law washington says it's ready to sideline the un and goes straight into syria as the regime and rebels continue blaming each other for the escalating violence. the power to choose votes on whether to hand over the country's money matters to brussels which could see its surrender its sovereignty as well. as a tip off and a high profile whodunit the father of poisoned security agent alexander litvinenko believes the exiled russian tycoon boris berezovsky was behind the murder in london .

it's good to have you with us here on r.t. today i'm rule research i live in moscow and washington says it could take direct action in syria even if that means going against international law this after the massacre of more than one hundred people than in a syrian town the government and the rebels continuing to blame each other for the violence moscow meantime is valid so block any moves for military intervention at the u.n. but the u.s. says is prepared to bypass the security council but this report now is ati's marina . 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 where 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. 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 in houla last week that 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 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 ambassador churkin said it's very important to know the fact that. 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 this circumstance and understand that maybe those moves are provoking the violence and further escalating it. reporting right what are the rebels all know apparently said to be a un envoy kofi annan to declare his peace plan

a failure. to moscow says it remains committed to the world body as if it's a former syrian ambassador for the meantime to turkey that is says that he expects an escalation of foreign funded terrorism as the u.s. hints at intervention. over five thousand violations by. two groups have been actually documented by you and observers in syria. it's very clear that there are local regional and international powers at the moment on this part can 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 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 need germs. and some citizens of other countries have been killed in action in syria in what they call the jihad what we call some. years syrian civilians the syrian army and syrian security forces if they decide to take you through this is that they have to bear with it this is not libya this is not yemen this is. and here at r.t. we always welcome you to get involved with the stories we're covering today at r.t. dot com we're asking what you think about a possible intervention in syria let's bring up the numbers for this hour now a vast majority of you believe it's already happening with foreign powers assisting the rebels thirteen percent of you saying it's just a matter of time with nato states ready to bypass international law while almost the same number rule out the prospect of military action with beijing and moscow against it and the rest say if assad goes things will settle down without external

interference you can still get your vote in there just passed it online at r.t. dot com. it's good to have you with us here today on the program the french president says paris doesn't rule out military intervention in syria as well. it comes as a disappointment to those who would hope that francois hollande would reverse his predecessor's aggressive foreign policy and focus on problems at home with this reporter's ati's tester aso. new president. but not soon new rhetoric just two weeks into his post. i heard bernard on relive the mention of military intervention in it but it is not really dealt with. a comment that came in response to the massacre in syria. from 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 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 autopilot now and her. french born. and that's not the right thing. in the present or impose not even an issue and. a last words are in line with the position of bernard on the levy a french activists and philosopher who drove to 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 i'm innocent of livy's active role

of convincing former french president sarkozy to support the libyan intervention and should france take the interventionists route again some say it begs a new question what's going to. going to interview the humanitarian argument is used to lower the bar for foreign intervention. before that i mean some decades ago we intervene for meaning when needed when there was a genocide you know it's a massacre and we won for us all to twitter been. in vain but where do we want to intervene in korea while a lot is starting to sound a lot like sarkozy some analysts point out that there may be no real teeth to such rhetoric this time around telling that he will only act with the u.n. mandate. it is nothing nothing because. china and

russia. we can be sure that he can he can do anything and as far as french people are concerned they don't care about foreign policy they'd rather they are the president do something to put out the economic fire in their own backyard first and foremost yes or sylvia r.t. brussels. and r.t. is coming to you live from moscow where it's now or ten past the hour still to come for you that of the whistle blower's extradition julian assange and his legal team butt hole to keep him from being shipped off to sweden on sex crimes charges but fears he could then be passed on to washington. the people of ireland voting on the future of their finances and sovereignty if the majority says yes to the so-called e.u. fiscal pact power over the country's budget and the authority to impose penalties will largely lay in brussels reporting from dublin artie's laura smith. it's hope

since choice ireland has two options as 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 is a matter for way we both look it's all change france. has said that they don't want to go down group austerity and that's that aren't have gone so far and it's not working there's no change in our at the moment so that's why our people want to send a message to your votes taking place against the backdrop of a failing economy unemployment up to fifteen percent welfare payments a cut public sector spending has been slashed everyone's feeling the pinch

including publican jimmy killed near he's seen his turnover full by heart as locals batten down the hatches we would have had to and five full time employees yeah for part time we're now down to two full time two part time we had a restaurant upstairs which is now closed there that's another three full time jobs gone to supposedly income is it's a huge factor it's the discretionary spend that people have it you can see it through out a lot of the populace and 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 through. being looked at askance by foreign direct

investment financial investment they would say well are these people really in or over the european core that's arguable the sense of the sensibility of what's going on but if there's a global and they want to be part of this you know you join the army you are tickets 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 important to the books of the state that this would mean permanent austerity billions worth of colt's 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 to 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 pacs the bankers tracie the austerity packed 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 been the good. euro smith r.t. . you know irish m.p.

