the syrian army allegedly discovers a lab used by rebels to produce and store toxic chemical substances those reports coming from state television. fugitive n.s.a. leaker edward snowden asks russia for asylum as he struggles to put an end to his legal limbo in a moscow airport transit zone sparking american outrage towards the kremlin. and a criminal probe for an ex-president egypt's former leader was investigated for allegedly spying killing and wrecking the economy even as he's backers continue to protest for his return.

to look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on. syrian state t.v. says the military has found a chemical laboratory producing poisonous materials for rebel forces sources claim there was a plan to stuff shells with the substances and attack damascus a middle east correspondent paula slim has the details the syrian army has found chemical materials in the town of jobar which is on the outskirts of the capital city of damascus initial reports say that the syrian army seized a factory that was occupied by a group of foreign backed militants and that chemical materials were found inside that factory now we do see canisters we do see white packages that they have uncovered and it does seem as if they were producing chemicals in this bar treat it

says poison chemical substances made in saudi arabia so we do see that a saudi factories are also involved we're also receiving reports of the rebels were planning to stop artillery shells or with the chemical weapons that they were producing here and use them to. attack damascus this comes on the same day as heavy clashes are being reported near the capital on sunday on the seventh of july armed rebels were found imposition of some two hundred eighty barrels of chemical substances at the time the syrian ambassador to the united nations said that the quantity found was enough to destroy a whole city if not the entire country the use of chemical weapons has always been a red line for washington and its allies they have always constantly quinten fingers at the syrian government and accused of using chemical weapons saying that you can see if it was in the pacific or head this would be the red line that they would not tolerate but back in march there was an attack in the second largest city

in damascus and it was later found that they did the seventh nerve gas had been used in that attack moscow conducted its own investigation and concluded that the syrian rebels were actually to blame for the use of the gas and russia gave samples and documents relating to this to the united nations last week russia's united nations ambassador said that wisdom claims appear to be aimed at undermining investigations into the chemical attack he said this when he explained the findings the results of the analysis clearly indicate that the ordinance used in commerce so was not really manufactured and was filled with saddam. the study and technical specifications prove that it was not industrially manufactured either the project allen vault is not is standard one for chemical use therefore there is evident you seem to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in so it's very important to make the point that the united states claims

that that regina is using chemical weapons that these planes are without any kind of proof and of course the whole argument over the use of chemical weapons with maine's a hot potato but without that kind of proof the u.s. and its western allies are going to have a hard time of moving anything that they claim. washington has previously threatened action against the syrian government if it uses chemical weapons against its people the middle east expert and historian tulloch ali told me even the discovery of a rebel chemical lab won't change america's rhetoric. it's very clear that the sections of the rebel leadership have been desperate for western military intervention and well prepared to go along the way through the route i remember before all just after the sarin gas attack media emblazoned it across their front pages in some european countries to put pressure on washington so if the latest

from the syrians is true it's very serious indeed surely then the us has to react to that because it is screwed it has said that it has sad the regime used chemical weapons that is in effect crossing the red line but of course of the rebels and how discovered using them washington's got to react the same way as no no washington doesn't need to react at all i mean double standards radio in international diplomacy there are very few norms if it is not in the united states and the. european union i losed to react they have on create to troll the will not treat the rebels in the same way as the agree to a syrian state. meanwhile anonymous u.s. officials claim israel attacked syria's port city of attack yet nine days ago the strike allegedly targeted a russian made anti ship missile battery which syria received two years ago israel's prime minister refused to confirm or deny tel aviv's involvement while saying he will not allow weapons to reach has been up militants in lebanon well it

would be the fourth unconfirmed israeli strike on syria within the last several months let's now trace back some of those air raids while a military compound just outside damascus was bombed from the air on january the thirty first a second similar operation reportedly took place on the third of may rockets struck a warehouse at damascus international airport allegedly containing surface to surface missiles well just two days later massive blasts that were described as earthquake like shook the same military base that was targeted in. generate on all occasions the attacks were justified as operations to wipe out iranian missiles bound for hezbollah well amir oren the senior correspondent as israel's had its newspaper told my colleague. this month's reported raid had the same intention israel's defensive agenda of not clashing with syria

but when a terrorist organization such as possible are tries to get its hands on such a sophisticated missiles we have no current confirmation of direct hezbollah involvement we also know that these russian weapons were actually sold to syria more than two years ago now if indeed israel is involved in these airstrikes what's tell of eve's motivation here israel does not go out and preempt syrian missiles and it does so only when syria seems to be on the verge of transporting transferring those missiles to hezbollah so rather than wait until these missiles reach the root or side of israel probably decided to preempt and hit the suburbs gyptian prosecutors are investigating the country's else to president mohamed morsi for allegedly spying killing protesters and ruining the economy he was deposed by the military early last week and prosecutors are now cracking down heavily on members of his muslim brotherhood party. bill truly is encouraged.

