tim's mission to teach creation and why you should care about humans. this is why you should want your only dog. the chief executive of barclays the u.k.'s third largest bank steps down in a scandal over rigged interest rates the british government ordering an inquiry into the entire banking sector. the u.n. calls for a halt on all arms supplies to syria to pave the path for peace and a transitional government. meanwhile here with no signs of a ceasefire with clashes between the army and the rebels only escalate to more details just ahead. and it looks like the u.s. has no intention of giving up hope of getting its hands on julian assange as well our team will bring you the final episode whistleblowers interview show in just thirty minutes.

it's three pm in moscow this is r.t. coming to you live from need to now with our top story this hour and the chief executive of the u.k. started largest bank barclays has resigned in a deepening financial scandal homeowners and businesses were overcharged for loans during the credit crunch because the lender was fixing a system of interbank lending rates well the government's ordered a full parliamentary inquiry into the country's banking sector let's not get the details from archie's sarah ferguson joins us live from london sour what's next for the beleaguered banks. well of course this story absolutely dominating the headlines here today after we saw the resignation from buckley's chief executive bob diamond he'd come under a huge amount of pressure is a buckley rigging the key interest rates known as libel and this was used to set

the course for the millions of businesses of consumers of investors more and we're going to see a little different haitian between him and m.p.'s as he faces questioning but of course this story so much bigger than just bob diamond in fact is thought as many as twelve to fifteen other institutions could be involved in this so already questions over whether we're going see more top level resignations affair really that there's much more to come from this and it's given us all a glimpse again you know that this isn't just a few bad apples but that really the rotten call of britain's banking system simply hasn't been dealt with after the last financial crisis so once again this scandal has really cooled into question the culture and practices of the entire banking sector and it's not just barclays but of course the entire city's reputation really

in taxes but the u.k. as chancellor george osborne called diamond's resignation the first step towards a new culture of responsibility but haven't we heard that before sorry it sounds familiar bring us back to two thousand and eight certainly. it does sound scarily familiar yes i mean in the last four years we've seen the credit crunch we've seen a slew of stories a very bad banking practices bonuses that have no justification fiddling and manipulation that gaze on in the banking sector you know we know all about the lifestyles of the rich and the shameless i think what the general public want to know this time is that what on earth is going to be done about it and you know it talks of an inquiry at this time aren't really going to cut it they drag on they take a very long time though we do know that the serious fraud office the s.f.o. is looking at the moment to see if any criminal sanctions can be taken against those that are involved but you know really a sense here that we're seeing history repeating itself and it's also raising very

big questions over the regulation of this you know why once again have we not seen the regulators stepping in and that's going to be another thing that we sort of going to see evolving certainly over the coming weeks but months and years as well that really a lot of the people we've been speaking to has that this is something that really needs to change the regulation needs to be much more interventionist you know this culture of weak corporate governance in the banking sector a loose morals isn't unique to barclays this is very very widespread and so what the what the public want to see here is a crackdown on the wrongdoing and that the people who have been involved in the lying and the manipulation going to receive a punishment that fits the crime that's right a lot of people calling for specific criminal convictions of those who made these decisions we will continue to track this developing story our to use our first live from. the chris roebuck from the cast business school believe squabble banking giants are trying to make

a profit at the expense of their customers and clients. i think there are questions about the banking industry but that's a question about the global banking industry this particular problem there are regulators across the world who are looking at twenty international institutions including citi group j.p. morgan u.b.s. and what this is about is about individual banks trying to manipulate the local interbank lending rate so actually we've discovered that the effect on individual bank account holders in this country has been negligible but that doesn't diminish the fact that certain people very very few people at the top of international banks were trying to manipulate the market culturally and historically there's always been a little bit of a difference for example between the u.s. and the u.k. in respect of white collar crime i.e. you know fraud and that sort of thing that doesn't involve any form of violence in the us they're much tougher on that and people who do things wrong in organizations

go to jail generally speaking in u.k. in most cases they just get a slap on the wrist and they're not allowed to be a director of a company anymore but they don't go to jail what's now happening is that in the u.k. the government is saying actually we're getting to the point where if people do do things wrong they need to go to jail. the eurozone is deeper than its own banking and debt crisis two of course coming up we look at how people in the economic powerhouse germany are dealing with regional troubles well they're tending for the future with purchases of luxury cars real estate art and jewelry surging. also this hour ukrainian reebok to sanctions lawmakers in tehran wary oil markets by drafting a bill that would seek to block seek i should say to block the world's busiest oil route the strait of hormuz. but first russia is to host syrian opposition leaders next week for talks on stabilizing the country that's despite

