from funny stupid. stunts on t.v. don't come. syria's capital damascus suburbs and fiercest fighting since the uprising against the government began a special envoy kofi anon travels to moscow seeking president putin's support to end the bloodshed. when you see that in belgium we live in who is is what does that mean it mean americans live in trees pentagrams insult that's how immigrants in belgium feel about the new starter at explaining basic behavior even the know how to use a child to grow. and get away to rust or a place to decide the world's fate occupy protesters demand transparency and media coverage as the wealthy and powerful gather at

a telephone retreat. hello and welcome to our tea this tuesday it's nine o'clock here in moscow i'm karen tara was here is armed conflict has now engulfed the capital damascus and its suburbs the fierce battles between regime troops and rebel forces now taking place in broad daylight the military is thought to have deployed armored vehicles near the city center after the threat of a full scale assault on loyalist units across the country. is in damascus. clashes between the army and rebels never stopped here in syria now the fighting is going on here in damascus activists and residents have described it as the heaviest the most intense fighting in the capital since the beginning of the revolt here last march was in fact this is the first time we see the battle in the very heart of the

regime damascus has been considered the area totally under governmental control the fighting recently has moved as close has to its suburbs there have been several army assaults against opposition but in the eastern outskirts of damascus some fourteen kilometers from the city center now we're hearing about at least four neighborhoods in the southern part of damascus some twenty minute drive from the city center where governmental troops are fighting gunmen governmental sources are saying that most of these gunmen are not from damascus but they've come here from homs in central syria and from a blip in the country's north where the army had seen success late the opposition has been claiming the army has been using all tars and shelling these areas and also that they've been using armored vehicles many roads within the city are blocked especially in troubled areas and troubled parts of the city obviously what

we can confirm is that we hear shootings and when daylight we've been able to see smoke over the city. solving the syrian crisis amid deep divisions between foreign powers will be the focus of today's meeting between international peace envoy kofi annan and president vladimir putin in moscow russia accusing western nations of not working towards peace in syria and blackmailing moscow to take action against the syrian government for more on this we're joined live now by parties thomas sean so the talk certainly do come at a crucial time for syria i mean we see violence getting bloodier every day people dying in massive numbers and foreign powers of course failing to find calm. ground on how and day what can we expect from this latest high level meeting. well karen there is certainly conflict in how to deal with the syrian crisis between the west and russia in fact those key sticking points are what is expected to be discussed

between kofi anon and president vladimir putin today in fact russia saying that the west is not living up to the promises that were agreed upon in geneva just a short time ago which were to promote a dialogue between all parties involved in the conflict and for all sides to lay down arms in fact russia saying the west is using this as an opportunity for the u.n. resolution to try and impose sanctions on syria and possibly also to promote a foreign military intervention something that russia is really trying to avoid pointing to libya as an example as a way that western military intervention just didn't work out saying that the situation in libya right now is just as messy as it was before the uprising in libya saying they're trying to avoid that situation in syria once again now lab rob said that the west is trying to blackmail russia into swing it to their side this was in talks with kofi annan yesterday and today is kofi annan second day in the country he's also saying that blaming russia for prolonging the congo flicked

overstepped the mark and is just as bad as diplomacy now forcing regime change or something of that russia says it is unrealistic in syria pretty much because a bush are on the side enjoys support from the majority of the syrian people in fact assad himself has pointed to the fact that he will not step down because of russia's wishes but more so because he has the support of the syrian you know russia supports kofi annan on some peace talks in fact what they say is they support talks of all parties involved in fact they have said multiple times that they are not taking sides in this conflict they're not supporting the assad regime rather they want dialogue of all parties involved one thing that they do. want is for anon to work more actively with the opposition something that the syrian government has decided that they are going to do they have appointed a representative of the syrian government to work with the opposition however the opposition when representatives came to moscow to meet with law they said they will not work with which are all assad and it is believed that these refusals stem from

confusing messages from the west so right now what we're waiting on is what will actually come between the talks of kofi annan and president vladimir putin course russia saying that they fully support the peace process. all right thanks for that sean here in moscow well brian becker who's a national coordinator for the answer anti-war coalition believes the u.s. is unlikely to give up its tactics in pressuring russia. i think the russian foreign minister is in fact being very diplomatic when he says there's an element of blackmail or arm twisting the u.s. government the clinton foreign policy the current obama foreign policy is is akin to the way the mafioso works if you don't go our way if you don't do what we do we'll break your leg we'll make it impossible will threaten you blackmail and hostage taking is it is sort of

