live. poisonous politics the u.s. hints that intervention in syria is possible suspecting that assad's regime used chemical weapons but struggling to find a firm evidence. icelanders head to the polls in their second general election since the financial crash of two thousand and eight when the country led its banks fail but later made a stunning turnaround to growth we take a look at the success story. and americans tuning out a new study showing cable news audiences dropping as i will see you are getting burned out from too many views and not enough news.

nine pm in moscow. good having you with us here on our t.v. our top story while the u.s. is yet to decide whether the red line has been crossed in syria president obama reiterated the use of chemical weapons would be a game changer washington claims there's growing evidence that the arsenal was deployed by assad forces with some u.s. lawmakers now pushing for direct action in the country are important as the details u.s. president barack obama was delivering some fierce words in the aftermath of paypal's 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 into serious civil war now according to white

house press secretary jay carney he has confirmed that military force is one of many options that president obama is currently considering carney said as a general principle the united states retains the. 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 m i six agents operating in syria smuggled soil 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 weaponized chemical now in an interview with the b.b.c. cameron said he worries that western leaders might fail to act in syria because of the experience of foreign intervention into iraq now we all know that britain france france have been voicing unconditional support for syrian rebels and 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. and its western allies presenting her should rhetoric of the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government but they don't have all the full facts in place. now statements about the use of chemical weapons in syria by assad's forces started with the u.s. saying they have various levels of confidence that this is the case that these chemical weapons were used and now they say that they can't allow their systematic use in conflicts in the country washington is those still verifying claims of all of this data now the samples that they used to make these assessments come at first from aleppo where there was an attack between rebels and government forces and right now the syrian rebels and government forces pointing the finger at each other as to who was responsible for those attacks and whether any chemicals were used in it also two cases of chemical weapons being deployed in durai which is a domestic damascus suburb during an attack that happened there now this as one of

the commanders of the free syrian army had claimed that he had agents actually infiltrating syria's government and its military forces and that they were working to secure any kind of chemical weapons stockpiles that were being used by the syrian government while historian gerald horne says all of this leaves plenty of room for doubt and even provocation. it's deja vu all over again we will remember the disastrous an adventurous 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 vattel field of syria to leopard stories of london and in washington was there was there the possibility of contamination or play or hanky panky with these samples 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 within the military is driving the conflict in both syria and iraq how do we know that some renegade soldier in the syrian military who is actually collaborating with the rebels wants these chemical weapons so as to provide a rationale for intervention by london and washington these are difficult questions that must be answered well we're asking on line what's behind allegations of syria's use of chemical weapons you can click on our key dot com cast your vote let's take a look at how the figures are stacking up this hour so far sixty eight percent to say it's nothing but an attempt by countries to start an invasion on pretext of chemical weapons use almost twenty percent think it's the rebels attempts to push for foreign intervention the rest of the votes divided between those who think it won't change anything in the course of the conflict and those who say that their use has been

a has their use in syria has been led to that red line being crossed in the conflict that president obama referred to well what do you think we always want hear what you have to say log on to our team dot com and cast your vote. more news today. these are the. streets of canada. for asians to rule the day. iceland is heading to the polls to vote for their next parliament to leave the island economy further along its path to recovery which has been steadily growing since the spectacular meltdown there in two thousand back then it allowed its enormously indebted banks to fail saving homes does that a bailout to iceland's been making impressive comebacks he. has more on the

financial success story. iceland has seen it all its banks crashed its government resigned its currency devaluated and its businesses all sizes of clouds and then of all came in over 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 timely 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 its banks debt was eight times the annual g.d.p. so the people took it into their own hands and negotiated major debt write offs at times it does seem like it's the only country in europe that's got it right take a look at this or greece and spain continue to spiral deeper into their 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 i says to 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 impressive job of turning its economy around its banking sector return to profitability its businesses restructured their debt and it kept growing and many of their people were able to keep their homes and five years after the most devastating financial meltdown in its 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 in iceland are now turning away from the ruling coalition that led the enemy to steady growth boaters lured away by the opposition and its euro skepticism during the two thousand and eight banking crisis when iceland's economy was on the brink of a breakdown the e.u. seemed a safe haven parliament voted in favor of joining the island nation applied for membership since the eurozone has been bogged down though in a great deal of trouble itself and now more ice leaders feel they may be better off without joining us as specially so since they already enjoy free trade agreements and are part of the shang in trouble area dr steven mccabe from birmingham and city university things iceland's independence from the e.u. is helping it recover. iceland is the fact that it's in road who serves on the edge of the world i mean it's in this with the it's an isolated nation. and indeed is an island and so it's effectively. in this country it's stuck it's fingers up at the rest of the world and so not giving your money back home what can you do door to