the latest international peace plan for syria fighting there is still intensifying across the country as well as near damascus the u.n. has urged the halt to weapons supplies from abroad to the warring sides which it says is fueling the violence notion that is in the syrian capital. situation is very dramatic in syria as president bashar assad has recently sat series now in the real state in the way this is exactly what we see right now on the ground the question between the rebels and the syrian army have only been this place in recent the last several halts most of the fighting in the central hall it's all syria not far from the two homes the northern part the fall from the turkish border on the syrian iraq people who did but the fear response is happening some time into full ten kilometers from where i am right now around damascus in a belt of villages and suburbs that have been known as opposition strongholds and

have been herrmann and source of trouble since the beginning of the prize in here last march this time europe has made its both sides of the conflict require responsible for reeds and weapons supplied to both sides again all these conflicts have been escalating needs. and all suppose that further militarization should be avoided and is a very dangerous today is the second die off the opposition makes it in congo and the main idea of this meeting was to unify you know that to gain some trust of the syrian people indeed the opposition since the beginning of the uprising has been harshly criticized for being too fragmented and too fragmented even to be trusted and they themselves been confirmed that that they hunted they have to unify they have to you know it's to hammer out common vision on this syrian conflict but some of these opposition boycotted they smeaton in cairo the free syrian army members and some independent activist base in syria have criticised this meeting paul and

it is a conspiracy and accuse a need for ignoring the question of buffer zones protected by the international community humanitarian corridors and air in boggo and amin all of the rebels fighters it's surprising to hear that while u.n. is saying that the weapons being supplied to both sides is fueling the conflict so it sounds like some of the off was issued and is now rady to reduce the cost the idea of interim government to this latest peace initiative forged at the meeting engineer in geneva but the reason opposition that is this still is not ready to give up and doesn't want to talk and only wants to continue flight. parties mean financial reporting there from damascus well more inside coming up on what elements of a healthy transition are needed to avoid more bloodshed in syria author and correspondent martin safe wonders whether such concerns bother the minds of hawks across the

atlantic. a successful democracies evolve they cannot be created instantaneously overnight americans have for a hundred years drunk instant coffee you take a little. little who envelope of coffee of powder you pour it into a cop you have hot water instant coffee none of they believe democracy can be spread the same way you simply take american instant democracy the american blueprint for democracy you impose it on the country you have water pressed so instance democracy the world does not work that way they thought it did with the arab spring but they all of it so the administration and the republicans to face it are blind to the terrible dangerous but their policies are causing i.

you watch the full interview with maher unsafe in just over an hour's time right here on r.t. . in other news iran has held military exercises launching several long range missiles capable of reaching the persian gulf and the drills come as the country's parliament is mulling over a bill that seeks to block shipments of oil through the strait of hormuz to countries that impose oil embargo and sanctions on iran those measures are aimed at pressuring the islamic republic into curbing its nuclear program by tehran says it has no problem selling oil some large customers like china have been exempted from u.s. sanctions iran has also been stockpiling money and goods to buffer the impact of measures against the country independent researcher and writer. sariah support all over it says tehran is actually trying to fight back against attempts to bring down islam a core of. you ron looking back at this history knows that it has no choice

it either goes down or it has to defend itself and i think it will if it's ready to defend itself it has the means and the capability in the politics of it all embargoes have been used to devastate the economy and for foreign powers to basically take over the country the pursuit of civilian nuclear program it's simply a means to an end what washington has in mind is to remove the regime iran has tried to cooperate with washington with the p five n one that's one it has even said that he would give up its medical isotopes its twenty percent enriched uranium if iran can be supplied with isotopes for its medical research but the war powers have not wanted to come mischa conclusion reached an agreement so iran is even more convinced that this is just. an excuse for regime change. well more on the story available whenever you want it on our website here's some of what else is

waiting for you on line bikes behind bars inmates thought it was a prison get the chance to shave time off their sentences by generating electricity through pedal power in the morning and the light at the end of the tunnel plus. rock and why it fans out of moscow gig were in for a big surprise when antiproton punk band pussy riot stormed the stage for what happened at r t v dot com. julian assange is attempting to avoid being put on trial in the u.s. for spying as an american senator has reiterated calls for his arrest the whistleblower is still waiting for ecuador to decide on his asylum bid meanwhile the songes presence on our t.v. draws to an end at least for now the final episode of his interview show airs in about fifteen minutes time and this time he talks to malaysian opposition leader and what you bring him about the fight for freedom and the hypocrisy of some world

