a declaration of war that's how syrian officials have described the latest israeli air strike military research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets early sunday morning the arab league has condemned the strike the mounting action from the u.n. while the u.k. calls for an end to the arms embargo on the opposition saying peace in the region is now under threat. and in bahrain a court has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing far bombs and the regime riots last year top stories this hour.

with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly here. syria says israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed targets in damascus the second airstrike in as many days syria's state media says israeli rockets targeted a minute treat research center on the outskirts of the capital video footage an eyewitness account suggests the attack hit weapons dumps triggering large explosions serious as a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league is condemning the strikes and demanded the u.n. security council to act to stop any more. meanwhile a t.v. station run by lebanon's hezbollah militant group showed images of what it claimed was the site of an israeli air strike in syria this on verified footage was reportedly taken at the site of a military research facility in after the attack but the center itself appears to have been hit by a strike apparently. the major route through shelters things orders will of course

but of course lear has moved tension on the ground is increasing and increasing by the hour the syrian information minister on one also will be said after a special cabinet meeting that syria will not accept a breach of its sovereignty all of its security and that all options were on the table syrian officials say that they've turned syrian artillery also to face towards israel the syrian deputy foreign minister feisal our mc that said the alleged israeli attack on syria is addictive ration of war now make that has said that syria will retaliate against israel in its own time and in its own way meanwhile iran which has a defense agreement with syria says it will respond to alleged israeli airstrikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to israeli aggression we haven't heard anything so far from the israeli government the israeli military also continues to refuse to either confirm or deny the reports that are

detect syria in the early hours of sunday morning israel however has declared the north of this country a no fly zone to civilian flights this is a precaution it's also a way of defusing the situation and for allowing it to be allowing for the defense missile system to be put into place the iron dome is being deployed in the north of israel it's aimed at protecting northern israeli cities. could be fired from either lebannon also both the mayor of haifa which is israel's largest city in the north is also taking steps to potentially increase the level of readiness of the city's citizens meanwhile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu held an emergency security cabinet and until that meeting adjourned without any statements in fact the only statement we've heard from the israeli prime minister was after his weekly cabinet meeting on sunday morning and he did not comment on the strikes the only thing he said was reiterating his commitment to israel security they were earlier

the port said a senior and named israeli official conversion confirmed that tel aviv was responsible for sunday's strikes that would be the third strike inside syria that israel has carried out since january this year egypt has condemned the israeli air strikes in syria with the arab league also demanding action from the u.n. security council the league says there has been a dangerous fire lation of an arab states sovereignty article two of the united nations charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state or u.s. white house spokesman meanwhile said that obama feels israel is justified in its concerns over the threat from has been or what he's got to earn in washington and london told us more about the reaction coming from the u.k. the u.s. . 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 yes the united nations have big reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many international observers have been keen to point out that arming the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for the wider 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 there's still a lot of problems to do with that so it's a lot of countries are very fearful about making that mistake again gaiety you know are there any indicators that the you are about israel's attacks in advance 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 lot whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the sources in the u.s. government on officially called for a major strike just as they did. days ago one said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon the meskins sees it differently they see the

strikes is 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 the weapons heading somewhere you can tell will be of no 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 strikes come days after the u.s. defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on or mean the rebels for defense secretary did also say he personally has not decided whether he would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels he said the administration 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 put together the events of this week which now include the israeli strikes may have created a certain momentum and this kind of momentum could actually bolster the forces on

the ground and result in more violence in a country where it's already devastating israel has closed part of his space to civilian aircraft following those strikes on syria but times correspondent pipit escobar told me a little earlier the attacks are merely plan b. to the u.s. and other nations failed to accomplish their mission in syria. if anybody believes this is that any saying israel does in the middle east it does not go so the americans later you know group back to play in the garden go back to kindergarten it doesn't work like this in the real world they did it because they were concerted with the obama administration which is in a bind at the moment they cannot intervene directly in syria they know that the support for the so-called rebels all the different strands of the rebs is going nowhere because their elected retreating instead of advent sing so israel with this provocation there will be for a response either from syria either from hezbollah at all or better yet from the

point of view of the obama administration and israel from iran so if iran and syria don't do anything for the moment they just wait this will be seen as it is just a provocation but if there is you know the slightest bit of a response from either syria or iran that's the perfect brick text for a lot of what you need shock and awe against syria just how dangerous is the situation now is this really a sign of what everybody be worried about is the sparking of a regional conflict just briefly. yes absolutely and in fact this proves among other things how desperate this so-called coalition of the willing us brits friends saudi arabia qatar and turkey with what's going on inside syria they were expecting a rush of government to collapse in a few months it's over two years it's still in place there are no major defections you know they still control the business classes in damascus in aleppo it's still

