latest news on the week's top stories the arab league set to make a move out of the syria where armed rebels are struggling to hold back a regime offensive in aleppo. they pursue riots three await the verdict for staging an anti putin stunt in russia's main cathedral with their case attracting the attention of some of the world's biggest music stars. also a criminal probes are launched into a muslim sect in central russia that kept around thirty children in an underground bunker for almost ten years. to major transit is under way in egypt's volatile sinai region to restore security after the border violence which left sixteen addiction soldiers dead last week.

hello and welcome to all sea coming to you live from moscow. with the latest news and the week's top stories the foreign ministers of the arab league countries made later on sunday to discuss the next moves over syria most members of them and opponents of president assad and they directly backing the rebels inside the conflict torn country the armed opposition suffered a setback this week when government forces pushed them out of the key district in the commercial capital aleppo as the battle for the city intensifies foreign powers led by the uighurs up piling more pressure on damascus bypassing the one washington and turkey have set up a joint group to facilitate regime change and find a replacement for side with the international community and syria itself split into warring camps those working in public jobs are fearing for their lives as a tomboy career for. it's a fixture in any public office in syria whether you buy a ticket or get a. driving license president assad will be watching out for those working here it's

not a political statement rather a sign that that company belongs to the state your design is now becoming a death mark for an increasing number of state employees. but. this call in the middle of the night cost him a brother. was one of syria's most experienced civil pilots u.s. educated more than twenty thousand hours around the globe he was coming home from the airport when gunmen attacked his car. radical islam. radical islam when you were rounded incapable of using your cage you're trying to estimate what's going on with. his brother a plastic surgeon also received. their family belongs to the l a way it's the same religious group as assad but they were never politically active. you said the

documents confirm syria's position is that we scientists engineers don't do this and civil see. what started as a battle against the regime now increasingly looks like a battle against the syrian state with around a million and a half of the country civil servants becoming targets doctors teachers municipal workers have all been kidnapped or assassinated for simply doing their work any government in the world where they seem aquatica not has two distinct groups of people working for a political fox whose job is to keep the ruling party in power and civil servants to make sure that streets are clean and hospitals are running and in syria regardless of that political affiliation civil servants are being targeted as a soft sympathisers in damascus hospitals window blinds and permanently drawn now because of the scorching heat for fear of snipers a local doctor was kidnapped on his way from work

a few months ago his family hasn't heard from him since his colleagues are now afraid of revealing the identity of. all the syrian people are in danger children the elderly farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions the fact that my life and the lives of other syrian people are interested makes me tremble with fear along with fears for their safety syrian civil servants also have to deal with a much higher workload many now put in sixty hour weeks with barely a day off due to inflation their salaries have devalued as have their lives so i am not surprised to hear that some groups within the free syrian army are targeting those people who are trying to make life better or orderly because at the end of the day if things get back to normal they will lose any support they will use any tension from the media from the international community and it is in the interests

to some factions in the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are the silent majority join in the fight and round of world attacks against they don't situations carry some of the highest sentences and promptly condemned as terrorism yet in syria for the sake of ousting one man millions of lives are put on the line it's not boycott artsy because syria. and later this hour middle east activist and u.n. acts that phyllis bennis explains why escalating the militarization of the conflict can only be more dangerous. if the escalation continues if the militarization continues what we will then see is that the post assad government will be led by the men with guns when the victors are those with the guns that always bodes ill for women for children for civilians syria is not libya syria has

a long history of civil society mobilization and organizations they have many things that was not possible in libya but the danger is that you. we'll have certain parallels certain similarities such as unaccountable militias who will not put themselves under the accountability of a new government that is a very dangerous reality and if syrian body politic explodes it will be an explosion not an implosion the danger of course is that with that growing the sectarianism growing there is the danger that it will spill over the border. the trial of the russian female punk band pussy riot has reached its final stage with a verdict expected next friday prosecutors are demanding three years jail for the women for their anti putin stunt and russia's main cathedral back and severing all she's piece on advice following the case for us. over the past few days we've heard from the prosecution on the defendants themselves the prosecution saying that they

