the victims of a devastating flash flood. which has now killed one hundred seventy and affected almost thirty five thousand its quickly becoming the area's worst ever natural disaster. bravery in the face of we've we have the stories of those who miraculously escaped the deluge the people who rushed to provide help with the rescue a. special envoy. to the syrian leadership damascus points fingers of what it calls america's role in the civil conflict.

it's good to have you with us here on our. life in moscow it's a day of mourning it's been declared here in russia for more than one hundred seventy lives lost in the flooding in the southern resort region of. it was on friday night when thousands of houses were hit by what locals describe as a tsunami like deluge caused by torrential rains in the region with this report. today is a day or grief and a day of mourning for the victims of flash floods in southern russia the search for bodies does continue as does the cleanup operation made more difficult by the lack of supplies of electricity gas and fresh water the water came into the town on friday night in the middle of the night with huge force and with no warning it

flooded and destroyed houses and flipped cars over in the street many of the victims were elderly people unable to escape in time so rapid was the deluge all across the town people tried to escape and get to help on roofs and on fences wherever they could find any shelter a criminal case has been opened into why so many people died and it's also been found that a flood warning system did not work properly people here are very angry both at the lack of the warning and because they say the local reservoir and its dam caused the flooding by opening its gates across the internet there's also been a lot of discussion with some people criticizing the off orat least and others using the internet to try and organize donations of clothes and supplies for people who have lost everything authorities deny that the dam caused the flooding saying that it had an automatic overflow system that came into effect but that didn't release enough water to cause flooding an investigation which is looking into the

causes will try and find out what exactly happened on that night people across the town of crims and also throughout the region are trying to start cleaning up and rebuilding their houses and their communities but primarily today is a day for grieving for all those who lost their lives. after the flood a country mourns. everywhere in the town of crims there is evidence of the force and speed of the waters of violence and it seems everyone here has their own personal drama to tell this used to be members living room this used to be her bedroom the house has been completely gutted from the inside by the water which came right up to the tops of the windows live mail and managed to escape and sat all night on a neighbor's fence while her house collapsed she was perhaps

a lucky one though his neighbors say just down the road a neighbor an old woman had her house collapsed on top of it all night miller perched on top of the neighbor's fence the flood surging around her did you ever pay for the water had risen to more than three metre with so i was sitting on the bench bring it wouldn't come higher because they knew i would have drowned most of those who died were elderly too frail to escape the deluge those who did manage to make it to safety say they will never forget what happened i grabbed the curtain and pushed my feet through the window this can save my life the helicopter did not see me but i started to wave my cane and it came back it couldn't land so it didn't pick me up after that a vote came and i started to shout they save me for those left behind the basic necessities must now take priority. where looking through the rubble for our things wash them in this water and in their hours drive them the clothes that we're

wearing now are actually all we have left as the wave struck we only thought about our children and our lives since the beginning of this tragedy the death toll has climbed steadily and even now not everyone has been accounted for our ten year old nieces lost who were standing outside the morgue all day yesterday no news nothing many here are hungry and exhausted and have no homes to return to and need to start from scratch for sure i'm a veteran of the second world war. all my medals are gone everything is gone i don't have anything anymore how do i live for you or should i do now but i thank god that i'm alive and with commemoration service is being held across russia there are certain to be many more stories of personal tragedy and. tom watson r.t. and while friends and loved ones bury their dead there have been warnings that the number of victims could rise further emergency teams continue to search through the debris left by the flood almost thirty five thousand people have not been affected

by this and many are still in a state of shock artist any spotting reports on how they're coping. the flood affected almost every family and every household sold and crims just this morning with all groups of people talking about the damage still trying to find their neighbors and loved ones there was a sign on one of the houses we passed this morning that read i'm alive i'm at my brother's place there is a lack of local information since there is still no electricity in most neighborhoods with no radio or t.v. in town people share news by word of mouth we saw dozens of relatives visiting the town's morgue where they did the identification of bodies is still taking place those who were lucky to survive now face challenges this scale of destruction is enormous and people are taking matters into their own hands by starting to rebuild homes and apartments the russian emergency ministry deployed thousands of rescue workers but there is so much more besides government's help there is

