children kept underground and in isolation for ten years by an islamic sect uncovered in russia. the shocking details ahead. the battle intensifies for the strategic syrian city of aleppo between government and opposition forces we look at the repeating pattern adopted by foreign media in covering arab revolutions . tunnel vision a rare glimpse inside the smuggling routes into gaza egypt's decision to seal them off due to border tensions. online on screen international news and comment live from our new center here in

moscow several stories of catechumens beneath the earth where children have been kept for years without daylight and contact with the outside world the accidental discovery by police in the russian city of concern has shocked the country and the wider world the sect of seventy people who spent over ten years there following a self proclaimed profit. as this report. if you walked past this building on the outskirts of the city of cazan in central russia you wouldn't notice anything that would have been going on beneath it was a three story building with a small minarets and tin presents on top was a bit run down but was otherwise rather unremarkable but a passer by would not have noticed the eight story secret complex that had been built underneath and there it was indeed a dark and an isolated world children adults taken out from these catechumens extended basement underground complex whatever. you want to call it most of them

had been there for a decade without proper heating without proper light or sanitation and crucially without any access to the outside world a few were allowed to go and work at the local market the rest were kept down there among them the youngest an eighteen eighteen month old child and a seventeen year old girl who was later found to be pregnant the children are currently undergoing medical examinations and all of those involved will also undergo psychological tests to see how they may have been affected by such a long period in isolation. was the self declared leader of this cult eighty three years old bedridden and delirious he'd declared himself a second islamic prophet and had declared his complex a muslim caliphate essentially independent muslim state and then got his followers

to live inside it and refused to let them leave a similar kind of cult in the central russian city of pens or in two thousand and seven a group of followers their dog an underground complex and waited there they said for the coming apocalypse they were eventually talked out of that and they emerged bleary eyed into the sunshine as these people are in. there and our correspondent got to skin of his now in the city of cars and to report on this shocking story and you can get more on it by following his twitter feed going off underscore party. clashes a reading between the syrian army opposition for control of the city of aleppo and most being seen as a key battle in the war rebels have now withdrawn from a strategic district in the nation's commercial hub to prepare for a counterattack activists sympathetic to the opposition say the use of heavy weaponry by government troops is cause many civilian deaths but a u.s.

war veteran says the claim 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 and 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 for the syrian military that the rebels in aleppo are now

in serious trouble. and is perhaps the troubles on the battleground and prompting some rebels to seek more support from abroad in response form a french president nicolas sarkozy one of the principal architects of the nato campaign in libya has called for a repeat of the scenario in syria well more on that at all to dot com. meanwhile the senior aide to president obama has not ruled out a no fly zone over a patch of syria under apparent rebel control the feature of the conflict generally has been how the support of the u.s. and its allies for the opposition is matched in the international media and as marina port has found out it follows a pattern of coverage of recent revolutions in the region. in the arab world millions have been seen uprising. in the western world and one international news channel is standing accused of falling short on providing a full picture of the revolution.

to raise. the fire a lot of. 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 lot of reference to video which wasn't authenticated and repeatedly using the word regime which is a character from. connotation. or even something you know that's the reaction. i had to the b.b.c. refer to the british government as the camera regime you know. so. now for i os one absolutely i said you know how do you find under the mole what is your policy on things and they're actually doing different offices 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 there or not doing. again that's in the interest of people who want to intervene and want to 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. the people were very much involved in trying to undermine the syrian government and they had signers there just as they had in libya this isn't just a question of western democracy good. or bad it's a much more complicated musical 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 sixteen months of deadly crisis that even the international community so far has been unable to

resolve marina port i.r.t. new york. the syrian groups fighting president assad of being with us weapons despite washington's claims it's only providing norm lethal aid to the opposition so says activist on middle east and un issues phyllis bennis the full interview with him is coming up later this hour his brief preview. there's already intervention under way the western countries have provided the military of saudi arabia the military of cutter 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. egypt to sealed off over a thousand underground tunnels leading from its eastern region to gaza a vital lifeline for many in the blockaded region and then follows the latest

escalation of violence and the security forces are trying to drive militants out of the area. but wednesday egyptian president mohamed morsi searches intelligence chief and the governor and also i know after a militant attack killed sixteen soldiers the closure the tunnels means more hardship for citizens of gaza who've depended on them for most of the basic supplies bodies paula slew has seen these on the ground routes first heard and explains know how volatile they are. these tunnels have been operational for several years ever since gaza was first put under blockade back in two thousand and six for many gazans they are essentially the only lifeline they have with the outside world and that's why you'll hear many gazans saying that they feel that they were living in a massive prison we're talking here about everything about goods about items about people even food and fuel that are smuggled through this extensive underground network of tunnels into gaza cargo has voiced its suspicions that some of the militants who were involved in sunday's deadly attack were smuggled through these

