free video down to r.t. dot com. latest headlines in the week's top stories syria rebels fight to retake control of aleppo with the help of further western financial backing while the arab league puts its emergency get together on hold. members of the russian female punk group pussy riot await their verdict after an anti putin stunt in the country's main cathedral in a trial that divided the nation. egypt's president orders the country's powerful defense minister and the chief of staff to resign it comes a bit of militant crackdown in the increasingly volatile sinai region. what a difference a year makes to look back at last august's riots which raged across england amid local fears they could return.

hello there this is r.t. you're watching the weekly with me kevin zero in our round up of the top stories of the last seven days and first the arab league has postponed sunday's crisis meeting on syria where rebels are struggling to regain ground in the country's biggest city of aleppo foreign ministers were to discuss a new envoy to syria to replace kofi annan who quit early this month u.n. chief ban ki moon has backed the presence of international monitors now in syria as the current observers mandate runs out in a week's time this is foreign powers led by the us apart even more pressure on the massacres bypassing the un washington and turkey have set up a joint group to facilitate regime change the u.s. and its allies have also pledged even more multibillion dollar support for the syrian rebels london being the latest to weigh in but for ordinary people inside.

the situation remains as dangerous as ever with public sector workers in particular fearing for their lives a report. it's a fixture in any public office in syria but if 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 their 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 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 in cape using your age you're

trying to estimate what's going on. his brother a plastic surgeon also received. their family belongs to the l a with the same religious group as assad but they were never politically active. you said the way documents confirm syria's armed opposition has a hit list for scientists engineers doctors and civil servants only. under them up 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 a credit cannot has two distinct groups of people working for a political force whose job is to keep the ruling party in power and civil servants who 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 south sympathizers in damascus hospitals window blinds is permanently drawn now because of this part of 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 the elderly farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions to look at the fact that my life and the lives of the syrian people are at tryst a 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 were tension from the media from the international community it is in the interests. oh to some factions in the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are the silent majority join in the fights and round of world attacks against the don't think carry on the high sentences and promptly come down as terrorism yet in syria for the sake of ousting one man millions of lives up to the line to boycott are democrats because syria. and more public sector staff are simply being targeted in aleppo this unconfirmed footage you seeing there proudly shows rebels throwing the bodies of post office workers from a rooftop some syrians have been supporting the opposition most say they'll have nothing more to do with people who commit such gruesome shocking pictures there the

link to the video was retreated by artie's example you can stir today's world with the latest from syria but following her on twitter. journalist and broadcaster neil clark spoke to us he says fighting in syria will only escalate as the rebels get strong support from the west and back is a regime change. there is going to be a great danger that the rebels become even more violent now more desperate because it's quite clear they haven't got the charges or they will be using more violence because of the attacks on members of the government etc because this isn't going to plan the rebels get routed this past week don't think it really matters who succeed unless there is a sort of sea shift in the approach from the west and the arab league because at the moment they're talking about incessantly is sad must go we have a grotesque meeting in turkey between hillary clinton and the turkish as they talk about regime change in a country which is illegal by international law we've got to understand quite clearly the u.s. doesn't want a peaceful solution to the situation in syria the last very last they want is

democratic elections free democratic elections because you know the ba'ath party would do very well and so they want to undermine the u.s. mission they did it all the time and they instead of pressurising the rebels to you know put down their arms they actually encouraged actually sending them arms so it's quite clear that washington doesn't want a peaceful solution they want violent regime change so unless that changes then they are afraid that my shit will continue comment too from middle east activists and you're an expert phyllis bennis explains why sending more weapons into the conflict can only create more danger. 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 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. it's like say more that if you see it in full activist and you're an expert phyllis bennis talking to us again in twenty minutes time tonight. it's been two weeks of courtroom drama for the russian female punk group pussy riot they face prison on hooliganism charges for an anti-government stunt in moscow's main cathedral in february prosecutors demanding three years jail for the woman with the final verdict expected on friday peter all of the reports 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 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 reach russia vladimir putin now we've also heard support coming out for the three women on trial from celebrities in the music industry madonna it 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

