u.s. is warning the latest fierce battles in syria will be a nail in president assad's coffin as we reported how youngsters are being increasingly drawn into the bloody conflict on both warring sides. with the reverberations members of a russian punk band go on trial facing seven years in jail for a protest start to make a fiddle and a case that's divided russian society. and another campaign promise goes on fulfilled as barack obama spends billions to prosecute whistleblowers showing the u.s. government is as clouded as ever. online

on screen international news and comment live from moscow the u.s. military chief says the fighting in syria's largest city of aleppo will ultimately be a nail in president assad's coffin panesar is currently on a middle east tour promising to continue to push for such departure the commercial hub of aleppo has been the scene of fierce battles between syrian regime troops and anti-government forces for more than a week now both parties view the fighting as decisive and likely to define the country's fate but the u.s. and its allies soli condemning present for the civil conflict the standoff is getting more violent on both sides and as i reports it's now seeing more and more youngsters involved. young minds burning hearts bad blood while the syrian conflict often comes across as a power struggle of grown man on the ground many of those who fight and die are in

their late teens early twenty's. this group of f.s.a. snipers operates in a deserted town forty kilometers southwest of homes twice a day gold to shell a syrian army checkpoint near by omar's twenty three he left his family in dubai to join the uprising. to support the young fighters and to feel the pain and to experience what very experiencing on the ground and to help with the operation. while their weapons are becoming more sophisticated if you are good at handling them most say they want to become martyrs and their dads help recruit their younger brothers. but those they're aiming at are not much older but a military hospital in damascus a week long supply of coffins has been used in the past then forty eight hours while the syrian authorities do not release military just so all indications are

that over the past few months it has increased dramatically here in damascus main military hospital soldiers and officers just the last two days. in the beginning of the uprising the soldiers were laid to rest to the sounds of a solemn march but if you days ago a military band was ambushed now the burials are conducted in silence and then. nineteen year old he is an army conscript who is tasked with putting bodies into conference he was working in his uncle small shop and before being drafted a year ago. no i am not afraid to die i would do all that to be in the place of my fallen comrades and to become a martyr defending my country it's every man's duty. another nineteen year old lies in a coffin just a few steps away he was the victim of a sniper near homs but unlike many in syria his father and uncle are not calling for revenge. we just want peace. jesus all the prophets

called for peace we need it. martyrdom has long been glorified in muslim countries but it's also one of the reasons why the conflict in syria has been so protracted and sold deadly when the youngsters profess readiness to die for their cars they usually even more ready to kill for it. r.t. damascus syria. well xander is constantly following the developments in the syrian standoff from inside the country she's sharing her firsthand experience via her twitter feed and says sectarian violence is increasingly looming in the conflict with prominent people being killed apparently for their religious views analysis and images from the combat zone are also lined up there. more reaction on syria now from michel chossudovsky from the center for research and globalization who takes a special interest in the middle east michele the u.s.

defense secretary leon panetta is thought to be reassuring mideast allies that assad will fall is this a hint that the u.s. is getting ready to answer the rebels' call for help. has reiterated washington. okupe using the syrian government forces of waging what he describes as a tragic attack people quote unquote. and she is also violent not only to unseat the syrian president but also i mean in his own words he points to getting rid of bashar al assad new unit assad's own cough and these are strong words i think the question we have to ask at this juncture. in as much as the western military alliance is contemplating various military interventions which could include both naval and horatius in

support of all of this alleged of these alleged opposition rebel forces in fact they are the foot soldiers of the of the u.s. they took military alliance they are not seeing that that the. self-proclaimed free syrian army is running into difficulties and they are. unable as well as there is the deployment of naval which is contemplated. under fire and date later this summer so sad days are numbered then he will be definitely going then. well. these are the words of the output of the question is who has blood on his hands i would say today on panetta has blood on his hands because the evidence is unequivocal we recall that in the wake of the united nations security council face off with russia and china moscow intimated that the

u.s. led coalition was supporting these terrorist attacks committed by the free syrian army and also al-qaeda affiliated entities now we've got ample evidence that the government is not responsible for these crimes against humanity and atrocities but in effect. the free syrian army which is supported financed by the united states nato the gulf the gulf of the allies of the gulf persian gulf and sentra. the free syrian army other quickly is involved in getting innocent civilians and then blaming the government for the crimes that they themselves have been committed have committed and we've got lots of material on that and also the question is it is sort of. course responsible for these kids well that's a good good point isn't it because also all this violence in kelso stood up the