a strong feeling of support coming from russia in a broad social networks twitter and facebook in particular are buzzing with information about donations for the victims of the claims up as a child out of with the i read people's pleas for help on an internet forum and we rushed here my son and i as soon as we could to at least bring some much needed food for them to call for help go beyond traditional charities as volunteers among them private individuals from other cities travel to koreans bringing food water and clothes yesterday were met calls explained cross and or who brought several trucks of supplies. what he's done is political reporting right there while our volunteers are resorting to a whole range of modern communication tools to help those affected by the floods activists from all across russia have started drawing an online map to try and help and coordinate the volunteer effort anyone willing to donate food or clothes can find the nearest spot to do exactly that or set one up and let others know the

resource also helps to show ways to get aid to the stricken area which of the moment is still a major problem with the help though of the map people going to crimps can pool their efforts to bring more aid or volunteers with them to go to our web site r.t. dot com you can read much more about of the floods in the cross and our region meantime locals are slamming the authorities saying the flood warning was not properly issued a city and district heads have already been sacked and other regional governor has come under fire and the people say he could have done much more to avert disaster instead of leaving it to all lower level or thirties he earlier claimed there was no way of spreading the alarm any sooner while at r.t. dot com we've got the latest footage and photos from the disaster area as well as a timeline of the tragedy you can also follow our correspondents twitter feeds to get more reports from the very heart of the disaster. this is r.t. damascus has agreed to move ahead with implementing

a peace plan proposed by kofi annan despite failures and a lot of international skepticism the special envoy held talks with the syrian president who earlier accused the u.s. and some of its regional allies of being partially responsible for civilian deaths in his country in artie's marie. with the latest. well you're on an arab league's actually able to see or has described his meeting with president bashar al assad here in damascus on monday as constructive kofi annan has sat that they've agreed discussed and agreed on approach and common approach on how to end the violence here in syria he has said that it can only be done and should be done through dialogue and he's also stressed that. all the sides been involved in these conflict should do they have passed to try to implement this six point peace plan brokered by you in april in the back to where they've been doing it before actually indeed the peace plan six point plan hasn't been successful so far we've been only seen in

weakness in this collation of the violence here in syria immediately after it was announced so it's absolutely clear that something should be changed in the way to implement that and this is exactly what kofi annan has been stressing the point there is also is a very interesting detail while talking about this common approach kofi annan has sat that. we will share it with the armed opposition but after that immediately he has corrected himself and said that i will share it with the opposition and that could be considered as an indication that we were unlikely to see any dialogue between the current regime and the opposition any time soon i'm sure that's not surprising because president bashar assad has recently said that he is ready to talk to these people while the syrian opposition has made it has made it clear big can be no solution and no dollar is possible until assad leaves we have been hearing recently very hostile months from president bashar al assad on

foreign nations involvement in this crisis in syria he has sat the u.s. is trying to destabilize the situation here in the country by providing its political support for armed gangs and terrorists operating here in syria here is also said that saudi arabia and katara are also involved in this crisis. by providing financial support to the rebels and by arming them and he has also mentioned turkey that he is providing logistical support for the rebels this crisis has been raging here in syria for sixteen months already and many ask the question why it takes so long and some analysts say that the most complicated thing is that while it's clear from one side there is a syrian regime of bashar assad and his opponents it still remains unclear exactly who or what it is fighting against and here's my report on that will be for you watch i just want to warn you that you can find some of the images from this report disturbing. since the uprising in syria escalated the west has been consistently

calling on assad and his government to step down you know defectively want to give in to the demands of the armed opposition but it seems so far there is no clear understanding of who exactly they are. these fighters of the syrian opposition they're brave determined full of pride they took the fate in their hands. but for some taken control of their destiny meant taken up arms in this amateur video posted on you tube which cannot be independently verified gunmen calling themselves members of the opposition militia from it live explain why this man was hanged and which he helped the syrian regime and was killing the rebels they say i am. on behalf of all friends let me express my admiration by their bravery over the norm but this kind of justice only

adds more anger to what has already been called a civil war. with a terrorist group of those murderers and i believe is necessary for any citizen to leave these. we cannot ask the opposition to unilaterally give up their struggle for justice dignity and self-determination in other media whose origin is hard to establish these men say they captured the syrian air force officer then they dispense even more rough justice. the united states will continue providing non-lethal assistance to help those inside syria who are carrying the fight to organize and better communicate. in this video of the voice behind the camera says the fight must go on it warns

this will happen to anyone who cooperates with the assad government. they are top criminals these people are top of criminality how do they have the right feel sad when you find your country destroyed in our country we've been building all our lives the whole world wants to see a political transition from this illegitimate regime i seem to actually see one that can take care of its people many here however fear that should such people force assad to leave since like these could become a familiar occurrence and have little faith in a western force democracy. where they talking about democracy in the gulf or in other countries we are syrian people we should decide these things ourselves. this mantra that the syrian people alone should determine their country's future has been repeated by many nations and has finally been recognized by major world powers

