syrian rebels say they are responsible for a march blast that went all close to a hotel where the u.n. observer mission is staying we bring you a special report from our correspondent who witnessed the blots. put orgy bokes rumors that it's already granted asylum to julian a song with the decision that will end the whistleblowers two months quest for refuge now expected later this week. and no end in sight as explosions rocked afghanistan right after the deadliest day this year saw almost fifty people killed while another scandal players up for u.s. presence in the country.

hello and welcome to our team this wednesday i am karen taraji broadcasting to you live from the heart of moscow well the main syrian rebel groups say they're behind a powerful blast that ripped through central damascus the opposition claims the attack targeted a nearby military compound explosions struck just outside a hotel being used by the u.n. observers mission and an r t crew our correspondent oksana boyko witnessed the attack and was among the first to report from the scene. i disappeared relatively calm over the past few days because you can see this cow was very deceptive and very sharply explosion took place around eight in the morning just on meters from the hotel where un observers us thing right in the center of damascus close to al malky area it was a very loud bang that was followed by a series of smaller explosions that sounded like a chain detonation of ammunition the blast itself took place at

a closed army garage adjacent to the hotel it appears that the device was planted on the fuel tanker parked there it is still unclear whether it was an inside job or how the perpetrators managed to get access to this heavily guarded facility three people are believed to have been injured in the blast none of them works for the u.n. meanwhile syria's deputy foreign minister who rushed to the scene suggested that the choice of venue for the attack indicates that it was targeting the u.n. observers the mere choice of this i mean a place for a mix of pros and indicates the intentions of those who are behind this is terrorism attribute stop the international community must work hand in hand against terrorism one supports here near the united nations observers everywhere they had a view of the mission in syria didn't talk to reporters today though he did appear

in front of the cameras his missions mandate expires in four days and it is still unclear whether it's going to be extended the last time he spoke to the media he was very skeptical and has meant of the situation on the ground because clearly the violence is increasing in many parts of syria. discriminates every weapons by the government and attacks by the opposition in centers are inflicting. a heavy toll on innocent civilians he also said that despite all the dangers involved u.n. observers will continue with efforts of documenting violence in syria till the last minute and now it seems they don't even need to leave their hotel rooms to do that kind of artsy reporting from damascus in syria earlier i spoke to independent journalist james corba who's written extensively on the syrian conflict he believes

rebels are unlikely to draw condemnation from some foreign countries for the latest attack in damascus we've seen previous terror bombings taking place in damascus and not only has the governments of the western countries that have been backing them refused to remove that backing they've actually strenuously supported those terrorist bombings here too it doesn't seem to follow any rules of logic here and i don't think that this is going to find that the kind of kind of widespread condemnation that we would expect for a terrorist blast like this you know rebel friendly washington has set or arms a backing of the syrian regime is more dangerous than they are filtration of al qaeda fighters within the opposition what's your take on that that has to take the cake is one of the most hypocritical statements in modern political history it's so head scratching and so bizarre that one can't help but laugh at the hypocrisy obviously people now i don't know what i mean it's now openly admitted that obama

signed orders for the cia to open we cooperate with the so-called free syrian army several months ago we know now that that's the free syrian army is training at a u.s. air base in turkey we know that the u.s. state department has been openly funding this syrian opposition since two thousand and six so for them to come in and say that iran should stop funding me out of the syrian government and helping support that is just such a bizarre such a hypocritical statement that no one i think will take it seriously but it will i'm sure generate many headlines. international press freedom group reporters without borders have war in the syrian opposition over the growing number of attacks against journalists in an open letter the organization said government reporters having creasing only become targets of abduction and murder while foreign media have also received death threats from rebels artists are silly i'm a journalist who have lost colleagues and the crisis gripped country. january

