the syrian army allegedly discovers a lab used by rebels to produce and store toxic chemical substances those reports coming from state television. a criminal probe for an ex-president egypt's former leader is investigated for allegedly spying killing and wrecking the economy even as he's back as continue to protest for his return. fugitive n.s.a. leaker edward snowden russia for asylum as he struggles to put an end to his legal limbo in a moscow airport transit zone sparkie american outrage towards the kremlin. and i get growth in america following the court verdict acquitting george zimmerman of killing black teenager trayvon martin with protests raging across the nation.

with a 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 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 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 laboratory it says poison chemical substances made in saudi arabia so we do see that 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 supported near the capital on sunday on the seventh of july armed rebels were found in position 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've always constantly pointed fingers at the syrian government and accused of using chemical weapons saying that if the if there was any proof that the head this would be the red line that they would not tolerate but back in march there was an attack in aleppo the second largest city in

damascus and it was later found that the 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 with some 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 filled with saddam. the study and technical specifications prove that it was not invested in manufactured either the project allen vault is not is 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 in alice so it's very important to make the point that the united

states claims that that regina 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 claim. washington has previously threatened action against the syrian government if it uses chemical weapons against his people but middle east expert and historian tariq 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 it truly cheve it i remember before all just after the sarin gas attack media emblazoned it across their front pages and some european countries to put pressure on washington so if the lead to stray 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 if that sounds regime used chemical weapons that is in effect crossing the red line but of course of the rebels are now 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. in international diplomacy there are very few norms if it is not in the united states and its european union our allies to react be able to troll be will not treat the rebels in the same way as they agreed to a syrian state. meanwhile anonymous u.s. officials claim israel attacked syria's port city of attack in ten 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 or 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 raid 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 and 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 january on all occasions the attacks were justified as operations to wipe out iranian missiles bound for hezbollah amid autum 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 turn of the motivation here israel does not go out and preempt syrian missiles 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 will reach beirut or side of israel probably decided to. hit the. egyptian prosecutors are investigating the country's ousted 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 was lim brotherhood party bill true is encouraging egypt's prosecuted general this is from judicial sources has actually frozen the assets of

fourteen leading is the misfits who are behind mohammed morsi this comes you know after of course there are reports all the rest so many of the leaders and of course after these recent reports of the charges laid against the president himself meanwhile the most brotherhood for their part maintains they will stand fast if they want president former president morsy to come back and they will not move from a sit in a mosque in central cairo and that the university of to cairo in turkey is reinstated meanwhile we're seeing significant developments here in the interim government because a lot of appointments and i don't want to make significant ones is the vice president of 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 a point 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 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 appear to be extending a hand out to the new interim government so we have to 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. pro morsi supporters are refusing to leave the streets of cairo calling for his reinstatement the crowd is chanting slogans waving flags and holding pictures of the ousted president middle east journalist barry lando has told me earlier that if the muslim brotherhood is not included in the transitional government egypt will face even more chaos. but the 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 the country since one thousand nine hundred thirty 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 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 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 a black teenager trayvon martin that and other stories still to come. this journey is not about seeing the world. it's a mission that i could to myself the project to succeed if i stay in the same place all the time. i've been traveling around the world for twenty days so far in all that time i haven't spent any money at all the main idea of the project because of

the artist paints people's portraits and return for some kids. that yes we have to get used to each other i think is a little disappointed about the bus i think because we're still spending a lot of money i mean if i spend it he shouldn't worry about that right now i don't think so goes a great artist but i don't think it's a con man and if you don't like the painting you just don't give anything.

he 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 that showed him a ten pm and also for their help in requesting temporary political asylum in russia an english guy 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 of the people it 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 is safe passage could be provided in that he's relying on russia 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 more 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 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 each other and privacy without it being monitored without 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 a decidedly 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 and your t.v. interview she also said she's expecting assurances from the u.s. that it will respect german legislation in the future germany has been one of the top targets for n.s.a. surveillance but jim political analyst william engdahl doesn't believe america's spying was anything new to officials in berlin i think the politicians are

feigning surprise on the americans 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 or are not amateurs they may not have the skills of the russians and the trying to use in 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 it's enormous advantage. well all of that leaked information from edward snowden is building up

a picture of how america's global surveillance operations are structured and some of the 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 you'll be flagged and then subjected to further scrutiny then there's the cryptically titled pin wales system this program is set to trawl for suspicious activity through videos on the web whether that's your live skype call with your friends or family or you tube video that's been uploaded up next who you phoned where you phone from and when you called them is all stored in what's known as main way now this system is reportedly capable of building a facebook like friends list to profile you just from your calling habits and lastly now we know all about marina she's a program in charge of recording your online life this is her. record your sent

