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

now or just after five pm on monday here in moscow this is r.t. live with me rory sushi and agreed a ceasefire in syria shut you off for thursday could be dead in the water opposition forces they're refusing to give written guarantees they'll stop the fighting which is the regime's and you 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 choose day 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

fighting in the regime however political analyst omar says this demand is unlikely to be met. the so-called free syrian army and its supporters in the west. groups that support the do not want peace and stability in syria large proportion of the syrian people support president assad in fact. some reports claim that it is the majority now even if it's not the mccloy even if it is an equal number or a large proportion of the syrian population then one cannot have a stable syria without dialogue and one cannot have a dialogue without a ceasefire so the the opposition group thought with million free army that is supported by western powers and so on arab countries and needs to. resolve this matter of priorities it needs to set its priorities. to the international community and to everybody and to the united nations is the priority actually have

a stable and peaceful syria and to actually build government institutions and also of course do democratic reforms that all is the priority. change. well over in short 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 ousting of the leadership in damascus could lead to a bloody conflict over strategically vital territories with reporters artist paula slayer the golan heights stretching back a finger between the borders of lebanon jordan and syria whoever controls these mountains controls this area. which is also chances caption is from damascus in one nine hundred sixty seven but there's something more fundamental than security at stake much of israel's water supply comes from here the color line is absolutely essential for israel's water there's no doubt about that you can't walk far without

reminder of this land change in ownership. these are old syrian military houses producers will hear now what happens next could be a matter of life and death if the water becomes polluted they start pumping the water away he who knows there's a number of issues that would face in this scenario that it was totally unacceptable because it would also change the whole thing. the landscape of the state of israel this is the largest freshwater lake in israel it supplies about thirty 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 clears or for going to war is well known next goal line over thirty years ago it's never been internationally recognized. but serious instability has israelis on tenterhooks many feel they still typically hall and whoever replaces president assad could

prove infinitely worse for them no notion in the world that we would be important for roughly thirty five percent or for water resources a strategic vantage point but chiefly a vital lifeline to a parched landscape for the syrians the first to get back in a hands is unlikely to be quenched in a matter how damascus is future plans are policing r.t. golan heights. in reaction to the syrian crisis in the region our paula slayer also talked to a gift appeared from the israeli institute for national security studies the subject of conversation all about what regime change could lead for i mean for syria's key ally of iran well before that if you are coming up next hour here on r.t. for another way a quick preview. syria's been through and the us the dream has

been iran's closest value for over two decades if us and through june falls apart iran is standing to lose a very strong only because any government would click place in syria was a. western ally and democracy which is more true likely all muslim muslim brothers were sunnis and were very hostile confused you around any ridge you would be either hostile to run or far from corporately we're going to run the matter through bashar al assad's regime has been. watching r t a controversial us gun laws are coming under increasing public scrutiny 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 that is more important i heard this story. if the second amendment to the u.s. 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 like a true. grayson to my home i could use my roundhouse kick. for a look down the barrel of my guy since two thousand and five the freedom for gun owners to point and shoot in the name of self-defense has widened under controversial legislation known as the stand your ground law experts say it allows gun owners to use deadly force to protect themselves in public essentially

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 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 a 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 was our son is your son. a lot of people can relate to our situation. and it breaks their heart just like you breaks mine he said maybe

this will continue to fight for justice for since stand your ground took effect the number of so-called justifiable homicides in florida have tripled as morgan'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 perceive gun permits. critics say easy access comes courtesy of the national rifle association or n.r.a. a gun rights organization and tori sleep powerful u.s. lobbying group that reportedly spent more than seventy million dollars on political ads during the two thousand and ten u.s. midterm election a four 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 dropped it in twenty five states throughout america just like you see. bobby kennedy were set to become but the people in our culture here if you take the gun violence and so you know that's the most powerful nation on the planet richest nation that has some people's minds the most democratic nation by this clearly something if you think she had people shooting each other oh and sells americans since nine eleven u.s. civil liberties and freedom pops up for it in the name of national security new gun laws up some alternate history made it easier for americans to arm themselves reading the land of liberty locked and loaded or die of heart see me or. we're coming to you live from the heart of moscow and still to come later in the program football in freefall. just as.

