poor investigation into who was responsible was even launched they're all saying that the assad regime is committing human rights abuses and they repeat this message obsessive li i am confident to predict that indeed it will remain fixed in people's minds and could well be used as a pretext and you don't have to look back to far to see where hasty jokingly saw a rush to take up arms like the cost of war and nine months exactly what happened in our vision of a massacre which was the village of russia you have a u.n. inquiry that was severely bullied by the u.s. ambassador it was leaving your observation mission on the ground your claims that it was a brutal murder. innocent civilians by government troops serving it was lame presented with ultimatum and randomly aimed and bombed back then the yugoslavian government just like the syrian one now condemned militants for the killings in this case blaming the ban in separatists from the kosovo liberation army an investigation was

launched to find out whether the victims were innocent civilians as the international community claimed or whether the country's army had been battling professional fighters two out of three forensic inquiries proved most of the casualties died in combat the third report by an e.u. team has never been made public interesting we know about we have been reports of syrian rebels whoever they are. with the. think of being in kosovo liberation army the people who were basically agents of mido in the coastal war. basically treading on i don't know they were saying they were training in the marsian human rights but definitely the only training that caylee could have ever given anybody is how do you figure massacre in your state or war let's see exactly what's happening now. but even with hindsight after the nato bombing of yugoslavia will ruin the alliances a strikes in libya last year history isn't be. prevent us from

repeating itself again and again with this seven images coming from syria and making world headlines everybody agreed those who are guilty must be punished but the reaction from the international community has been so thief and so coordinated the risk is that punishment will come before even those who are truly responsible rex pace and that could mean not just a loss of justice but also huge loss of life. or a financial our team reporting from syria. meanwhile moscow stepping up its efforts to mediate a diplomatic solution in syria it wants an international contact group to persuade damascus and the rebels to halt violence and begin talks but russia says some external plans are provoking the syrian opposition to continue fighting despite kofi annan peace plan. when we hear reports of another massacre in syria and currently we see such atrocities almost daily as many international media outlets place the blame entirely on the massacres the government of any country is of

course responsible for what's happening within his borders but we're sure the regime alone is not to blame for everything we see massacres in houla terrorist attacks in damascus and aleppo that have been condemned by the un security council all this is a result of confrontations that are getting more and more support from abroad first of all moral support for the so-called armed opposition which is being supplied with money weapons and bolstered by militants from neighboring countries. or an opposition group in exile has elected a kurdish activist as its new leader abdel baset site has urged mass defections from the regime and pledged support for the free syrian army fighting against present the surge which could allow the rebels to gain further ground middle east expert he says with western states strongly backing the opposition there largely responsible for the country's dire situation. when the americans grassroots slow growth some talk about transition what they are effectively mean is regime change that is what they did in libya. with dire consequences as we can see in

their country to do it in syria the plan to bring both sides to the table and have a negotiated settlement is obviously the best way to move forward but the united states and britain and their other allies have absolutely no pressure on the other side to come to the negotiate negotiating table and start a process of talks so it would appear to me that what we now have is an end game situation where the united states has decided to remove this regime and will use everything you know spotted. the struggling euro zone has been dealt a fresh blow the spain has become the largest economy so far to ask for help as it admitted its one hundred billion euros to prop up its beleaguered banks the cash will be fed directly to

a special fund with madrid ultimately responsible for the money however this plan that spain avoid committing to additional cuts imposed from the outside as happened in the case of greece ireland and portugal the spanish prime minister has praised the loan as a victory for the single currency is credibility divestment advisor patrick young is question its effectiveness and even the euro's future as a currency. all of the politicians have basically left the people stranded the new government in spain went into denial mode from the wall and they came into office and six months later they suddenly realized what anybody who was remotely financially literate could work six months ago and two years ago even sanish banks are lost and ultimately there needs to be a way in order to manage to rescue the conventional big. like mechanisms are not going to work and that's why ultimately it's very difficult to see tragically whether or not there really is a future to the euro was a currency the greeks when you talk to the one side they don't want austerity and

they don't really say they should have to pay their bills for the deaths that have been grown by the government over the years at the same time they think they should be in the euro it's automatically a little bit like going out and calling a group of eight year old children no matter they may say that they realize they have to eat sensibly they're going to demand ice cream and jelly for their next meal and for every meal there after as long as they have influence the problem with greece is ultimately it doesn't really matter what they vote for in the course of the middle of june because they have actually been taking their medicine and greece ultimately is returning to the drachma i think whether it likes it or not because it's completely untenable as a conventional modern democracy it's simply sadly does not function as one another fact madrid is getting that huge handout with no a sturdy strings attached has led to calls in dublin for it to renegotiate its bailout deal but one small town isn't waiting for the government to sort things out

