this is news coming to you live from berlin brush it accuses britain of staging the poison gas attack in syria russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says last weekend's attack was faked on orders from london the team from the international chemical weapons watchdog is now on the ground in syria to investigate also coming off day for the displaced people of color the united nations attempts to raise almost two billion dollars from donor nations but falls well short of its target what lies ahead for the war torn nation.

hello i'm terry martin and welcome to the program. russia says it has proof that the poison gas attack in syria last weekend was staged on orders from britain the russian defense ministry says london told the white helmets a group in syria to fake the gas attack in the town of duma inspectors from the international chemical weapons society have now arrived in the country and are expected in duma on saturday earlier the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov told reporters that there was no evidence of oil and gas attack on the for you to do with chemical weapons inspectors will go to the city of duma where there is no evidence of the use of chemical weapons chlorine you know any out the substance specialists who examine the area did not find any we have irrefutable evidence that

it was another fabrication these diverging involve the special services of one of the governments that is now trying to be in the front lines of a russia full of the campaign. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov well let's bring in syria analyst khaled yaka a waste is with us here in the studio good to see of color what do you make of russia saying that it has proof that the alleged chemical weapons attack in syria was staged by a foreign intelligence agency implicating britain you're talking about a country with a history of information down through the this information is was and he said the truth of the throat basically the book on this information says she's use virgin so many thought it was one bit isn't it chemical only if there is a chemical but it was done by their bodies themselves to good their own people but put this in quote thinks we have it has three of the chemical weapons used in this conflict people in damascus if you talk to

a close somebody you trust in damascus this minute the chlorine being the neutral it's not the secret this regime have used or suspected that these two fusing claudian and poison gas would one boys and seven times of this of an award. team of international chemical weapons inspectors has now arrived in syria they are going to begin their investigation there to morrow what sort of challenges do they face the challenges that this region now is in the hands of the see it is you if you if i did this crime i make sure i hide the evidence ok so they're going to have a very tough time finding anything do you think they'll be able to come up with and come up with anything that will allow us to say the chemical weapon attack did take place and we can attribute it to a particular party it seems that when they left this sort of the. operation transfer the deed engineered by osha took some of the wounded some of the

casualties with them maybe think some of the bodies maybe took a blood sample that is at least to try to to preserve something of allegedly happened because what these chemical weapons inspectors find is going to be very important for how this how the next stage of this confrontation unfolds if the united states carries out its threat to launch a missile attack or a military strike of some sort against syria which president trump has promised what consequences do you think that could have. i mean let's put this also in the larger perspective does putin want woodward theme for the sake of us a lot of us that i don't think so but the consequences of this it would depend on this magnitude if you hit the base of the city jeanne the security forces the secret police compounds that has been dealing this destruction and death and torture and killings of civilians the full of course political prisoners see any realistic options for opponents in terms of influencing the outcome of this

conflict. i mean this is a bonus of been abandoned by the international community abandoned by their allies for the sake of bix that these are good even turkey which. champions of champions of defending this in the. us. thank you very much for your analysis a waste of a middle east analyst focusing on syria. united nations the russian ambassador has accused the west of aiming to overthrow the syrian regime of president assad and urged u.s. french and british leaders to refrain from military action in while the us ambassador said there should be no rush to launch military action on syria but added at one point you have to do something. to destroy its u.s.s. donald cook and u.s.s. puerto have been positioned off the syrian coast but if and when they get the order to strike it's not yet clear after this bellicose tweet in which he threatens

syria's ally russia that missiles will be coming u.s. president donald trump put off a final decision on military action but we're looking in very very seriously very closely at that whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks will see what happens it's too bad. the world puts us in a position like that the president's more measured tone was echoed by the secretary of defense who said the u.s. is still seeking evidence on the chemical attack there's a tactical concern that sybil innocent people we don't add any civilian deaths and do everything humanly possible to avoid that we're trying to stop the murder of innocent people but on a strategic level it's how do we keep this from escalating out of control. at the u.n. russia's and voice said averting the danger of war is also moscow's priority but he

refused to rule out the possibility of us russian conflict. look we can look at people's abilities unfortunately because we saw we saw messages that the covering for washington. that it did because meanwhile russia says the syrian government is now in control of the site of the alleged attack inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog are expected to begin their probe and duma on saturday it's not clear whether the u.s. and its allies will wait for the results before deciding on strikes. let's take a look now at some other stories making news today medical sources in gaza say israeli troops have shot and killed at least one person during a large protest on the border with israel many more were injured and it's the third

