the syrian army says it's advancing into the country's key combat zone the rebels deny that while the mainstream media does little to provide the real picture. a un report slams israel for kicking palestinians off almost a fifth of the west bank territory turning it into a military training ground plus pilots in spain find himself in a steep konami dive this financial collapse forces airlines to cut corners and risk safety. a.t.m. and the russian capital you're watching r t i'm marina josh the syrian army claims

to have seized a key rebel held district in the northwestern city of aleppo violence broke out there last month after a major flow of militants into the area opposition framley activists accuse government troops of using heavy weaponry which results in civilian deaths although colonel doug macgregor an author and a decorated u.s. war veteran says that seems unrealistic. well it's been some years since i saw the syrian army up close but what i did see convince me that of the arab armies in the region the syrians were by far the most competent and capable and they maintained good discipline so we have to assume that the syrians have moved very deliberately in aleppo and that suggests that they have probably moved to seal off the rebels in the enclaves or in the areas that they currently hold to do that they have concentrated armor and artillery for direct fire not for indirect fire and they will move very very carefully with infantry and engineers in support with the

object of doing as little damage to the infrastructure as possible because the more damage you do to the buildings the more likely they are to create defensive positions for the people you're trying to eliminate so i would say based on my again limited experience of the syrian military that the rebels in aleppo are now in serious trouble. well with the mainstream media's over reliance on amateur food and dubious reports from syria it's becoming hard to tell what's true or false in the conflict and some experts suggest that as a pair of familiar to anyone of aleutian in the region over the last few years i just takes a look. in the arab world millions have been seen uprising. in the western world one international news channel is standing accused of falling short on providing a full picture of the revolutions it was a great g.p.s. . devices human rights were supporting. themselves to

reduce the fact that a lot of the people i was. killing and torturing edward mortimer conducted an independent review of the b.b.c.'s coverage of the arab spring the public news channel was criticised for many things including a lack of reference to video which wasn't authenticated and repeatedly using the word regime which is a word that carries a place. called attention. to something. that starts the reaction. i have to the b.b.c. referred to the british government as the camera you know. so. that her arse. i said you know how do you find a regime or what is your host. and they actually gave me different obstacles to ousted leaders and one military intervention later the b.b.c. now claims it will address its mistakes meanwhile across the atlantic america's

corporate owned news networks still pioneer subjective rhetoric that the syrian regime of bashar al assad regime is now also facing another dynamic critics say more than one year of flawed reporting on syria may already have hard wired public perception to see only one side of the story. the focus is on action coverage that reinforces a preconceived notion of what's going on and of course the government you know of of syria is all dead everything that happens there is a result of what assad is doing or we're not doing. again that's in the interests of people who want to intervene and want to help overthrow this government washington has made no secret of its desire to force syrian president bashar al assad out of office getting serious in syria with questionable impartiality many mainstream media outlets in the us have been seen portraying the syrian opposition as a single entity at the forefront of

a democratic uprising on the now overwhelming humanitarian grounds intervening in syria critics say the very same news outlets have not been so eager to report on the less appealing actions of syria's washington backed opposition to the jihadi the people were very much involved in trying to undermine the syrian government and they had fighters there just as they had in libya this isn't just a question of western democracy good assad syria bad there's a much more complicated mosaic of forces involved here media doesn't seem to be keeping up with them as syria approaches its most delicate tipping point many experts say the western media machine should avoid oversimplifying a sixteen month deadly crisis that even the international community so far has been unable to resolve her in a port i.r.t. new york. now despite the u.s.

