internationally in the very heart of moscow. poison is politics the u.s. has intervention in syria is a possible option suspecting assad's government used chemical weapons struggling to find firm evidence. icelanders heading to the polls in a second general election since the financial crash of two thousand and eight when the country allowed its banks fail but it later made a stunning turnaround to growth we take a look at the success story. americans tuning out a new study showing cable news audiences dropping as analysts say viewers are getting burned out from too many views and not enough news.

eight pm in moscow i matter as a good to have you with us here on r t our top story while the u.s. is yet to decide on whether or not the red line has been crossed in syria president obama's reiterated the use of chemical weapons would be a game changer washington claims there's a growing body of evidence the arsenal was deployed by assad forces with some u.s. lawmakers now pushing for direct action in the country. has more u.s. president barack obama was delivering some fierce words in the aftermath of tables comments he indicated that washington will conduct its own independent investigation into syria's alleged use of chemical weapons and a separate probe will be conducted in conjunction with the united nations america's leaders said the world can't stand by and permit the use of chemical weapons obama has previously stated that the use of chemical weapons by damascus would be a game changer in the u.s. position on military intervention in syria civil war now according to white house press secretary jay carney has confirmed that military. force is one of many

options that president obama is currently considering carney said as a general principle retains the ability to act unilaterally now these revelations of course come just one day after u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel claimed that the u.s. intel that u.s. intelligence officials believe with some degree of varying confidence that the syrian government has used chemical weapons against members of the opposition specifically sarin gas u.s. officials claim the attacks in question took place last month in new york and in the outskirts of damascus however a letter that the white house has sent to members of congress states that washington cannot confirm the origin of the chemical weapons allegedly used acting in lockstep with the u.s. british prime minister david cameron has come forward insisting that his government has limited but growing evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the syrian military according to reports operating in syria smuggled out of the country to be

analyzed for chemical and biological contaminants however u.k. military scientists reportedly said the soil contain treece is of some kind of chemical weapon though it could not positively identify the type of weapon is now in an interview with the b.b.c. cameron said he worries that western leaders failed to act in syria because of the experience of foreign intervention into iraq now we all know that but in fact france have been voicing unconditional support for syrian rebels reportedly providing the opposition with military and financial aid in the meantime the syrian government is now is blaming the opposition for the march attack near aleppo which killed several people were going to organizations including al qaida have repeatedly threatened to use chemical arms while fighting with the opposition so here you have a scenario where in syria the opposition groups and the government are pointing fingers at one another and you have the u.s. said mr an ally. presenting this harsh rhetoric of the use of chemical weapons by

the syrian government but they don't have all the full facts in place u.s. statements on the use of chemical weapons by assad forces began with various levels of confidence and reached the point of president obama saying the world can't allow their systematic use in the country washington still verifying the claims of such attacks the samples used to make these assessments were said to have been collected near aleppo after the march incident the opposition and syrian government make that claim and counterclaim over this attack also reports of two cases of chemical weapons being used in darius damascus suburbs now this as the commanders of the free syrian army recently said that they have opposition fighters among government troops tax would tasked with securing syria's chemical arsenal u.s. historian general horn those is all this leaves plenty of room for provocation it's deja vu all over again we will remember u.s. and british invasion of iraq in two thousand and three based on allegations of

weapons of mass destruction that proved to be faulty therefore we must ask some very difficult and searching questions for example what was the chain of custody with regard to the samples taken from the battlefield of syria to leverage stories of london and in washington was the was there the possibility of contamination or play your hanky panky with schools and how can you show that the regime rather than the rebels actually used these alleged chemical weapons and since we already know the syrian divisions with little curious driving the conflict in both syria and iraq how do we know that some renegade soldier in the syrian military was actually collaborating with the rebels want these chemical weapons so asked by a rationale for pilkington these difficult questions that must be answered. online we're asking what you think is behind the allegations of series use of chemical weapons you can click on r t dot com and cast your vote it's take

a look at how the figures are stacking up this hour so far sixty six percent say it's nothing but an attempt by countries to start an invasion on the pretext of chemical weapon use twenty percent say it's the rebels attempt to push for intervention rest of the votes divided between those who think it won't change anything in the course of war and those who say a red line has been drawn by the president and already crossed by syria's government what do you think click on our dot com and have your say. today violence is once again. these are the images. from the streets of canada. for asians to rule the day. i soloed an x. parliament t.v. island economy from the very that it's been steadily following since the