leaders. you want to do something you must not be caught up. in it has to work in of course politics the art of compromise i'm not seeing that you know you're like a political philosopher dictating issues but this at the ground. that you have to accept and it docked you know i mean when you say you had it for democracy you become the west is to do more you talk about market konami you become a. soros agent but you know these things. and you have it now they were to be with you you know is going to happen of the. but i think you know people you know the problem with this awful rooted in the us and at times even the leaders in the west including destroy islam or for these. we against them this. policy of the states i mean the.

sense that the. ascribe to the ideal is this mission spirit or the american revolution or differ so in ideas all they have is of the heart the talk of you talked about they don't and that is our concern. of free speech activists chav attempts says plans to try julian assange to undermine america's constitution and could set a dangerous precedent. what the new york times does is actually considered worse than what wiki leaks did because the new york times routinely publishes what is called top secret classified information which is actually the highest classification that u.s. government uses and the only thing wiki leaks has published although they've published hundreds of thousands of documents has been secret and below which is a lower occasion and if we keep this punished for this type of behavior the new york times isn't just in much trouble or if or more so now the government has

argued that they can go after the government leaders but never have they been able to prosecute a private citizen for publishing this information in the public interest and the real problem is that if it if it actually came to fruition then not only would wiki leaks and joined us on to be in jail for doing what essentially every other newspaper does but in the future other newspapers who want to publish stories in the public interest the administration would be able to threaten these papers prosecution bring them to trial and so not only would it stifle free speech in the sense that it could put journalists in jail but it could also bankrupt many media organizations who have spent millions of dollars defending themselves against what is traditionally a protected. protected by the first amendment. and don't forget the final episode of julian assange just an interview show is set to air here on our team in less than fifteen minutes and you can catch up on all the previous episodes that aired

this spring at us r.t. dot com. finnish lawmakers and some members of the public in germany are coming out in strong opposition to the euro zone's latest bell out plans now while many in the e.u. feel the pinch with austerity cuts and germany normal conservative normally conservative consumers i should say have begun splashing out a luxury cars and expensive houses on a boy who investigates what's pushing the spending spree. best for economy good for business. cross has been selling vintage cars for almost three decades but he says he's never had a better run of trade than in the last year and a half and use of the euro's instability has told the wills of his business so well there is stiff competition given to become one of his customers. in gold to the gold of the governor. you have the markets in your garage and the markets. and

i think they buy more than. before the crisis price tags in his collection run from a mere fifty thousand euro to massive three million for the bands. and while in the past the majority of his clients had a real passion for classic wills cross is now dealing with a new kind of buyer those who just want to part of their money to profit this car is a b.m.w. . only bill two hundred fifty two cars. in two thousand and. five you have to spend for a call like that three hundred fifty thousand euros and today you have to spend a million real estate or jewelry almost all luxury sales are now reporting and as germans fearful of the euro collapsing. turning to and better cash in just something they see as more durable it's not like the money has always been burning holes in german pockets traditionally the people of this country have been pretty

conservative spenders but the average household putting aside eleven percent of the time come what may be your a spirit your shrouded in uncertainty more and more german for now buying into the idea that saving is wasting low interest rates combined with increasing inflation made savings accounts and profitable more than a decade ago france here among the bag few believed him the euro crisis vindicated here once and for all turning a one's diligent saver into germany's most. vocal advocate of spend spend spend more and more people get. nervous people like the luxury people like rich people. things too they don't believe in the money and come home renovations to expensive medical procedures fear of the possible devaluation is pushing germans into a spending spree and his dental clinic the appointment calendar is already booked for several months i had and the clinics director himself is in no mood to wait and

see in addition to a brand new x. ray machine he's just bought a house that he never intends to live in my. own . people want to. don't want. and while in other countries this would be taken as a sign of growing consumer confidence piggy banking germans this really is spending for a rainy day kind of artsy reporting from munich in germany. it's twenty minutes past the hour still ahead here in our two beating the war drum british government ten years to trumpet nato is progress in afghanistan as a success by the mounting death toll of foreign military personnel in the country this year. a look at some world news in brief in iraq at least twenty nine people