eleventh two thousand and twelve the first western journalist was killed in homs frenchmen. well the initial reaction from france and many french journalists were that of anger and condemnation over here in france elevation to speak to jackie's colleague who was with him in syria when he was killed. christopher can't show does with just used to be now there's only a black and white picture of. the hope and he was a great friend he was always smiling he was hard be always wanted to go places always curious he loved his job he was also someone who was very friendly who would go filming we were happy to do together because we would be able to meet you would be when we do syria we have this need in his body to tell what's happening on the other side of the world with his camera with my camera because we were always together i lost a friend christophe says his initial thoughts were that the syrian government was behind the attack her lover was the week after death

a journalist from this newspaper published an article stating the possibility that he might have been killed by fire from the opposition clearly information that went against the dominant narrative in the media but he did find that he wasn't alone in coming to that conclusion i made by mistake by random french intelligence guy. i don't understand why your report didn't pick up. the news that there are because it was our conclusion intelligence services and friends good reject him. that you was killed by mortar eighty one millimeters coming shooting from the rubble by mistake i published your story it was denied of course by minister of the fans ministry of foreign affairs of the because it's not really politically correct medical correctness that's playing into what is increasingly become an information war as much as it is a civil war where the villain is usually the heavy handed regime and the rebels are

shown as advocates of freedom and democracy but the reality is not so clear cut alex thomson chief correspondent for britain's channel four news wrote how he believed he was led into a death trap by the syrian rebels are quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the syrian army and in a lie phone interview he told r.t. my point is. about the democracy we don't know very clever to work out that the baby. are going to be calling again and. so the motivation for the battle of the mind that is. very old there's a nasty war where truth is a small victim as those who've lost their lives what. for me it's most important to know who did work so you know when this becomes clear that we can go on with our lives but now we are still mourning we don't believe every day there's

a will every day for you yes or so yards paris. and just to remind you are to screw in syria are posting constant updates about the situation there via twitter you can log on to check out analysis and discussion about developments in a conflict torn country several images from the scene of the attack are also available online. thanks for joining our team now the fate of the world's most famous whistleblower to win a song remains unclear despite some sources in ecuador saying here's a solemn as a done deal the president of the south american country personally denied the rumors saying he's still awaiting report from the foreign ministry to make that decision. has been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for almost two

months now he took refuge there seeking to avoid his extradition to sweden where he is wanted for questioning in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct his supporters believe that from stockholm he might be handed over to the u.s. where they claim he's already been secretly indicted laura smith is in london and has more on a song plight. lying about. requests by. unnamed officials at the presidential administration saying the wiki leaks founder would be granted refuge but when we put in our own calls to the presidential administration they did night there had been a decision at all and what we do know is to expect a decision this week president rafael correia said on state television at the beginning of the week that he would be consulting with advice on wednesday and

hopes to make an announcement by the end of the week we also know that in theory he and his foreign minister all amenable to the idea of granting asylum they see it as a humanitarian act and protecting his right to life and freedom what remains for me one of the most interesting things about this whole situation is how. this country even in fact does grant him asylum he's still liable to arrest the moment he steps outside the embassy the breaching. his bail conditions and there's still a cool in place allowing his actually dish and we did none of that would change with the grown thing of asylum he'd need safe passage from the british government and there's no guarantee or even any indication that that might happen. a long running saga surrounding julian assange has certainly never latch plot twists archies christine frizzle looks back at how the whistleblower went from being

hailed a hero to being condemned an alleged criminal. we first met julian assange on here in washington in two thousand and ten where he unveiled the collateral murder video at the national press club. it showed it to u.s. army pilots treating war like a video game killing countless civilians in the process including two journalists a songe appeared in our studios later that night to talk more about wiki leaks and what he hopes to achieve with his website the first step in the fourth state is to get information out about the real world and the second step is to comment on it and to think about it but sources can't get this through to be rationed out to the public in the weeks following a song and wiki leaks were everywhere with the leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks but it wasn't long before publications that originally partnered