claims is providing only non-lethal assistance to the syrian opposition american weapons are still flowing into rebel hands says activist a middle east and u.n. issues phyllis bennis the full interview with her is coming up later this hour. there is already intervention underway the western countries have provided the military of saudi arabia the military of culture that's where they buy their weapons from they buy american weapons so it is already western weapons that are going in it's not coming directly from the u.s. but it is weapons of the west the danger of that escalating is very serious. and un report warns israel it may be in violation of international law after its cordoned off nearly a fifth of the west bank for army training israeli forces are demolishing palestinian homes and driving people off their land saying they might spawn military drills i do suppose the reports from one of the villages. i'm standing in

susi a palestinian area that has been earmarked by the israeli government for demolition there are many similar situations just this week in the palestinian village of jim the israeli soldiers went from house to house searching for weapons and ammunition now they found nothing but that was not before they literally turned people's kitchens in particular upside down these soldiers searched through bags of sugar and rice and salt and bottles of olive oil now this comes as the united nations issues a new report outlining that the israeli government has declared some eighteen percent of the west bank closed military zone for training for so-called firing zones this is roughly the same amount of the west bank that is in full palestinian control the report highlights the humanitarian effect that this will have on the roughly five thousand people who live in and around these areas and it also says that they are

now in direct access of danger at the same time we're talking here about people most of whom are herders who need fields for their cattle to graze on and many of these fields are being taken away from them so this will affect their livelihood at the same time many of them are routinely arrested or detained for defying military orders we're talking here about people who have very little access to electricity and to water they essentially don't even have an infrastructure when it comes to housing and to any kind of normal facilities that people in the western world take for granted the reporter cause israel an occupying power and reminds the israeli government that international law condemns any kind of confiscation of private or public property unless it is for military necessity now the israelis are going to have a hard time claiming that the establishment of firing zones or areas for training these soldiers is of military necessity policy r.-t.

susa in the south have been hills. oh have plenty of other stories waiting for you later this hour including an appetite for apple i phone i pads and iran the prices may be higher but businessmen aren't letting us sanctions stop high tech tehran from selling plugged in. before that with a thirty seven year or delay the u.s. has launched a program to help clean up the aftermath of the vietnam war it will help purge the soil and water of traces of agent orange talk say the fall and use during the conflict the substance is still causing illnesses and deformities among the local population but many believe washington's motives are in purely humanitarian it isn't like one of those things that you just start to sprain and it goes away this is a pathway for centuries and it is definitely seeped in i'm not a scientist but it's definitely seeped into the water table and everything and what

the what the u.s. is proposing is really rather paltry. to come up with forty three million dollars to clean up denying which was a large military air air base you know this is just really the tip of the iceberg of the problem but i mean you cannot you have to question the timing of it and it can only be viewed as you know a concern to try to like. vietnam closer to them because of the growing influence that china has as a emerging superpower around the world. well there's more on the u.s. legacy already dot com as was a lot of other stories including specs appeal all four hours of the jews can now keep their thoughts on god and eyes are scantily clad women thanks to the help of some unusual glass it. was easy rider spit his worst bikers face of course fine for taking everyone's eyes off the road by taking their

girlfriends for ride naked. radioactive government betrayal. and claude how can the truth be revealed if there's no official evidence there was a very bright day to the servicemen concerned who were given no problem protection and to the people of this country generally because of radio like the full. the secrets of the u.k.'s nuclear tests.

so sidled that's how. the two biggest labor unions in spain have described the government's anti-crisis measures and the austerity is particularly life threatening when even the highest of flyers are affected such as reports spanish pilots say their passengers are being put at risk to save cash. fly fly fly at any cost more when you can get just about the same thing for less money since low cost airlines took more than half of spain's aviation market many regular companies have gone bankrupt so of course they choose low cost flights it's cheaper the seats are less comfortable but it's not such a big problem in a trip after all and this discount model is supported by the state over the past

three years the larger part of the government's two hundred fifty million a year investment into aviation was allocated to low cost airlines this scheme is simple lower expenses all round but while passengers are happy it's course turbulence in the cockpit as pilots find themselves less and less motivated. we don't have high salaries anymore there's no prestige about our work as it always being we turn to the bus drivers were only doing it in the skies nowadays we even have to pay for our insurance and buy uniforms for ourselves the industry has become a mess since two thousand and eight the number of recruits in spanish flight schools has been dropping rapidly and the general economic situation has also been affecting the quality of graduates. employment rates already. and that's why many of our graduates have to take several jobs just to survive. it is not difficult to see that degrading pilot quality may have serious consequences not