sectarian tensions and whether a sad goes whether he's toppled with external force or in the near future that's not going to solve the sectarian tensions that have now raised to the surface when it. well you know six terran violence is the trigger through. intelligence and military operations which are led by the united states nato with the pacific ocean of qatar saudi arabia israel and israel is in fact also supporting salafi his fighters in this all this is well documented even the arab league observers mishra paul which was initially commissioned by the arab league at washington's behest confirms that the free syrian army supported directly by washington is committing the trustees and not surprisingly that arab league of mission report was subsequently shelved because it actually revealed the forbidden

truth namely that the us it was sponsored rebels the government were behind the massacres and the vatican has also come up. and that the western backed opposition forces. sponsible for countless atrocities i just want to quickly ask you about turkey's involvement here in turkey's interest reports are surfacing that the turkish army has started to closely monitor weather conditions there in syria made into speculation they could possibly be preparing to launch a strike how likely is that what would they hope to achieve by that. circuit is a member of nato it's a heavyweight in nato it is already encroaching on syria's northern border it is providing safe havens to the rebels it has training camps it's collaborating with the qataris at the saudi is it is supporting the muslim

brotherhoods. muslim brotherhood fighters out of turkey so that these oppose these. indications should of course be taken very. seriously. but i should mention there's another dimension to that is the support provided not by turkey but by israel to the kurdish separatist movements in. northern syria which is in fact also supported by the rocky of the north of iraq. which essential points to secession in other words. the fracturing of of syria into several several small states that is one of the scenarios which the israelis are also supporting the show really interesting to hear your perspective on all of these developments there in syria thanks for your

thoughts michel chossudovsky from the center for research in globalization live in montreal thank you very much. you're watching l.t. we covered you live from moscow still ahead remaining president survives a second impeachment attend despite a large majority wanting him out of office for supporting rounds of partial sturdy cuts shows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good plus. u.k. tops the list of countries most exposed to by ending find out why in the business update slightly. well that's still to come first it was a music performance that split russian society could land three members of the female punk band in jail for up to seven years three feminist rockers from pussy riot have gone on trial here in moscow for staging an anti-government punk prayer in the capital's main cathedral for three ports public opinion is torn between those who call the martyrs and others you say their blasphemous. the trial is now

underway for the three girls from the provocatively named pussy riot this comes after the high profile stunt back in february where they performed a protest in the center of quite the same cathedral that gained widespread recognition on the internet that it calls outrage amongst the religious community of a paycheck calling it blasphemy now they stand accused of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred all hostility other girls have pleaded not guilty to these charges because if the found guilty they could face up to seven years in prison. maintaining that they were protesting against the cool from their lives just leaders the support of the now president putin is cool to months of control the city here in russia it really has divided the population you've got people taking very radical stances both ways the religious community have reacted very very strongly we have patriarch kirill coming out some calling it blasphemy girl's house

he said not on used to this type of scandal they performed high profile stunts like this in the post that was video clips of the one in baltic clip in the museum here most go another of them kissing female police offices again they maintain this is the school motivated this is that their artistic expression get a hair loss about the silliness of the stunts and a lot of the supporters saying that perhaps is misguided but the question was really never made a how and indeed even if these guys should be punished in this way the stuff. well the promise of the madrid of shows his opinion of pussy riot in an interview with the u.k.'s times newspaper and you can find it on all two don't call my website plus discover how major intervention in libya is impacting russia's stance on the crisis in syria as well as madrid of thoughts on the olympic games and how search he can prepare for twenty forty. plus empty seats in london of members of the

so-called. lympics family feeling the heat of the organizers putting security troops inside to fill the void find out more online at r.t. dot com. in two thousand and eight barack obama made a promise that if you was elected president he would make the u.s. government more transparent it's now twenty twelve and he's prosecuted a record number of whistle blows spending billions in the process going to church can now reports. keeping government secrets is expensive business according to america's information security office last year the us spent around thirteen billion dollars on classifications that's twice as much as it spends ten years ago and more than the entire budget of the country's environmental protection agency

