want to live coverage on our. declaration of war that's how syrian officials have described the latest israeli airstrike a military research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets early on sunday the arab league has gone down to the tribe demanding action from the e.u. while the u.k. calls for an answer to the arms embargo on the opposition saying peace in the region is now under threat. and in bahrain a court has sentenced said he want protests to fifteen years in jail for throwing five homes during the riots last year.

says he coming to live from moscow hello and welcome to the program. declared war after its blaze bomb targets in damascus the second in as many days so you were a state media says israeli rockets targeted a military research center on the outskirts of the capital and eyewitness accounts suggest that hate weapons dumps triggering large explosions syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league condemns this trying and demanded the u.n. security council to stop any more meanwhile there's still no official reaction from israel. has the details the syrian deputy foreign minister files i would make dad has called this morning's attack on a syrian military research facility to quote him a dick liberation of rule by israel not to have said be a tech represented an alliance between islamic terrorists and israel he also says

that syria will retaliate against israel in its own time and way now this is extremely important this is the first time we're hearing confirmation from the syrian government that this was an attack carried out by israel and that it is choosing to respond it has regional and international implications because syria of course is a close ally of iran and in all likelihood iran is now bound to also declare war on israel so we were watching this closely of remains to be seen but at the same time the israeli military is still refusing to confirm or deny reports that it is responsible for this morning's attack having said this though a senior israeli unnamed source has said that israel is responsible and that the attack was carried out in the vicinity of damascus airport but this official continues to give comments anonymously because he cannot represent any kind of private intelligence or any kind of decisions that will make made by the israeli government we do know that israel has put in place the defense missile systems near

the cities of fact and hyphen. in the north of the country so that certainly is an indication that israel is preparing at least for something on the ground it's not preparing it's at least worried about any kind of the television at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting this morning and the prime minister netanyahu said nothing about the strikes but he did reiterate that he was committed to the security of israel over the past few days the israeli military caught up several hundred thousand reservists for what it called a surprise military exercise on the israeli border with lebanon in recent days they have been signs of mounting tensions between israel and his beloved which is a militant group based in lebanon but allied with damascus now in a warning to israel earlier this week the hizbullah leader hassan nasrallah did say that his militia was ready to quote him he said if he has and they have a hand on the trigger in the event of an israeli attack israel has in the past

repeatedly warned that it is prepared to resort to force to prevent any kind of syrian weapons making their way from syria into the hands of hezbollah and other groups that were also being told that this morning's attack was on a stockpile of long range raining in the cells that is well believed ultimately would find their way into his bare hands back in january it will hit the same with a house that was the attack was what that was the target of this morning's attack and if indeed it is confirmed that israel carried out the strike on sunday morning it would be the third time that israel has hit in syria since january this year. egypt passed condemns the israeli air strikes on syria with the arab league also demanding action from the u.n. security council so the league has been a dangerous violation of an arab state sovereignty that the article two of the united nations charter binds the use of force against the territorial integrity of

any state and let's now see will. the international reaction to all this to get the latest from the u.s. and the u.k. when i joined live by our she's going to trickle in washington and in london very nice to see you both so poorly let's turn to you first the government said in response to these latest israeli strikes. well the u.k. foreign secretary has said that this latest israeli air strike is making the case stronger for lifting the e.u. arms embargo on the syrian opposition according to william hague this recent escalation of the conflict shows that there's a real risk that the violence could spread outside of syria and into the wider middle east of course this isn't the first time that the u.k. has called for an end to this e.u. arms embargo in fact it's become somewhat of a regular occurrence this is just the latest reason that they're citing for

providing extra assistance to the syrian opposition and we know that germany has to provide extra weapons to provide weapons to the syrian opposition we also know that yet the united nations have begun reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many it's national and there's been keen to point out that all meaning the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for them why did region and for israel of course as well a lot of people are still very wary of what took place in libya the libyan scenario when weapons flooded out from gadhafi is army and into mali and algeria into neighboring countries the still a lot of problems to do with that so it's a lot of countries are very fearful about making that mistake again but a very contradictory statements we've seen from the u.k.

