here's fighting across syria over the weekend reportedly leaves dozens dead there's as moscow continues to push for an international conference to resolve the crisis in the u.n. admits neither side is sticking to the be split. one hundred billion euros of bello's madrid finally admits it can save its beleaguered banks on its own becoming the largest economy so far to see aid from the euro zone. boosting trade and tackling the crisis in the middle east russia and china strengthening their partnership is president vladimir putin visits beijing.

seven am in moscow i'm at treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t dozens reportedly killed over the weekend in some of the most intense fighting of the syria conflict this is un observers continue their investigation of wednesday's massacre in hama province still trying to figure out exactly how many are dead and who is behind the slaughter top u.n. officials admit that the first time that the peace plan is being floated by both sides meanwhile as maria in ocean reports calls for foreign intervention are being stepped up. the duquesne budgies lane side by side we mean to do in among them death was indiscriminate and bloody the pictures from syria this week have brought shock around the globe and also a wine sense of deja vu just weeks before and now the massacre came to light this time in the village of houla and the world was quick to pos judgment the american

british and french push for military intervention in syria is absolutely enormous. yes we've seen hague of course william hague the british foreign secretary calling for intervention we've seen the new french president saying the same thing the americans obviously taking the lead the specter of a military solution returned before an investigation into who was responsible was even launched they're all saying that their side 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 because of a war and. what happened in our division 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 programs occur of innocent civilians by government troops serving it was

lame presented with ultimatum and rambling game and bought 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 cost of a 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 interestingly enough. we have been reports of syrian rebels who are they are liaising with the. think of being in kosovo liberation army the people who were basically agents of mido in the coastal war. basically treading on my i don't know they were saying they were training in democracy and human rights but definitely the only training that caylee could have

ever given anybody is high. think a massacre in order to stage a war and i believe that's exactly what's happening now. but even with hindsight after the nato slavia who ruin the alliances these tribes in libya last year history isn't been prevented from repeating itself again and again with this seven images coming from syria and making the world headlines everybody agrees those who are guilty must be punished but the reaction from the international community has been so sweet and so called donated the reason is that punishment will come before even those who are truly responsible are exposed and that could mean not just a loss of justice but also huge loss of life. refinishing r t reports in from syria . meanwhile russia is stepping up 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 moscow says quote some

external players are provoking the syrian opposition to continue fighting despite peace plan. when we hear reports of another massacre in syria and currently we see such atrocities almost daily many international media outlets place the blame entirely on damascus the government of any country is of course responsible for what's happening within its borders but we're sure the regime alone is not to blame for everything that we see massacres in houla terrorist attacks in damascus and aleppo that have been condemned by the un security council all this is the result of confrontation 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. this area an opposition group in exile has elected a kurdish activist its new leader. has urged mass defections from the regime and pledged support for the free syrian army is fighting against president assad asia times correspondent pepe escobar thinks satan may already be mistrusted and may not

understand the reality on the ground. see duck hook ups after home guy. is a very shady character he has very good kurdish connections of course so many connections as well but he's also trying to play to that christian answer there although i say look if there is a government or rejean or we're not going to touch it nobody believes him insights in fact did jim braylon the opposition. it's a disgruntled matter in fact you know they don't get along with each other in the air if you read it on the ground by people who are actually doing a lot of these killings in fact and these people they are mercenaries imported from libya but i believe qatar though where i am at the moment and this is a blue subject to be discussed here in qatar i couldn't find anybody here it would

discuss a train clee what the qatari intelligence services are actually doing on the ground in syria but this is part of the qatari foreign policy they are financing and weaponize in the really hardcore arm of the syrian opposition and i'm not sure mr sieda the new ahead of the syrians or is it still council knows what's really going on the ground. the struggling euro zone has been dealt a fresh blow spain becoming the largest economy yet to ask for help as it admits it needs one hundred billion euros to prop up its beleaguered banks the cash will be fed directly to a special fine with madrid ultimately responsible for the money but this plan let spain ovoid committing to additional cuts and post from outside as happened in the case of greece ireland and portugal spain the prime minister praised the loan as a victory for the single currency's credibility but investment advisor patrick young questions 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 out six months ago two years ago even spanish banks are lost and ultimately there needs to be a way in order to manage to rescue them but the conventional being 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 them on one side they don't want austerity and they don't really think 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 that 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 haven't actually been taking their medicine 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. irish opposition politicians already criticizing their government for failing to get a deal as favorable as spain's one town though and has people tired of the euro uncertainty they've already found a solution for the future by looking into the past. it's a blast from the past as this customer uses the irish punt to pay for some everyday purchases in the town of closeness arlen's 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 clore 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 a change of tone his tone voters which you can then go and spend cross the road and super value on the create note or go for a drink up the town it's it's a great scheme for the time 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 points often stopping by for a haircut while they're here. lot of people coming from across the border from all about fast especially around from people from no phantom spend their aunts and so on us have an obligation month women can now start paying me and that if i want to get out there's an estimated two hundred eighty five million puns tucked away in draws and under mattresses forgotten about or kept 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 punt scheme has undoubtedly boosted the local economy but the ravages of the economic crisis still to evidence the main street is lined with boarded up shops with around fifty percent of premise is empty it's a scene that's repeated in small towns and biggest cities throughout. 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 profit it's not just told this town is the whole country has suffered with the measures with the. new water charges which are common in shortly you household charge which which came in this year with 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 so people 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 looking back for its future euro smith r.t. and left wing and green party candidates have gained a total of forty six percent of the vote after sunday's parliamentary elections in france according to official figures of the center right un people already claim thirty four percent analysts say the outcome will favor the recently elected socialist president francois hollande whose party already controls the senate or he steps are so your reports from paris. initial estimates of come out at eight pm local is the actual results you have the aggregate of the left now getting forty seven point one percent then you have the right thirty five point four percent that's in the. party who was trying to get seats in parliament for the first time