for instance the us government keeps way too many secrets here and even government entities responsible for evaluating these things like the office for government information oversight. these offices have may have done studies and said well you know a lot of this material doesn't need to be protected so it's in many ways it's a huge waste of money u.s. security agencies regularly fight in courts to keep volumes of decades old documents classified like the files on the cia's bay of pigs operation in cuba when the u.s. tried to overthrow fidel castro in one thousand nine hundred sixty one but the sharp increase in secrecy over the last decade is due to america's expanding counterterrorism programs rather than unclassified historical files the power that the national security state has acquired under president obama is greater than any time history. during the cold war period the government indicted only three people

for disclosing classified information however the obama administration alone has prosecuted six government officials for leaking information to the press more than all other past administrations combined and thomas drake was one of them he was a senior executive of america's largest intelligence agency during the bush administration he blew the whistle on fraud and abuse with regards to the agency's secret surveillance program mr drake was charged under the espionage act much of what's happening now particular my case it's sad extraordinarily chilling message that anybody has a senior executive the government had a very high position to say. it sends an extraordinarily chilling message that if you speak out if you speak up we're going to hammer you and we're going to hammer you hard because look what we did to mr drake but after a public outcry last year the government dropped charges against thomas drake in exchange for him pleading guilty to a misdemeanor of misuse of

a government computer speaking truth to power is very dangerous and his world power elites. those in charge they don't like dirty linen being aired they don't like the skeletons in the closet being seen. and they not only do they object to it they decide to turn it into criminal activity national security journalist say the government always has and always will leak information deliberately to advance their own interests and it's not at all leakers that they're after the primary. looking at here is that the national security state is striking back is becoming much more repressive in regard to its response to whistle blowing by you know individuals who. oppose policies that are juried out or who oppose simply abuses of power the obama administration is spending

record amounts to keep its secrets coming down hard on the kurds and yet thousands of classified documents are making their way onto the web the internet has taken leaks to a whole new level but it seems the more they are not reveals the more upset the government becomes about secrecy i'm going to check out in washington r.t. . and while some in the u.s. embassy trying to silence those speaking out how this marginalize anyone who does not agree with mainstream politicians in the next hour here on our t.v. we talk to dr howard friedman who argues the american political system disregards the interests of the poorest people. i can't under estimate the impact of money on the american political system and in fact there is some interesting analysis done by political scientists that showed that people from the top third of the economic class have a very strong voice in government people in the middle third have a weak voice in government and ensure that people in the bottom third of the

economic group united states have no measurable influence that's a real challenge in american democracy is to make sure that we really are in a world of one person one vote instead of dollar equals vote. and that interview coming away a little later here in our team remain as president to survive the referendum on his impeachment for the second time during his rule. but could have been the latest e.u. leader swept from office by the economic crisis and austerity measures demanded by the international creditors but a low turnout invalidated the poll allowing him to remain in power but he is just as he has been following the story in bucharest. the initial exit polls have come out of the room in a referendum vote on whether or not to impeach its suspended president of triad of a cesspool while the numbers show that it failed to reach the a fifty percent plus one vote a requirement in order to validate that vote now sunday's referendum is said and

the three weeks of political bickering really between the scepter right and his rival to left the current prime minister viktor on top of the system has accused of a previous of us wallace overstepping his powers as president denies any wrongdoing or that you have done anything on prostitution off what's going to happen next is that the cesspool will be reinstated as president and soon as the final numbers come out and if the developing the referendum vote and let's not forget his popularity has gone down a drastically ever since he introduced us there the measures in two thousand and ten as a result of i.m.f. or back without full funding and this is certainly not the way to be easy in a country that is very divided politically very tired of any political bickering and again these two sides seem to show that they are not going to stop accusing the other side of any wrongdoing we're already hearing some scandals coming out again coming from want to side and they will have to figure out a way to work together you have assessed before to still maintaining positions as

president and a prime minister would remain in the cell really is political stability especially for syrian counterpart who are watching this very closely insisting that the country find a way to stabilize the situation and to exercise the prophecy the rule of law is still will be a checks and balances in all the institutions. now let's have a quick look at some other stories making headlines around the world before a business update the suspect in the cinema shooting in colorado is formally charged with forty counts related to james holmes is accused of killing twelve people and injuring fifty eight more at a local premiere of the new batman movie if found guilty he could face the death penalty and whether his defense is expected to plead insanity. nine people have been killed in poland after a train smashed into a minibus the vehicle apparently drove onto an unguarded crossing and was carried thirty meters down the track the identities of the victims haven't been released and it was thought they were ukrainian mineworkers is the latest in the series of