egypt's the prosecutor general this is from judicial sources has actually frozen the assets of fourteen leading is the most figures who are behind mohamed morsi this comes after of course the reports all the rest so many of that lead is of course off to these recent reports of the charges laid against the former president himself meanwhile the most of brotherhood for their part maintain they will steadfast they want president the former president but mostly to come back and they will not move from a sit in a mosque in central cairo and the university of to cairo in tel he is reinstated meanwhile with things in the can developments here in the interim government we had a lot of appointments and now today one of the most significant ones is the vice president of foreign affairs and mohamed el baradei he is a leading opposition figure and once head of what was the largest coalition of opposition forces the national salvation front another leading opponent we've had today is that the foreign head of. the former egyptian ambassador to the u.s.

the bill for me he was a barack era ambassador and is very well regarded in washington in america to these two appointments mohamed el baradei and the bill for me could be seen to be a nod towards the west as they both have very good relations with america meanwhile america for their part have announced that they will have an envoy coming to you. to egypt the first. leader to come from america to egypt since the ouster of mohamed morsi this is reportedly to be a leading member of the state department bill burns he is due to come in the coming coming months america is looking cautiously egypt at the moment they haven't announced the last two weeks as a coup neither have they confirmed that it neither confirm that it isn't it's obviously very important that definition because that would affect u.s. assistance to egypt you know america paid to be extending a hand out to the new interim government so we have yet to see what's going to

happen with the people who are determined to support the deposed leader whether that involves clashes in the future and also to see how this interim government continues in the next few months. bill true there in cairo let's get some analysis on the latest events in egypt from barry lando he's a middle east journalist very we're seeing former u.n. nuclear chief and an ambassador for egypt to the u.s. getting involved here in this interim government so does that surprise you here we have a couple of candidates there with very strong u.s. ties. well barry a bar there has been around he was going to be they were going to make him prime minister up until a few days ago he was actually on his way to the to being inaugurated when the coalition. supporting the government one of the major parties refused to go along with that so it's not surprising i think the big question is what what power will they really have these civilians i mean it's really it's really their military rank egypt they run the country since one thousand nine hundred fifty two and to say

that they are now somehow going to let the muslim brotherhood back in to the political game i think that's that's the big question you don't think they will i mean obviously we're seeing mass arrests in the assets frozen of the islamist leader surely they should play a political part shouldn't they offer all they do have a lot of support they have a tremendous amount of support and the problem is with the military going out to them this way it might be that they're in one hand they're going after them with a fist and apparently there are push nations point on very listen members of the muslim brotherhood to see if there's not a way that they could let morsi back again even if only for a few hours as president so that he could resign with some kind of unity but it seems i would go pretty much with that would work no and the problem is if the muslim brotherhood now is frozen out the future political system in egypt there's

nothing but trouble ahead. but morsi was thrown out in line with the u.s. interests it's what they wanted to see happen i don't think so i think what they knows really what they want to see but i think probably what it would like to have seen a you know quote unquote kind of democratic system continue it was the first elected government in egypt and i'm sure what they wanted to see was that morsi being much more. then he was to the opposition not trying to get a monopoly on power as he did i mean morsi played a very stupid game and in effect shot himself down and shot his own party down at the same time and he's he's as much response was only one crew creating the mess that egypt is in right now so do you think it's right that he should be under arrest for the suspicion of ruining the country for spying and it is that right foot for him to be in that predicament right now i don't think so and you know i

think that if they want to go ahead with the muslim brotherhood those structures are going to be dropped. it's not the way they should be operating but i think as i said i think the big problem is how are you going to get the army who basically has a visceral dislike that muslim brotherhood and has redactors how are you going to get them to open up once against the ok it will have elections all over again and it's the muslim brotherhood again winds of big big who wins wins the government will let them take power that i think is very unlikely. that middle east analysts live on r.t. thanks so much for your thoughts on this. a court verdict divides the us after the break take a look at the public reaction following the controversial acquittal of george zimmerman shot dead black teenager trayvon martin that's another story.

