here is a report on our. damascus to put a price tag on the safety of the u.n. observer mission to syria as the first monitors to get down to business to oversee a prattled cease fire. eighteen hours of finding in kabul security forces regained control on the taliban's massive coordinated assault on the parliament i'm certain embassies and nato headquarters plus. well it was resist to high profile political prisoners following pressure from washington and the e.u. to ease up on the opposition join me for all the details in just a few minutes. live

from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now it's good to have you with us two pm here in the russian capital one pm in damascus and the how did the u.n. is calling for maximum restraint from the syrian government as its first batch of the bodies observers begin working to oversee a cease fire damascus says it can't guarantee their safety unless the monitors coordinate every step with the authorities it comes as opposition activists claim they're still under attack while the government vows to act against what it calls terrorists acts on a boycott is in the syrian capital property. the call waiting to be reborn for serious orthodox christians the meaning of easter was all the more poignant this year as they contemplated the separate forces of the last two months the death and suffering across the country many sought refuge in prayer hoping

that peace could be resurrected i guess or city and prays for peace despite isolated clashes because he and brokered cease fire has answered its fate they have been the rival of the universe servers a lasting peace and they now have the best chance in months still as these analyst points out the united is may need to learn from the experience of their arab league counterparts his mission in january failed to stop the bloodshed in the eyes of both the government and the opposition the u.n. mission is more professional credible it will be made up of the observers of particular countries with their own agendas and their perceived neutrality or the lack of it could make or break the mission. the rapid deployment of monitors is in the interest of the assad government it has argued is the only way to ensure the compliance of both sides in the ceasefire now that they have servers are on the ground you know fishes have made it clear they expect the syrian authorities to

take further steps to uphold it but we are worried about the operational deployment of heavy armor. in population centers they don't belong. they didn't belong there in the first place they don't belong and we are working with the government. the opposition for a full solution of all its forms believed that for the. work which claims and counterclaims of violence by both sides the u.n. monitors will surely wrestled with the challenges ahead but at least they have syrians cheering them on the honor of the shot just ordered another batch of these t. shirts a popular breast link slogan and syria it is now taking on a whole new meaning with thousands killed across the country rising above is a tall order and while it may take here is many syrians agreed that having

impartial international observers on the ground may be the first step in that direction artsy damascus syria but despite officially backing the u.n. plan for a diplomatic solution to the conflict america and its allies are proving even more providing i should say even more material support to the rebels that's a view of political and analyst comeau was me who says efforts to scupper the cease fire are mounting. there are some parties within the middle east politics trying to sabotage the peace plan that is a range by mr annan and the u.n. i think somebody in qatar and sudhir they're not liking the plan and they wanted the bloodshed to continue in syria and for our belief we have seen and witnessed in the past couple days major addressed from other authorise organization and telling from other countries into syria and causing all these against the stability of

syria and i think in my ass to lead the peace plan i have signed by the qatari and the sudanese and the united states. because because these factors are actually causing. the scale ation continue at this point we don't understand how mr obama would say supplying all kind of. different technical supplies mostly weapons to the opposition and at the same time you want to have a peace plan is working at this point. coming out later in the program here in r t appeasing the voters. we are going to treat. your look for free it's about this transit world the reason you clearly was globalization and the most fearful of the french is that that's could damage the so-called socialist french. politicians

campaign with radical views which they believe will bring success at the polls as voters fear they'll soon lose their national identity. also the scheme of giving aid in exchange for a loyal to you may no longer work running on the outcome of the egyptian presidential election explain contest a few minutes. but first afghan military officials say one of their soldiers has opened fire on nato troops at kandahar airport there's no word on casualties or the motive for the attack the incident follows eighteen hours of fierce fighting in the capital where militants launched a daring and well coordinated assault the taliban claimed responsibility for the lot which also included strikes in three other provinces a couple operation targeted foreign embassies nato headquarters and the afghan parliament thirty six militants were killed but several security officers and civilians also lost their lives the violence comes as nato gradually winds down its

mission in the country political analyst akhmed kharaj she says afghans have had enough of the u.s. led force. eight models down to the last impressive commander style attack in kabul that targeted the very building of the u.s. embassy where every one person needed forces in afghanistan the fact that it's this happens again just shows you that we will not be exaggerating if we see them here what we're witnessing right now is the collapse and the crown leading up to date on that date in afghanistan was a complete disconnect might now be the name forces of the american forces or what head and the occupational army of the of the national police have seen how the right american and right we're still just getting killed at the hands of our very outgoing army solutions and blue just means that the need to reduce troops we trained the other girls are really just guessed it and i think if they needed commanders and if the american military commanders continue to be insensitive they

