the. latest news out of the week's top stories the syrian rebels struggle to hold back on a fronts upon the regime as the u.s. and its allies bolster the insurgency while looking for new ways to see assad out. it puts you right three a way to be a 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. criminal probes are launched into a muslim sect in central russia that kept around thirty children and then underground bunker for almost ten years. and

a major offensive is underway in egypt's ball of told sonali region to restore security after border violence which left sixteen injection soldiers dead last week . alone welcome to our teens of the weekly i'm karen taraji it is three o'clock here in moscow while the arab league has postponed sunday's emergency meeting on syria where rebels are struggling to hold back on offense of the regime in the country's biggest city the armed opposition suffered a setback this week as government forces pushed them out of a key district in aleppo as the battle for the city in town so far as foreign powers led by the u.s. are piling more pressure on finance this bypassing the e.u. when washington and turkey have set up a joint group to facilitate regime change and. and a replacement for sot the u.s.

and its allies have also up the ante by pledging even more multimillion dollar support for the rebels london being the latest to weigh in but the international community and syria itself split into warring camps those working in public jobs are fearing for their lives as oksana boyko reports. it's a fixture in any public office in syria whether you buy it or get a driving license president assad will be watching for those working it's not a political statement rather a sign that that company belongs to this. current is now becoming a death market or an increasing number of. this call in the middle of the night cost him a brother who 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 using your age you're trying to estimate what's going on with. his brother a plastic surgeon also received. the family belongs to the alloway it's the same religious group as assad but they were never politically active. he said the documents confirm syria's opposition as we scientists engineers don't and civil service only. 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's civil servants are becoming targets doctors teachers and when you simple 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 permanently drawn now because of this partial the 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 dale drily farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions live in the fact that my life and the lives of the syrian people are a truest makes me tremble with fear along with fears put their faith to 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 attention from the media or from the general community it is in the interests of some factions and the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are 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 up to down the line it's not boycott artsy democracy syria. and more civil servants are seemingly being targeted in

a lot of this unconfirmed amateur footage apparently shows rebels throwing the bodies of post office workers from a rooftop some syrians who have been supporting the opposition now say they'll have nothing more to do with people who commit such crimes some acts they bring to the video was recorded by our son a boy you can stay up to date with the latest from syria by following her on twitter. let's get some reaction and analysis from the u.k. based journalist and broadcaster in new york clark meal thanks for being with us today on live from the u.k. now there are leaks postponed an emergency meeting on syria but didn't actually say why what's the barrel body possibly waiting for i mean isn't time of the essence for the people of syria. well i think it's been a very bad week for the and it's been a very bad week the u.s. and its allies because this isn't going to go on the rebels get round to this past week and by this time i think they recruit into the saudis in the qataris will hope

that they have a nice pro western government is doing damascus and has a lot of plan the reason it hasn't gone to is the syrian people themselves the majority of syrian people support the government and if that wasn't the case then the government would have for a long time ago so what's your question i think the arab league right decided now what to do they're in a real pickle as is going to happen as of the turks because the syrian people hold back far right now what about kofi annan i mean he was praised somewhat for his efforts to mediate peace but ultimately i mean he failed to break the deadlock and now he's stepping down do you think his successor possibly could succeed given all the circumstances i don't think it really matters karen who succeeds unless there is a sort of sea shift in the approach from the west and the arab league because at the moment all they're talking about incessantly is a sad must go the reality is that a lot of authority consumers support president assad and the government and you know that some of the clear no less they drop them and actually support the russian

and chinese position to coast to the russian chinese position then there won't be any difference we've already got the framework for democratic changes and we have a new constitution supported by eighty nine percent of syrian people why go to the west got without well you know why they go on that because they just want us out now russia wants the u.n. mission to syria to keep running but the u.s. gave some someone lukewarm reaction to the idea what do you think the logic is behind washington's reasoning here. well we could understand quite clearly the u.s. doesn't want a peaceful solution to the situation soon the last very last they want is democratic elections free democratic elections because they know the baath party knew very well and so they want to undermine the u.s. mission they did it all the time and they established pressurizing the rebels to people to you know put down their arms actually encouraged actually sending them arms so it's quite clear that washington doesn't want a peaceful solution they want one that we can change so unless that changes that they are afraid the budget will continue now stepping up support for the rebels while piling on more pressure on assad with the washington and its allies that