since the one nine hundred eighty s. or they have thirteen point four percent so that is a victory for her in this sense and you still have forty two point nine percent that will go on to the second round those would be votes candidates that are guarded about zero point five percent of the votes are they going to go for the second round of for what he really wants is an absolute majority if not an absolute majority of all the socialist party getting more than fifty percent that would be a majority of the left at least he would support his policies but let's remember that during the presidential election the people would come and voted for socialist stuff and so long they had voted for change in a smart as they didn't want any more so in a simple symbolically this is a test of a long ability to get the support from the french people he doesn't get the majority essentially you will have a president who is on the left and you will have a parliamentary that is on the right right now before this elections it was the conservatives that was had the majority in the lower house and this will certainly pose problems into passing new laws that he wants to get into place such as his proposal to add sixty thousand new jobs in education sector or tax the rich by as

much as seventy five percent you know for so long it was campaigning on his anti austerity more growth measures and getting faster out of the crisis and then if he doesn't get if he doesn't get the support of the lower house he will not be able to go on the dispatcher and the conservatives are going to be more for this asserting measures now we see spain in trouble and you see my trickle down into france and if the french people get even more steady passant of them they're certainly not going to be happy about it in front of a lot just in the beginning of a stern does not want to see supports less and for the socialist party well as far as francois laws foreign policy is concerned the part of a military and defense years also. both to withdraw troops from afghanistan earlier a year earlier than planned and that if you if he does example follow through with the promises he made during his election campaign he will need the support of the lower house he already has the majority in the senate and it's crucial that he does

get the support of the parliament from camille grant from the set of the foundation for strategic research says a predicted socialist victory is part of a larger political trend in europe most likely scenario is that he will get a clear left majority the big issue is whether it would be dismissed or it would be begonia around the socialist policies all do we need to see both of socialist and eyes the chance to come in you fall into greens in parliament french politics are. interesting because they're not always go with the overall cycle in europe what we do see certainly is the rise of those nationalist fallacies all over the board in europe and this is clearly the case in france as elsewhere in europe and this is this is a phenomenon that is happening across the ball when it comes to the rise of socialism what was clear in the recent elections in europe is that the. parties in

power have about a tendency to lose elections that happen in greece in the netherlands in spain and in need to be so this is a situation where incumbents are in trouble. stay with us here on r t still to come new barak is reported in critical condition gibson's gather to express their anger at the former president wasn't sentenced to death for his violent suppression of demonstrations during the revolution that ousted him from power. but first series is two biggest countries have cemented their partnership this week as russia's president vladimir putin visited china and full of business deals were signed but apart from ensuring that trade is flowing moscow and beijing have a number of pressing international issues to tackle alexei or chefs he reports. who could have thought half a century ago when china and russia clashed over disputed territory that in twenty twelfth russia's president would be greeted by a red carpet in beijing during

a lavish state visit. where we know that there were 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 parallels. they can other forms of cooperation china needs and how i like russia putin and hu jintao is alliance was reconfirmed by their unified stance on middle east issues in particular the syrian conflict that are being some difference as a patron of russia china and the subways and that are up in countries from china and the russians perspective the key solution lysine. the implementation and that's plan rather than lies and whether or not we see the poverty the existing government that is now the committee so i think russia and china's position on syria is a more responsible and design to have prominent on the final solution to the

presence and putin splendid to boost their already strong military ties so to be pleased beijing in light of us need to 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 predicted rate the united states invaded the philippines in one thousand nine hundred in one thousand eight hundred and 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 of aggression towards the republic the chinese and the russians probably you know