only has the job been suffering in spain over the past several years with less and less people actually willing to become pilots but also experts say the policy of the local airlines is harming the most important thing and more. which is the security spanish pilot's working hours are already stretched to extremes yet new legislation to increase them to sixteen hours a day is now being considered by the european union. this if we go over the limits here then the problem of stress and fatigue personnel arises for example the law says there must be at least forty five minute breaks between flights but in reality it's barely twenty minutes. with twenty minutes between flights it's almost impossible to conduct a proper check of an aircraft in terms of force to take off without any security check. it's clear that cheaper flying is essential to keep europe moving during the financial crisis but pilots and aviation specialists shudder to think what could

happen if low cost airlines increasingly cut corners and dangerously push those who keep us safe in the sky. r.t. reporting from madrid in spain. well artist financial guru max kaiser has spoken to the former had of risk of the bank of scotland test turned whistleblower and is exposing financial fraud so do watches at seven thirty g.m.t. for the kaiser report but here's a preview of. what percentage of those working in regulatory oversight and compliance in the industry are clean that is to say they're not corrupt when i was working on wall street for example at paine webber and oppenheimer and shearson every every year at christmas time i would bribe our compliance officer as did every broker at these firms there was no that compline up there was crooked you give a big enough christmas bonus any over overlooks margin requirement deficiencies the overlooked fraud he overlooks all the tricks of the trade there's two points the

first is you have to have no professional qualifications to be a chief risk officer a chief compliance officer or a chief internal audit and so that's one thing the second thing is if you report to the executive what's going on the second you stick your head above the parapet and the messenger gets well and truly shot so i don't know the answer the question but i would be all surprised if it's quite a lot of people who are going to be prepared to. see things that they should cover so all system doesn't work. this fine has imposed sanctions they were ready in capitals apple stores are full and thriving high tack use of tehran a lot of i pods and macs as much as anyone and creative businesses aren't letting a little thing like an international blockade get in the way of feeding that appetite artists are for thanks planes. i pads i phones i pods apple's callable popularity has meant that their products familiar sight everywhere from our

workplaces times and on our high street there's one place you might not expect to find products like this on sale and that the iranian capital of tehran where apple along with many of the u.s. products abandon the functions that had been in place the year but it seems that tech savvy arabians and managing to outsmart this u.s. embargo and products like the not only popular in toronto they're widely available as well just like any other apple next door this one in tiran is bustling and busy . i have no difficulty in importing electronics from the us nor do we feel any impact on imports from sanctions what doesn't come so easy indeed is getting technical support and updates for the products but we still manage to get them all the time. the circus of u.s. sanctions has been mainly on iran's banks and oil industry in a bid to curb the country's nuclear ambitions but when it comes to the bans on

consumer products alternative trade routes and surprising a rainy and tradesmen have meant that in forcing the sanctions has proved virtually impossible in fact it's estimated there are now hundreds of traders in the capital selling these kids. the only impact of these sanctions that we see is higher prices which alter the real sinking against the dollar we're also forced to charge more from costa mowers in order to keep getting our shipments bypassing the sanctions and people still want to these gadgets even though they've become more expensive. some of the sanctions working. out because if they hired you we're going hear new sanctions being announced by the u.s. congress or. the western powers the fact that they're coming up with new sanctions . is an indication the board sanctions men that you are working in fact many

critics of the sanctions feel that far from the achieving anything banning these products in buggies a punishing the very people who will help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editing is right is the fully key part of apple's kind tell the world eva on one hand the united states talks about internet freedom and the importance of iranians being able to communicate freely access the internet discuss you know what whatever they want to be cell phones and i other hand are saying sions make it so that cellphones are basically illegal in iran the very u.s. sanctions against iran are increasingly being prevented in effect if and outdated and certainly see no match for the young iranian generation and able to stay connected. now take a look at some of the stories from around the world libya's transitional council

has handed power to the country's general congress the first elected legislature since last year's uprising the two hundred seat assembly dominated by moderate islamists aims to form a new government within thirty days however of these sorties are facing daunting challenges as powerful militias in different provinces continue to fight for political influence. clashes broke out of the chilean capital after thousands of students took to the streets demanding radical changes to the country's education system they have also been rallying against a newly proposed law which would severely curb and authorized protest and tighten punishment for those who breach peace student demonstrations have been rocking the country for more than a year now. hundreds have been evacuated from their homes after hurricane ernesto hit mexico's caribbean coast damaging buildings and pulling up trees thousands of tourists were given temporary shelter to wait for the gale to