spectacular meltdown in two thousand and eight and it allowed its enormously indebted banks to fail saving home depositors from the burden of a bailout ever since iceland's been making an impressive comeback that sky has more . iceland has seen it all its banks crashed its government resigned its currency devaluated and its businesses all orders have co-ops and that of all came up to grounding planes all over europe making the island nation the headliner for weeks on end but that was years ago while today thanks to tiny precise policies of the help from the international monetary fund it boasts some of the healthiest growth rates in europe one point six percent and it's no small triumph considering that back in two thousand and eight six debt was eight times the annual g.d.p. so the people took it into their own hands and negotiated major debt write offs of times it does seem like it's the only country in europe that's got it right take

a look at this war to go greece and spain continue to spiral in their cheating financial mess their current deficit to g.d.p. ratio is just under three percent they have no money and plenty of debt but the borel war to serve their bond obligations back in two thousand and eight iceland's deficit to g.d.p. ratio was twice that of the pigs yes iceland allowed its banks to collapse under their own debt wait technically bankrupt the island nation managed to get an impressive job of turning its economy around its banking sector return to profitability its businesses restructure their debt and growing and many of their people were able to keep their homes and five years after the most devastating financial meltdown in the history it boasts the lowest jobless rate in europe less than five percent now the euro zone's strongest economy germany has five point four

percent so if some think it's iceland that was humiliated the world over they should definitely think again but polls show many an hour you sort out turning away from the ruling coalition that libya. anime to steady growth voters lured away by the opposition and its euro skepticism now during the two thousand and eight banking crisis when i was economy was on the brink of a breakdown the e.u. seemed a safe haven parliament voted in favor of joining the e.u. and the island nation applied for membership since then the eurozone has been bogged down in a great deal of trouble and now more icelanders feel they'd be better off without the bloc especially since they have already enjoyed free trade agreements and are part of the schengen travel area dr steven mccabe from birmingham city university things iceland's independent could only help it recover iceland is the fact that it's in relative terms on the edge of the world i mean it's in the sort of the it's an isolated nation. and indeed is an island and so it's effectively as we say in

this country it's stuck it's fingers up at the rest of the world and so we're not giving your your money back home what can you do short of invading iceland which was never on the agenda. it has been up to sort of to look to its own sort of look after itself if you like. other european economies such as you i mean i heard you mention ireland portugal they're much more into linked into europe iceland is not and so what it's been able to do is to sort of concentrate on reinventing the sort of things it's good at which is the digital this industry that was about joining the e.u. but i think that that's the question that they they realize that this was their best strachan for recovery is to remain isolated or to sort of to be independent as it were europe does not offer salvation. new twists coming up in the ukrainian thriller and soon come to light as the country's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has just had her baby for a pardon rejected and moreover she could now be charged with murder

a story coming up after a short break stay with us here on r.t. . i'm a the second to be a big money in stevia pizza which is both a cultural contemporary i don't take your logic to the auditorium so joining me to my must say honored c m a the second as we bring you the glitz the glamour and some of the best in the performing arts trying to add marines to.

the international airport in the very heart of moscow. and with us thirty minutes past the hour it's the ukrainian political thriller that's far from reaching the final chapter as a jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko is pardon request has been turned down and on top of the seven year sentence she's already serving for abuse of power she may now be prosecuted for murder her defense team brand of the charges nonsense like sarah shoves the reports. from being allegedly beaten up by prison

guards to seeing her supporters stormed the hospital where she's undergoing treatment ukraine's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has been in a lot of trouble lately she has now served eighteen months of a seven year prison term for abuse of power you signed gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine but this could get a lot worse because of her allegedly to an assassination almost two decades ago in one thousand nine hundred seventy and member of parliament you gave a shit about it was shot dead in eastern ukraine back then a confession by one of his killers shocked the country. the man who painted for the job mentioned that sharon's king ordered by a man nickname it was obvious to us that under pasha he meant by the laws the rank of ukraine's prime minister. was that him could never face charges for those allegations he spent twelve years behind bars in the united states for tax evasion and fraud and is now seeking political asylum across the atlantic but in

a typical ukrainian rollercoaster style twist he's name has recently surfaced again together with tymoshenko. we have proof that lives are in co-pays the first five hundred thousand dollars to the gang which. then another two point three million dollars were transferred to the assassins by yulia timoshenko. tymoshenko is currently on a second trial for alleged acts evasion and money laundering in the one nine hundred ninety s. when she led the united energy systems of ukraine company that could seriously increase her prison term but if any connection to sharon's murder is proved she would remain behind bars for life her lawyers were quick to buy the accusations as nonsense. the testimonies of the so-called witnesses had nothing concrete they all refer to what they were told by other people who died or were killed ten to fifteen years ago this is all i've seen that they have against this case was made up by the