invade the 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 i mean i heard you mention ireland portugal they're much more interlinked into europe iceland is not and so what he's been able to do is to sort of concentrates on reinventing the sort of things it's good at which it's isolated from the industries there was talk about joining the e.u. but i think that that's out of the question that they realize that this was their best strachan for recovery is true main isolated to sort of to be independent as it were europe does not offer salvation. still to come new twists in the ukrainian thriller soon coming to light this is the country's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has had her bid for a part rejected and now could be charged even with murder that coming up after a short break.

on the money with the business over russia is.

international and world in the very heart of moscow. thirteen minutes past the t.v. news networks in the u.s. are seeing a slump with a new research poll saying audiences are turning out in greater numbers the pew study shows viewers are starting to shy away from the news networks that devote more airtime to a paper is analysis than the hard facts on the ground reporting or he's guided schon 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 to which the three major us channels are opinionated on m.s.n. b.c. opinion fills

a full eighty five percent of the channel's air time according to this study fox forty five percent c.n.n. about the same the study says it doesn't and 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 committed 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 new sound because it no longer gave them what they had counted on either with fewer or less complete stories professor chris chambers is here to talk about this thank you so much for joining me like you what is your personal appeal and why is the viewership down with that great i agree totally i mean you have people who are getting full news right now they're getting flow and sensationalism of the news packages that they are getting and then the hard news that they're getting at the time is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. a lot of let's include the large ones like c.n.n.

are cutting back and laying off reporters researchers producers closing foreign bureaus around around the world so the supply of hard news is shrinks being replaced with opinion and not just any opinion but opinion about a lot of nonsense and i want to ask you about the percentage of actual reporting that they do three weeks for several days in a row c.n.n. and other news channels have been covering this story you know with jodi areas there with the girl who killed her boyfriend i'm going to be in and day out live coverage every day there's this rape case of two young men and raped a sixteen year old awful thing again follow ups live coverage day and day out why do they. pick the stories to follow up with the it's obvious because you have a beautiful young woman a dead boyfriend who had kind of a shady past but it's taylor it's almost a hollywood movie script the other one in the studio right that touches

a nerve and we have two teenage boys and a young girl raped and so this sets off a lot of emotional forces but to to to to cover this day in day out without giving death 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 churning a lot of a lot of things out opinions basically like that that was a lot of depth in that story i was actually more worried about what was left out but for example what i was wondering about why wouldn't they pick for example the one ton of the hunger strike to follow up on it because they the story didn't have the word of sex and rape and add to to all those made on t.v. that's the art 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 handle went on a movie is always been that kind of an issue so that if there is great also it has

two strikes against it already i mean and the third strike is that there's no booze some of that 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 media outlets so it's just not anything they want to touch unfortunately thank you thank you for cameras thank you very much well it's difficult to conclude what comes first here financial condition 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. martin comedian lee kept have their own examples. and how did the u.s. media cover stories and search for a better ratings that in just over an hour's time and available any time on our web site r t dot com let's take a look at some other stories now making global headlines a nato plane crash in southern afghanistan killing four members of the alliance and

initial reports haven't given exact details of where it came down but the alliance indicated in a brief statement that no enemy activity was detected area at the time of the crash . italy's finally named its government after two months of political wrangling following inconclusive election results the coalition cabinet will be formed and led by center left politician and recollect this composition will also include members of berlusconi's party italy's former pm has confirmed that he won't be in the mix but is pushing for a senior party members to get top posts. and taliban announced it's 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 still the group's violence flourishes claiming lives weekly inside

afghanistan and in neighboring pakistan. the u.s. military says another three detainees have joined the hunger strike in the u.s. one time the moby 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 growing abuse allegations and indefinite detention without charge also coincides with the obama administration's recent decision to keep the facility to spite a campaign pledge to close the controversial site. russian officials recently blacklisted by the u.s. have spoken publicly for the first time since the ban went into force they reject the allegations against washington accuses the list of being a list of the death of lawyers or gay magnitsky in police custody more than three years ago or medina cochon 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 follow those documents that surround this case as the documents are still in court