tunnels from egypt into gaza but it is still a highly unusual to seal off the tunnels particularly under the presidency of the new egyptian president mohamed morsi who's muslim brotherhood party has close ties to hamas which rules the gaza strip what's more morsi has said that he is committed to improving the lives of ordinary palestinians now i've been down some of these tunnels and i can tell you that i've seen everything pass through them i saw because there was still fully intact i saw huge were for generators and even people the tunnels are a massive myth where everybody is somehow connected to everyone else and the people on top of the ground know what's going on underneath the ground they stay in constant contact they also noted sometimes by the egyptian security personnel who are outside the tunnels on the egyptian gaza border. well there's plenty more still ahead for you this here in r.t. including justice in the dock illegal weapons trading doesn't mean jail for

everyone it seems we report on how tourists private u.s. security contractor avoided prosecution plus. more pain to this economy to more european companies have announced they will be reducing their exposure to stay we've got a financial. security service company to announce all but the thing is customers won't be able to pay back their bills time in ten minutes time the act in market. the u.s. is quietly piecing together a missile defense system across the persian gulf which american officials say is to guard against any possible threat from iran washington has recently boosted sales of detection systems and missile batteries to its allies in the region such as kuwait united arab emirates and saudi arabia let's discuss this now with me is a political analyst from the center for strategic studies well before we discuss the implications of that network being built around iran let's actually see what

it's all looking like that we got a map to show here on screen and what we can see it really does appear that the iranian state is being increasingly encircled by all kinds of u.s. military bases and weapons that we can see there and it's all being done under the pretext of countering a potential attack by iran so the question is is an iranian strike really likely given that american intelligence officials have recently predicted that iran wouldn't initiate any war you. don't you worry because of the. oceans against. the. u.s. military isn't the goal. for. you developing a nuclear. to. for years just for you know you don't have has only spoken of an attack on a u.s.

military bases closing the streets of corn was only in the event that it would be attacked by either of either of the. because as we know the israeli government as as repeatedly calling for. the us supporting it and an attack against nuclear facilities in iran sort of those forms only spoke of an attack against u.s. military bases in the goal of the event of an like the israeli or a u.s. attack on your own soil what about the system itself being a defensive way but actually in an offensive way against iran one hundred one system is going to be used to protect the u.s. military bases regions. of the most likely scenario will be that. along with the u.s. . the u.s. is very likely to follow suit and. backers rather than sit back and get on.

the phone system installed u.s. military bases and become trees that are already these bases in the persian gulf these are going to be used to prepare to protect these bases but you know my all. very likely going to be seen by iran as a provocation because the order to that is most likely going to is either israel or you us and sort of these the u.s. installing the front system it can be very much regarded of provocation as a defensive measure of course all this reminds us of the proposed anti missile defense system in eastern europe which is supposed to be defending europe from the attacks perhaps perceived threats from north korea and iran so if you already got that system in. eastern europe which is being set up well why do you need another one so well because the purpose of this missile defense system that is being pleased in

the gulf region is as you know effectively to protect the. very much present us military bases there and the us forces or it would also protect europe that if it's actually in circling iran then surely that would protect europe from any threat from iran. well. you know i think the sort of the fun system that is being placed on the use from borders of europe the one that is. the event of the iranian on yours is the one which is supposed to protect europe but the ones the missile defense system that is being pleased and the gulf region as it is there in order to. protect the u.s. military bases and prove that you don't from attacking these bases by missiles which is the most likely scenario in case the u.s. were israel. and its nuclear facilities just briefly historic rivalries are

prompting gulf nations to work together the u.s. but just how successful can washington be in persuading these countries to put their differences aside and actually cooperate you're a. sinner or you these countries have agreed. but the one thing that unites these countries or as their hatred towards iran they're being aligned with you are so foreign policy and the fact that these these regimes and the god you saudi arabia or kuwait qatar the emirates and. to a lesser extent on these countries or vehemently. and this is the one thing. that there are there are still a towards iran and their eagerness to prevent iran from gaining ground in the middle east good to talk to you thanks very much indeed political analysts from the mideast center for strategic studies joining me live there from beirut. there

is military controversy out of washington is the department of justice is letting a contractor away with a fine despite it being charged with smuggling and other crimes the group for money known as brett would know full count of the seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution but tell us only if then it can lead to the chef awards is a dangerous precedent to set. i think it's a bad course of action by the u.s. government by the obama administration who came in talking about accountability look people died here and yet you're giving a fine to the company my goodness if you would hold an airline accountable for bad acts why would you not hold accountable a group of mercenaries for equally if not even more spat actually poor people died so it's a bad it's a bad course to set and frankly it is nothing more than a bunch of money from a company that no one is going to be held accountable i cannot believe you're actually paying a bill to get out of criminal allegations that's that's a very bad presidents to set i'm critical of the whole process of bringing in

