poisonous allegations the u.s. defense secretary says the syrian government is likely to use chemical weapons on a small scale reportedly targeting civilians and rebel fighters. grilled by the nation president putin holding his first nationwide q. and a session since from the election saying he's always been dismayed by the west defying terrorists in russia as insurgents. unemployment peaking a record of three point two million in france and soaring above twenty seven percent in spain with protesters suffering at the hands of austerity taking to the streets in lisbon and madrid venting their anger at a trio of international lenders.

ten pm in moscow i might try as a good to have you with us here on r t our top story this hour the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel has said his intelligence service is of quote some confidence the syrian government has used chemical weapons on a small scale and said it's believed that the nerve agent sarin was used against civilians and rebel fighters let's get more details from marty's marine important live for us in new york so his comments are the first confirmation of any kind of chemical weapons being used in this conflict tell us more about that and what effect it could have. while addressing reporters in abu dhabi u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel said at the white house and has informed members of congress that intelligence officials believe with some degree of varying confidence that syrian president bashar al assad's government has used chemical weapons against members of the opposition specifically sarin gas didn't provide any specific facts on when or where the alleged weapons were used it was not even clear

what the phrase with some degree of bring home to even means does that mean that one intelligence official is confident that this has taken place and one is not confident clearly that language is either colluded or bit confusing now secretary hagel said that assad's use of chemical weapons violates every convention of warfare but what's interesting is that on tuesday israel's intelligence officials claim that syria the syrian government had used lethal lethal chemical weapons against rebels and at that time secretary hagel expressed his doubts about those findings now the u.s. is currently pressing for the united nations to conduct a comprehensive investigation into allegations of damascus use of chemical weapons but the united nations secretary general has previously appointed a team of experts but the syrian government has been accused of blocking the team from doing its work meanwhile the officials have syrian officials have accused in the country of using chemical weapons now according to the seceded press secretary

of state john kerry has recently come out and also said that the syrian government has watched launch to chemical attacks against members of the opposition those accusations have already been made by britain and france back in march now u.s. president barack obama has previously said that the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government would be a game changer in the u.s. position on intervening in the two year old civil war in a letter sent to two u.s. senators a white house legal official did write that the assessment of likely chemical weapons use in syria will not automatically trigger action including military intervention. but the official also referred to a bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in iraq that led to the invasion the us invasion of that country in that case the intelligence was proved wrong everybody can remember just a decade ago when colin powell sat in the chambers of the united nations security council shaking a vial to try to convince the international community to go along with america's invasion into iraq and clearly his claims of iraq having weapons of mass

destruction were proven wrong but nonetheless u.s. senators like john mccain are already calling for action mccain has said that if the u.s. now declines to intervene in syria it would see a wrong message to other adversaries in the region mccain another report the republicans in the us are calling for the establishment of a safe zone in syria and also urging for the provision of weapons and where necessary to be provided to rebel fighters in syria now at this point have any of washington's other allies in the west or in the region spoken out against about those. absolutely britain's foreign office says it has limited but persuasive information from various sources showing chemical weapons used in syria including those chemical including sarin gas now again persuasive evidence again with this jargon these words that is not quite clear and not one hundred percent factual no u.k.

officials are calling on syrian president bashar al assad to cooperate with international bodies to prove he had not sanctioned their use in a statement a spokesperson for britain's foreign office called the situation in syria extremely concerning and said the use of chemical weapons is a war crime back in march when the but here's what's most important i think to point out in this developing story in march when the u.s. intelligence community was previously investigating reports of chemical weapons use in syria blood sample the opposition group syria from alleged victim victims but here's the problem according to reports american analysts couldn't be entirely sure where exactly those blood samples came from or when persuasively the legit exposure took place so even in the investigations that the american intelligence community has made hasn't been one hundred percent clear but according to what some experts what is conclusive here is that the current accusations against the syrian government that is taking place now is eerily similar to the accusations that were

