there's 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 rides three outweighed the bad example staging an anti putin stunt russia's made the sea drop with that pays a parting that touch of some of the world's biggest music stars. also this hour a criminal probe so launched into a muslim sect in central russia that kept iran says it children in an underground bunker was. under a major offensive is under way in egypt's bottle sinai region to restore security at the border violence which left sixteen attrition soldiers dead last week.

this is also you coming to you live from moscow and you are out with the latest news on the week's top stories the foreign ministers of the arab league countries a meeting later on sunday to discuss their next moves over syria most members vehement opponents of president assad and are directly backing the rebels inside the conflict can truly be armed opposition some of it some bad this week when government forces pushed them out of a key district in the commercial capital aleppo last the battle for the city intensifies foreign powers led by the u. was piling more pressure on damascus bypassing the uighurs washington and turkey had set up a joint group to a city take a 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 example recover of course. it's a fixture in. 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. this call in the middle of the night cost here my 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. is the worst enemy of radical islam when you were rounded incapable of using your page you're trying to estimate what's going on. his brother a plastic surgeon also received rats their family belongs to the alloway it's the same religious group as assad but they were never politically active. documents

confirm syria's opposition has a list scientists engineers don't just and civil servants only. what started as a battle against the regime now increasingly looks like a battle against the syrian state but they're around a million and a half of the country's civil servants becoming targets doctors teachers municipal workers have all been kidnapped or assassinated for simply doing their work and the 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 cleaned and hospitals are running and in syria regardless of that political affiliation civil servants are being targeted as assad sympathizers in damascus hospitals window blinds of permanently drawn not because of the scorching heat but 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 identities. all the syrian people are in danger children the elderly farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions to the fact that my life and the lives of other syrian people are a true 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 lose any

attention from the media from the international community it is in the interest of the some factions in the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are in the silent majority join in the fight and 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 are put on the line as a boy car to see them out because syria. later this hour middle east activist and u.n. expert says ben is explains why escalating the militarization of the conflict could only be more dangerous if the as a nation 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 will have certain pair. 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 woman for that stunt and russia's main cathedral back and cyber every. device following the case. 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 rid russia of a blow to me of 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 or 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 verdict. in a few minutes here in our see the american led top for smuggling the notorious security contracts which used to be blackwater is allowed to pay its way out of prosecution after a probe into illegal weapons. and housing london learned its lessons from the riots which took the nation by surprise

a year ago will find out later. 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 catacombs by islamic sect by nearly a decade and were barred from any contact with the outside world corpus cannot has been to find out more about this secretive community. three people in just one square meter 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 men women the elderly and more than twenty children most of whom have reportedly never seen daylight as follows the thought police children were living in south in the basement right in this silence 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 there at the scene it took a lot of effort to convince her she needed his help with. actors 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 and rejecting all other religions and even movements within islam and the police found them while investigating a recent terror attack in the city they also found around a thousand religious books and hand written texts which are now being examined for

possible extremist content but sect members appear to be defiant about their way of a way that 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. 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 the 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.

at least four is the most militants have been killed during a major military operation in egypt's sinai region the fansub was launched after an ambush on the border with gaza to the lines of sixteen soldiers last sunday egyptian authorities deployed tonks and rocket launchers to the area and shut down many smuggling tunnels across the border crossing was closed except for palestinians wanting to return to that ok did reach or militant groups have grown in the area since the toppling of hosni mubarak last chair as well based journalist believes terrorists that taking advantage of weak security right now. the attack was first of all. tensions between israel and egypt that's going to be. the attackers headed my second of all we have to get rid of these organizations one believed that violence. and justifies all of that in the act itself as an ideological goal to shield. their women generally.

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 to use that we're talking about you know have been for years are. and now what they're doing is taking advantage of the fact that there is an unstable situation in egypt but if you just lift the lid as we've seen now across the region egypt syria and 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 count on r.c. why is sanctions a one stop iranians grabbing propaganda that's weighed down by bonkers and left right and center get they're still getting their hands on trying to american high tech reporter and apple selling storyteller on. this summer all

eyes have been in 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 ma street violence and looting. looks back at the riots and repercussions. broyard saying 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 youth 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 take a little deeper and areas like here in touch know 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 are still struggling a many of them had very poor pavements under the right damages that 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 fate. 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 by employment is going up generally useful

employment is going up in the country we're seeing closure after closure of use facilities and services school services are being caught and i think all of that with more aggressive what is called policing which which amounts to 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 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 long.