wanted three year jail sentences for the three women for the demonstration which they held in rush's main cathedral in february of this year the women themselves speaking to the court said that they never intended to cause any offense to the orthodox church or its believe as by their protest in which they performed a so-called punk rock prayer calling on the virgin mary to reach russia vladimir putin now we've also heard support coming out for the three women on trial from celebrities in the music industry madonna. speaking about pussy riot during her concerts in moscow also having heard having the name of the group painted on her back madonna of course no stranger to controversy regarding the church itself and nine hundred eighty nine a single like a prayer the video for which caused such a controversy that some catholic church groups were calling for her to be excommunicated was also condemned by the vatican and is also being politicians from

. great britain germany and the united states that have been giving their support of all the women but it remains a hugely divisive case here in russia with some people saying that the women are modern day saints almost building them up to huge levels of. social standing saying what they are doing is right for russia and others mostly linked to the orthodox church suggesting that these women are essentially the anti christ that we all have to wait until the seventeenth of august at three pm moscow time when the judge in the courtroom just behind me will deliver the verdict. and in a few minutes the american found laptop for. the north korea security tractor which used to be blackwater is allowed to pay its way out of prosecution after a probe into illegal weapons deals. has london learned its lessons from the virus which took the nation by surprise a year back. but no criminal cases have been opened in

central russia against some of the parents of twenty seven children rescued this week for an underground bunker they will forced to live in catechumens upon islamic sect for nearly a decade and were barred from any contact with the outside world if this cannot happen to find out more about the secretive community the three people in just one square metre this police footage shows the shocking conditions members of this isolated looters group have been living in for years up to seventy people all cramped in a small country house on the outskirts of gaza men women the elderly and more than twenty children most of whom have reportedly never seen daylight disposing of thought like this children were living in cells in the basement right in the soil under the house it looked kind of like an eight story and hill shocked by what they found the authorities began taking the kids outside in order to take them to

doctors most of them are still being examined while their parents demand they be left alone. the children are terrified and after everything that's happened they're afraid of what can be done to them despite being in need of urgent medical help some of the adults had to be talked into allowing doctors to see them. one woman had a miscarriage so a doctor had to treat her right at the scene it took a lot of evidence to convince her she needed his help with the sectors around twenty years or its founder is eighty five year old for that marks i thought of he proclaimed himself a prophet. fifty years ago and is now too weak to get out of bed his followers believe only in the koran rejecting all other religions and even movements within islam the police found them while investigating a recent terror attack in the city they also found around a thousand religious books and texts which are now being examined for possible extremist content but sect members appear to be defiant about their way of life but

actually what you are fighting against ally himself the authorities have already opened several criminal cases involving senior members of the sect and the fate of the children is yet to be decided plans are also being drawn up to rehang sect members who are allowed to film inside neither did any of the group's members agreed to speak with us on camera but off camera the man that i spoke with said that around forty people remain on their territory they do expect the authorities to try to take everything down but he claims that they are going to resist even if they bring a court order since they don't recognise their own story and neither do they recognise the authority of muslim leaders or do they recognize the existence of the state or any country altogether. you go to school of design. and you have accused five militants of training jihad it sounds smuggling

weapons and it's connected to the ambush that killed sixteen soldiers on the border with gaza last sunday the military launched a major offensive deploying tanks and volcanologists to the area the gaza crossing was closed except for palestinians wanting to return to their blockaded return egypt's sinai region remains highly volatile with militant groups having gren since the toppling of hosni mubarak last year and these are all based journalists yaakov lopping believes terrorists are taking advantage of egypt's weak security right now . the good track was first of all. raised tensions between israel and egypt. that's going to be. the attackers head of mind and second of all we have to remember that these organizations believe that violence. and justifies all means they do that in the act itself as an ideological goal to. their religion as they see people responsible decision makers in egypt should be trying

