today's news in the week's top stories and. it was behind this week's airstrike near damascus well russia attempts to mediate peace in a meeting with the syrian opposition. president claims french troops will stay in mali as long as necessary to root out the insurgency that's amid mounting accusations of war crimes by forces. on the artistic director of the bolshoi says he knows who attacked him with acid just over two weeks ago in central moscow .

in the back of the past seven days top stories and 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 itself the 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 its northern 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 involved. 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 live unarmed 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 was said that the syrian president bashar assad's fall is imminent and that it would serve as a major blow to his villa and iran 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 norwegian attack then leave and it really its response has been a no comment which really leaves the question in opposite of as minds it is a culture lated moves because this 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 and the arab league has also condemned the strike saying it is in violation of international law and it is true for it it against another 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. and beirut based middle east affairs expert earlier this guy spoke to me to learn he says that israeli attacks and its apparent admittance could provoke a return to the ocean from damascus. for now i don't believe that there will be all out military warfare although we have to remember that the. law is one of syria's allies iran is also one of syria's allies and it's important to note here that the the head of the supreme national security council the iranian supreme national security council side really is currently in syria so him are not respond directly

with a direct you know conventional army to conventional army warfare but there might be other means used targeting for example saw an israeli officials stirring up trouble for israel in general and i think that some that something would syria is an expert at doing syria has on the side and also on the his father has been a source of concern for a very long time for the israeli side and on his role once the fall because this will basically break down the iranian husband lost syrian access which is the biggest threat to the not in your government 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 in to be realistic and begin peace talks with president assad while reiterating that any use of force is unacceptable it is for

a politics first magazine marcus papadopoulos thinks that diplomacy still has a long way to go before any real success can be achieved. the meeting between the leader of the self-proclaimed syrian national coalition and the foreign ministers of russia and the wrong an acknowledgement 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 because outside players in the region turkey saudi arabia qatar at being followed in weapons and cash to the militants in syria hillary clinton about a year ago accused the russian government of having blood on its hands oh unfortunately it's more the country saudi arabia it's on saudi arabia we have the blood of thousands of controls or syrian civilians on their hands because of their own geo strategic ambitions to see the removal of presence of sad and the syrian

government's. france's military has reportedly carried out major air strikes on the training and logistic centers of islamic insurgents in northeast money but the ongoing military campaign in the country has been mobbed by alleged human rights abuses with activists reporting civilian deaths torture and ethnic reprisals by the local army welty has an exclusive report now exposing the realities on the ground in some of the most battle scarred areas of the country. he said 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 difficult to talk to people a lot of. human rights activists who are trying to identify witnesses off saying that people. are feeling the heat they are scared to speak a lot of people here. are very sure fool the malian army seems to be doing whatever

it can to prevent people from speaking to openly and of is 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 cd bed 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 and 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 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

he said. and the ministry says an investigation. underway so far no evidence has been provided so let the judicial system do its job at least government its people and military are well aware of current events and we know that we cannot play this game. of 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 gollum he told us he hadn't 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 mali president falls for a land claim to french troops will remain in the west african states until the complete reinstatement of its sovereignty for those mangi from the independent pan african research organization says the local governments primary goal is to enrich themselves and their burkas. what this intervention does is strengthen the

arm of a group of junior officers who took control of the step eight and who are just simply. yes i mean the reports we get from mali from bamako is how these troops just simply control everything they're not interested in any kind of development they're only interested in acquiring wealth for themselves they go in their 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 off the leak 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 canadian and upper interests are clearly

interested in occupying that territory the artistic director of moscow's world famous bolshoi ballet who suffered horrific injuries when acid was thrown his face and said he knows who was behind incident and said if and is currently undergoing surgery following the attack in the center of the russian capital but doctors have warned they may not be able to save his sight sean thomas has this report. it certainly is a strange and bizarre story under exposing the deep and dark underbelly of the world of ballet if you believe it or not. who is the artistic director says he doesn't know exactly who did it he says he's certain he knows but he won't say anything until the police have released their statement regarding the situation and have made an official announcement a little bit about the attack that actually happened about two weeks ago sergei filin was coming from his car to his home here in moscow where an unknown assailant splashed acid in his face. then suffered from third degree burns

