now syria is a commercial capital becomes the country's fierce system battleground today rusher accuses the rebels on their western patrons of leaving damascus no choice but to fight on. as a breathtaking a limpid game the opening ceremony kicks off in the british capital the police meanwhile been busy telling a mass cyclists group to get on their bike. and saudi arabia police attacked demonstrators with clubs and fired live brown as pro-reform protests are spread from bahrain and the united arab emirates. is now a seven pm moscow time this is r.t. live with me roar received show you it's good to have you with us now dozens of people have reportedly been killed in fresh clashes in syria's largest city as

government forces step up a counter offensive against the entrenched rebels describe the scenes in aleppo is the fiercest fighting in sixteen months of conflict russia says syrian authorities need to work towards peace but can't be expected to concede while the western backed insurgents continue to take over cities moscow meantime accuses foreign powers of fueling the violence to bring about regime change in damascus and the former head of the u.n. mission to syria says assad's fall is only a matter of time but admits that it won't necessarily mean the end of the conflict are new allegations of also a version of foreign meddling in syria in defiance of u.n. efforts on a boycott reports. one week has passed since the united nations has issued a new mandate for its observer mission in syria beach and this theoretically should help calm tensions in this country but if anything violence in syria has only intensified over the. last week the clashes between the army and the rebel still

continue in the northern city of aleppo but the death toll believed to be in the hundreds and enormous damage to the city's infrastructure now before the syrian uprising began aleppo was considered the best case for the burgeoning economic and political ties between syria and its northern neighbor turkey but ever since are there on and bashar al assad stopped calling each other france turkey has played a very active and some would say very distractive role in the syrian affairs turkish territory is being actively used to smuggle weapons for the free syrian army and on the top of that's reuters news agency has revealed that turkey alongside saudi arabia and qatar has sat at a secret military base in one of its southern cities to direct vital military communications support for the free syrian army now a number of experts have long warning that turkey's adamant support for the syrian

opposition may calm at a cost to its own security for a number of days the turkish state has been struggling against its own militants i'm talking about the crudest on its workers' party the p k k b it's been fighting for the establishment of an independent sovereign state for the kurds the world's largest people without a state a few months ago i had a chance to visit several kurdish settlements around syria and i was very surprised to find that there are defacto independent they have their own security forces that our own schools our own administration told these developments with the kurds in syria leave turkey very nervous and on thursday it's prime minister accused bashar al assad of aiding kurdish militants in syria and the. country it reserves the right to strike kurdish targets kurdish locations with the. in syria pretty much

like it does in iraq and. this may be needed for turkish all self defense but if those attacks that ever carried out that's going to make a very volatile a very bloody very unstable situation in this region far worse our correspondent are reporting right there well meantime dr ali mohamed atta turned chief of the syria tribune blog says that america's mideast allies are walking a fine line that is well beyond that of international law the u.s. seems to have finally understood that it will not have a clean clean clear success in syria and if it decides to intervene it will ruin the whole country on the way and that's why it's leaving the dirty work to do its local proxies so dearie turkey seem to to like the idea of middle east controlled by the muslim brotherhood which they can control easily thinking that this is their battle it seems gives them the privileged. that's

what they think nothing allows them to do so this is against international law this is against every concept of neighboring countries so they think it's ok for them and they think they will get away with it and that's why they act this way and the question is are they going to get away with it. you're watching r.t. still to come for you in this program to rate is on a rampage final trip to north or failing to stem the increasing flow of stolen artifacts from the country. now of course some big games are finally underway in london and while the athletes were gearing up to go tough on their opponents police are also getting tough on locals one hundred cycling activists taking part in a monthly mass bike ride were arrested during the games opening ceremony and they claim to have been encircled by police while pedaling towards olympic park officers

reportedly used pepper spray as scuffles broke out of the opening show itself there proved to be a breathtaking masterpiece a final price tag of just twenty seven million pounds the olympic torch was delivered by a football star david beckham via a speedboat on the thames and seven young athletes nominated by british sporting greats let the flame of the largest. bell in the world at the extravaganza culminated with a marvelous fireworks displays you see right. now updates on the competitions results and more stunning pictures including some of the queen paul mccartney and david beckham playing key roles in the olympic opening spectacle all these pictures available for you on our web site short of visit. coverage of the grand sporting event. and why some are being swept up by the spirit of the olympic games there are others who are not so in fact. no one here.

