the battle for syria and goals in the country's second city aleppo braces for the worst as rebels and government forces go head to head. elsewhere in the rest of the region united arab emirates sees a fresh protester clampdown with the west's blind eye added to tackling its stance on saudi arabia about right. but can the troubles past the ancient olympic first task in terms of politics hangs over support for the syrian squad at the learning game. it's five pm here in moscow this is r t coming to you live on the news now with our top story this hour in syria government troops and rebels are reinforcing their

positions as a week long battle for the key northern city of aleppo intensifies columns of army tanks are reportedly rolling into residential areas where opposition fighters are placing snipers on rooftops seizing control of syria's commercial capital is seen as a crucial as crucial to winning the fight for the north of the country clashes are also being reported on the outskirts of damascus where rebels long a major offensive recently but were pushed back our team is one of the few international broadcasters still covering the events from inside syria here's what's on a boycott with the latest. over the past few days aleppo has been at the center of a major military operation know that the army the syrian army used tanks used fighter jets military helicopters to strike its targets the free syrian army has also. enlisted a lot of support for its a parade in the aleppo they're calling it the battle for aleppo and there are some

reports on the eve of this battle they receive major reinforcements and supplies all the military equipment you supplies and arms from turkey and saudi arabia when you talk about syria what's important to keep in mind is this sequence of events it is true that the syrian army is employing having artillery in the city but they are conducting drive military operations in response to terror attacks that have been happening in this city that have been happening in aleppo for several months and many residents of aleppo are telling us that they don't understand why the it took the government so long to dive those military operations because they've been suffering from this criminal activity for quite some time now the residents of the laptop also telling us that before this military operation was launched the army how to evacuate the residents local residents out most of them are now stationed at the campus of the i left university residence from other

locations of. the compass so. on one level syrian people were able to come together and try to help for each other and what's important to stress also is that allowed for is believed to be the stronghold for both the bashar al assad government and for the opposition but most people i've spoken to they say what they want now is the violence to stop and then they can proceed with the political process has. sort of boys go is in the conflict zone and bringing you updates and fresh pictures via twitter as we continue to keep a close eye on developments in syria. a syrian campaigner pushing for peaceful political reform told or to the foreign powers want the insurgents to soften up to soften the country up i should say and make it ripe for regime change. these so-called rubble they don't have a decision in their hands the decisions come from outside the from countries like

united states backed by the saudi arabia and qatar so they just do what they've been told is to break the infrastructure of syria i mean believe me. they're calling me so that's what they're taking on but i believe since a week since that massacre happened in syria the bomb who killed the. commanders in syria the syrian the syrian army has called now for a swift action and the people is called. we are here we call for swift action from a month or two months ago because enough it's enough these people they understand only the language of the guns and the language of the bullets so they have this is what they have to be faced by the syrian army by the bullets and it's going on now the masters is nearly nearly cleaned from them is going to be cleaned we will we

want as a syrian we want to dialogue we want a political process we want a ballot box. well later we'll look at whether london twenty twelve can really be the world's level playing field for serious athletes they go in feel the big screen message of peace but can sport win over politics with the details in a few minutes. first the united arab emirates continues its crackdown on protesters a new arrests have been made with almost forty now in detention there as came after the government announced an investigation into groups prodding crimes against the state the activists who are locked up for allegedly opposing the constitution as well as the country's ruling system follows similar crackdowns in saudi arabia and bahrain but as activists who say explains western silence over the protest makes clear who's a friend and who's not. uprising and behind him has shown.

a clear the standard in the u.s. foreign policy toward the country is going through the arab spring or the democracy movement while they support some countries. like syria. in the past libya because we don't you know says does not like. the best way to change this because of the genie just use the democracy here however people in bahrain and people should do it maybe and people in yemen are calling basically for the same rights self-determination the free and fair elections but we don't see the same kind of forceful clear foreign policy toward those is especially. so european because those countries are those governments are considered like so somehow democracy now is used as a weapon against the countries that we don't like however the people and bluejeans that have been sort of allied to the united states who are supporting the

