developments around russia we've got this huge earth covered. the latest news on the week's top stories the arab league's set to make a move of a syria where armed rebels are struggling to hold back a regime offensive in aleppo. p.c. riots three away the verdicts were staging an anti putin stunt and russia's main cathedral with a case of trance in that tension of some of the world's biggest music stars. also criminal probes are launched into a muslim sect in central russia that kept around thirty children in the underground bunker for almost ten years. and a major offensive is under way in egypt's volatile sinai region to restore security after border violence which that sixteen addiction soldiers dead last week.

hello and welcome to all see coming to life. with the makers news and the week's top stories the foreign ministers of the arab league countries a major lazer on sunday to discuss the next moves of the syria most members vehement opponents of president assad and dodd directly backing the rebels inside the conflict country the armed opposition suffered a setback this week when government forces pushed them out of a k district in the commercial capital aleppo as the battle for the city intensifies foreign powers led by the u.s. a piling more pressure on damascus bypassing the yuan washington and turkey have set up a joint group to facilitate regime change and find a replacement fasano with the international community and syria itself split into warring camps those walking in public jobs or fearing for their lives have acts on a boycott reports. 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 over 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 for his south 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. just a blisteringly me of radical islam when you were rounding capability using your page you trying to estimate what's going on. his brother a plastic surgeon also received threats their family belongs to the alloway it's the same religious group as assad but they were never politically active. you said

there were documents confirm syria's opposition has a hit list for scientists engineers doctors and civil servants on it. what started as a battle against the regime now increasingly looks like a battle against the syrian state but the round a million and a half of the country's civil servants are becoming targets doctors teachers many simple workers have all been kidnapped or assassinated for simply doing their work any government in the world where they deem 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 sub sympathizers in damascus hospitals window blinds is permanently drawn now because of the scorching the 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 prevailing that identity is. all the syrian people are in danger children dale drily farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions over the fact that my life and the lives of the syrian people are at tryst 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 it is and interests. to some factions in the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are the silent majority join the fight around the 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 up and down the line it's not boycott artsy. syria. and in the next hour middle east activists and 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 us our 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 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 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 the anti putin stunt and russia's main cathedral back and cyber every piece on of those phone in the case. over the past few days we've heard from the

prosecution and 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 rid 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 but 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 for 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're 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. in a few minutes here and i'll see the american. smuggling the security contract i would choose 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 riots

wish to the nation by surprise if you have a girl that's like a. criminal cases have been opened in central russia against some of the parents of twenty seven children rescued this week from an underground bunker they were forced to live in a car to cooms by an islamic sect for nearly a decade and were barred from any contact with the outside world it has been to find out more about this secretive community. three people in just one square metre this police footage shows the shocking conditions members of this isolated religious 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 as opposed to for these children living in south in the basement right in this syle under the house it looked kind of like an eight story and he'll be 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 doctor had to treat her right there at the scene it took a lot of effort to convince her she needed his help. this act is around twenty years old its founder is eighty five year old for that. he proclaimed himself a prophet almost 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 rehab sect members who are allowed to film and sign. the group some 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 recognize their own story and neither do they recognize the authority of muslim leaders or do they recognize the existence of the state or any country altogether. you go to school of.

gyptian authorities have accused five militants of training jihad it's an smuggling weapons it's connected to the ambush that killed sixteen soldiers on the border with gaza last sunday in a trade launched a major offensive deploying tanks and rocket launchers to the area because a crossing was closed except for palestinians wanting to return to. egypt's the sinai region remains highly volatile with militant groups having grown since the topping of hosni mubarak last year israel based journalist lopping conies terrorist said taking advantage of egypt's a week security right now. to get attacked was first of all. increased tensions between israel and egypt and that's going to be. the attackers headed my second of all we have to remember these organizations believe that violence. and justifies all means that in the act itself as an ideological goal.

there will be generous. responsible decision makers in egypt should be trying to increase cooperation with israel in order to ensure that these kind of homicide terrorists are not able to carry out their plans so perhaps this is going to not get unity in. the countries closer together the islamists and especially did you have is that we're talking about now have been for years are. now what they're doing is taking advantage of the fact that there 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 but we're going to see is chaos and that is what we're seeing unfortunately across the entire region and that's a colonoscopy why is sanctions one stop iran's grabbing for gosh it's now weighed down by in left right and center. still getting their hands on trying to american high tech support from an apple setting store in teheran.

nuclear fashionable heights outside the. radioactive fallout of all government betrayal of the government. and law and claude 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 give them no problem. and to the people of this country generally because of the radioactive fallout of. the secrets of the u.k.'s nuclear tests.

