the syrian army allegedly discovered a lab used by rebels to produce and store toxic chemical substances those reports coming from state television. 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. 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 sparky american outrage towards the kremlin. plus fury boils over in america following the court verdict acquitting george zimmerman of killing black teenager trayvon martin protests raging across the nation.

in a pack of 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 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 said that the syrian army seized a factory that was occupied by a group of foreign backed militants and that chemical materials were found inside their 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 the bar treat it

says poison chemical substances made in saudi arabia so we do see that they sell the factories are also involved we're also receiving reports of the rebels were planning to stop artillery shells 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 of the syrian ambassador to the united nations said that the quantity found was enough to destroy a whole city if not the entire country be use of chemical weapons has always been a red line for washington and its allies they have always constantly pointed fingers at the syrian government and accused of using chemical weapons saying that if the if it was in the pacific head this would be the red line that they would not

tolerate but back in march there was an attack in the the second largest city in damascus and it was later found that the deadly sarin 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 common assault was not really manufactured and was thrilled with saddam. the site in technical specifications proved that it was not in the us to really manufactured either the project allen vault is not a standard one for chemical use therefore there is evidence you seem to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons so it's

very important to make the point that the united states claims that the regime is using chemical weapons that these claims are without any kind of proof and of course the whole argument over the use of chemical weapons were 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 came. washington has previously threatened action against the syrian government if it uses chemical weapons against its people but middle east expert and historian topic all the 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 minute cream to french and well prepared to go along the way through achieve it 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

claim from the syrians is true it's very serious indeed surely then the us has to react to that because it is its crude 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 he is in them washington's going to react the same way as no no washington doesn't need to react at all i mean double standards prevail in international diplomacy there are very few norms if it is not in the truce that the united states and its european union allies to react they won't react at all they will not treat the rebels in the same way as they agree to a syrian state. meanwhile anonymous u.s. officials claim israel attacked syria's port city of latakia nine days ago the strike allegedly targeted a russian made and to ship missile battery which syria received two years ago

israel's prime minister refused to confirm or deny televisa involvement was saying he will not allow weapons to reach has been up militants in lebanon now 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 when a military compound just outside damascus was bombed from the air on january 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. or just two days later massive blasts that were described as earthquake like shook the same military base that was targeted in january on all occasions the attacks were justified as operations to wipe out a rainy missiles bound for hezbollah amid orden he's a senior correspondent at 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 beirut or side of israel probably decided to preempt and hit the. egyptian prosecutors are investigating the country's ousted president mohamed morsi and edge of the spying can in protest is 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 true is incorrect. egypt's prosecuted 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 you know after course reports all the rest so many of the lead is full and of course after these recent reports all of the charges laid against the former president himself meanwhile the most brotherhood for their part maintains they will steadfast that they want president the former president morsi to come back and they will not move from my city in a mosque in central cairo and that the university of to cairo in till he is reinstated meanwhile was thinking that it can developments here in the interim government we have a lot of appointments and now one of the most significant ones is the vice president for foreign affairs and mohamed el baradei he is a leading opposition figure and once had what was the largest coalition of opposition forces the national salvation front another leading opponent we've had

is that the foreign head of. this. former egyptian ambassador to the u.s. the bill for me he was a barack era ambassador and it 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 to deposed leader whether that involves clashes in the future and also to see how this interim government continues in the next few months. at least in this barry lando says if the muslim brotherhood is not included in the transitional government egypt will face more chaos. big question is what what power will they really have the civilians i mean it's really it's really their military running egypt they run their country since one thousand nine hundred thirty two and to say that they are now somehow going to let the muslim brotherhood back in the political game i think that's the question morsi being much more all in than 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. in he shot his own party

down at the same time and he's he's as much response force anyone through creating the mess that egypt is in right now if that the muslim brotherhood now is frozen out of the future political system in egypt there's nothing but trouble ahead. a court verdict divides the us after the break we'll take a look at the public reaction following the controversial acquittal of george zimmerman who shot dead black teenager trayvon martin back a lot of stories here on. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a factual standard of living.

