the latest headlines in the week's top stories here are not syria's rebels find to retake control of aleppo with the help of for the western financial backing as the u.s. and turkey consider a no fly zone to put pressure on damascus. egypt's president orders the country's palmful defense minister and the chief of staff to retire it comes amid a minutes and crackdown in the increasingly volatile finite region. and members of the russian female group will soon ride away to verdict often empty pollutants done to the country's main cathedral in a trial that divided the nation. you're

watching r t live from moscow with me to bomb would say we're taking a look at the week's stories that made headlines says well as today's headlines starting off with syrian rebels struggling to regain ground in the country's second city of aleppo some nations led by the u.s. are piling more pressure on damascus and bypassing the u.n. washington interest he had discussed bringing in a no fly zone over syria and set up a joint group to the phillips thank you the u.s. and its allies have also pledged even those are two million dollars support for the searing double london to the natives too but there wasn't support for the rebels only to come with me facing the possibility of winning in a regional that's according to dr i mean mohammed added saying chief of syria trying to. win anybody talks about the no fly zone they are so. in about

a regional war they know quite well that the syrian army will not allow any foreign power or foreign armies to interfere within the syrian land and any attempt to create a safe zone or north fly zone will be responded to by war and any war between syria and turkey or syria and any need to a nation will turn into a large regional war and syria is a part of a huge alliance and for instance the iranians just last week made it clear that if any foreign power tries to interfere in syria they would not just watch their strongest ally for now we seems clinton offering money to support a few g.'s but actually under the table they are supporting other groups and the signal let's try to understand what they are in the past few days we've seen them throwing post office workers from. the roof seven workers are being attacked and seen rebels kill people in the streets slaughter them with knives and then mrs clinton comes and gives them money they lost in the massacres they lost in any poll

they are losing in any poll as we speak and as usual whenever the they find themselves in a pickle like this they call for foreign intervention and if if they claim that they have popular support as they have been saying for seventeen months why do they need foreign intervention. for people in syria the situation remains as dangerous as ever with public sector workers in particular fearing for their lives fun a boy call reports. 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 it's not a political statement rather a sign that that company belongs to the state here do sign 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 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 islamic. radical islam when you were rounding cape reducing your page here trying to estimate what's going on with. 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. he said the documents confirm syria's opposition has 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 the round 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 assad sympathizers in damascus hospitals window blinds is permanently drawn now because of this partial for fear of snipers and 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 her billing the identities. all the syrian people are endangered children the elderly farm workers civil servants doctors and scientists there are no exceptions relevant to the fact that my life and the lives of other syrian people are a true is

a makes me tremble with fear and i long for three years. syrian civil servants also have to deal with a much higher workload many now put in sixty hour weeks but 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 from the international community it is in the interests of at least some factions in the opposition to make things worse for people so that those people who are the silent majority join in the fight and round of world attacks against they don't seem to sense 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 on the line it's not boycott artsy democrats because syria.

middle east activists and u.n. experts phyllis bennis explains why sending more weapons into the conflict can only create more danger. if the lation 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 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. you can see the four interview with activist and u.n. experts phyllis bennis in about twenty minutes here in r.t. . thousands of protesters have gathered in cairo in support of the egyptian president's order for his two top military officials the defense minister and the chief of staff to retire one of them defense minister hussein tons of the had previously been egypt's interim ruler after the ousting of hosni mubarak last year it also served in the defense role under mubarak for you two decades he'll be replaced by other girls but the sunni who will also take charge of the country's powerful military council islamist president mohamed morsi also canceled the army's amendments to the constitution they gave top generals wide ranging always the

muslim brotherhood's relationship with the country's military have been strained since last years of life it comes as egyptian security forces say they've killed exists seven suspected militants in all that are in sinai the way violence has recently escalated the operation was launched after sixteen egyptian border guards were killed a week ago the campaign to hunt down the killers was the largest in the region since the nine hundred seventy three war with israel yaakov leptin and israel based journalist believes the chaos is the legacy of abrupt changes of poems across the middle east and north africa. the attack was first of all two i think increased 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 that even in the act itself as an ideological goal to shield. their religion as they see it 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 even an opportunity for. countries closer together the islamists and especially did you hobbies that we're talking about now have been for years operating inside 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 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. 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 fact breme prosecutors are demanding three as jail for the women

but the final verdict expected next friday. report. 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 and 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 is by their protest in which they performed a so-called punk rock prayer calling on the virgin mary to reach russia of blood of 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. still to come this hour a criminal case is launched over the actions of a muslim sect in central russia it kept around thirty children in a secret underground bunker for almost ten years details of this shocking story

just ahead. and we'll look into how iranians get their hands on the latest gadgets and despite coordinated wasn't sanctions cutting off trade to the fleming state. in london in the closing ceremony of the twenty twelve olympic games has finished with a bang some of the biggest names in british pop performed in front of a crowd of eighty thousand at the olympic stadium the olympic flame was passed on to the organizers of the twenty sixteen games in rio de janeiro to judge on the final results and look back on some of the top class sport he is andrew from. i think it will go down as one of the best in the olympic history i mean the venues have been fabulous the way the games have been managed over the last fortnight has been very smooth and the athletes have produced performances that i'm sure have captivated audiences around the world and not just talking about the likes of you saying bolt or michael phelps the british team selves got twenty nine gold medals

