this is also you coming to you live from moscow the headline. the syrian rebels struggle to hold by going to france who by the regime in the country's biggest city aleppo they do us and its allies are both really be insurgency with fresh multi-million dollar support and looking for new ways to replace assad. the three members of russian punk band pussy riot awaits the verdict was staging an anti putin stunt in russia's main cathedral prosecutors the industry at present the case attracted that tension of some of the world's biggest music stars. real probes are launched into a muslim sect in central russia that kept iran says it children in an underground bunker for almost ten years the children aged between one and seventeen years had

never gone to school or been seen by a doctor and had radio been allowed in today. and a major offensive is underway in a trance volatile out soon i tried to restore security at the border bonds which that sixteen egyptian soldiers dead last week. up next american world affairs expert phyllis bennis explains why all me both sides in the syrian conflict only outside interests. thank you for joining us on r.t. red cross and many other experts are saying that the situation in syria has descended into a civil war a full scale civil war. how does that how does that affect the positions of the positions of the verse is the position of other countries so far we have seen no

indication that either the u.s. or any of the outside actors are taking seriously the consequences of the determination by the international committee of the red cross that this is a full scale civil war what it means among other things is that the international laws of war what's known as international humanitarian law apply throughout the region and it applies to the opposition as well as to the regime they are obligated under the conditions of international law not to use certain kinds of weapons not to attack civilians not to hold prisoners without some kind of process all of those things are part of international humanitarian law and we have seen no evidence yet that any of the outside actors are taking any of that seriously what does that mean to the syrian conflict what it means for the syrian people is that the militarization of this conflict is escalating that can only be in my view dangerous more dangerous the notion that there can be a transition a regime that would not have the same kind of repression that we have seen from

assad all these years is still possible the fact that hillary clinton is now reduced to acknowledging that that if assad himself arranges a transition safe haven whether it's in moscow whether it's in saudi arabia or somewhere else that's still possible then the question becomes who is going to be in control if the escalation continues if the militarization continues what we will then see is that the post. government will be led by the men with guns just like what we saw in libya just like what was so in somalia and many other i don't want to make comparisons libya is a very different country than syria somalia is a very different country but the notion that the victors of a political struggle because this is still a political struggle in syria 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 of civil society mobilization and organizations they have many things that was not possible in libya it's not the same i don't want to equate them but the danger is that you will 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 as diplomats have already acknowledged if there is another bigger explosion in syria if the entire syrian body politic explodes it will be an explosion not an implosion as libya was there is the danger because it is becoming sectarian because of that sectarian character that is only now becoming dominant in syria in a country that was not traditionally a sectarian divided religiously divided country despite the use by the regime of

the religious and sectarian divisions to maintain its power this was not a population that identified primarily by their religious affiliation as sunni or shia or alawite or whatever it was a possibility that if you were alawite you had a better shot at power but it wasn't the way people define themselves the danger of course is that with that growing the sectarianism growing there is the danger that it will spill over the borders and. some congress. and senators calls to arm the rebels for the u.s. to intervene don't you think that's just going to make it worse any further intervention by further militarization is going to make things worse the original militarization has made things far more difficult further militarization is going to kill more civilians the choice of the syrian opposition to take up arms was contested from the beginning by other parts of the syrian resistance who said that

we have a better chance of changing our government of overthrowing the government by nonviolent methods so certainly more escalation whether it's by the u.s. or any other outside power is going to be very very dangerous experts now say that the rebels in syria are very much dominated by there is an interest in the united states for instance of downplaying the role of the islamists but it's become more apparent that there are islamist forces whether they are al qaida i think there is certainly not much evidence yet i think that it is a very dangerous for outside actors who are not on the ground who don't necessarily have good sources on the ground to assume that any islamist forces for instance are part of al qaeda that's a word that's designed to sow terror in the minds of anybody in the west anyone in europe in the united states it cetera i don't think we know yet what we do know is