to increase cooperation with israel in order to ensure that these kind of homicidal terrorists are not able to carry out their plans so very abscesses if you don't know what unity is for the countries closer together the islamists and especially did you have to use that we're talking about you know have been for years operating inside and now what they're doing is taking advantage of the fact that they're here is an unstable situation in egypt but if you just listen as we've seen now across the region egypt syria i mean all the other countries north africa then what we're going to see is chaos and that is what we're seeing unfortunately across the entire region. so to come here and i'll see why sanctions once top iranians wanting for gadgets weighed down and left right and center and still gassing about hands on trying to an american high tech report from an apple setting still wrong. my parents really truly honestly believe that what had happened was as

a result of my father's exposure to agent orange i was born with multiple problems . i was missing my leg and my fingers. on my right foot i use my hands a lot in my artwork i find myself drying my hands quite a bit. for my hands you know just as if anyone. but they do tell a story they tell a story of. their oxen. this

is the welcome back this summer all eyes have been on london which has proudly hosting the olympics with the success of the games in mind if you remember that exactly a year ago the city was ravaged by mass street violence and looting lloris mess looks back at the riots and rapper cash and. rioting looting disorder these were the explosive scenes on the streets in towns and cities in england last august shops and warehouses attacked and torched by out of control youths and adults alike a situation the police took days to bring under control a year on and on the surface all is well damaged buildings have been rebuilt or boarded up and people are going about their business again but they go

a little deeper and areas like here in tottenham where the riots started are still troubled and the underlying issues which caused the riots remain unresolved tottenham's m.p. says his community pulled together in the aftermath but it mitt trouble could break out again unemployment is up and it's also true to say that business is on the highroad all still struggling a many of them had very. paul pavements under the right damages act that was made to assist them in a double dip recession that hits the poorest communities hardest so you know it's one of those situations where yes we must be positive and hopeful but it's a fragile a fragile situation for us here in the last year new merced studies have been conducted into why the unrest became so intense and so widespread what began with anger over the fatal shooting by police of tottenham man mark duggan became

a spark that ignited a powder keg of disadvantage boredom and a dysfunctional relationship with the police something social justice campaign elite just says has not been addressed and employment is going up generally useful employment is going up in the country we're seeing closure after closure of youth facilities and services school services are being caught and i think all of that with a more aggressive what is called total policing which which amounts to zero tolerance policing means that takes only a matter of time and not so much if but when jimmy off to mouth of the violence communities banded together to clear up their streets but many accuse the government not only of ignoring the root causes but of making problems worse for working class families oxfam says the poorest ten percent of society will suffer thirteen times more from by seeing austerity cuts than the richest tenth and fifty

six percent of young black men in britain are unemployed people in riots hit hackney like to think it won't happen again but are aware that it could be months. till. people. can give something if you give them busy they're. going to get work somehow believe me it will take many to trust them. that the way that they kick people off for the benefit of well not that much. time back on the board. are going to happen again quite the same way i don't think anything's going to it's going it's very well for these people the fuse is still a light the fear is when and what will trigger the next explosion in their neighborhoods laura smith r.t. london. plenty of you to discover online now it's all t. doc home including a quest to impress the russian social network junkies going to extremes to improve

their online stages but sometimes the tragic consequences as a reporter online for you. know dozens of illegal immigrants cross the us border from mexico but with the help of american border control. cities. news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations through the day. the international security contractor formerly known as blackwater has agreed to cough up seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution if raised seventeen counts relating to arms smuggling illegal weapons possession and other crimes but the u.s.

