syria's foreign ministry says gangs were responsible for the massacre in the town of houla in a bid to start a civil war that's as washington once is ready to sideline the un and go into syria . the power to choose out and vote on whether to hand over the country's money matters to brussels which could see its sovereignty surrendered. and a tip off and a high profile whodunit the former poison executed agent alexander litvinenko believes exiled russian tycoon party supporters off key was behind his murder in london. and on screen this is r.t.

live from central moscow with you twenty four hours a day the syrian government says the massacre of more than one hundred people in the syrian town of houla was the work of terrorists gangs this is the u.s. secretary of state admits military planning for action inside syria is happening moscow has vowed to block any moves for outside interference at the u.n. well let's get more from marina porte now and she is in new york with marina how worried should syria be by washington's latest stance. well clearly they're not mincing words words coming from the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton and also the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice first mrs clinton during her visit to denmark she was speaking about the situation in syria saying there is an increasing need for more international action in the country mrs clinton also said that russia's policy on syria

a policy where russia does not support military intervention or sanctions on syria ms clinton said that is going to contribute to a civil war in syria the u.s. secretary of state said the absence of you weigh action in syria mainly due to russia's opposition makes it harder to respond to the crisis in the way the international community did in libya and our viewers know what did occur in libya last year when there was military intervention there now these comments are clearly coming in the in light of last week's massacre in houla u.s. officials are making their words much stronger just on wednesday the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice said that if kofi annan six point peace plan fails and if the security council does not agree on international sanctions on syria then countries would have to consider taking independent action without the secure the authority of the

security council what that action would be is not clear because the u.s. and european countries have already imposed their own independent sanctions on syria so those words led many to speculate that the u.s. and its allies and possibly considering military action the rebels want to make a statement about what's happening there in syria because as you you and. well all according to the commander of the free syrian army mission has failed as a matter of fact he has said as you mentioned that he has called on joint special envoy kofi annan to publicly say that his six point peace plan that's about seven weeks old has failed and out would allow rebels to resume their military attacks against president bashar al assad and his supporters nobody from the united nations has come out and blatantly said that peace plan has failed clearly there's been

a violation of the cease fire on both sides the opposition and the government that is something that diplomats have have admitted in addressed but that peace plan has facilitated humanitarian access into syria allowed some media into syria the peace keepers an arm from from the u.n. into syria that was through a draft resolution by russia which is that which was adopted by the security council so there have been there has been progress but not the kind of progress that the international community would like to see and also it has all these discussions are taking place the syrian government has of course publicly said that there they are the results of their investigation into last week's massacre in houla has found that armed rebels are responsible they say for the deaths of more than one hundred people there and according to their investigation they believe it is because armed rebels are trying to start a civil war in the country the u.n.

is also continuing their own independent investigation into what happened in houla and that those results will be no in the next couple of days. thanks very much indeed for that update from new york well the french president says the paris doesn't rule its military intervention in syria it comes as a disappointment to those who hope the force will on land would reverse his predecessors aggressive foreign policy in focus on problems at home all these. reports. new president. but not soon new rhetoric just two weeks into his post. i heard bernard unrelated you mention a military intervention but it is not really dealt with. a comment that came in response to the massacre in houla 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. for him 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 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 i'm innocent of levy'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 we're not going to interview the humanitarian argument is used to lower the bar for foreign intervention. before that i mean some degree that go when you. intervene for me when needed when there was a genocide. it's a massacre and we were going for it all to twenty even. though we want to intervene in korea but 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 un mandate.

it is nothing nothing because without. china and russia. we can be sure that they can do anything and as far as french people are concerned they don't care about foreign policy they'd rather their new president do something to put out the economic fire in their own backyard first and foremost tesser sylvia r.t. brussels. for more on syria we can now talk to activist sara flounders she's joining me live in. the u.s. secretary clinton she says that russia risks allowing a civil war in syria by resisting u.n. action which is being proposed at the moment do you agree with that. well it's important to know that it's the u.s. and nato who are creating a civil war in syria in terms of arming commando mercenaries thugs flooding the country with weapons doing everything that they can to destabilize