the spanish of football teams face a whole new ball game because the sport feels the pinch alongside the country's east works. the standoff over the north korean launch continues yang 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 the deadly plane crash in russia's siberia left over thirty people dead technical failure has been listed as a probable cause of the incident with the crew reportedly choosing not to the ice the plane before takeoff karen saracen looks into the problems now facing russia's aviation future. captain sergei died the day before his twenty eighth birthday his copilot me keep their chin who was only twenty four years old the luminary investigations into the crash of flight one twenty say one possible reason may have

been a failure to delist 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 trained 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 one school is attempting to turn back the clock and address the issue the primary goal of the aeroflot 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 are over 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 of 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

a q 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 all of those three were due to pilot error the most tragic in u.s. level which killed all but one of the forty five people on board karen taraji r.t. moscow. for the full picture of the disaster in siberia just log on to our t.v. dot com there you'll find the remarkable story of one passenger on board the old fated flight but dimitri spent days in a hospital and identified before his relatives realized his name had been wrongly placed on the list of those killed in the crash more news dramatically on our website. but no further but the photos were certainly flying in celebration of international pillow fight day you can enjoy

a replay of all the action from all around the world. our team so. it's a quarter past the hour here in moscow spanish football teams have 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 in debt and under constant criticism from abroad well the troubles seen on a larger scale are now reflected in the country's most popular sport. reports. here in football is for many the embodiment of the beautiful game but off the field it's getting ugly top flight spanish clubs are struggling with massive debt no entry descent of pain teams of the bankrupt but based in spain. that i'm

presently the premier league clubs are either bankruptcy or half bankruptcy and this is a terrible result of clubs have to realize they can only spend as much as they have invested to believe. it is not just the sports it's the action it's the thought open nation but as with many other aspects as mannish life only safe thing financial ruin. of a year and euro zone a 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 with 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 can order one might

that's. the repos who has since been dropped but the problem persists the spanish clubs owing more than seven hundred fifty million euros in unpaid taxes rayo vallecano is one such club in ministration its struggle to pay all its players wages. i think the sponge queers who are outraged when we talk about a strike it is obvious that spanish football is going through a really difficult time and it builds heated pay salaries is something affecting many clubs last year prompting place the strike wages are only part of the problem is spending to net 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. now spanish football and the spanish 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 by an uncompetitive economy is not yielding

many positive results and last summer accuse football clubs of taking their eyes of course many are saying the same about the nation's leaders to greece literate spain . under spain struggles to contain his budget deficit the government's austerity measures continue to anger the people the financial and emotional stability of people europe wide is being tested on a daily basis there today for an artsy hour cross talk show examines the link between wealth and misery. people and good relationships are happier people who are in abject poverty are less happy people who have lots of friends are happier people who do you and who do lots activities of what i consider nice are happier such as volunteering or things if it having friends makes you happy which clearly does it having a religion makes you happy which you clearly there's what is the policy relevance of this come the coming government introduce and see it's all of theocracy can they somehow foresee that our friends will be able to spend time with you clearly not

and this is a problem without being the studies is wholly all the thoughts is that improve happiness i've heard the government can't do anything about that in the case of for example people tend to be out here in sunny weather all the times of the happier than married government can't affect that or he won't do anything about them because the government has bigger priorities. twenty minutes past the hour here in the russian capital north korea is digging a new underground tunnel in preparation for a third nuclear test that's according to south korean intelligence it's believed the tests all follow the long range missile launch planned for later this week john yang allow foreign reporters to see the fully prepared rocket which it says will be used to put a communications satellite into orbit. south korean officials however believe it might be a covert ballistic missile test japan is also threatened to shoot down the rocket

