a declaration of war that is how syrian officials have described the latest israeli airstrike a military research center near damascus was pummeled with a rocket early sunday morning. condemned the strike demanding 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. court has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing firebombs. last year. in broadcasting live from moscow this is r t where it is three o'clock in the

morning glad to have you with us. now syria says israel has effectively declared war after its planes up bombed as targets in damascus the second airstrike in as many days syrian officials say missile batteries have been pointed at israel and according to unconfirmed reports they will be launched in case israel strikes again syria's state media says israeli rockets targeted a military research center on the outskirts of the capital video footage and eyewitness accounts suggest the attack hit weapons dumps triggering a large explosions syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction arab league has condemned the strikes and demanded the u.n. security council act to stop any further attacks meanwhile the t.v. station run by lebanon's hezbollah militant group showed images of what it claimed it was the site of an israeli air strike in syria it was unverified footage was reportedly taken at the site of a military research facility in after the attack but the center itself appears not

to have been hit a strike apparently left a major road filled with debris and shell casings artie's middle east correspondent polls leader has more tension on the ground is increasing and increasing by the awa the syrian information minister. said off to a special cabinet meeting that syria will not accept a breach of its sovereignty or of its security and that or options were on the table syrian officials say that they've turned syrian artillery also to face towards israel the syrian deputy foreign minister finds a lot of mixed up said the image his radio tack on syria is a day to ration of war now make that has say 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 a major israeli air strikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to his radio station 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 it detects 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 from short planes missiles that could be fired from i that live in on 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 then to 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 we have to wait in his commitment to israel security they won't give up that a senior and named israeli official 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 artie's policy reporting for us there now egypt has condemned the israeli air strikes on syria with the arab league also demanding action from the u.n. security council the league says there has been a dangerous violation of an arab states sovereignty article two of the united nations charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state u.s. white house spokesman meanwhile said that obama feels israel is justified in its concerns over the threat from hezbollah or he's going to can is in washington and paula boyko in london they told us earlier about the reaction coming from the u.k.

and the united states. 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. 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 on clear 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

us government on officially confirm the strikes 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 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 sequence information and also the weapons heading somewhere you know will be of no washington have officially confirmed anything and many worry that we're stepping in very great area worse right against another country can be carried out in absolute secrecy the strikes come days after the u.s. defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on or mean the rebels the 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 if put together 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 and result in more violence in a country where it's already devastating israel has closed part of its airspace to civilian aircraft following those air strikes on syria but as asia times online correspondent pepe escobar told my colleague bill dodd earlier these attacks are merely plan b. after the united states and other nations of failed to accomplish their mission in syria. if anybody believes 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 they're likely retreating instead of van sing so israel with this provocation they're willing 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 this 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 willy us brits france saudi arabia qatar and turkey are with what's going on inside syria they were

expecting of us are our saudi 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 and 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 the manics of all the other blaming israel saudi arabia is into it as well because the u.s. the saudis that israel is 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 and earlier my colleague spoke to a mere or in a correspondent for israel's newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure security this is part of the israeli policy which you

can describe pounce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer surface to surface missiles and surface to be so stupid 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 u.s. side confirm it officially what about the legality of israel bombing syria like this without even a u.n. mandate i mean how do you expect the international community to react to this well the israeli and syrian governments have been paying a fragile cease fire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon the lebanese government does not control because of all of and because of all over. 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 massive 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 is another lebanon war this is perhaps

a minor price to pay. in order not to pay the bigger price of the killing and we have a which will be wreaked by another lebanon war. as always we want to hear from you let's see what you have to say about the recent israeli air strikes on syria you can make sure that your voices heard at r.t. dot com to let us know what you think looking at the numbers have been jumping around through the night but right now we're looking at the majority of you forty four percent say that this is israel carrying out western plans the next little sliver in green about a third say that this is an undeclared war being fought by israel on syria next liver down in orange sixteen percent say sending a message to iran this is what israel is doing and then the small little green sliver here seven percent say israel is just defending themselves against hezbollah well we're also closely monitoring developments in the region online at r.t.

