as opposition calls on international action is the government helicopters how in the rebel held parts of aleppo an attempt to retake control of the country's second city. flood the olympics gives out the first sets of medals after a breathtaking opening ceremony that was however muted by police arresting about one hundred cycling activists. saudi arabian police attacked demonstrators with blogs and a live ammo was pro-forma protests spread from the bottom range and united arab emirates. in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story dozens reportedly killed during fresh clashes in syria's biggest city government forces stepping up a counter offensive against entrenched rebels witnesses describe the scene in

aleppo as the fiercest fighting of the sixteen month long conflict with rebels claiming they can't win the fight without international support russia says syrian authorities need to work toward peace but can't be expected to concede while the western backed insurgents continue to take over cities moscow accuses foreign powers of fueling the on the rest to bring about regime change in damascus the former head of the u.n. mission to syria says assad's fall is only a matter of time but admits it won't necessarily mean the conflicts and new allegations also emerge that foreign interference in syria is in defiance of u.n. efforts archy's oksana boyko reports. one week has passed since the united nations has issued a new mandate for its observing mission in syria beach at least erratically should help calm tensions in this country but if anything the violence in syria has only intensified over the past week the clashes between the army and the rebel still continue and in the open sea cheap enough. with 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 a 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 decades the turkish state has been struggling against its own militants i'm talking about the crudest on its workers party. been fighting for the establishment of an independent sovereign state for the kurds world's largest people without a state a few months ago i haue the chance to visit several kurdish settlements around syria and i was very surprised to find that they are defacto independent they have their own security force their own schools our own administration so all these developments with the kurds in syria leave turkey very nervous and on thursday its prime minister accused bashar al assad of aiding kurdish militants in syria and those are the on sad that he's country it reserves the right to strike kurdish targets kurdish locations within syria pretty much like it does in iraq and.

this may be needed for turkish own self defense but if those the attacks at every carried out that's going to make a very volatile a very bloody very unstable situation in this region far worse may security analyst charles schumer it says the forces fighting to replace assad could pull syria into chaos if the regime falls. there are certainly amongst the opposition democrats perhaps people who are. working on the inside is what is the outside with that has to be said many of those should we say opposition figures who are speaking about secular democracy are actually on the outside of syria so the question is who is controlling who is the influence behind the armed rebels who are succeeding on the ground it may well continue and one has to look at the supplies and the inspiration of those people and what looks to places like saudi arabia and one has to wonder whether saudi arabia is interested in promoting democracy so it isn't with its it within its own internal borders and one i think has to have the greatest fear is

that assad fall and will fall from being a panacea for this problem for syria may well be the. atrocities chaos and carnage on a secular basis and a syria that may well be far worse than people can imagine could possibly be a replacement for assad. and other top stories on our t.v. london's a lympics have moved into competition mode twelve sets of medals earned on the initial day of the thirtieth olympiad but were gearing up to go tough on opponents police were getting tough on some locals around one hundred cycling activists taking part in a monthly mass bike ride were arrested during the games opening ceremony they claim to have been encircled by police while pedalling toward the olympic park officers reportedly used pepper spray stuff was broken. and over to r.t. dot com for all the details of the olympics opening show which proved a breathtaking spectacle with a final price tag of around twenty seven million pounds also on our website the surprise entrance of queen elizabeth teamed up with double zero seven put on an

impressive show at the ceremony also warming up to be about. well some are being swept up by limbic fever others not so excited. i know i'm here . with crazy back home because of. yeah later we asked people the big apple whether they'll remember athletes names after the olympics are over the resident coming up in about ten minutes. or t. also questions more taking a look at whether the olympic spirit is being watered down by the commercial interests surrounding the games. tensions simmering in eastern saudi arabia after friday's police crackdown on protesters clashes happen in the city of qatif were activists say about fourteen people were injured after officers started firing live ammunition police arrested several protesters after the demonstrations against political imprisonment and discrimination by sunni rulers the area mostly populated

by shiites has seen an arrest throughout the year with saudi authorities beefing up security opposition voices also silenced in bahrain and the united arab emirates analyst eric draitser from stopping period lism dot com thinks the ruling elites in the region are actually marching to the beat of a 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 what would 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 proxies in the middle east are 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 following events in the persian gulf on our web site r t dot com also a click away right now is a little secret find out how the certain giant managed to keep an illegal private data trove that should have been destroyed in two thousand and ten your classified

information revealed online plus. one of the bloodiest battles of world war two resurrected a russian film director shooting the battle of stalingrad and got a sneak peek of the action at r.t. done. as egypt writes new pages in its history pieces of the country's legendary past could be slipping away museum looters into raiders have stepped up their hunt for artifacts darkens parsley reports officials say they lack the resources 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 plundered so there's this museum and something. of the museum. this is not the one of the better downsides 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 more than 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 a place the maximum benefit to all ten people then to fifty after the move it became seventy four hundred people of them that's against. the twenty inside it all starts here in the shadow of the permits on your ancient temples in visit sites

here egyptians dig for a 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 their own backyards under the ground on the every house there are only one so if you want to conclude from a 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. of 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 as 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 worth 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 worried about preserving its past policy our team cairo. our words of freedom joy held by many outsiders as one of the world's best young democracy but we hear from someone here inside you say it's a very different story. it all started here i four going global i don't know. pulling the fire. log in.

