get a national law on the line as u.s. stocks of tougher action on syria without un consent. in or out irish voters have to the polls in a referendum on the e.u. fiscal treaty which opponents say amounts to nothing more permanent a spirity controlled by brussels while a backlash against cuts we've so cross if you are. the father of poisoned former washington your d.h. the example video blames for today's tycoon boris berezovsky or his son's death a video which has been passed to scotland yard.

one pm in the russian capital you're watching r t with me marina joshie the u.s. says it's time to consider taking direct action in syria even if that means go when against international law this follows the massacre of more than one hundred people in the syrian town of houla with damascus and the rebels blaming each other for the atrocity russia's vowed to block any moves for intervention at the u.n. but washington's has the security council can be bypassed charge is worried a fortnight has the latest. well what was exactly said is the fact that the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice said that the syrian government is solely responsible for the massacres that took the massacre that took place in syria last week those those comments were also echoed by america's european allies and as a result there is now a nother push within the security council for international sanctions against against syria now the united nations is conducting their own investigation to find

out who exactly is responsible for the killings of one hundred eight people in syria last week but the u.s. and its allies has come to its own conclusion now embassador rice said that if the six point peace plan put together by kofi annan which calls for a cease fire in syria that plan breaks down and if sanctions are not supported within the security council then the international community and council members will have to consider options outside of the authority of the security council now what those options will be exactly is not clear we do know that the u.s. and european countries have already imposed their own sanctions on syria so many are interpret these words as a threat of military action now russia's ambassador to the un vitaly churkin believes that country should not come to jump to conclusions with respect to who was responsible for the massacre and in houla last week said that all parties

should wait for the results of the un investigation ambassador churkin said that he's very disappointed with the fact that there's been very little progress in progress with mr anon six point peace plan and that both sides the opposition and the syrian government have been seen in some ways violating their agreements to a cease fire and many other things outlined by the six point peace plan but investor churkin said it's very important to know the fact that while. the responsibility of course lies on the syrian government the opposition group also is still carrying out acts of violence and it's important for those that are arming or financing the our opposition group to look at the circumstance and understand that maybe those moves are provoking the violence and further escalating at. greenport now reporting there how the rebel syrian army reportedly wants u.n. envoy kofi annan to declare the failure of these peace plan this as damascus says a

remains committed to the world body's effort a former syrian ambassador to turkey expects an escalation of foreign funded terrorism. over five thousand violations by the groups have been actually documented by you and observers in syria so far. it's very clear that there are local regional and international powers that are adamant on a spark and go off some sort of civil war in syria based on sectarian criteria and ethnic factors they are trying now to play their final card which is the sectarian factor the ethnic factor that's why we anticipate that some more massacres will take place committed by those two groups fundamentalist salafist twenty six libyans who knew germans judeans and some citizens of other

countries have been killed in action in syria and what they call the jihad what we call the sum total most against syrian civilians the syrian army and syrian security forces if they decide to take a foolish step they have to bear with me they have to put up with a country that is determined to desist to fight and when to the very last soldier to the very last citizen of syria and again this is not libya this is not yemen this is. the french president has paris is also considering military intervention in syria comes as a disappointment to those who hold france while line would reverse his predecessor as aggressive foreign policy and focus on problems at home are just as are silly a has more. i know president. but not soon rhetoric just two weeks into his post. i heard bert lahr don't relive

the mention of military intervention but it is not. it's with. a comment that came in response to the massacre in houla syria. for the leader of a country that led the implementation of a no fly zone over libya last year critics have pointed out that there was no real choice between french president francois launch and his predecessor nicolas sarkozy but for those who thought they had voted for change now appear to be already faced with a case of deja vu one of the pillars of the laws election campaign was the pledge to pull french troops out of afghanistan this has made many hopeful the new president would focus on social issues at home rather than spending millions of military campaigns overseas but it seems they were wrong as foreign affairs magazine put it french foreign policy is on the outer part nothing her. french horn. and that's not the right thing.