what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a factual standard of living. i would rather as questions of people in positions of power instead of speaking on

their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.g.p. question more. he watched the weekly live here in moscow more than three weeks after arriving the world finally got sight of n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden this week when he surfaced from his hideout in a moscow airport transit sent him a human rights activist and also to help in requesting temporary political asylum in russia. has been closely watching the snowden saga. russian immigration officials say they have not received an official request from edward snowden regarding his political asylum in russia but that request has been filed on friday evening so perhaps due to the fact that it's the weekend in russia right now the

people would simply hasn't hasn't been properly process just yet russia's conditions were that snowden has to stop his anti american. something which snowden promised he will no longer do three latin american countries that they're willing to take him on now he does not have any people want to travel with his american passport has been the knowledge he doesn't have any other people work he cannot even buy a ticket and he does need some something in order for him to move to another country so that a safe passage could be provided in that he's relying on russia as snowden himself has explained the situation that he was living in during the meeting with human rights activists a little every one month ago a. family home in paradise and i lived in great comfort. i also had the capability without any warrant of law just search or see and read your communications anyone's communications at any time there is the power to change people's speeds it is also

a serious violation of the wall so finding himself in such circumstances it seems that what he was doing came into conflict with snowden's own personal believes and he has explained that in an interview to the guardian newspaper the interview that started it all with the second part of which came out just very recently increasingly was exposed to true information that had not been propagandized in the media. that we were actually involved in misleading the public and i was actually a victim that i grew up with the understanding that the world i lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with and talk to each other and privacy without of being under threat of being measured or analyzed or or or sort of judged by. the shadowy figures or systems so really the ball is in russia's court at this point and it's all up to moscow to decide whether or not to grant edward snowden a status of an aside and for how long they're willing to do that. german chancellor

angela merkel has called for an international data protection or covering the whole european union in her annual t.v. interview she also said she's expecting assurances from the u.s. that it will respect german legislation in the future germany's been one of the top targets for n.s.a. surveillance but geo political analyst doesn't believe america's spying was anything new to officials in bernie and i think the politicians are feigning surprise anglo-american and others about the level of involvement between german intelligence agencies and you know say. they're not naive germany knows that the united states has. locked grip control with anything sensitive that happens in germany and has since the. world war two. so i've been told not how much you know of the skills of the russians and the try and use of that regard but they're not amateurs so i think the politicians are pretending to be shocked in

order that their voters not overreact if germany starts becoming in your life too close to russia to china in terms of trade agreements in terms of economic agreements so they can preempt that energy especially they can preempt that intervene at the point at the key time it's an enormous weapon so norma's advantage . check out the timeline of the snowden saga doughty dot com online all the time a web site to follow all these revelations attempts to escape the u.s. prosecution and the international tension caused by his li. also there are line one guardian journalist says the information snowden still has can do more damage to america than anyone ever has before read all about it at r.t. dot com. former neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman has zimmerman has been found not guilty of murdering black teenager trayvon martin

a verdict which is cause fury across the united states is that it we live in a place called united states of america radio always dramatising this is a good place to cry. african-american because we. never get justice will always killing. another color kill. demonstrators outside the florida courthouse chanted justice for trayvon and called for a nationwide protest over what they consider to be racial injustice similar protests took place in other u.s. cities including new york chicago los angeles zimmerman face life in prison for shooting a seventeen year old martin in february last year something he claims was in self-defense and even though it turned out the teenager was unarmed zimmerman is still not charged for over two months the case has become cause for fierce debate about racism and gun all over the country as a kiwi he's not a tour of the pan-african news wire let's get his thoughts now on the situation he

joins us live here in r.t. . the court couldn't prove that this was a murder so therefore the verdict was correct wasn't it. no it was outrageous the fact of the matter is we had a seventeen year all african-american youth who was unarmed he was walking through his own neighborhood he was racially profiled by george zimmerman who exited his vehicle who was armed who pursued him who called police who told him to stop following trayvon martin he continued anyway and in fact he attacked trayvon martin and trayvon martin was shot to death and of course george zimmerman has walked three as a result of this race is that of course of a very very unjust verdict and i think the implications that this is going to be long term here in the united states we already have a horrendous state of affairs that as it relates to race relations we have to look

