the stories that shape this week western nations are inching closer to military intervention in the syrian conflict with plans to set up a no fly zone and threats to authorize a strike on the country. the region must get under the plane because declared sane and get twenty one years in jail islam agenda serves as an inspiration for even more radical groups. a scandal unites muslims and jews a man go after a german rabbi was charged for performing a circumcision despite a recent controversial call ban on the practice. of britain withdraws its right to go into the ecuadorian embassy and arrest in the song by force after block of south and north american nation side with tito in the diplomatic rather.

than a back of the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on r.t. foreign powers came a step closer this week to engaging in syria's internal conflict as the u.s. and its allies dished out fresh threats france suggested that western nations could consider setting up a no fly zone over the stricken country without a u.n. security council mandate a little earlier president obama for the first time said he could authorize military action on the syrian territory report more reports from new york. as the violence in syria continues increasing western countries may be inching closer and closer towards military intervention this past week the us britain and france all separately signaled when or why they would take direct action u.s. president barack obama said that washington would intervene if the syrian

government deployed chemical or biological weapons against civilians britain echoed america's sentiments while france called for the consideration of a partial no fly zone to be imposed over syria's airspace and that is a suggestion that u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton previously made now the syrian deputy prime minister who was visiting moscow this week for talks has accused western countries of reaching for any reason that would lead to direct intervention he also said that president obama's threats are linked directly to the u.s. elections damascus also drew parallels between western focus on syria's chemical weapons and the invasion of iraq where the existence of suspected chemical weapons were never confirmed now this uptick uptick in talk and threats

over military intervention into syria comes as the u.n. security council is scheduled to have a ministerial meeting on syria on aug thirtieth that meeting was called for and will be chaired by france reporting from new york marina r.t. . syrian opposition activists have accused troops of slaughtering two hundred civilians in a new damascus reported difficult to verify but the government says it's carried out an operation in the area the rebels claim is that the latest in a series of previous similar accusations but just as international power was rebuffed the next move on syria took to give in burn time i spoke to a little earlier here not to use a specialist in the affected region told me that he believes the timing is no coincidence. but once again as with the houla massacre we have a very interesting set of circumstances where right before it's un mysterious meeting coming up on august thirtieth we have a big orchestrated p.r.

event designed to smear the government in damascus and the west into intervening in syria and i'm very suspicious i was asked about this shortly after the houla massacre and i said we need to wait and see what really happened and there are some indications that much and perhaps most of the killing in the whole atmosphere was actually perpetrated by the rebel forces and the same thing might be true this time the so-called no fly zone of course what that really is is it's just a euphemism for an aerial attack on the country and again i'm told that if western countries do try to take over syrian airspace he may very well be shot out of the skies and so i certainly hope they don't try because this is bringing the world to the brink of a very dangerous confrontation. over twelve thousand christians are trapped in a syrian village near the lebanese border besieged by rebels the two week blockade is called shortages of food medicine and other crucial supplies but people can't leave the area due to the threat posed by rebel snipers meanwhile across the border

in lebanon the situation remains fragile following a spike in syria related sectarian violence at least fifteen people have been killed and more than one hundred injured in clashes between pro government troops deployed to stop the trouble based political analyst dr franklin lamb says there is a growing dread among lebanese as the violence spillover continues. the concierge of my building who is syrian sometimes hides in my apartment they've been rounded up syrian national council here in beirut in south beirut even going to great deal of fear our people are saying not since the civil war how things is so likely to ignite or the people are feeling so insecure as you know the two neighborhoods in tripoli both for the the. alleyways and the. bonnet section right down the middle ironically is the name of

