still pressure. starts on t.v. dot com. explosions and fighting in the syrian capital as rebels announce a full scale offensive against damascus that's amid another diplomatic attempt to end the crisis. america sends its own agents to patrol britain's airport at the london olympics while the u.k. is forced to draft more troops and police after security contractors bite off more than they can chew. h.s.b.c. one of the world's biggest banks says it's sorie for laundering billions in international drug money as well as doing business with saudi arabian terrorist sponsors.

live from our new center here in central moscow this is r.t. with the twenty four hours a day syrian opposition fighters have taken their battle to the neighborhoods of damascus with reports that the city has witnessed explosions and intense daylight shootouts what is more of a notion is that. the capital damascus since the beginning of the uprising last march has most of the time been under governmental control and the closest the fighting has ever moved has been in its suburbs in the eastern part of damascus hours curse in the area known as duma there have been several assaults against opposition hotbeds there but the clashes have never actually taking place inside this city and this is exactly what is going on right now the free syrian army has claimed this is the last of this size of bottle battle for the capital so they can see the route very very important activists and residents have described it was going on in damascus as the most intense they have used violence since the

beginning of the uprising last march and the opposition groups have also been reports in the me has been using more tires and even armed vehicles and how he called teri's and has been shelling the areas where the rebels are this information is very hard to be very far and i only can confirm that yes we are hearing shootings here and there in different parts of the city from time to time we see smoke coming from different again parts of damascus and we've also been hearing helicopters flying over damascus we're hearing from governmental sources here that a great number of terrorists have been killed during these operations in damascus many rebels have been captured and few a number have surrendered who also been hearing from these sources that the hottest the most intense questions right now are happening in the area here in damascus known as media and where the army has surrounded the rebels but what is absolutely

clear is that armed groups have a cheek to spread this this fear in damascus this feeling of despair and of cares here in the capital there are no cars almost on the road at a time when usually we see traffic jams here in damascus. finishing there is keeping on. of all the latest developments in the conflict zone you can check out her twitter stream for more updates comments and images in one of our latest tweets she says the headquarters of the governing party is apparently being targeted. and syria's top international mediator says he hopes the world will strike a compromise over the country's crisis at the u.n. security council if you will share by the russian leadership what is you going to follow his meeting with president putin here in moscow. while kofi annan is in a very complicated position right now since he himself admits that the peace plan in syria isn't working since neither side of the conflict is putting down as weapons and is getting to peaceful negotiations when in fact if president assad did

openly say that he is ready to for talks apparently that's not the case with the opposition which is continuing its attacks on government forces on government facilities and openly says that it won't stop until syria falls into a state of total and complete civil disobedience that's leading to more violence and it's definitely not making coffee on the job any easier the other question is that you get the international community united world powers more able to reach an understanding on syria in geneva saying that all sides of the conflict have to put their weapons down simultaneously equal pressure asked to be applied on both of them as well but unfortunately the reality is different from what's written in that document since we're already getting new interpretations of the document also sometimes forceful rejean change which is not included in the document and even open support of the armed rebels not to put their weapons down and continue their

armed resistance russia's stance on the situation hasn't changed it coincides with the coffee and peace plan and with the agreements reached in geneva great britain and the united states are trying to push article seven into the new u.n. security council resolution on syria which doesn't rule out for military intervention. one of the points which russia and china are strongly against and we're now even getting right specifically from the u.s. secretary of state clinton said that if russia and china don't change their position on syria they will be the violence in syria is continuing and war lives on civilians and ordinary people are lost every day. well let's get more analysis on that from jacob one blogger he's founder and president of the future of freedom foundation and libertarian washington advocacy group says he hopes world powers will reach a compromise on a u.n. security council action there in syria do you share his optimism how do you see this compromise.

when it looks as if jacob is actually talking to me but unfortunately he can hear me but i call him jacob maybe maybe could try this there with a phone you have me but we didn't hear you do you have a question oh yes can your mean you know yes go ahead sort of you know i don't serious optimism i mean you've got to intractable forces here one is the assad regime that certainly wants to remain in power and then you've got the rebels that once you oust him from power i don't see that there's much room for compromise there i mean if they think that they're going to be able to get both sides together to agree on some type of compromise government in which assad remains in power i think that history well russia's claimed it was blackmailed by its foreign partners who said if it fails to pass a new western drafted resolution which is quite imminent it's initiatives that the

u.n. will be brought to what do you make of this tactic. both a pretty standard. policy that goes on in all politics did you do as we say or you pay a price you know that's hard the u.s. foreign policy it's our foreign aid it's all about we put regimes in. the recipient end of foreign aid if they don't do as we say in the security council or in the united nations the foreign aid is terminated but this is just standard politics not in the national basis but on an international basis do it you're told or else the process when it seems that military intervention could when a pin in this new draft what you think russia so you can see any form of intervention will necessarily follow if it doesn't accept this resolution. and if so why is it concerned that foreign intervention is a bad thing. well you know if you go back and look at the history of u.n.