. 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 build. two huge levels of. social standing saying what they are doing is right for russia and others mostly linked to the orthodox church suggesting that these women are essentially the anti christ that we all have to wait until the seventeenth of august at three pm moscow time when the judge in the courtroom just behind me will deliver the. still to come this hour a criminal case is launched of the actions of a muslim sect in central russia kept thirty children in a secret underground bunker for almost ten years shocking story details ahead. we look at the how rainy and get their hands on the latest gadgets despite caught in a western sanctions cutting off trade to the islamic state. for the produce through

the last couple of hours egypt's president ordered his two top military officials the defense minister and the chief of staff to resign no explanations being given yet for it defense ministers saying to tell you previously been egypt's interim ruler of the ousting of hosni mubarak last year he'd also served in the defense for all of them are nearly two decades be replaced no by cissie will also take charge of the country's powerful military council islamist president mohamed morsi is also canceled the army's amendments to the constitution that gave top generals wide ranging powers the muslim brotherhood's relationships with the country's military have been strained since last year's uprising comes as egyptian security forces say they've killed at least seven suspected militants in the northern sinai with violence as recently as collated the operation was launched after sixteen egyptian border guards were gunned down a week ago the campaign to hunt down the killers was the biggest in the region since the one nine hundred seventy three war with israel israel based journalist

lapin spoke to us and believes the chaos is the legacy of abrupt changes of power across the middle east and north africa. was first of all. between israel and egypt and that's going to be. the attackers had in mind and second of all we have to get rid of these organizations when we've been violent. and justifies all of that in the act itself is an ideological goal to all the. 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 grabs this is even an opportunity for. countries closer together the islamists and especially did you have to use that we're talking about you know have been for years operating. 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 and what we're going to see is chaos and that is what we're seeing unfortunately across the region. but there's a lympics summer spectacles coming to a close with the last of the medals to be awarded for the final events but some are wondering what's next for the u.k.'s capital was serious economic troubles remain of course last august saw rioting crowds torching loot the city with the police unable to regain control for almost a week. look so what lessons britons learned one year on the. rioting and looting disorder these were the explosives scenes on the streets in towns and cities in england last august shops and warehouses attacked and taught by out of control youth and adults alike a situation the police took days to bring on to control. the so.

damaged buildings have been rebuilt or boarded up and people are going about their business again but dig 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 and peace as his community pulled together in the aftermath but it meant trouble could break out again on employment is up it's also true to say that business is on the high road all still struggling a many of them had very poor pavements under the right damage that was made to assist them in a double dip risk. shouldn't 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 man mark duggan became a spark that ignited a powder keg of disadvantaged boredom and a dysfunctional relationship with the police something social justice campaign elite just says has not been addressed and employment is going up generally useful employment is going up in the country we're seeing closure after the closure of youth facilities and services school services are being caught and i think all of that with a more aggressive what is called total policing which we show monsters zero tolerance policing means that takes only a matter of time and not so much if but when to me often mouth of the violence communities banded together to clear up their streets but many accuse the government not only of ignoring the root causes but of making problems worse for working class families oxfam says the poorest ten percent of society will suffer

thirteen times more from by seeing austerity cuts than the richest tenth and fifty six percent of young black men in britain are unemployed people in riots hit hackney like to think it won't happen again but are aware that it could be lungs. filled. with people. and give something. to eat them busy they're. going to get work somehow believe me it will take many to trust the work situation and that picking people up for the benefit well nothing. back. back on the board. i don't know about it happening again quite the same way i don't think anything religious if. these people defused is still a light the fear is when and what will trigger the next explosion in their neighborhood me. check the last stories online of r.t.