and never became public and that the magnitsky a law was that except 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 foolish on the twelfth of april and includes eighteen russian officials who are banned from the united states and their asses now according to the washington's version of the events sixteen of these officials responsible for the death of. the game of new ski worked as an auditor and 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 really in accordance with the rules of parity and then didn't last them twenty four hours russia responded with the same list with the same number off officials also eighteen american officials there of 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 legalizing torture guantanamo detention facility and the second part of this list includes those people who are responsible for numerous human rights violations of those russian citizens abroad what were their reports. these lists are only you're sure it's for a show not the list and that there are extended version off the list so that both countries presides and reportedly a u.s. extended first not the list even includes some greedy high level top russian

government officials is theatrical or that far from its final chapter as a jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko is pardon request has been turned down on top of the seven year sentence she's already serving for abuse of power she may now be prosecuted for murder and at the charges nonsense artie's alexy reports from kiev from being allegedly beaten up by prison guards to seeing her supporters stormed the hospital where she's on the going to comment ukraine's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has been in a lot of trouble lately she has no served eighteen months of a seven year prison term for abuse of power when she signed gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine but this could get because of her allegedly to an assassination almost two decades ago in one thousand nine hundred ninety six ukrainian member of parliament you gave a shit about was shot dead in eastern ukraine back in fashion by one of his killers shocked the country. the man who painted for the job mentioned bed shared by

killing it was ordered by a man nicknamed pasha it was obvious to us that under pasha he meant by the laws the rank of ukraine's prime minister. let 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 the typical ukrainian rollercoaster style twist he's name has recently surfaced again together with tymoshenko. it should be said we have proof that lives are in kopi at the first five hundred thousand dollars to the dying wish . then another two point three million dollars were transferred to the assassins by yulia timoshenko. tomasz was at the or second trial for alleged attacks 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 chevrons murder is proved she would

remain behind bars for life but her lawyers were quick to describe the accusations as nonsense because. the testimonies of the school witnesses and 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 really late and they ended the gas case it gets to me 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 corrupt schemes but as long as they obey the rules of the political game they're not prosecuted or 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 a motion who is now in a preliminary stage it is still unclear what kind of evidence investigators have against her but they seem confident there is enough to press charges before summer the thriller which is the typical case has been walking ukraine for almost two years now and all this time support the former prime minister have been think you think the essential three all the recent developments in this saga are clearly suggesting they will not be leaving anytime soon. let's say reporting from kiev in ukraine. what do some u.s. kids carry in their backpacks what books pens and some of them armor this in the wake of increasing reports been violence which is seeing more and more students in the u.s. stocking up on bulletproof uniforms and even trying backpacks plying with ballistic material you can find more on our website. dinosaurs of the financial services this is how some experts are branding british banks which are turning

their backs on people in need and alienating themselves in the next generation of payday lenders find out why at our teeth dot com. after a short break peter lavelle and guest debate the prospects of russia's economy on in on the money stay with us. via this is mr. him no this is not a fifty's beside fi movie slogan it is what a.b.c. news is trying to find out when they investigated how lean finally textured beef is produced this type of quote beef has become very widespread throughout fast food restaurants and supermarkets in the usa and has led to its south dakota based manufacturer posting profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. but some

processed before might ask well the reporting showed that ammonia and other rough chemicals were doused onto the meat to kill a call i bacteria and make it safe for consumption although this product is for some reason we go across public backlash and many companies gave up ordering in the mysteriously and finally to be ok while the mainstream media for once actually did something valuable for society and what did they get in return sued yeah the pink slime crew decided to sue a.b.c. news and forced them not to divulge their company secrets as well as punish them for defamation against their product which led to profit losses and guess what they won the lawsuit well defaming products that on mass could destroy the health of millions of americans is no blasphemy in my book but that's just my opinion.

download. stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television. you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. hello and welcome to the money where the business of russia is business i'm peter lavelle as economy continues to language and global growth sluggish russia warns of a possible recession at home. he has ordered the government into action facing a difficult external environment what does russia need to do to maintain growth.

to discuss this i'm joined by vladimir put top of.