for him not even an issue and a last words are in line with the position of bernard on the levy a french activist and philosopher who wrote an open letter calling on the lawn to quote take the initiative in syria assad knows that time is counted for him the next emergency is to stop the killing in syria administered to various active role of convincing former fed president sarkozy to support the libyan intervention and should france take the interventionists route again some say it begs a new question what point are we not going to interview the humanitarian argument is used to lower the bow for foreign intervention. before that i mean some to give the go we need to intervene for me when needed when there was a genocide you know it's a massacre and we were in for as well to twenty even. in vain about where we want

to intervene in korea but while along to starting to sound a lot like sarkozy analysts some. point out that there may be no real teeth to such rhetoric this time around just telling that he will only act with the u.n. mandate. it is nothing nothing because we go to. china and russia when we can be sure that he can do anything as far as french people are concerned they don't care about for him but you see they'd rather their new president do something to put out the economic far in their own backyard first and foremost yes or sylvia r.t. brussels will still have for you this hour here in r.t. fact or. argue speaks with author of an article which accuses the u.s. and south korea of deep level surveillance in north korea even parachuting in spies report back on the ground military facilities.

and president ford makes his first trip abroad since his recent inauguration having four bellerose after ditching the g. eight summit earlier this month. voters in ireland had to the polls today in a referendum to decide whether or not to approve of the european union's fiscal treaty driven by germany at qana virtually plan street central control of the national budgets of member states who have signed up but opponents see it as a permanent austerity charter was mary angry about surrendering power and sovereignty to brussels laura smith has more. it's hope since choice island has two options is it goes out to vote on a fiscal pact with the e.u. to say yes to writing austerity into law and seat precious sovereignty to brussels say no and incur the wrath of the european central bank and potentially kissed goodbye to e.u.

bailouts and it looks like it's going to be close the reason i'm voting yes this time is that we are in the e.u. now we have lost a veto and it would be foolish to do anything else it doesn't matter what way we look at change france. has to go. it's not working there's no change. that's why people want to send a message to the votes taking place against the backdrop of a failing economy unemployment to fifteen percent welfare payments a cut public sector spending has been slashed everyone's feeling the pinch including publican jimmy killed he's seen his turnover full by heart as locals batten down the hatches we would have had. five full time employees for part time to full time to part time we had

a restaurant upstairs which is. another three full time jobs. is it's a huge factor it's the discretionary spend that people have it you can see it through out not just the pub but the restaurant business and people are very very very careful on how they spend their money to pay the economies tightly bound to the ailing eurozone through bank loans and bailouts and many economists think a no vote would mean even steeper austerity and difficulty borrowing from financial markets we would find ourselves a dream. being looked at. by foreign direct investment financial investment they would say well are these people really in iraq of the european core that's arguable the sense of the sensibility of what's going on but if there's a club and they want to be part of this you know you join the army you are the votes we would be rejecting and i think that would be. attractive from

a national pride perspective is it a pride we can afford i'm not sure people think it is thanks to their constitution the arash are the only european people who get to vote on the pact and all but two e.u. member governments have already signed it but if they vote no the irish will be joining a growing anti austerity backlash france's new president francois hollande has talked about trying to renegotiate the pact and germany's angela merkel despite having written the treaty can't get her own parliament to ratify it most of ireland's main political party supports it but not richard boyd of the united left alliance because of all of the gambling debts of banks and speculators of import on to the books of the state that this would mean permanent austerity billions worth of courts every year for at least a decade or more in order to meet the treaty targets and we believe will do on told damage to the economy which is already very traumatized for ireland it seems more

damaging austerity is up ahead no matter which way it turns here in dublin literally every available post in the city is bristling with referendum posters the no posters call the fiscal pact the bankers treat the austerity package meanwhile the yes campaign maintains it's all about stability either way the future looks bleak many seem willing to cede silver and tea in exchange for financial backup but even that's not guaranteed in a bid me good. euro smith r.t. . and more on the fiscal treaty referendum and our interview section in an hour's time here on r.t. . now what important is making his first foreign trip as russia's president to bella rose after snubbing the g eight summit in the u.s. earlier this month germany and france are next on the list were put in we'll be

talking energy security and economic ties well for more on russia and belarus relations i'm joined in the studio by political analyst dmitri bob each thanks very much indeed for being with us in the program to discuss this so russia's president putin chose as his first foreign trip distillation why is that i would not attribute too much symbolism to that choice of destination because as you just mentioned from means he will go to a burden in paris my suggestion is that actually if you look at the economic ties between russia and these countries you will see a very clear picture verdun is russia's biggest partner in europe the european union is in general russia's biggest trading partner and in the former soviet union bella who is the biggest trading partner in the close of trading partner so basically i don't i wouldn't describe too much symbolism to that but that choice of this nation well maybe also because of it which was one of the few european