there you could fight for a long time and they want a quick resolution so they use israel as a proxy it's the perfect foil you know and they can blame israel in fact the arabs the arab league which nowadays is a manics of the other blaming israel but saudi arabia is into it as well because the u.s. the saudis and israelis they are actually arming the rebels as well they see that it's going nowhere ok let's activate plan b. let's start bombing syria and see if they respond. well only my colleague research shows spoke to me at all and he's a correspondent is rose how it's newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure national security this is part of the israeli policy which you can describe pounce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer its surface to surface missiles and surface to air missiles to cause vala 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 it 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 paying a fragile cease fire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon on the lebanese government does not control because of all of and because well i want to take these arms from syria and positioned within lebanon and while you may say that flying over a lebanese space is not exactly according to international law this is nit picking 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 preamp 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. another lebanon war this is perhaps a minor our price to pay. in order not to pay the bigger price of the killing and we have our which will be read by another lebanon war that's now

see what you have to say about the recent israeli air strikes on syria make sure you log onto r.t. dot com to let us know what you think about it and so far looking at the results on the screen so far we can see over forty percent of you believe that israel is carrying out western plans to help the syrian opposition one third think there's an undeclared war being fought and sixteen percent at the moment feel that the attacks are a message to the us that israel is ready to strike iran as well as syria and a minority of those who have voted so far think that the actions of self defense against has been a well antiwar activist jim brown says israel won't face any repercussions from the international community due to america's influence in the un security council. any intervention of that kind this is going to make the situation worse as well as being a violate basic violation of international law which clearly israel strike today

and the previous ones have been as well but william hague is justifying his favorite method of intervention which is arming the one side in the in the fight on the basis that israel is pursuing its favorite method of intervening which is bombing and it's completely unacceptable syria will be very careful in this because i think it's probably an israeli provocation anyway it may well be that israel is trying to get syria to retaliate or it's trying to provoke hizbullah into retaliating and remember that israel has a very serious score to settle with a smaller because twice once in the year two thousand and once in the year two thousand and six hizbullah inflicted a very serious defeat on israel so israel certainly wants to get just one or the united states has a vetoed i think forty four united nations security council resolutions concerning israel when they get anywhere near. cramping israel's ability to carry out the

strikes that we've seen lately so at the end of the day i'm sure that the united states would simply veto any u.n. security council resolution with teeth and in a way you can say that perhaps some of these voices in the region know that perfectly well. closely monitoring developments in the region online at www dot com a web site online all the time this is r t live in moscow later find out why dozens of bahraini protesters got fifteen year jail terms and hell europe may day with tear gas and water cannons stores and others after the break. they all see themselves as dying swans in their dreams. but only one in a thousand will ever make it to the top. they're ready to give their

lives for the chance to die on stage if only once. not even broken wings can do to them. for generations at the moment ski theater ballet sweat and tears on a. news

continues here in a court in bahrain and sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in prison they're all aged between sixteen and thirty four have been found guilty of carrying out attacks during the antigovernment protests which engulfed the kingdom last year one of the lords claims he's clark was tortured and to give a false confession what it has been widely criticized for its suppression of protests run it's obviously she covered. 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 to sentence they all come from sutra island in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked by playing some spring time in the lab and now these are 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 these charges to 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 these escalating protests that we've seen in bahrain that as i mentioned began in two thousand and eleven basically when you have as 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 mass arrests of protesters in fact one of the most best known cases of people when the regime essentially cracking down on some of the protesters was the case of the deal where job who was actually interviewed here on our t.v. by julian assange and in august twenty twelve 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'm telling you that these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so of course we continue to washy how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence the sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh arrest in that country. geo political that was eric draitser a spokesman little earlier he says the toys with the u.s. means it's able to do with the uprising any way it sees fit. but the people of bahrain have been ruled by one single family of a minority in the country so if you're talking about the vast majority of that country having lived in a state of disenfranchisement for their entire lives and they see and remember that bahrain was in many ways the the kernel at the very beginning of the arab spring and the struggle that has continued in bahrain since that early part of two

thousand and eleven gets no attention in the western media primarily because as i and many people listening already know bahrain is a client of saudi arabia which is a client of the united states bahrain houses the u.s. fifth fleet bahrain is central to the u.s. imperial plans for the region and for that reason the democracy upsurge in bahrain has been marginalized while the fraudulent uprising in syria has been glorified this illustrates the hypocrisy of the united states and the hypocrisy of its policy in the region. this last week work has a realm of the world joined a day of protests against unemployment poor salaries and violations of their rights a number 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 thousands were arrested now these are pictures from barcelona where the rally was also mobbed by clashes with police thousands took to

