracy can they somehow force these our friends to spend time with you clearly not and this is a problem with out in the studies is all the all the facts is that improve happiness i've heard the government can't do anything about them in the case of for example people tend to be out here in sunny weather all the sounds of be happy at their merry government can't affect that or it won't do anything about them because the government has bigger priorities. cross-talk is later today here on r.t. i thin out north korea is digging a new underground tunnel in preparation for a third nuclear test of this according to a south korean intelligence it's believed the task will follow the long range missile launch planned for later this week john yang allowed foreign reporters to see the fully prepared rockets which should says will be used to put

a communications satellite into war with us and south korean officials however believe it might be a covert ballistic missile test japan is also threatened to shoot down the rocket should a cross into its territory dr simbi all the research and age of specialist says there's no reason to believe north korea is actually testing its nuclear capabilities. by rockets can either deliver a missile although satellite so the technologies are enormously overlapping there's no doubt i think there's a satellite has no doubt that the last one was a satellite as. you can easily tell. from the trajectory if you look at the trajectory of the rocket you can tell whether it's a new satellite can't. test signify there's no doubt it is in fact testing launch a satellite attempting to satellite. clearly has military implications.

for any other country the interesting one is to which people tend to overlook the japanese and make a lot of fuss about this launch. a rocket exception how does not use called a threshold state. sponsored nuclear. industry and it has advanced rocketry and if. political decisions are taken and maps if it gets permission from washington very rapidly become a major nuclear weapon state. japanese likely. means of. the world update here on our see some of the international news for you will start with yemen as many as thirty have died in southern parts of the country during a firefight between the military and suspected al-qaeda militants a four hour it strange broke out when armed men attacked an army barracks al qaeda

fighters have taken advantage of yemen's political turmoil which began last year to seize control of parts of the country's south and east. arsonists have destroyed parts over government administrative building in greece police found a small cooking gas canisters inside the complex which was used by athens reform ministry the fire follows through a sort of a police officer during a memorial march ordering a man who killed himself last week just outside the parliament building blaming his deaths on politicians. a california highway had to be shut down after a massive fuel tanker burst into flames police say a drunk driver crashed his car into the back of the truck sending fire and black smoke into the air about six thousand gallons of fuel burned as it took about one hundred fifty firefighters more than an hour to put out the blaze.

afghanistan and now has the right to veto u.s. led night raids against militants off the two sides agreed a deal to ease a source of tension america works on its relations with others another point of contention inside its own military is highlighted here or not see but for now a preview of what's to come at one thirty pm g.m.t. . i'm sorry that i had to do this i've been in so much pain in the past year that i can't take it anymore the stomach and chest pains have been getting worse and no doctors been able to help me please know that i'll finally be at peace and with no more pain i wish i could have had a life it was. always pictured her being my wife and mother to my kids i love you all see you all in heaven when your time comes i'm going to meet uses christ. thousands of u.s. troops in iraq received one of these drugs a drug called lariam and it may have prevented many soldiers from getting sick the

question is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about it's rare side effects serious life changing side effects. for it are straight to the business let's go there is a marine i know you've been keeping your eyes on all the numbers friday was just a trudge through the mud a very slow day indeed any more action today however there was a very painful day of course because it was the easter holidays and in fact you're still closed today but wall street will reopen shortly and i'll tell you more about that a little bit later but first i want to take a look at the russian markets and if we can see there the picture is pretty much the. investors here are really struggling to find direction. and then my sights are setting about half a percent give or take a let's take a look at the main movers on. most of the blue chips are world we have diamond growth which is. setting around a third of

a percent and that's the spine of the company announcing that its first quarter net profit rose twenty three who said mills i have banks which are under pressure because he's losing almost one percent this hour on what we know about the companies that have posted weak financial results and said that it's last year's net profit almost all but that's according to russian accounting standards and we do have a company that is walking the trend this hour and that's precious metal miner polymaths well and that's because of stronger gold prices well let's move on and take a look at that strange rates we see that the dollar is again in against the euro and when it comes to the ruble it's losing against both main currencies if we move on to oriel we see the prices there with prices are declining and they're reversing gains that was on thursday of course friday this site there was no trading either and another sector that wasn't trading as i mentioned earlier was the u.s. investors there today will be reacting to some disappointing jobs they came out on

friday and of course they're going to react then because it was good friday and what we know there is that analysts are saying that we might see a potential selloff later today when wall street does start trading and staying with the u.s. of course we know there is increasing risk of another downgrade and that comes after a barely known agency called you can drone scott its rating. eight and now analysts are speculating whether other agencies will follow suit but earlier we spoke to roland nash from capital and he told us that investors will not be taking money out of the u.s. economy even if these grades do take place. if you're really anticipating that this will happen then you want to decrease exposure to risk and again it's really interesting but what we saw last time when the u.s. was downgraded you know where the world went through they went through america they actually went to the u.s. dollar and they went to u.s. treasuries so bizarrely is it seems that even though a lot of the world's problems are coming out of the u.s. in times of financial stress people runs of the dollar. will be very interesting to

see what happens. you know when i happened to. see if. i was still to come here and recap of the top stories the headlines that is also a special interview variations of post-traumatic stress disorder see you interest.

culture is that so much a moment is an immigrant's it makes me feel like hearing the time finally come when we should value public aid of measurements of well being indices such as g.d.p. and other governments to.

the. blind in russia would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from funniest impressions. for instance on t.v. dot com.