a big street pole syria street and that really tells the tale up there but we have seen in beirut and other parts of the country a similar division things are very much on the. wall still ahead for you here in r.t. in the weekly libya marks one year since the fall of tripoli but the celebration is anything but joyous as continued trouble than it's threatens to send the country into chaos. last resentment on the rise in pakistan as the u.s. continues to blur the lines when it comes to it that the transfer. stories started coming first this week of the case of a norwegian mass murderer and as brave it reached its conclusion breivik admitted killing seventy seven people was declared sane by judges he. jail for a maximum of twenty one years for his bombing and gun rampage in oslo. and last year he smoked twenty heard the verdict which he says will not appeal during his

final statement he apologized for not killing even more people has always insisted on his sanity and that the killings were part of his fight against the islamification of norway and you countries were suffering a rise in far right activities before the tragedy but as reports graphics ideas of fueling even more hatred towards immigrants. there's no doubt about his guilt for right militant unders brave massacre seventy seven people in norway thirteen months ago to show his rejection of government policies and immigrants and islam all this case once again highlighted europe's deepening divide over immigration had integration and the subsequent radicalization of ideas . last week a twenty nine year old suspected brave except authorities are was charged in the czech republic officers found weapons and police uniforms in this flat and they believe he was planning a brave slaughter. while in norway police are investigating

a threatening e-mail sent to newspapers and politicians from a person who claims to be brave and in command i would my soldiers to give all due respect to our people our culture and our ethnicity and warn all advocates of multiculturalism they get is this war we are now so deeply in physical violence is . a line that we draw very clearly now multiculturalism in the sense that everybody could keep this culture well this idea which has been the official idea for over for the last twenty years this idea is over there is a leading culture of european values and european culture such far right fire has gained traction in europe but it's also angered racism groups and proponents of the left there are some resorting to very public displays of opposition. while there's an increasingly vocal washer of ideologies and a rise in political extremes one step up the fringes countries are increasingly

criticised for failing to properly engage people on what's needed so what the problem out and so my social tensions are testing the limits of tolerance. yet despite the obvious threat of a deepening standoff between europeans and immigrants others say europe's tendency to walk on eggshells in the name of political correctness makes any real and honest debate all but impossible when you have the riots. we didn't cation of you missed and everyone tried to find some excuse. but condition of life and if we don't send a clear message to everyone far right. muslim. it's become impossible to understand the police and others brave extra we may have reached a clue. zhen but europe still nowhere near to ending at all to whether that cycle

of fear and hatred. tests are still the r t brussels. and the growing talk of a crisis of tolerance in europe another scandal flares up in germany after a rabbi was charged for performing a circumcision that's after a regional court in cologne banned religious circumcisions under a new law it caused outrage among jews and muslims worldwide accusing the authorities of infringing on religious freedom. spent says the issue could be exploited by radical movements there's no question that this issue is of the piece with the minarets right through and in switzerland with the burka question in france with the ritual slaughter question in holland the thing that is particularly striking about this issue is that from the perspective of those who do not actually ones for are uncomfortable with visible minorities in their presence this is a fabulous issue because one cloaks the criticisms and the undermining

of religious freedoms in protecting the rights of infants and so this is a noble position which is a much harder position to say cow when one speaks about workers or minarets of ritual slaughter and so this really to a great extent i believe is the issue goes people in western societies who are going to try and push back against genuine tolerance are going to use it's a very convenient issue for them it also unites almost all jews and almost all muslims so it's killing a number of birds with one stone in a very pretty stunning that. the diplomatic spat between britain and ecuador over julian the signs as asylum has eased as london retracted its threat to storm the south american countries embassy in order to arrest the whistleblower. came just a day after a thirty four member bloc of american nations sided with ecuador in the room stressing the sanctity of diplomatic promise premises it means that holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for more than two months is safe at least until he steps out of the building the president of ecuador says the two countries are ready