foreign minister. one that could in fact create more problems rather than solving ones that we've got already so this e.u. arms embargo comes up for renewal on the fly's the first of may we're going to be watching very closely what's going to happen with that and whether britain will finally get its way in providing weapons for the syrian opposition. guyon so you know are there any indicate you are about tonks in advance. well the u.s. and israel according to both governments work very closely in terms of intelligence gathering so it is difficult to believe that washington didn't know anything about israel's plans to bomb damascus the question that is very much unclear at this point is whether the strikes were really about has a law or whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the war planes hit military sites on the outskirts of damascus the extent of damage to syria's military capabilities is not clear at this point at this time but those are

powerful explosions as witnesses say sources in the u.s. government on the. just as they did a few days ago and said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon the meskins sees it differently they see the strikes as an attempt to boost the morale as they say of the rebels whether or not the strikes were actually intended as an intervention into the syrian civil war they may affect it anyway there is another concern the strikes are based on some secret information and also to what is heading somewhere either television or washington have officially confirmed anything and many worry that we're stepping into this very gray area worse right against another country can be carried out in absolute secrecy and some unnamed government officials can claim that it had something to do with has your law and it is supposed to put everyone at ease under that logic they can bomb the whole of damascus and say it was about hezbollah and speaking to pauli's point about.

possible arms supplies the strikes come days after the us defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on or mean the rebels for the past two years leave misprision has been reluctant to arm the syrian rebels directly due to persistent reports of radicalization of n.p.r. south forces these fighters want westerners and they want heavy weapons now the defense secretary did also say he personally has not decided whether it would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels or he said he restriction is looking at a range of options at the moment as you can see there is nothing definitive in the administration's remarks at this stage but is put together at the expense of the events of this week which now include these really strikes may have created a certain momentum and this kind of momentum could actually bolster the forces on the ground in resulted in more violence in a country where it's already devastated. she's probably blanco and again it should

count joining as that line from london and washington respectively. and earlier my colleague worry sushi is folks the army or in a correspondent for israel's ha'aretz newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure their security. this is part of the israeli policy which you can describe as pownce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer surface to surface missiles and surface to be so stupid as bala but don't brag about it so while the reason no official confirmation you can take it almost as face value when you hear the us side confirm me on officially what about the legality of israel bombing syria like this without even a un mandate i mean how do you expect the international community to react to this well be israeli and syrian governments have been tamed a fragile ceasefire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon the

lebanese government does not control because of all of and because well i want to take these arms from syria and position them with eleven and while you may say that flying over a lebanese space is not exactly according to international law this is nick speaking and while there are many reasons on other aspects to be critical of israeli policy it does seem that this time around it is quite balanced because only trying to prevent and preempt further conflict so i'm sure you talk about the israeli airstrike passive explosions you call this a balanced reaction to unconfirmed reports that the syrian officials are moving surface to air missiles to hezbollah which they are denying at the time you call it balanced ok let me clarify first of all the reason of course and regrettably so

a massacre going on in syria has gone on for the last two years with many thousands of people being killed others perhaps in the hundreds of thousands being uprooted and now being refused use across the border and what is really striking to prevent. this is a minor. in order not to play the bigger prize of killing and be have which will be a route by another lebanon war. and let's now have a look at how our viewers think about the whole situation how they see and what they think about the recent attacks by israel on syria and this is our online poll so you can always log on to r.t. dot com to ask you about are so so far over forty percent of you believe that israel is carrying out western plans to help the syrian rebels just thirty two percent of you saying there is an undeclared

a wall being for just under twenty percent feel that our message to the u.s. that israel is ready to strike iran two and a minority of you of those who voted just seven percent of you saying the actions are self-defense against hezbollah so the risk is a beirut based journalist and middle east expert and he believes that israel is trying to drag the u.s. military into the regional conflict. has there been any escalation against israel for israel to react has there been any military action has israel being been attacked by any side whether it be husband law whether it be syria whether it be housed israel in the been attacked by any side whatsoever israel has not been attacked so we hear this talk about you know game changing weapons but all of this you know doesn't doesn't give you a ride to war doesn't give the justification. for such escalation i think you have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together remember that the all of the fuel of

the havoc about chemical weapons who was the one which made this first announcement it was bruno the military intelligence israeli official made the announcement about syria using chemical weapons from a very beginning after president obama had said time and again that is the red line that didn't succeed thus far in dragging the us to war against syria so now i think that we had two incidents there with i reported the israeli strike on a convoy and now we have been did an israeli strike on them but i think we have a classical example of what we would call israel trying to manipulate us policy in the middle east israel is going to continue i think with these practices until it drags the us into conflict why the reason being that the syrian army has made military advancements very recently it seems that bashar al assad