till. people. can give something you've. seen them busy and they're. going to get work somehow believe me it will take many interests to work that way and that picking people up for the benefit of well nothing. i'm back on the force now i'm going to happen again quite the same way but i don't think anything's been interesting 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. is the said day of soaring action in them. as russia's air force celebrates a certainty in the area of protecting the country's skies in high flying style ellie's pilots are pushing their machines and scales to the limits and a spectacular display for the crowds more than one hundred ten planes and helicopters are taking part in the band including russia's latest state of the art

fighter the t. fifty the country's renowned aerobatics teens are also demonstrating some of their death defying stunts and they are joined by pilots from seven other nations including britain france and italy the kremlin recently made the military a top priority with the valve to spend over one hundred twenty billion dollars in their air force over the next few years. no problem if you can physically make it to moscow all the action is on hold where you can catch russia's probably a pilot to show you what they can do and also in my quest to impress the russian social network junkies going to extremes to improve their online status but sometimes with tragic consequences as reported online. dozens of illegal immigrants across the u.s. border from mexico but with the help of american border control dot com the details that we.

used 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. the international security contractor formerly known as blackwater has agreed to confront seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution it frays seventeen counts of rape relating to arms smuggling illegal weapons possessions and other crimes but the u.s. justice department deferred prosecution if the found which is now called i can see me paid money to the government the company which has been through a few incarnations in its troubled history has previously been the source of strained relations between the us and are wrong five blackwater contractors opened

fire on unarmed civilians killing seventeen in baghdad five years ago and retired us on the end of tenet antony chauffer warns that accepting cash instead of convictions has 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 die hard here and you're giving a fine to the cause. but my goodness that you would hold an airline accountable for bad acts why would you not hold accountable. for equally if not even more spent 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 president to say that 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 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 or someone who is taking 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 used mercenaries to get around congressional oversight which again is not good for anybody if they do that a seven day today's wall means every skill free is under way no less to run up to two strong earthquakes raise villages that have been around killing two hundred fifty people and injuring two thousand but if quakes happen need a city of tabriz residents were told to spend the night out deuils whining that nor aftershocks are expected and that you see crews that struggling to reach some of the remote villages about phone lines and trees to stay home think that. from in bahrain a human rights activist and a builder job it's different school for allegedly organizing and participating in

illegal meeting for a job as a radiant seventy three month old posting anti-government statements on twitter there have been a series of violent crackdowns against the country's opposition political reform projects in bahrain erupted over a year ago saying of fifty killed scores arrested. that's against ethnic riots have turned violent in mumbai leaving two people dead and dozens injured thousands clash with police as well when he walks and burning t.v. broadcaster vehicles it was sparked by media coverage of last month's violence in the state of our son which is accused of bias against the muslim victims the series of incidents claimed at least fifty three lives and caused over four hundred thousand people to flee. a policeman at a road block in afghanistan has opened fire on fellow officers killing at least ten source 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 attacks by afghans one of

them a police chief. you know our birthday boy has got all these thoughts later this hour so let me say you know it was quite a successful middle hobbits for russian london wasn't it it's certainly was it may be a sleepy old sunday so far in london but it was a super day yes there russia selling. record of the games they won six cool sixteen medals in all quite extraordinary feat that means the fourth their reign was third overall in the table so they've got a big day ahead to try and reach those seven gold medals the team g.b. search has at the moment the twenty eighth sitting in third position at the moment i'll tell you what i've got more in sports today in a row in twenty minutes time here in our t a lot coming up. looking forward to it and thank you so much. iran may be getting a rough ride from sanctions when it comes to its oil trade and banking but it's

a very different matter for high tech addicts a store selling apple products in tehran is blossoming and us our first reports the blockade isn't stopping gadget hungry iranians from living the life. i pads i phones i pods apple's global popularity has meant that their products familiar sight everywhere from our workplaces to our homes and all our high street there's one place you might not expect to find products like this on sale and that the iranian capital of tehran where apple along with many of the u.s. products abandon the functions that had been in place in the years but it seems that tech savvy arabians that managing to outsmart these u.s. embargo and products like the ninety popular in toronto they're widely available as well just like any other apple macs tool this one in tiran is bustling and busy. i have no difficulty in importing electronics from the us nor do we feel any impact

on imports from sanctions what doesn't come so easy indeed is getting technical support and updates for the products but we still manage to get them all the time. the focus 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 iranian tradesmen have meant that in forcing the sanctions has proved virtually impossible in fact it's estimated there are now hundreds of traders in the capital selling these kids the only impact of these sanctions that we see is higher prices which alter the real sinking against the dollar we're also forced to charge more from costa 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 are the sanctions working. the sanctions have not had the outcome

because if they have you were going to hear a new sanctions being announced by the u.s. congress or. the recent powers the fact that they're coming up with new sanctions. isn't the case in the door thanks very much you're working in fact many critics of the sanctions feel that far from the achieving anything banning these products in bug is a punishing the very people who will help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editors right is the film a key part of apple's kind tell the world a favor. and a few minutes insight into why foreign nations increasingly arming the syrian conflict could only deepen the prices they struck playing.

the music she agreed laboratory to mccurry was to build on its most sophisticated radar which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything turns mission to teach music reason why it should care about humans in this dish is why you should care only.

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 in my big toe on my right foot i use my hands a lot in my artwork i find myself drawing my hands quite a bit to me for my hands you know just as if anyone would. but they do tell a story they tell a story of. oxen. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hardy welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. that's what i did last time.