pass there's also the risk of flooding in some regions last year more than thirty people were killed in storms. all right time now to switch gears and look to it happening in the world of business good morning. and we're hearing that china has posted a slew of statistics but what are the numbers say. well it's moderately a big so far and the only thing we're actually looking at this hour is of course the inflation data for the month of july and both consumer and wholesale inflation just came out it's slower for a fourth month n.r.o. that may tip the policymakers to further stimulate the economy and that's certainly something about market participants are hoping for and we're still waiting for china's capital investment production and retail sales figures and they're coming out in about two hours time let's see the actual figures for the equity markets in asia and as you can see the nikkei's gaining more than

a percent that's ahead of an interest rate decision from the bank of japan and hang seng is putting on around three quarters of her sound this hour on wall street overnight u.s. stocks ended wednesday's session mixed the dow closed the flat to positive for a four straight trading session the nasdaq was trading a low for the euro is bouncing back against the dollar after a losing streak on wednesday on weak data from the euro zone both major currencies retreated against the russian ruble as you can see there and of course we'll bring you all the latest as soon as the russian markets reopen in less than two hours time and let's now see how they closed on wednesday here those figures and they posted moderate losses less than a tenth of a percent each as you can see and that's mainly recovering ground once crude started trading in the positive territory toward the second half of the day and

staying above the line this hour that is brutal force crude futures resume their climb on thursday after a brief week dipping into read the previous day mainly thanks to all of those statistics from china i already mentioned it gives hope for more monitory easing. in the world the second a largest. just like st petersburg is considered to be russia's window to europe the lines of our stock is said to become another window and this time and window to asia the far east city is finishing up the preparations for the asia pacific economic cooperation forum known as the apac it's hosting the event for the first time and apparently the forms of price tag already runs at twenty two billion dollars that's almost twice the cost of the london olympics and we committed danko splines why the apec summit is so important for russia. the fact that russia is

spending so much money on the apec summit seems ridiculous first glance but let's face the facts russia's stance in the region is not as strong as it could be now it has become a member of the world trade organization promoting trade liberalization is easier than ever before especially for the host of the event next there are obvious perks in trade let's take a look at this for example russia is an energy and metals champion though it's producing seventy percent of the world's many of copper and nickel asia on the other hand is the main consumer of energy in metals and it accounts for fifty percent of the world's consumption of aluminum forty percent of copper and nickel this is a multi billion dollar market now let's take a look at china at its main port of shanghai the country imports resources from around the world but it takes more than a month to ship from brazil twenty days from south africa and two weeks from australia now would be so much quicker and this means cheaper to import from russia's than in

a port just four days finally growth in asia projected at eight point four percent developed countries two point six percent max plus shifting priorities from europe to asia would mean development for russia's lagging far east. and there you have it i'll be back in about fifteen minutes time but of course if you can't wait that long you can always won a lot more stories on our site are two dot com slash business see them all right that's thanks very much indeed for this and of course i'll be back shortly with a recap of our top stories after a short break stay with us. the

mission is really going to take should free in-store charge of free. range month free. three stooges free. old free blow against libya deal for your media projects a free media oh don carty dot com. and. bring them to your. forty acres and nineteen ninety three and the site it will be a great place to find the belle of a home and retire. there

she is. we call it our new neighbor neighbor nine o seven. we have seventy acres and i can't convince them. they need to drill somewhere besides two hundred feet from our. meeting the needs of our growing economy also means expanding our domestic production of oil and natural gas which are vital fuel for transportation electricity and manufacturing this is before any problems before we do the right people and. you know our flows are not toxic and we get a lot of it there's a lot of mis understanding of what that is actually in the fluids. you can load here unless you come up here and live in my house for a week. i have no right. to be.

in full storage is here before going global and now it's cooling water. logged in. to the road. choose your place take your stuff and. meet the movement. make your statement. split the words. you put the street alone. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.