crazy back home because of the yeah people in the big apple whether they'll remember the names of the athletes even though several months after the olympics concluded the residents coming up in about ten minutes time here on. also we look at how athletes are cashing in on their bodies with glossy covers. fancy photo shoot leaving supporters perhaps a bit of a huff to thaw out the olympic games. now tensions are simmering in eastern saudi arabia following friday's police crackdown on protesters clashes occurred in the city of qatif where activists say about fourteen were injured a officers began shooting life munition several arrests were made following the demonstrations against political imprisonment and discrimination by the sunni rulers in the area mostly populated by shiites as seen unrest through the year and saudi authorities beefing up security opposition forces have also been silenced in

bahrain and the united arab emirates geo political analyst a eric draitser says the ruling elites in the region are actually marching to the beat of a very different drum. to voice your view in saudi arabia is to stand against anglo american hegemony in the region remember the united states the british the israelis and the western powers have been propping up these regimes for decades and so to popularize ideas that are anti regime is essentially to say that saudi arabia qatar and the various gulf monarchies are not going to be subjected to us hegemony any more saudi arabia has a very repressive police state apparatus that exists in the country and because of that you see a tremendous amount of repression and that repression can very easily escalate into violence we saw a similar situation in bahrain where the the royal family essentially carries out

what could be considered entirely backward style system where people are thrown into prison for tweeting people are thrown into prison for criticizing the regime really what we're looking at is a situation where there it's the pot calling the kettle black the united states and the western powers and their proxy. in the middle east or using human rights as a cover when it is convenient and in turn violating human rights when it serves their interests so we can't we can't look at this in any objective terms this is all in the service of anglo-american imperialism in the middle east and in the gulf now as egypt writes new pages in its own history pieces of the country's legendary passed away museum looters and tomb raider have stepped up their hunts for artifacts and as artist paula slay reports officials say they lack the resources to even try to stop the thieves. egypt's pride and past which is slowly being stolen

from its people here at the museum of egypt and antiquities in cairo more than five thousand years of civilization on display unearthed over the years from the shifting sands with the world's largest collection of fair army pieces and the treasures of king two tin common but the ancient world's artifacts are being planted at the this museum and some scene. from the museum. this is not the one of the better down sides of the chaos of last year's bloody uprising on the streets of egypt an outbreak of fifty museums and antique warehouses across the country more than one hundred thousand artifacts are stored in the cairo museum basement alone and at least a million are stored across northern egypt protecting these treasures requires a colossal effort all the more difficult since many police have left the force in the wake of the countries and raced before the revolution where fifty go to the police the maximum benefit to ten people then to fifty after the movement became

seventy or one hundred people of them that's a good is. that when the inside it all starts here in the shadow of the permits ancient temples in visit sites here egyptians dig for quick and illegal back it is easy to go deep under the cover of darkness and far from the nearest security guard but many don't even go there far instead turning over the own backyards under the ground in egypt on the every house there are only one so if you if you want to conclude from million people on the ground even something as simple as a knife from the times of the pharaohs can sell for up to fifty million dollars on the black market deals are done through a labyrinth of illegal buyers across europe and the united states then the. money digs happen and vast open places that are difficult for us to access those responsible then leave the country by sea or across the border where we have few

police it's impossible to know what's been stolen directly from the ground whereas we have documented evidence that at least three hundred pieces were stolen from museums since the revolution and it's estimated that illegal digs have increased one hundred fold in the last year those trying to safeguard egypt's in comparable history feel powerless the country's treasures are falling into the wrong hands and lost to the people forever the egyptian president may have more pressing matters right now but many archaeologists here feel the legacy of the people is surely with fighting for before it's too late egypt is in a state of flux and while there are many people here worried about its future there just as many more you do about preserving its past policy our team kyra. that also has come in here live from moscow we're still ahead for you in this hour words of freedom a georgia as hailed by many outsiders as one of the world's best young democracies but we hear from those on the inside tell

a very different story. if they shoot something inappropriate for others. they can easily be. casualties of war ok. i wish they would never happen but it has happened. in a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what destroys their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave. and it's clear what happens with such witnesses i got a cite. purses shooting. everyone wants to be pretty. whether they're an old lady driver.