a softer way of putting it in fact in the united states hopes to be able to break russia and china down to have them intimidated on the international arena so it can do what it wants to do which is to forment civil war using all available elements of violence pushing aside the possibility of peace in order to accomplish its main objective which is to overthrow the assad government not because their government is undemocratic not because it's anti humanitarian but because it's not a proxy for the west and that's the real objective of the u.s. foreign policy in the middle east in syria and elsewhere. r.t.s. constantly following developments in and around syria our crew in damascus is sharing its firsthand experience in the stricken city on twitter and don't forget to check our facebook page from more analysis and insight into the syrian crisis.

if. syria dominates the headlines and another middle east country on rast remains off the radar a protest mood in bahrain is gaining momentum despite a government ban on all up. position rallies authorities in the gulf country are doing their best to dampen down opposition one of the most prominent human rights activists for job was a guest on julian assange just program on r.t.e. was jailed for views he expressed on twitter a week ago this was followed by the expulsion from the country of the us filmmaker one of the few western journalists left in the country or to spoke to john moore

low about just how desperate the situation and. what i witnessed is an increasing increasing repression against the pro-democracy and human rights activists in the short time that i was in bahrain i felt like the situation was actually deteriorating it is across the country it is extremely widespread and in villages and towns all over bahrain there is violent repression of attempts to demonstrate and attempts to protest even more alarming much more an increase of house raids at night a middle of the night in villages all over riot police coming in and surrounding houses brutally arresting people and imprisoning them taking people from restaurants swimming pools their private homes this practice of targeting activists and demonstrators fortunately seems to be on the rise and very widespread right now and only time will tell i guess how or how long they will be able to keep

struggling but i did not see any signs of people giving up i saw signs of people reinvigorated the bahraini regime is very determined not to let what's happening be exposed and so anyone who's going to bahrain with the purpose of the agenda of trying to show what's happening and trying to really expose the reality on the ground there is wants to keep them out and keep them silent as much as possible. ten minutes past the hour here with our team and still ahead on the program flexing . the fate of allegedly wiki leaks and former bradley manning in the balance with pretrial hearings underway in the u.s. . and in the business bulletin moody's ratings agency delivers a fresh blow to the european economy as it downgrades thirteen italian banks just days after slashing italy's government bond all of the details in less than ten

minutes. so resistance a new job rates of. rows of leukemia for example the surgery that. breast cancers more than ten times told cancers fourteen times if you get the exact details but the shoots numbers there's nothing nothing that you have ever found in any epidemiological study anywhere ever there is a way that brings victory. to its creator. he's not alone some are more severe than others we have something to be born without skulls without organised and sometimes with their legs totally twisted what means death to those who it's pointed out. to those who use this window. and they're celebrating and they don't realize that

stare looking at their own future can't so. this is just. so subtle. i have. leakage and i show you to the extent how much i have leakers. here with our team and for decades belgium has offered a safe haven to immigrants mainly from muslim countries but now a new starter kit in the northern region of flanders telling moroccans how to behave is causing outrage immigrants feel insulted by being told to respect others and sort their domestic waste artie's tests are silly explains. did you know that

in belgium the flemish eat healthy live inside their homes most of the time and don't make noise after ten pm or did you know that men and women are equal and it's forbidden to hurt someone mentally or physically including your partner or children and that if you want to get a job you must learn dutch well these are just some pointers about the country in the new starter kit given to the moroccan government for distribution to moroccans who have gotten the official go ahead to immigrate to flanders it also includes a short video featuring testimonies from recent immigrants about their experience with a. modern society based on the principles. with freedoms and rights for everybody also we've obligations with separation. equality of. with no discrimination principles but some were left rather

dumbfounded by the kind of information the packet contained. when you see that in belgian living who is what does that mean it means americans live in trees when a belgian neighbor makes news and two three am because he's drunk and it keeps me awake during the kids to explain that he must respect the hour because we do not make news in belgium after ten pm this is concord to see around the world the starters get is meant to provide basic information but it may be too basic for some the proponents of the initiative say it was made to target immigrants with low skill or educational levels but critics say that what's written in it and some of what's said in the videos that come with it are simply patronized and insulting raising questions on the stereotypes locals may have on the foreigners coming to their country. i think there's a very large share of racism in this excuse me but that's not how we educate about two thousand five hundred moroccans immigrate to flanders each year as part of family reunification or marriage migration as soon as they arrive they can join