to return to dialogue over the future and nora smith brings us now the details of the meeting that prompted the break in the standoff. it was a meeting that lasted five hours but eventually ecuador got what it wanted out of the meeting essentially the foreign minister made a speech in which he condemned britain for what he called an assault on your sovereignty and eventually what happened was that these thirty four countries signed this resolution which rejects any attempts to put at risk the inviolability of diplomatic premises anywhere in the world and and expressed solidarity and support for ecuador in their offering of asylum to julian our sons but also to continue talks between ecuador and britain to try and sort out their diplomatic problems the usa and canada are members of this organization and they were very much against this meeting from the very beginning and they all say their expressed reservations about the resolution that was passed in the end but it goes to show

that particularly in its own region ecuador is not acting alone and it's now got huge international backing across the americas but we've seen no movement in britain stance so far they still remain committed to arresting julian assange to fulfilling this court order which says that he must be extradited to sweden whatever happens and in fact we've seen further proof in recent days that britain is not going to abandon its plans to arrest him we had a policeman photographed outside the ecuadorian embassy one of the many policemen who is guarding the embassy twenty four seven holding this piece of paper a piece of restricted information that says that doing this on should be arrested essentially at all costs whatever it takes even if he emerges in some way in a diplomatic car even if as some have posited here merges in some kind of diplomatic create or that is not going to put the british police off arresting him really very intent on arresting him and fulfilling this court order so that it's

a position that hasn't changed in the last few days and i see no reason that it will change as a as a direct result of this but as i said the international pressure is growing meanwhile of course still in the ecuadorian embassy in london still very unclear how he will get out. commenting on the increased support for ecuador attorney and r.t. spanish host eva golinger says only continued international pressure could force the u.k. to let go and the pressure is very important to continue trying to sort out whittle away. position and it's stubbornness that england is in this specific case and i wanted to show each time that these types of meetings take place and the resolutions happen and we see the u.s. position in particular is showing that the united states government is behind all of this and is behind the persecution of the sides and so it's really important that comes out and people understand that governments understand that and that

eventually hopefully the british government will back down to wait and see. all the twists and turns in june and the sounders long running saga as well as expert opinion and analysis always available on our website for you and if you've missed our exclusive interview with the ecuadorian president it's also there at r.t. dot com. as iran faces growing pressure from the west regarding its nuclear program there's also a significant display of solidarity towards the islamic state that it gets from over one hundred nations which don't consider themselves allied to any power block authority convening into iran for a high profile summit research director of the national iranian american council in washington reason why she says the gathering shows iran is not as isolated as us wants the rest of the world to believe. there are one hundred ninety three members

of the united nations general assembly and about one hundred twenty of them are going to be in teheran with some kind of diplomatic representation. because that's how many members there are of the nonaligned movement so you know it's a great talking point to say that iran's international isolation will continue but if you look at the totality of the world a large body of countries maybe don't agree entirely with what the united states led sanctions are doing and what they're seeking to accomplish. the summit takes place just a few days after the u.n. atomic watchdog declared that recent talks with iran had failed israel claim that iran is speeding up its work on a nuclear bomb while the islamic state insists it's only pursuing peaceful energy some experts believe the west's rejection of iran's right to atomic energy could backfire. but there's no doubt that iran has quite a bit of support among the nonaligned movement you know among those countries that are the nuclear have nots if you will. they do in fact have

a lot of support for the point of view which the spa was which is that they have a right to enrich uranium the western powers are essentially taking trying to take that away from them for political purposes essentially using a double standard or even worse. remember you can find all the latest stories comments videos on our website. here's some of what you may like while you're there clothes don't make the day find out what a time to avoid when trying to board a passenger plane in the u.s. . the thing you want to spend a weekend with you'll. pick your brains no more get your pulse racing by walking the trail of the dead. and his big. face captured the hearts of locals where this baby seal is taking up home on a russian beach head online for more pictures that you.

have to know the song and. we will remember that we will.

