the declaration of war that is how syrian officials have described the latest israeli air strike a military research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets early sunday morning the arab league has 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. and in bahrain a court has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing fire bombs during anti regime riots last year. it is six o'clock in the morning here in russia's the capital moscow i'm sean

thomas this is r.t. glad to have you with us syria says israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed 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 in the attacks it weapons dumps triggering a large explosion syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league has any dam to the strikes and demanded the un security council act to stop any further attacks meanwhile a t.v. station run by a 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 side of

a military research facility in after the attack but the center itself appears not to have been hit the strike apparently left a major road filled with debris and shell casings artie's middle east correspondent paula slayer has more. tension on the ground is increasing and increasing by the hour the syrian information minister. 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 mic 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 air strikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to its

radius mission 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 the civilian flights this is a precaution that's also a way of defusing the situation and for allowing it to be allowing for the iron dome 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 range missiles that could be fired from either levanon all syria or 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 cities citizens meanwhile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu held an emergency security cabinet meeting 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 early but a senior and named. the official from the company that tel aviv was responsible for sunday's strikes that will be the third strike inside syria that israel has carried out since january this year or his policy or 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 that there has been a dangerous a violation of an arab state sovereignty article two of the united states and united nations charter rather bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state or u.s. white house spokesman we meanwhile said that obama. feels that israel is justified in its concerns over the threat from hezbollah and he's going to judge can in washington and

a poly boyko in london told us more about the reaction coming from the u.k. and 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 yet the united nations have begun reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many international observers

of been keen to point out that arming the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for them why do the 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 one 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 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 hezbollah it will whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the sources in the u.s.

government on the officially call for the strikes just as they did. days ago when said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon damascus 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 so what is heading somewhere you can tell a bit of not 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 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 resulting more violence in a country where it's already devastating israel has closed part of its airspace to civilian aircraft following those strikes on syria but those asia times online correspondent pepe escobar told my colleague bill dodd earlier the attacks are merely plan b. after the u.s. and other nations 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 their elected retreating instead of adventuring so israel with this provocation they're willing for a response either from syria either from hezbollah 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 them and they just wait you do 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. fred what do 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 willi 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 so with 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 it 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 rory sushi spoke to a mirror or in a correspondent for israel's ha'aretz newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure security is part of the israeli policy which you can

describe. 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 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 playing 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 of all. to take these arms from syria and position them 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 preempt further conflict so i'm so 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 refugees 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 the havoc which will be wreaked by another lebanon war. in other developments in the syrian conflict there are indications that syrian rebels not the assad government have been using chemical weapons that is according to the u.n. independent commission of inquiry on syria investigators have gathered testimonies of victims and doctors at your hospitals which indicate that the rebel forces have used to do nerve agent sarin and this inquiry into human rights violations in syria is separate from the investigation monitored by u.n. your secretary general ban ki moon which has stalled the issue of possible chemical weapons used by the regime in damascus has been a key point in the u.s. and european countries stepping up their rhetoric of possible involvement in the conflict. the court in bahrain has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen

years of imprisonment huge they're 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 give a false confession the monarchy has been widely criticized for its violent suppression of protests rallies. for 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 island in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked bahrain since early twenty nine eleven now these protesters have been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on a flyer protesting possession of petrol bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters deny 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 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 as 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 a 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 builder 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. that this is and i'm tenable situation that these

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 wash see how this situation develops but it's quite possible that these the sentence sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh arrest in that country geo political analyst eric draitser says bahrain ties with the us give the kingdom's rulers freedom to deal with uprisings the way they see 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 the 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 and we've got more news online for you including the mystery of an antonov two plane which disappeared off radar as the last of june as a been solved of the debris of the crashed aircraft was found in the urals tyga forest at r.t. dot com for the full story. plus more sportswomen of saudi arabia could soon reach the olympic podium as the ultra conservative kingdom approves a progressive reform which will allow female students to take more sports classes

more details on our website. this week workers around the world are joined a day of protests against unemployment for salaries and violations of their rights a number of may day rallies in particularly made headlines let's start in turkey where there was much violence with police resorting to tear gas and water cannons against angry crowds at least twenty eight were injured and dozens more. arrested and these here are pictures from barcelona in spain where the rally was also marred by clashes with police thousands took to the streets there protesting austerity and unemployment which is at record highs made a protesters marched in athens greece as well all part of a twenty four hour walkout following the recent cutback of fifteen thousand public sector jobs and all of this comes as the e.u. faces the prospect of another year of a recession and of job losses according to the latest forecast let's take