at the context in which this decision is taking place we just had two major supreme court decisions two weeks ago one involving affirmative action another which struck down the enforcement provisions of the one nine hundred sixty five voting rights act and here again the courts are failing african-americans and people of color why has this become a race issue cinnamon is hispanic and multan was black both from the northeast. well of course settlement of course acted based upon the racial profiling political culture that exists broadly here in the united states he is not a law enforcement officer he had no right to be pursuing trayvon martin and the same time the people who came to his defense are the same people who defend white cops who defend white races when they take this type of blatant violent action against african-americans this is clearly a case of people of color of oppressed people here in the united states not being

able to achieve justice inside this country and what's very interesting about this case is that many people don't realize this is definitely going to have long term implications in regard to race relations inside the united states it's not an isolated incident george zimmerman would have never even then arrested or indicted in this case if it had not been for the alway's of millions of african-americans and their supporters throughout the country just one and a half years ago they were going to allow him to go scot free in this killing and they have done so anyway some kind of a half years later you talk about long term implications what about the immediate implications there's talk of a national protest what sort of backlash could we see now throughout the country. it's already going on even though last evening in the immediate aftermath of this verdict there were demonstrations across the united states for the nation's capital in washington d.c. all the way to the bay area and california most of those demonstrations were

peaceful but there were some violent outbreaks that took place in the bay area that demonstrations continuing today here in the city of detroit there's going to be a demonstration starting at five thirty down at grand circus park in the heart of downtown denouncing this verdict and calling for justice for trayvon martin there's still the option of demanding the justice department file civil rights charges against. george zimmerman and also there is the possibility of civil war the actions being taken by the family of trayvon martin against george zimmerman a barry thanks for your thoughts on this album as if you were editor at the pan african news wa life on the so a case which divided the united states has reached a controversial conclusion and here's the verdict from you we've been asking you on our web site r.t. dot com on our online poll what you make of this case well it's out thirty seven

percent of you who've logged on so far see no problem with the decision because they say zimmerman was entitle to self-defense a slim margin separates them and those who think that the neighborhood watch worker racially profile the teenager before the deadly fight that stands at thirty five percent and just under twenty percent if you simply don't care and didn't follow the case and we can see that the smallest amount of those who had voted say fall on shore because they feel there really isn't enough evidence so that's your response so far on r.t. dot com have your say if you don't already. now for some other news around the world more deadly attacks rocked towns across iraq today and the most recent reports suggest up to fifteen people have been

killed in a wave of bombings in the city of basra well earlier today in the northern city of mosul attacks left six more dead including a local politician and his son this brings the death toll to over three hundred for july alone. dozens of protests rock bahrain as anger continues over the country's treatment of political prisoners the riots broke out after a leading female activist accused guards of physical and psychological torture one in prison the oil rich state has been struggling to rest since two thousand and eleven. the protest movement of being put off by the severe crackdown and activists which has seen hundreds imprisoned. a second night of violence has hit the capital of northern ireland with pro british loyalists once again clashing with police hundreds of additional officers were deployed from across the u.k. dozens were injured over thirty arrests were made the trouble flared as protestant marches found their traditional route shortened to keep it from passing through a sectarian flashpoint furthur ports from belfast.

a tinderbox of tensions once again ignited police on the front line feeling the heat at belfast's most recent riots more than a thousand police officers from across the u.k. drafted in to assist northern ireland's police force anger surrounding the july twelfth parades spilling over into a second night rising the scene of the disturbance once again focused here in the loyalist would fail worried barely more than a stone's throw from the republican arguing district police hadn't forced a controversial ruling from the parades commission that the march could not pass the arduin shops on its return rate sparking the latest on rest but was the first light riot to wage by taking part in the parade these rioters were younger and smaller in number things like these the flare up over the decision to restrict the flying of the union flag last winter but their protests occurred almost daily and

the cost of policing those riots estimated to run into the tens of millions of pounds these riots taking place in a loyalist streets rioters waging this fight on their own doorsteps i mean having children if you want to see happen for younger people. want all the stuff. that's on the street. level something. any round of multiparty talks to seem to be held in belfast led by american diplomat richard haass the questions many will want to see addressed they surrounding cultural expression the flags and parades that still mark some of the most inflammatory issues between northern ireland's protestant and catholic communities scratch below the surface of all the violence peace part of it's clear to me that the sectarian divisions within. it's the big question that now need to be out there given the events everything they can that is

going to make me up coming talked about headed by members of the international community or the more crease still there are. up next after the break r.t. takes you to the african state of gonna to look at what's being held as an economic success story. many in latin america are furious with the forced grounding of bolivia's president evo morales is playing in austria and even twelve nations or latin america are coming together to discuss the consequences of the event the pointless.