government that is oppressing the. well look now at some international news this hour in brief fierce fighting in iraq you troops and militants in the province of diyala has killed twelve people with an army helicopter also shot down the clashes erupted after a police patrol came under attack by a group of suspected al qaeda fighters on wednesday causing the army to intervene and this comes just days after the terror group claimed responsibility for the worst attack in two years which took at least one hundred sixteen lives. a bomb attack at a busy market in pakistan's district oh sure has killed nine people and injured twenty others the explosive device was hidden in a pickup truck on your district has been a frontline in pakistan's fight against the taliban in the country no one has claimed responsibility yet for the blasts. and european commission president is heading up for talks in greece and me to get the country out of its financial mire

despite the outline bailout plan greece is still contrasting at an alarming rate and pushing through further cuts is proving hard stomach both republicans and the public happens has only enough money to make it to the end of the summer and speculation is swirling again that it may have to quit the eurozone. while greece struggles to say afloat even europe's biggest players can't escape the economic tsunami they do we have more on the ratings cloud being cast over the chief powerhouse. what is downgrades the outlook on seventeen a german banks just a week after it made a similar move on the country's credit rating certainly confidence in the euro area going even further down more details coming up in the business update. russia is in a state of shock after a grisly remains of human fetuses were discovered dumped in a forest investigators are now poring over the evidence for clues some experts

believe the fetus is could. could have been used in research or any legal beauty treatment you may find some of the images and song thomas the report just starving for a picturesque meadow in russia's urals at first seemingly serene but an unfortunate encounter for one outdoorsman reveals a scene far more disturbing i discovered the girls while i was out there fishing and i went to get some wood for the camp fire which i found the barrels and i thought i would take them home but when i looked inside i so many little babies medical waste in total two hundred forty eight fetuses each around half the size of an adult human hand sometimes with surnames and identification numbers discarded in a remote ravine around seventy kilometers north of you katherina berg in some cases the remains spilled onto the ground while inspecting the scene we found a total of four barrels fifty to seventy liters each filled with human fetuses police will investigate this incident the materials found will be examined at the

lab the mystery of the discovery in the woods and how it got there has sent a shockwave around the world but one main focus for investigators is where the fetuses came from in the first place in russia abortion isn't legal only up until the twelve week mark and early evidence in this case shows that these fetuses were terminated between twenty two and twenty six weeks russian law states that women can only have an abortion during this time period for medical emergency reasons now investigators must find out why there were so many late term abortions in such a relatively small area was there something deeply sinister going on such as an illegal abortion operation and why were they discarded so carelessly human tissue is classified as hazardous waste and as such should be incinerated when disposed of properly in the hospital contracts out the service which is where companies can cut corners but we've got to be

a nation where discarded syringes and other materials. were dumped into scent beats and in children. police say hospitals in the area had been contributing fetuses to scientific research but the project supervisor was fired in two thousand and eleven they believe she took some of the by medical waste with her when she left. those fetuses contain stem cells which may be used to treat cancer various immune system diseases and for rejuvenation purposes but skeptics say this scenario is unlikely considering the fetuses were found in formaldehyde rendering them useless for this type of research now the health ministry has requested information from all clinics within one hundred kilometer radius hoping to find answers to a story that has left a community perplexed in moscow sean thomas r t. israel is warning of tough decisions ahead on iran and it's calling a major on major powers to speed up efforts to curtail the country's nuclear

program meanwhile tehran remains defiant saying extra pressure won't hamper its push for peaceful atomic energy later antiwar activists bill ayers tells r.t. that the u.s. and israel are leading a military campaign all ignoring their own nuclear stockpile. it would be a catastrophe for everyone if the united states or nato which is just the united states' fig leaf or israel went into iran and attacked iran we can live in this world as a nation among nations as long as we insist on the old colonial mentality that we can down many to other peoples we can tell them how to be and have a double standard that's just so grotesque so we're frantic about the possibility that iran might have a nuclear warhead someday meanwhile we have two thousand nuclear warheads and that doesn't make us frantic israel is the third largest nuclear power in the world not part of nuclear nonproliferation in the heart of even admitting that they have that

this is a world that's dangerous that's you know unstable but it's not unstable because of iraq there are so many better ways to be a citizen of the world than to shake your sword every time you feel like it. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charging bloggers a big picture. of the the whole story to hear the two for going global and

now it's only my role. in. the right. to. choose your place to take your stuff and. to. make your statement. to the world. you michael street. watching t.v. at live from the russian capital now with the summer games in london about to kick