as laura smith reports people they're looking back to help move forwards. it's a blast from the past as this customer uses the irish punt to pay for some everyday purchases in the town of clueless ireland joined the euro from the get go in two thousand and two but crisis hit business owners here have revived their old currency to try and desperately claw some cash back into the community if you bring in pointed to was twenty point whatever you spend or fifty pounds whatever you spend we will give you the change of tone as time voters which you can then go and spend crossroad and super value on the credit note or go for a drink up the tone it's it's a great scheme for the child it means all the money remains within the town as for the euro here it's been reduced to a novelty item printed on tissues and toilet paper and customers come from miles around to spend their puts often stopping by for a haircut while they're here oh yeah definitely

a lot of people coming from cross border from belfast especially around from people from no phantoms from the functions on us obligation mountain can have caught him in but it. out there's an estimated two hundred eighty five million tucked away in draws and under mattresses forgotten about ok to souvenirs when arlen joined the euro a decade ago they're no longer legal tender but would have a value of around two hundred forty million euros just a fraction of which would make a massive difference in crisis hit close the permit scheme has undoubtedly boosted the local economy but the ravages of the economic crash are still all too evident the main street is lined with boarded up shops with around fifty percent of premises empty it's a scene that's repeated in small towns and biggest cities throughout our land austerity here means business people are being hit with a variety of taxes and levies making it harder and harder to stay afloat let alone

turn a. this is not just told this town as the whole country has suffered with starting measures with the. new water charges which are common in shorty's new household charge which which came in this year will increase every year. there was a two percent hike up to twenty three percent in the point of sale tax which we have to do something something to improve the situation shopkeepers say going back to the point isn't a political statement it's a survival tactic and as the face of the euro hangs in the balance clueless may not be alone in you looking back for its future euro smith r.t. closest island. the french are casting their votes for a new parliament with polls suggesting the outcome will favor recently elected president francois hollande it would be the socialist first parliamentary majority in a decade they already control the senate on and he defeated nicolas sarkozy last month as promised reforms to cut unemployment and revive

a stagnant economy is also faced criticism for his aggressive foreign policies which his successor has failed to change with french affairs journalist robert downey's says the main election intrigue as well and will be able to break free of the hold of nato and us. if you look at the past while on so campaign says very little about our coliseum because the french elector are not interested but we're right at the end the very last words are i mean if i am elected i will work to make sure that nato returns to its original role as a defensive alliance but that me that could mean two things it first of all is he's trailing his coat he's making a signal to the communists and on the. if he's elected he won't be for the americans and nato he could mean he really means that that's what he wants to do but it's very very difficult to say at the moment but he's going to be less

ostensibly pro nato the reality though it was the worst america has its huge military dominance it's very difficult for any western european country to go very far in the american arms. this is the weekly live here on r.t. from moscow still ahead for you this hour thousands of egyptians are furious hosni mubarak was not sentenced to death as the former president is now said to be in critical condition. but stories to become the first year asia's two biggest countries have cemented their partnership this week as russian president vladimir putin visited china a handful of business deals were signed but apart from ensuring the trade is flourishing moscow and beijing have a number of pressing international issues to tackle alexy in a chef scheme reports now from the chinese capital. who could have thought half a century ago when china and russia clashed over disputed territories that in twenty twelve russia's president would be greeted by a red carpet in beijing during a lavish state visit. where we know that two years ago china became russia's

largest st bernard you know outstripping other nations in the former soviet union as well as germany and other european nations you know the security cooperation in russia and china the parallels are going on the kind of the lines of cooperation china needs and how i like russia or putin and hu jintao is alliance was reconfirmed by their unified stance on middle east issues in particular the syrian conflict that harpy in some difference as a patron russia china and the subways and that are up in countries from thailand the russians prospect have the key solution lies in. the implementation but and that's a plan rather than lies and whether or not we see the poverty. existing government that is now the committee so i think russia and the chinese position on this are serious there is a more responsible and design to prominent on the final solution to the sea of

references and putin splendid to boost their already strong military ties certainly pleased beijing in light of us nature war games in the region and the recent tour of the us defense secretary to the asia pacific. china is strengthening its armed forces at an unpredicted rate the united states invaded the philippines in one thousand nine hundred one thousand eight hundred it invaded the asian part of russia to stop the russian revolution it fought most of the war in asia then it went to korea vietnam the united states has fought many many battles in asia so a pivot towards asia should be considered something of great alarm for the people of the continent russia and china were also joined in beijing by iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad who supported their stance on syria the leaders also agreed that only diplomatic and political approaches should be considered when dealing with the issue of tehran's nuclear intentions condemning any international talk off aggression towards the republic the chinese and the russians probably don't want to see an overly domineering us in which i think it's understandable coming from