made against the iraq government perceiving america's invasion in two thousand and three and that is the concern right now that many experts are voicing is that all these statements being made by washington and its western counterparts can lead to military invasion when there are not enough facts yet in place so this is the recent development taking place of course coming from statements made by chuck hagel already a lot of pressure new york times for that update. during his nationwide question answer session russian president vladimir putin called for greater cooperation between russia and the us in fighting international terror he also said that he was disturbed when western nations labeled terrorists in russia's freedom fighters going for a record for four hours forty seven minutes beat out the previous longest of the q. and a sessions by a quarter of an hour or he's either of his can of has more. the recent tragedy in boston and the events which did right after that were watched by the whole world

and russia is no exception especially after it was established ads suspected terrorists war of chechen origin the president did comment on that reminding how critical the west was of moscow's anti terror efforts in the caucasus and how international media often presented terrorists as freedom fighters and the president said he hopes this will change now and actually. american city services would be able to increase their joint efforts in combat in terror but you know we're going to show the american citizens not to blame they don't understand what's happening i would like to address russian and u.s. citizens by saying that russia has been among the first example of the international terrorism your dish i would always appeal to our western partners and we're going to label terrorists who committed bloody crimes in our country insurgence and almost never terrorists these groups receive intelligence financial and political support directly and indirectly we said to declarations merely

proclaiming terrorism a common threat not a now we must get the job done but it's got to put in there confirmed that he received two letters from bodies because of one when he was still alive and he said that the former take on the actually. admitted making mistakes which harmed russia he asked for forgiveness basically and asked the president to allow them return to russia where he was up to the latest points and to add to the end basically of his life on of the most wanted list since he was found guilty. of various crimes until well the president said that despite all the commotion in the international media about visa letters he still personally decided not to publish them since he says even though they were not closely acquainted it was still a private letter with a private request this story around their legs in a wine is definitely in the head. in russia and abroad so one of the questions was asked about one of the leaders of the opposition who is now being accused of

organizing a criminal scheme to steal state property and while the president commented saying that if you are openly fighting against corruption like alexander no one needs to basically made his popularity through his online anti corruption project then you have to be absolutely clear and clean in front of the lot and if there are any allegations emerge with then it's strictly to go up to the court to decide. because i'm bored it's not up to people who find corruption have to be completely clean themselves otherwise their actions become nothing more than self promotion for time just because someone is trying to catch a thief doesn't mean they should be allowed to steal themselves that doesn't mean however that a person should be tried and locked up for any reason whatsoever just because his views may differ from those to the government i'm positive that novell nice case will be heard in a new objective manner. for the first time since two thousand and one of this

securing a session was held the would follow up question so basically it went from the ordinary question answer question answer scheme to a discussion which lasted nearly five hours and the last of the different issues were talked about including the recent law on foreign agents which basically obliges n.g.o.s with foreign sponsors to register themselves as foreign agents and be under state control and reverse a law is widely criticized by the opposition and the president saying that the law does not bear and enjoy from operating in russia it just obliges them to report to the authorities where they're getting their money from and how they want to spend it and with which purpose and he added that a similar war exists in the united states since the mid nineteenth theories and actually talking about the relations between moscow and. washington the issue of the money also came up and everything that full of doubts about moscow's reaction

basically that act itself is truly one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the relations between the two countries and the president has named it once again an imperialist pick and to russian law which only harm to relations while right now both russia and the united states really have to think more about how to develop ties rather than worsening them with president putin urging more cooperation between the u.s. and russia the threat of international terror in the wake of the boston attacks our team goes on the bombing trail with us today shooting into the marathon attack in full swing we're from the parents of the two main suspects still to come the program. but before we get to that frustration with austerity deepening among europeans with france's unemployment hitting a new record high eleven point five percent in spain the number of people out of work has jumped to an all time high of twenty seven point two percent in neighboring portugal almost one in five in the work force out of work while fresh protests have been launched against governments and international lenders are these

peter all over gauging the mood for us in lisbon so peter it looks a lot quieter than before when there was a whole crowd around you there but what's the mood on the streets and tell us more about what the people are saying. well thursday saw another day of protests across europe here in portugal thousands of people marched through the center of lisbon angry at what they see as unfair cuts that have been placed upon them by the government a first round of public services like education and health care will be introduced very shortly with one billion euros with those cuts people very unhappy about the us i was speaking to some of portugal's any peace he said this they are continuing to speak to their colleagues in brussels from the the northern countries in europe particularly journey to try and bring them around to the place of people who live. in this also thirty is stupid not because portuguese cannot live with scar since we