that the opposition in syria is very diverse there is a part of it that has an islamist framework the same is true of all of the the rebellions that have led to the arab spring we see the muslim brotherhood in power now in egypt that's not al-qaeda there were people claiming it then it was not true we don't know if it's true in syria diplomatically the efforts where do you think that's had given that the escalate the situation on the ground is escalating the fact that the u.n. has. allowed the the monitoring mission to remain on the ground for at least another thirty days is the one bit of hope that i see right now kofi annan team led by general mood the norwegian general has begun the political process in which they have been able to use in one town another town in small areas from the ground up to make possible a kind of diplomatic process of local commanders of the military and local

commanders of the opposition forces of the resistance to create small scale ceasefires in three or four towns the town of de sore is one town in syria where it's apparently working if that could be expanded if that mandate could be shifted from simply monitoring a non-existent national ceasefire to facilitating small scale local ceasefires that could then spread and move up from the bottom bringing people with it rather than trying impose something from outside from the top down which certainly has not worked that might be the one hope for a diplomatic and less militarized solution but susan rice and other foreign diplomats at the u.n. said that they are willing or they will withdrew the withdrawal of the monitors if this insulation on the ground is does not improve and so far it's not improving so is that is that is that them saying that this is the last time where

expanding this mesh that they are saying this is the last time they said that the last time they will change based on political realities not based on the realities on the ground the realities on the ground are not what is determining u.s. positions russian positions qatar's positions saudi positions anybody's positions except for the people of syria what the outside powers are doing has virtually nothing to do with what actually is going on on the ground so what we're seeing play out of the united nations. is a power struggle between the united states and russia between nato and the gulf states on the one hand and other arab states on the other we're seeing a bunch of different battles playing out diplomatically almost none of which are taking into account the interests of the people of syria where do you think that's had you think there will be since susan rice clinton and other diplomats have talked about intervention on site they land do you think that's going to happen do

you think that's a possibility that the west is looking at 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 us but it is weapons of the west the danger of that escalating is very serious the danger of further escalation involving other outside actors is very serious i don't think the us right now in an election cycle i don't think the obama administration wants to engage in a direct involvement in an air campaign for instance against syria of the kind they engaged in libya i don't think they want to whether what is known in the us as the c.n.n. factor the political pressure on a president in this case on a candidate in the election based on what people are seeing on their television

sets becomes very important it's not impossible that even when the regime in power in any country and in this country when the obama administration doesn't want to engage directly if there is enough political pressure they may give in to that pressure that's happened before it could happen again mccain is trying to exercise that kind of pressure on their congressmen and other senators if there's a number of senators there's a number of members of congress there's calls from the punditry in the mainstream media it's. there's a lot of pressure on the obama administration not because any of them have a proposal of what would actually work but simply because they're using this as a stick to hit candidate obama in the context of the elections that's very dangerous for the rest of the world what are the solutions that you think are best for syria and he's saying there is still time for dialogue but when the government and the opposition i think there is still time i think the time is diminishing i

think that the level of repression from the government has been so horrific and in response the opposition which i support as a principle of the right of people to rise up against a repressive regime the fact that they are using stronger and stronger military. strategies and military tactics makes that kind of discourse that kind of discussion that kind of negotiation more difficult but there is still time i think the question remains will the international community help to make that possible for example by small scale community by community village by village city by city negotiating process is at the grassroots bringing together local commanders with local officials of the of the military to work out a cease fire and then the political process the best thing the international community could do would be to allow the u.n.

to play that role rather than as a fig leaf of international involvement a fig leaf of multilateralism to cover the unilateral decisions of several different governments. lines. would be soon which brightened if you knew about song from phones to christians. muslims don't salty don't come.

