the latest news and the week's top stories here on our team turkey blame syrian intelligence for the deadly cross border bombing of a town that's seen as the entry point for syrian refugees and rebels in damascus denies involvement. while russia the u.s. and britain officially converge on a common approach to mediate peace in syria the spidy ongoing western backing of the insurgency. pakistan's two time former prime minister nawaz sharif claims victory the country's a story general election marred by a wave of violent taliban attacks but more balanced than bullets in saturday's historic vote r t brings you the latest from outside of the parliamentary right here in islamabad. and from first to flop francois lon's first anniversary of

becoming a french president sees his popularity slump and drives tens of thousands of his disappoint of voters to rally over his failure to meet their expectations. of. what you are see coming to you live from the russian capital on marina joshing welcome to the program i was syrian crisis has taken a deadly new twist as twin car bombs ripped through a turkish town just across the border killing forty six and injuring more than one hundred others the site has been and three point two refugees and radical rebels but turkey has been quick to blame syrian intelligence for the attack while stopping short of saying damascus is directly responsible a syrian official insists the accusations groundless or middle east correspondent policy or has more to call bombs have exploded one was in front of the city hall

yeah that was in front of the local post office in the turkish of raw. which is not fall from the syrian border now we still don't have anyone or any organization coming forward and came in responsibility the turkish vice prime minister has gone on record as saying that he feels that that might be the usual approach aside culprit's now it is important to remember that turkey share is a somewhat five hundred mile border with syria and in the past and current has lent it support to syrian rebels who are backing the city and presidency of bashar assad and turkey has lent the rebels both a staging santa and an area from which they can conduct their logistics so what we're hearing him is that it might in fact the syrian government officials and soldiers who. are against syria but as i mention no conclusive proof of this it is perhaps important to remember that back in february there was a car bomb in the same is eleven at that stage to the turkish government pointed

fingers at the assad regime this is an area that does see a lot of fighting between syrian rebel forces and pro side forces and certainly the syrian turkish border is extremely volatile. and reaction now from london based blogger karl rove who writes extensively about the middle east thank you so much karl for joining us here on r.g.p. talk about exists there so turkey blames the syria for the bombing is there any reason in your opinion damascus would want to work a straight such an attack. well it is the unity there might be but i think what's important now is not to rush into a few stations very quickly and especially without having to prove particularly that we're coming into you know the agreement on the international conference to find a solution for syria so i think that requires much more responsibility and commitment from all sides to hold back from escalating the situation they bear any any anybody could have done and there are several kind of government organizations that could

have carried out this explosion but one should say don't you can't and you discovered the perpetrators got such an explosion within less than one day just on twenty four hours so i think really it's a bit irresponsible of turkey to rush into those accusations well what's interesting about this place is that it's a town the town that was bombed is now known to be an entry point for refugees and the radical in the rebels from a syria could in again your opinion could radical islamist elements have been there at the time of the a tap. that's as i said this these areas that are becoming pretty open because you have movement across for different reasons across florida both sides of the border there and really any kind of organization wanting to either disrupt the coming peace conference or the peace conference or anyone who's

got particularly grievances against the turkish government or the syrian refugees say street it wide open i think what's important is not just slip into this mode of drawing a whodunit you me everybody wants to become a detective i think we need to put it in the proper political context and the fact that this continuing escalation of the situation in syria would have damaging effects across its border north eastern and south and on across so there's this disturbing news ation element that we need to take into consideration and governments around need to take into course of course speaking about their reaction and what's going to be happening beyond turkey on the borders say or we should forget the turkey of course is a nato a member and a nato has already pledged support for turkey saying that it will not take cell defensive measures whatever that means but in again what do you think those measures will be what sort of action could we see. but again i think it's in a way to center to obama's red lines regarding the lincoln weapons speak because

the west and nato in particular are committing themselves sometimes to very good promises that they don't really want to pursue effectively because they don't want to escalate the situation on the ground but what i was really afraid about this that was similar. that's happening so frequented that they're going to end up intervening to tell you one way or the other in syria and making this two ation far more complex and i think that he had problem behind. the west in the u.s. in particularly hasn't so far established what it really wants from syria what its strategic aims are so it's kind of picking all of these arbitrary measures like standing by turkey or the red lines of our chemical weapons and all of these digs out with three benchmarks to determine whether it should intervene or not when you fact it should have a much deeper role that focuses more on reason and stability because starts in the u.s. interests much more than anything as well as we know there has been exchange of artillery