would loose with every little chance they have of maintaining a road with it if not just. we want to know what your view on the events in the afghan capital had to argy dot com to participate in our latest web poll today we're seeing with the recent attack taliban attacks what is next for afghanistan well over half of you expect more taliban strikes both for a third believe there is going to be a collapse of central authority eleven percent say afghanistan will be a negotiated truth with the militants and the minority feel it will be an international surge go online and cast your vote and while you're there here's what outputs waiting for you at our tea party. it's not so long after he'd recall embrace is a genetically modified products move toward boosting and aquaculture learn about the possible consequences on the web site. us president barack obama now

has a ten million pound of bounty and downstair and he's not the only u.s. official by the price on his head to learn more at our t.v. dot com. bill roos has released two high profile political prisoners including a former presidential candidate well the move follows extensive international pressure on minsk to loosen its stance towards the opposition or is he so let's say your subsequent has more. q if any had expected such move from the man often described as europe's law's dictator the leader of the bellows now former presidential candidate on the side he's close counterpart. among a dozen opposition figures arrested in december following the presidential election

accused of instigating massive street protests that was certainly a very serious crackdown on the opposition with all of those so so many people arrested and being sentenced to prison terms the. sentenced to five and two years in prison respectively now both of them have been set free on a presidential pardon they have reconvened with their families and came out with statements saying that they could never believe that their plea to be set free would be met by alexander lukashenko you know the political analysts in belarus are trying to determine the reasons behind this move while the other sand political prisoners still remain in prisons in behind bars in belarus and their fate remains pretty much unclear at the moment this also being a reaction from the european union from the highest representative and international affairs and security catherine ashton who said that releasing these two prisoners is definitely a right move to improve relations between brussels and minsk and she demanded that

the old other political prisoners must be set free as well definitely the ties between brussels and minsk have been very much strange after the events and in december twenty ten the presidential election and the crackdown on the opposition in fact has a whole diplomatic missions to do the european union left immediately all twenty seven investors then the european union imposed sanctions umbrella was namely more than two hundred state officials and businessmen are still brought here but it from traveling to the european union countries as well as several companies are blacklisted from trade with the european union there have been talks of tougher sanctions to come within the next several weeks so the possibility that the to. the possible sanctions and the release of the prisoners all connected cannot be ruled out by many experts. annual military drills are underway between the u.s. and the philippines the exercises are taking place in the western philippines where tensions with china have an isolating over disputed territory in the south china

sea we're told thousand american and philippine troops will complete complete complete absence a trial days of military drills as part of their annual war games meanwhile demonstrators have gathered outside the u.s. embassy in the philippines to protest against the exercise i could muster blue and red paint on the embassy gate that many parents are part of the high school of university song suzanne says the u.s. is looking out for its own interest when it comes to south china sea. there are many filipino students and doctors concerned now that these four games represent us playing a big brother role in three key in politics and you know there are many people in philippines we're concerned the government will so old subordinate filipino national interest to u.s. interests so i think that these protests are a sign of a lot of discomfort with the traditional filipino over reliance upon u.s.

military muscle american ships have gone back and forth over the pacific. and this is just a little treat i think a lot of it is in your shop for the fact that for a long time america has been running as a pig and now it's not to be used to the ideals before the powers but i think that for the future of world peace i think in the future america will need to you shortly go shooting we're trying to create a framework to share the pacific and i can assess trying to see. well look at some world news in brief for you this hour at thirteen. the trials begun in oslo against norwegian gunman anders breivik confessed to killing seventy seven people last summer frederick admitted in court to the massacre of a pleaded not guilty to terror and murder charges for a bombing in the capital and the shooting rampage at a youth camp in his first comments he dismissed the authority of the judge because he said she represents the political parties that support multiculturalism

previously been ruled insane a bad judgment was overturned last week and found guilty because they are not someone twenty one years sentence you can watch the proceedings on our website or to the. always interim president says he's ready to open talks with rebels and islamists occupying the north of the country but insists armed groups must meet opposition groups able to consider a federation in mali rather than a new state the world leaders have rejected that only has been divided into since rebels declared an independent homeland earlier this month following a military coup the uprising the stage by soldiers who claimed the government have not provided enough weapons fight the insurgency. he seymour's voting for a new president in the final round of an election which is now between two former guerrilla leaders both of them played key roles in the country's bloody struggle for freedom from over twenty years of indonesian occupation east timor broke away