can but because it's not working and it won't work one third of our use is an import the other serves as very bad jobs are prepared is what i tell my mind german colleagues that it will be much better if they want to you know face on their nuclear power plants to have solar energy coming from portugal to the north so there is a way that we can work together it's not just a way that has been imposed from berlin that front forks onto the south but there is a more intelligent way there is a more work and you know finally build this dam european union once and for all. well there's also some demonstrators out angry out some of the existing european institutions the troika is pretty much a dish he would on the streets of lisbon that's of course the three main does that a bailing out and helping out the country although they say helping out the people who would very much disagree they're made up of the international monetary fund the european union and the european central bank one of the main activists against the

troika told me just what the problem is. like i mean so seventy we have been experiencing for more than. thirty measures which have effects destroyed every. prospect of social status and also well for the same people decent jobs and decent living and now we have over one hundred employees. even the deficit and deficits which were talked about to grow for the troika worse so it's a policy so it would be wrong and the people have recognized it and they want it to be out. there only some protesters still lingering on the streets where you are also a lot of protests going on in madrid we understand tell more about the big picture here. well yes just over the border in spain there's also been people showing their own good this time against unemployment those figures

were released just recently of just how bad the situation regarding joblessness is in spain right now over six million people out of work that's twenty seven point two percent of the population the highest it's being well it's the highest it's ever be it's the last time it was anywhere near that high was in one nine hundred seventy six after the death of francisco franco in the fullest we're talking about major life changing major state changing occasions the last time that unemployment was at levels like that in spain put in a little bit more perspective of just how brutal. the unemployment level rises being in the last five years it's risen twenty percent so employment seriously a huge issue there for the spanish people they've been on the streets of madrid showing their displeasure at the situation but joblessness also an issue in france they released this that to sticks all day a record high of three point two point two million i beg your pardon all of the

population of friends outside work so the between the the austerity measures i'm joblessness it's drawing the people of europe out onto the streets to show just how unhappy they are right artie's peter all of our live for us in lisbon thanks very much for that update euro skepticism soaring across the e.u. fueled by banking crises controversial bell outs and harsh austerity latest surveys showing trust in the block has dropped historical lows let's take a look at some of the figures collected by e.u. polarization euro barometer and debt stricken spain the number of nationals who say they don't trust the european union it's risen from twenty three percent back in two thousand and seven to seventy two percent last year in the u.k. previously half the populace had no confidence in the e.u. well it's almost seventy percent now in germany europe's powerhouses biggest economy thirty six percent so they lost their trust in europe back in zero seven in two thousand and twelve almost sixty percent and in italy it was twenty seven percent euro skeptic five years later it's more than half for more on the financial

troubles and growing distrust in the e.u. let's talk with carlos del close to a sociologist from pompei fabric university in barcelona thank you for joining us now so what do you think is fueling all of this discontent with the e.u. right now. sterritt i think i think austerity is is the main cause of euro skepticism and basically all of the sort of problems with the political construction of the european union as we know it what austerity reveals i mean earlier in one of the reports i heard it say that the protests in spain today are about unemployment well they're not really about unemployment they're about the lack of decision making power that the spanish congress has. with these austerity measures be basically because the troika can impose its measures on these governments without the the national or the state governments actually

listening to their citizenry rather focusing more on the demands put on them by the i.m.f. the european central bank and the european union so i think that of those recipes become harder that fuels plenty of discontent is there any chance that the leaders in madrid now will hear the voice of the people and make some changes or do you think the voices of the troika resonate louder. well at this point the spanish government in particular doesn't have a lot of support i mean most of the most of the surveys that are coming out show them having kind of a steady nineteen to twenty one percent of the electorates sort of the population support so they've been governing in the minority for quite a long time the question is it's also not actually politically viable for them to listen to the troika either because they're going to be you know sacrificing. a lot of their own sort of the goodwill that they you know they have in that tiny

