today's news on the week's top stories in israel suggest it was behind this week's . attempts to mediate peace in a meeting with the syrian opposition. and the claims french troops will stay as long as necessary to root out the insurgency that's amid mounting accusations of war crimes but. there's no sign of compromise looming between the government and the opposition in egypt where protests demanding the resignation of the president turn violent and rage on for another week. you know back in the past seven days top stories in the latest developments this is

the weekly on. the syrian president bashar assad says his army is able to confront any aggression aimed against his nation he also says israel is trying to destabilize the country and softer comments made by the israeli defense minister ehud barak today hinting for the first time that his forces were behind this week's attack on his neighbor. has the details. that does come from the israeli defense minister. and he has said that it is proof that when israel says something it means that he did stop short of actually a third israel's involvement now u.s. officials have said that the strike targeted an arms convoy that was carrying anti aircraft weapons from syria to lebanon according to the israeli defense minister ehud barak he said that we do not think and i'm quoting that syria should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into labor nominee it is important to make the point that his comments does not constitute acknowledgement of israel's

involvement in the strike but it certainly does suggest the possibility that it took place and it was responsible for it but of course that the syrian president bashar assad's fall is imminent and that it would serve as a major blow to his and you need to look at this israeli strategy and it's a strategy that israel has employed in the past and that is namely a strategy of silence it is strategic it doesn't give any kind of confirmation or any kind of denial what israel has done in the past is launch an attack then leave and it really its response has been a no comment which really leaves the question in opposite of as mines it is a culture lated moves because the silence allows israel's enemies to save face and thus reduce the risk of reprisals and its collation against the jewish state of course the international fallout from any kind of israeli strike in syria would create immense arguments in the international community we've heard for example from moscow who says that if indeed israel did carry out the strike it was an

attack on a sovereign state and as such it breached international law the arab league has also condemned the strike saying it is in violation of international law and it is purported against a nother sovereign state so israel of course will not want to come out publicly and acknowledge that it carried out such a strike because it would not want to have the kind of diplomatic complications and diplomatic fallout that would follow from such an admission. meanwhile hopes of ending the ongoing conflict in syria have received a slight boost on the sidelines of a key security conference in munich russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov held his first direct negotiations with the leader of syria's main opposition group he called on them to be realistic and begin peace talks with president assad while reiterating that any use of fools is unacceptable it is reported its first magazine marcus papadopoulos thinks diplomacy still has a long way to go before any real success can be achieved between the leader of the so planes syrian national coalition and the foreign ministers of russia and

iran is an acknowledgment by the leader of the syrian national coalition that the syrian government it's not going to be defeated on the military battlefield and it is acknowledgement that thousands of syrian civilians have died unnecessarily and all because outside players in the region turkey saudi arabia qatar at being followed and weapons and cash to the militants in syria i think circle lateral the russian foreign minister said last year how surprised he was by the way he did see the form of a syrian opposition in calling perceptual president assad's to go from power to resign to step down except that's not the way diplomacy works that's not the way peace process. hillary clinton about a year ago accused russian government of having blood on its hands oh unfortunately it's more the countries saudi arabia qatar and saudi arabia we have the blood of

thousands upon thousands of syrian civilians on their hands because of their own geo strategic ambitions i.e. to see that removal of presence is sad and the syrian government's. francis military has reportedly carried out major air strikes on the training and logistic centers of islamic insurgents in northeast mali but the ongoing military campaign in the country's been marred by alleged human rights abuses with activists reporting civilian deaths torture and ethnic reprisals by the local army r.t. has an exclusive report now exposing the realities on the ground in some of the most battle scarred areas of the country. these days and i mean in this mop the area we've discovered allegations of war crimes information about them is under the control of mali's military government. i think it's getting more and more this he called to talk to people a lot of. human rights activists who are trying to identify witnesses all saying that people climbing up and feeling the heat they are scared to speak

a lot of people here. very few fool the malian army seems to be doing whatever it can to prevent people from speaking to up a new kind of as they put it this government took advantage of the media's interest in all and for the first time visited the city's worst affected by hostilities today in the town of qana we were surprised by the arrival of mamadou c.v. bear the minister for humanitarian action and solidarity this was an attempt to bring the bomb a call government closer to people who regard the capital as remote from them with this visit in this event staged by politicians coincided with the publication of reports by international organizations such as amnesty international and human rights watch alleging atrocities crimes and violence on both sides for instance in qana several civilians were reportedly killed in french air force shelling of we tried to interview the injured however were unable to obtain evidence in