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a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. top stories and i'll see the syrian rebels struggle to hold bond kind of offensive by the regime in the country's biggest city the u.s. and its allies of bones trying to be insurgency with fresh multi-million dollar support and looking for new ways to replace the some of. the three members of russian punk band pussy riot of waste the vatican full staging an anti putin stunt on russia's main cathedral. prosecutors want a three year prison term the case attracted the attention of some of the world's biggest music stars. also criminal probes are launched into a muslim sect in central russia that have to around thirty children in an underground bunker for almost ten years the children aged between one and seventeen years had never gone to school or been seen by a doctor and had rarely been allowed into a fight. and a major offensive is under way in egypt on

a tile sinai region is to try and restore security out of the border border violence which left sixteen addiction soldiers dead last week. you know this here with his false news and you don't after a lackluster opening week at the olympics in team russia seem to have found their ratings and read them later on right and i think that's exactly right because you know they weren't looking too good they were brutally in the top ten in the first week now they're in fourth spot with six goals. so a very good weekend so far last dates there we're going to look about in just a second. thanks for joining us this is indeed sports today we have got plenty ahead few this sunday morning in central moscow all this. half

a dozen team russia have their most successful day had london twenty twelve winning six gold medals on the soccer. northern mike reaming russian football champions need to claim their biggest win over title rivals sports talk in sixty three years crushing the red lights by. one tied at the top reinstall play during the cold mcgraw and all the golf season's final major would remark on roy and be just saying leading the way of the p.g.a. championship. russia have enjoyed their most successful day yet out the olympic games six schools coming the team's way on sunday setting new world on a limb pick records in the process from london here is the busiest man in western europe under a former. it was a super saturday for russia and a sensational one for their rhythmic gymnastics gania conniver she has become the first person to win olympic back to back titles in the individual all around event

the twenty two year old wiring the crowd and judges with grace and charm and top scored with the hoop ball and clubs she was only second best in the ribbon and that was the fellow russian doubted me to the who got the silver russia have now won this event for the last four olympics and no one is more happy than conniver is spoken they shout at the stars still have a smile on my face some three hours after the competition wrapped up i'm the happiest person in the world right now i didn't expect so many people to cheer for me at these games meanwhile as side in the sunshine rushes walkers were lining the streets with gold lino last man ever setting a new world record in the women's twenty k. race gliding past teammate and defending olympic champion. at the death of victory in front of buckingham palace finishing in a time of one hour twenty five minutes and two seconds. before that could be epic instead a new a limping record when he won the men's fifty k. race the double world champion said he felt when any g.r. thirty k.

but found second wind to set a new game's best of just over three hours and thirty seven minutes almost a full minute ahead of a straight is jarrett talent who got silver on the track maria sutton over added an olympic gold to her world crown in the eight hundred metres belorussian a catheter you know pushed the giver claim bronze behind south africa's caster semenya and after that the women claim silver in the four by four hundred meter relay behind the usa and while that was going on and the child over claimed gold in the high jump the world champion the only woman to clear to meet is in five compadre it said learned to call in and got the bronze and america's projected barack the silver so that takes care of five gold medals but the very first one of the day was won on the water at eighteen dorney with russia winning the men's kayak double sprint power. paratroop pushed the guy and alexander finishing the two hundred meter course a full second ahead of the rest for limping glory even still grab bronze in the

men's singles sprint. on this occasion there were no gold medals for russia's wrestlers but they did get their tenth and eleventh medals of these games to seek could do course got a silver he lost in the final of the sixty kilogram freestyle to told us to go out of. while b yalom a hole got bronze in the hundred twenty kilogram category and boxer davida at a party and made sure he got bronze in the flyweight division. so russia are opening up a bit of a sprint at the end of these games and it certainly got me out of breath just talking about it for sunday is the home straight and the last chance for russia to close in on their target of twenty five gold medals and three farmer. london saturday's showpiece event again had you seen both at the center of it the jamaican who already has starkly retained both his one hundred and two hundred metres a limping titles now also a double one hundred meters really champion written in the stars of course like in beijing four years ago london two thousand and twelve belong to the sprint