to go out. choose your place take your stand. to. make your statement. split the words please she points to a long long. long the money with a business of russia please visit. thanks

for staying with us here on our t. quarter past the hour in moscow turning now to some other stories making global headlines. major police operation on to border with afghanistan these at least

seventeen soldiers dead forty injured the ongoing offensive launched on tuesday and it had to track down a former warlord accused of killing a senior security official police and killed a total of thirty militants captured forty one some of them reportedly having defected from neighboring afghanistan authorities have sealed all border crossings in the region the only exception provided to nato supply trucks. a road accident kills at least fifteen pilgrims in nepal when the jeep they were traveling in europe off the road and fell into a river fourteen of the victims nepalese one indian four children among them the accident happened three hundred kilometers west of the capital kathmandu the programs were heading to reading a sacred pilgrimage town in the puppet district. continued fighting between soldiers and rebels in the democratic republic of congo forces more than two hundred sixty thousand civilians from their homes over the last three months.

pardon me some five thousand sought shelter at an informal refugee camp near the city of goma aid groups say conditions and sanitation facilities are inadequate the un accuses neighboring rwanda of backing the rebels. severe wildfires of engulfed parts of siberia with a state of emergency being declared situation hampered by high temperatures and poor visibility keeping emergency planes from reaching the worst hit areas cities in the region have been blanketed with thick smog making it tough for people to breathe crews battling the blaze say they have managed to protect residential areas and promise to put out the fires in the next few days. praised for preaching freedom to reform georgia's leadership caste is a democracy success story both by the media and state channels at home but some journalists working in the country see a different picture parties are reports. that's exactly what we're seeing in my

culture the well you my part of the world you know you are leverage that you know energy by giving people more freedom freedom is the key word fine words from the georgian president some western officials like hillary clinton continuously praise me really 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 at 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. 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. one channel is

owned by saakashvili eight another but his friends relative to all people get really is just state controlled propaganda and we 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 still 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 so that 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 cholesterol just it's about 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 that he minds as the effect his answers may have and billy see georgia. r.t. . the olympics grabbing headlines these days with a lavish opening ceremony and sporting events some naysayers think it's a temporary distraction from the world's problems among them our own

a resident laurie harvest in new york asking people whether they share of the jubilant olympic spirit that has captured 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. is it crazy back home because of it yeah and we got out what are you excited about how the team usa i hope we go all the way to be really great 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. 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 think of his name as the front just finished a night. for a minute i mean 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. 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 yeah they're selling us wheaties yes exactly those athletes will 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 double decker bus with 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 their country at that right over here terrorism 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 you know i 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 up in the coming week. staying with a theme of the spirit of sportsmanship and friendly competition some critics say another focus of the modern olympics is on being a sexier and more profitable artes anastasio jonna stasia churkin reports on the role big business is playing in the games faster higher stronger bodies built like machines and olympic extravaganza of athletes grace magazine covers baring it all it would be nice to hate 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 be could help us strive to do better their superhuman bodies are on display in a competition for attention and personal exposure the olympic gold it's not just the the gold at the sleeves when and where but the good old of all these indorsements 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 pool and ideal the original ideal and old two of lettuces and and human might scrapped the olympic dream and culture now transformed into 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 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 corporation 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 to 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 became into effect and they base it off this the great story in regard to subpoena 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 and. while

the aura surrounding the olympics of today's anything but poised sportsmanship appears to be the last guest joining this party and as they see it sure can a hearty new york. technology update coming up after our headlines stay with us here on our team. the.

world from the from me or in more mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of food under the microscope. we've got the future covered. if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be shot by x. casualties of war ok. i wish you would have never happened 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 iran. and this clear what happens with such witnesses i got him on my site. many checks

to be. sure she nurses shooting on our. everyone wants to. drive. but it might be quite tricky to get a from c.n.n. . because you live in siberia. and the only way to get to you is by trying.

to see a story. you think you understand it and then. you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything is. welcome to the big picture. good lover tour. was able to build the most sophisticated. anything mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only.

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