a civic integration program organize. by the flemish government which primarily focuses on it teaching dutch. not sure it's important to point out that in order to integrate you need to speak dutch i have no problem with that but what i have a problem with is this social cultural references they explain to you that in order to find your place you must culturally match a certain model those in favor of the starter kit insist that the initiative aims to manage possible false expectations about belgium and to address the fact that integration has been ineffective so far you are able perfectly able to get the belgian nationality if you want belgian citizenship without even knowing one of the official languages of this country and this reflects i think the whole idea of what they call in an integration policy which isn't really an indication policy because it's completely up to the people coming in to if they really want to adapt if they're really want to integrate but for those who do want to integrate something

else they can expect to find out is that the flemish are like walnuts hard on the outside but softer on the inside and one more thing it rains a lot in belgium but it doesn't rain money does are cilia r.t. brussels. and as the economic crisis bites hard and belgium and the whole of europe later on today max cousin and stacy her look at some of the more controversial ideas put forward to tackle the debts. german economists make the rich by bonds the german it's a two for economic research you suggested that those with a substantial private fortune be forced to hand over ten percent of what they have over two hundred fifty thousand euros they're talking about confiscating wealth to pay for debts that were run up by corporatists and neo fascists and you know this is the haven't we seen this movie before it's called scapegoating we are now at war

without any equivocation whatsoever this just one of the sort about a policy issue it's not about an economic theory it's about a war world war three is all. pretrial hearings are underway for bradley manning the jailed u.s. soldier accused of releasing information to wiki leaks his lawyer claims manning was tortured and treated worse than the terrorists during nearly two years in solitary confinement he faces twenty two charges including aiding the enemy which carries a death sentence my colleague kevin owen discussed the case with iraq war veteran michael prysner the charges should be thrown out because bradley manning has been tortured and abused the u.n. report where and torture has come out and said that this one is torture and abuse is being blocked from visiting him so the fair trial is absolutely not happening for bradley manning i think that you could say if you committed

a terrorist attack you might get a figure of fair trial and what bradley manning is experiencing right now this trial is very much focusing all the attention on manning himself but isn't there a danger that is neglecting the bigger picture of course the very crimes that is leaks expose themselves. oh absolutely you know if this whole idea of eating the enemy which is where they're going to try to put bradley manning into jail for for the rest of his life possible e you know the death penalty is something that you mentioned as well this idea of aiding the enemy the government is trying to make the case that someone could find these things on the internet and then use that for propaganda purposes with anti-american sentiment which is ridiculous because it was the u.s. military that committed these atrocities in the first place it was them that committed you know the wanton killing of civilians on a regular basis both in iraq and afghanistan so it's the u.s. government's own actions that foster heated resentment for the u.s. military and its occupations of bride and i think you could say the same you know for punishing rolling stone for publishing the afghanistan kill team photos these

are things that the u.s. military is doing and exposing the facts and you know eating the enemy is just telling the truth. don't forget we've got every story covered on our website r t dot com here's a bit of what's there right now. news paper has come up with a way to boost its circulation by marrying some of its news makers and ads triggered outrage worldwide the full story is waiting for you at r.t. dot com. from a date with justin bieber for their daughter to renting a london eye or a head's birthday we report on the most ridiculous demands of russian oligarchs abroad. in the u.s. occupy protesters have descended on

a quiet california redwood retreat where some of the world's elite gather every year demonstrators say the two weeks officially portrayed as a time of rest and relaxation it's really a chance to discuss plans for the world's future so abby martin to bohemian grove to see what triggers those rumors and growing protests for millionaires and billionaires the people that control the world control of central banks to build nuclear weapons i mean this was their summer playground straight from the san francisco airport headed to montevideo a city with beautiful redwoods and picturesque coastlines. the perfect getaway for the world's rich and powerful and in fact every year ceos media moguls and high level politicians flock here to the bohemian grove secluded camp out there making business deals there they're talking policy with a lot of conversation a claim which members deny their motto here is that weaving spiders come not here

