another big withdrawal at britain's barclays bank as the embattled chief executive follows the chairman out the door over interest rate rigging. millions of payment is and businesses could have been a bit challenged just at the bookies to keep his balance sheet and this thing this is looking healthy a. serious present president also denies cleaning to the leadership and says he'd go if the broad petes findings raging nationwide despite more global efforts to end the. russian foreign minister warns the syrian opposition not to destroy the results of the conference saying iran chance to solve this text a month conflict here in the country more details on that just ahead. and iran says

new western oil sanctions will cloud future nuclear negotiations this is the country conducts long range missile launches during exercises which could reach american bases in the region and israel. live from our headquarters in central moscow you're with r.t. our top story just one britain's bankers thought the worst public vilification was behind them the c.e.o. of one of the world's largest banks has been forced out bob diamond from barclays has bowed to all round pressure after his bank was caught fixing a key interest rate which overcharged customers when the financial crisis struck here's our london correspondent sarah ferguson. well of course this story absolutely dominating the headlines here today after we saw the resignation from

barclays chief executive bob diamond he'd come under a huge amount of pressure. rigging the key interest rates known as libel and this was used to set the course for millions of businesses of consumers of investors to morrow 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 already questions over whether we're going to see more top level resignations of fear 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 core of britain's banking system simply hasn't been dealt with after the last financial crisis so once again this standoff 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 tatters what the general public want to know this time is look what on earth is going to be done about it and you know 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 in the coming weeks but months and years as well that really a lot of the people we've been speaking to has said this is something that really needs to change the regulation needs to be much more. interventionists you know this culture of weak corporate governance in the banking sector in loose morals

isn't unique to barclays this is very very widespread and say 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. but senior economist at the new economic foundation james mead way says the whole banking sector in the u.k. needs institutional change the culture of the city in the financial institutions in london is pretty vile this is a get rich quick cut your throat really quite unpleasant environment for any kind of businesses to be operating it's not quite right to just talk about the coach here this is systemic this is the way these institutions work coach is a byproduct if you have institutions that are set up to make a fast book as quickly as possible and not care how it's made and then of course you get a culture that promotes this is well so i think we have to look deep in culture we have to talk about real institutional change and what's interesting about this is

the way in which it has started as a problem just of one bank it then became very rapidly apparently even on the evidence of the financial services authority presented there's other banks were involved in rate rigging and it's now sort of extended one way or the other to the bank of england itself to the central bank in a serious questions being asked apparently conversations that took place between bob diamond and the deputy governor of the bank of england in october two thousand and eight that led to barclays believing it had a kind of license to go because the bank of england was saying it was ok to do this that's barclays kind of defense of its actions so really it's not just the private banks it's the central bank itself to start to look implicated in all of this. now britain's banks may be dressing up their debts but in germany they've got better ways for rainy days saving sami germany on a luxury shopping spree to safeguard their counts against the troubled europe we report shortly. but first syria's president

also had says he's prepared to leave his post if that's the will of his people and it brings peace to syria intense international efforts are underway to stop the bloodshed provoked by clashes between government troops and the opposition forces marine for notion of reports from to mascot. president bashar assad has syria is now ready and will welcome any solution to the ongoing crisis here in the country if only it guarantees the country's sovereignty commenting on the geneva peace initiative to create an interim government uniting the opposition and current regime the syrian leader has also stated that he satisfied that the documents trust in that it's up to the syrian people to decide the country's future in another interview he had just recently to the turkish newspaper he has sat that he wishes that this downing of the turkish plane by serious never happened three days after the geneva meeting while the skepticism is growing that the peace initiative forged

by world powers at the weekend will only remain a solution of paper we're only hearing from the russian foreign minister that this plan is a very good chance of prime chance to solve the crisis the sixteen month loan crisis here in syria. fortunately some members of the syrian opposition started saying that the geneva proposals are only acceptable whereas some western participants of the geneva talks have come up with distorted interpretations in their statements we believe that the geneva communiqué should not be open to interpretation but should be implemented as agreed today is the second day of the syrian opposition mission in cairo and the main idea of this meeting was to uni fi to hammer out a common position on this syrian conflict in order to gain some respect some trust from the syrian people the syrian opposition has indeed been criticized harshly recently for being too fragmented to be trusted and the opposition itself has