ruling elite when they understood that the gas case against him is falling apart but political analysts say that in the case of ukraine's politicians you just can't rule anything out as most of them do have skeletons in their clothes that. almost every politician in ukraine can go on trial some didn't pay tax some were involved in cop schemes but as long as they obey the rules of the political game they're not prosecuted by calling the president and the government illegitimate after the change of power went beyond the boundaries of a democratic political game and hence the rules of the game were changed that was. this third case against who is no in a preliminary stage it is still unclear what kind of evidence investigators have against her but they seem confident the reason to press charges before summer the killer which is the case has been rocking ukraine for almost two years now and all

this time supporters of the former prime minister have been think you think he a potential street all that we think developments in this saga are can you suggesting they will not be leaving anytime soon. let's say reporting from kiev in ukraine taking a look now at some other stories making global headlines this hour italy's finally named its government after two months of political turmoil following inconclusive election results the coalition cabinet will be formed and led by the center left politician enrico letta is composition also include members of berlusconi's party italy's ex pm has confirmed that he won't be in the mix but is pushing for senior party members to get top hopes. police station bombed in libya's city benghazi saturday morning the attack to strike half the building but so far no reported victims the country continues to be plagued by violence despite the ousting of former leader qaddafi and the un's military intervention on tuesday a car bomb devastated france's embassy in the capital. the taliban

announced that the opening of its quote spring offensive on the country's u.s. backed government led by hamid karzai it's about a crusade of nationwide attacks targeting international air bases and diplomatic buildings with the aim of inflicting as many human casualties as possible this is foreign troops near their withdrawals from the country after battling the taliban for twelve years nevertheless the group's violence still. still flourishes claiming lives weakly inside afghanistan and neighboring pakistan. he was familiar says three more detainees are joining the hunger strike in the u.s. guantanamo bay detention center bringing the total number of protesting inmates to one hundred out of one hundred sixty six held there the strike started eighty one days ago over a growing abuse allegations and indefinite detention without charge also coincides with the obama administration's recent decision to keep the facility open despite election campaign pledges to close the controversial site. t.v.

networks in the us seeing a slump with a new research poll saying audiences are tuning out in greater numbers the pew study shows viewers are starting to shy away from news networks that devote more airtime to opinion and partisan analysis than to hard facts and on the ground reporting or. takes a look. it shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that all media or opinionated to a certain extent we all are a study by the pew research center gauges the extent to which the three major us channels are printed on amazon b c opinion fills a full eighty five percent of the channel's airtime according to this study fox forty five percent c.n.n. about the same the study says since two thousand and seven they have all cut back sharply on the amount of actual reporting on their airwaves what filled the void was relatively cheap provocative debate the studies suggest that by becoming more and more opinionated the channels have been losing their viewers this annual state of the media report says nearly one third of consumers that they surveyed said they

have abandoned a news outlet because it no longer gave them what they had counted on either with fewer or less complete stories professor christmas is here to talk about this thank you so much for joining me q what is your personal appeal and why is the viewership down do you agree with that but probably i agree i agree totally i mean you have people who are not getting full news never get in and sensationalism of the news packages that they are getting in the hard news that they're getting the time is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. a lot of media outlets including the large ones like c.n.n. cutting back to doing all of reporters' research resisters closing foreign bureaus around the world so the supply of hard news is shrinking it's being replaced with opinion and not just any opinion but opinion about a lot of nonsense and i don't want to ask you about the percentage of actual reporting that they do for weeks for several weeks in a row c.n.n. and other news channels have been covering this story you know with jodi areas the

call who killed her boyfriend every day and day out live coverage every day then there was this rape case of two young men and raped a sixteen year old awful thing right again. the ups live coverage day in and day out why did they pick these stories to follow up on well with the arias case it's obvious because you have a beautiful young woman a dead boyfriend who had kind of a shady past i mean it's taylor it's almost a hollywood movie script the other one is the steubenville rape that touches a nerve around the country of two teenage boys and a young girl raped and so this this this sets off a lot of emotional forces but to to to cover this day in day out without giving any depth to it i mean it does both stories an injustice and it masquerades as hard news because it really isn't hard news when you're rehashing and turning a lot of

