he starts on t.v. dot com. the u.n. security council finally reaches consensus on syria details from new york coming up . meanwhile rumors run rife over the fate and future of the embattled syrian president. true or false is a bashar al assad ready to step down as president of syria and sean thomas in moscow and coming up we sort out all of the details. police create angry crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets on the streets of spain as the public rages against the latest wave of a stir imposed on the country in return for a bank rescue by the e.u. .

live from our new center here in the russian capital this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day all members of the u.n. security council have voted in favor of a resolution extending the observer mission to syria the mandates being given a final thirty days but could be renewed if conditions are met lottie's marina porter has the latest from new york. brush ambassadors of the united nations vitaly churkin says he's a very pleased with the way the vote out friday with his security council unanimously approving a u.k. draft resolution that extends the u.n. supervision mission in syria for a final thirty days investor churkin said this is what russia was hoping for from the very beginning and the vote that took place on thursday of course put a lot of consequences on the syrian government in association with extending the supervision mission which is why it was vetoed but besser churkin said he was

pleased overall that this mission is going to be extended this vote happening just hours before the original mandate was set to expire however there is a bit of contradiction within the text of the resolution because it extends the mission for final thirty days stressing the word final but then it also says that it can be extended if violence decreases in syria a russian ambassador vitaly churkin did address this issue when talking to the meeting out there were explaining to put some sort of pressure on the sides so if they do you want to do is to continue then that you do go back to the level of violence well if they wanted to make that signal well i wouldn't want to wouldn't want this particular thing to stand in the way of the option of this resolution even though i believe that it's really it's really going to dictate it and we do emphasize the continuation of course we also believe that as

a resolution says that the level of violence must be reduced on all sides and behold this is going to happen to russia and china both said that the u.k. drafted resolution that was vetoed on thursday and supported by other western countries was one sided it was only putting pressure on on the syrian government and not putting any pressure consequences on the armed opposition that are participating in the increasing violence. also what came out of the meeting today was that u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice said that washington will continue and increase its work outside of the security council meaning that the u.s. will continue working with partners. on what to do with syria because of what they want to do in terms of sanctions or any other approaches that would put more pressure on the syrian government is that it was not allowed in the security council so it looks like there may be some unilateral moves in pressures that are

going to be taken by washington and its western allies to put their own ahead of the vote russia's envoy to the un vitaly churkin gave an exclusive live interview to me here at r.t. the full version is airing later but you can also watch it anytime on our website dot com. but in the meantime witnesses are reporting large explosions in damascus as the fighting in the capital rages into its fifth day battles are also continuing throughout the country syrian state media claims assad's military forces of one back control over four rebellious districts in damascus meanwhile the u.n. is trying to verify reports that up to thirty thousand refugees have fled to lebanon in the last forty eight ounce out of his claim he launched attacks on border crossings with turkey and iran which were seized by the rebels yesterday the rates are said to involve heavy shelling and all to refine. refine ocean has been keeping across the developments for us from damascus. free syrian army soldiers are

now controlling all four border crossings at the syrian iraqi border but the top official has also said that the iraqi guards have witnessed extreme ballers from the side of free syrian army soldiers from opposition fighters we also been able to see the to posted on you tube from the syrian turkish border where gunmen have been shouting religious slogans and shooting. portrays a free syrian army has been able to take control over crossings at the border that means that they they are very determined in large scale operation against regime of president bashar al assad but that doesn't necessarily mean that there's still keep in this control because everything changes very fast we have to be very careful with information and even with picture is we see because since the beginning of this our privacy it's also been media war and just recently we've been hearing from

opposition that they've managed to take control over the airport just yesterday we were at the airport here in damascus that it's functioning normally it's been here on the ground for almost fifty days already and i have to say what we've been able to see in the last five days has been the most dramatic moment for the syrian capital where the clashes between the army and the rebels have been taken place in the least five districts of damascus and it's been extremely difficult to get in side these districts but on thursday we finally managed to do that and what we saw really devastating destroyed streets abandoned houses no people of variously and many many traces of war and of very fierce clashes we've even seen many tracks of tanks and although not totally on the roads but on what used to be the cars. obviously all shops are closed and we have to understand that these districts