fire between syria and turkey and earlier this year syria shut down a turkish plane however an open conflict hasn't broken out what might trigger that open conflict in your opinion. i think to be honest it wasn't good in the beginning where everybody thought that the turks and the west in particular was anxious to intervene and turkey and then any excuse would have been some five sufficient and then we discovered very quickly that that's not really the situation and those parties are kind of meddling and syria and supporting the rebels to a certain extent but they don't seem willing to actually be fully escalate into military intervention but say what i would think is that what it takes to shift the type of incident to say a much knowledge and not formidable force and nobody wants to billions to be heard then i think that the action would be impossible to stop at the moment so i must judge of bumps a chemical deployment in turkey or someone has and i think easy to drag on the

parties even if they don't take this measure to insulate themselves from their questions of the syrian conflict or at live from london that was middle east blogger karl thanks very much indeed sara for your news here on r.t. thank you now the escalation comes amid our renewed international push to bring about peace in the region russia's long running efforts to mediate a diplomatic solution have now been officially banned by the u.s. and britain but washington and london continue to support the rebels and are considering arming them directly i was here because more on the latest diplomatic developments. after months of fiery exchanges on the syrian conflict the major international players russia the united kingdom and the united states have managed to find a common ground principle position has been that it accused the west of supporting only one side of the syrian conflict that is the side of the syrian rebels moreover russia has been particularly concerned with the calls across the atlantic to arm

the syrian rebels to provide them with military training and even possibly intervene into the conflict by force also russia was particularly concerned with statements in the western countries that bashar assad must step down at the same time the western world has never been saying that it's the syrian people that have to choose their new government they have to choose their new future now hardly anyone expected after all months of these rhetoric that a meeting between the u.s. state secretary john kerry and the russian president and the russian foreign minister in moscow would produce something positive nevertheless international conference which is to be called by the end of this month was the direct result of the meeting in moscow that a conference is expected to have both the members of the syrian opposition and the syrian government at the same negotiation table at the same time a press conference between the russian foreign minister lavrov and john kerry took an interesting twist when a reporter asked about the bill to support the syrian rebels with weaponry which is

now being considered by the u.s. congress the reply from the u.s. state secretary it was that if the united states finds substantial proof that chemical weapons were in fact used by bashar assad's troops in syria something which hasn't yet been proven of course then this bill will ultimately become reality which many experts have already described this as a certain leeway for the united states to still have a certain leverage in the syrian conflict now also on friday the british prime minister david cameron came to the city of. russia. and the biggest intrigue of that meeting was whether david cameron would sing to the same tune as john kerry did in moscow it's no secret that we have had differing views on how best to handle the situation but we share fundamental aims to end the conflict to stop syria fragmenting to let the syrian people choose who governs them and to prevent the growth of violent extremism so i strongly support the conference that mr lavrov for

mr kerry agreed this week to deliver a political solution a solution which has a transitional government based on the consent of the syrian people as a whole so clearly the events of the of this past week have given us a clear indication that there may be interesting things to come in terms of the syrian conflict and this conference can actually produce something of a peaceful solution to the syrian conflict now he has been pakistan's prime minister twice and was ousted fourteen years ago in a military coup but now washer is claiming an early victory in the country's general election it's also the country's first democratic transition between civilian governments counting still underway the details now from our. despite the threat of violence pakistanis came out in record numbers to vote in the election which will determine the fate of the country for the next five years and as the votes are counted the man poised to come out at the very top is not sharif

and his party fourteen years after being ousted in a military coup he is on the road to a third term as pakistan's prime minister will have numerous problems to deal with from chronic power cuts to a taliban insurgency he pushing for create free market economic policies and further strain ties with the united states but the vote has also crushed the hopes of millions of pakistanis who want to see real change in the entrenched political system they were counting on cricket legend imran khan and his party he had rallied massive support here in the country with calls to end corruption and to end u.s. drone strikes especially among young voters but it wasn't enough to put him at the top still a significant victory for his party now the pakistan people's party which formed the outgoing government took a beating in the polls paying a price for being seen as failing to tackle corruption unemployment and violence while in power of course this in many ways is a historic election it's the first time

