bringing you the top news and headlines from around the world this is r.t. i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us human rights groups have lashed out at u.k. courts for handing out overly harsh and disproportionate prison sentences in the wake of last week's riots the issue came under the spotlight after two young men were jailed for four years each for trying to use facebook to incite disorder during the unrest artie's ivor bennett has the story from london. four years behind bars for the riot that didn't even happen jordan black sure and perry sutcliffe kenan were banged up for inciting disorder on facebook no one turned up after their invitation to riot which they later said was a drunken joke but now they face sentences even tougher than most looters and our worry is that it is an imbalance and a four year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for

a previous bodily harm for holding someone up with a knife or even for. some form of sexual assault so it seems to me that that there is a danger that the courts are moving into disproportionate territory and that actually devalues our response to more serious crimes that governments encourage courts to dish out harsh sentences by using the public disturbance as an aggravating factor it's meant this man anderson fernandez could even be sent to jail for theft of just two scoops of ice cream because like this one denying bail to most offenders and ignoring any claims of previous good character of the one thousand two hundred seventy seven people charged so far two thirds have been remanded in custody that's way up on last year's rate for serious crimes just just ten percent some offenders even being made homeless is their punishment with local governments taking away their houses but many say this will simply cause more harm

than good i think this is very unwise the move to remove people from housing intern move benefits because actually if we are seeing that some of the crime that we saw on the streets was an expression of people not feeling puerto society not feeling part of our communities then these measures are actually going to push people further away from society further away from our communities and far more likely to commit crime the facebook case is the first sign of the government's desire to crack down on social media sites like twitter were applauded by the west for mobilizing the masses in the arab world but they were also instrumental in the u.k. riots so now the prime minister wants it to stop. we are working with the police the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites or services when we know they are plotting violence disorder and criminality when social media fueled revolutions in egypt and tunisia britain called it democracy but now the shoe's on the other foot when

troubles closer to home i'm very conscious the news you know the. poor or. movement we would be the force to complete. the authorities in those countries who are trying to walk. the prime minister says this is where britain fights back but it speeds this fighting fire with fire could only fan the flames of civil disorder after bennett artsy london. and of course you are with r t still ahead for you this hour. more on the global markets are berlin and paris ignore the advice of investors on how to save the eurozone from going down under. on to other news now tepco the company that operates japan's devastated fukushima nuclear power plant has confirmed radioactive material is still present in the surrounding air and soil reports also claim the pipes of at least one of the

reactors were seriously damaged during the tremor that triggered the devastating tsunami this raises concerns that the facility built in an active tectonic region wasn't capable of withstanding a powerful quake and was doomed from the start its cooling system failed and the reactor went into meltdown after the initial trauma and the following fifteen meter wave the plant has been leaking radioactive material since of the disaster despite continued efforts to patch up the damage professor professor christopher busby of the european committee on radiation risks says that nuclear energy in japan should be abandoned altogether. it was very silly to build reactors on on what what is clearly a poor line and in an area where there are known to be. quakes and we see the result of having done that you cannot really believe that you can cage these things and expect them to come out and not to have these sorts of accidents

and other accidents will occur in the future and these accidents are so terrifying and the consequences of them are so poorly that really we cannot afford to choose this method of generating electricity because you can't stop it just now because that would bring the whole trip down to a whole because it depends so so much on nuclear power what we've got here is a situation where you've got fission taking place no most neutron concentration neutral in flux and seawater. and then effectively we're producing a very large quantities of radio nuclides all the time and they haven't been able to deal with that. we're talking about something that is absolutely own going and it's just it's just being ignored is being it's being is not being adequately reported by the authorities in japan or indeed in the its own international atomic energy. emotions run high as russia presents its new fifth generation fighter jet at the international max biannual air show near moscow the spectacular unveiling of the new high tech super plane bright and day two of the exhibition that's also seen

the thrilling high speed maneuvers of aerobatic teams from around the world artie's research as the action packed details. what an amazing day it's been here for the max two thousand and eleven international show what money is wrong research show you we saw history in the making today with the debut of the super secret stealth sukhoi the t fifty it's been hidden from everybody it came out today much to the approval of the prime minister vladimir putin he was here to watch the debut of the stealth t. fifty strike and he gave it his stamp of approval and how could he not with a maneuver as it was pulling it just tore the sky to pieces a truly sensational piece piece of machinery it is designed to go against america's f. twenty two an f. eighteen the idea was actually dreamt up between russia and india it was a mutual deal to produce the super secret stealth the t fifty the idea is to create