in his eyes has undergone the multiple surgeries in fact he will be going to germany later this week for further treatment but about the investigation itself while he won't say exactly who did it even though he says he knows he says he is certain that it is to ruin his reputation and of the reputation of the soit theatre in an interview listen to what he had to say about the investigation itself. so all i can say is that i'm amazed by the amount of effort they've put into the investigation i think in the first future get the answers we're looking for. but do your own suspicions match the facts that will voiced by the police yes. you're afraid to come back to the bolshoi. for one main reason i still don't feel that i have ever left now ballet believe it or not is notorious for having this jealous dark side to it dancers and artistic directors thinking that they should have their

way of the artistic direction of the community in fact the bolshoi theater just reopening after a six year long multimillion dollar renovation. being the artistic director ever since that renovation took place a lot of people who are not happy with the direction it has taken in fact actually an entire movie was made about this side if you recall the black swan about dan. not liking the parts that they're getting to doing anything they could to go and get the parts that they need so one thing about the bolshoi itself. who is one of the prima ballerina of this great stage she has fled to canada they are saying that she has received threats also not sure that they're committed connected but talks about what's going on behind the scenes at the bolshoi. deepening divisions in egypt's society continue 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 one person shot dead and many others injured when security forces trying to disperse angry crown's which attacked the presidential palace this only worsened the political and social stalemate opposition yet again refused to join a national dialogue and vowed to step up their protests the president warned of decisive places in dealing with the unrest and military currently has increased powers due to a month long state of emergency imposed last week opposition activists are met margaret traces the government's actions are heavily influenced by the on. the surface interpretation of what's happening definitely there are groups who are willing to sabotage anything and try to embarrass the government specifically morsi and the military. on the surface however there are deeper interpretations of what's going on some of the interpretation goes as far as that the military council or the military is behind all of this so that big can have. the grip over this always

canal and intensify their presence militarily over there probably don't want to see an economic development of this specific strategic area because it would hand over to civilian oversight of the canal rather than military oversight of the according to the new constitution something called the national defense council this council in most countries and previous. we have an advisory stature right now it has more of an executive stature and it has more military members on this board surveillance which numbers the civilians including the commander in chief the president which means they can force the president to take certain decisions which we have just seen in the past couple of days when they have the commander in chief say that he will declare martial law or emergency emergency law in those specific areas.

you're watching the weekly. catch up of the top stories over the policy seven days on the latest developments a final say before going behind bars that still to come. we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become. in the fullness cia officer the whistleblower of america's torture program he's now serving two and a half years in prison. and great protesters clashed with police outside the labor ministry in central athens with the public growing ever more weary of the government spending cuts those stories and others still to come. secretary of state hillary clinton recently testified to congress in regards to the attack on the u.s. consulate was killed an american ambassador in benghazi libya during the testimony

couldn't rather calmly said you know things like that the revolutions that sprang up during the arab spring like in libya the events in mali have created instability and safe havens for terrorists and she made it clear that there is no doubt that the algerian terrorists had weapons from libya so the us secretary has basically admitted that the actions of the usa and nato have caused a mass instability that has allowed the seeds of terrorism to grow when the justification for most of the actions in the muslim world is to stop evil dictators who harbor terrorists or spread chiding democracy if libya would have been left alone algerian terrorists wouldn't be getting any weapons from it now this is like an exterminator accidently or maybe on purpose actually feeding the roaches in your basements that there are ten times more of them and then saying that he has to keep working because he's the only one who can get rid of the roaches people like hillary clinton who support funding brutal jihad it's rebel groups. to overthrow

