regionally because of radio like the fall of. the secrets of the u.k.'s nuclear tests exclaims. today's news in the week's top stories from r.t. key battle in syria as the rebels in the regime fight for the country's second city while the u.n. looks for a new peace envoy after kofi annan steps down. facing seven years for stalling russia's main cathedral the trial of an anti putin punk band pussy riot divides the country. and protesters in bahrain and saudi arabia are set for mass rallies in the country is united in their call against discrimination by the ruling elite.

are you watching the weekly here in r t a roundup of the top stories of the last seven days with me kevin and it's now ten pm here in moscow and the heavy fighting raging in syria's second city of aleppo between government and rebel forces could prove decisive now in the eighteen month conflict the syrian army sending thousands more troops and artillery to the front line in damascus meantime the government says it's pushed rebels from their last stronghold but sporadic clashes are ongoing on saturday forty eight a rainy and pull pilgrims were kidnapped in the syrian capital video shown by the arab news channel allegedly shows men identified as the abducted iranian surrounded by rebel fighters international peace efforts was thrown into turmoil this last week to when chief mediator kofi annan quit the un then overwhelmingly supported the condemnation of the syrian violence but moscow called it biased or only pressuring the regime to act patrick has cover syria for the news web sites by dot

com he says the states behind it are pursuing a short sighted agenda. i think in general it's being used to try and step up the pressure on both russia and china to start to take a stand against the sides and effectively what it's doing is saying that we disrespect the sovereignty of syria and we don't want the syrian people to determine their own future william hague suggested he's going to offer non-lethal aid he hasn't given specific details of this yet but it does seem like it's going to be intelligence it does seem like there's going to be an awful lot of support announced for the rebels over the next few weeks and of course this comes just after president obama has announced well it hasn't been announced but it has been revealed that there has been a secret plan basically allow the cia to assist the rebels as well the thing i find very striking about this is that there's a real historical amnesia that's taking place among western leaders where they don't really know who the opposition is there are a lot of concerns about the makeup of it there are jihadi elements there are

a lot of people who the west would not like to be business with but they're stuck into this mentality that they're drawn to help anyone get into power they drive a sports any of the opposition in syria then they would support assad assad has become this bogeyman just like it before him and they just see we need to get rid of him and everything will be ok it's a naive approach that will do no hope no help at all events unfolding in the streets of syria seemed to be laid bare on our t.v. screens too but some facts don't always match the headlines for many foreign outlets reports backing the rebel side of the story get top priority over more balanced reporting results is exam the boy carex playings. i shudder i know we're seeing a story joining the camp when a japanese journalist travelling with syrian rebels converted to islam it wasn't just his old name he abandoned. but for those around him he still being someone who reported to the complexity that he became one of the few camera hanging

on the place of a rifle. was really just conversion of ground is rare on the syrian front lines becoming political disciples on one side the rebels is almost the norm for many reporting to the world in the past weeks of coverage c.n.n. has aired five exactly just from the syrian frontlines people all detailing the plight of those fighting bigger menace and while the regime has always come down to voice use of force against the militants is a government monster killings by the rebels barely get a mention what happened to the go you capture this room he died the rebel commander says god willing he went to hell usually open and talkative syrians are now afraid of cameras those who agree to be interviewed often ask for their faces or names not to be shown for fear of reprisals the satellite dishes or household commodity syrians do watch western coverage of the conflict and many feel that their concerns

that fears their losses are intentionally. but you don't you're not getting the gist was you know what this is what was even first time i've been able to come to syria you know why you might want to get away before you don't have a visa. we've been waiting for these you know you're sort of there with them to get these are the usual claim that the syrian government doesn't let western reporters into the country is not accurate currently there are around eighty foreign media outlets accredited in syria a sizable number of them european or american but there dispatches are not always welcome to tall. is an independent belgian rider. if. india wants to bring a certain picture about syria. if. the use of force or selective editing is hardly a new invention the war war's has long become a cliche but in syria one sided coverage keeps the war going and shooting for t.v.

really kills. journalism schools no longer teach their students to be objective it's considered impossible rather they are told to strive for balance and integrity and to put humanistic values above political theory it is once again a special case in this bloody conflict was to media rarely calls for rick affiliation or political dialogue rather it's for arming the rebels and for the war also known as freedom fight to go on a summer break artsy reporting from syria. and other news on monday a moscow court began hearing the case of the russian female punk group pussy riot three women are being tried for staging an anti putin stunt in the capital's main cathedral in february graves's following the trial that's divided russian society. throughout the course of the week this trial and its proceedings have been somewhat dominated by the prosecution they've mainly been having the opportunity to call

witnesses to the stand or testimonies been very emotional much of the time she usually involving those who are witnessing the events that date back to favoring price a view to feature the so-called prayer now as politically motivated but it took place in a very sacred and religious spots the symbolic head of the russian orthodox church as such is offended many of the believers out of fairness have been very outspoken throughout the course of proceedings this week they first and six occasions called for the judge to be over placed on different grounds some of them including that their attention facilities the conditions of which they're being detained at the moment amounts allegedly to torture have been fried food access to drinking water and sleep as well they also think the judge isn't allowing them is preventing them from properly cross-examining the prosecution's witnesses so far in this trial so