fraction of the population that actually still supports them so. it's clear that they govern i don't even know if it's for the markets and the troika it's certainly not for the spanish folks what it seems like is that they're in a situation of where they're simply trying to you know put the money in their friends pockets while they're there there doesn't seem any quick fix so to speak for spain's economy do so with a bailout the terms are very harsh but do you think that it's a fair price to pay for getting the country back fiscally in a good position. i think that's kind of it's kind of a trick question really because if it's a is it a fair sacrifice to make for the fiscal position to improve well who benefits if the fiscal situation improves you know that the unemployment numbers yeah they're the highest right now but what they also say is that there's two million households in the country. and a country of forty seven million people that have all of the members of that household and members spain is a country with

a lot of intergenerational households that means several generations living the same house and have no work they're all unemployed and it's just that's going on but in two thousand and twelve spain's population shrunk for the first time in seventeen years right so this is a country that is losing people mainly of working age and somehow the unemployment rate still increases even over a denominator a lower base of working population that's when dealing so is that good for the country to follow the the austerity measures and this is structural adjustment policy that used to call them before. is it good for them financially to do it it's hard to say because if you look at indicators like g.d.p. and all of these things it's all quite abstract but for households it's clearly not benefiting benefiting anybody there's more than one hundred people being kicked out of their homes every day in spain for the last year now it's hard to hard to argue that that is positive for anybody and that's a benefit anybody is this is very new kind of statistical superstition as been

disproved recently through the kind of the shoddy data keeping a certain academics as you quite frankly why would firing tons of workers create more jobs but what how does that make any sense all right unfortunately we have to leave it there carlos del close from paul piff ever university in barcelona thanks very much for your insight. thank you. u.s. officials now turning to some of our other day's top stories emitting that an almost daily basis the guantanamo bay hunger strike on the rise lawyers for the prisoners claim the real figure is though once higher saying that the majority of one hundred sixty six detainees are refusing food now official numbers ordered to grow after prison guards tried to break up the protest get more official saying ninety four detainees are now starving themselves seventeen being force fed three in the hospital there have been several recent suicide attempts of the military's muslim advisor there says he's worried that the protests may lead to deaths many are held at the prison without charge the majority thinking they'll never walk free

or he's got a. military has been updating the numbers since the middle of march saying that beginning that there were fourteen people on strike the detainees defense lawyers have been saying all along there were many more around one hundred thirty they would say earlier this month the president tried to put an end to the strike by putting the inmates in solitary confinement authorities said they raided the communal living area enforced the detainees into individual cells to prevent them from covering cameras did help the number has doubled since then according to the officials again that was that we've been getting from defense lawyers were different all along out of one hundred sixty six one tunnel prisoners eighty six have been cleared for release so the sole reason they're still held captive is their nationality i had the chance to ask the acting assistant secretary on human rights about this collective punishment based on nationality here's what she said the president has made clear his commitment to closing guantanamo but this has to

be done in accordance with u.s. law and you come to congress and have to refer you back to your statements from the white house and the spokesman on that it's not just about those who have been cleared for release but many other inmates have never been formally accused of anything defense lawyers say it's been a dead end for them trying to get their clients out whenever asked about these issues the administration gives the same response they were first to. congress but the lawyers say even with the transfer restrictions in place the current law still allows for the administration to use waivers to release some of these men but they for some reason don't use those it's really not clear what can change the status quo at this point an adviser for the pentagon who visited guantanamo last week came back and said that he predicted the ongoing strike would lead to death so a long time muslim advisor ed guantanamo who goes by the name zack who goes only by playing for security reasons he said quote there will be more than one death and

then he added that he wanted to die out of hunger and thirst behind covered camors end of quote and the question many now ask is what if someone really dies in this hunger strike will it change things in washington i'm going to check out. the rising violence in iraq the country's suffering what it's it's us troops ethnic clashes and bombings leaving more than one hundred dead more on this after a short break. technology innovations all the developments around russia. the future.