but it might be quite tricky to get a fancy car. because you live out here in siberia. and the only way to get to you is by train. started here. for going global. cooling. choose your place to take your stuff. to. make your statement. the world.

stream. thank you for joining us today here on our to your just in time for the world update we want to start with the violence in lebanon and city of tripoli where a overnight sectarian clashes of a tween sunni gunmen and alawite rivals stand at this point eight people have been wounded a place fired warning shots trying to disperse the combatants before troops were deployed in the area tensions in the country was months ago by the uprising in neighboring syria where the other week minority supporting president assad that you countries share a rather tangled web of sectarian connections which can be easily inflamed. a drive by shooting in southern thailand has killed at least. four soldiers and injured two others the troops were cornered by suspected is the most militant son shot at close range as they were returning to their base from

a patrol the islamist insurgency in the country's volatile south erupted in two thousand and four and has left since then over five thousand dead. a major police operation on tajikistan's border with afghanistan has left at least seventeen soldiers dead and forty injured and going to going offensive was launched on tuesday in an attempt to track down a formal warning the fuse to killing a senior security official police have killed a total of thirty militants they've captured forty one some of them reportedly having defected from neighboring afghanistan authorities have sealed all border crossing points in the region with the only exception provided to nato supply trucks. and a severe wildfires of engulfed parts of russia's far east a state of emergency has already been declared the situation is being hampered by extreme temperatures but the crews battling the blaze say they have managed to protect vital residential areas the firefighters work is being held back by

a poor visibility that prevents the emergency planes and helicopters from reaching the worst hit areas the cities in the region are also enveloping thick smog making it difficult to breathe. now praised for preaching freedom and reform the georgian leadership is cast as a democracy success story both by western media and state channels at home but some journalists who work in the country see a very different picture as artie's arena find out. that's exactly what we're seeing in my culture the well you my part of the world you know you are liver and begin your energy by giving people more freedom freedom is the key word find words from the georgian president some western officials like hillary clinton continuously praised me truly for his supposed program of reform but journalists in the country are less impressed and say talk of freedom doesn't extend to the media made it tonight that the new journalists is now a dangerous profession in georgia there's always a risk of being accused of being

a spy journalist get beaten up frequently all of this is happening in front of the entire country. of ourselves the chances are that most people in georgia won't find out about these cases from their evening news according to the latest polls more than eighty percent of georgians depend on t.v. as their main source of information yet georgians only have free access to three channels all of them controlled by the state one way or the other. but one channel is owned by saakashvili eight another his friends relative to all people get really is just state controlled propaganda and i think so what if the georgians don't get the full scope of their country's events from the t.v. sets after all there is always the internet but so they have to understand a lot of people here still live in rural areas and for a lot of them the world wide web is simply not available readily at their fingertips independent channels like of cossey or channel nine are available only

to those who have satellite dishes and other luxury for most georgians. sometimes i have friends or relatives visiting from other parts of georgia and they watch these channels and say what is this really happening in this country we knew nothing about it but operating an independent media outlet isn't easy here journalists say their cash flow has run dry since advertisers were told by authorities to stay away. from channels which may be affiliated with the opposition on top of that their every move is being closely watched by authorities here i know i constantly find myself facing over the top control from local officials i'm always being followed by some strange people who say they're from some unknown news agencies and ask me questions why do we film stories about political prisoners for example. it's about the state officials don't feel comfortable coming to us because we ask questions they don't want to answer but state controlled media never ask

those questions. president saakashvili is a frequent guest on various american t.v. channels but he's never made an appearance on any of the opposition channels at home perhaps it's not so much the questions the human is the effect his answers may have in billy see george and. of course we have many more stories on our website www dot com or the latest news and analysis standing by for you twenty four seventh's clipping about google's little secret find out how the search giant has managed to keep an illegal private data collection that it should have destroyed in two thousand and ten your classified information gets revealed online. tree huggers getting hot under the collar thousands of chinese eco protesters rampage the coastal city of kid dong all to plug a pipeline those details on our website. our