which they claim means there's no business discussions it's just the vacation for the wealthy men author and activist mark dice has a rare grove yearbook issued every decade showing everything from men in drag to high profile politicians giving speeches the book shows george w. bush and his father giving lakeside talks along with presidents jimmy carter and richard nixon others who have attended our david brooks of the new york times along with c.e.o.'s from c.n.n. and fox jimmy buffett david rockefeller and henry kissinger mark also has an official two thousand and five membership list of grove attendees your typical warmongers george bush sr colin powell richard perle and your typical republican establishment and ciders. hundreds heeded the call to protest the people in the growth are about to be conquered. activists philippe

messina worries about dangerous policies that are drafted from within the redwoods the nuclear program was discussed here and then developed later the fact that reagan was here in eighty and then afterwards we had the reagan revolution we know you're. an event with so little transparency has bred theories some of them pretty wild about what goes on on the inside especially at the creation of care ritual where grove members burn a coffin effigy to a forty foot. peace and justice activist cindy sheehan speculates on the lack of media coverage as they are part of that you know they're saying they're the propaganda arm for the one percent the corporate media is the one percent. i mean if you look at it that way in the n.b.c. m s n b c c n n fox they are of the corporate one percent they're not going to do negative stories about themselves about capitalism about global empire and war. how can someone own

a two thousand year old redwood grove that's the question that the occupiers are asking about the bohemian grove which they say belongs to everyone and not just the one percent. here at the gates of the bohemian grove a line of right police made sure that everyone didn't gain access to the lair of the one percent abby martin r.t. month a.t.o. california. time now for some other stories making headlines around the world egyptian president hosni mubarak owl's been ordered back to prison after a doctor said this health has improved mobarak was admitted to to a military hospital in mid june following reports he had suffered heart failure eighty four year old former leader was sentenced to life in prison last month for his complicity in the killing of protesters during last year's revolution which toppled him. hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the city of peshawar in pakistan protesting against the reopening of a nato supply routes into afghanistan as follows the one thousand strong rally held

on sunday and the southern pakistani city of karachi islamabad close the supply routes for seven months after twenty four pakistani soldiers were killed by u.s. drone attacks. let's cross over to the business desk natasha we have a new wave of downgrades this morning don't we absolutely and this time it's italy a country that we suspected was in trouble but we haven't really seen any reports pointing to that until now well moody's has slashed the credit rating of zero thirteen x. kalyan banks just days after it cut the italian government bond rating the ratings agency says the financial problems in greece and spain have boosted the default risk for italy moody's has dropped seven banks by one notch and another six banks by two notches and in other news banks and other traders could have

manipulated oil prices in the same way they raised interest rates or reportedly rate i should say at least that's the view of the report from the g twenty which claims that traders have an incentive to report false prices the u.k. officials want the cabinet to expand its in korean. to the great fixing scandal to see if oil prices have also been fixed meanwhile all the oil price agencies like plots are denying the allegations they're saying there's no similarity between a little war and oil and now moving on to the equity markets let's first go to asia where trade is in full swing this hour and what we're seeing there is a pretty robust picture than the case gaining around three quarters of a percent in hong kong the hang seng is on around one and three quarters of a percent investors are positioning themselves for the days in name event which is the much anticipated speech by the fed reserve chairman ben bernanke who will be

addressing congress later in the day investors really hoping he'll hint that more stimuli are on the way for the world's largest economy and now speaking of the united states let's see how wall street closed on monday and as you see that we saw some losses there more than three quarters of a percent for both the nasdaq and the dow and that's following a pleasant surprise in judo a retail sales declined just like an april and may while most analysts battle a suspected increase if it had not been for citigroup's of beat earnings they actually exceeded expectations the losses would have been deeper now here in moscow the equity markets closed at monday's session in the block less than half a percent for the r.t.s. and around a quarter of a percent for the my sex and the russian ruble finished the session stronger to both the euro on the us dollar on monday we'll bring you the latest

a soon as the russian markets reopen less than one hour's time the euro at the moment is gaining to the greenback now onto crude it's pretty bullish this tuesday hovering around a seven week high if it manages to keep this momentum throughout the day it would be a fifth straight. session of the gays but of course we were not quite sure if it's going to happen in the karen sense we're already seeing that it is a race saying some of its earlier games will keep you posted on what happens throughout the day all right live from our business task thank you for that update at. all a reminder of our headlines is coming your way in just a few minutes stay with r.t. .

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