international in the very heart of moscow. twenty seven minutes past the hour now the mother of the two boston marathon bombing suspects claims she's seen video proving her son tamra landing older son was still alive after we are said the elder brother was run over by his younger

sibling after he was making his getaway artie's tom barton has more. in the press conference the mother and father said that they spoke about what their next plans would be and how their feelings were at this moment of the mothers a bed that said that she was probably going to give up her u.s. citizenship she was very emotional in this short press conference she restated that she thought her sons were innocent that they've been framed because you know what would you. like to. hear. why. why. why. the other source says now that he wants to fly to the u.s. perhaps today perhaps tomorrow to pick up the body of his son tom also tom ones with and his grandson tomlin's son fly with them back. to help look after them the

mother also adds that she is not quite sure whether she's going to go to the u.s. as well there is a shoplifting charge there she says she doesn't think that she did it but she still moves she may face arrest if she goes said he was very late on co-opted by his brother into this plot converted into this more extremist or planned to plummet punters bombs the boston marathon tunnel and himself has also been put from anonymous sources say on a cia database of people to management which is added also to previous investigations by the f.b.i. so raises further questions as to why these two were not picked up. on foresman officials meanwhile saying the boston bombing suspect told them both he and his brother planned to date made more explosives in times square in new york city police say a pair of a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs to carry out the attack investigation there are still in its early stages but that hasn't stopped some in the global

media though from jumping to conclusions in their portrayal of the suspects or he's honest answer churkin has more on that. a terror act that shocked the u.s. the suspects a nineteen and a twenty six year old that's our naive brothers joe hart was a u.s. citizen to milan on his way to becoming one but both of chechen origin the older brother to milan is said to have traveled to dagestan in russia for several months . the elder brother douglas on the show did not make these things again and. nutrition despite the media rage these locations remain unknown to some people are confusing it with chalk with a vacuum and yeah whatever it's called i know i did i can't assume that the majority of americans today even speak english young at the time of the bombings that star nine have spent the last decade living in the us in the country.

and while the origin and yet again religion are already largely blamed as the root of all evil the investigation is only in its first stages so the family may then be clamoring to sell was there and there are those who knew the two brothers see the media is taking it over the top they can't always be trying to rush to be the first ones to break a new piece of information local blogger luis vasquez knew both brothers while he was here since he was little and if you didn't know a hard name you would just assume that he was an american around here we have a very diverse community and it's normal to here for someone to go back to their country he says over sensationalizing that's our knives background doesn't get any answers to the question by being answered temple and even from coaching with his brother they want their religion the most a. conversation i've had about about their background is them telling me where they're from that's it that's it and then after that all the talk about boxing

let's talk about lunch that said samuel went to high school with joe hart who has now been charged with the use of weapons of mass destruction the media. has a way of spinning things of course and with regards to his nationality to me doesn't matter. it shouldn't matter what his religion is either when i graduated there were forty five languages spoken just in my graduating class alone it is not unusual in fact it is very common to hear a foreign language he reminds us that the only suspect alive after the bombings has lived in america since the age of eight and come here at a younger age you know from everyone that knows him they will tell you and they have told me and then occasions you know this person was part of the community the attack field even some stating he will because he knew the brother is responsible but point fingers as at places of birth or religion is from crucial what is solving this case and injustice that takes time time and effort that would hopefully lead to innocent people feeling safe again security in this country seems like it's more

for show than for anything a lot of times unfortunately. that needs to change while the media pick apart every single detail they can lay their hands and ears on it seems that what shatter after the tragedy is tackling terrorism and global threats that has no upbringing or religion but has become the curse of the twenty first century not just here but all over the world and r.t.e. boston massachusetts getting into israel about to become harder as a new controversial security check has this state stamp of approval at israel's ben-gurion mail inbox according to a recent decision by the attorney general there i doubt more on our website r t dot com. and according to the head of the user id there are service five hundred young europeans have already been left the comforts of home for syria fighting on the front line alongside the country's rebels the full story on our website. turning now to some other stories making global headlines israel's shot down a lebanese drone eight kilometers from its northern coastal city of haifa young men

aircraft did and destroyed by an f. sixteen fighter jet that brought it crashing into the mediterranean. approximately one pm thursday prime minister netanyahu has called the incident extremely grave and declared the country would continue to do what's necessary to defend the spirity of its citizens it's the second drove lebanese intrusion into air israeli airspace in the last seven months. the human toll continues to rise as rescue a search through an eight story building that collapsed wednesday in bangladesh according to officials two hundred four people died so another two thousand and fourteen have been successfully pulled from the debris this leaves another three hundred unaccounted for the building housed in a mall and housed a mall and several factories most of the workers said to be female. thousands demonstrated in front of argentina's congress when a is president cristina fernandez continues to court controversy her new law proposal which aims to reform the country's judiciary being to be hotly debated by the senate and the