over a thousand in the coming decades and hopefully have them in service by two thousand and fifteen we saw some spectacular shows from the russian knights and the russian swift they pulled some very high maneuver high speed closely knit acrobatics the americans here the french are here the italians are here the baltic be here doing their acrobatic stunts as well and we saw a lot of robotic systems to boot we saw the drones large drones tiny jones we saw helicopter drones as well so it's been a fantastic day and r.t. will continue to broadcast live throughout the weekend i should go across over now to my colleague artie's tom barton who has a story about the brand new russian passenger liner that's coming onto the market shortly about to knock heads with boeing so i'll finish off now tom barton as i just need to do one thing that is i just need to find the keys this is one of the new hoops of russian aviation it's called the in this twenty one it's time to it is an airline of the twenty first century there's

a lot riding on the fate of this plane it represents the efforts of the russian aircraft industry that so far failed to break into international. markets and it'll have to be as modern as it says it is to survive the competition. as a sort to mid-range passenger jet it will be going up against the likes of boeing seven three seven an airbus has a three twenty both well established planes its makers are fully aware of the challenge ahead but we understand they will not we are not terrorists on this market. market part but we hope we will have. a powerful market. they're confident the m s twenty one will be able to technically match its competitors with a third of it built from light composite materials and a totally new airframe it will save on that crucial substance field. of one

persists to present some. approximately fifteen percent or so of course operation of course. but the n.s.a. twenty one also follows the earlier sukhoi superjet as one of the first russian airliners built in years the efforts are being led by the united air craft corporation which is trying to make russian plane companies work together like air persons done in europe we used to engineer or so ingenious or capacity from suporn company to consumer to pro to political but if you lose it's early days yet but with a wealth of aeronautical engineering experience from soviet times hopes are flying high that the m.s. twenty one will put a new generation of russian airliners up in the clouds tom boston party. and of course you can stay with us for more high octane updates from the leading edge max two thousand and eleven throughout the week. now global markets took

a nosedive on wednesday undermining the efforts of economic leaders to calm anxiety over the deepening crisis angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy called for the creation of a single united erode zone government which would ensure its members took finance more responsibly they brushed aside other proposals including expanding the e.u. bailout fund and of the release of euro bonds which many experts said could prove to be a viable solution the french and german leaders put the emphasis on closer integration of e.u. countries as a way out of the crisis political analyst and author f william and believes the proposed measures just won't be enough and will only create the illusion of stability. i think the collective economic government that merkel and sarkozy are talking about is really a desperate political ploy to try to create the illusion of stability where the underlined stability doesn't yet exist there is no political will not in germany

nor in the rest of the eurozone countries for as surrendering national sovereignty to a collective entity that has any decision powers so it's simply a shimmer that's been thrown out there to try to calm the markets the alternative really is is to get a stable export market relations and i think above all with russia the central asian republics china and the rest of asia in the middle east and if that is created then you can have a growth vector that leads you out of this debt impasse that the eurozone countries are in without that and so long as as the dollar system dominates international financial relations that moody's standard and poor's do the rating on sovereign debt for european union countries and that there is no independent european credit rating agency and there isn't is no. growth perspective not only austerity and there is no up to this crisis. on to syria now where the u.n.

announced a decision to remove all non-essential staff from its offices in the country amid growing concern over the violent crackdown by government forces on demonstrators the syrian government responded by inviting u.n. personnel to observe the situation on the ground meanwhile activists say over thirty people have been killed since troops seized control of the northern port city of latakia and according to the director of the center for research on globalization michel chossudovsky much of the hype around the syrian crisis originates from abroad. i think that this is really part of the public relations kind of page to double the size the syrian government without addressing the fundamental causes of the crisis this is the note of peace so this. is an armed insurrection by the well organized mercenaries.