moscow and beijing and i think what the u.s. i think does and to some degree the u.s. with europe with western europe does you know does seem to be coming down strongly in the middle east. as the. russians and the chinese you know have their interest which and honestly congruent with those of us they would probably want to protect those interests important talks in difficult times and dozens of multi-billion dollar business agreements signed day visit all but confirmed that the countries have kick started a new era in their relations and the fact that putin chose beijing as one of his early priorities since returning to power indicated that's in the far east where moscow has one of its most important partners more than half a century ago the chinese describe the u.s.s.r. as the elder brother by the time the soviet union collapsed these sentiments were long gone two decades on

a state visit to beijing suggested that the two countries may not feel like a family just yet but have definitely moved much closer to each other. reporting from beijing. in china. more news analysis and pictures in addition to what you see here on screen on our website r.t. dot com all at the moment disputable defense the british government is facing questions over what a security firm accused of human rights abuses in the west bank has been hard for the london olympics. and somali islamists wanted in the u.s. with a thirty three million dollars bounty have come up with a culture proposal offering ten camels for president barack obama get the full story of matt and r.t. dot com. the health of egypt's former president hosni mubarak has reportedly worsened he's currently serving life in a car a prison where he said to be slipping in and out of consciousness thousands of

people have been drawn to tahrir square this week angry that the verdict in the barracks recent trial that demanding the death sentence for his role in killing hundreds of protesters during last year's uprising they're also angry that his former prime minister has made it through the presidential election runoff next week where he's facing the muslim brotherhood candidate the ruling military council says it will transfer power to the elected president by the first of july arab affairs journalist bill are done e says people are furious at the lack of positive change. it seems that the anger which. led to people massing and lasted beyond the mere square last year beginning of the uprising. there not seen again on the streets of not only cairo and the square in particular but across the country as a whole with other demonstration. organized and wondered. could al but also war demonstrations planned across the country in the days leading to the second round we elect to the am and. administration in general is still very much there

and it's directed at many things first of all the fact that mubarak himself avoided execution over his lack of ability to. to protect in the one nine hundred also demonstrated in last year's uprising and more crucially the world's a six top aides in the wire regime which were acquitted and that is an indication as far as egyptians are concerned that although the hair has been removed the body just structure of the regime is still very much in place. tens of thousands of people have gathered in georgia's second largest city of cooties in support of one of the country's major coalition groups the georgian green party has been set up by a local billionaire and is expected to provide the main challenge to the ruling party of president mikheil saakashvili ahead of elections later this year we'll get more on the store and talk to peter he's director of the eurasian democracy

initiative joining us live well from new york president saakashvili party holds an overwhelming majority in the parliament so what are the chances for this new party in the october election. well most polling experts have given it no more than thirty percent coming elections and the opposition has criticised increasing for kerry and tactics and unfortunately that issue has not gotten enough traction among voters instead the opposition should be talking to creation jobs health care invention before it also remains to be seen if the demonstrations that the opposition is forcing myself on some of which have been quite impressive in size will not run out of steam over the summer you say not run out of steam all perhaps would they be suppressed by the government obviously they've been allowed to stage these rallies the moment but you see that sort of freedom continuing. well presidents actually this government has been known to do with opposition protesters

quite harshly in the past one particularly brutal crackdown if you remember occurred in two thousand and seven ironically the fourth anniversary of the rose revolution if the opposition sticks to its peaceful methods and it has so far has government will not have a good enough excuse to crackdown and it will have to rely. on its peaceful methods in dealing with these demonstrations maybe deny media coverage to the opposition and i also believe that it is still quite assured of victory in october but during a visit to georgia just days ago u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton she call for a free and fair elections are we going to see a democratic process then in the country. lead us will be watching quite carefully in. the parliamentary elections in october and also the two thousand and thirteen presidential elections. valid electoral outcome in parliament presidential elections will further george just repetition the kind of model that u.s.