are not remote. damascus suburb it's not far from the center the city center we've been here for one of the months now and we've been to these districts many times. by something talking to people and of course it's been very sad to see how different the picture is right now people are trying to deal with this situation and we are in mazed how brave they are in this situation facing a horror of war that has come to their home they say yes we know it is happening right now here it damascus in our country it's been here for seventeen months already but we cannot do anything with these and life has to go on and we have to leave so they're trying to deal with this is just waiting for this nightmare to end this what they say. to date on what's happening in syria followed maria's twitter feed she's one of the few international correspondents still reporting right from

the heart of the fighting and get photos from the scene and firsthand impressions of the notion of underscore r.t. . well let's discuss now the latest resolution on syria and what's been happening there with her she's a syrian activist and blogger she's a frequent online commentator on the events shaking the country judy concerns for her safety resources not to reveal her exact location now in the number of your previous interviews you've stated that the u.n. observer mission in syria was serving of the purposes then bringing peace to the water on country what do you mean by that me. well you know distinctive missions of this u.n. peacekeeping was to find a piece who resolution for the conflict but even with the russian amendments the u.s. and the g.c.c. countries and turkey want to use this mission to be armed and regroup the insurgency and to some extent it's a sixty you know the syrians have counted up multiple weapons out the border and

weapons that the militants have been using have been advanced so the same time you know there has been dozens of buying missions by the insurgents of all the resolution and yet couldn't on his own condemn the syrian government and even though they did pull back. as division in the case did the armed groups did not comply with the cease fire and in first it did not agree to that. those concerns you mentioned of course also shared by russia but now of course they've extended that mission and everybody's agreed russia has now indeed agreed to extending this mission by another thirty days so do you think it will be different i think in this case you know the extension of the diplomatic corps russia. did amend resolutions or that both sides have to cease fire and it's

a continuation of the current situation which is in its next chapter seven. sanctions against syria so in this in the kind of kids right now yes it is a different case now your family and friends they're still in syria how often do you hear from them and what are they telling you. well i did speak to my own in the last few days and she's an. intentionally terminal. and not only do they have to deal with this illness but she just answered your designs of gunfire and bombing our son and concerned for her children and everybody is really a you know kind of these encounters people are in douglas and. the crowds for who and the journalists are getting still beat people just want this to be you

or when you say want it to be over for assad to go or for assad to stay on you know i think by now a majority of people have realized that these foreign backed insurgents you have not democracy. at heart they are extremely sick they're in extremely violent and of course they are not this young people whose are so what are your fears then your predictions if assad is to go not just for the country but also for your family and your friends that well i think. you know even as not being a government supporter assad right now is representative of syria's serenity so for us not to go right now we need an end to basically syria it means an end to. a free country that is after its own interests going to be talking controlled by the u.s. in just two countries and it will new york chaos inside the country who want in and

want to and. then we nation of syria's way of life which is secular and. all right what about just a western in florida worried about taking control of syria but many are concerned about islamic extremism taking control. yes exactly right we are definitely concerned over these well how do you. even muslim brotherhood who are foreign control to think more secure because it's five syria and the majority sunni. or in conjunction mustn't but. our people are secure by heart we have in this jury a long history of many religions and many. need to get there in harmony we would like to maintain that but everybody used religion is something that they

themselves have in their heart it's not something that has been caused. by the government maybe what we know you're in australia but you've also not to reveal your exact location because you've actually received direct threats for speaking out of what's happening in syria but tell us more about that and what where those threats coming from well while i haven't been given legitimate threats that i'm worried about are these are you know of hundred threats you hear on the internet what i'm really concerned about are is my own it. was. because of my speaking on you know. in cairo. and also you know i've heard of people in western countries who have spoken out publicly and been harassed for it you know by who they just critically ill are you know by who. by this so called then look he's living up to that one.