with wiki leaks like the guardian der spiegel and the new york times turned against a song as did many others who said he should be killed to get hurt for the american people the way to deal with and they were in the end the nashik your united states the way to deal with this is pretty simple we got special ops forces i mean the dead man can't leaks that this guy is a traitor a treasonous and he has broken every law the united states he was then accused of sexual assault by two women in sweden a sign says the sex was consensual and denies any wrongdoing the founder of wiki leaks arrested by british police this morning after turning himself in he's now facing rape charges in sweden a british judge has granted wiki leaks founder julian assange bail julia saunders appealing against an order to extradite him to sweden he spent much of the last two years on house arrest in london julian assange also had a show on. the can change the world tomorrow where he

interviewed hezbollah leaders saeed has on those rollo come as well as ecuadorian president roughly. dorrian people think about the united states and its involvement in latin america in ecuador and it would be president rafael correa that would give joy a songe the green light to make ecuador his new home has been living in the ecuadorian embassy in london since june nineteenth since the president said he would make his announcement after the olympic games president correa said if he does grant a songe political asylum it would be an informed decision and one made in the name of human rights in washington christine for south r.t. and we will be following us on just quest for asylum and updating you on all the latest developments over the next few days right here on our also if you missed any of the world famous whistleblowers interview series for r.t. you can catch them all online at a solid starting dot com. there hasn't been

a thing yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact on. the source material is what helps journalism on the we. we want to present. something real. pretty free. free. free free. free. free. free volunteer video for your media project free media party dot com.

which brightened a few songs from feinstein. starts on t.v. don't come. here with our tea and we turn our attention to afghanistan where there have been fresh violence and clashes or at least fourteen people have been injured after an explosion rocked a market and the country's northwest another attack took place in a mosque in eastern afghanistan during morning prayers injuring nine people it comes after the deadliest day this year with almost fifty people killed in a series of bombings across the country more than one hundred were injured in the

three separate attacks the surge in violence comes as u.s. troops gradually hand responsibility to ask on security forces that's another scandal concerning the american mission in the country. archie is going to church again has more on that. here u.s. military officers blow the whistle on horrific conditions of the national military hospital wing tabel they revealed photographs from twenty ten some graphic images showing severely neglected starving patients at the hospital which the u.s. military sponsors and helps oversee witnesses describe the conditions there as quote unquote auschwitz like lacking basic necessities like consult the hospital treats afghan military personnel but the mentors are mostly americans one of the whistleblowers colonel mark fassel served as inspector general for the nato training mission in afghanistan he says the mission's top commander general william

caldwell tried to stall the requested investigation into reported abuse and mismanagement at the hospital his first response to me was how could we do this or make this request. with election coming and then he made the really again shocking come and he calls me bill what does that mean well i took it. for him to the president stage moreover a general called command apparently ordered to destroy any photos and videos from the hospital here's the memo that they issued in september last year it says quote on a social personal photos or video or audio recordings of patients or health care events which already exist will be destroyed or deleted end of quote so apparently they wanted these shots this story or delete it while putting forward. positive images like this one positive clips like this one but here at the national military

hospital in kabul doctors nurses and technicians are working with u.s. military advisors last year the commission on the wartime contracting estimated that the u.s. lost up to sixty billion dollars to waste and fraud in iraq and afghanistan they call the estimate conservative but in the case of this military hospital in afghanistan it's not just about money pocketed by some incompetent contractors or corrupt local officials but also about apparent attempts to hush down human suffering and possibly cover up abuse to present a training mission in afghanistan as a success story i'm going to shut down. time now to take a look at other news from around the world this hour at least eleven people have been arrested involved during anti-government protests several demonstrations were engineers. and tear gas to break up the valley the latest protest after a court played its protect twenty opposition figures allegedly plotted to overthrow

the ruling family forty one years ago today gained independence from britain after leaders signed a friendship treaty. egyptian president mohamed morsi has appointed a new defense minister un chief of staff the move comes just days after he forced the nation's previous top two commanders to retirement morsi has been any power struggle with the military since he took office in june the previous hora gyptian presidents have come from the military and directly allowing it to rule the country for the last six decades it's. house trillions hollis court has blocked the extradition of former hungary and soldier charles zentai is accused of torturing and killing a jewish teenager in one nine hundred forty four during world war two the court sided with the previous federal decision to stop the extradition saying war crime