e-mails before they even reach the recipient so that's four of these are just some of the systems that make up america's surveillance network of course the ones that we do know about snowden is meeting with human rights activists at a moscow airport triggered an immediate reaction from washington the u.s. criticize russia for providing him a propaganda platform although that accusation was met with a certain amount of the museum and at 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 well it well that they facilitated this event of course why because this gave a forum going to be should have before there's

a for you 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 were wanted on charges forfeited their right to speak just to free speech. president 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 he's professor of russian and slavic studies at new york university says this is a tough test for the leader 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 show but he can't toss him for various political

reasons obama needs to show he's tough on snowden. 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 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 and you can check out the timeline of the snowden sogard r.t. dot com to follow all these revelations attempts to escape u.s. prosecution and the international tension caused by his leaks right now online all the time also one guardian journalist says the information snowden still has can do more damage to america than anyone ever has before read all about that right now at r.t. 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 divided the u.s. . he said it we live in a place called the united states of america radio always graham arise and this is the case to cut. african-american because we've been stuck with a workable three says we. should never get justice will always kill an organ we don't know the cause of the killer demonstrators outside the florida courthouse chanted justice for trayvon and called for a nationwide protest over what they considered to be racial injustice it would not run its turn violent in oakland where protesters burned flags and smashed windows of police cars rallies also took place in other u.s. cities including new york chicago and los angeles zimmerman faces life in prison for shooting seventeen year old trayvon martin in february last year which she

claims was done in self-defense cases that the fifth debate across the country on the issues of racism and guns i mean i think he's a negative for the pan-african news why he told me earlier that the shooting was clearly racially motivated and has caused a major outcry throughout america. 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 others say people who defend white cops who defend white racists when they take this type of blatant violent 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 dirt and calling for justice for trayvon martin. there's still the option of demanding the justice department for our civil rights charges against george zimmerman and also there's the possibility of civil war fal death actions being taken by the family of trayvon martin against george zimmerman so a case which divided the united states has reached a controversial conclusion is the verdict of you our viewers on our online poll this hour thirty seven percent of you who logged on to our dot com see no problem with the decision since zimmerman is entitled to self-defense the slimmest of margins separates them as you can see there those who think that the neighborhood watch workout racially profile the teenager before the deadly fight stands at thirty five percent it's not a twenty percent if you simply don't care and didn't follow the trial we see the

smallest amount and nine percent think that there's not enough evidence in this logon to our teeth dot com and have your say. i. know some other news from around the world in our world update the deadly attacks rocked towns across iraq on sunday and the most recent reports suggest up to fifteen people have been killed in a wave of bombings in the city of basra earlier in the day in the northern city of mosul attacks left six more dead including a local politician and this brings the death toll to over three hundred for july alone. the protest 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 imprisoned all over it state has been struggling to quote unrest since two thousand and eleven the protest movement is not been put off by the severe crackdown an activist which has seen hundreds imprisoned. belfast has been rocked by a wave of clashes this weekend as the annual british parade turned violent hundreds of additional officers were deployed from across the u.k. dozens were injured and over thirty arrests were made the trouble was sparked when protestant churches found their traditional route shortened to keep it from passing through a sectarian flashpoint. reports now from belfast. develops the tensions once again ignited police on the front line feeling the heat at belfast's most recent riots or the thousand police officers from across the u.k. drafted in to assist northern ireland police force and

a surrounding the raids spilling into the second night right to the scene of the disturbance once again. here in the loyalists would fail wait very more than a stone's throw from the republican arguing district police hadn't forced a controversial ruling from the parades commission but the march could not pass the arduin shops on its return rate sparking the latest on rest but was the first night's riots who waged by sea taking part in the parade these rioters were younger and smaller in number seems like these at the flare up over the decision to restrict the flying of the union flag winter but then protests occurred almost daily and the cost of policing these riots estimated to run into the tens of millions of pounds these riots taking place in a loyalist streets rioters waging this fight. forty i mean having

to want to see happen for younger people with. all the stuff. that's obviously. never stopped. any round of both parties 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 but still most some of the most inflammatory issues tween northern ireland's protestant and catholic communities scratch below the surface of all the island's peace plan it's clear to me that the sectarian divisions remain in some big questions but no need to be all things given the events everything that is going to make me up coming home. headed by members of the community all the more crucial.

more news in half an hour in the meantime marty follows a man who's traveling around the world without spending any money that's after the break stay with us for that. or remember those old wacky communist countries who constantly boost their numbers to make themselves feel better or who cares if stores are empty and this piece of paper a one hundred thousand tons of potatoes that is good enough for me well now we're 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 a sense of the government is out there to buy likes oh 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 factor 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 if you 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 likes doesn't mean you are actually reaching people instead of paying for them why not you know get them naturally bar by providing interesting honest content on a regular basis oh wait that takes effort and honesty you.