there's also this issue tract of the art of many human rights organizations international musicians as well calling for the release of pussy riot members and it's been something galvanized the international press and most lately we've heard from the president speaking out on this issue. as well i hope the court will rule with a just decision if the bond let's say defiled a sacred place in israel they would have to cope with some tough guys there are many of them would face difficulties from attempting to leave the country was ready for example they went to the caucuses and defaced a muslim shrine security wouldn't have enough time to protect them from public anger. nevertheless i don't think we should judge them too strictly on them and i hope they've made some important conclusions themselves anyway the final decision rests with the court and we're going to get a bit lonely of who's in a sense she calling for some degree of leniency when it comes this trial and perhaps the most controversial part of it so far has been the potential prison

sentence that could await these three defendants on charges of hooliganism that's potentially for seven years if the maximum centers were to be handed out. jacob graves still ahead here this why germany's going to extremes. it's not the command center who is your enemy but rather the politicians who are at the wheel of the country they took a look at why there's a spike in anti immigrant anger in europe's richest nation. and clinton keeps a check on china what's really behind the american secretary of state's major tour of africa. protesters in bahrain and saudi arabia are set for mass rallies in their countries united in their call against what they see as discrimination by the ruling elite activists are also demanding the release of political prisoners crackdowns on dissent of been gathering force in the gulf states a teenage protester and

a soldier were killed in clashes in saudi arabia on friday it's the latest violence in the country's predominantly shiite qatif region in bahrain dozens of equal rights activists were injured as security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at them while a video leaked online allegedly shows government mercenaries driving cars at demonstrators geopolitical analyst patrick henningsen spoke to us in the week and says bahrain's being ignored because it's a washington ally. in bahrain what you have is a genuine uprising a genuine political movement potential revolution. has been completely in order for two reasons the main reason is a reign posed the united states fifth naval sleet it's a very important strategic piece on the chess board especially in terms of looking towards potential aggression against iran so as bahrain has a role family that completely have society locked down because there is no way that

the us want any kind of a democratic uprising in the country because it will make the government's policy unstable towards hosting u.s. military presence in the country actually. so badly the difference between syria and bahrain is that syria refuses to be an outpost for international western imperialism and bahrain is an outpost for that so maybe hillary clinton should be having friends of bahrain meetings to help the bahraini people but of course that's not going to happen the situation in bahrain is grave if you're on the side of reform if you're with the royal family everything's fine just check out a few stories on the. website that might catch your attention if you take a few clicks to get there a fishy catch radiations discovered in the rain life can see wall to. wall on sunday play protesters show no signs of slowing of the campaign either for that

online if you're interested i'm reporting to roving around the red planet the two point five billion dollar attempt to look from life as. if they shoot something inappropriate for a public they can easily be. casualties of war ok. i wish it 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 iran. and the spear good happens with such witnesses i got it on my site. one of the many texts. first shooting on our.

everyone wants to be present. whether there are. drugs. 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. i did cool story here. for going global and now it's my. choose your place. take your stuff. to.

make your statement. the world. lawyer says he has information to suggest washington's advancing proceedings to extradite the whistleblower for leaking secret u.s. cables the wiki leaks editor phase he'll therefore face torture or even execution of to ported mothers in ecuador campaigning for his son's asylum she exclusively told r.t. that american politicians are gunning for revenge. from the beginning. from the us from politicians and from. these commie tank. screaming at him in the most brutal way. they seem to be. built up all on how they were feeling.

calling out to crucial for this is inciting against my son and still in the last few weeks this been his focus he's this intense i think it's folks these who hate the fallon who was screaming at the execution this is somebody who is not the right one and he's done nothing more than any good in this election a sweet deal to get this going is fun doing. christina songs they will you can watch our exclusive interview with her at r t dot com and student of you'd like to see it meantime on wednesday acquittals president assured her his country's decision on asylum will not be influenced by any external pressure we can lead said it has been holed up in ecuador's embassy in london now for over six weeks he's wanted in sweden over sex crime medications which he denies he says that are a pretext to handed over to the u.s. human rights lawyer expert scott horton spoke to me in the week he says i quote those decision to grant a son just silent will not immediately solve all these problems. to me it's hard to

understand how the ecuadorians are going to play this but even if they decide to grant his request for asylum that doesn't mean he would be able to walk out of the embassy go to heathrow and fly to ecuador he would still be held there it only be able to transfer out with some sort of consent from the u.k. government and i don't think that will be forthcoming without some sort of agreement from the swedish government so it's diplomatically very very thorny and setting up a scenario in which doing the song may be aghast in close quarters and the ecuadorian embassy for many years well the question without straw is one that. been in the background for many many years in fact if you look through the history of the war on terror you find a number of australian citizens who were seized by the united states who were mistreated some tortured some held impossible conditions in guantanamo and the

australian government was remarkably quiet about all of this not only not intervening but sometimes attacking their own citizens and i think what's going on there is frankly a rather surprising the attitude on the part of the australian government towards the united states has been seeing to challenge the us over any issue. so the head of the program tonight with me kevin oh in the draft to die lemme arab israelis could find themselves potentially called up for service in the i.d.f. but risk being branded as traitors if they do. far right nationalist movements again ground in germany along with an upsurge in attacks on immigrants has been linked to the growing number of foreign workers attracted to europe's economic powerhouse these people of the reports and how today's anger has spent decades taking root in. this sleepy town in saxony seems idyllic however even here right wing extremists have made life

hell for people who came to this country to set up businesses mohammed came to this town in the east of germany from pakistan to open a pizzeria he.