countries who didn't criticize russia's presidential elections but nonetheless you know over the past couple of years relations between russia and belarus have been kind of on the bumpy road i mean there have been roused over gas deliveries in attempts by minsk to stablish closer ties with union cetera. so why belarus is the first disc nation for the foreign trip well as i said i think it's primarily economic and they're going to discuss acquiring a they're going to discuss their joint venture on production of drugs they're going to discuss privatization of the russian enterprise's by russian business. and i would say that quarrels. with bill it was there were mostly on the line between will question and former president maybe you wouldn't was always very cautious you never bored in of all you know very very. angry exchange awards that took place between maybe if and when question call and there is

a lot less bad blood between them and they wouldn't be different if you noticed change his tone towards of a question quite during the last one in the year so would you say that in light of this there is more pragmatism in relations between the two countries i think so and you know just because of there is so much negative coverage of bill it was in the western media i would not say that there were which is an epoch domo democracy but besides who question who indeed is not a democrat there are ten million people in dollars and we should not forget about them now what about the other countries of the former soviet union that now comprise the c.i.s. bloc how do you see the relations developing between them and russia in the next few years well it's very different for example obviously relations with ukraine are also on a bumpy road they're certainly better than under the so-called orange leadership but still there are lots of problems relations with moldova i think are going to

get was because it really took you know into this strange debate all for the by the west that there is a choice between europe and russia either you join the european union or you join the russian sphere of influence our relations with central asian countries not bad i would say although there are problems with the last year and there are sometimes problems even with kyrgyzstan who is basically you know the country which is the closest ally at least in what's of this pretoria collate kazakhstan we have a good relationship with them so it's all very different but i would say armenia kazakhstan kyrgyzstan. they're the best part. as for ok well thanks very much indeed for giving us this inside and that was me political analyst for the voice of russia radio station sharing his views with us here on r.t. . to other stories now scotland yard has been handed a video in which the father of the late former russian security agent alexander

litvinenko points the finger at who he believes was behind the death six years ago of an aunt who died of radioactive poisoning in two thousand and six and a case which has caused major division between britain and russia as r.t. sir for ports his new evidence may shed further light on the murder. further twists in the story surrounding the poisoning. of former security official alexander litvinenko a live in your case has revealed in an interview the names of the people he says of the killers of his son other people he names of the russian billionaire boris the better results and alex told both former colleagues and friends of alexander litvinenko. it was berezovsky and gold for. energy how do you think alexander first became infected with polonium two turn why do you think this case has been dragging on for so long have been no court case

because they don't have anything and if it were to open it will become apparent who was behind it there is a pays money to some high personas. everyone is covering everyone my boy son should was just caught in the hands of i want to return to russia to seek justice for my son's death alex goen he's the chairman of. the live at the phone was a very close confidant of the in the weeks leading up to his death he was the unofficial spokesman he was also the man he wrote the statement at the time of the yankees that accusing the russian government of carrying out that crime though after the death the investigation stake is very heavily all full of bodyguards andrei lugovoy he is now a russian and he recently passed a lie detector test that was carried out by british experts did you do anything that led to the death of alexander litvinenko. were you involved in alexander

litvinenko. have you ever had any dealings with polonium. livin in case father volta had previously apologized to him if he knew a thing that he was a. both in this crime being carried out in an interview with thought he. had said that he was with alexander at the time that he died and that alexander litvinenko had written down the names of the people responsible for this on a piece of paper he's also told that he should be used as a witness now and indeed it things on the back of this interview and these revelations this could now be the case and this could be submitted to scotland yard to be used as evidence and perhaps we can see this now being a further push to the british authorities to continue the lines of investigation and other attempts to finding the truth of what really happened in this case so for

reporting there now and to develop unlikely to further a few a longstanding has still days between washington and pyongyang and media reporting hughes's u.s. and south korean special forces of parachuting into north korea to spy on underground military facilities the source is an american army general who admitted the mission is to place has been vehemently denied by washington which now accuses the journalist behind the report of making up the quotes however he insists what he published was exactly what he heard it comes as the u.s. wants to reinforce its naval power in the asia pacific region already experiencing an american military buildup earlier we talked to the author of the article david x. and he told us that the fall out from his peace would not be known for several days . at present both the pentagon and the lower level command whose general i heard speaking have both admitted that i did not