dot com later find out why dozens of bahraini protesters got fifteen year jail terms and how europe marked may day with tear gas and water cannons all this after a short break right here on our team. member. every piece of metal. and every one of those who will step on the red square on the ninth of may are ready. for the victory day parade. was the live coverage on our t.v. . you

were thirteen glad to have you back with us a quarter in bahrain has sentenced of thirty one protesters to fifteen years of imprisonment each they are all aged between sixteen and thirty four and have been charged for carrying out fire bomb attacks during anti-government protests which engulfed the kingdom last year one of the lawyers claims his client was tortured to

get a false confession the monarchy has been widely criticized for its violent suppression of the protest rallies against office more 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 island in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked bahrain since early twenty nine now these protesters have been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on fire protesting possession of have told bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters deny this is 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 what you have is ongoing unrest with the majority of shiites in the country 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 who are in the regime essentially cracking down on some of the protesters was the case of the builder of 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 tenable situation that these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so of course continue to wash see how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh arrest in that country geo political analyst says bahrain's

ties with the u.s. give the kingdom's rulers freedom to deal with things in the way it sees fit. the people of bahrain have been ruled by one single family of a minority in the country so 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 week workers around the world joined a day of protests against unemployment poor salaries and violations of their rights a number of may day rallies and particularly made headlines in turkey if you look at this video here 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 then moving back here in spain these are pictures from barcelona 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 mayday protesters marched and athens as a well all part of a twenty four hour walkout following the recent cutbacks 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 let's take a look these are the three countries with the highest on him. ploy middle rates in the euro zone in greece over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job while in spain. about one in every four is unemployed portugal's rate is not far behind it are the ones down here in real green seventeen point five percent are teased as are cilia has a look into how people across europe are dealing with skyrocketing unemployment and found out leaving the country is a popular choice. the unemployment rate in the years old has recently reached a record twelve percent and 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 now 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 extremely awful because the only thing it 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 most of them were totally eight and 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 i read. in two thousand and twelve. and the person percentage of young people to emigrate from italy grew up by thirty

forty percent in two thousand and twelve i read john know what will be interested in for. and it's not just e.u. citizens feed the kids foreigners would come to europe to see new opportunities starting their own business is building their lives and now we're also change their minds fred ziona this meant leaving greece and go to 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 was expensive and 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 that 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 still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future. something she says just isn't possible right now to trends

look at the figures in countries like ardent some people argue that a whole generation has left and perhaps for good you know. i don't think so i rather stay here for one time does so sylvia our team brussels. the face of british politics appears to be changing with some unexpected results coming out of the local elections this week the anti 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 ukip gained one hundred thirty nine new local councillors that's up from just previously they only had eight the labor party finished two hundred ninety one seats up of the two coalition parties were badly hit with the liberal democrats losing one hundred twenty four seats and the conservatives are down three

hundred thirty five seats 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 you caps program you membership and immigration in his speech lining the government's legislative plans are t. asked the deputy leader of the u.k. independence party paul not all if he felt the conservative party was about to wrestle the initiative away from them. david cameron is committed to the european union we know that because he said if there is it that 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 weigh every day and what about to open our borders all to twenty nine million. bulgarians when restrictions for on january first encounters 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 tank on our 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 at elections that we will win i genuinely believe we will send more any peace back to brussels 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 will wipe the floor with clegg cameron plans for a large mania we'll start look at some other international news in brief for you

this hour at least nine people have been killed and dozens injured in a series of attacks in and around baghdad the first attack occurred when a bomb went off near a mosque in the western suburbs of the iraqi capital even one person dead there six people were killed after another blast near an internet cafe in a sunni neighborhood and south of baghdad the mayor of maher and his son were killed and their house by an unknown gunman the attacks come amid heightened the sectarian tensions that left forty people dead last week. paris tens of thousands of protesters marched against economic austerity to mark the end of president francois hollande first year in office with france on the edge of recession and unemployment at an all time high alond has also suffered a sharp fall in popularity for his support of gay marriage thousands also staged a protest against the gay marriage bill that was recently passed by the french parliament. at least one person has been killed and dozens injured after

a hard line islamists clashed with police in bangladesh and the demonstrators blocked roads and threw stones at police officers as they called for strict anti blasphemy law thousands of security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas first the protesters who also demanded death for a fuse to bloggers that caused public uproar earlier this year. well coming up after the break we take a tour around the streets of mexico's border city to water rights with drug cartel wars and daily shootings. 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 haun 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 us. life at school really unpleasant but the wacko 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.

and any welcome to. hear you can feel it.