sensation a sketchy run up to the games for the twenty five your forgotten about with victory in both of his individual disciplines and there was little doubt last night to go after he picked up the baton from you'll hand blake with a final leg before finishing ahead of team usa is ryan bayley told to set a new elliptic record in the event to make it the first team to ever run the relay and thirty seven seconds thirty six point eight four to be exact all six gold medals make him the greatest sprinter of all time. now russia targeting more medals on the final day of action hopes are high for the modern pentathlon event which is celebrating one hundred years of the olympics robert downey and spoke to sydney two thousand champion dimitri called ski about the country's putting chances this time round. with more than contests on the vans at the london twelve summer olympics getting underway on saturday we're joined by the two thousand olympic champ and the russians need to go ski three things with him first of all do you think the sport

has changed dramatically over the last twelve years and become more competitive with death was becoming tougher to bit simply tougher to bit. the last twelve years of the double change so much and two. major issues was change of doing can last last years the first was the movie united. running and shooting in right now calling combine event its last event a result of old age and it will be the final final step for before medals and. the laws of peace so it will be very interesting and of course the for last two years the. news these for march is very interesting for t.v. for spectators for anybody and because we have. always on expect that the result of last event yes for russia's chances we get those number one is soon and two time olympic champion and dame we see if sounds very impressive. yes of course

for the last. few olympics we got some medals of course to be expecting some mental sphere because the good great athletic athlete received two time olympic champion the up you're absolutely right and there's a young generation who has it will be next. on the big video by two thousand and sixteen two thousand and twenty and of course we expect good results expect just medals began during we see if is a very experienced effort yet while. he's making his olympic deb you do think he's go it takes to handle that psychological pressure on him for addicts. that of course and some pressure before lympics because he is a young people youngest at least usually of course in the mall and there was before lympics them the other like on the day the v. expect in the. union union of experience in the young as for the women's

event we've got to have that. and you can sit in the rest and i want to think about their chances. the chances for some and also. our video will be. bronze medal very very. close to to get even goals so will be good fans and the right so it turns out that we can hope for gold medal in the mount of olives and maybe probably bronze medal in the women's of brown bronze yes but that's a podium but. expect it's a combination of course that it will be anything what you want thank you dmitry thank you so much think i'm. the man who's already been there and done that and he's prediction for russia sounds very good keeping my fingers crossed robert r t london. leave me alone thanks to one

side and talking football now are a stunning result on saturday so the outlook at the top of the table changed dramatically in the russian premier league to meet versus start talking mass a game at any time but even more so with this time considering both sides were perfect after three games sharing the summit on nine points but it turned out to be far from an even buffalo north's meets seem to newton cough up distraught father need to know ahead after fifty two minutes before dinner your ability enough missed the chance the whole goal back from the penalty spot but i'm unsure all cough would immediately make it three no the visitors was deep and would need mcgeady saw straight red for what seemed like a pretty innocuous challenge victor a feisty woman showing no sympathy for four nil just. minutes later before she wrapped up his brace up the death five nil then as the final score and eight go three points clear. meanwhile missed the chance to push up

the joint second spot along side city rival sports the real women held to a teacher drop home to a lanyard. twice coming from behind to earn a point in the capital all the scoring done by the thirty seventh minute with the in from thomas pushkin the last man to get his name on the scoresheet. on the team who allegedly whitewashed five nil last week i got back to winning ways turk grozny taking her vulva to millet home in chechnya. notching a place with a striking turn now to fifth but face a tough four weeks ahead now in moscow spartak rubina meets in petersburg are upcoming challenges. with all the excitement going on in london one could be forgiven for forgetting there's a massive gulf a vent happening across the atlantic beach is seeing the leaders at the final major of the season the p.g.a. championship rowing three suspended on saturday because of bad weather there were

three men at the top heading into the weekend but card patterson and tiger woods are no longer at the summit woods with a dreadful store to the day at kiawah island sitting three over through seven holes singo is still one of the players to catch that big fijians six under after another solid outing in south carolina though he too has returned to the club price after seven holes through the stormy conditions on northern irishman marco roy's also at the top last year's u.s. open winner putting five of the nine holes he managed to storm off the boards and take over all favorite stocks. and as all the sports fly by for now i'll see you in just under two hours time.

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