fabricate the story earlier they had both said i fabricated the story he spoke in the present tense and it was not clear that he was speaking hypothetically not clear at all and it was actually quite apparent he was speaking in sort of the the present and literal sense of north korea tends to take a few days to process news reports like this before formulating some kind of response whether that response be an official statement or some sort of military posturing or something so i expect based on what experts are telling me that we'll have to wait a day or two to up to see what the official response will be i hope it's nothing i hope the general it is is telling the truth when he says he was speaking hypothetically i regret that this thing got out of hand. well now sick look at some other stories from around the world italian rescue teams have pulled what's

believed to be the final body from the rubble after tuesday's earthquake brings the death toll to seventeen people there are three hundred fifty others were injured after the five point eight magnitude quake struck north of bologna the region was hit by another earthquake just two weeks ago which killed seven people. israel has handed over the bodies of ninety one palestinian militants to the government in the west bank at least it says it's designed to courage peace talks but israel's defense minister has grown and patient waiting for you go she saying the country should consider intellectually imposing borders for a future palestinian state talks between the two sides have ground to hold due to israel's building jewish settlements land she's on palestinians tensions rose last year when palestine pursued again recognition face of israeli and us opposition. a french journalist abducted a month ago in colombia by

a left wing rebels has been released unharmed to international mediators. was captured by far guerrillas while filming a report on the destruction of cocaine laboratories in the south of the country earlier this month the leftist group freed ten hostages who've been held for more than a decade after announcing it was ending kidnappings. while we are crossing to the business desk or natasha's god the latest and of course you know a new player on the global aircraft market what's out there what's that all about well of russia and china planning to challenge a boeing and air bus all the details in just a couple of minutes but first let's check out the equity markets and european investors finally see the current levels as a low enough to buy the footsie and the dax are. firmly in the block this hour the european commission on wednesday called for a banking union

a body that would regulate the entire euro zone's banking sector and if needed share the costs of the bailouts of individual banks under the current regulations individual countries have to provide the money for bailing out their own banks and market watchers really hope that this would ease the fears over the euro zone's deteriorating banking sector that many see as the weak link and now moving on to the crude prices all of this uncertainty really broad crude down to the lowest level since last october and for the month of may we just saw crude shadow around sixteen percent of its value but today it's rebounding as you can see not by much but still we're seeing a bit of a rebound there and traditionally when we see uncertainty such as this investors run to the u.s. dollar let's look at the currency rates and you'll see that at the moment the euro is actually gaining against the dollar ever so slightly but that's

a reverse of the recent trend the russian ruble is still shedding value to both major currencies the dollar and the euro and the russian markets are mixed at the moment we'll see the traders continue to find buying opportunities on the my sets which is holding onto its gains but the r.t.s. is trading in the red over the past three hours and now on to the biggest movers on the my sex they include a of cases demo which is outperforming the market on the news that its first quarter net profit is four times higher than for the same period last year and it is burbank is actually shedding value on concerns about spain's economic problems and that gazprom is higher since many investors see its current levels as a very good. buying opportunity and the anglo russian joint venture t.m.t. b.p. may soon get a third shareholder the company's co owner and former c.e.o.

be killed friedman told carson daly he sees this as a viable option amid the ongoing shareholder dispute in the company or earlier the russian side said it's ready to buy out b.p.'s stake in the company or swap its t.n.t. b.p. shares for stake in british petroleum. and russia and china want to set up a joint venture to build new airplanes based on russia's aircraft moscow will provide the know how and technology and beijing to catch the project this worth between seven and twelve billion dollars with an estimated seven years to produce the first plane that may challenge boeing and air bus business archie caught up with the head of boeing international who said russia has a huge market potential. we see russia's growth its economic growth as

a huge benefit to an enabler of aviation growth within russia and so the market there as we see it is over a thousand aircraft to russian airlines in the next twenty years valued at over one hundred ten billion dollars. and that's all latest from the business desk i'll be back in about fifty five minutes time so you've got all right that's thank you thanks very much indeed for bringing us this update from the world of business of course there is plenty more coming your way here on r t before that though the headlines stay with us.

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