a look at those these are the three countries in the e.u. with the highest unemployment rates in greece over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job spain not much better it's one in every four of their citizens are unemployed and portugal's rate pretty similar not far behind at seventeen four point five percent archies attempts are sillier looked into how people across europe are dealing with skyrocketing unemployment and found out that leaving europe 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 to go and see a biology graduate from italy now working in

a shelter in brussels and the situation in italy was extremely cool because it was the only thing i was able to get really short contract for like three months or six months with absolutely no possibility or ruling out any. industry or in the laboratory anything most most of them were totally hate and you can't really see. think of your future he says it wasn't a walk in the park in belgium 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 of the going back home i read. in two thousand and twelve. and a person present age of young people can integrate from italy to grow up by thirty forty percent in two thousand and twelve i really don't know what will be in to

towns in africa and it's not just e.u. citizens feeling the pinch foreigners would come to europe to seek new opportunities starting their will businesses and building their lives have now will also change their minds freds iana this meant leaving greece and going 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 six months ahead also many foreigners decided to leave grace and move to countries like germany and switzerland but the greeks who stayed behind are saying that the situation is really difficult there when for instance servicemen he used to get one and a half thousand euros and they're paid just one hundred m. out place has been open for two years and even though still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future and this is not something she says just isn't possible in europe right now to trend if you look at the figures in countries like

ardent some people argue that a whole generation has left and perhaps for good do not believe that i don't think so i believe 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 past week the anti e.u. anti establishment u.k. independence party. picked up a quarter of the votes propelling it from the margins into an actual real force let's take a closer look at the numbers you keep gained about 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 and then the two coalition parties well they were badly hit with the liberal democrats losing one hundred twenty four seats and the conservatives there 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 keeps program membership and immigration in his speech outlining the government's legislative plans r t asked of the deputy leader of the u.k. independence party paul nuttall 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 that is it 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 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 remaining in a bulgarians when restrictions for all 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 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 and by elections i mean 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 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 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. now let's take a look at some other news making headlines around the world 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 leaving one person dead six people were killed after another blast near an internet cafe in a sunni neighborhood and south of baghdad the mayor of ma and his son were killed in their house by and an unknown gunman the attacks come amid heightened sectarian tensions that left forty people dead last week. in paris tens of thousands of protesters marched against economic austerity to marking the end of president francois hollande first year and office with france on the edge of a recession and unemployment at an all time high has also suffered a shock fall in popularity for his support of gay marriage and also staged a protest against a gay marriage bill that was recently passed by the french parliament. at least ten people have been killed and hundreds after a hard line in the. least in the fund would. run for years blocked roads and

threw stones at police officers a call for strict blasphemy law and security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters who also demanded death for atheist bloggers that caused public uproar earlier this year. thousands took to the streets of tripoli to support a new bill banning gadhafi era officials from government posts soon after it was asked by the libyan parliament the move could unseat the prime minister and other top officials despite their role in top lead the dictator politicians debated the bill for months but it came to a head after a heavily armed groups took control of the ministries and stormed other institutions including the state broadcaster. this week. six people have reportedly been injured in the city of east palo alto in california by

an unknown gunman who fired several times from inside a car passing by a mcdonald's restaurant a child around the age of six is among the victims one of whom was taken to a hospital with serious injuries medics say he is in stable condition the incident happened an hour after three women were shot two of them fatally in a separate incident in the city of tampa florida all the way on the other end of the country police are now looking for the suspect orthodox easter has begun and actually finished solemn vigils held last night kicked off a week of celebration. sunday school students in one town outside of moscow marking the resurrection of christ joining in a religious procession the tradition was launched more than a decade ago children have been preparing for their easter parade during the fast working on handmade symbolic banners but the most exciting part of the celebration was the traditional might service at moscow's main

a cathedral or do you know parties. that. christ is friesen the phrase are to dogs read each other with the celebration continues early on saturday believe. in the church of the holy sample in jerusalem and the law is described to our two dogs believers as a miracle that happens alfre here on the eve of the easter celebration later that fire is distributed to the r.v. docks countries including. russia serbia georgia and many others and it was also brought to russia. in moscow. and was later delivery to the price deceivers that. are to docks cathedral in the country and that's where the main easter service was taking place this service to began shortly before midnight on saturday chris and holding candles and carrying around the cathedral. glory flying the

resurrection of jesus christ and service lasted for several hours and did so well into the early hours of sunday it was also the time to buy the russian president vladimir putin's plan the meet. and really despite what about one of those today as it was pouring with rain throughout saturday still hundreds of people came here to this special night service easter is a person it's a boy when. a long period of fasting b.g. verse abstain from meat x. fish and day we prod x. for forty eight days we stay ten suspending praying and this is a night so this is then followed by the easter sunday that's one believe there is give each other colored folks the be prepared and special russian easter bread which is called. it is really a very special moment.