school. top syrian security officials including the defense minister and his deputy have been killed in a suicide blast in damascus the deadliest opposition assault on high ranking assad government members since the syria conflict began. russia says the policy of supporting the opposition will lead to an impasse of the u.n. delays a vote on a new syria resolution which could see sanctions imposed on damascus. israel has accused iran of being behind an explosion targeting a bus carrying israeli tourists in the city of burgas at least four people were killed in the blast and these are the latest pictures from that.

new center here in central moscow this is with you twenty four hours a day top level syrian security officials including the defense minister and his deputy have been killed in a massive bomb blast right in the capital damascus the government claims the suicide bomber who carried out the assault was a former bodyguard well here's our correspondent with more. that is suicide bombing that killed syrian defense minister and his deputy who has also been the president brother in law and former deputy chief of staal for has happened on wednesday in the very heart of damascus in de la. brive kilometers from where we have been able to hear the sound of this explosion and we have to say we have to meet that eight has been very intense and massive last reports that a suicide bomb had attacked and national security building. here in damascus at the

time when. of cabinet ministers and security officials has been a go in all that there have to say that these area where this happened things known to be very safe and very calm is actually a luxury air we have been there many times and there are many restaurants that it's home to many a free show buildings. it is all foreign ministry of culture ministry of course security has been very. specific in these areas so this is why right now there are many concerns on security situation here in damascus all visibly free syrian army has already claimed responsibility for what happened but we're also hearing that world news agencies a say that the man who carried out the said tag has been one of president bashar assad's gods. given how massive the last will so we can understand

that there's been many civilians killed and many many damages caused by these blasts the buildings and cars around the syrian capital has been going for a really tough time in the last seventy two dollars in the last full day as we've been going through walks free syrian army and opposition and old forces trying to bring. assad regime down as as dogged. bino battle and the decided battle for damascus we've been hearing shootings in very different parts of the capital we've been seeing black smoke drifting over the city skyline and we've also been hearing helicopter is not only flying over. the oldest continuously inhabited capitals in the war but also firing so it's been a very dramatic picture actually here on the ground people here those who we've

been able to speak to. say they are surprised actually the couldn't imagine this to happen all just they didn't want to believe this may happen in their home. when you can follow on twitter to get live updates and even photos from the heart of the conflict she's been at the scene of today's blast that killed members of the senate in a circle real time up close coverage maria's feed right now. but it's got some expert opinion from lawrence freeman he writes for executive intelligence review magazine the latest bombing in damascus is the most high profile assassination we've seen in syria so far how significant a development is this in the conflict and just how threatened is this now. well i think it's fairly significant i think you would have to assume that the so-called opposition is getting some sophisticated hardware and capability explosive capability and i think it's very ominous if you can penetrate

a government security display and then it is a serious situation however the real danger is that the bringing down or trying to bring down the regime of president assad the world have very bad consequences throughout the region and throughout the world and this could bring us to the danger of much greater escalated warfare because as you know the government of russia and others are absolutely opposed to regime change and the elimination of the president and this could lead to greater confrontations of war beyond the borders of syria and what about those other very. what about within the borders of syria who would fill that void if assad were to go after all a lot of talk of al qaeda and other extremists at large. yes this is very this point is has to be well taken when you overthrow the regime or attempt to overthrow

the regime you bring in other forces and none of these opposition groups are some are not even legit in opposition groups i mean there's a lot of lying in the press about who's killing who in syria the government is not the only kill you people and you have various terrorist groups coming in from various regions countries in the region and therefore do you want these groups to take over or do you want these groups or terrorist to be running a country you know and that is one of the reasons and i think people should think about the fact that the leadership of the u.s. military from chairman general dempsey has been very very reluctant to make any predictions and involve the u.s. on one side or the other precisely because they are getting tangled in another war with the opposition is not what people want to make you think people want to make believe it is you talk about no official intervention or support from the u.s.