that is a record for them i think in over a century and that in itself created a feel good atmosphere in britain which i think hasn't wavered over the last fortnight or russia you might say would be disappointed about finishing in fourth but if you look at the detail they have achieved what they have set out to achieve they want to get something like twenty five gold medals they've got twenty four that's one more than they got four years ago and they've got more medals than they got four years ago around nine more so in that if you look at it in that perspective they are starting to improve talent is coming through half the team i think are making their olympic will have made their olympic debut which bodes well for the future they're also break through sport and did well in judo this time around they did well in artistic gymnastics which is an improvement and they've done well in the key areas their traditional key areas of athletics and mess things russia might learn from these games have been managed the single most important factor russia will have to come away with is this is that if you are

a host nation you have to have athletes that produce gold medals because that fact alone literally transformed the atmosphere here in britain at the start of the first weekend i do remember the rain was pouring britain did not get that gold medal they thought they would get in the cycling but once they got it in rowing everything transformed and i think. it's mainly because of that these games of being deemed as one of the most successful because when you do walk around the streets of london it's great the atmosphere has been brilliant thousands of people out lining the streets watching events such as the women's walk the marathon they've all enjoyed it they've cheered everybody and there is a real feeling of euphoria and i think the country as a whole is a bit disappointed that these olympics and now coming to an end. and there's plenty more stories about the olympics for you online at r.t. dot com including saudi female athlete heroes in london also change of the olympics that part of the story of the for is saudi arabian sports women struggle to compete

in the summer games. plus meteor shower people find out when anyway mother nature brighten up this guy with hundreds of shooting stars and fire balls at o.t. dot com. download the official r.t. application so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. t.v. is not required to watch art all you need is your mobile device watch our t.v. any time. criminal cases have been opened in central russia from of the parents of the twenty seven children rescued this week after the horror of being forced to live underground for a decade and islamics that to bob them from any contact with the outside world. has

the details of these 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 disposed of thought like this children living in south in the basement right in this syle 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 soon dr had to treat her right there at the scene it took a lot of effort to convince her she needed his help with this act is around twenty years old its founder is eighty five year old for that 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 weight of words but it's really what you are fighting against ally himself the authorities have already opened several criminal cases involving senior members of the sect and the state of the children is yet to be decided plans are also being drawn up to rehab sect members who are allowed to film inside neither did any of the group's

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 afterwards 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 this state or any country altogether. you go to school of. now or look at some other stories from around the world rescue operations have made it up to to the earthquake that struck iran the revised death toll is now over three hundred with more than two thousand injured the disaster leveled a fifth of iran's northwest and villages with both quakes measuring six point three in magnitude rescue personnel working through the night to recover survivors from

the rubble have now been reassigned to help the estimated sixteen thousand left homeless. thousands of people took to the streets in indonesia to protest discrimination against the muslim minority in my mum demonstrators called on the government to end the bloodshed and recognize them as citizens over seventy people have been killed and tens of thousands have been forced to leave their homes during the ongoing clashes. about sixty thousand citizens gathered at a stadium in mali's capital demanding for a transitional unity government to be formed the national peace and reconciliation rally was called by the country's most. prominent muslim group activists claim the government is running out of time to regain the renault which was taken over by islamist groups. fears wildfires are on the the cannery islands of tenerife. have forced the evacuation of more than four thousand people the fine is

a three doing some of spain's most popular parts including one that is a unesco world heritage site then by fears winds and high temperatures the blazes have destroyed hundreds hundreds of hector's of land spain has already suffered a number of forest fires in several regions this year. the international think here to contract out formally known as blackwater has agreed to cough up seven and a half million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution if they seventeen counts relating to on smuggling and equal weapons possession back to the us justice department if that prosecution if the firm which is now called academia 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 u.s. and iraq five blackwater stuff opened fire on unarmed civilians killing seventeen in baghdad five years ago scott houghton from hop of magazine says the contractor

will be delighted with the deal which underlines how close it is so the you with authority. the amount that's being paid is a real pit this is it as these things go generally this is an absolutely tiny sum on the other hand we've got to say 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 who are these going 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 flak whether 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. now the u.s. might be trying hard to make life worse for iranians imposing sanctions on the country's vital oil industry and its banking sector and what america's also banned high tech product exports to iran they still find their way as artie's their first reports of there's even a store selling apples the latest gadgets in the capital for those wanting to enjoy the i. i pads i phones i pods apple's cool overall 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 abandoned the functions that had been in place the year but it seems the text of the iranians are managing to outsmart this u.s. embargo and 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. 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 so you can save us 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. sanctions have not had the outcome because if they have if you were going to hear a new sanctions being announced by the u.s. congress or. western powers the fact that they're coming over. every other day in the case on the door thanks i was very much good work and in fact many critics of the sanctions feel that far from the achieving anything banning these products mbogo 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 kind tell the world a favor so. shortly we hear from one expert who says foreign nations sending weapons into the syrian conflict will only prolong the crisis but birth i'll be back with the headlines today with.

the muslim. poll started here. before going global and now it's only viral.

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