off there's no sign that conflict torn syria is prepared to observe the ancient tradition of the olympic truce as fighting rages the country is sending its the largest delegation in thirty years of athletes saying they're carrying a message of peace but sport can't be split from politics that easily as refinish not now reports. for almost half his life twenty eight year old ahead has been part of syria's national weightlifting team during the opening ceremony for the two thousand and eight olympics in beijing he carried the syrian flag this year his going to the games in london who is just as important a mission i think. the situation in syria is better than how some media trying to show that we are going to send the message that our country safe and beautiful and that its people don't want violence and had says his major competitors in london will be from russia but the country's true enemies the athlete flames our

nations back in the rebel forces britain the country that's hostin this year's games and has been among the most loudly condemning the bloody regime of bashar assad calling for tough sanctions military intervention and the president to step down seems to turn support in turn other battlefield they had of the syrian olympic committee former syrian army general and a close friend of the country's leader has been refused a visa and will be watching games on t.v. in his home in damascus. this is a conspiracy against syria and its people and it even contradicts the olympic charter i feel sad and disappointed this is part of a pressure package and serious psychological pressure today the cycling team will have to double their training the day before it was cancelled due to security concerns apart from the psychological pressure the syrian athletes six men and four women have been preparing for their peaceful mission in

a real war zone at home with a real respect to their lives the u.n. says in seventeen months of the revolt of a ten thousand people have been killed while some opposition sources asked to meet almost twice that figure to vote for her but despite a national wide cry. isis the country sent in its biggest allegations since the 1980's moscow games but although we are in a state of war we are not listening to what the see a bogus especially the media we know the truth and this is very important especially this time we raise the flag of our country and to the world the best of our officials sport experts say syria is unlikely to go home with any medals these year but it seems winning is not the highest prize for the team sport is often described as a matter of life and death but for serious olympic team the phrase is a reminder of a real conflict they'll be living behind however a hit will be a message of peace not war that these competitors take to the london games. or if

an option r.t. from damascus in syria. well report on some early olympic embarrassed sentiment for you at r.t. dot com with the first games gaffe north korea's women's football team get in a flap over their flag storming off the pitch after being introduced with south korea scholar. and the ultimate star war as the u.s. and europe face off with china to capture the sun you can get details on the solar power struggle. lots of gold the global conference full of clowns but not a politician in sight these are the real deal and they're getting together in guatemala city r.t. dot com has the slapstick summit covered. download the official publication so choose your language stream quality and

enjoy your favorite. t.v. is not required to watch on t.v. all you need is your mobile device to watch r.t. any time. the u.s. congress is considering extending an act which gives federal agents broad wiretapping permission officials have now come clean and said that the foreign intelligence surveillance amendments act has been used to violate people's constitutional rights at least once in the past four years one u.s. activist describes the practice is virtually illegal. government but they have broken the law they admit that the courts have said what they're doing is illegal and now they want congress to rubber stamp it anyway they've gone to congress and say look we always apply you know we always comply by the law everything's been approved by the courts we now know that was

a law but they were misleading congress in order to get this stuff approved at huge and it's important people know that it hasn't gotten enough coverage thankfully we can get the word out but i think once people understand and i think it's going to be a whole new debate about you know usually this stuff is presented to congress as this is just standard stuff we do it every year it's to fight terrorism how could you be against it we now know that what the government has been doing is in fact illegal that they've declared a whole classes of information including the location of everyone in america was detected by their cell phones which report back to the cell phone companies where they are the government is now sweeping all of that information together without any warning they're spying on where everyone is all the time without getting a court to sign off on it actually a huge shift and very scary and there's some big news in russian football as fabulous capello has officially become the head coach of the national team one of the world's most successful coach have signed

a two year deal with the aim of leading rusher to the twenty fourteen world cup in brazil one of the bigger point in our two sports next hour. this hour was our joint katie at the business saskia and she has details on the eurozone situation what's happening out there and they said it's just going on and on at the moment today we have a further blow very early in the region with rating agency moody's continuing with that downgrade in the year as and is now lower the outlook for seventeen. and warned of more cuts to come test all said it hasn't as as far. the moodies is downgrade at seventeen german banks and this is just a week after the country's a credit rating was down downgraded from stable outlook to a negative outlook so it it wasn't very surprising that this on the banks had followed mainly because many of those of those banks that have been downgraded hold government back to debts and therefore if the country's credit rating is not stable