consecutive friday of large scale protests against the blockade of gaza clashes with israeli forces have claimed dozens palestinian lives. u.s. president donald trump has lashed out at james cody after the former f.b.i. director launched a new book a memoir compares the president to a mafia boss or demands loyalty and twists facts to serve his purpose in a characteristically blunt tweet trump lambasted komi as an untruthful slimeball. pakistan's supreme court has barred former prime minister nawaz sharif's from politics for life a ban stems from corruption allegations against her during the his three stance as prime minister sharif resigned last july after the supreme court disqualified him from holding office for failing to disclose an income source. for the united nations has held a conference of donors to raise funds to alleviate suffering in the democratic

republic of congo it says the situation there has reached a breaking point violence is spiraling out of control and those fleeing the fighting need food and shelter by the end of the conference today only five hundred thirty million dollars have been pledge which is about a third of the one point seven billion that the u.n. says it needs but congo's government says reports of a humanitarian crisis are exaggerated well aid agencies and congo's government are disputing just how many people have fled to safer areas of congo the government says only two hundred thirty thousand have been displaced while the u.n. says four point five million are on the move shows same akila the country's acting prime minister told french radio ahead of this meeting that the conference is being held following that law is made by certain humanitarian organizations who are poisoning national and international opinion of the congo government has

boycotted the aid donors conference almost eight million people are at risk of starvation in the congo our correspondent sent us this report. lake albert is divided between two countries those crossing here all fleeing violence and war on the congolese side hoping for a refuge in neighboring uganda democratic republic of congo is awash with militias with massacres and attacks on ethnic groups and about about a month people were killed with machetes people are suffering so much so many are hiding in the bush that about. the situation is dire around seven point seven million people are at risk of starvation the congo is rich in natural resources but civil war corruption and mismanagement have reduced it to one of the poorest nations in the world observes suspects the governments of fuelling conflicts to prevent elections from taking place president kabila has refused to relinquish power since twenty sixteen. at the zoo fish left it in everything has gotten so bad

in the last one to two years there are so many more people affected by war having to flee right and hunger that the situation is really dramatic to have given time lachish is u.n. organizations in geneva while hoping to raise around one point seven billion dollars in aid money to at least alleviate some of the misery the congolese government boycotted the donor conference because it believes it was bad for the country's image but without a solution most here have no choice but to flee. let's bring in mark englehart harries a journalist and author and has been reporting from africa for years he's been following today's u.n. donor conference and joins us now from geneva marc the conference is over it's raised pledges of about five hundred thirty million dollars i'm told for the democratic republic of congo that's far short of what is needed why are potential donors holding back. well plenty of reasons actually first of all

congo is not the only tryst in the world the u.n. is asking this year for twenty five billion dollars or so for crises like in syria or yemen then secondly the congo crises is very protracted has been going on for more than twenty years actually and governments ask themselves probably why should we give more this year what has really changed i think that's one thing this summit today showed things have changed the situation has dramatically deteriorated and then thirdly it is of course the factor the fact that the government boycotted this conference didn't make the donors very eager to spend huge amounts of money without asking you mention the kabila factor president kabila in in this case of the democratic republic of congo his government boycotted the conference why.

yeah it's actually really the very first time in human history that a country boycotts its own donor conference now the official line in kinshasa goes like this the u.n. is doing bad promotion bad advertisement they're scaring investors away and that's of course nonsense more likely actually is that the congolese government very much under pressure is looking for a scapegoat for someone who is responsible for the bad situation the country and their singled out the united nations and what happened today is that the humanitarian coordinator of the u.n. very much build bridges he emphasized that this this whole amount of money had been discussed before with the congolese government and the appeal had even been together presented in kinshasa earlier this year so he basically held all doors open while the donors they didn't so much really build bridges

their tone was rather pretty harsh ok the donors did pledge about half a billion dollars that's not really peanuts do you think that money will actually flow towards helping the refugees in the democratic republic of congo or not yet some i'm convinced it will also think that the conference today showed at the same time that money alone can't fix this crises it is a lot about protection and security rape is going on on a massive scale and lots of militias recruit many children younger than fifteen most of them into their ranks and that is something which the german government made pretty clear here it is to responsibility of the congolese government really to protect its own people and the civilians and also to release political prisoners and to safeguard human rights in the congo. mark thank you so

much for talking with us so is mark englehart there talking to us from geneva he's a journalist an author specializing in africa big plans but no revolution b.t.w. ben is going to be here with a round up of all those business news for you in just a moment. but. just want willing to serve my parents and i just how do i think. bangladesh what is the true face of the country who are applying. freedom independence a separation of state and church that used to be important but for decades political infighting here has hindered progress and islamist extremists are gaining influence just marcus's the rule of.