these actions certainly bypass the u.n. so how much leverage does the world body actually have in the syrian crisis what is being bipartisan is pretty clear now that washington tried everything to try to bully and could gold rush in china into going on board with russia and china thankfully having none of it and so now the u.n. is saying well the u.s. is now saying we can get this through the u.n. we could do it ourselves we have the grotesque meeting yesterday between hillary hillary clinton and the turkish. which was illegal you know they talk about regime change in a country which is illegal by international law and so this is grossly we're talking about criminality on a massive scale here and it was shows to everybody that the u.s. doesn't care about international you know neil art has been showing some amateur video and it apparently shows rebels throwing the bodies of post office workers from a rooftop in aleppo that's not exactly pleasant p.r. for the opposition how much support do you really think that they have among

syrians at this point are nowhere near as much as we're led to believe in the west i mean books as the dominant western narrative karen over the last few months has been the president assad has no support in the rebels have all the support it's the opposite way round really because the majority of the government the rebels have been a. report atrocities that are chilling off or three people so we have people who support the sort of the beginning and we have a lot of people not sure which way to go they're actually being turned off by the support that. cities that you think you've outlined and i would say probably the present site is stronger now than it was back in march two thousand and eleven all right and very briefly with the mandate of the u.n. observer mission to end next week how is the team's departure from the country expected to affect that situation over there. well i mean it. was there i mean the russians and chinese want to stay there i think that there is going to be a great danger that the rebels become even more violent now or desperate because it's quite clear they haven't got the drug use and they will be using more violence

with the attacks on members of the government etc so i think we're in a very very warm position but this bloodshed cannot really and we with the u.s. changing its policy the u.s. is that made by the blood is on hillary clinton's hands and the u.k. is hands william hague's hands and unless we get a change from these people budget we'll continue our great power and reaction and analysis live from oxford journalist and broadcaster neil clark thank you always a pleasure thank you carol. the trial of the russian female punk band pussy riot has reached its final stanch with the verdict expected next friday prosecutors are demanding three years is jail time for the women and their anti-porn stunt and russia's main cathedral back in february artist peter all of us following 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 russia'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 believers 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's we've also heard support coming out for the three women on trial from celebrities in the music industry madonna is speaking about pussy riot during her concerts in moscow also having her 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. 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 all this 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. all right in a few minutes the american farmer left all four arms smuggling. in a torah security contractor which used to be blackwater is allowed to pay its way out of prosecution after a probe into illegal weapons deals. and the london learned its lessons from the riots which took the nation by surprise a year ago we find out the minutes of. criminal cases have been opened in cern troll 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 an islamic sect for nearly a decade and were barred from any contact with the outside world here corpus kind of has been to find out more about the 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 deal it was posed with thoughtfully this children who were living in cells in and around the basement right in this syle under the house it looked kind of like an eight story and hill shocked by what the film's 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 some doctor had to treat her right at the scene it took a lot of evidence to convince her she needed his help with this act is around twenty years or its founder. eighty five year old for that mocks i thought of 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 three house sect members who are allowed to film inside neither did any of the groups or 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. at least seven islamist militants have been killed during a major military operation and egypt spall tolson our region the offensive was

launched after an ambush on the border with gaza took the lives of sixteen soldiers last sunday and gyptian authorities to the point tanks and rocket launchers city area and shut down many smuggling tunnels across the border with gaza crossing was closed except for palestinians wanting to return to their blockade and reach a temporary ground in the area since the toppling of hosni mubarak last year as well based journalist yakov lapin believes to. paris are taking advantage of egypt's weak security right now the attack was first of all. tensions between israel and egypt i think that's going to be. the attackers had in 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. a 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. the countries closer together the islamists and especially did you have to use that we're talking about you know have been for years. and 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 and all the other countries north africa then what we're going to see is chaos and that is what we're seeing unfortunately. this summer all on. which is probably hosting the olympics but they success of the games in mind if you're a member of that exactly a year ago the city was ravaged by mass street violence and looting parties laura smith looks back at the riots and 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 on to control. the. damaged buildings have been rebuilt and people are going about that big. this 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 admits 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 poor pavements under the riot 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 not been addressed and employment is going up generally. in the country we're seeing closure after the closure of youth facilities and services school services are being caught and i think all of that with 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 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 austerity cuts than the rich. and fifty six percent of young black men in britain on employed people in riots hit hackney like to think it won't happen again but are aware that it could. still. get something. going to get work coming out believe that it will take many to address the work that way and that kicking people off the plane. back on the board. are going to