parliament and those champions the law as a more efficient judicial system critics say it might bring democracy to its knees there and limit freedom of speech. more of nor news today coming up after the latest business news with natasha. so in to president putin had a lot to say about russia's economy apparently defending the recent economic policies there but numbers point a to point to a different picture economic growth in russia slowing dramatically tell us more about it well absolutely and that's exactly the point that was the finance minister raised during that q. and a session what the real question is you know we buy that you know process the leads to prosperity here in russia perhaps not find out in the business world very good.

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada.

it's thirty six minutes past ten pm here in moscow welcome to the business program with me that the scam while europe a struggling to jumpstart its economy russia's financial stability becomes one of the main topics of discussion for president vladimir putin on thursday during his nationwide q. and a session putin had to answer several questions out this week on including why they have invited former finance minister. back to the government gudrun who keep in mind was the longest serving finance minister of any g. twenty country for many is still the potential save the earth of whatever is left of the economic growth given his stellar track record during the two thousand and eight financial crisis for his part who didn't harshly criticize the current state of the economy he said the system of half measures and half reforms is really not

working and that russia to this day has no clear plan for lowering into the patents on oil and gas now business our teaser. is here to bring us some more highlights from putin's q. and a session it does basically seem like you know the russian economy is running out of steam the numbers definitely speak louder than words but the sending still extremely high does that seem like perhaps the current economic policy is a bit out of touch is right to criticize. you know who the economic policy has always been about austerity has all with for cutting spending and saving saving and saving for the future or his approach actually worked very well during the times of the economic crisis of two thousand and eight when gudrid and his finance ministry when they filtered all oil and gas revenues into a special fund a so-called safe to question right but what what ends up be done now because it's not always the case just recently the president of the european commission by. also

he admitted that austerity is not working anymore and called on the european union to actually focus more on stimulating growth rather than cutting governmental spending and that's what the russian government and putin are already doing they are raising salaries they are raising they are increasing spending on education and military and so on so you basically tell me that we're actually have europe right just last week europe realized that this austerity thing is not working we've known this all along we go there earlier but under different circumstances the thing is that russia is way behind europe in terms of the average salary and those of leaving and putin understands that so what he is saying is that in the contre such as russia where medical workers can get as little as one hundred dollars a month in such countries you have to raise salaries despite g.d.p.

growth and labor production figures. really look at that there are people who work in the government state duma deputy origami depends on them if they don't trust their own economic system or one of the women under this remark you don't need to work harder on improving our own financial system security. so what you're basically telling me is that in this particular case these social aspects play a much more important role than just pure economics now in russia yes right and as we're seeing from a lot of these really populist policies including you know the much discussed you know fight against corruption it's extremely unpopular with average of what the average folk here in russia they say that about you know sort of his fine both law of the state officials cannot have bank accounts abroad and on the on the one hand he says that he absolutely agrees that russians can have any better counsel in the

contras or whatever they want especially because russians lost their savings in local banks at all times in the russian history but on the other hand there is a special group of people such as ministers deputies and they serve the state and putin says that they break their home in russia you're going to do there are people who work in the government. or economy depends on them if they don't trust their own a comic system it's not only doing bring your money back you work harder on improving our own financial system. well actually in this particular case i would have to agree with the president and it really underscores how little trust the average russians have in not only in the public servants but actually in anyone with any power or any wealth. the recent polls show thank you very much that's out of our business our team. but as one person with money and

a lot of money tells business our t. . actually. offshore bank accounts are not going to be a problem if you play by the rules and if you pay your dues in an exclusive interview with r.t. extra vex or book russia's fifth richest man according to forbes says authors businesses have nothing to fear a single it's not so big big problem for people who are already become too transparent share to wide to be a sliver of the year great components and their limits as it crosses not not difficult to prove the radio to report they were sick to a new war yet. when not to really a concert in a bar band changed galatians yeah it's not then your shit is impeccable follow distress. and it's time now to check out the markets let's start with wall street