it just goes to show and followed that the banks themselves are not stable as well they've been struggling since two thousand and eight and also since the onset of the eurozone crisis now aside from these downgrades the outlook in german business is not very good across all sectors business confidence has gone down in june certainly not bad news for the country that's considered the main creditor in all of the euro zone nations funding a lot of the bailouts have gone to the other countries now one of the main a destabilizing factor in the euro zone is actually spain its current situation very unstable and it has long passed that psychological threshold on the interest rate on its sponsored seven percent right now investors are asking for seven point six percent of our doesn't take much to figure out that this is a very very unsustainable level and that there are many there are fears that spain is going to ask for a full country bailout to keep investors really jittery greece has also been on the spot like the troika of the i.m.f. the e.c.b. of the european commission had just gone there and really there wasn't much of

a surprise of what they had found out i think investors are already expecting to hear that greece is still off the track and it still needs a further death restructuring here in order to get its finances in order so therefore we're not seeing good news any good science at all from the euro zone nations. ok for now if we look at the european markets will be able to see some gains in the us off to recent comments in the last hour or so the european central bank president mario draghi said that policymakers will do what it takes. and as you can see some optimism at the moment so i really have some faith in the drug. tests i mentioned the economy. turned posting its second quarter profits ponging ninety three percent of us really spooked the markets today was worse than most were expressing let's have a look at the euro now see how it's responding to those e.c.b. present comments one twenty two sixty one is here is managing to get a bit of

a ruble we can see that in the session today it is managed to get it gets. this is the u.s. dollar and the euro that the activities here most are not long now we've got gains that they are just over two percent up and posted territory in the my stocks around a percent that's really very much of just seen in europe also we had asia in the session these are the movers and shakers as we can see because nice healthy green arrows on the screen just the biggest lead to hear an opposite spread to two raises benchmark mortgage rates next month as well change of fortunes one point seven percent up in positive territory apparently a subsidiary of french social general has become one of the biggest minority shareholders of a bag moving on to ros as you can see is over two percent on the s. and p. warned that it might cut the bracing overstaffed if they do go through with the acquisition of their home for tea and pay b.p. oil rising as well really responding to those e.c.b.

president comments moving on in the other needs to regain the crowd of the world's top also make a sold almost five million vehicles in the first half with the year three hundred thousand more than most is the general motors. loss of time as its production was hit by the two thousand. and. natural disasters and. i moved on china's cooperation with africa is getting stronger and stronger china's president has even pledged a new level in african relations the country has already replaced the united states as a top trade on the confidence but beijing has been so successful it faces an african backlash that has done us all to experience. a ghost town in angola for whole four million people gleaming new headquarters for the african union and vols doubling sudan's electricity all built by choice no return for the continent's fabulous

riches from half the world's diamonds to two thirds of its platinum mobile phones used the mineral called turn mined in congo in a decade china has overtaken the state as and africa's top trading partner taking a whopping ninety three billion dollars in goods stricken by did washington and brussels have taken their eye off the ball and the continent's leaders are hoping mad at the west continued colonial attitude china's intentions of different from europe as south africa's president europe still influences african countries for this sole benefit loans from beijing are also cheaper and come without lectures on transparency and human rights but made by china may have gone too far big projects are being built so badly they crumble and go listen to general hospital shut down off the big cracks appeared patients are now seen intense new chinese built roads linking zambia were quickly swept away by rain and the mainland brings its own

workers distrusting local labor more chinese have come to africa in ten years the europeans in the past four hundred says one top official just getting started at this month china africa forum president hu jintao promised to take relations to a quote new level with twenty billion dollars fresh cash for the continent adding we will forever be a good friend good partner and good brother of the african people. the new bush know that next hour they saw how the everything goes for the u.s. the markets right now features are actually pointing to the upside all right well we trust you to keep track of that we'll see you back here next hour thanks for that k.b. coming up is why we hear from russia sports minister stay with us for that.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporation to rule the day.

download the official ati application to cellphones choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from ott such l.t.v. is not required to watch all its hear all you need is your mobile device to watch r.t. any time and i didn't. mind russia going to be soon which brightened if you knew about someone from phones to impressions. these phones don't on t.v. dot com.