but what some states still continuing to call on assad to leave and support in his opponents fear is mounting in syria that this is the people that will pay the ultimate price. my fellow shot out see from damascus in syria. now maria is one of a few foreign journalists to the very heart of the syrian conflict twitter stream she brings us the latest on how the situation there is unfolding and that includes a first hand experiences in the future footage and i like this quote her she gave me her latest tweet she talks about a syrian human rights activist who says the militarization of the conflict it's a result of rep always using very sophisticated weapons. if you join us here in artsy today president putin has said that a working out

a political solution in syria will take much more effort than what he called barbaric foreign intervention but he added only dialogue will bring lasting stability speaking at a meeting with the country's ambassadors and envoys putin outlined russia's foreign policy priorities and more of that now from artie's sean thomas. international relations are getting up more complicated in the world and there is uncertainty and one of those areas of uncertainty is of course the arab spring in this address the president wasted no time in going after the west in criticizing what he called their arab interference in fact the so-called humanitarian missions of the west and of america to go in and bomb and get their agenda promoted listen to what he had to say about this tactic. and with. we see some of our foreign partners striving to maintain their influence so that often our partners back to unilaterally which goes against international law we see this ensue called human interior operations thanks paul to the astro democracy interference with internal

conflicts what we do by see that the process of reforms in north africa and the middle east is controversial and unbalanced and many of us remember vividly the tragic events in libya east these scenarios must not be repeated in other countries such as syria now it is interesting that this is russia's foreign policy but he did turn to some u.s. things that are happening right now you did say that this is a pre-election period in the united states and that there have been hostile comments and rhetoric that are a throwback to the cold war era in fact he warned american politicians out against trying to earn points by using harsh anti russian comments and ideological stereotypes which russia is trying to step away from now one area that russia and the united states have differed greatly is that of syria in fact america has been very harsh about russia's stance on syria russia is very up to the idea in fact what he said about that it is that syria on the topic he believes that we must do

all we can to force the warring parties to sit down and promote a resolution through dialogue rather than a single unilateral intervention. thomas reporting right now russia's military officials say they'll be no new arms deals with syria until the political situation there stabilizes. washington criticized the country for selling arms to the assad regime taking particular issue with the shipment of assault helicopters moscow says it was simply fulfilling contracts under which it repairs syria owned helicopters or years ago. while masked militants have shot dead eight pakistani troops at a military base in the east of the country and earlier a massive convoy of demonstrators protesting pakistan's decision to reopen nato supply routes have passed right through the area leaving them some of the nation's most hard line islamists let's get more the protests now and are pakistan's role in afghanistan with school security analyst and head for the center for research and

security studies good to see you today thank you for coming on the program as you heard from us obviously a lot of opposition to the resumption of nato supply routes through pakistan now they've been reopened just how big is the opposition there to the continue to help between pakistan and america to get these supply routes up and running. while i think it's a temporary outcry against that is option of the nato supply. of course a lot of pakistanis do be mown this decision by the pakistani government but we have to remember that the decision has been taken jointly by the pakistan military as well as the government together. it's a meeting that was attended by all the board in strict orders now what we're seeing on the streets are religious political groups many of them have been banned in the in the past about ten years ago and i would say that with the best of time this

protest will gradually die down and that better sense will prevail probably. with the support of the mainstream political parties as well as the military because everybody believes that ahead on confrontation with the united states let's say it's not it's not the issue alone of the united states but it also involves. nato member countries with whom pakistan does maintain good relations and i think the seven eight months of suspension pakistani leadership did come to conclude that somehow both countries needed to move on in order not to sour relations not only with the united states but also with the other members of the nato as you say as you say pakistan enjoy enjoys a close friendship with some members of the nato alliance some i draw into question how close their friendship is with out of the united states of america we know that

washington gives pakistan billions of dollars in aid and military hardware every single year with this opposition movement do you think the benefits perhaps outweigh the consequences considering the huge amount of money that washington throws into pakistan. well i think first we have to rectify this perception the way that you emphasized the billions of dollars it's not all that big amount of money. the united states had been giving giving to pakistan they did a good early is about six hundred million dollars under the coalition support funds and this is the money that the united states basically is obliged to pay to any country that it a request for deployment or helping out on military missions so it's roughly six hundred to seven hundred million dollars and the united states has been withholding that money since march last year and now as it is a lot of that is the nato u.s.