governments to somehow bring about stability and democracy are either dismally stupid or consciously running a very brutal con game but that's just my opinion. weekly continues now on r.t. the first man convicted for blowing the whistle on america's prison torture program has begun a two and a half year jail sentence cia veteran john kiriakou was found guilty of exposing washington's secret interrogation tactics in one of his final interviews before being locked away he told r.t. exactly what he thinks he's being punished for. 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 senator john kerry was sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of state this week while defense chief nominee chuck hagel was grilled by the senate kerry took over from hillary clinton but as international studies professor stephen zunes told r.t. he's likely to be very old school in. there is an outspoken supporter of the iraq war and not being among the you know right wing minority of democrats on capitol hill that voted to authorize the war but i don't and not only. making up the stance of tales about massive via logical in chemical weapons stockpiles the

nuclear program i'm delivering this test the literary systems that are going but you are going to clear that that was all just often enough so-called writings of mass destruction you said you were for the war in the way because saddam hussein was a terrible that your enemy had to pass the of making this kind of weapon sometimes mention of course i got it right here for one in thirty countries retards here and it's a lose that i have a bill if you're john. kerry was essentially open so the lie that hey you have a right. to criticize the moral and legal arguments no iraq was yours asterisked we're now in revenue we're seeing all those consequences in terms of two hundred thousand men under arms. and these are the less is not controlled by the government you see the false threat from mali to algeria elsewhere it's part of shortsightedness that we've seen so many other politicians in washington.

bulger and 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 turn out the country's ruling party is now expected to use its majority in parliament to work on the in the house due to high costs some experts believe it's the result of pressure from bulgaria is on ice are concerned the country could become dependent on russia and put in the room and of general says that the government went out of its way to discourage people from supporting the project. you have to take into account the. approximately forty years and the results of every three city in the country are also boats that were using very safe and very reliable nuclear power plants in this equation bulgarian beaulieu and so on are usually supporting nuclear power just. more of these.

approximately twenty percent just because of the efforts of the majority but created special means special commissions in the parliament just so do i just thought that is the people not devolved not to support the nuclear power plant 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 its resulted in more and more worship is turning their backs on it you don't have or has this report. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine when i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol then 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 now it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the witnesses sometimes died in between the memory has got lost

and so those attempts to get to have a trial usually fail christian if i first 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 that 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're losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency it lapsed catholics but to be brought back into the flock and then. moving 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. and one for jaime for wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot in a church a ged 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 hundreds of greek protesters clashed with police on wednesday after storming the building of the labor minister's office the 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 lawyer george cukor goller says the authorities response was part of a new approach to the strikes which of crippled the country. the government has decided to follow up one of the c.

of zero thought that us as it sais i guess that that is distance to the state to measure us so we have steamed the government to take in medicine measures but they are unconstitutional i guess the very center strikes and now we have seen a door there. blocked very violently against a generally peaceful and calm demonstration when it seemed the last three or four weeks i complain of propaganda try to convince us that now the worst has become best there is i don't believe that this is the is exactly because we are following this same set the full resources of those thirty minutes notice that the four three hears has condemned greece plus five of slow death that this recession of the economy went to auction of the economy unfair social measures followed by a vote on the season of the population and also at that the socialites i think that as far as what we're following this set of up for this is this will call for us

still to come on the weekly the south america's secret prisons uncovered we take a closer look at what went on behind closed doors on the so-called cia black sites in eastern europe last. with a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my torture scene she was beating me and she had the truth to me. medical workers in bahrain claim they are constantly targeted by authorities for treating those hurt in anti government families mourn that story and all this after the break.

here the reindeer is interesting for the herders. and when it suffers. people do their best to help. but the distances are. and the roads are.

this is the weekly n.r.t. washington's infamous rendition regime was one of the key issues raised during a week of pretrial hearings for the alleged mastermind of the nine eleven attacks and his for a company says in guantanamo bay in one investigations into america's so-called black sites abroad revealed little so far as all these are meaningless reports even if facts were forthcoming justice might not be. guantanamo may hog all the headlines but all the interested it means people are moving their focus elsewhere so-called black sites secret prisons were established by the cia during its well publicized war on terror unlike the cause however these secret facilities were never publicly discussed by the authorities the us claimed they could hold prisoners outside the us because then they wouldn't be subject to the geneva conventions and to international law.