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. of the riots and the repercussions. 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 admit trouble could break out again unemployment is up and it's also true to say that business is on the highroad are still struggling a many of them had very poor pavement 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 numerous 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 on 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 no. not been addressed but employment is going up generally 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 more aggressive what is called policing which we show monsters zero tolerance policing means that takes only a matter of time and not so much if but when in the aftermath 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 but working class families oxfam says the poorest ten percent of society will suffer thirteen times more from seeing austerity cuts than the richest ten and fifty six

percent of young black men in britain are unemployed people in riot hit hackney like to think it won't happen again but are aware that it could be long. till. people. can give something you do keep them busy and we're. going to get work somehow believe me it will take many to trust the work that way and that picking people up for the benefit well. i'm back on the board now i'm going to happen again quite the same way i don't think anything's been addressed now in this area and 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 and of course plenty for you to discover online now at r.t. dot com including

a quest to impress the russian social network junkies going to extremes to improve their online status but sometimes with tragic consequences as a report online for you. dozens of the. legal immigrants cross the u.s. border from mexico but with the help of american border control r.t. dot com there's. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. they have national security contractor formerly known as blackwater has agreed to cough up seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution it faced seventeen counts

relating to arms smuggling illegal weapons procession and other crimes but the u.s. justice department deferred prosecution if the firm which is now cold academy paid money to the government the company it was has been through a few 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 unarmed civilians killing seventeen in baghdad five years ago and scott horton from harper's magazine says washington may not have wanted a proper trial to take place. but your mouth that's being paid is a real pit this is as these things go generally this is naturally tiny so i'm on the other hand we've got this blackwater is not completely out of the woods yet what they got here was a different prosecution agreement that is they have time to persuade the justice department not the prosecute the justice department gets an extension in the

statute of limitations period to continue its investigation but that being said these sorts of agreements aren't entered into unless the government thinks dismissal that is non-prosecution is a pub. i'm so obviously blackwater has got to be delighted with this one thing that comes out these papers is that a lot of this is being done and a very very close relationship with the united states remember blackwater is a principal contractor for the department of state and it appears in many of these dealings in the part of the state is opening the door for clark water we have comparable incidents in many many other countries so they are basically. soldiers of fortune out there for hire and they're operating principle seems to be shoot first ask questions later. an update now on some of today's world news a rescue operation is underway in northwest iran after a stroll earthquakes raise the villages to the ground killing two hundred fifty

people and injuring over two thousand more both quakes happened near the city of to braise residents were told to spend the night outdoors or warning that nor aftershocks are expected emergency crews are struggling to reach some of the remote villages well phone lines and tricity have been caught. up and bahraini the rise out of it's now bill are jobbers to face court for allegedly organizing and participating in a legal meeting for a job is already serving three months for posting anti government statements on twitter there have been a series of violent crackdowns against the country's opposition political reform protests in bahrain erupted over a year ago that has sealed for to killed and scores arrested. protests against ethnic wires have turned violent in mood by leaving two people dead and dozens injured thousands clashed with police throwing rocks and burning t.v. broadcast vehicles it was sparked by media coverage of last month's violence in the state of a sun which is accused of bias against them was the victim of the series of incidents

claimed at least depicted three lives and caused over four hundred thousand people to flee. a policeman at a roadblock in afghanistan has opened fire on fellow officers killing at least ten it's thought their target was a taliban infiltrator he was killed one police returned fire it comes a day after six nato troops were shot dead in separate attacks by afghans one of them a police chief. iran may be getting a rough ride from sanctions when it comes to its oil trade and biking but it's a very different market for high tide addicts a store selling apple products inter rhinos blossoming and as our first reports the blockade isn't stopping gadget hungry iranians from living the life. i pads i phones i pods apple's political popularity has meant that their products familias like everywhere from our workplaces to our homes and on our high street there's one

place you might not expect to find products like this on the 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 arraign ians that managing to outsmart this u.s. embargo is products like the ninety popular in toronto they're widely available as well just like any other apple macs store 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 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 enterprising

a rainy and tradesmen have meant that in forcing the sanctions has proved very chilly 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 while bypassing the sanctions and people still want to these gadgets even though they've become more expensive. so are the sanctions working. the sanctions have not had the outcome because if they have if you were going hear a new sanctions are being announced by the u.s. congress or. the western powers the fact that they're coming over. new sanctions every other day isn't the case on the board thanks i was very much for the working in fact many critics of the sanctions feel that far from achieving anything banning these products in berg is

a punishing the very people who will help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editing is right is the film a key part of apple's clients know the world a favor so r.t. . we also have details of some impressive metal harvesting in london in aussie sport next hour russia's aslef let's elect fifteen medals on saturday making the country's most successful day of the olympics and our data is here interest. and right out of the headlines in a couple of minutes the secrets of the east siberian the shamans and their trained adults throat singing stay with us.

today. fled the film these are the images. from the streets of canada. today.

to build the world's most sophisticated. mission to teach music. this is why you should care only.