justice department deferred prosecution if the fund which is now called has me paid money to the government the company which has been through a few in costs in incarnations and its troubled history has previously been the source of strained relations between the u.s. and iraq five blackwater contractors opened fire on an armed civilians killing seventeen in baghdad five years ago that retired u.s. army lieutenant can. and to me that's accepting cash instead of patience that's a dangerous precedent. 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 you would hold an airline accountable for bad acts why would you not hold accountable a group of merged areas for equally if not even more spat actually four 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 organizations like our central intelligence agency use mercenaries to get around congressional oversight which again is not good for anybody if they do that. an update of some of today's world news a rescue operation is underway in northwest run up to two strong earthquakes raised villages to the ground killing two hundred fifty people and injuring over two thousand more both quakes happened near the city of to bree's residents were told

to spend the night al dools warning about mark the sharks are expected imagine sea crews are struggling to reach some of the remote villages work phone lines and electricity have been cut. prominent bahraini human rights activists now bill are job is to face cleared for allegedly organizing and participating in illegal meeting rajab is already inside a three month old posting anti-government statements on twitter there have been a series of violent crime downs against the country's opposition political reform protests in bahrain erupted over a year ago i had seen fifty killed and scores of arrested. protests against ethnic riots have turned violent in mumbai leaving two people dead and dozens injured thousands clashed with police throwing rocks and bernie t.v. broadcast vehicles it was parked by media coverage of last month's violence in the state of a sum which is accused of bias against the muslim victims the series of incidents claimed at least fifty three lines and caused over four hundred thousand people to

flee. police one at a roadblock in afghanistan has opened fire on fellow officers killing at least ten it's told their target was a taliban infiltrator who was killed one police returned fire it comes a day after six nato troops were shot dead in separate at times by afghans one of them a police chief. under your own schooldays sports later days before we delve into let me say dear union happy birthday to glory very much twenty one i'm feeling young with for the. club then ok. ok so it's been quite a six. yes full metal for russia in london yeah definitely was a superstar it must be said they have got a twenty one goal russia there are tully at the beginning they wanted twenty five gold and they thought that would be good enough for a third place finish in london well that might not happen because team g.b.

the host of course of have an absolutely fantastic fortnight so they're looking very much like they're going to get third place but take nothing away from russia. killer weekend twenty one gold six of those coming on saturday we're going to tally it on and see exactly what happened on that day in a round twenty minutes time it's fast approaching sports today is coming up very shortly you'll. be waiting thank you very much happy birthday to. iran maybe getting a rough ride from sanctions when it comes to oil trade and banking that it's a very different market for high tech addicts still sending apple products into iran is blossoming and outside of five reports the blockade isn't stopping gadget hungry rain ians from living be i live. i pads i phones i pods apple's cool oval popularity has meant that their product familiar sight everywhere from

our workplaces and on our high street there's one place you might not expect to find products like this on the scale 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 years but it seems that tech savvy arabians that 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 so. i have no difficulty in importing electronics from the us nor do we feel any impact on imports from sanctions 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 or just the so you can save us 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 enterprising a rainy and tradesmen have meant this 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 murs in order to keep getting our shipments bypassing the sanctions and people still want to these gadgets even though they've become more expensive. so one of the sanctions working. sanctions have not had the outcome because if they have if you were going here new sanctions are being announced by the u.s. congress or. the western powers the fact that they're coming up. same says every other there is the case on the board thanks i was very much there the working

in fact many critics of the sanctions bill that far from the achieving anything banning these products in buggies a punishing the very people who help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editing is right is also the film a key part of apple's clientele the world aid. and in a few minutes insight into why it's for a nation's increasingly arming the syrian conflict and only man and deepen the crisis is not a strong break. fly

isolation and prejudice. aging. career. do it with passion. learn to fly. jump to the top. ignore the pain. stage a show. i. did hold starting here. for going global and now it's pulling my old.

log in. to the right. to. choose your place take your stand. and meet the movement. make your statement. and support the war. she points to an online. only on. morning news today violence is once again flared up from. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are on.