have been killed and over sixty wounded in a series of blasts most of the victims died when a car bomb exploded in a busy market early in the day two roadside bombs targeted shia pilgrims on the outskirts of the triune city of karbala recent weeks have seen increased attacks on worshippers raising fears of a return to widespread sectarian violence. libya has three to four members of the international criminal court arrested four weeks ago on a mission of spying they still have to return to tripoli later this month for a final ruling on their case one of them lawyer melinda taylor was charged with smuggling documents to colonel gadhafi is captured son safe. who it's accused of killing protesters during last year's revolt libya wants to try him itself but the i.c.c. is concerned but he won't get a fair trial there. and a new york court has ordered twitter to release private tweets in the case of an occupy wall street protester activists say the move will violate the privacy of

malcolm harris was charged with disorderly conduct over demonstrations last year the judge insists help personally review the data and released only relevant parts of it to prosecution lawyers was arrested in october along with hundreds of others during a march against corporate greed and poverty. while nato chiefs are optimistic on progress in afghanistan critics believe the war of over a decade has left only chaos and uncertainty behind and frequent attacks on foreign troops there continue and while twenty fourteen will. a full handover to local security forces there are growing fears of even more violence after work force met with the details. it's now a familiar refrain so-called green on blue killings in afghanistan this week saw three more british soldiers killed by an afghan policeman bringing the number of

foreign personnel killed in route shootings this year to over twenty britons ministry of defense though sees a much rosier picture the recently returned brigadier patrick saunders telling of a helmand province where local forces take more responsibility for security there are fewer taliban attacks more schools and medical centers have been built the disparity between what the mit is saying and what's actually happening is absolutely glaring one and they seem to be saying everything's ok let's hope for the best it's all going to work properly at the same time we see record numbers of western troops now being killed by afghan police and soldiers exactly the people who are supposed to be taking over from them so it isn't working death tolls are rising and perhaps most importantly the afghans are growing in their opposition to the foreign troops former captain patrick barrie can well imagine the scene he was deployed to sangin in helmand in two thousand and eight his job to win hearts and

minds it didn't work when we deployed there we realized pretty quickly that only about fifty percent of the population actually wanted to sarah because of the tribal dynamics in our. gangs and they're very keen to have us a lot in the area and so became a lot more violent and we predicted and really want to achieve in the six months that i was there very little with blood being spilled on a daily basis the so-called security transition roles soon afghan forces will be responsible for seventy five percent of the population by the middle of next year the rest of the country will start being handed over to. troops and the british to leave altogether by the end of two thousand and fourteen seemingly whatever happens helmand province is relatively calm compared to parts of kandahar where drugs and the taliban still dominate but gains even according to some in the army are reversible particularly if nato soldiers are no longer there to reinforce them if

you put in afghan forces into these areas are they actually going from their bases in patrolling and so winning over the population or as the attacks mean to get some to they just come back so they control only a small area and what they call like a small lozenge of security and a really confined to the base you know on paper you say you know we hand it over and it looks really good but in reality what's going on it's an interesting question i personally believe in some of those hotly contested areas i think we're going to have a big a big. problem whatever afghan forces do it's got to be paid for european countries are under pressure from the us to foot a third of the four billion dollar annual bill president karzai says he needs to maintain security after two thousand and fourteen something austerity ridge in europe will be deeply reluctant to shell out for norris myth r.t. london. does not check in with danielle and the business doesn't age or may have turned its back on iran's oil for good. on iran imports kick in this week brant

within touching distance of one hundred dollars a barrel both benchmarks or higher for the. also stopping supply with iran and with new pipelines to the east something the world. most countries outside of opec oil fields are producing a maximum of all times to return their investment on their capital so in this sense they cannot really step in to produce extra however they will benefit along with other produce with high oil prices and on that basis russia will benefit. in addition russia is exporting more oil to the far east through a new pipeline to parts of the world which storage is relied heavily on a rainy unoiled and there is a potential the russian oil heading to the far east will gain market share from the iranians and that might be a permanent shift if purchases such as japan korea. and china

switched increasingly to take in more russian oil so there might be a permanent benefit from the situation now that higher oil prices is sending markets here higher the my six is also rising above fourteen hundred points getting up for fourteen hundred thirty roubles losing recent gains against the euro though interest rates are expected to be caught by the european central bank on thursday shares are rising strongly in london now in the afternoon with traders approving boss bob diamond's decision to quit over the interest rate manipulation scandal and drop today more news and interviews are on the website. thanks for that. i mean actually in a song joe wraps up his series of interview shows with the standard bearer of malaysia's opposition but first a look at this hour's top stories just after this. world

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