a lot of things a lot of opinions basically but that that was a lot of depth in that story i was actually more worried about what was left out but first amber what i was wondering about why would they pick for example that one ton of the hunger strike to follow up on it was it because they the story didn't have the words sex and rape and add to. of it i mean it it does it doesn't have the word sex in it or something. or a hawk that a whole can people emotionally and it's a very difficult issue politically legally and culturally for the american people to him will want to animals always been that kind of an issue so that if there is also it has two strikes against it already i mean and the third strike is that there's no breaking news none of the none of the people at the hunger strikes have died or maybe rioted and taken some guards hostage so the breaking news is strike three so it's out i mean there's no coverage of it in the mainstream media outlets so it's just not anything they want to touch unfortunately thank you thank you

thank you very much well it's difficult to conclude what comes first here financial considerations editors personal preferences or in the sense among executives of what viewers want but if you believe this study and their statistics whatever they're doing has to change because they're losing viewers in washington i'm going to check out. abby martin and comedian lee camp have their own examples of how the us media covers stories in search of better ratings that's coming up at sixteen or eighteen thirty rather g.m.t. and any time on our web site r t v dot com. russian officials have recently black recently blacklisted by the u.s. have spoken publicly for the first time since the ban went into force the average of the allegations against them washington accuses those on the list of being linked to the death of lawyer sergei magnitsky and he's custody more than three years ago r.d.s. medina cochin of a has more. they say that the publication of this list was a politically motivated decision and that the u.s. side was not objective and making its decisions as it couldn't be possibly aware of

all those documents that surround this case as the documents are still in court and never became public and that the magnitsky law was to drop to the beast on political motives and that the law has no legal force and no legal consequences and the country and only represents an additional political pressure on russia now the u.s. magnitsky list was published on the twelfth of april and includes eighteen russian officials who are banned from the united states and their asses now according to the version of the events sixteen of these officials are directly responsible for the death of. the game of new ski worked as an auditor and an accountant at hermitage capital management and was the main suspect in a major tax evasion case and he died in a pretrial detention facility back in two thousand and nine the russian officials opened a legal case over his death however in more in two thousand and thirteen russia's

investigative committee dropped to the investigation into the data. as it had determined that no crime had taken place before the. u.s. magnitsky list was published russia warned that the response would be similar and ready in accordance with the rules of parity and indeed in less than twenty four hours russia responded with the same list with the same number off officials also eighteen american officials there are banned from entering the russian federation however the russian list consists of two parts now the first one includes those people who are involved in human rights violations and legalising torture at guantanamo detention facility and the second part of this list involves those people who are responsible for numerous human rights violations of those. russian citizens abroad however there are reports that said these lists are only you're sure it's worse than off the list and that there are extended versions on the list

said that both countries and reportedly a us extended first not to list even includes some greedy high level top russian government officials. what do some u.s. schoolchildren carry in their backpacks books pens and possibly armor this in the wake of increasing gun violence which is seeing more students in the u.s. stocking up on bulletproof uniforms or trying on new backpacks flying with ballistic material or on our website r t v dot com plus. dinosaurs of the financial services is how some experts brand british banks are turning their backs on people in need less alienating themselves from the next generation of payday lenders find out why and surf deeper at our. kaiser report still to come stay with us.

the movie world war z z being first zombie which stars brad pitt as one hundred seventy five million dollar budget has been recalled by paramount executives not because this is probably yet another stupid violent zombie movie but because the chinese might get offended according to the wrap dot com china was supposed to take the blame for starting the evil zombie apocalypse this time but china becoming the largest foreign market for american movies made artistic integrity fly out the window to protect the bottom dollar as is tradition in hollywood this is not the first time that there has been pro-choice censorship in hollywood the remake of red dawn which was originally a cold war. minstrel show against russians was supposed to show a chinese invasion of america this time however they have changed it to north

koreans who can't even defeat the us military in south korea let alone at an away game in the usa the thing that is interesting is not the censorship is the fact that they will censor movies for whoever's got a lot of cash the big markets won't be offended but countries with small markets will this is a complete prostitute mentality show that love to any guy who's got bills in his palm you know i was always pretty sure there were a lot of prostitutes working in hollywood i didn't know they actually started making the movies but that's just me and. today. these are the images the world.

can. show you corporations are rude to go. i am max kaiser welcome to the kaiser report never go to the hospital for a simple colonoscopy and end up having a kidney riba. you could be a capitalist superhero about whom i read would write trashy novels but the fact is that accidental hysterectomy isn't unexpected heart transplants are the stuff of the new industrial revolution. and hash tag where is daddy's pig because they took my kidney when they meant to take my colon i ask. so tanky mark the artist taxi driver has been on a rampage pushing the pig across london all the way to the trough at ten downing

street and this is in protest of the privatisation of the n.h.s. here's chunky mark with his own reasons for doing this ok we do this is me the architecture joy started in my words finished me broke my leg.