richard boyd barrett who we've just seen talking to laura smith also gave us his opinion on the austerity programs now gripping the eurozone he believes that cuts have destroyed greece and ireland should stay well clear of them. i think the government's main weapon in trying to get people to vote yes has been fear traits that money won't come out of the a.t.m. is that the be no money to pay pensions and social welfare so there's no positive reasons being given it's just we've got to take this austerity all the wise there will be disaster and in fact we think the disaster is happening already it's clear greece have been if you like the major victims of austerity and now they're proposing to generalize that austerity model right across europe and it didn't work what makes them think it's going to work in the rest of europe i think if we continue down the road of austerity we're about a year behind greece in terms of the devastation that is likely to be holes to the economy in our societies and so we think it is very very urgent that we call holds up and demand that both our government and european leaders in the policy of

bailing out banks and paying for it with brutal austerity being imposed on the people when that is doing such obvious and serious damage to the economy and its prospects for recovery. and you can watch the full interview with the irish m.p. richard boyd barrett in just about fifteen minutes time here on out. let me put in is heading west to talk energy and economics on his first foreign trip since being reelected as russia's president he'll be visiting a germany and france but the first stop is. relations between moscow and minsk of being somewhat strained during the presidency of to be true but if but political analyst dmitri babich believes that is for now all set to change. if you look at the economic ties between russia and these countries you will see a very clear picture burden is russia's biggest partner in europe and the european

union is in general russia's biggest trading partner and in the former soviet union bella which is the biggest trading fog in the close of trading partners and they're going to discuss economy they're going to discuss their joint venture on production of drugs they're going to discuss privatization of the russian enterprises by russian business and i would say that quarrel. with bill it was there were more still on the line between will question and former president maybe buddha was always very cautious he never got involved in a very very. angry exchange awards that took place between midriff and the question and there is a lot less bad blood between them and even made a video if you noticed changed his tone towards aggression during the last one and the years. and then we've got all of our top stories covered on air and online at r.t.

dot com let's see what else is standing by for you on our web site for example the controversial actor and t.v. piracy agreement dealt a blow by the european parliament after new wide protests but the treaty could still come into force over those details on this developing story online. and the field of cannabis is discovered in moscow with authorities saying that the hemp seeds must have come in the soil used to grow lawns log on to more find out more about that odyssey dot com. now julian assange and his lawyers are considering a last ditch attempt to stop his extradition to sweden after much legal wrangling on wednesday the u.k.'s supreme court ordered the top whistleblower was transferred to answer questions on sex crimes accusations which she still denies journalist and author al book believes that after stockholm songes next stop will be washington. what i've seen so far on the net is pretty consistent with what we have seen all

along in the past eighteen months or so and that is a mean the hostile and negative attitude towards. julian assange and his attempt to avoid extradition to the us or to sweden i think the swedish prosecutors have invested so much per stage in this case that they're under a lot of pressure to get him convicted of something just as ray so i don't think they're just going to walk away from the case but they may surprise us yet. most of my life first four in the united states citizen and i have studied its foreign policy and its government activities for quite a while and it would surprise me if they don't try to get it but i think it's a given. you know just a moment the artsy world update for now though scotland yard has received a tip about who might have murdered former russian security agent alexander litvinenko back in two thousand and six and it's a scent of british investigators that if an echoes father blames exiled russian billionaire boris berezovsky one of his associates. now reports on whether this new

revelation of will do anything to affect the long running case. further twists in the story surrounding the poisoning. of former security official alexander litvinenko a live in a case of the volt that has revealed in an interview the names of the people he says are the killers of his son other people he names of the russian billionaire boris the better results and alex gold these were both former colleagues and friends of alexander litvinenko. it was berezovsky and. knows all about. how do you think alexander first became infected with polonium to 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. pays money to some high

personas up everyone is covering every one of my boys sons who 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. civil liberties 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 binion case that accusing the russian government of carrying out that crime though after the death the investigations take is very heavily all full of bodyguards andrei lugovoy he is now a russian and he now 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.