resolutions especially those backed by the us government. cracked them in such a way with with nebulous wording that appears to be very honest and limited in scope but in evitable. that wording used used to open up the floodgates of an invasion or occupation intervention and so it would be natural to be a little bit skeptical about you know new calls for u.n. resolutions that are supposedly going to be very limited in scope and you know i think what you have here is is a battle over you know which dictators are going to be in the us camp or in the russian camp or in any other camp i mean that nobody pretends that the u.s. government doesn't support dictatorships i mean if support the military dictatorship in egypt were given one point five billion dollars or get the dictatorship in bahrain in yemen we know that this is an idea that the syrian dictatorship happens to be in the camp of russia things that the united states the

united states wants the ousted from power the russian regime wants to keep it in power in the pro russian region. but interventionism obviously just it accomplishes nothing in an attempt to make things a lot worse especially for the syrian people the best thing that that the u.s. and russia and everyone else can do is just leave the fear is alone to manage this problem on their own you've been talking about so many of those syrian people those innocent victims are caught up in this so many dying the red cross they've declared that syria is in the state of civil war do you think perhaps on a humanitarian basis thinks could be that a predator to foreign intervention because we saw exactly the same words coming from the red cross just a few days before we saw that humanitarian intervention as it's called in in libya . well it is it's not justification for this work civil wars and revolutions are very very painful often they produce gas they produce destruction

so you know that the syrian situation shows us you know the one advantage of democracy where people king peacefully shift three themes through elections that doesn't necessarily mean a free society but it provides a peaceful means for people. we need got everything that won't stand for elections this is the only way i'll get to violence and unfortunately when it comes to violent revolution people are going to get hurt innocent people are going to die it's just a fact of life look at our civil war here in the united states how many people died in innocent people in that war but the best thing to do is just leave burma loan because when you have these humanitarian interventions in evitable you're going to be more gas destruction anger. it only going to make the situation worse very interesting to hear your perspective jacob home by the thanks so much for joining us founder and president of the future of freedom foundation joining me live in the u.s. welcome. well the syrian crisis fills the headlines there's

a massive effort to keep rest in another country off the radar at the moment bahrain's authorities are doing their best to silence the popular protest such a hospital for wounded activists and cracking down on foreign journalists trying to cover the uprising that still to come here on r.t. for. the first u.s. agents are on the way to london for the olympics reportedly to boost security at major airports the news emerged just days after a private security firm contracted by the british government said it could not provide the stuff needed it's now be up to the police and the army to make up the shortfall a solution that's left u.k. authorities red faced of course part of the risk with with more now from the capital. as athletes and guests start to arrive here at heathrow airport for london's olympic games they'll be met by all the usual sites including lone that immigration is u.k. border officials struggle to cope with the sheer numbers involved but it won't be just a u.k. official felt come across some may be surprised to see american agents operating on

british soil the u.s. transport administration or for a city has reportedly been allowed to bring in its agents in a move aimed at helping british authorities to secure american flights in and out of the u.k. the agents apparently won't be allowed past boarding gates or on to u.k. aircraft but them if presidents could prove controversial in the u.s. they've been accused of performing intrusive pat down it's just the latest confession that britain's been forced to make to the u.s. which doesn't believe the olympic host has done enough to ensure the security of the games the american team will reportedly bring with it five hundred f.b.i. agents to protect athletes and diplomats plus a five hundred security dog all of whom will be operating on british soil raising questions about solvency american on the follows

a catalogue of failures on behalf of the security company that won the contract for the games g four s. . it's admitted it couldn't provide the number of security staff it had promised that meant that three and a half thousand soldiers and hundreds of police have had to be drafted in at the very last minute to plug the shortfall the head of g four s. is appearing before m.p.'s to explain himself and the possibility even more troops may be needed in the coming days. reporting there from london and security expert and author phil re says the olympic games are becoming more the celebration of sporting achievement but of the international security industry. it's quite a few ask and i think that the presence of five hundred f.b.i. agents walking the streets of london is quite amazing really that you've got this hidden layer of security quite apart from the ground that has already been