a democratically elected government is replaced with another the first time that a staggering sixty percent of voters turned out but also in a darker note the first election to go down as the bloodiest in pakistan's history now a string of bomb blasts disrupted election day killing dozens of people the violence came on the heels of a bloody intimidation campaign by the pakistani taliban which has claimed one hundred thirty lives leading up to the vote the group is fighting to topple poppy stone's u.s. backed government which it sees as quote on the islamic now there were also some allegations of voting irregularities and problems in certain areas mainly in caracas new voting will be held at forty two polling centers where officials said elections were not free and fair overall however a successful largely successful election here in pakistan we will of course keep you updated on the latest reporting from islamabad i'm lucy kalf an elf. now the policy director at just foreign policy dot org says victory would mean manny

changes for pakistan both shereen and puns for different moves also came in first and second they are going to redefine pakistan for bush to the united states leverage among other issues and they're holding on obviously say they're not happy with the status quo rather they really should be in seeds of the perception of security and. a turn. of the drone strikes are going to see change in that direction under government of sharif on this the main opposition party. is expected to be negotiating with the i.m.f. monetary fund which the u.s. says. terry significant pulled the most powerful country in the early ship between the two countries militaries run continue but i think we'll see a less heavy hand of the united states in pockets. you're watching

r.t. now time's up for mr president and say protesters in france they're still waiting for the final changes they desperately voted for a year ago when choosing socialist francois hollande last may the stories unfold after the break.

we speak your language as i think about the war not a new. program some documentary some spanish what matters to you. a little turn to bangalore stories. here. altie spanish to find out more visit. welcome back you're watching our team a year ago this week they are in election pictures and loud pledges but french put french leader from swallow into power in a thai run presidential runoff yet today around half of all longs voters believe the change and improvement they were promised are no word to be seen this hour so he has a story. it

was. on. the change was a year ago thousands of people had gathered at this very place to celebrate the victory of socialist president francois hollande but here on the thousands of people are again gathered but for a very different reason this time they're asking the president where are the changes that he had promised asked by the very same people who had voted left and put along didn't place recent polls show its popularity has plummeted to less than twenty five percent the biggest force for any french president in the past fifty years but you know i thought it. i let you know where your promises are come on where are they if they're not just sure it is not me and i've yet this is the mission that from now on will be mine to give the european construction a dimension of growth employment and first priority you have france's hit record

unemployment of three point two million people in march the biggest source of public anger it's also scratch hopes of cutting the budget deficit to three percent of g.d.p. by two thousand and thirteen and the european commission's most recent forecast shows france will be in recession until the end of the year the seventy five percent income tax on the super rich is also a no go after france's constitutional court overruled it for the very talk of it pushed french actor gerard depardieu to give up his citizenship for a lush in one one promise along didn't that it's to keep is legalizing gay marriage pleasing supporters it also sparking fears concentration. i think. people are happy with gay marriage but it doesn't feed our families it doesn't give us food there are realities that are good to say but there are also priorities priority is employment over just too easy to blame. if you're

in the news you can look at the new president immediately. into the economy what i would like anywhere i just would like to get the president which is not making that much romney which is keeping some kid on which is not going to explain that you know they're the magic no one has the or. yeah yeah yeah. a magic recipe this filmmaker says is nonexistent. he made this video during last year's presidential campaign to show the country's lack of choice. when you listen to the media you'd think there were a lot of differences between the two but that's just on

a superficial level on the most important things they agree do we need to intervene in another country to fight they will agree to intervening in other countries because the weapons lobby will always be behind it a lot is well aware of his unpopularity but says he will weather this storm improve he can't keep his promises at the end of this five year term. he needs time fine we are here to tell him mr president time is up and you need to start changing things but others like these workers who recently closed steel plant in eastern france are not even hopeful symbolically laid to rest a lot of broken promises under which reads literally. just are still your r t. we're back to our top story now the vote count is still underway in pakistan historic general election the country's first ever democratic transition between civilian governments been marred with deadly attacks across the country major amin

joins us now live from karachi for further analysis thank you very much sir for being with us here in the program well karate was the target of most attacks on saturday so did it affect the turnout at all i don't think there was any effect on the third note. the strakes word exhibitor. generally it was very calm on saturday so. you know we have seen a number of violent attacks in the run up to the vote but no one's admitted carrying out those particular attacks or the taliban had warned though of violence who do you think carried them out. you see the taliban attacks were generally only in karachi and maybe in.