happen again quite the same way i don't think anything has been addressed. with these people defused is still a light the fear is when and what will trigger the next explosion in neighborhoods laura smith. it's the third day of soaring action in the moscow region as russia's air force celebrates a centenarian of protecting the country skies a high flying style elite pilots are pushing their machines and skills to the limits and a spectacular display for the krauts more than one hundred ten planes and helicopters are taking part in the event including russia's latest state of the art fighter the two hundred fifty countries renowned aero batiks teams are also demonstrating some of their death defying stunts and they're joined by pilots from seven other nations including britain france and italy the kremlin recently made the military

a chop priority with a vow to spend over one hundred twenty billion dollars upgrading the air force over the next few years. well no problem if you can't physically make it to moscow all the actions on r.t. dot com where you can watch russia's premier pilots show you what they can do also online in a quest to impress the russian social network junkies going to extremes to improve their own mind status but sometimes with tragic consequences as we report online. thousands of illegal immigrants cross the u.s. border from mexico but with the help of american border control are teed up home as the details. news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has

been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for each and throughout the day. all right here with our team and international security contractor formerly known as block water has agreed to cough up seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution if a seventeen counts relating to arms smuggling illegal weapons possession and other crimes but the u.s. justice department of prosecution and the firm which is now called danny paid money to the government a company which has been through a few incarcerations 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 scott horton from harper's magazine says washington may not have wanted

a proper trial to take place. the amount that's being paid is a real pit this is it as these things go generally this is an absolutely tiny some on the other hand we've got this way blackwater is not completely out of the woods yet what they got here was a deferred prosecution agreement that is they have time to persuade the justice department not to 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 probable outcome so obviously black why there's got to be delighted with this one thing that comes out these papers is that a lot of this is being done in 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 and department of state is opening the door for blackwater and 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. time now for an update of today's world news the rescue operation has been called the northwest iran were two stronger earthquakes razed villages true the ground on saturday evening at least two hundred fifty people have died and over two thousand more were injured both quakes happened near the city of tub bree's rescue workers worked through the night in challenging conditions having struggled to reach the remote area of. prominence all for any human rights activists not deal version is to face court for allegedly organizing and participating in an illegal meeting 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 protest in bahrain erupted over a year ago and have seen fifty killed and scores arrested. protests against ethnic lawyers have turned violent and more leaving two people dead and dozens injured thousands clashed with police throwing rocks and burning t.v. broadcast vehicles it was far beyond media coverage of last month's violence in the state of a psalm which is accused of bias against the muslim victims a series of incidents claimed at least fifty three lives and calls over four hundred thousand people to flee. the roadside bomb has killed the district chief and three of his bodyguards in eastern afghanistan the official was driving to a meeting when his car was blown up earlier a policeman at a road block opened fire on fellow officers leaving at least ten day the suspected

taliban infiltrator was killed when police returned fire. we have details of some impressive a metal harvesting in london in our sports and next hour. russia's athletes collect the sixteen medals on saturday making it. country isn't the most successful day of the olympics to our updates here in just over an hour. and surely we expose the secrets of britain's nuclear tests that's in our special report and it's coming your way after the headlines in just a couple of moments. nuclear

fireball hides inside the. radioactive fallout of government betrayal the government. everything law and claude and claude how can the truth be revealed if there's no official evidence there was any doing a very great danger to the servicemen concerned who will give them no problem. and to the people of this country generally because of radioactive for. the secrets of the u.k. nuclear tests it's just.