militarily has gained the upper hand and so is where i realize assad won't be going and less there is outside intervention outside intervention as i said trying to drag the us by saying if you don't go in then we will we shall wreak havoc we should go ahead with our own military escalation. so the latest on our breaking news story this hour as serious as israeli air strikes on the else counts of damascus will make the whole region more dangerous and volatile to do everything possible to protect its citizens one official said the destruction of the country's military research facility was a declaration a wall state media says israeli rockets targeted and military research center on the outskirts of the capital has just said video footage and eyewitness accounts of just the tanks weapons dumps triggering large explosions c. rist as a number of people were killed and wounded and made widespread destruction the arab league has condemned this trying and demanded the un security council action to

stop any more color on dates on this developing story on our news bulletin and online at aussie dot com and of course stay with us as we have vision the troll see you after the short break. yosuke use of the disappearing you presumably there's a billion new year. i . believe you. really do you know you would really if you didn't you

know who it was already forced to. do. this is all she welcomed a court in bahrain sentenced especially one protesters to fifteen years in prison each they're all aged between sixteen and thirty four and have been found guilty of carrying out a fireball much talks during onto government projects which engulfed the kingdom last year all right and for more let's join it is a government whose here in the studio with me lucy it's always great to have you in

the studio so you through all of these jerald protests and why have they received such long sentences sometimes indeed in past fifteen years as you mentioned that this group of thirty one protesters as you said is aged roughly between sixteen and thirty four so you can imagine for the sixteen year olds this is an incredibly have the sentence they all come from ireland in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked bahrain since early twentieth now these protesters have been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on fire protesting possession of petrol bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters denied the charges they say that they're innocent and they in fact claim that they were coerced into confessing in order to get these charges now the background to all of this is the escalating protests that we've seen in bahrain that as i mentioned began in two thousand and eleven basically where you have this ongoing unrest with the majority of shiites in the country and demonstrating and demanding

a greater voice in the political system that has been ruled by the sunni monarchy ruled in many ways with an iron fist these protesters allege and so what began as peaceful gatherings people taking to the streets to protest has really transformed into what we've seen in many cases brutal crackdowns by the police with tear gas being used i'm not. arrests of protesters in fact one of the most best known cases of people when the regime essentially backing down and some of the protestors was the case of the. who's actually interviewed here in r t by julian assange and in august twenty eighth he was actually sentenced to three years in jail for participating in one of these protests so a lot of human rights activists say that this is and i'll be tenable situation that these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so well of course continue to watch you see how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence the sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh rest in that country. thank you very

much indeed for bringing us up to date thanks a lot this week a walk around the globe joined a day of protest against unemployment poor salaries and violations of their rights and number of may day rallies in particular made headlines in turkey there was violence with police resorting to tear gas and water cannons against angry crowds at least twenty eight were injured and dozens were arrested and right now we can see pictures we can probably we can't well pictures from basu murder where the rally was also marred by clashes with police thousands took to the streets in spain protesting austerity and unemployment which is at record highs made a protest march to protest has marched in athens as well as part of a twenty four hour walkout following the recent fifteen thousand public sector jobs and it comes as the e.u. faces the press prospect of another year of recession and job losses according to a forecast. so these are the three countries with the highest unemployment rates in

the eurozone in greece first over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job while in spain one in every four is unemployed portugal's rate is not far behind on seventeen point five percent. sina has been finding out how people across europe are dealing with skyrocketing unemployment and found out that leaving the country is a popular choice. the unemployment rate in the years old has recently reached a record twelve percent of for those aged twenty five and below in countries like spain and greece that number is as high as more than fifty percent with very little signs of any economic improvement for those who are looking for a job that search is no longer just about trying to find work many are now trying to leave their home countries. like niccolo wriggles e a biology graduate from italy now working in a shop in brussels and the situation in italy was actually awful