dot com these may grab your attention now find out how brothers working as a border patrol agent help hundreds of illegal immigrants and the u.s. from mexico we got the story also telling you to today r.t. dot com about north korean reports sounding the alarm about u.s. and south korean terror. apparently blow up monuments of former communist leaders we try and dig into that further find out if their fears have any foundations again the stories of r.t. dot com. criminal cases have been opened in central russia against some of the parents of twenty seven children rescued this last week after the horror of being forced to live on the ground for a decade they were under the control of an islamist sects and they were barred from any contact with the outside world a correspondent on this story go piskun off. 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 gaza men women the elderly and more than twenty children most of whom have reportedly never seen daylight i suppose if the least children living in south end and the basement right in this syle under the house it looked kind of like an eight story and here 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 of his own doctor had to treat her right there at the scene it took a lot of evidence 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 three house sect members who are allowed to film and some. 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 recognize their own neither do we recognize the authority of muslim leaders or do they recognize the existence of the state or any country altogether. at the school of does. the world of british top stories right now rescue operations of ended after two earthquake struck around yesterday the revised death toll is now two hundred twenty seven with almost fourteen hundred injured the disaster leveled a fifth of iran's northwestern villages with both powerful tremors measuring over six point three on the richter scale rescue personnel working through the night to recover survivors from the rubble have now been reassigned to help the estimated sixty thousand left homeless. by any human rights activists now bill read jobs due to appear in court he's accused of involvement in illegal meetings he's currently

serving a three month jail sentence for writing anti-government statements on twitter the bahraini opposition has been subjected to a major crackdown after protests began last year. two people died after thousands of muslims clashed with police in mumbai angry over media coverage of ethnic riots in india's northeast last month dozens were also injured as protesters threw rocks and set fire to television broadcast vans while police fired into the air trying to disperse the riot is the worst violence in the north east in two decades between muslim settlers and local ethnic population left at least fifty three dead in cost four hundred thousand people to flee. the international security contracts are fully known as blackwater has agreed to cough up seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution they faced seventeen counts relating to arms smuggling illegal weapons possession and other charges but the u.s. justice department deferred prosecution if the firm which is no called akademi paid

money to the government a company which has been through a few incarnations and is troubled history has previously been the source of strained relations between the u.s. and iraq five blackwater stuff opened fire on unarmed civilians killing seventeen in baghdad five years ago scott horton from harper's magazine says the contract it will be delighted with a deal which underlines how close it is to the u.s. authorities. the amount that's being paid is a real pit this is it as these things go generally this is an absolutely tiny som on the other hand we've got this 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 wire 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 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. the u.s. might be trying hard to make life worse for radians these days imposing sanctions of the country's vital oil industry and its banking sector too but while america's also banned high tech products exports to iran they still manage to find their way there as artists are first reports as even a store selling apple's latest gadgets in the capital for those wanting to enjoy

the life. i pads i phones i pods apple's political popularity has meant that their products oh familiar sight everywhere from our workplaces times and on 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 for years but it seems the text of the iranians are managing to outsmart this u.s. and buggy and products like the not only popular in toronto they're widely available as well just like any other apple macs store 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 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 secrets 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 are the real sinking against the dollar we're also forced to charge more from costa murs in order to keep getting our shipments while bypassing the sanctions and people still want to these gadgets even though they become more expensive you point out of the sanctions working. out because if they have if you were going here new sanctions are being announced by the u.s. congress or. western powers the fact that they're coming over. new sanctions

every other day isn't the case in the door thanks i was a mother 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 help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editing is right is the film a key part of apple's kind tell the world eva. the next we have one expert who says foreign nations sending weapons into the syrian conflict will only prolong the crisis also coming up to the final day of competition of the olympics russia has added three gold medals to the tally today details on that in the sport in twenty minutes time or so so that so the next half hour adds up that you're out for russia.

sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give

a darn about anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans again. this is why you should care only on the r g dot com. the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. 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 and 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 us story of. the ox and. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly 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.