announced including rapier ground to air missiles sixteen seventeen thousand british soldiers many more than are fighting in afghanistan so i think it's been a catalogue of shambles if i could say one thing about you know the whole american presence here which is really quite quite insulting to some extent to the british government and its security apparatus and i think the point beyond all this is you know what is the threat why is this going on in the terms of you know it should be a celebration of athletes and it really is being seen as a celebration of the international security industry for months in the british papers now we've had the home secretary announcing this pilot you know we're having ground to air missiles in blackheath park it's a park in south london you know the soldiers all of this some pretty streets for the first time they'll be armed soldiers are pretty straight since the second world war i mean after all this is meant to be a sporting occasion that celebrates a man's achievement well i mean what kind of achievement is it that we've got to be almost in a state of war to host it. so heavy weapons in london full on surveillance from

washington a radar ring around iran to stop it from falling missiles at the u.s. and israel is almost complete going to r.t. dot com a web site for the details on that plus some out of this world pictures as a russian spacecraft drops off a new crew at the international space station all of our website and plenty of other stories r.t. dot com. in bahrain anti-government protests again in momentum defying an official ban on all opposition rallies demonstrators claiming authorities are brutally suppressing them and attempting to obscure the scale of the uprising local doctors say police are monitoring hospitals and arresting people admitted with rubber bullet wounds. support for opposition on twitter has landed one of the country's top human rights activists in prison he had been arrested for appearing on julian assange program here on r.t. the crackdown has reportedly even spread to foreign journalists attempting to cover the protests. a former bahraini m.p.

from the party says the media blackout is heavily financed from abroad. the people are. brave enough to continue with this i mean what a godless they have coverage or not the bahraini people will continue until they achieve their demand. their media coverage that it is it is not there but it is not as we call it is from the media. a lot of p.r. companies all around the world for that but when you're a g.m. they are getting this financial support from from the country they are allies with and they are using this money to block then you also from from from bahrain. countries have a lot of education and be ignored i mean what is happening because of the. financial issues between the countries. no let up for british banks with yet

another scandal now one of the most disastrous months for the sector on record a us government report is implicated h b c one of the u.k.'s biggest banks and a whole range of offenses they include laundering drug cartel money cheating sanctions and helping saudi arabian organizations finance terrorism on more now on the scandal and what it may mean for the industry eric draitser to political analyst to stop imperialism dot com joins me there in new york the first allegations of wrongdoing erica the bank they emerged back in two thousand and five when it was discovered that the bank helped funnel vast amounts of cash to chechen extremists where the government regulators been since then. well i think that's a great question i think that's a question that a lot of people here in the united states and around the world will be asking what we see and we saw this is especially with the m.f. global scandal as well is that the regulators and the wall street and city of london banks are essentially in cahoots the regulators in the banks there's

a revolving door between them we saw that with gensler in the c.f. t.c. in the m.f. global scandal we see that again here that they want us to believe that these regulators are purely incompetent but at the same time we see time and time again that in fact they look the other way and or are complicit in many of these crimes and what about ethics here profits then coming before any sense of morality in the banking industry. well absolutely and i think that it's probably a false false idea or somehow unrealistic to believe that ethics and morality would emanate out of wall street where we see some of the most unethical behavior and some of the most rampant criminal behavior anywhere in the world so the banking in the finance industry is not governed by ethics or morality it's governed by profit and it's governed by power what is interesting about this particular report is the fact it highlighted saudi arabia as a terrorist financing center now that's not something that the u.s.

often mentions obviously being a closeout i why no what do you make of that. well there is always been this tension that's existed between the united states and saudi arabia the saudis would like to believe that they are not the client state of the u.s. but in fact they are and the relationship between saudi arabia and these terrorist networks has been apparent going back to at the very least immediately after nine eleven and perhaps years before that the timing of this is certainly interesting because we do have this seeming confluence of scandals related to wall street in the financial sector but in terms of whether or not this would actually jeopardize the relations between the u.s. and the saudis going back decades it's unlikely the saudis are very much dependent on the united states for their geo political protection and at the same time the united states in the west is dependent on saudi arabia and the other g.c.c. countries for oil and for influence in the middle east the bank now says it sort of

for any mistakes it had committed in the this is an important lesson for the whole of the banking industry what will the punishment be if any i mean sorry isn't enough is it. no it's certainly not enough and if we're going to look at recent history the punishment will be nonexistent did we see any punishment for jamie diamond and j.p. morgan chase after they revealed two billion dollars in losses seemingly overnight no of course not we didn't see any punishment of the ratings agencies such as moody's and fitch and s. and p. for their malfeasance leading up to the two thousand and eight collapse we haven't seen any bankers put into jail we haven't even really seen any deep investigation of many of these crimes on wall street so in answer to the question i wouldn't expect much of anything but every nobody died as a result of those crimes but surely h.s.b.c. effectively financing terror and drug cartels is responsible for innocent deaths i mean should they not be actually facing criminal charges here. oh they of course