where stocks are trading firmly in the block things to pretty be the earnings of companies like u.b.s. but also just a general optimistic picture of the company reported so far in the starting season managed to meet or beat analysts expectations now as for the european currencies they had a pretty good day as well overall in fact that's a bit of an understatement they were actually seeing their longest winning streak so far this year bostons in a row the main driving force on thursday was the latest data on the u.k. economy now it shows that the united kingdom narrowly avoided slipping into recession its economy grew zero point three percent of the first quarter that's above analysts expectations that means the u.k. managed to steer clear of the triple dip recession that was hanging over it ever since as g.d.p. contracted in the last quarter of twenty twelve now as for the european currency it

weakened against both major airports including of course that all are here in moscow the russian ruble strengthened to both the dollar and the euro now emerging markets the stocks there rose to achieve a week high on thursday but here in russia equities actually moved sideways as you can see and present putin's comments about some apparent weakness in the economy and the state monopolies tariff policies had everything to do with it and that's all the latest from us and business will bring you more news after a very short break keep it here are not. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big

picture. wealthy british style. sometimes.

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thanks for staying with us forty seven minutes past the hour iraqi police say forty one people have been killed in clashes between government and security forces in the northern city of mosul earlier authorities said government had taken over a sunni town north of baghdad rising violence in iraq spring fears of more bloodshed and wider sectarian conflict some local saying the country could be on the same road as war torn neighboring syria clashes between shiite dominated government and sunni gunmen along with separate terror attacks have left more than one hundred dead in the past several days alone were spate of violence in the country since u.s. forces left in two thousand and eleven this coming amid deepening political turmoil with the government struggling to get key power brokers to work together more on this i'm joined by dan glazebrook for editor of antiwar dot com. so violence is only escalating in iraq so far there's fears it could follow syria path will take. i should just by now are not editor of antiwar dot com. the path is

likely to take i think what we need to understand what we're seeing here in iraq is that we're seeing the fruits of this policy that was adopted about six years ago by the u.s. and saudi arabia in particular documented by seymour hersh with the redirection whereby basically sunni militias were to be equipped financed and armed by saudi arabia and qatar on behalf of of the u.s. in order to wage basically sectarian war against shia muslims with the aim being that this would weaken rein in influence in the region we can syria we can hizbullah and we basically just seeing the fruits of this policy this can be about six years ago if you think back to two thousand and seven u.s. and britain were facing heavy blows from iraqi resistance often from silly sunni militias israel had been ever saying global hizbollah the end of two thousand and six and with this failure to defeat his bowler in in levanon and so basically this policy about it had to be direct and these these attacks away from attacking

zionism and u.s. and british imperialism and towards a kind of fratricidal sectarian war we're seeing the fruits of this policy now it was reported just last month in the guardian that one of these. sunni militias had a meeting recently in jordan where they met with the saudi arabian qatari representatives specifically to seek weapons and funds for launching sectarian attacks in iraq and there were given this and we know that these two powers say that saudi arabia and qatar and the forefront of representing imperial u.s. and british interest in the region so nothing gets done up the say so of these other powers and we're witnessing the fruits of this policy today. dan the ladybird from the guardian got that one right sorry about that earlier do you think what's happening right now in iraq is sectarian tension or part of wider doesn't it. well there is discontent for sure in iraq certainly i mean you've got a situation where unemployment i believe is about a third the population now in iraq so all of these things feed into it but it's as

i say it's been deliberately channeled in a sectarian direction by outside interests and if you look at the way that the occupying powers of behaved ever since two thousand and three since the start of the iraqi occupation they've done everything it seems possible to try and foment sectarian the constitution they introduced was completely based on confession identity not on national citizenship. as i said overseen an economy that's led to devastating unemployment lack of services and so on you've also had but that sounds counter-intuitive that they would support that i mean wouldn't the. powers have a vested interest in seeing stability in iraq. i don't think so if you look at dallas iraq over going back over decades they've always been very frightened that iraq could become an independent regional power that would have could of course an inch israeli and saudi come to germany of the region and in other words challenge us where it would only in the region and so they always sought to prevent iran from