don't want to see and overly domineering us is ition which i think is understandable coming from moscow and beijing and i think what the us i think does and to some degree the us with europe with western europe does you know does seem to be coming down quite strongly in the middle east and in so far as the. russians and the chinese you know have their interest which are not necessary congruent with those of europe or the us they would probably want to protect those interests important talks in difficult times and dozens of multi-billion dollar business agreements signed put in story day visit all but confirmed that the countries have kickstarted 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. see reporting from beijing in china or you can always find more news and analysis on our web site r.t. dot com online or right now and ungodly scandal files see the police raid on the former head of the vatican bank allegedly exposed misdeeds inside one of the world's most secretive organizations plus. the somali is with us militants wanted in the u.s. with a thirty three million dollars bounty come up with a counterproposal offering ten camels for president barack obama all the details he dug. wealth of egypt's former president hosni mubarak is reportedly deteriorating he's now in a cairo prison hospital said to be slipping in and out of consciousness thousands

gathered in tahrir square this week angry at the verdict in the barak's recent trial they're calling for the death sentence for his role in killing hundreds of protesters during last year's uprising there also angry his former prime minister made it into the presidential election a runoff next week or he's facing the mother muslim brotherhoods candidate the ruling military council says it will transfer power to the elected president by july first arab affairs journalist and i feel around that he says people are furious at the lack of positive change. it seems to be and going to reach. to people missing and massive beyond the media square not yet beginning. and then much seen again on the streets of not only calmer and square in particular but across the and to see the country as a whole we all the demonstrations who were organized and wondered where could al but also more demonstrations planned across and the country in the days leading to the second round of the elections so the and anger i do mubarak administration in

general is still very much there and it's directed at many things and first of all different than mubarak himself going to these execution or he's like a. bt to pretend to deny nine hundred and some of them strengthens and even last year isn't rising and more crucially to the six top aides in the mubarak regime which were acquitted and that is an indication as far as the egyptians are concerned there's all the hand has been removed the body destruction of the mubarak regime is still very much in place. stay with us here on r t still to come trial and error as the u.s. is most famous army whistleblower bradley manning appears in court and his supporters say prosecutors have something to hide. but first tens of thousands of gathered in georgia's second largest city kutaisi in support of one of the country's major coalition troops the georgian dream party was set up by

a local billionaire and expected to provide a main challenge to the ruling party of president mikheil saakashvili ahead of elections later this year the director of the eurasian democracy initiative peters of says if history is the judge the government's response to the rallies may not be peaceful no the opposition has criticised the tissues increasing for kerry and tactics and unfortunately that issue has not gotten enough traction among voters presidents i guess it is government has been known to do with opposition protests this quite harshly and this one particularly brutal crackdown if you remember occurred in two thousand and seven ironically the fourth anniversary of the rose revolution the opposition sticks to its peaceful methods and it has so far so good she was government will not have a good enough excuse to crackdown and it will have to rely. on their peaceful methods in dealing with these demonstrations maybe deny media coverage to the opposition and i also believe that it is still quite assured. in

october. protesters in russia meanwhile who break or advise law in demonstrations now have to pay up to seven thousand euros fine or face two hundred hours of community service president vladimir putin stress the new rally law is in line with european standards in france for instance protesters violating the law can be fined up to forty five thousand euros and even face several years in jail and all be tested tuesday when an opposition rally called the march of millions is set to take place previous anti-government rallies of this kind ended with scuffles between police and protesters. take a look at some other news stories making headlines across the globe gunmen have attacked a church in northeast nigeria killing at least six and wounding several others in a separate incident a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside another church along with the attack or the blast left at least four worshipers dead and injured more than forty radical islam a sect boko haram claimed responsibility for the attack targeting christians in the

religiously divided nation. a plane carrying parachutists has crashed near ukraine's capital kiev killing five fifteen more suffered injuries some of them serious the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after running into heavy rains and high winds and investigation has been opened into the cause of the crash. polish police arrested fourteen football fans after officers tried to break up fighting between irish polish in croatia and supporters the incident happened just before the current ireland game at euro two thousand and twelve football championships it's the latest in a string of clashes that have already seen a number of teams warned over the behavior of their supporters. in chile police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse anti pinochet demonstrators on the top of the santiago thousands took to the streets to protest against the screening of a documentary praising the former dictator who ruled the country for seventeen

years the government figures more than three thousand people were killed during his rule. pretrial hearings have started 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 iraq war to whistle blowing web site wiki leaks manning's lawyers fear the trial won't be fair they say the government's withholding documents believe are relevant to the defense manning supporter and campaigners acapella vento was at 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 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 on the ability of the american people to know what their elected officials are doing well stay with us

here on r t still to come here to debate with pirro and the crosstalk that's after the headlines. there hasn't been anything good on t.v.

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