charges didn't exist at the time of the killing zentai says he's innocent and has been fighting extradition for nearly a decade. we're joined now by dimitri from the business desk so the market is still struggling for direction today that is true we've got mixed coming out of the united states and therefore it's moving a bit in the course of surgery a bit but it's pretty flat let's just take a look at me illustrate with figures the dow jones this is up by i'm not sure that is that is looking better point four percent it's all in the amazon and shares but overall we've had we've had manufacturing. it's a coming in quite a week but on the other had the national association of homebuilders as its index is at the highest level over the past five years so this mixed feeling is based on that the footsie and the dax are still looking negative this hour within half a percent interesting stocks there include british american tobacco it's one of the

biggest losers down one point eight percent and the best performing stock is standard chartered to suffer more than four percent let's go through these stories one by one global tobacco giants have failed to u.-turn an australian anti tobacco law now this means that from december the first also grads must be sold in plain green packets in the country without any branding the a.t.m. philip morris claimed the new rules break their intellectual property rights britain no way in new zealand what's in this case considering similar measures to help fight. pass for standard chartered it has admitted to breaking u.s. sanctions against iran the british lender has agreed to one three hundred forty million dollars settlement with the new york watchdog that accused of hiding operations with the islamic republic and threatened to take its u.s. banking license however the bank says the amount of illegal transactions totaled only fourteen million as opposed to two hundred forty billion and also bank has become another european lender to stop speculate of trading in food commodities

that's up to corn and soybean prices surged all time highs in the u.s. drought the decision is a stand against critics who blame speculators for expenses. moving over to currencies down the euro continues losing versus the greenback but as i was saying earlier on this is pretty normal game given that it's been gaining the past two sessions and the past few weeks this is a stable level we're seeing from one twenty two to one twenty four between the pair and the russian ruble is in line with that trend russian markets are closed in the negative territory that's after. two sessions of gains in the beginning monday and tuesday with my six losing one percent now let's move over to what was moving the my sex and we've got diamond giant al rosso reporting foreign sales go up some free percent but that was not enough to hold it against the fooling with the market airflow it was down zero point six percent also

a bit better than the market one of his shareholders is considering selling its stake to the government through the state rather with a discount and t.m. cable pipe maker is up in the end of the session just point one percent. in commodities light sweets and brands have now moved over to the positive territory this is on concerns of reducing supplies in the united states. rajendra motors is facing a three billion dollar lawsuit over interfering into a possible sale of sap now the u.s. car giant is accused of deliberately bankrupting the swedish auto maker instead of maybe selling it to russian and chinese investors marina portnoy reports. defunct car maker sob automotive may be running on empty but the saga surrounding its bankruptcy is only accelerating now the swedish company filed for chapter eleven back in december after takeover talks with chinese and russian investors

failed u.s. auto giant general motors which owned part of saab was reportedly against chinese carmakers assessing saabs technology licenses now if they're war if there was a successful deal made that would have purportedly provided saab with the nuff capital to stay alive while also saving some three thousand jobs in sweden according to experts g.m. would have also profit now spyker cars which currently owns saab is accusing g.m. of intentionally driving saab out of business by railing takeover talks with chinese investors spiker leverage those charges in a billion dollar lawsuit recently filed against g.m. meanwhile some experts are questioning if g.m.

was simply using saab as a pawn in a hidden economic conflict or divide between the east and west and if that is true could that be a developing trend in practices within the global economy that question and many others may likely be raised when spiker cars and g.m. face off in court all right karen i will be back in fifty five minutes so i wish you a pleasant evening thank you very much. coming up in a few moments calls top tackles the issue of drones on the one hand safe and cheap and on the other immoral inhuman and legal after the headlines shortly.

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

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