road accidents in poland which has claimed more than two hundred lives this summer alone. u.s. republican presidential candidate mitt romney is continuing to make headlines on his world tour after appearing to criticize the london olympics he's now in israel where he referred to the disputed city of jerusalem as the country's capital he also claimed jewish culture is more advanced than palestinian it's provoked the wrath of palestinian officials who condemned his statement as racist and unacceptable despite this his two was reported to have gained his campaign a million dollars in the nation's. business news now let's talk about luxury brands with marina who's a business does follow all the latest financial developments now how come even in strenuous economic times people are actually still buying luxury items you know makes sense as it doesn't make sense to me either but i'm fairly the people that could afford them then can still afford them now so in that sense of does make a little bit of sense there but first i want to start with the u.k.

because it has its halt the list of countries most vulnerable to a decline in the euro according to maple consultancy where they created a map showing the most unsafe nations if you will and they will be shown there in the red the top four extremely vulnerable countries are the czech republic hungary poland and the most of all the u.k. as i mentioned this study blames let's have a reliance on exports to the continent and to europe's banking system where major economies like russia are also called high risk and i discussed this session earlier with nick parsons from national strader bank and first i asked him whether countries can minimize those for us to begin with. countries outside the eurozone can indeed seek to protect themselves they can cut interest rates they can print money in the case of countries like switzerland they can effectively put a floor on their exchange rate so they can seek to protect themselves against disruptive capital flows they can seek to protect themselves against

a collapsing trade but all this is really seeking to minimize damage to other than avoid it why do you think the breaks in the african countries are also high risk i looked at the reports when russia was ranked number fifty one hundred sixty nine in and that's really not what you'd classify is the highest risk so i think some of the spin that was put out was perhaps a little misleading. comforting for you guys over there. and this is standard and poor's rating service believes banking systems in russia and the c.i.s. are in little danger of being hit hard from the euro zone that crisis and that's because there are direct links with the european banks are limited however the agency russian and banking systems could suffer if the global economic slowdown the weighs on oil and commodities prices which is of course russia's very energy dependent economy and that's why that is now if we take

a look at the markets now they're close then. one percent and that's one hopes a brussels will provide that economic stimulus they want this week spain and italy . again as of the day now take a look at currencies the worst it's still in fact reversing its gains last with against the u.s. dollar when it comes to ruble at the end of the session the what we can see is that again and again europe. there are some markets for second despite the revolvers and so that it was a pretty optimistic day overall because that optimism and they trickled down here and also stronger through crisis and how then of course the s. and my six added over one percent now. local company news and the present curtsying paid for russian billionaires who own half of the venture against b.p. to pay a billion dollar dividend their representative said quote while taking care of governance remains strained a payment now is not prudent it comes on reports the russian co-owners will sell

their stake in the company in which case b.p. will reverse the leave the consortium. and wall street is the only one trader right now and it's a good looming picture although it's pretty much when it comes to the dow and basically investors are the have to make big moves before the sun to back talk to them we are expecting later on this week and now finally i want to talk about luxury brands because shares in this industry keep increasing and that's despite the financial turmoil that we're seeing around the world but we sent our very own ken who knows all about it to tell us why that is. the global financial crisis is not a topic people shopping around this part of town are particularly worried about i'm here in moscow on one of the most exclusive stories on talking fabulous people designer labels and of course fat wallets as well and this is the exact market

savvy investors are tapping into right now trying to make fast cash out of people that love to spend it all a perfect example of this in recent years would be michael kors is a high end fashion house they've been producing clothes for over thirty years now based in hong kong announcing fragrances and accessories as well now. for the best performing and they were actually placed at number one but they came out with their initial public offering on the fourteenth of december last year and it's now trading at y.c. amounts as far as asian companies are concerned seven of the maze up the top ten of the top. performance companies that's really is people in asia they're running more money and generally have more disposable income to go shopping and that's really in spite of slowing growth in china and the european sovan debt crisis so it seems as though since he's coming in and. out

a luxury goods well at least for the life of the people in places like this set away. so if you're looking to suggest luxury bribes are good that's what i would say bill. could see those you know about an hour from now thank you very much indeed that's. the main headlines for you in just a few minutes from now stay with us.

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