live in your own case father volta had previously apologized to him if he knew a thing that he wasn't. in this crime being carried out now in an interview with r t both a live in yankee 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 r.t. that he should be used as a witness now and indeed it seems on the back of this interview and these revelations could now be used as evidence and perhaps we can see this now being a further push for the great seal thora teeth to continue the lines of investigation and other it tends to finding the truth of what really happened in this case. before we go to dmitri with the business so let's go to iraq now to start off the r.t. world update on a spate of bombings there of killed at least eighteen people and injured over fifty thirteen died after a bomb went off near

a restaurant in northern baghdad three others were killed in blasts targeting police officials in other areas of the city and a car bombing near a home near a home of the advisor to the iraqi prime minister that left one civilian dead now a deadly attack also hit the city of mosul northwest of baghdad iraq has seen a number of deadly attacks in recent months after the last u.s. troops left in december. israel's hard at the border use of ninety one palestinians to authorities in the west bank the remains that belong to those who died in past decades while carrying out attacks on israel which says the move is aimed to encouraging peace talks which collapsed in two thousand and ten after israel refused to stop building settlements on land it seized from palestinians if the talks fail again the country's defense minister says israel could define the borders of a future palestinian state unilaterally. in the first private spacecraft ever to reach the international space station is on its way back to earth the robotic arm

of the i assess has now released the dragon capsule which is shared jewel to plunge into the. afic ocean off mexico in about an hour's time it's a location where it will be recovered the cargo vehicle built by californian based company space x. spent five days in orbit on a test mission america has been without its own means of transportation to the international space station and it senses shuttles were retired last year. of two dimitry we go the r.t. business desk good to see you again certainly though i understand the market losing a slight tick of optimism we may have seen earlier on that is true we've had a batch of economic data from the united states which is failing to impress some verses notably this concerns the jobs market even though non-farm payrolls in the u.s. have added one hundred thirty three thousand new jobs there's still a bit of a slowdown of the market compared to the first quarter second look at what's

happening on in the indices jones is now down half a percent the nasdaq more than one percent although we did see futures were positive for most of the session and also revised g.d.p. data for the first quarter demonstrates growth of one point nine percent which is worse than was expected on the european markets we've also see profits erased with the footsie added out it's now moving into negative territory even hopes of a banking union which has been proposed by the european commission are not helping investors go back to the pick up the bargain moved over in the commodities market we're seeing a very much the same picture losses of intensified of the year light sweet the brands blend and this is not helping the russian ruble on the currencies market is seeing the russian ruble go down to fresh three year lows pretty much set every hour and right now it's losing two and

a half percent against both currencies and we're seeing the russian ruble that more than thirty three hours friday three and a half dollars. thirty three and a half rubles per dollar which is a three year low also the fact that it's falling against both currencies despite the fact that the dollar's been so much stronger versus the euro means the central bank is not really intervening to support the russian currency now on the russian market therefore what we are seeing is also a negative picture but let's first listen to. the head of the new economic school he says basically these force that we've been seeing on the market in the ruble. nothing out of the ordinary. they think it is normal the trouble is weakening right now it's an emerging markets currency it's also an oil currency so whenever europe is going through the volatility it has now it's normal that investor sorry but the money from the origin markets going in the school or educated them that we can see just like i think this is

a very good news that the central bank doesn't intervene in interfere in that so we will slide i think this sends a very strong signal that central bank is committed to the floor we're going to change. the policy which it has announced that more last year and it's going to work this year. goes back a little bill will strengthen the slides down but it will look and go there but the very fact that the central bank is committed to the floor going to change rate policy and the inflation target and i think it's good news for russian inflation like reaganomics the ability. for a second to tell these stocks are doing on the and we're seeing systemic much better than the market very much all session long it's now up one percent despite the fact that both markets are down and that's on the back of profits going up almost four fold in the first quarter compared to the same period last year at three hundred eighty million dollars we're seeing the profits right now lukoil is

also better than the market on the fact that it's the getting a grasp of the new oil fields and gas from is slightly better than the market down just the point. one percent. russia china setting up a joint venture to build new passenger airplanes based on russia's illusion aircraft school provide the know how and the technology will provide the cash the project is well between seven and twelve billion dollars when this debate of seven years to produce the first lady is in southie caught up with the head of boeing international who said russia has a huge market potential. you see russia is growth it's 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 two russian airlines in the next twenty years valued at over one hundred ten billion dollars. so that's the way the markets look rory not very good did some good news next hour see that directory. headlines in just

a moment then we'll be talking about one of the e.u.'s supposed answers to the ongoing debt crisis the fiscal treaty not making many fans around the back in a moment. wealthy british style. that's what i'd like to find.

markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. minds russia would be so much brighter if you knew all about someone from funniest impressions.