because the only thing i was able to get is a really short contract for like free mouth for six months with absolutely no possibility of growing out in an industry or in the laboratory anything most two of most of them were totally eight you can't really think of your future he says it wasn't a walk in the park in beijing either as many companies require a working knowledge of both french and dutch a barrier that may be hard to overcome that perhaps still more attractive for some the going back home hear it. in two thousand and twelve. and the person or persons of young people who immigrates from italy grow up by thirty forty percent in two thousand and twelve i really don't know what will be into information and it's not just ease. citizens feel the cage foreigners would

come to europe to see the opportunities started they will businesses building their lives and now we're also change their minds. this meant leaving this all the way back to their native ecuador and while homesickness was the initial reason for the move she has no regrets about making that decision the sixth time he had also many foreigners decided to leave greece and move to countries like germany and switzerland but the greeks who stayed behind are saying that the situation is really difficult when for instance servicemen who used to get one and a half thousand euros are now paid just nine hundred m. our place has been open for two years even though still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future. something she says just isn't possible the year right now to trend if you look at the figures in countries like ireland some people argue that a whole generation has left and perhaps for good you know. i don't

fix or rather stay here for once i'm there so sylvia our team brussels. the face of british politics appears to be trained with some unexpected results coming out of the local elections this week the anti e.u. on to stab richmond a u.k. independence party picks up a quarter of the vote preparing it from the margins into a real force and let's take a closer look now so you care gained one hundred thirty nine new local councillors off from just eight the labor party it finished two hundred ninety one seats up the two coalition parties were badly hit with the liberal democrats losing one hundred and twenty four seats the tories are down three hundred thirty five seats left to contemplate how to get their frustrated voters back from the u.k. prime minister david cameron is now planning to focus on the main issues over you

keeps program. e.u. membership and immigration in his speech outlining the government's legislative plans and. asked the deputy leader of the u.k. independence policy poll and not sell it here felt the conservative party were about to wrestle the nation away. david cameron is committed to the european union we know that because he said if that is it our friends and he will campaign to stay in and if you are members of the european union you can't control your own borders so we have a problem in this country where we have twenty two percent youth unemployment a million kids in britain who are going to work every day and what about to open our borders all to twenty nine million remaining in a bulgarians when restrictions for on january first income earners are permitted that is not a good can do about that so quite frankly we're not worried that he's going to pass his time can are because he simply can't see how you going to gain momentum now because surely most governments at the time of these midterm elections always lose

popularity you've got to keep the momentum up now but really to aim for part of parliament now is that that's is that really realistic for you keep it it's early stages well i think we will take a seat in the house of commons if not two seats before the general election in two thousand and fifteen if we continue on our trajectory in byelection zameen we are finishing seconds and a lot of buy elections now particularly in the north of england and i think that we can eventually take a seat in a byelection but let's not forget that a big elections next year the european elections take place in june two thousand and fifteen these are the elections that we will win i genuinely believe we will send more any peace but so brochures than any other party and then in two thousand and fifteen ukip will be standing in every single constituency and we will be putting up a good fight if we enter the election on double digits ahead of the liberal democrats we have leadership debates in this country and nigel farage will be on those leadership debates and he would wipe the floor with clegg cameron. mania will

start just finally back to immigration policy people do perceive you as racist how are you going to overcome that challenge just briefly. well quickly we have a blanket ban on anybody who's been a member of a political party ever joining u.k. that has nothing racist about discussing immigration and wanting british jobs for british workers. and up next who had to mexico i reporter welcome to the one at is coming up after this short break. most people in the western world would agree that having laws that officially

create second class citizens is totally unacceptable we can look at the way jews were treated in nazi germany or blackstar in apartheid in south africa and the slavery jim crow errors in the usa as examples of legally dividing society by necessity i think most people you with their modern sensibilities would find these practices me bob baer american backwards but my question is that why is there to this day officially sanctioned second class citizens in certain e.u. countries or to be more accurate i should say non-citizen residents of the two million people in latvia around three hundred thousand of them are considered non-citizen residents who can neither vote nor hold public office these non-citizens are russian speakers of various ethnic backgrounds whose children also by birth bearer of the non-citizen status not happy being on the bad side of apartheid the non-citizens have logically decided to vote for their own parliament because they can't elect to participate in the left field what even if the parliament has no power whatsoever it will be their chance to shine light on the

issue which the mainstream media has been keeping quiet for years you know you'd think that people would be outraged over segregation but what happens to russians and russian speakers is just not cool or hip or trendy or convenient enough for the mainstream media to take notice but that's just my opinion. lieut.