week's top stories here on r.g.p. syrian troops fire at thousands of protesters despite a promise to hold off all of this while the u.s. the seemingly preparing to declare the country's government illegitimate private military intervention the fear of. libyan rebels fighting colonel gadhafi make their case for official recognition and more money while in washington but they end up leaving empty handed. advice of celebrations are held across russia from the victory day ukrainian veterans have to fight the nazis once again after a brutal attack by nationalists during the festivities.

we are highlighting the stories that made headlines this week here on our team this is the weekly well thousands are fleeing syria where violence is raging despite the government's promise of dialogue with the opposition international pressure is mounting on syria over brutal crackdowns on unseen government protesters with some eight hundred killed in about a thousand or so arrested in just the past two months alone the e.u. and u.s. meantime have imposed sanctions on the country and washington is even said to be considering declaring president assad's eleven year rule as unlawful and adultery is a guy who kind reports many believe the u.s. is laying the foundations for drastic action against the regime. who is a legitimate international leader and who is not it seems america will decide

a white house source said the obama administration is edging closer to declaring our son's ruling syria illegitimate and that it would be just the first step we will continue to work with our international partners in the e.u. and. where on additional steps to hold syria responsible for its gross human rights abuses sounds familiar united states is helping to lead an international effort so the for the turks further violence put in place unprecedented sanctions to hold it up the government accountable when the u.s. says it's going to hold someone responsible expect action once the u.s. has officially declared the syrian government illegitimate. it it would open the door to various steps taken to remove that government but the south proclaimed position of the u.s.

as the world's policeman and judge of which government is legitimate or not doesn't sit well with everyone. now against. american president. in government are not to be annuity americans who are saying that even some of the u.s. long time allies like the yemeni president seem to be intimidated by those that's the white house to act as the arbiter of who will to power in the world. are you president of the united states and president of the world when condemning government atrocities in different countries in the middle east and north africa the u.s. claims the higher moral ground declaring human rights is the basis for its involvement but the critics say this is a smokescreen for the real reason for interference and the d.n.a. of. it all and economic.

story. of how he rose. you crossed a country and your. america's self-proclaimed humanitarian involvement has led it to take sides in the libyan civil war the us has pledged extensive support for the rebels newly released week a leaks cables show that the u.s. had been funneling money to syria's opposition for several years now but some say the help comes with strings attached nobody gives away money for nothing or arms and the u.s. sees the opportunity of putting in a friendly pro-american government response of some american interest the coalition efforts in libya have reached a dead end with the country now in military stalemate in the meantime civilian casualties there continue to grow. analysts say foreign involvement in syria could

trigger a much worse conflict syria's in the heart of the arab world and its it explodes or implodes it will affect all its neighboring countries iraq saudi arabia jordan israel lebannon. they're in they're all likely to get involved in a collapsing or a war torn serious serious partnership with iran has long been irritating washington yet another recent say some to go after us aren't relying on iran as your best friend and your only screw teacher ally is not a viable way forward critics say the us takes on the role of wall policeman now it's inherent altruism or rather out of self-interest and the bigger question is whether those interests have made the wall safer or have to stabilize the more i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . well the unrest is already spreading beyond syria with casualties reported lebanese and it is already borders as people there are simply trying to escape the

violence activist filmmaker kind of chandan says that the sanctions imposed on syria are more about a struggle for world domination rather than the protection of civilians in the west would like the syrian regime like the libyan regime like with hizbollah and the palestinian resistance to disappear yesterday and now it's even that is a whole different kettle of fish i think where the west is at now in this historical moment everyone knows that the world has finished entering into a multi-polar world and the west is panicking about that they can't sit back and allow the break nations of the global south just to rise up or for them to just go without go without a fight so now is really the historic opportunity for western germany to try to pull back a little bit off the world domination that they've lost in the last decade but frankly even if they did go into syria which i don't think they will i think the

syrian regime or what will hold tight but even if they did i mean what's happened the last decade iraq and afghanistan yes they got rid of saddam hussein yes they got rid of the taleban but what is the net result the net result was they were bogged down morally politically economically diplomatically they were completely completely outmaneuvered by the global south and rise of the global south and the bric nations in particular and what happened in the next several years are coming as we're. meantime this week the u.s. dashed the hopes of the libyan rebels for official recognition and the white house gave a decisive message rather to a libyan opposition leader during his visit to washington the u.s. is also dragging its feet on a releasing colonel gadhafi frozen assets that were earlier promised to the rebels but it's not only the opposition that's feeling the cost of the war. i have been in reports. for those who joined the fight in libya the cost of conflict is quickly taking off denmark's one of just six nato members conducting air strikes to enforce