and it is. not only by government sources let's examine israeli and lebanese soldiers say the protesters have heavy machine guns so. i think. the united nations decided to move to remove its is no central stas stuff essentially. as a prelude to tomorrow's session of the united nations security council. time now to take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world the u.n. prosecutors have announced that they want to speed up the trial of bosnian serb general rock on luggage due to concerns over his poor health they want to try sixty nine year old for the shrub and needs a massacre first and then try him on other charges fearing that his condition might not allow him to stand a long trial that is accused of leading the genocide of eight thousand muslims in srebrenica in one thousand nine hundred five and the siege of sarajevo in which ten

thousand people were killed. and a turkish forces have reportedly launched a massive retaliation against kurdish forces in iraq after eight servicemen were killed in a rebel attack on a military convoy reports suggest some fifteen warplanes strafed several bases of the kurdistan workers party after turkish leaders said their patience with the long running insurgency and run out last month alone at least thirty turkish soldiers died fighting the kurdish rebel group that's been calling for the autonomy for the area for almost two decades. lawyers for former i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn who was accused of sexual assault have denounced a leaked medical report into the case according to the victim's lawyers medical examination of the woman confirmed her injuries were caused by rape and assault but khan's attorneys say the claims are misleading relaying the relying heavily on the accuser's word prosecutors are expected to announce next week whether they will

proceed with a criminal trial. six people have been arrested and two police officers injured after thousands protested in madrid over the use of public money to finance the pope's visit to spain scuffles broke out as police moved to clear demonstrators from the central square despite their staunch catholic reputation there's anger amongst spanish people over the seventy two million dollar cost of the pontiff's tour in the face of spain's debt crisis. excuse me pope benedict the sixteenth is due to arrive in the capital on thursday for his visit marking world youth day. now there is no respite for russia and its war against terrorism in the early hours state forces killed four militants in russia's republic of chechnya in the north caucasus according to the chechen president runs along. the operation helped prevent

a series of attacks planned in the area but. as more about the ongoing war against terrorism. the latest information that we have received is coming from change now where during an anti terror a group of militants have been killed and one of these has already been identified he was one of the high profile terrorists working in the region of north caucasus he was also preparing a suicide bombers as well as he was planning future attacks in the region the identification of the others is now in process of the chechen republic arms on a bit of sad that this operation was planned and prepared in advance meanwhile of this day was also marked by and not the rate that happened in the neighboring republic of dagestan where a group of militants attacked a column of the russian military forces two russian servicemen were killed and in the fighting that broke out another six militants were killed everyone.

and just recently basically at the same time and a very close to the location of the fighting russian federal security service as a defused a bomb with a massive amount of one hundred kilograms of t.n.t. according to russia's athens be had another large scale attack was a preventive this time on the russian railways in the moscow region in july the special forces the number of a terror attacks went up by thirty percent in the first half of this year. reporting for us there now we have more news videos and updates for you on our website dot com here's what's online for you right now. goes on the holiday president go fishing diving in the mighty river.

and dreams really do come true siberian authorities have promised to find eight meter tall statue of the robot. next to the local all because a star wars fan wrote to the president. the republic of. following the death of its president stakes are high for any future leader as the region is still recovering from conflict neighboring georgia next we talked to one of the presidential candidates prime minister. about the challenges his country faces.

we are in the. creations are under way for the august presidential election so the gay shown by is the country's prime minister and also one of the candidates and he's here with us today the upcoming election is the second presidential election after a pause in recognition what does it say about a pause as more than an independent state. we have been an independent state for a longer time than we've been recognized so this is in fact already our fourth

election democracy is working its way into our society and so each time elections get more democratic the public gets involved more actively and so we expect this time it will be a democratic process the prime minister of your main competitor is the acting president how do you manage the country. the governmental mechanisms are working and currently in accordance with our constitution presidential duties are performed by the parliament speaker all the ministries are working as usual you with concerns that the elections would be falsified and promised to fight if your victory would be taking from you hopeful are you ready to go. election fraud is nothing but lying to our own people is the worst crime one could commit all of us here enough because you will do everything to never let that happen political tensions put the country on the brink of civil war in two thousand and four is that the threat today. if someone attempts to rig the ballot or pull some dirty tricks then of course it

could be a threat. what will your foreign policy priorities be. our priority strategic partner is russia and our foreign policy will focus on relations with russia in addition to this we keep working on getting the other more distant countries to recognize us we're looking for partners for friendly states which are less dependent on nato as policy and the united states despite some quite high pressure from the major powers. such states are at their this process continues and it will not stop we are convinced that had cheating further international recognition will to a significant extent depend on how we keep on developing as a country on our progress in home affairs and what example we'll be setting. is joining russia an option any time and if you church. we are highly interested in joining those international organizations that russia our strategic partner is a member of for instance such organizations as the shanghai cooperation