contract mercenaries if you will to conduct military operations in a foreign environment you have less capability of accountability and frankly i've been i work with our congress here all the time and i've been a big proponent of congress interceding in this saying you cannot send to do an act where someone who has taken the oath of office should be sent to conduct military action it's bad regarding economics it's bad regarding accountability in many ways . like our central intelligence agency use mercenaries to get around congressional oversight which again is not good for anybody if they do that. well remember there's always more for you dot com here's a look at what we've lined up for you there right now. the perils of shopping the strange story of her man in the u.s. capitol use the web to order a t.v. it was sent a high caliber assault rifle and said he didn't confuse it with a remote control. and the cuddly toys becoming enemies of the states find out why

taking pictures of teddy bears and bella ruse could lead to a lawsuit and a hefty fine. now let's take a quick look at some other stories making headlines around the world around fifty police officers of the hurt in fierce clashes with students in the chilean capital over government education plans buses were burned while demonstrators hold rocks at offices there were seventy five arrests in the latest protests which began more than a year ago campaigners want the rich to pay more to get water access to education but reject government initiatives including new scholarships and lower student loans. dozens of people have been taken off a train at the main station in athens by police as part of a campaign against illegal migration as a series sweeping of op

a series of sweeping operations with more than seven thousand immigrants arrested since last week and the international is accused of brutally attempts to control the number of those seeking asylum even rights organization says that if athens fails to provide proper detention conditions it could feel the anger of registered immigrants. suicidal that's how labor unions in spain of describe the government's austerity measures not just on the ground but in the air to where pilots say passengers are being put at risk to save cash on. reports. 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 air companies have gone bankrupt. of course and 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 cost turbulence in the cockpit as find themselves less and less motivated. we don't have high salaries and there's no prestige about our work as it had always been 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 in more than day every nation which is the security spanish pilot's working hours are already stretched to extremes new legislation to increase them to sixteen hours a day is now being considered by the european union this week over the limits here than the problem of stressed and fatigue. for example. says there must be at least forty five minute breaks between flights but in reality it's barely twenty minutes she should be embodied those who were twenty minutes between twenty eight it's almost impossible to conduct a proper chicken aircraft you know it goes to force 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 you floor cost airlines increasingly cut corners and dangerously push those who keep us safe in the sky. r.t. reporting from madrid in spain. now it's time for katie in the business and she's joining us live now from the business news room you promised to promise us news of some activity a little earlier presence to go to find that at the end of the week and fried in the world of business but what is the latest well really actually bill i've gone back as the standard chartered story because there's so many more details to come out of it is the financial story that's really kind of rocked the markets this week and as you say it has been really quiet it's holiday season but as i said go back as this story because the u.k. bank is now fighting back on charges that it green washed a quarter of a trillion dollars for a run on the bank argues that only forty million dollars worth of deals are dodgy

under u.s. regulation our troubled lender lost a quarter of its market value when new york officials were public with the charges now the british banks troubles have kicked off a transatlantic balance with no other long boris johnson are accusing new york of damaging london's reputation as a financial hub a british man agrees it's a targeted attack of the greatest financial system what the american politicians and regulators are doing is specifically targeting with over him. language british banks and the reason is that new york he's trying to steal part of the dollar trading business that goes through and this is america taking on europe and trying to regain cage that. no one american politicians and regulators say there's a little problem there really there's a problem with international banking there's

a problem in the ethic should behavior of international banks including in lending but this isn't a problem it's not a british problem it's a problem of international banking all right what sort of international by hand let's join wall street as the the sox are indeed struggling for direction last despite the weekly jobless claims the coal mining we're still a dow jones the top of the stand down on the nasdaq is flat to positive while european market is they felt the takeoff classes are less consider a calm before the storm fills the trading session meanwhile person's total goods and services trade deficit hit a record high in june after a sharp drop in goods exports last after a bleak economic outlook for the u.k. by the bank of england just earlier this week meanwhile unemployment in greece is now topping one c. tests there i calloused check out the exchange rates there will be able to see that the euro is having trouble one twenty two zero seven says still remains down

against the us a lot of the investors are still prefer years as a safe haven i suppose the year i mean while the russian equities that they've moved sideways pretty nice there is a lackluster performance all round but having said that i still managed to finish up with the volumes were incredibly low today at last as best as they seem to be sitting on the fence or waiting global central bank stimulus what happened of course nothing is or is trading near three month highs still the. speculation that they says are stockpiling all of the false this raise in fourteen years is fanning expectations from break crude to drop below one hundred dollars per hour so we'll see if that kind of opinion comes at the prices later on and that's the markets without dell up it back in about fifteen minutes i'll have a roundup of the business news with today can't wait thank you katie see it later now next an interview with

a washington based academic an activist who thinks the syrian conflict is being mainly fueled by those who live far far away that will be able to recapture the headlines stay with us live here on r.t. . download the official r.t. application so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from

our time our t.v. is not required to watch our team all you need is your mobile device to watch r.t. any time any. nuclear fashionables side. radioactive fallout all government betrayal of the government. and laws and laws and claude how can the truth be revealed if there's no official evidence there was indeed a very great danger to the servicemen concerned who will given no problem protection and to the people of this country generally because of the radioactive fallout.