thanks for joining us on our to today while the olympics grabbed the headlines these days with the lavish opening ceremony and sporting spectacle some say is just a way to hide from real problems well our resident takes to the streets of new york asking people whether they are sharing the jubilant olympic spirit that has obviously taken over the british capital. do you really care about the olympics this week let's talk about that are you excited about the olympics i know i'm here. but is it crazy back home because of it yeah and we got out what are you excited about well team usa i hope we go all the

way. the right does that mean we're the best country in the world if we win all the gold medals oh i don't know about people really aren't that into track and field and not so much you know then the swimming you know the media build up between. phelps and his rival you know but you don't even know the name of the right man even to give his name on the front just finish tonight. for a minute do you think that the olympics are kind of a way to just distract people from what's really going on might be you know from your problems do you think people remember the names of all the athletes three months after the olympics are done i guess it depends what kind of sponsorships they've got and what advertisements they're doing but yeah if their names are in plays and in lights everywhere they're selling us wheaties yes exactly those athletes yeah they'll be remembered a lot of them probably wouldn't be you know i guess a sort all some boss that did push ups in london for

a. big push ups that might for the olympics. that's insane so they're trying to yeah they're getting they're getting people excited any way that they can what is why do they do that just for the good of sports no idea probably just try to drum up some more money for the country at that right over here tourism you know historically the olympics is something that's always meant to be a unifying action yes so it doesn't that kind of take away from that message of unification when it comes down to just drumming up business ya think. greed is unfortunately taking over the priority of some folks whether or not you care about the olympics the bottom line is that you should be prepared to be bombarded by a lot of media coverage in the coming week. and are staying with story number one in sports today of course the olympic games are

a perfect chance for the athletes to attract the world's attention not only with their sporting skills but also by flashing their flesh as artie's and chuck and i found out some of the competitors have been very quick to strip. faster higher stronger bodies built like machines and olympic extravaganza of athletes grace magazine covers baring it all it would be nice to tate like to not look at these athletes like you know these are special specimens almost members of a different race but these are people just like us they could they could help us strive to do better their superhuman bodies are on display in a competition for attention and personal exposure the olympic gold is not just the the gold at the sleeves when and where but the good old of all these endorsements and all this this ability you know they want to cash in on it's their moment in the sun unfortunately i think that undermines the olympic goal and ideally.

the original idea and only two of lettuces and schumann might scrapped the olympic dream and culture now transformed into a glossy images of athletes striking a pose in the nude the original olympics were performed completely naked so you could make the case this is turning back to the original form of the olympics in an ever expanding entertainment culture surrounding the olympics self p.r. is the new tradition and the fifteen minutes of fame an opportunity not to be missed and you've got hundreds of athletes who come back to nothing but a lot of them really look back and say well what do i get out of the last four years i could have made more money being a manager at mcdonald's corp that's one of the biggest sponsors of the olympics is on a journey to send a somewhat confusing message while the athletes are busy promoting their stunning bodies mcdonald's sets up the biggest joint in the world outside the olympic stadium a record one hundred fifty thousand condoms are also being distributed at the

olympic village that's roughly fifteen condoms for each athlete some argue sexing up the olympics is slowly racing the true meaning of these historic games the marathon really. it came into effect and they based it off the great story i'm a guy that's a pita coming from wanting you know citizens about basically how the war was ending with the persians and going twenty five miles in just having bleeding feet and how that inspired the marathon for what it is today. or surrounding the olympics of today's anything but sportsmanship appears to be the last guest joining this party and hearty new york. all right in just a couple of minutes or hours he will be taking a walk on the wild side has all gone off talks of the world's biggest promoter all alternative tourism that'll be intersect after the headlines.

if. the evening. we've. been told started here before going global and now it's pulling a fire on

a. log in. the road. choose your place and take your stuff. to. make your statement. spoke the words. coupon holstrom laws. secret laboratory curbeam was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything turns mission to teach the creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only.