there you did talk about the capability of the opposition so who is actually supporting them where can we point the finger then if there is such support which allows the opposition to get so close to the center of damascus. well we know we know that guns have been coming in pretty freely into syria we know that there's certain elements in turkey that have been moving into syria we know that there's been u.s. involvement a clandestine forces there's been involvement of british clandestine forces there's been various groups coming in from iraq from libya so there's a whole series of. elements that have entered into this fray which may have started as a legitimate protest in the arab spring has been taken over and it's been turned into a regime change policy and you you see the actions of u.s. ambassador susan rice at the united nations and you get a very clear sense that they're looking for another libya and what president putin

and general mark are off and others are very clear is we are not going to allow another libya we're going to stand and defend sovereignty and that is a very fundamental fighting issue at this point despite what russia says and what you're saying that do you think regime change is likely now that assad could fall and you mentioned libya very similar circumstances on where we saw the rebel assault on the libyan capital a year ago leading to the downfall of gadhafi. yes but the remember that the libyan forces on the ground could not have functioned without the support of nato and when their khadafi was captured he was ordered kill by the nato group which was our cozy cameron and president obama so why would that be helpful to the middle east to have this syrian regime overthrown and the syrian president. and the opposition is his half of the problem or more because of the support they're being

given from outside forces for regime change regime change is not a good policy it's been a policy for the last ten to fifteen years coming from tony blair but it is not a policy that actually develops countries and helps countries and it was for always for the development in the region what about the consequences of the divisions we're seeing between russia and china and other un member security council members what what's the implication the impact of all of that now. well we know what it is because we did the right embassador rights and others would like to put in a chapter seven un mission which would give them the right not just the sanctions but the right to use military force russia and china see that as an immediate danger and don't forget there are the russians see this as much as part of a much larger picture the chinese see forces trying to encircle them in china russia sees attacks on its own president and against his own country by n.g.o.s and

various outside groups so they look at this may say well we could be the next target they could go after regime change in our countries because our countries lie outside the purview of the british or american. nato crowd and therefore they know that their countries are also on the target list if this regime change policy continues from libya to syria and then pass through to iraq so that the government of russia and china are defending their sovereignty and defending the silently of other countries against nato coachman's and that that of the united states in particular thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. from executive intelligence review magazine live there in the u.s. capital thank you for your time. r.t. live here in moscow and russia saying that it will not support any u.n. sanctions against syria this comes as the u.n. security council has delayed a crucial vote on a new syria resolution which could see sanctions being imposed on damascus and as

the death toll grows diplomacy is struggling to make headway well let's get more news from artie's marina porn she's joining me live now from new york the u.n. missions mandate expires on friday yet little has been achieved in terms of stemming the violence so why isn't diplomacy working. well diplomacy isn't working bill because the major powers within the u.n. security council remain very much divided as you have been discussing the vote that was supposed to take place in a few hours that was delayed for a day was a vote on a u.k. drafted resolution on renewing the u.n. supervision mission in syria now this u.k. drafted resolution is under chapter seven which means that it also calls for the renewal of the u.n. mission in syria for forty five days but it also threatens sanctions against a mask is if the syrian government does not seize the use of heavy weapons and withdraw from heavy populated areas within ten days as we have been reporting

russia has stood firm on saying it will not support any resolution that paves the way for sanctions against syria or anything involving chapter seven of the the u.n. charter under chapter seven many experts say it could also pave the way for a military intervention into syria china has always has also expressed a similar position russia instead has also drafted its own resident resolution renewing the u.n. mission in syria for another two another three months rather now a joint special envoy kofi annan has asked the security council to come to an agreement a way to put pressure on damascus and the opposition to seize the violence but many experts say that western countries we should mention that france germany and the u.s. are supporting this u.k. draft and western countries are only putting pressure on the syrian government and

not putting any pressure on the armed opposition another example that may highlight that is the fact that recently the white house made a comment in the aftermath of the most recent suicide bombing that took place in damascus and a u.s. official said that it's clear quote that the assad regime is losing control of syria unquote but no. a mention in those statements was any kind of nation of a terrorist attack itself to take place so many analysts believe that you have major divide within the security council and that's what can be compromising the extension of the u.n. mission in syria and you talking about that renewal that extension of the u.n. mission in syria now but really what's next i mean what can achieve just briefly. well very briefly we have to keep in mind bill and this is the most important thing to underscore if this mission is not renewed that means that the u.n. the security council the international community loses any verifiable reporting and

the verification that is taking place in syria there are three hundred unarmed u.n. officials in syria while they suspended activities in june there is still a presence there that is able to assess the situation on the ground and report back to the united nations if you lose that mission in syria there would be essentially no kind of objective force in syria to report back to the international community and that could only make the syrian crisis worse reporting live from new york thank you very much indeed for that now on the way here this. report in the dark the b.b.c. is planning to appeal a court ruling that banded from showing a film about last summer's u.k. violence all the details for you just a few minutes from now and gloves come off in georgia a report on how the government tightens its grip on power oppressing the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections. all that still to come but first an explosion