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we can continue here on r t twenty minutes past the hour on the threshold of the first anniversary of the fall of tripoli libya seems to be marking the event with violence and chaos and the latest in a series of recent attacks and so laffey islamists were blamed for blowing up and bulldozing a fifteenth century sentry sectarian tensions in the b. average new levels after severe religious sites were destroyed by fits and government security forces this against a background of ethnic clashes which have spiraled since colonel gaddafi was asked and most recently at least twelve people were killed and dozens injured after the fighting parties used heavy weaponry including anti-aircraft guns political analysts a consultant peter libya will only descend deeper into chaos. libya is following the same trend as all the other countries where there was a force regime we have the same scenario in iraq we have the same situation in

afghanistan we've got the situation in libya which was again a force regime and as you would expect there will be breakaway groups because at the end of the day although gadhafi was a fraudster in many ways brought back from the gold it was into great prosperity and the wrong government got in and so the military is still trying to call that the stream and of course that's failing very fast and i think we will see a natural rebellion that occurs like it's ongoing in iraq like is ongoing in syria only egypt. top dead you are more world news in brief as these thirty six people have died after a fuel tank on a passenger bus collided in northern china before catching fire three survivors were taken to hospital with severe injuries the latest wreck follows a series of road accidents in the country with the death toll of more than seventy thousand last year alone. but as well as president hugo chavez has declared three

days of mourning after at least thirty nine people were killed following an explosion at the country's biggest oil refinery the government run plant was rocked by a blast caused by a gas leak nearby buildings were also damaged by the explosive impact the accident is the worst to ever hit the south american nations on three. was. the first man to walk on the moon and one of america's greatest heroes nearly armstrong has passed away at the age of eighty two his condition deteriorated after complications caused by recent heart surgery a billion people had their eyes fixed to the t.v. as the former apollo eleven mission commander stepped onto the lunar surface back in july sixteenth. pakistan is investigating a u.s. drone strike that reportedly killed but rude and carney a leader of the haqqani terror group the taliban claims he's still alive u.s.

led attacks have long been a source of contention among pakistanis and us and explains it's episodes like this the fuel insurgency. the u.s. prides itself on the rule of law but on a number of issues the line between what's legal and what's not has kind of blurred in the last decade or so is wiretapping legal no but in the name of national security yes there are attempts right now in congress to legalize big brother on the web by making it legal for providers to funnel all private correspondence to national security agencies the law in the u.s. protects free speech but never before has there been such a hunt for whistleblowers that's in america but as far as u.s. actions the broad of what's legal and what's not even murkier washington has expanded its target assassinations program in different countries essentially putting itself above the law now i'm joined by john feffer author and co-director of the institute for policy studies he has an interesting theory of u.s.

foreign policy he compares it to dexter the t.v. show dexter is a fictional character who is a good citizen by day and a serial killer by night but he only kills bad guys for what's so wrong about being dexter i mean everyone loves dexter it's a very popular t.v. show here in the united states and all across the world but difficult moral questions because of course dexter is judge jury and executioner and sometimes he makes mistakes and the united states too is in a similar position united states often says it only kills the bad guys with some of the. other figures that have been attacked by drones over the last few years but the united states also makes mistakes there have been any number of civilian casualties associated with these drone strikes so in some sense they're in a similar moral quandary dexter and the u.s. government as you said you know there's administration has expanded its drone

program dramatically and the strikes in pakistan yemen and other places they end up killing many civilians we're talking about extra judicial killings and. here's a question that pops up. you know when when someone does something outside the law they're usually afraid of getting caught but in the case of the us who is the police to catch them there is no police is there well there isn't any police of course there are international laws and there have been a number of reports on the implications of international law on the drone attacks and the un for instance rup or tour has condemned drone attacks as being illegal but i think the chief concern here for the united states in terms of getting caught is being caught by blowback in other words by the consequences of these drone attacks and those i think are significant because of course we've seen people here in the united states who have cited these drone attacks as the reasons for their terrorist activities for instance so i think it's blowback which really represents

the casualty or shall we say the consequences that are most direct the drone program. you've been watching the weekly. very shortly coming up we brief face to face with the devil in a documentary about america's religious pursuit of eco warriors we offer a summary of all my new stories about no.

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