syria and the latest massacre in houla is just one more example because it's this exact scenario that the u.s. has used to justify quote humanitarian intervention in the past and after they create total destabilization send in all sorts of mercenaries and armed groups and they claim that they're going in in order to save the situation it's absolute hypocrisy and fraud and they've done it with u.n. security council support and they've done it without u.n. security council support as they did for example in kosovo and serbia well let's talk about those terrible events that occurred in the international community of course shocked by what happened more than one hundred were killed some all witnesses suggest the assad forces weren't to blame indeed the government in damascus has just made a media briefing saying that their investigation they are claiming that it was the

work of the terrorist gangs let's have a listen to this and i'd like your reaction to what we have a listen to. yes good in those regions though though on friday rebels shelled an army checkpoint the army returned fire and injured many of the rebels who attacked the army two days earlier the terrorists assistance told us that zero hour is coming soon on friday may twenty fifth at two pm right after friday prayers an army checkpoint and the army repelled this attack shortly after that another group attacked another checkpoint when the un observers came to the armed men gathered the bodies in front of the observers and claimed that there are civilians killed by the syrian arab army. what we call independently verify that footage there is it's very unclear what happened of course as of just said damascus saying it is the work of rebels the u.n. investigation the results of that quite soon do you think we'll hear a different version from the u.n. . i think very likely we'll hear

a different version because the whole purpose of the u.n. peace mission from the beginning has been to give a diplomatic cover to continue intervention in syria and we've seen this in the past we can't forget the the claims of terrible massacres. genocide destruction that were used in libya that were used in yugoslavia and later come to find out that that was not at all what was really happening on the ground it's an effort to saturate the media in the west with all sorts of demands for intervention and it's clear that the u.s. is not interested in a diplomatic solution but the very act of expelling syrian diplomats from eleven countries shows that they are in every way trying to move toward military intervention which means massive destruction of the entire country but they're

already trying to just sort of great destruction just qualify what we mean by military intervention the similar sort of intervention we saw in libya where we saw nato helping the rebels are we talking about some sort of peacekeeping fools. well it has not been a peacekeeping force and it's never a peacekeeping force nato intervention means seven months for example of absolute bombing destroying every single city in libya that means everything from the from the water to the electric grid to every sunset on the ground is to really . means to remove assad is that right that is absolutely so what consequence is the aim is to remove assad and one of the consequences that if he does the congo. but the consequences of removing assad are complete destabilization in syria and

a u.s. effort to remake the map of the entire region they've been completely set back you could say defeated in iraq eight years of war and unable to continue defeated in all their strategic aims so the now there is a new effort in syria because of the syrian steadfast support of the palestinian struggle and of the people of lebanon so now there is an aggressive effort to completely overturn and remake the entire region and of course the hypocrisy of the un in this who's never done a thing for the palestinian people and the us has stopped every effort to suddenly claim that they're interested in humanitarian assistance just last year it's not even a year passed since the seven months of bombing of libya and we cannot forget the the what this has done this exact same playbook this same scenario used again and

again to justify their intervention the only the only solution really on this is to demand that the u.s. and nato stop their intervention in syria right now that all these armbands cease and desist that the military bases on the turkish border stop the actions sara thank you very much indeed that would be and that would open some possibility all right thank you very much indeed thanks sara sara flounders live in new york this is our team from. the russian capital and still to come we got into cover shortly and also president putin's visit to minutes but first let's talk about out of the people of all of the voting on the future of their finances insolvency if the majority says yes to the so-called fiscal pact powa over the country's budget and the authority to impose penalties will launch in brussels all teased or smith is in dublin. 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 seed 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 to resembling 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 of what we were both looking for to change france. has to go down groove austerity and that's 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. 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 that's another three full time jobs disposable income is it's a huge factor it's the discretionary spend that people have it you can see it through out. 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 all stare a-c. and difficulty borrowing from financial markets we would find ourselves through. being looked at the sky by foreign direct investment financial investment they

would say well are these people really in or of 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 us 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 barrett 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 that 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 pacs the bankers tracy the austerity pact 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. die. thought of a putin is heading west to talk energy and economics on his first foreign trip

since being reelected russia's president he'll visit germany and france but the first stop for him is bella reduce relations between moscow and minsk became somewhat strange earring dmitri medvedev presidency but political analyst dmitri babich believes this will change in l. . 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 partner 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 their quarrels.