i would rather asked questions for 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.t. question more. news continues here in r.t. 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 zone he met human rights activists and asked for their help in requesting temporary political asylum in russia. has been closely watching the snowden saga. 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 said 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 over 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 it came out just very recently i 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 them talk to each other and privacy without of being under threat of being measured or analyzed or or or sort of judged by these 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 asylum and for how long they're willing to do that. german chancellor angela merkel has called for an international data protection the wall covering the whole european union and you'll 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 political analyst william bell doesn't believe america's spying was anything new to officials in berlin i think the politicians are feigning

surprise on the americal and others about the level of involvement between german intelligence agencies and the n.s.a. . they're not naive germany knows that the united states has. a lot grip control over anything sensitive that happens in germany and has since the end of world war two germany so i've heard intelligence are or are not amateurs they may not have the skills of the russians in 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. 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 . well all of that leaked information from edward snowden is building up

a picture of how america's global surveillance operations are structured some look at what we know so far well first off there's the futuristically named nucleon system this is what listens in to your phone calls wherever they may be directed it's thought that if it catches a suspicious keyword. it can then be flagged and then you are subjected to further scrutiny then there's the cryptically titled pin whale system this program is said to troll for suspicious activity through videos on the web whether that's your live skype call with your friends or family or a you tube video that's been uploaded and then we have who you phoned it where you phone from and when you call them it's all stored by what's known as the main way now this system is reportedly capable of building a facebook like profile a friends list all about you just from your calling habits and then lastly we now know about marino now she's a program in charge of recording your online life this is said to be able to catch

store and record your sent e-mails before they even reach the recipient so these four are just some of the systems that make up america's surveillance network the ones that we do actually know about well snowden meeting with human rights activists at a moscow airport triggered an immediate reaction from washington the u.s. criticized russia for providing him a propaganda platform for those that accusation was met with a certain bemused amount of the state department's briefing. we are disappointed that russian officials and agencies facilitated this meeting today by allowing these activists and representatives into the moscow airport's transit zone to meet with mr snowden despite the government's declarations of russian's neutrality with respect to mr snowden sorry you're disappointed that they let someone into their own airport and allow it well that they facilitated this event of course why because this gave a forum i don't think that we should have before there's

a full use forfeited his right to freedom of speech as well met miss mr snowden as we've talked about let me just say this because i think it's important he's not a whistleblower he's not human rights activists he's wanted on a series of serious criminal charges brought in these certain eastern district of virginia in the united states i'm sorry but i didn't realize people wanted on charges forfeited their right to speak to free speech presidents putin and obama have discussed the status of edward snowden on the phone in an apparent attempt to resolve diplomatic wrangling over the n.s.a. whistleblower stephen cohen is a professor russian and slavic studies at new york university says this is a tough test for the leaders. this is a classic case of the testing of leadership both in moscow and washington neither leader neither obama nor putin can be happy about mr snowden sitting in the moscow airport and didn't invite him to russia but he can't toss him for various political

reasons obama needs to show he's tough on snowden to try i can't believe that the united states actually wants to put snowden on trial because it was a fair trial a legal trial all snowden would have the right to subpoena american officials who have knowledge of all this intelligence is exposed that would not be so i think there's a vested interest bills with obama and putin to find a way to solve this problem so that neither is damaged politically so will now see what kind of leaders they are you can check out the timeline of the snowden saga r.t. dot com our website online all the time to follow all these revelations attempts to escape us prosecution and the international tension caused by his leaks also one caught in journalist says the information snowden still has can do more damage to america than anyone ever has before read all about it at auntie dot com.

the u.s. justice department says it will review the verdict which set former neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman free after the jury found him not guilty of murdering black teenager trayvon martin the court decision has caused fury across the u.s. he said it will have a place called united states of america audio always graham arising out of place because not by african-americans because we've. got to put every says we. never get sisters will always kill and we don't know the color kewl. demonstrators outside the florida courthouse chanted justice for trayvon and called for a nationwide protest over what they considered to be racial injustice similar ronnie's took place in other u.s. cities including new york chicago and los angeles zimmerman faced life in prison for shooting seventeen year old martin in february last year and she kind was done

in self-defense and even though it turned out the teenager was unarmed zimmerman was still not charged for over two months the case is led to face debate across the country on the issues of racism and we have as a kiwi he's a negative for the pan african newswire i spoke to an ability he says that the shooting was clearly racially motivated and has caused a major outcry throughout america. zimmerman 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 at the same time the people who came to his defense other say people who defend white cops who defend white racists will need to take this type of blatant valen action against african-americans last evening in the immediate aftermath of this verdict there were demonstrations across the united states of a nation's capital in washington d.c.