from jakarta one thousand nine hundred nine and was administered by the united nations three years and finally became independent into the presidential vote comes ahead of a withdrawal of u.n. peacekeepers planned for later this year. the countdown to one of the most anticipated shows of the year has begun the world's chief whistleblower julian a song so to his own program right here on our t.v. where he comes face to face with those making the headlines. makes its debut on tuesday and in the run up and charlotte song shared some insight with our correspondent laura smith full interview coming up later this hour for you here's a look. we're choosing the guests what were your criteria. for the single biggest criterion something we cannot be sure. that's quite that's quite interesting because there are a number of guests that we couldn't get in so let's talk about that sort of hidden censorship so we're still trying to are we he's currently in prison under house

arrest and so he views a political situation it makes it extremely difficult for him to speak to them in. court of course. you know prison in russia. was a was a believe it or got really concerned about iraq this week that him he's in prison. then if we look at some of the us and so i don't so people don't have the tops and power of some dry goods corporations if we have. direct personal contact. so some of them say no it's too dangerous as far as the u.s. government is concerned. so how can we get so worked for but politically it's just too dangerous so. then we go to the other groups that we have thought of and we did actually good for them. so those are. people who normally don't

care about it. a number of what were leading presidential hopefuls have indicated that they're banned from next month's poll it comes after the election committee barred ten of the twenty three candidates from standing their supporters have threatened to carry out massive demonstrations in cairo in response to the ban among those part of the mubarak era intelligence chief from march and the muslim brotherhood leading candidate may twenty third president a lecture it will be the first since the country's former ruler of the mubarak was toppled more than a year ago radical activist. says despite moves towards democracy it will be hard for egypt to break away from military rule. the running mates that were

on such a side of chocolate almost a month well causing a lot of tensions on the ground so egyptians are receiving this bloody there's a deep militarized state here for over sixty years the military has been ruling this country anyone from minnesota heads to governors the mayor is that all retired military john is this up the tentacles have a strong grip over the country so it's not easy to root there's those tentacles i remember when we were first and they said we're not here this is on the islamic revolution we're here as a gyptian zx and once things settle down we'll definite see run for parliament and that we will not get over thirty five percent maximum of the parliament and this is this was more of a promise than just a statement what we've seen is that they actually begun with seventy percent and then said it would be twenty five and then they said it will be thirty five what we've seen is that with the broad coalition of salafist over seventy percent in the

parliament. egypt unclear political future could compromise its relations with the u.s. and result in a conflict with america's key ally israel. can't reports. egypt is changing dramatically washington policies are not for the last thirty years the u.s. has sent an annual aid package to the egyptian military this year it's one point three billion dollars it is absolutely essential that we do whatever we can to preserve a close strategic relationship with egypt because egypt is being major player in the region the egyptian military has been widely accused of cracking down on peaceful protesters and egyptians want to put an end to the overreaching power of their military but that seems to have had no in fact on washington's decision to keep going with business as usual with their gypped business as usual ceased to be

a reality almost a decade ago unfortunately our leadership in the white house and in the state department have not caught up with that reality the new reality is it is not business as usual we are not buying loyalty but not even the egyptian military's loyalty may be enough to secure business as usual between washington and cairo the muslim brotherhood is the ruling power in egypt's parliament now and their candidate could well when presidential election in may the brotherhood has declared israel america's closest ally in the region its enemy number one we will not be able to afford and or put in jail for example on the borders of freezer because a lot of the except a bill by the egyptian people but most recently a delegation from the muslim brotherhood has made a trip to washington and flip flopped on some of their harsh statements this time the brotherhood lawmakers said they were not planning on breaking that peace agreement with israel signed at the end of the nineteen seventies in light of the

mixed messages that keep changing elite some wonder whether there is any guarantee that egyptian military power bolstered by u.s. taxpayer dollars and where the. will mock one day be aimed at israel the fact that they have to send the go delegation to charm washington shows you that what they are trying to hide is not very charming for talking about american taxpayer dollars being used to fund what may well be a government in egypt which is vitriolically and america washington seems to be holding on to the old policy of offering egyptian leaders incentives in exchange for favors and well loyalty but will that model work with a new democratic egypt which may soon be ruled by those who capitalize on fraley and anti-american rhetoric i'm going to check our reporting from washington our