should across into its territory dr tim beal a researcher and asia specialist says there's no reason to believe north korea is testing its nuclear capabilities. the rockets can either a missile or a satellite so the technologies are obviously overlapping there's no doubt i think that there's a satellite has no doubt and the last one was the satellite as. you can easily tell from the trajectory if you look at the trajectory of a rocket you can tell whether it's it's you want your satellite attention she watches out for tests in a chart there's no doubt it is in fact testing menotti a satellite attempting to launch a satellite. clearly has military implications but then it does turn the other country the interesting one is japan which people tend to overlook and generally is making

a lot of fuss about this launch. a rocket accepted censure and how does what use call a threshold state. has a great advance nuclear. industry and it has advanced rocketry and if. political decisions are taken and perhaps if he gets commission from washington he can very rapidly become a major nuclear weapons state and japanese like the koreans are. pushing that forward. before we get to marina with the business there let's have the artery wall the day today will start with something yemen where as many as thirty have died during a firefight between the military and suspected al-qaeda militants before our exchange broke out when armed men attacked an army barracks al qaeda fighters have taken advantage of yemen's political turmoil that began last year to seize control of parts of the country's south and east. arsonists destroyed parts of

a government administrative building in greece police found small cooking gas canisters inside the complex which was used by athens reform ministry the fire follows the a source of a police officer during a memorial march wondering a man who killed himself last week right outside parliament blaming his debts 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 some one hundred fifty firefighters more than an hour to put out the blaze. well afghanistan now has the right to veto u.s. led night raids against militants soften the two sides agreed a deal to ease a source of tension but while america works on its relations with others another

pressing problem inside its own military is highlighted here on out say right now a preview of what's to come in about ten minutes. dear mom 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 doctor has 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 with elizabeth 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 jesus 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 tonight is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about its rare side effects serious life changing side effects.

all right burners that's standing by of you also you business desk good to see you understand the wall street america hasn't opened up yet so not much for russian investors to be right reacting to at this point yeah that's right laurie and also europe is close for the easter holidays but wall street will open and actually about five minutes from now so we'll see what happens i'll tell you more about the american markets a little bit later but let's take a look at the russian markets and what we think is that we are expecting wall street to open lower today so investors should be cautious about that really this is the picture right now we see the p.r.c.'s and in my sights are shouting rallies in fact the my sense is now minimizing the earlier losses but it's still in the right let's take a look at the individual share moves on my sites that clearly most of the blue chips are lower we have a diamond producer which is an easy one percent this hour and with no other company is that the company's first quarter net profit rose twenty three percent but of course it helped to push the stock price higher than we have

a banks which are also under pressure to be to be as news in over a half a percent this hour and also proposing we financial results last year it's enough profit almost hoff but that's according to the russian accounting standards and moving on the only company among the only companies bucking the trend this hour is that precious metal might have only that's all and it's going to ever so slightly this hour and of course not supported by stronger gold for let's take a look at the exchange rates this is similar picture it's what we saw last hour the dollar is gaining against the euro when it comes to the ruble it's the only reason rally against both of whom back and the euro now moving on so well prices they are still declined enough to see the gains on thursday on friday the sector was also closed for trading because of the easter holidays now let's move on and take a look at what happened on wall street on thursday of course as i mentioned there in the other was no trading on friday well we did get some disappointing jobs say that investors will definitely be react. so that's

a day us from turns on friday pointed lower so we might see a potential selloff when they open and about three minutes from now and five to now let's take a look and stay with us where there's a consumer restaurant that will be more downgrades after an all known agency called jones cut its credit rating. and that's first started. we will see other agencies follow suit but having said that if the masses are worried about such a scenario. in all capital and who suddenly think twice before selling dollar assets and here's why 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 they went to u.s. treasuries so bizarrely is it seems that even

a lot of the world's problems are coming out of the u.s. in times of financial stress people run to the dollar. or a royal could see a change in the russian markets and small street will open and about a minute from now and i'll bring you all the latest figures next hour i'm really looking forward about thanks very much indeed i still to come here on the program when suicide becomes a side effect that's our special report exploring a controversial drug that's coming away in just a few minutes after a recap of our top stories with me.

the lube. seem. to. come up. wealthy british scientists. sometimes tirelessly.

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