that hit a bus carrying israeli tourists at an airport in the bulger and city of burgas on the black sea at least four people were killed and twenty injured in the blast well for more details on this let's cross live to aussies paul a smear. paula what's the latest on this tragedy. well the latest figures we have are that between four and seven people have been killed and at least thirty people have been rushed to hospital of whom five are in a critical condition we're talking here of a group of some two hundred israeli tourists who had just arrived in the bulgarian city of burgers they had boarded three buses and they hadn't even lift the parking lot when one of those buses exploded and the other two erupted into flames here in israel the country's gone into a state of emergency there is a been a hotline that's been set up plans are in place to send a plane to bulgaria to bring back the survivors and almost by the minute those survivors are phoning israeli radio stations and television networks crying

hysterically saying that there are bodies lying all over the ground that there are people screaming that there are clothes that have been ripped they are being held in a holding cell in the airport and they too frightened to leave saying that they're afraid to open these two cases really that the mood is one of panic certainly reminiscent of the kind of situation you have when suicide bombings went all through here in this role in the past the airport itself has been closed and there is a lot of criticism being leveled by the israeli government towards not only the bulgarian airport security but also european airport security or love of israel has accused the rome so we're hearing of being behind this blast surely this is going to stoke tensions between the two countries even further. well what we are hearing is the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying that iran is behind this blast and the speculation is that it is the work of a suicide bomber the question though is just how far netanyahu is going to go in

those canes that at this moment are unstable and substantiated for months now he's been hinting at a possible strike on iran because of that country's nuclear program and certainly what we're likely to see in the coming days is commentary over whether or not this incident while further given the turnout who justification if indeed he intends to go that route we're hearing from eyewitnesses quite a few who say that there was a man who boarded the bus and shortly thereafter it exploded so it does seem to be the work of at least one suicide bomber the former head of the israeli security agency the mossad says he believes it's the work of either hizbullah or al qaeda and israeli experts will be making their way to the area where they will be examining the evidence and the materials that were used in this blast to ascertain exactly who was behind it right now the government is holding an emergency meeting to try and deal with the situation and calm the fears of this public policy lawyer from nazareth thanks very much indeed for that update. lawyers for the

b.b.c. are planning to appeal a court order on the broadcaster from showing a documentary about last summer's riots in the u.k. the film was due to be aired on monday but has now been shelved until further order by the george smith explains. the bonds program is the two parts docu drama involving actors reading excerpts from interviews with two hundred seventy people involved in last august's riots in titled the riot in the woods the interviews were originally done for a project aimed at understanding the causes of the disturbances as to why it's been banned this is an extremely opaque and unusual case legally we are not allowed to name the judge who handed down the order because he was missing in all the case the decision referred to we understand this kind of order is sometimes made in case of the breach of privacy but at the moment there's absolutely no indication what's

legislation has been deployed here as far as reaction goes the b.b.c. it self doesn't seem to be able to talk about it either just putting out a statement confirming the cool and that is unable to add anything meanwhile press freedom groups have called the move to a big and indicated they feel this is the shit just to remind you that riots break out loft oldest the sick following the shooting of mock duggan by a police officer in north london they then spreads country while it's and over the next three days cities across england were terrorized by violence looting and often since then a lot of studies and programs have been made looking into the causes and it's very unclear why this particular one has school and out of the pool although it does come close to the anniversary and also a place to be all in fulton lympics the b.b.c.'s lawyers are considering appealing

the decision and promise to show you the program at a later date perhaps only then will it become clear why this highly unusual decision to ban the program was made in the first place. some of the stories now making headlines around the world in brief. for you this hour at least fourteen people died in northwestern pakistan as a minibus carrying shiite muslims hit an mine one of the militant groups that claimed responsibility for the blast which police described as a sectarian attack this is the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting the shiite minority in the mostly sunni state. and staying in the volatile region over twenty nato fuel tankers have been destroyed in a bomb attack in northern afghanistan an explosive device was planted on one of the trucks transporting fuel into the country from neighboring uzbekistan this comes only weeks after pakistan reopened alliance supply routes into afghanistan for seven months it was caused by a nato attack which claimed the lives of twenty seven pakistani soldiers last year