should be facing the charges but again i mean did we see any charges brought up against walkover the when it was made obvious in two thousand and ten that they were complicit in something like almost half a trillion dollars of laundering of drug cartel money they were simply bought up by wells fargo and and put into the wall street machine so once again this thing will be swept under the rug unless you have some kind of an uprising demanding punishment for the criminals on wall street that's really the only way that something like that could happen interesting here thought eric draitser thanks very much indeed for joining us geo political analyst for stop imperialism dot com live thank you new york thanks a lot. and middle east affairs expert at the risk i spoke to him a little earlier here in r.t. commenting on this report damning h.s.b.c. says it shows the true colors of saudi arabia i think it really stems down the fact that saudi arabia is the main export of what could be called the radical islam

it is the saudi brand of islam actually which has tarnished the muslim image and the whole world for example look at what happened on september eleventh or some in london who was born in saudi arabia so i think this proves what many people have said all along that it is saudi arabia which is the main export of radical religious extremism or be a radical elements but more importantly i think that this report. that sheds light on the whole lions between the saudi family the saudi royal family and some western countries what this will do is put more pressure on the western governments to try and change their policy now of course saudi arabia is considered to be an ally for many people are speculating that maybe the western governments might reconsider might soon reconsider their alliance with saudi arabia.

now let's have a quick look at some of the stories making headlines around the world before the business news with katie dramatic pictures now off to a fire broke out in the sky scraper in turkey hundreds of people had to be evacuated from the forty two story tower in istanbul which you can see there made up of apartments and offices crews managed to extinguish the blaze with a technical fault suspected to be the cause. thousands of staged a rally across pakistan's region protesting against the reopening of nato supply routes into afghanistan that closed in after twenty four pakistani soldiers the u.s. drone strikes the decision was overturned when america apologized for the incident earlier this month it's the latest demonstration against the move after a one thousand strong rally was held on sunday in the southern city of karachi. two trains have collided in the egyptian capital karo leaving twenty injured after carriages came off the tracks and far broke out officials have denied earlier

reports of people died in the accident critics say. as poor as a result of years of investment. what was promised time not to join katie on the business tax for round up the day's business news crazy for a way oh yeah i'm going to get to start with wall street because they're still trading still in the early session of their day now we've got actually gains we did have earlier losses a lot of that is as the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he told senators that the central bank is. to boost if the labor market doesn't in fruit so there's a bit of optimism really now. compared to what we saw earlier we saw very much disappointment now we've got goldman sachs we got coca-cola does the all gaining in the. us but europe we have got to close in to this to look out and it was a mix performers it was all on full day for year round and that was there was the pent up optimism over the tent. stimulus action ended with disappointment there was

no concrete decision made really on the top story in europe today was the rating agency moody's slashing credit ratings of thirteen italian banks was just days off the italian government bond rating agency says all the problems in greece and spain have boosted the deal for risk for its late moody's has dropped seven bags by one not another six. ok let's get on to the current system the euro is still trading and is managing to bounce back from earlier losses were good at gaining that one twenty two eighty six for the traders favorite pair of the ruble it stopped trading now but it ended up stronger against the u.s. dollar on the year right for the russian markets versus of on home here in moscow but we'll have a look and see how they performed today we got some gains it was a positive start as exactly how the markets ended today we had industrial production growing over three percent for the first half of the year those figures came out today the how to boost of events in here russia also the stock so much

check out some of the biggest moves the shake is almost buying it was down over two percent you can see just there the financial is in a merger talks actually with christie to create the country's second largest private lenders that was a big talking point here and we also have the drug retailer thirty six point six in need of a little bit of medicine itself off to its first quarter net profit plunged one hundred fold and interestingly the result was actually better than expected so very low potations. nine tenth's of a set up let's talk about oil it is trading near the highest level in several weeks still that's in new york speculation that u.s. stockpiles will decline and tensions with iran will escalate let's talk more about oil than fights are the traders could have manipulated the prices in the same way they raised interest rates on the u.k. officials they want the cabinet to expand their inquiry into the larger fixes

deceived. prices have also been pushed up but meanwhile price ages like plants that did not lie in the allegations saying there's no similarity between my back and oil and a totally different story that versus national broadcaster has admitted using schemes to minimize taxation i'm talking about the b.b.c. almost a third of the company's presenters were boyd through personal service companies that allow smaller contributions deals held the b.b.c. to millions of pounds in national insurance other companies is the arrangement worth standard industry practice but agreed to review how it pays its name as one to watch both so the business able about so we're voting here in moscow time around eight o'clock for the latest update is great if you have a good night thanks very much lou for that and more financial news for you from a quite different perspective in the cars report that will be after a recap of our headlines with me in just a few minutes stay with us. this is a three.

wealthy british style. that's not on the type of. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

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