the no fly zone it's six f. sixteen fighter planes are racking up a hefty bill of thirteen and a half million dollars a month we were anticipating a number that was considering a door opened up we aren't that many nation that is using a place. to take us for example they're using drones they have had tomahawk missiles but i don't have any fighter planes involved. then mark dropped one hundred twenty six precision bombs in the first four nights of the campaign for each one costs on average fifty thousand dollars on top of that his one point six million a month the station the jets in sicily along with one hundred thirty personnel that this rate denmark's annual cost will be one hundred seventeen million dollars four percent of its defense budget the danish air force refuses to comment on the money saying it's too political a topic that parliament says it can afford it these people have come to the

american embassy to show their opposition to the war it's not just the conflict they're protesting against though it's also denmark's willingness to follow the u.s. into battle they do this because. i don't know some people say they have an inferiority complex and they follow big daddy the. united states and france wants this war against gadhafi so they go all their junior partners the danish parliament was unanimous in packing a bombing campaign in libya in the first time ever on a military action but since then the cracks have appeared with the far left red green alliance with during its support it says nato has gone beyond its mandate by taking sides in a civil war now the party fears denmark could follow suit again with a ground offensive looming i think it's likely because the prime minister wants to be a strongman is precedes there's an upcoming election. and also that it's the policy

of the current government to be as close to the us as possible at the moment the government's against sending ground forces six f. sixteen s are already costing the same as denmark's troop deployments in afghanistan and they've been there for ten years but as afghanistan kosovo and iraq who showed up when push comes to shove the country's more than willing to join america whatever the cost are bennett r.t. copenhagen. now i look at what else as i had this hour here on r.t. and storming the un european and voted for a permanent seat at the security council but their hopes on shared by all. also find out why finnish authorities are released and the man behind a website is serving as a mouthpiece for terrorists. and a growing number of refugees fleeing the unrest in the arab world is creating

a rift between e.u. members some are calling to temporarily or even permanently tighten borders between states and bring back passport checks and as r.t. has done orbital reports european unity could be on the brink of collapse the dream of european integration goes off the rails in a beautiful between two of the e.u.'s founders france blocked all train services from italy after finding carriages full of african migrants italy had handed out visitors visas allowing travel in the european union but shots of the trust on which the e.u. used he's a free regime realize he does shawn kind of mistrust between two partners between france and italy france considering that italy has not implemented in a good way to rules. for thousands fleeing the violence in north africa italy is the nearest e.u. border security experts who've studied the country's patrols on the strength but

fellow member states argue they shouldn't have to pay for italy's mistakes we responsible of the fact that the that the un's just on the sea with people coming from outside and they are not able to fix the problem we are not criminals terrorist madmen we don't want them here. protested to the french embassy for quotes voile asian of european principles france counts as it already takes five times more immigrants than italy employees here of the european parliament say they need to control immigration but with each member state putting its interests first and blaming each other for the problem just getting reports from one state to another e.u. security chiefs this week held crisis talks admitted the system's roit for abuse one and the same applicants for asylum can have like seventy seventy five percent

chance of being granted asylum in one country of the european union and less than one percent with the same reasons in another country states are now taking the lords of their own hands on whims they dare morgan reintroduced border controls for people coming from of the e.u. states build your home of the e.u. headquarters is now calling for the same thing that. all immigrants two thousand giving back to each other this is not possible isn't possible for the people in question that it's not possible to. ask for more internal border. growing numbers in the union's biggest country wants border checks to germany post possible restrictions in terms of freedom of travel and this is really something that many people are concerned off richer nations in the e.u. also. the invasion for. restrictions on working and benefits for citizens from.

east european states which joined the union in two thousand and four lifted on the first of may one. flood to the u.k. attracts people from the countries have just joined it attracts people from outside the european union because they know once they get into your opinion country they can cross borders they can work if they want to or take advantage of the generous benefits system in most european or some european countries like britain for example and it actually attracts more migration which is what we're seeing now from north africa the soiling of the shingle grievance on visa free travel e.u. leaders all smiles the fear now is they've opened the pandora's box that they no longer control the new bush you see brussels. you're watching r.t. as we run down the top stories of the past week now earlier this week european m.p.'s it decided to request their own a permanent seat at the u.n. security council it's part of a planned overhaul of the e.u.'s common defense security and foreign policy but the