confirmed that it has. to be more united and has to have a common vision on how to end crisis in syria the opposition is divided and while the reason one part ready to talk whether to discuss this interim government initiative there is another part that only wants to can. new fighting and doesn't want any dialogue with anybody and also surprising to hear that just day off to the un has confirmed that both sides over the syrian conflict rick will be responsible for the violence here in the country and what is supplied to both the regime and the rebels have been escalating the conflict still to come this hour corruption and coercion in malaysia the final edition to in the sunday interview show airs today on r.t. religious opposition leader talks to the world famous whistleblower about the violent struggle for fair elections.

iran says new western oil sanctions could impact negatively on future nuclear negotiations well tensions are mounting around tehran as the new e.u. in bargo aims to put pressure on its atomic program here's archies mideast correspondent policy. we hearing from the radio foreign minister that iran wants a situation he says that the only other alternative is confrontation which is not in anyone's interest now this comes as the israeli as we really implement drafted a bill that calls for the station of the shipment of crude oil through the strait of hormuz to countries that support sanctions against iran and now this follows the call back by the european union they have called for an embargo on iranian oil that was passed back in january it went into effect this past sunday now also today choose day the radio government announced that it had to test

a number of missiles including long range missiles that potentially could hit us in the persian gulf but the situation on the ground is certainly intensifying the united states has sent minesweepers to the persian gulf to boost its fleet there and that comes amid renewed threats by iran that it is closing a wall potentially or could potentially close the strait of hormuz there have been three rounds of negotiations between iran and the six world powers and so far these have yielded no breakthrough there is a now the meeting happening today tuesday in istanbul it's a low level meeting that is looking at seeing whether or not there's any kind of common ground between the sides that could then lead to fully fledged negotiations but the expectation of today's meeting is rather dismal iran accuses the international powers of dragging their feet and says that it's not in their interest to reach any kind of compromise or any kind of solution at the same time

iran is insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes but we're hearing continuously from powers such as the united states countries like israel and other countries that they suspect that iran's nuclear program is merely a cover for being nuclear warfare. some of them political commentator psoriasis a poor all right says the e.u. oil embargo is just one of the ways western countries aim to bring about regime change in iran iran 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 of the politics and they're all in biogas 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 iraq 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 mitchell conclusion reached an agreement so iran is even more convinced that this is just. an excuse for regime change. well look at some other world news in brief for you this hour a series of deadly bombings in targeted shia muslims a truck blast claimed at least twenty five lives when it exploded at a market in karbala which will host a major pilgrimage next weekend hours earlier five others died in a similar market attack in a twin car explosion in central iraq there's been a spike in nationwide violence since u.s.

troops pulled out last december. a new york court has ordered twitter to hand over occupy wall street messages the case centers around malcolm harris who was charged during last year's protests and believe it his post about the demonstrations and twitter and says that tweets belong to users not the company but the judge isn't convinced saying tweets are no more private than if someone shouted out the window. nato is cheap nato chiefs may be optimistic on progress in afghanistan but the recent further troop losses for britain tell a different story twenty fourteen will see a full handover to local security forces although there are growing fears of even more violence afterwards laura smith has 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 britain's 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. 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 serve because of the tribal dynamics in our. gangs and they're very keen to have us a lot in the area and so it became a lot more violent and we predicted and really want to be achieve in the six months that i was there is very little with blood being spilled on a daily basis the so-called security transition rolls on 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 its own troops and the british to leave altogether by the end of two thousand and fourteen seemingly whatever happens helmand. evans 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 and 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 dollars annual bill president karzai says he needs to maintain security of the two thousand and fourteen something austerity ridge in europe will be deeply reluctant to shell out for laura smith r.t. london. for julian assange has been anything but

a quiet fortnight the us baying for blood and sweden intent on his extradition for questioning over alleged sex crimes he's currently seeking asylum inside ecuador's embassy in london now assigned suspects to serious extradition is a cover for america to seize him for blowing the lid on military crimes in iraq and afghanistan recently his attention has been on the plight of freedom for others with his talk show airing here on r t in the final edition of the whistleblower's program a science talks to malaysia's opposition leader the violent struggle for free elections in the country in the end is to meet the wisdom of the people you have the cabinet the government sources every night in the national media abusing me and still increase my majority but worse is to use this is a political ploy jump up judges use the police and finally when the judiciary although finally duly and i was acquitted but never suggest that they do this it

was independent right through the entity allowed that was. most disgusting you use this for sar democracy.