democracy in syria now there are people who are. supporting the insurrection. syrian activist and blogger joining us live in australia thank you very much indeed for your thoughts and your perspective on what's happening in your country at the moment this is r.t. here live in moscow with you and meanwhile word has been going around that president assad may be ready to step down with some international news outlet citing a russian ambassador a statement but officials say that diplomats words were misinterpreted by the media to sean thomas explains now. these reports came out from al-arabiya t.v. and this is what russia's a baster alexander or love is reported to say that there was a meeting here in geneva and at that meeting they adopted a communique where help that they agreed to allow for a transition of power to a more democratic regime of bashar al assad was at that meeting he agreed to this communicate even he even appointed

a person to work with the opposition and negotiate with the opposition and agreed to to leave and do so in a cordial manner now what we have now confronted with the russian diplomatic mission in paris which is where ambassador all of here's a station he says that these words were taken out of context and it says the meaning of the ambassador's words were that bashar al assad can stay in power and he could go but this is a decision that can be made not by the u.n. security council not by anyone else but only by the president himself and by the syrian people certainly there's always rumors in fact it's hard to believe anything that comes out of syria unless you can he personally see it for yourself because there's lots of different sources of information and misinformation as a word we've heard that bashar al assad has fled to damascus we've also heard that assad has been injured and just immediately after those reports came out there were

pictures of assad perfectly fine having not been injured also reports of assad's wife coming here to moscow and about those rumors the foreign ministry here in russia has said on the general idea of rumors that the world is usually awash with rumors these rumors tended to game some information around and spread very fast i would not like to comment on any rumors today i think that it is a very good honest information trap and that we should be careful not to fall into it so basically a lot of information out there lots of misinformation out there and telling people to be. careful what they believe. almost in central moscow police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse angry protesters throwing the streets of spain dozens of people were injured and a number of activists detained during the latest nationwide down to a sturdy demonstrations and a major show of strength hundreds of thousands have been taking part in the protests people marching eighty cities across the country to protest against more

suffocating of steroids which is to come that's all to the german parliament gave the green light to the one hundred billion euro bailout for the country's battered banks the e.u.'s finance ministers have approved the conditions for the financial lifeline to madrid which call for the strict monitoring of the banks that received a call most close a sociologist at pumping fiber a university believes the situation in spain is only going to go from bad to us. what we're seeing is a massive transfer of public private debt into public debt and that's that's where it really begins to harm the actual citizens of spain it's this sort of this these plans. are not even being done on a large enough scale to really have any effect any positive effect for working people in spain when you take their food you take all that they have homes and they respond quite viscerally i mean yesterday you know we saw in madrid for instance wasn't you know violent an artists and a group that decided to burn

a bunch of dumpsters what we saw were police charging against other police protesting police we saw them charging against firemen and women we saw them charging against public sector workers and chasing them through the streets of madrid and you know neighborhood neighborhoods in madrid the actual people that lived there were actually throwing flower pots from the balconies at the police now that's a qualitative change from what we've seen over the last year and certainly you see people living in a.t.m. and a.t.m. buildings right in the late t.m. services and you see them living out in the streets looking in the in the trash you know for food i mean these are people that two years ago were working ok and they were working and maintaining families and now they're very livelihoods are threatened and of course tensions are going to boil over. it's one of the most secretive nations on earth where many would say nothing has changed for decades and life is lived in a communist time warp but while the winds of change aren't exactly blowing full

strength in north korea a new era could be on the horizon this week the country's military chief was removed from his post out of the blue and now reports are emerging major economic agricultural reforms are pending more lists talk to eric sorkin is a co-founder of the national campaign to end the korean war now when kim jung un took over from his late father the world really didn't know what to expect but did anyone imagine that we could be going down a path of reform which is perhaps what we're seeing now i think people had hoped there would be reform we have been. faced with. north east asia a situation that has been stuck in the quote mire of cold war for so long and we've seen sanctions that it's not be most effective and so realistically north korea and i was just there a couple months ago i beginning to feel that change is a. new person new ideas and i think.

if the united states began receptive to it we might be ready for some. effort to be made in a direction from what you saw on your visit there why i grew cultural and economic reforms necessary. well you know this is a country that the united states divided back in the one nine hundred forty s. and most like eight eighty seven percent of the arable land was in south korea but it's a very difficult growing to arrange it take some organisation and so who are i think in order to even do agriculture and do it successfully to have abundant crops and then you throw in the famines and if you could it came about from natural disasters and and poor management at times and this is a serious problem but in north korea you can see this organization really