move has not been met favorably by a member states which already have a seat on the council like britain and france the u.k. said it will not give up its own place of providing for the sake of putting united europe there in time m.v.p. charles tannock things britain will fight to defend its u.n. influence. there's no way that the british government or the british can serve the delegation and i speak for the conservatives in the european parliament we would support any move which weakened our ability to project our foreign policy interests and clearly being founding members of the un security council with a veto as a permanent member this is a major plank in being able to project our foreign policy interests and indeed we were so successful recently in collaboration with our french colleagues in securing un security council resolution nineteen seventy three over libya so no we would not give up our seat in favor of any seat because of the end of the day the common

foreign security policy of the european union is only when we all agree and sometimes we don't all agree as was the case over iraq and has been the case regrettably in some ways over libya when the germans abstained so now it's essential as a defining characteristic of a nation's foreign policy the ability to speak when they want to in their national interest and clearly the seat on the u.n. is one of the most important things that we can have as a nuclear power as a founding member of the security council that is the united kingdom and i can really can't see any traction for the u.k. government to want to do so. he would r.t. live from moscow now on the ninth of may russia was celebrating victory day one of the most important and memorable occasions in the country's history if not sixty six years since soviet allied soldiers defeated nazi troops in world war two a spectacular parade in red square saw some twenty thousand troops marching alongside military might a minute of silence was observed in memory of the twenty seven million soviet to

die during the war but meanwhile in western ukraine veterans who fought to free people from a nazi invasion were attacked by violent nationalists artie's alexia chesty witness it's. a holiday for millions a street brawl for sam unlike most of the region on may the ninth this ukrainian city became a vicious display of neo nazis and. several thousand activists from radical nationalist parties book the engines to read on soldiers cemeteries preventing war veterans from getting inside and paying tribute some in this part of ukraine do not see me the ninth as a reason to celebrate believing the soviet period to be worse than enduring once you occupation the st george's ribbon is usually worn as a tradition on may the ninth to commemorate those who died in the great crash or to war but on this day in the western ukrainian capital city of the wall putting this on your lapel would have meant serious risk regardless of whether you're

a veteran or not. quite sure that the ribbons were forcibly ripped from the chests of those who were heading to the grave yards along with abusive chances such as death to the mosque right nazi salutes hurling rocks and small bombs that is how the fourth marks the major ninth yeah we're here in this picture all my brothers and me for the liberation of this line trinket fascists and these people here do not let me come inside this century to lay flowers and he's great this is it is grace. it's obscene surprised even the locals who had grown used to protests on victory day these were the scenes from last year when nationalist wipe their feet on the redneck street diner. i spent thirteen years in detention in siberia my two brothers were killed will could something like this have happened in a normal country there. their heroes are people regarded world why does nasa collaborators replica shirts with the founders of the one nine hundred forty s.

insurgent army stop on monday and the months ahead which are a big hit here there are seen as freedom fighters even though for a while they fought alongside the nazi army until civilians jews and russians in a new some manner how the mainstream political parties deal with these sorts of movements today in cairo. as we've seen it in case you crane were. not to commemorate or has been elevated to status of a hero although it appeared to be an anti russian protest but really it was a protest of the. ukrainian society in these days has to deal with and this is only part of the wider picture of the perception of the past is making waves in other former soviet states and they really as as marches and glorifying nots allegiance in the baltic states such as loudly and the story you know the danger is that people begin to forget what we fought for what the veterans died for as we're seeing the reemergence of far right forces and nationalist forces that really in

many sense resemble exactly that the merge with hitler in the one eight hundred thirty such behavior is the only applies to the minority most people in this country still celebrate history with proper respect but the ugly scenes in the halls should definitely alert ukraine's leadership especially after demands for a revolution were clearly voiced by the end remark let's see russia reporting from divorce in western ukraine. a german court has sentenced a ninety one year old man to five years for a nazi war crimes and a death count john was found guilty of helping to murder almost thirty thousand jews during world war two while serving as a guard in a polish concentration camp his case was opened over thirty years ago even israel sentenced him to death but later canceled that verdict then you insists he was a victim of the nazis who captured him as a soviet soldier and held him prisoner the man is currently being taken to a nursing facility while he appeals his conviction. well in other news over the