. in libya a liberal bloc the national forces alliance are celebrating success in the parliamentary election held earlier this month the group claimed almost half the seats reserved for political parties and muslim brotherhood fared worse with just over twenty percent of party places the lawmaking body is due to appoint a transitional government and oversee the drafting of a new constitution but british journalist patrick hayes says a foreign hand has in fact robbed libyans of a free choice is a preview of the full interview coming up a little later here on r.t. . knots for nato intervention last year i think these elections should really have been something to celebrate the election itself as being administered by the national transitional council which was effectively cherry picked by the west rather that than actually selected by the libyan people it's an unelected body and there have been a lot of disagreements there's been a lot of protests over the past nine ten months by the libyan people who are unhappy with the lack of transparency from this governments there are unhappy with

the fact that the transitional council does not represent their views or the people that they want to be in power. that interview later here on r.t. in full for the parliamentary elections in georgia.

this is. real position part this of prohibited in georgia getting cash flow appears to be the latest we're going to lose with the opposition and with only three months before the elections it seems the playing field is becoming increasingly uneven in tbilisi georgia. market news could you last hour you were saying there's a lot of optimism in the markets or in first is still our reason our own no they are actually below so far so good really for wall street in particular are continuing to rise for the second day of the housing starts increase at the fastest

rate in almost four years and but also receiving a boost after the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke we iterated remarks to congress to the central bank vaults ready though in no rush to inject more stimulus into the economy with what companies from honeywell international and intel are both reporting profits which are bleeding expectations that it's all helping to boost momentum meanwhile the european markets they are still advance and they've actually come to the end of their days was through the closing figures but it was a lot of adults out as a say we had so it's the second biggest bank credit suisse their profits beat expectations all minutes showed the bank of england may reconsider the case for an interest cards as well as the rate of unemployment fell for the second time a share that's in the u.k. so the common currency that we can see the dollar is that she's still rising and that's really mirroring what the stocks are doing so that means that the common currency the euro is down one twenty two sixty seven for the traders favorite pair and most of our peers they too have closed. shop hard against the u.s.

dollar and the euro are talking about currencies with still talk about the euro that the common currency is all trading at around two year lows to the dollar you can see that there on your screens that's also taking a hit by the eurozone debt problems and concerns over the future of the union itself now the latest. bisects about one of the main part speculated i said that the forces themselves often help him out says boss and discuss the scene with the head of the bank. tell me. the only way the year is going to stay together two things need to happen first jury needs to become more involved the more deeply involved in the more generous it is going to be so far in the equation and as well we need to see a restructuring of the debt is too much to prefer if we can't keep the stead alive and the current solutions that germany is offering saving austerity that is not the way a solution there's no way to save our way and solution that requires that somebody takes a loss at the debt that's written off to

a certain extent to allow it to be sustainable if you were talking to the electorate and they want to hear from bankers too they don't just want your titian's do you say to them hey point the system you've been badly mistreated by bankers by people like yourself or do used to around and say to them you have to shut up now stop protesting all have to realize as a society that it's not about throwing one party out and bringing another party and it's about realizing this loss has to be taken your pension is not worth as much as you think it is because some of this needs to be written down so that realization that is an important step towards towards real change towards a restructuring taking a loss realizing that the upfront pain is actually better because that creates a sustainable system going forward to pay the reforms now unneeded and the past has to be gone through there's no way to escape it although it may be too late to go on exactly unfortunately the longer it goes on the bigger the system or the pilot it

builds up so it becomes more painful in the long run it's better to take the head down rather than later in the e.u. is going to be the first place to take a hit because of its fragile political fiscal framework. the most has had a lot of direction as you can see those are causing fake is the end. check out the stocks there will be see who were the biggest movers and shakers in the session there were some first to do last their top management team could be replaced soon that was the rumors of the day on the trading desk as you can see that little cast from that and they both managed to get on the have a look at those or prices that they are indeed actually gaining it's been a chill the session all around really up and down all day long and that's how the markets look i'll be back in about fifteen minutes bill. thanks a lot for that see a bit later now very shortly here on r.t. i'll be back in a couple of moments with a summary of main news stories come up to twenty nine minutes past the hour stay

with us live here in moscow.