a community that has until now been strictly regulated by the military authorities and he said. the ministry says an investigation is underway has got so far no evidence has been provided so let the judicial system do its job to list all of these government its people and military are well aware of current events and we know that we cannot play this game with. the government has been attempting to assert political power despite very poor infrastructure today we spoke to an army private on his way back from them he told us he. been paid or even properly for fifteen days and if this war continues there will be a need for justice after a comprehensive internal investigation rather than heartfelt celebrations and demonstrations of power. during his visit to money president forceful and claimed french troops will remain in the west african states until the complete reinstatement of its sovereignty for those man from the independent pan african

research organization says the local government's primary goal is to enrich themselves and their backus what this intervention does is strengthen the arm of a group of junior officers who took control of the state and who are just simply. i mean the reports we get from mali from bamako is holies troops just simply control everything and not interested in any kind of development they're only interested in acquiring wealth for themselves they go in they rock banks complete impunity they control the economy now with complete impunity they are now the sort of. i guess you know the servants now of all of the french in the u.s. but their real agenda has been to to sell of mali to to the french and to the corporations mollies

a place with enormous amount of of all wealth your anian book site gold and so on and there's no doubt that french and canadian and upper interests are clearly interested in occupying that territory. deepening divisions in egypt's society continued to grow this week as an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests failed to silence calls for president morsi to quit some of the latest violence saw one person shot dead and many others injured when security forces tried to disperse angry crowds which had attacked the presidential palace this only worsened the political and social stalemate the opposition yet again refused to join a national dialogue and vowed to step up their protests the president warned of decisive measures indeed in west military currently has increased powers to a recently imposed month lock state of emergency activists yes israel says morsi is repeating the mistakes of his predecessor. this is very unfortunate. he was repeating the mistake over. the mubarak of egypt he is the same guy did i believe

he was a scene people that run the country in the same fashion and that's very unfortunate because the outcome of mubarak was very very clear and i don't think you have a second term to look forward to walk with this guy with this practice continuing on the street and the brutality and the lack of security the unemployment has to meet a new generation of problems really for forcing his agenda on the people. there is nothing changing the reality that people are working and training under mubarak for thirty years they are running from the same books around this table because the only way to know what to do with the top echelon for the police are still there and running the country with the seat that could be learned. dictatorship of mubarak and they don't know how to do it differently you're watching the weekly here not see coming up this hour a final say before going behind bars we don't even realize how much of

a police state the united states has become to the former cia officer turned whistle blower of america's torture program is now serving two and a half years in prison plus. there was a member of the oil family who directly was responsible for my torture she was beating me and she took two to me medical workers in bahrain claim they're constantly targeted by the authorities for treating those hurt in anti government demos those stories and others after the break. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operation.

british. time to let. the. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with. the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser report.

weekly continues here naughty the first man convicted for blowing the whistle on america's prison torture program has begun a prison sentence. who was convicted and convicted of exposing washington secret interrogation tactics in one of his fun interviews before being locked away he told exactly what he thinks he's being punished. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was

not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime and have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is

a very dangerous development so it's a john kerry was sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of state this week well defense chief nominee chuck hagel was grilled by the senate kerry to go to from hillary clinton and many analysts believe he is likely to be very old school in his approach. you know there may be some changes in style and tone but there won't be a change in substance between kerry and clinton any more frankly than there was between kind of the so right is that we had already clinton in the last twenty years even in the last since bush and obama what is really change trey's first strike wars in afghanistan and now and then then pakistan and now they're positioning so-called missiles defense which is essentially a first strike weapon targeted assassinations intensified under obama and his assertion of his right to order that shelling of american citizens anywhere in the world is kerry going to stand up an international forums and say no that's wrong we

can't do that i don't think so neither did hillary clinton hundreds of greek protest as clashed with police on wednesday off to storming the building of the labor minister's office and activists were demonstrating against reforms to pay and pensions part of the latest spending cuts announced by the government around thirty people were arrested following the protest george country got it says the authorities response was part of a new approach to the strikes which have crippled the country. the government has decided to follow up all the c. of zero dollar us as its ace idea is that there is distance to their stated measures so we have steam the government to take the medicine measures that they are opposed to do so another against the very sentence that makes it now we have seen all of their lives very violently against a generally peaceful and calm demonstration where only seem the last three or four

weeks a campaign of for propaganda try to convince us that now the worst is become best there is i don't believe that this is true is exactly because we are following this same set of policies of asperity measures that for three years has condemned greece to us five of slow death that this recession of the economy went like seal of the economy unfair social measures but when i see some of the population and also look at that distrust of rights i think that as far as what we are following this set of policies this will call for us bulk area may be about to pull the plug on the construction of a new nuclear power plant which is being financed by russia that's despite a national referendum voting in favor of the project last weekend the result was an old due to a low turnout the country's ruling party is now expected to use its majority in parliament to believe the power plant to the high costs and some experts believe