kate. now they're poles apart on the political spectrum but to france's presidential candidates are common ground when it comes to the election two key issues as marine le pen and some new canadian song race for the country's top job any of their platforms including the fight against globalization sounds surprisingly familiar as are sillier reports. they say they lie in opposite ends of the political sphere. luqman i'm sure all of the hard left and movie look in on the far right. who would have thought they'd have this much in common both denouncing where they see a straight jackets for france namely nato and what they see as europe's impositions but france must offer the world a new under globalization alliance independent of the united states of america whether the european union treaty that is spatially nato which we no longer want we the left front proclaim that we will call

a popular referendum on these true matters little girl no father said they were the child of this devastating is the ology is the euro designed as a tool to force the advent of the federal and freedom killing europe say a subject of immigration is the clearest difference between the two with the far right is starch the against it we both share a passion of her still be towards globalization blaming it for job losses. both plan to increase the minimum wage and both want to increase the power of the french state through nationalization and greater control over the quote unquote big bad banks just to cities all other political forces today including the socialist party believe blindly in virtue of capitalism this is the dissolution of the drives about thirty percent of men will show in the pan voters who see a still and impotent middle ground a government that left jobs quo and threaten their way of life they're worried this

would go on we have a country. i think a lot of fear it's about this transit world that was in you telling me it was globalization and the laws of the french is that that could damage the so-called social french model which is something that the french are extremely sensitive to politicians are appealing to the french people the securities of their radical rhetoric and increasing number of voters are looking for a third set here of course for a political. and some for good. the left front is the only alternative to liberalism i'm not even sure if i vote for left leaning socialist francois i don't know in the second round. and vat is the biggest threat to the men in the middle and front runners in the race for granted sean and tough talking with. opposite ends but they've got a shrewd knack of stealing voters who are troubles that are blighted the french

people. are so your archie paris. parents like our main news block here on our team probably have much more natasha joins us now with us from the financial world apostle one of the markets looking like this one day ball and he says basically a tug of war between the bulls and the bears and you know what it looks like the bulls are actually winning the european markets have moved into black over the past hour let's. see those numbers they're basically rebounding from the heavy losses on the friday. and. the european currency is still under pressure go down south where there were a lot of bad news all about the health of the european economy at the end of last week let's see now the currency numbers here they are currency rates and as you can see the year always losing to the dollar in fact it was below sea level and upon a month at the moment the russian ruble is losing value to both the ruble of the

dollar and the euro and of course speaking about the russian market let's see here the russian market is still in the red although the losses are not as heavy as they were earlier in the day it's rebounding somewhat in early afternoon and some of the biggest movers on them i say include as bear bank and the t.v. of russia's first and second largest banks respectively they are shedding value want to gazprom is managing to stay in the blonde despite a lower crude prices and speaking of crude crude is shedding value this monday namely all in the eased concerns about iran's nuclear program has been one of the major factors driving crude prices higher in fact some analysts say that it's adding ten to fifteen dollars per barrel and now iran met with the leading six nations over the weekend and they had very productive talks and agreed to meet

again in may's so these concerns might be easing and speaking of oil prices of rosneft has agreed to sell oil to china at a discount their decision ends a long lasting pricing dispute between the two sides russia is the oil major will sell to its chinese customers at a discount of one and a half dollars a barrel as part of the twenty year export agreement to supply thirty million. tonnes of crude to china. and one more story for you a bit i am half has improved its outlook on russia's economic growth this year it now says the country's economy will grow at four percent while the inflation is expected to be below five percent and of course we'll watch the situation closely to see if these predictions actually come true and that's the latest this hour i'll be back in about fifteen minutes also you will indeed looking forward to it natasha thanks for that ok. a recap of our top stories this coming up for you followed by

our exclusive interview with julian assange his t.v. program launches on tuesday right here so we. know that it will. develop for bush for bush but. always by one vote for kerry for kerry so the people that are going to be balloting this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can

walk up here and if he hits the right buttons. he can flip a boat that he. hasn't been anything yet on t.v. he. used to get the maximum political impact. and for the source material is what helps keep journalism honest really. odd and. we wanted to present. something on. more news today violence is once again.