but. the results have no connection with the thought of undertakes because the radius parties have. got the radius was right it's because of various reasons and the taliban attacks are not the precise reason very apart the fate of one. so now let's talk about the role of the military in pakistan i know you have served in the military so in your opinion how big is its role nowadays in the country. the military is in the deep trouble because the military was instrumental in starting the misuse of religion. in foreign policy and started the in the afghan war starting from the ninety's have been dying and the military was instrumental in using it we're going to against a neighboring state i'm going to stand in the have one vote and now the whole game is turned against the military because the same it is going to that are taking the

military and the military is in deep trouble. well let's now talk a bit more about the elections i mean it was a historic day for the country yesterday when the country voted and sharif at this point is claiming victory so if the final results back that up what does it say actually about what pakistanis want from their next government. election results all miss because. largely punjabi party has won in the end by job in the party in baluchistan that are seventy shady and murky and in a. bit that he can suffer one is entirely on it which told under attack so that there are all menace because this is the step towards pakistan has become a solution you see there is no national party no in the lead and all four provinces

led by horses who want to go in different directions so i think the election is a. grim and brave step towards the bell commission of pakistan well sure if so says that he is ready to talk to the taliban so what do you read into that. taliban i think. are not going to talk because. taliban language is violence they believe in the gun they believe in violence and i don't think a dialogue was possible and presently with the election results in hand. mr iran has won only in a province while the pakistani military is not with the negotiated with the. t.t.p. the pakistani taliban although it's a contradiction that we have one taliban are supported by the pakistani state and

they are totally different from the taliban the pakistani military is fighting inside pakistan. all right while the counting is still on for now though major aha mean thank you very much for talking to us here and sharing your views with us here on our network. movie on the victory day celebrations continue across russia's rob the weekend marking sixty eight years since the nazis surrender in world war two the trademark grand military parade in moscow was of course the centerpiece of may the nine thousand troops and tons of hardware swept across red square with planes flying overhead it's one of the most celebrated dates in russia in honor of the surviving veterans and more than twenty six million soviet people who perished in the war the country bore the brunt of the brutal nazi war machine for several years before the red army pushed back to liberate all these easter you were rolling all the way to the top of the stock in berlin.

and next in our tea we continued to look at the wave of famine that ravaged west africa in two thousand and eleven putting millions on the brink of starvation. i'm. sorry technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got this huge

you're covered. choose your language. of holy week you know if you're going to. choose the concerns you. choose the opinions that you think are great. choose the stories that impact your life. choose the access to. according to the law usaid is allowed to procure up to seventy five percent american products and transport them only on american ships. and that means that the shippers have a lot of interest in food aid policy and have been an incredibly effective lobby to fight for the status quo of sourcing in and shipping from the united states the

u.s. government is the only government in the world that hasn't made substantial movements in the direction of enabling local procurement of food aid in developing countries in order to respond faster and more cheaply to food emergencies as they arise. so even today the food must first be balt then loaded on a ship in american harbor and then travel for several months in order to reach africa. that would be approximately four to six months from when it has been termed that we want to participate in in a particular appeal and so when the food arrives. to g.a.o. where mr alito works issued a report which presented the problem to congress. president bush tried to change the system so that a portion of the food would be procured from local markets and thus a wry faster and cost less. they failed and they failed because of the

lobbying efforts the highly successful and very sophisticated lobbying efforts of those who benefit from the status quo in u.s. food aid programs from the american taxpayers' money only forty percent goes for the purchase of food aid for the starving people in africa the remaining sixty percent goes to the shipping companies. that haven't yet yet the reader have made yet.