organization with this joint military program also you are a sec and the customs union and many other organizations we'd like to participate wherever possible that's our interest but we are not talking about becoming part of another state and neither is russia thinking in such terms are talks with georgia possible. in a certain format the talks with georgia are still ongoing if we think of the geneva talks as for direct dialogue i think it is possible and will be necessary in future though right at the moment the prospects to reach a consensus on this matter appear quite negative first of all the georgian authorities have themselves restricted the possibilities for dialogue by adopting the law on occupied territories this doesn't leave any chance for maintaining a dialogue is there fear of another georgian aggression. we are quite used to it by now and we have had to deal with a number of acts of aggression but now that we have a strategic partnership with russia which defines our mutual obligations it gives

us reliable security guarantees and our society has stopped considering the external threat to our security as a priority issue we have other top priority threats to deal with now. how far is georgia prepared to go to restore what it calls its territorial integrity. these are the roots of our conflict that lie in the fact that georgia is claiming our territory as long as it keeps claiming it there is no way to reach an agreement. georgian refugees are allowed to return to the bordering district of are you prepared to let them return to their homes and so whom the capital of. this process has actually been completed those people who wanted to return did so well. those who didn't are adapting to their lives at their new places of residence and they should be receiving help both from the international community and georgian authorities because the problem of refugees is a two way problem which should be addressed everywhere via a combined two way approach those people who can be brought back home should be

helped to return and that's what we did in jew course well those who couldn't return should be helped find accommodation where they ended up living those people who can be brought back home should be helped to return and that's what we did in due time well those who couldn't return should be helped to accommodate where they ended up living those people who have been returned home want to be citizens with full rights we have been visiting towns and settlements in the bordering district of galilee during the election campaign and the main thing the district residents are asking for is to speed up the process of recognizing their citizenship providing them with passports and that's what we want to help them become our country citizens with full rights and adjust to all international processes. there is a whole generation of people that applies if you survive two wars with georgia during the past twenty years how is it possible at all for these people to live peaceful lives. if we speak of youth organizations we have twelve such groups in abkhazia

and two of them are participating in the fair election campaign their position is neutral and they're going to be observing the upcoming election ten other organizations have gone public with their decision to support my candidacy because it needs foreign investments but is it possible to attract capital to projects in the country when it's legal and economic status is doubted by some potential investors we have a law that provides guarantees to businesses and international investors and we are working on other additional mechanisms to provide security guarantees for their business we're very interested in us and our laws will be increasing the extent of security guarantees for their business we do want to attract more investors the russian city of sochi is. very close to a cause here is there any profit for a pause in the fact that so much is being invested into saltines olympic projects when we were just at the current stage we're already co-working on this project we're supplying the olympic construction sites with enormous materials and there

are a number of other projects which we are interested in participating in but it is possible we will at any rate we're already receiving support on some communications projects as you know we've obtained a loan to restore our railway system and we've signed a letter of intent pertaining to the reconstruction of our airport and we are considering all this in the context of the sochi olympic project. sergei shamba thank you for your time with us today. if.

you will just order. these streets to keep secrets but the time to reveal the shooting in the soviet files. takes fifteen to twenty million years for the planet to recover from a major extinction event but the planet has time we don't. it's been going on for months twenty twenty five years and since it's been moved to eco terrorists before there was even islamic fundamentalist terrorist in this country when a nine eleven happened the bush administration could not find any terrorists because the feds couldn't find any real terrorists they decided to take these young people who are accused of property sabotage and labeled them as terrorists someone

he'll destroy property. with absolutely zero intention of harming a single human being. in my mind it's not fair it's real people who are green in this country are the housewives who recycle. and the children who play trees on the weekend with their cub scout troops that's the. sound. of.

bringing you the top news and headlines from around the world direct from the heart of moscow this is our team glad to have you with us the british intelligence services m i five and m i six are accused of colluding with the torture of terror suspects held overseas the political scandal. lawyers and human rights groups a boycott an inquiry into the issue they claim that because its findings will be kept secret the hearing will lack credibility. in prison for incitement to britons are sentenced to four years each in prison for their facebook call for civil unrest even though no one showed up for the riot meanwhile concerns are raised that the punishment is too severe. still leaking.