group. attacked our rights online. and the puppet protesters returned to the bra stage russian punk group pussy riot going in american bands moscow getting up to their notoriety for storming they drove in an anti government stunt. bus tragedy on the track attached driver for russia's formula one team crashes during a test circuit and is in hospital with serious injuries details online and of course an archie sport later this hour. well germany is by far the strongest economy in the eurozone but it still felt the punch of the euro crisis uncertainty over the country's currency its fate i should say has led some

germans to stash their cash away from the banks on a boy explains. that 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 event to become one of his customers. in gold to the gold of the governor you have the markets in your garage and the nuggets the old cars and i think they buy more than. before the crisis price tags and 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 have a real passion for classic wills dittrich ross 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 built two hundred fifty two cars and 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 that embattled cash into something they see as more durable it's not like 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 europe's future is shrouded in uncertainty more and more germans are 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 believe the euro crisis vindicated here

once and for all turning a once 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 know 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 ahead and the clinics director himself is in no mood to wait and see in addition to a brand new x. ray machine his just bought a house that he never intends to live in my. twenty's. people want to give you. don't want. and while in other countries this would be taken as

a sign of growing consumer confidence for big banking germans this really is spending for a rainy day i can avoid the artsy reporting from munich in germany. dmitri now joins us with some business news an oil just keeps on rising after that intent that tension surrounding the e.u. oil embargo in iran doesn't it that's absolutely true we've seen the one hundred dollars per barrel for brant milestone breached last hour now it's more than one hundred and one let's take a look at the actually what's happening nymex and brant crude are up more than three dollars you can see that brant one zero one zero five and this is of course not only because iran yesterday saying that is drafting a deal to block the strait of hormuz which is the an essential strait supplying oil for the middle east region but also the fact that iran is now going ahead reportedly with military drills this is just basically increasing anxiety about

supplies from the region in general and therefore we see these high oil prices of course but experts have been telling us russia in this situation cannot increase production the factor because it's kind of at the maximum level already but the fact that it's shifting its focus towards asia is giving it potentially a market advantage. russia is exporting more oil to the far east through a new pipeline to a part of the world which is relied heavily on a rainy 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 taking more russian oil so there might be a permanent benefit from the situation. it's another twenty minutes left on the clock for the tuesday session in russia to come to an end but as you can see there

these high oil prices are providing a very strong boost to russian stocks in general as take a look at that on the mice that we've got is burbank actually leading the gains the most liquid stock on the market is up almost four percent there showing some remarkable performance now among shares lukoil is actually weaker than the market despite this very strong and well prices and gas problem is feeling better it's up almost three percent that's its price the spirits with its release on has come to an end at the stock of arbitration court but a polish company has now filed a lawsuit against gazprom to also review long term prices this is because of course the natural gas prices have been dropping and their european countries do not want to pay as much as they're paying. within their contracts let's take a look at what's going on elsewhere and currencies the russian ruble is seeing

a massive boost against the euro notably up forty two. more than one percent and also even more so one point three percent versus the dollar so that's of course because it's very much tied up with the with the crude price and the euro is very much where it was against the dollar after yesterday's close now in the united states we've seen factory orders come up point seven percent in march which is a very positive sign up to two months of contraction and the dow jones and nasdaq are actually quite easy right now with the positive a very moderate gains we're seeing that's. of course seeing manufacturing contracting in the previous month five zero which is not a good sign we haven't seen that in the past three years and in europe the hype also continues. from last week that search for and against there but pretty

moderate also to barclays continues to to rally on the back of the chairman resigning. and that's it that's all i have for you this hour but i'll be back at the top of the hour to tell you the exact closing figures for the russian market all right looking forward to it thanks for that update. and look at the challenges in the rapidly changing middle east that's after a short break and the headlines. you're .