it's the result of pressure from gary's allies who are concerned the country could become dependent on russia local m.p. lumen of charge of says that the government went out of its way to discourage people from supporting the project. you have to take into account that we are using clear nuclear power or for approximately forty years and that's the to preserve so for every person in the country all for that so where do sing very safe and third. reliable nuclear power plants in this situation will go to heaven beaulieu and so on are usually supporting nuclear power just. lorries. approximately twenty percent just because of the efforts of the. majority but they have created special means special commissions in the parliament just so do i just thought that as the people not to vote not to support the new purple one but even

in these conditions bulgarian favored. child abuse scandals and alleged cases of sexual harassment have dealt a serious blow to the reputation of the german catholic church and has resulted in more and more worship is turning their backs on it you may find some of the details in piece or all of his report on that lack of faith disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in nine hundred seventy nine i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol. he asked me what i thought of his penis which was a wrecked then the priest made me perform oral sex on him. the catholic church in germany is facing a crisis attendances dropped significantly over the past few years according to the

central committee of german catholics one hundred eighty thousand parishioners stopped going to mass in twenty ten alone many citing church hierarchy unwillingness to do enough about claims of abuse like the ones made by wilfred the priest at the center of this particular scandal is now being moved to a different parish while this church where its alleged abuses took place remains closed to worshippers but just how difficult is it to bring a criminal prosecution in cases like this if those people go to court no it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the richness is sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get to have a trial usually fail christine pfeiffer had been in charge of an extensive study into abuse in the german catholic church dating back as far as nineteen forty five his research claims that the church destroyed files on priests involved in abuse up

to ten years also the twelve hundred victims were paid hush money not to reveal what happened to them he was dismissed after a dispute with a senior cleric over what information would be made public the scandal that this research is no not going to be finished. it's causing problems to them as well now they are losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency if lapsed catholics are to be brought back to the flock a woman. thing and when we do not make things clear there will always be an aftertaste that something is being covered up this will harm attempts to get people into church because it is a bad foundation for trust and all belief is based on trust. for wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot in

a church again he's committed to getting compensation for himself and those others who claim they were abused by people who were supposed to be in a position of responsibility peter all over r.t. germany. while reportedly being held hostage for eight months by russian mafia and irish real estate tycoon claims he was given a punishment he'd never forget find out what was carved into the man's forehead on a website. the moment the russian football premier league's dark horse and squad was once said to be the third most expensive transfer in the country's history discover who set to join samuel eto and friends at the dagestan club on r.t. dot com. medical workers in bahrain said that being targeted by the authorities vote treating injured protesters doctors say the retribution has been severe on the government insists is now investigating the allegations. he

looks at those at risk for trying to help not a dive was among a group of doctors who were trying to help the injured during a protest in bahrain she claims that after violently crushing the dissent the or forty's turned their attention to her and her colleagues who were providing first a they deny. health care to the patients and protesters. the doctors did not obey the orders for such. decided to punish those doctors i was taken to a place for ten days that i didn't know where it was. all that time i was blindfolded and handcuffed i was in a solitary confinement for back to twenty one days. and they would just open the door of the cell and beat me up and there was a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my torture she she was

beating me and she took to q. to me almost two dozen doctors were arrested back then this for the fuel the anger of the protesters and turned the hospital grounds into the scene of the rally the sound money hospital is bahrain's leading medical institution and that's where most of the arrests have been made after those events it now looks like a fortress guarded heavily by the right police and not everybody can get in human rights activists say if you had suffered for speaking out against the regime and decided to come here for treatment you could make matters even worse for yourself anyone who was injured from the protests they cannot go to the hospital because they would be arrested in three gaited beaten and taken to the jail last year many protester and in jail were tortured in certain money we have a story and the similar people and protest are being tortured and the jail but in my country protester were tortured and so. britain not who was charged with treason

and sentenced to fifteen years in prison before being acquitted because of what she believed to be international pressure on bahrain's government the fate of many other doctors remains unclear the person who allegedly tortured not and others princes. has been officially charged by police she denies all allegations against her meanwhile the guy. woman stands resumed the action to convince the hospital was the right thing to do. these doctors managed to control the emergency unit in the first floor of the hospital and started to perform political acts when a hospital is journeyed to a base for political ethnic work this is a real disaster we had in and by. that condemn the acts of these doctors as. the case against one of the members of the world family may seem as an indication that bahrain's government has bowed to the negative global reaction with the doctor

scandal being far from the only torture accusation c.c.t.v. cameras have been installed at all prisons in a move to become more transparent according to the authorities but with protests in the gulf states still continuing and accusations of human rights violations intensifying the opposition is still wondering what happens in the places where the cameras cannot see. see reporting from the kingdom of bahrain. would be more than a weekly here on i t i'll be back with a news team with wolf in about half an hour from now shortly we report on those who bear the whole chip so brittle bone disease that's all special pulled off to the brain.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't i'm tom harpur was a big picture.