all the way to the bay area in california most of those demonstrations were peaceful but there were some violent outbreaks that took place in the bay area 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 to file civil rights charges against george zimmerman and also there's the possibility of civil war awful death actions being taken by the family of trayvon martin against george zimmerman so a case which divided the. states has reached a controversial conclusion here's the verdict all of some of our viewers have been logging on to our web site r.t. dot com and this hour thirty seven percent of you who logged on see no problem with the decision since zimmerman is entitled to self-defense the slimmest of margins we can see there separates them and those who think the neighborhood watch work at

racially profiled the teenager before the deadly fight that lies at thirty six percent just under twenty percent of you simply don't care and didn't actually follow the case and then the smallest amount eight percent say well there's not enough evidence so that's what they think of the moment dot com you can have your say right now. i. just turned twenty four minutes past the hour to some other news from around the world now in the world update more deadliest attacks rocked towns across iraq on sunday in the most recent reports suggest up to fifteen people have been killed in a wave of bombings in the city of basra well earlier in the day in the northern city of mosul attacks left six more dead including

a local politician and his son this brings the death toll over three hundred for july alone. dozens of protests rocked bahrain as anger continues over the country's treatment of political prisoners and riots broke out after a leading female activist accused guards of physical and psychological torture while in prison he ordered state been struggling to put on my since two thousand and eleven the protest movement has not been put off by the severe crackdown on activists which is seen hundreds imprisoned. second out of volunteers at the capital of northern ireland with pro british lawless once again clashing with police hundreds of additional officers were deployed from across the u.k. dozens were injured over thirty arrests were made trouble flared as part of marches from their traditional route shortened to keep it from passing through a sectarian flashpoint first reports from belfast.

a tinderbox of tensions once again ignited police on the front line feeling the heat of belfast most recent riots or the thousand police officers from across the u.k. drafted in to assist northern ireland's police force angus 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 wait barely more than a stone's throw from the republican arguing districts police hadn't forced the 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 lights riots who waged by loyalists to taking part in the parade these rioters were younger and smaller in number things like these actually 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 raw is 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 is so what do you want to see happen for younger people to stop this yeah i want all the stuff we have enough of it. but. that's obviously. never stopped. any round of multiparty tools seem to be held in belfast led by american diplomat for. the questions many will want to see addressed they surrounding cultural expression the flags and parades but still most some of the most inflammatory is she's tween know the nylons put student and catholic community scotch below the surface it will deny that its peace plan and it's clear to me that the sectarian divisions were made in the big question that now needs to be out there given the events everything they did that is going to make me up coming cool

. headed by members of the international community or the more crease still there are. about. to take more news in half an hour in the meantime we take you to the african nation of ghana to look at what's being held as an economic success story itself to the break stay with us for that if you can. or remember those old wacky communist countries who constantly boost their numbers to make themselves feel better or who cares if stores aren't the end this piece of paper a one hundred thousand tons of potatoes that is good enough for me well now we are

in a new age of technology but the same lying to make yourself feel good is still going strong it just moved over to the capitals world the u.s. state department's bureau of international information programs has spent six hundred thirty thousand dollars on facebook advertising campaigns to get fans such of the government is out there to buy likes or what a fantastic use of tax dollars but wait maybe i'm being too pessimistic perhaps at work to really help spread the message of the u.s. state department effectively wellness victor general's report says that since the advertising campaign started twenty eleven there has been a dramatic increase in users. liking state department sites but the problem is that only two percent of them actually use the sites so you get what you pay for a big bag of likes but a few hard core fans probably the most shocking example is a vision of america group in farsi made for a rainy and which has gotten over four hundred twenty thousand members but only one percent of them is actually in iran where facebook advertising doesn't even exist that's effective getting lots of like.