beginning to make a difference you can see that. here on the move away from the militarism is what we hope to see to spread across the region and begin to look for political solutions all these problems a move away from militarily that does that mean there's some sort of struggle going on in that the the power the influence of the military is now being reduced. well it's the military plays a huge economic role in north korea they they deal with harvesting of crops they deal with working on the roads they are. a lot of the employment in north korea relates to militarism military but it's a change of attitude that's necessary it's why we tried to take a message there when i was there about transcending hostility moving from reaction to relationship it's the same message we're going to washington this week it is we have to change our approach to this issue and perhaps what we're beginning to see is that the north koreans are beginning to understand that depth change is

necessary in order to not only engage more with the rest of the world but to begin to move forward in their own aspirations to be a strong independent country but one that has peace and peace in the region so we hope some of that military shifting is contagious and talking about peace in the region specifically what about south korea obviously something close to your heart national campaign to end the korean war is this a step in the right direction to ease tensions between the. i think it's a step in the right direction but we also have elections this year and south korea is going to be new leadership in south korea and the last few years it's been dismal in that regard it's been a real step backwards but if washington can step on the bandwagon if russia and other countries can put some pressure to find we end the war there and we then move from having to spend billions of billions of dollars in the south in washington and

in the north this cold war standoff and i think if there is a solution there that can be a wicked winter everyone that opens people's up and allows you to work toward denuclearization deal with human rights issues and other matters it's really about . helping and working together and it's a difference in our world today just briefly are you mention russia and the u.s. what about china also influence would have to have over these recent changes just briefly and why would it benefit from these changes china really has been pushing on north korea a little bit to do some of that similar economic reforms but you know north korea isn't doesn't see itself just as a pawn of china and will actually look to other countries to play off of that and i think for china it really boosts them to have a stable korean peninsula and with the increase with the military base on g.a.c. wire and other military bases that are being built in the south to sort of be or

create a ring around china china really could benefit from shifting of the u.s. focus in the area of south korea's focus on the tourism and move closer to peace co-founder of national campaign to end the korean war thank you for joining us live there from the united states. well let's have a quick look at some other stories making headlines around the world this hour in our world update at least twelve people have been killed and fifty nine injured after a shooting at a movie premiere in the u.s. city of denver a masked gunman rolled a tear gas canister into the cinema before opening fire during a late showing of the new batman film police are confirming they have arrested a suspect who was armed with a knife a rifle and a handgun it has been identified as a twenty four year old local a motive for the crime is. it. thousands of anti-government protesters have clashed with riot police in bahrain reports say battles have gone on in several places around the country's capital with police

forces firing tear gas to disperse the crowds the protest movement demanded political reform and an end to the ruling regime has been ongoing since last february and as already seen more than fifty killed the government's been trying to suppress the opposition by banning rallies and arresting activists. we bring you some live pictures of the moment as the olympic flame is finally arrived in the host city london these are pictures of the torch within the historic stone walls of the turn of london and in a week's time the games will kick off with an elaborate opening ceremony in the british capital. so it is that moment here one of three let's go in and out through kate in the business desk for . that girl again just to round out really of the week's activities i'll start with wall street because you got stocks that declining by the most and among them that's

holding a three day rally amid the concerns that the europe's debt crisis is was and also got commodities slumping as well on the news that china will not be relaxing control of policy as some of the biggest losers in the session it with bank of america j.p. morgan two financials really losing out following declines in the european lenders ready to find out to the taking the biggest hits stay with us stocks microsoft has reported its first quarterly loss since going public in one nine hundred eighty six a loss came after the computer giant took over the online services company a quantum now microsoft paid three point six billion dollars for the company which was failed to compete with google despite the bad news the company is doing well in other areas its revenue rose four percent eighteen billion dollars in the first course up ok which are out the european stocks and see how they finished up the day there was a lot of pressure going on we had spanish going yields hitting new highs and the

ibex the spanish bulls posting the biggest loss in the region nearly six percent in negative territory meanwhile the common currency than the current we've got so well suffering really is declining week of declines one twenty one fifty seven as for the ruble to finish out the session mixed we get on to the x.'s and shall we really russia to go ahead and. it was largely because of oil prices dropped also capital outflow remains a problem now reaching a fifty two million dollars i mentioned oil what set those prices out still pulling up from a nine week high spade rating remains a focus for the oil market as well with the spanish recession expected to go into next year and expected. in germany as well says oh good on bill that's how the business looks at the end of this way because you thanks a lot to have a good weekend and see you soon here on our teeth in that with all the latest business will be about with headlines after a short break stay with us life it. is

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