from from becoming this kind of power by a number of ways if you look to in the one nine hundred eighty s. from eighty to eighty eight they sponsor both sides the u.s. sponsored both sides in the iran iraq war then when that ended there was a chance of peace stability then they attacked in one nine hundred ninety one devastating invasion of iraq in one thousand one followed by twelve years of crippling sanctions that killed about one half million iraqis prevented the country from rebuild the u.s. infrastructure and then just the sanctions were about to be lifted the u.n. was was due to be giving a clean bill of health to iraq disarmament which would have lifted the sanctions then they went to this all out attack in two thousand and three and ever since they've been fermenting sectarian war and the british role of british is significant here as well british obviously divide and rule was the kind of really not a british empire but more recently written a particular form in this area in northern ireland there working hand in glove with a sectarian death squads of the u.d.a. and so on in northern ireland and it's very important because the particular part of s.a.'s the forces research unit under commander gordon kerr actually that that

was the part of the s.s. that was directing the largest death squads in northern ireland it was renamed special reckon a sense regiment and was then moved to iraq under the same commander gordon kerr where two of the members of this regiment popped up in bars or in two thousand and five dressed as arabs have been killed and iraqi police officer with a bomb with a car full of bomb making equipment so that led of course the last relation well what the hell are the british sas doing dressed as arabs of bomb making equipment nic i led to speculation that the british were actually behind some of the bombings of marx's and the sectarian tension in iraq unfortunately after we have to leave it . we're out of time doing good work from the guardian thanks for your insight and let's get more reaction from. the now you have just returned from iraq you have personal first hand insight into what's going on on the ground there tell us your impressions about iraq today seems to be really divided and that's really at the

root of the problems and in order to really understand what's going on there i think it might be useful to bring in the element of the map so let's walk over to our screen here and pull up the map if we have it stand right here basically if we can pull up the map at some point here iraq is a country that is divided into three major areas you have for example over here this is the largely sunni provinces over here is the some autonomy is kurdish region below which are certain disputed areas and this is the largely shia area of iraq now the incidents the latest wave of violence really began cure kook this is close to the town of who we are we're going to be camped out several months now on tuesday things came to a bloody boiling point when government forces had raided the area the government says that the protesters had opened fire the demonstrators meanwhile say that these security officials are the ones who opened fire first the result of which was at least fifty people killed and hundreds wounded now why the posters were in here in

all these areas the sunni areas and sit back down now they've basically been protesting against the government based say that the policies of prime minister nuri al maliki this is the shiite led government has resulted in their oppression this is what they say and news of the attacks there and how we have spread very quickly that's what's behind this latest spate of violence we saw attacks and mozilo in other areas north of baghdad in the anbar province and people feel that this was perhaps retribution that all that broke the camel's back with essentially largely peaceful demonstrations turning into now violent escalations and expressions of outrage frankly and so when you're. where do things go from here do you think this leads to worse violence or do you think this is kind of like a momentary building over and then things go back to a similar it's hard to say because in order for things to essentially deescalate there has to be changes in policy if this is what these demonstrators say i mean we were in fallujah talking to the protesters they feel that the way the very

structure of the government this is a sectarian government this is part of the constitution that has been written in large part with the help of the u.s. that divides iraq i mean it divides iraq constitutionally and these protesters say that unless there's a change in policies they're not going to stop coming out they're not going to go back to their homes and stop these demonstrations and the impetus for this violence right now has been the there's a clash that took place and i don't really see a situation where the protesters will just say ok we're going to go home now they want massive change and that's not really happening and whether to some kind of terrorism. or more news coming your way in a few minutes stay with us on our team. liz

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poisonous allegations the u.s. defense secretary says the syrian government is likely to review chemical weapons on a small scale reportedly targeting civilians and rebel fighters. grilled by the nation russian president vladimir putin's held his first countrywide q. and a session since reelection saying he's always been dismayed by the west fighting terrorists in russia as insurgents. protesters rallied in madrid venting anger at the government and the troika of international lenders after spain's unemployment soars above twenty seven percent while in portugal thousands of demonstrated against austerity as well.