wants to see another country so georgia is a poster boy for america and it will be a blow to its prestige of its foreign policy if georgia does not. i have free and fair elections but mind you there will be many observers at these elections and i do not believe that we will witness fraud on any significant scale though some irregularities will likely occur but any reason why america should be so interested in what many would say is a very small state miles away from american cities itself you're saying they'd like to see this is as a model of democracy but there are any other reasons american influence in the reasons in the region for example that it has such an interest that. it is a very strategic neighborhood in georgia it is a territory as a territory several pipelines as well go to the black sea

supply. of oil to. european countries. at the same time georgia has some with porn and. you know. america and russia butting heads. for georgia. is a very crucial importance for america as ally themselves so closely with its foreign policy i would have to say though that to survive what we see on the level of the state department and by that i mean do you support. this government on the level of individual what we are such as individual congressman we see some criticism of president saakashvili sometimes brutal tactics in his dealings with the opposition. very interesting to hear your thoughts on this thanks so much for joining us live pictures i'm

a director of the original his initiative live there neal thanks. this is the weekly here live on r t just ahead for you this hour trial and error as america's most famous army whistleblower bradley manning appears in court and supporters say the prosecutors have got something to hide. but first demonstrators breaking the protest regulations in russia will now have to pay seven thousand euros or do up to two hundred hours of community service president putin stressed the new rally lore is in line with european standards in france for example protestors breaking the law could be fined up to forty five thousand euros and even face several years in jail the new rule will be put to the test next tuesday when the opposition plans to stage a million man march scuffles broke out as the last large anti-government rally in may after which activists state several unsanctioned citizens. told not to update you on other world news in brief now on our world update government opened

fire on a church in northeast nigeria killing a woman and winning several other people in a separate incident a suicide bomber blew himself up outside another church in the central part of the country the blast left for worshippers dead and over forty injured there was no immediate claim of responsibility but the radical sect has repeatedly targeted churches in the past. the second day of fighting between libyan soldiers and tribesmen has seen thirteen people killed in violence erupted on saturday in the volatile region in libya's borders with chad and sudan longstanding rivalries in the smuggling of weapons in libya have intensified following last year's uprising and the death of former leader moammar gadhafi. and in vice president's been killed with six other people in a helicopter crash near nairobi george society was serving as the country's internal security minister and plan to run for the presidency next year burst into flames as it hit the ground police are investigating the cause of the accident. to

gas some pepper spray had been used against protesters in counterterrorism. hundreds marched in montreal around a dozen demonstrators were arrested after the clashes with police people took to the streets as part of protests against the rising cost of a university education as well as the city's hosting of a grand prix race the students have been protesting for months demanding a cheer wish and feel for this. the pretrial hearings have begun for the soldier accused of america's biggest leak of classified data in history twenty four year old bradley manning is charged with aiding the enemy by passing materials related to the war in iraq to the whistle blowing website wiki leaks running as lawyers fear the trial won't be fair as the government's withholding documents believed relevant to manning's defense campaigners zakk president or witness the hearings. it's like watching a poorly executed circus act here i think the prosecution's verbal

acrobatics really reached new heights and i think it really came to the surface for the judge that the prosecution is simply using word games to try to stall and delay this trial so there were a number of occasions where the judge basically caught the prosecution essentially misrepresenting the facts for example they may say that they were unaware of wiki leaks impact assessments for example and as it turns out in a memo that was revealed in court they actually were quite well aware of these things and so there were a number of instances where it became clear that they weren't telling the truth bradley's intentions were clearly to inform and alert the american people you know the prosecution is basically saying that his intentions don't matter they've even said in court it doesn't matter how pure is intentions were it doesn't matter that what the impacts were the government is arguing a very narrow point that simply by putting classified information on the internet if the enemy can also read the internet therefore you've helped the enemy and this

would establish a very alarming precedent whereby essentially any soldier even if they unintentionally reveal something completely harmless they could face capital punishment so this i mean this could have a really huge impact on journalism not only for sources but the ability of the american people to know what their elected officials are doing. that's the way it is for the moment in a few minutes from now the story of the people putting their lives on the line in the battle for nuclear disarmament that'll be a new stories for you in just a moment stay with us this is the weekly.

there hasn't been anything good on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before source material is what helps keep journalism on the real. world. we want to present. something else.

welcome to the weekly here at the new center here moscow top stories now deadly clashes in syria as u.n. officials admit the envoy's peace plan has been broken on both sides dozens have reportedly been killed across the country of the weekend while the phone calls for intervention ramped up. madrid also the eurozone for one hundred billion euros to shore up its struggling banks and becomes the largest economy to seek aid so far this plan let's spain avoid additional cuts imposed from the outside as happened in the case of greece and portugal. also boosting trade and tackling the crisis in the middle east because countries have cemented their partnership this week with

russian president vladimir putin visited china. so where is for the moment i'll be back with a news team with in the meantime an insight into what it takes to protect the world from a full blown nuclear war a special report is next. the nuclear age of the first sixty years old. i can describe exactly how an underground test was. they're all very one zero almost you couldn't hear anything there was no noise at all when the ground lifted up. we live under the threat of increasingly sophisticated weapons. in two thousand one hundred eighty eight states parties to the proliferation treaty signed on to a statement providing for an unequivocal undertaking to the total elimination of nuclear weapons it has been set back by princeton review noted states but not long .