past week here an artsy president of your defense said that this week the killing of osama bin ladin by u.s. special forces was beneficial to russia's national security as well but he warned that the death of the al-qaeda leader was not the end of terrorism as the organization is still standing agents to russia and other countries president valid special forces will continue to take a hard line against extremism russia's i'm seeing terror dreyfus recently killed two high ranking al qaeda operatives in the north caucasus. well a finnish journalist believed to be the organizer of an internet mouthpiece for russia's most wanted terrorist has walked free but the trial of mikhail of store share has nothing to do with his possible links to terrorism he was accused of smuggling chechens into finland woodchip rituals later called a humanitarian action human rights activists believe authorities turn a blind eye to a store freeze activity because he has high profile supporters who were outside

which he set up in the sponsors or regularly as the views of the wanted terrorist. in a finnish past spoke out against the site he was immediately detained and defrocked johana backlund who was defended told us here at our very that it is the case that shows there's a protester again at play in finland. the court process against me cause to show any feeling was show trial. judge and the prosecutor didn't want to sentence him of a they wanted to only to give some kind of justification for him for his activities well he's an activist who is actively promoting islamist terrorism against russia he has several websites he has on all face and he's a representing officially. in finland he's an extremely dangerous individual and i'm very sure of that and he has a very strong political support in finland and he's a he's

a giving political space for islamistic extremism in the north and nordic countries in northern europe. you are with r.t. and you can always follow the stories we're covering here by doing so on our web site regular updates eye catching videos are all waiting for you would r.t. dot com here's a some of what's online right now i know the u.s. congress proposes to cut funds for controversial body scanners at airports the detectors were slammed for an invasion of privacy or some have also questioned their effectiveness also. classical music it goes underground moscow's metro prepares a treat for late night commuters with a lucky five hundred win tickets to a special concert as part of the capital's museum might experience more details on that and so much more at r.t. dot com. the operator of japan's quake hit

fukushima nuclear plant has agreed to cut costs and allow an investigation in return for government help with paying out compensation to paralyzed facility has been leaking radiation into the sea for over two months now professor robert jacobs from the hiroshima peace interview says we still don't know the full extent of the damage there. affairs are much more serious than we were told earlier this plant has been in meltdown for a while we were not told that for a long time probably because tepco did not even realize it for a long time even though the releases of radiation certainly imply it could many people and many people did say that first week at the plants were melting down so. it definitely is a much more serious situation then we have been will lead to believe. there's very good reason to believe that there is much more serious situation going on in reactor number two and reactor number three and also in the spent fuel pool in

reactor number four i have a rule of thumb that i tend to go by which is that anything that is publicly stated is probably around ten to twenty percent of what's true so it will take us it will take us probably years to know the extent of the contamination and the extent of the fuel melting. all right as we are running down the top stories of the week here on r t let's check out some other international news making headlines on this day and at least eight people were killed as israeli troops shot at pro palestinian protesters at the lebanese syrian and gaza borders the clashes broke out on a now good day marks the anniversary of the founding of the jewish state when many palestinians lost their homes security officials have said there were injuries as well forces fired at protesters to prevent crowds from crossing the israeli border . now the head of the international monetary fund the i.m.f. has been charged with sexual attack attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment

dominique strauss card was pulled from a plane minutes before he was due to fly to paris and question on suspicion of assaulting a hotel maid the thirty two year old woman claims he attacked her when she was cleaning his room trash cans lawyer says he will plead not guilty the i.m.f. head meantime is also considered a possible socialist candidate for the prince french presidency. and the u.s. has opened a massive flood gates in louisiana to avert inundation in cities along the mississippi thousands of square miles of land will be engulfed in the flood this is the first time in four decades the level of the river has forced the flood gates to be opened officials say twenty five thousand people and more than ten thousand buildings could be adversely affected. at least six passengers have been killed after a bus was hit by a roadside bomb near a garrison town in eastern pakistan twenty others were wounded it is the second

major attack in pakistan at this week alone on friday last targeted a military base killing almost one hundred taliban officials said the bombing was to avenge the death of osama bin laden. now this week russia netted the right to host yet another major sporting event this time the two thousand and sixteen. old ice hockey championship the country was also scored with his bids for the next winter olympics and the two thousand and eighteen world cup prime minister vladimir putin pledged a first class to him and also shared his own experience of getting on the skates russia deserves the horse to the championship and not just. go away glory was it two months and not just because we have not been that he's on or indicates but because of our great. great liam and the ideals of

sportsmanship athlete these them where fully in fact to be neat in youth when you buy this kid. and i took time to learn to ski. i must admit it was not easy and not even for a person who had been practicing sports with the kids and even how did i am learning to play ice hockey but now i have first hand experience of play is truly great game. all right now we'll do a recount all the week's main headlines and of course that has headlines in just a couple of minutes here on our team so i want to stay with us. all.

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