the streets throughout the whole of spain protesting against. moment which is at record highs and may day protests as march in athens as well all part of a twenty four hour walkout following the recent cutback of fifteen thousand public sector jobs and it comes as the e.u. faces the prospect of another year of recession and job losses according to the latest forecasts these are the three countries with the highest unemployment rates at the moment in the eurozone in greece over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job while in spain one in every four is unemployed and portugal's rate isn't far behind at seventeen and a half percent or his test recently has looked into help people across europe are dealing with skyrocketing unemployment and found out that leaving their 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 initial clytie 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 of most of them were totally unpaid because 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 but perhaps still more attractive for some the going back home i read. in two thousand and twelve. and the person the person of young people to emigrate from italy grew up by thirty forty percent in two thousand and twelve i really don't know what will be interesting for you and it's not just the citizens feeding the kids foreigners would come to europe to see new opportunities started to grow businesses and building their lives have now will also change their minds fred ziona this meant leaving the goalie all the way back to her native ecuador and while homesickness was the initial reason for the move she has no regrets about making that decision the six month period also many for. has 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 there for instance servicemen he used to get one and a half thousand euros are now paid just nine hundred our place has been open for two years even though it's still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future. something she says just isn't possible here right now trent look at the figures in countries like ireland some people argue that a whole generation has left and perhaps for good. i don't think so. there are stay here for once a day or so sylvia i've seen brussels. the face of british politics appears to be changing with some unexpected results coming out of the local elections this week the n.t.e.u. anti establishment u.k. independence party picked up a quarter of the votes propelling it from the margins into a real force let's take a closer look here and scream ukip gained one hundred thirty nine new local

councillors that's up from just eight they had originally the labor party finished two hundred ninety one seats and the two coalition parties two parties in government were badly hit with the liberal democrats losing one hundred twenty four seats and the conservatives losing three hundred thirty five of course they are now left to contemplate how to get their frustrated voters back from ukip prime minister david cameron is now planning to focus on the main issues of ukip program e.u. membership and immigration in his speech outlining the government's legislative plans or he asked the deputy leader of the u.k. independence party paul nuttall if you felt the conservative party was about to wrestle the initiative away. david cameron is committed to the european union we know that because he said if there is that our friends and he will campaign to stay in and if you're 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 unemployment a million kids in britain who are going to weigh every day and what about to open

our borders all to twenty nine million. bulgarians when restrictions fall on january first and governors are permitted that is not a good can do about that so quite frankly we're not worried that he's going to park his time con artist because he simply can't 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 opera trajectory in byelection zameen we are finishing second and a lot of by 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 it's a brochure 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 and if we enter the election on double digits ahead of the liberal

democrats we have leadership debates in this country and will be on those leadership debates and he will wipe the floor with clegg cameron bans mania will start. well that's it for the moment more news for you with the team in about thirty three minutes from now in the meantime coming up after the break alex he delves into the beautiful but brutal world of training to become a prima ballerina it's blood sweat and ballet in just a couple of minutes. and yet another step along the pointless anti gender crusade activists in sweden are pushing to promote a new gender neutral pronoun these activists want the term hen to replace the pronouns han and han which mean he and she respectively i think the logic of these

bizarre gender neutral movements in the e.u. is that they really feel that it's awful to force someone into a role that doesn't fit them you know i can kind of see this i remember back to when i was a boy in school and with me there was a kid what kind of only female friends and i certainly wasn't the sports a toy trucks kind of kid if you understand what i mean you know i could see this guy having all those male stereotypes shoved down his throat you know it made his life at school really unpleasant but the whacko liberal answer to some tiny amount of people being pushed into gender roles they don't like is to force everyone else into a genderless world they don't like fantastic i guess gender neutrality advocates can speak swedish how they like and they're free to use this word hen but don't force everyone in the country to do things your way the overwhelming majority of the world is very happy with its gender thank you very much but that's just my opinion.

i dream of becoming a famous ballerina. still with a crowd and a thing to say. it's just right now i really want to dance the in that cracker i laugh that's hard to watch. i've dreamed of being a prima ballerina since i was a child i'd like to dance solo parts of course but i have no problem dancing in the core of the ballet i don't want other ballerinas to be jealous of me to the point of putting glass in my shoes they did that once to a dancer i want everything to be smooth.