with bill it was there were more still on the line between the. former president maybe. was always very cautious he never got involved in a very very. angry exchange awards that took place between me and will question and there is a lot less bad blood between them and they wanted to be different if you're not just changed his tone towards the question quite during the last one and the years . by that we've got all our top stories covered on air and online at r.t. dot com that's a web site here's what else is on the site at the moment the controversial. policy agreement is dealt a blow by the european parliament after the protests but the treaty could still come into force all the details on this developing story online from. the field of cannabis is discovered in moscow with authorities saying the hempseed must have

come in the soil used to grow dunes logon to r.t. dot com the phone of. scotland yard has received a tip about who might have murdered the former russian security agent and xander litvinenko back in two thousand and six and the tape sent to british investigators litvinenko is farther blames exiled russian billionaire. and one of his associates ports on whether this new revelation will affect the long running case. 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 are 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.

knows all about atomic 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 why is it 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 everyone my boy son should was just caught in the hands of england i want to return to russia to seek justice for my son's death alex goldfarb he's the chairman of. the validity 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 full of bodyguards and

a little boy he is now a russian and now he recently passed a lie detector test that was carried out by british acts but 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. involved 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 to the british authorities to continue other lines of investigation

and other attempts to finding the truth of what really happened in this case. in london where we got the business news very shortly but first let's check out some news making headlines around the world a spate of attacks in iraq has killed at least eighteen people and left over fifty injured five bombings targeted a restaurant and police officials in baghdad where seventeen were killed one of advisor to the iraqi prime minister was also hit and they got attacked in your city of mosul north west of baghdad one policeman cannot be seen a number of deadly attacks in recent months after the u.s. combat troops left in december. israel is one of the borders of ninety one palestinians to authorities in the west bank the remains belong to those who died in past decades carrying out attacks on israel which says the move is aimed at encouraging peace talks which collapsed in two thousand and ten after it refused to stop building settlements on land 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 has successfully returned to earth the dragon has landed in the pacific ocean off the mexican coast recovery boats are on the way to pick it up the cargo capsule built by a california based company space x. spent five days in orbit on a test mission america's been without its own means of transportation to the since its shuttles were retired last year. when its promise to meet is next with the business news and dimitri the market is losing the slight tick of optimism we saw earlier on tell us what's happening well basically there was a batch of disappointing economic data out of the united states and therefore the u.s. markets showing negative dynamics and this was notably a revised g.d.p. for the first quarter which is a one point nine percent of your lies and that's lower than expected and also

indicates the slowdown of the jobs market also in europe we are seeing a close. again mixed territory basically footsie is just point two percent this is on optimism on hopes that the european commission would go ahead and accept the proposal of a banking union which would control the sector in europe and help out with bailouts on the commodities market we're seeing in mr a drop massive drop for the light sweet and brand they decline in more than seventeen percent since the beginning of the month and that's in the back of worries over the state of demand globally and this hasn't been helping the russian ruble which fell to pressure three year lows for the year dropping two and a half percent against the basket of currencies but the head of the new economics school to be gritty of says that this is a normal move. i 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 investors sorry for trading money from the region markets turn in the risk of. that that we can see just like oh i think this is very good news that the central bank doesn't intervene in interfere and let the will slide i think this sends a very strong signal that the central bank is committed to the floor floridian exchange rate. policy which at least has announced that more last year and that is going to work this year. goes back to the ruble will strengthen the four price 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 macroeconomic stability for russian markets attempted to rebound which is a very rare sight this month i have to tell you but as you can see they managed to

lose in the end of the session on the my sexy money interesting stock save cases jammer was outperforming others but ended worse than them. it's after it's a first quarter results coming in a better for fall but than the previous year old sniff was up two point six percent on the back of a buyback for minorities and gazprom was down zero point seven percent on the back of the low off world prices and i'll have more for you in about fifty five minutes time on the markets thanks a lot to me. well in a few minutes from now here in r.t. we talk about one of the e.u. supposed all it says to the debt crisis is the fiscal treaty first time i'll be back with headlines stay with us live here on r.t. .

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