supplies but what pakistan is expecting to get is about one point one billion dollars and these payments basically relate to the pakistani military operation of the tribal areas bordering afghanistan i understand only part of two thousand and eleven and you're saying the ok at the end of the day you know there's less money coming into pakistan from washington although whether it's six hundred million or as you're saying one point one billion is still a lot of money what does the average pakistani thing about the relationship with america the relationship with nato and continue drone strikes along the pakistan afghan border it would seem to many of the pakistanis. they've had enough of this continued war on terror. well you are certainly there is there is a war fatigue with the continued cooperation with the united states that the american perception within pakistan of cooperation with the united states is also

where. i think the in recent months we have had we saw. an opinion poll which basically paints a very bleak picture of how the pakistanis view the united states and also the nato policies here as a whole i don't think the united states and nato enjoy a good reputation here the common pakistani is very very angered because everybody believes that this cooperation with the united states which began to any eleven years ago has basically it is allocated in multiple socio economic and security crises that pakistan is currently going through so it's a very difficult situation for the government to keep a balance between the need to maintain a relationship with the u.s. led nato and also to keep the opposition to this alliance pacified neutralized in order for the supplies to continue running through pakistan

well certainly as we all know america and nato are planning to stay in afghanistan at least through two thousand and fourteen so we have to see how this relationship continues in school head of the center for research and security studies thank you very much for joining us on r.t. today welcome. and as nato troops are preparing to leave afghanistan in two thousand and fourteen as i was mentioning it seems the u.s. is setting its sights possibly elsewhere now is reportedly expanding its secret intelligence operations across africa coming up in the next hour on cross talk to develop discuss debate america's growing presence in the region. the real thing is . they are a vile interest in some of these places and why the heck are we there why not get out i think i would miss is the bigger point the bigger point is you can't have allies who you only call upon when it affects you and you don't come to their assistance when they want something now in the case of uganda northern uganda lies

that we have that we have. now you know because we have you know you're the other dream in an era in and your own doing right living in new york oh a bar a bomb goes off there another pro in our u.s. just about oil you for the united states yes it's about containing china in this is done under the banner of our war on terror. all right there let's go straight over to kitty pilgrim she's standing by this story he once again a russian billionaire squabbling over money owed do tell us. they don't have enough ovaries or like that a pass on his former partner meeting each other in london's high court today and it's what the media are calling the largest ever. do going to give you all the juicy details later on in the drama for you first of all i want to talk about u.s. markets because wall street is open for business and it's now trading lower stocks

in the region to carline a mela lackluster u.s. job states that we had a friday's clearly still a fact so this monday that as investors fret that wall growth remains. the labor market isn't quite we can ask to prompt a third round of quantitative easing by the federal reserve and you know that's what investors are really hoping for right now if we get over to europe that we'll see that the leaders are meeting today in brussels we have the president of the european central bank he came out just moments ago saying that progress has been made eurozone leaders must continue to press towards deeper integration including steps to include a sharing of fiscal and financial software and as we can see the footsie round six tons of dissent on the dax change of fortune is now in red territory if we look at the common currency we see how that's reacting to all of these sentiments that suit loitering around those two year lows against the u.s. dollar on the russian car it's still losing out to the u.s.

dollar and the. as investors really stay clear of risky assets so they perceive them today and if we look at the russian actually markets it's very much the same moves we've got here right here and they don't have much longer to change their fortunes we can have the closing figures in the next hour for you they're really staying on the fence waiting so to speak with the u.s. state of coming out later in today's big corporate companies revealing their second quarter results today if we look at the stocks as well we see some of the movers and shakers see how they're closed today because the stem of the investment holding company just up around two hundred basis points as you can see that. point five percent of its shares from the market rules of the air force as well just. after dipping in the red last thirty percent more passengers they have in the last five months up six to a million there right now more stuff as well benefiting from those higher prices and this is like now we'll talk about all this drama that's going on the

battlefield that's happening in the british capital today between the billion as you can see we've got them on the screen for you there it's all about the world's top produce a result of the company's biggest shareholder and current chairman on it better pascoe he's facing a rival billionaire neuer in london's high court to annoy the pastor was his business partner who took control over most resold back in the millennium now is due to demands a one billion dollars stake in the company debt a pastor denies the charges has never been affiliated with the drama continues its have a look at those prices we see they are managing to rebound. the situation in norway with the strike going on western europe's biggest export i'll be back next hour with the closing figures for the russian markets where we don't mean that always a pleasure so you. will be back in just a moment with the headlines.