mass protests erupted in more than one hundred cities across america after the killer of an unarmed black teenager walks free from court on grounds of self-defense. convicted and jailed a prominent russian opposition activist alexei you know bonnie is sentenced to five years in jail for embezzlement buch is free to pending an appeal. and one hand washing the other in artie's source says israel used a turkish military base to carry out an air strike on syria allegations that have been denied by ankara. plus reports emerged that germany's intelligence services eagerly helping the n.s.a. and its surveillance by berlin's much outrage over america's spying program.

and broadcasting live from our studios in moscow recapping the week's top stories it. is glad to have you with us. thousands have been gathering all week in cities across america to protest against of the acquittal of george zimmerman after a jury found him not guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager trayvon martin the ruling has set off a nationwide debate on racial hatred from washington has the story. we've seen protests in dozens of cities in the u.s. throughout the week following the verdict in the george zimmerman case people took to the streets demonstrating at courthouses and police stations throughout the country demanding justice for trayvon martin the seventeen year old black man who

was struck dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer dozens of people were arrested most of the arrests were made on charges of a lawful the families some places like the san benito protests turned violent demonstrators who walks a passing car many many americans were following to zimmerman trial it's obvious that racial disparities in the application of criminal laws in america remain all these people think had trayvon martin being white he would have been a white trayvon martin could have been me. thirty five years ago there are very few african-american men in this country who have movie experience of being followed when they were shopping in department store. that includes me. there are very very few african-american men who have never experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of course. that happens to me at least before i was the son of the fact of the matter is that under florida's

stand your ground law the defense doesn't even have to prove that their client is an angel it's enough to prove reasonable doubt that the defendant activity in self-defense and they are free to go so in this case you have a clash of different issues re civil rights vigilantes guns in self-defense last these people see a clash between the law and just states a very recent example also in the state of florida a black woman a mother of three with sentenced to twenty years in jail because she fired a bullet at a wall to scare off her abusive husband nobody was injured and the woman is in jail for twenty years while george zimmerman walked free so you see the faces of these people outraged. the protests against of the court's ruling have been gaining steam and of trying to high profile names to the cause it has brought additional spotlight and momentum to the rallies like this one in new york now the attorney u.s. attorney general was urging a review of state self-defense laws all the justice department has

a really launched a probe into the murder to see if racial profiling played a role in the crime or to spoke to martin luther king jr's daughter bernice who told us that the case illustrates a lingering racial discrimination in the u.s. . the fact that had this been a white american a white young man i doubt very seriously george zimmerman would have reacted so so swiftly in this situation i think you probably would have thought about it twice a lot of things have changed in america so we can't say nothing has changed i just think we're still contending with just laws and more importantly laws that disproportionately affect african-americans and african-american males. more than any other. group of people in america and so you know these kind of issues were very prevalent in my father's time oftentimes you would have all white juries in

most times when there is a black victim in this case and what i mean by victim is the one who did. nine times out of ten back in the sixty's or should i say ten times out of ten. that person would have walked this is george zimmerman zimmerman walked in this particular situation and there's plenty more on our t. dot com regarding the justice for trayvon campaign we've got some of the best pictures of the nationwide rallies video footage and a social media reaction lined up for you there all that just a click away on our web site. russian anti-corruption campaigner and opposition activist. was sentenced on a thursday to five years in prison for stealing half a million dollars but a day later he was freed on bail much to the delight of his supporters after prosecutors insisted on his release before his appeal is heard. hasn't been following the care. reform works or five and four years in prison that it's

a risk for setting up a dummy corporation and defrauding a state owned timber company to the tune of half a million dollars the judge insisted the verdict was not politically motivated but foreign media the blogger supporters and opposition activists decreed otherwise critical and a convict the conviction means that he won't be able to stand for mayor of moscow he says the embezzlement charges brought against him politically motivated an outspoken critic of the russian president vladimir putin has been sentenced to five years in prison one gets the feeling that people have already made up their minds before the case even started before the trial even started and they're not actually looking at the facts of the case or the way the trial was actually conducted but are simply following their own opinions which they formed in advance what kind of comment says is that someone like mr valma should not be prosecuted on this kind of charge because he is

a famous opposition personality now that seems to me to put things completely the wrong way round thousands of people in moscow's many years in the square a stone's throw from the kremlin indignant at the verdict. and immense police presence and if east of panic and social media for a while it looked like the situation could escalate. but there was a curveball from the prosecutor's office to request a friend of i me enough to serve until their verdict comes into effect immediately arrest a preliminary detention to stick to measure. as you put in spokesman said there was nothing unusual about the trial or the prosecutor's appeal stressing that the president can not and does not influence the court decision and that those convicted should carry out their punishment as prescribed by the judge and his blog said that he was ready for a long term preliminary can find and ordering books from the library and battling mosquitoes and his self but this spent less than twenty four hours in detention before being released from this court house straight into the arms of his

supporters eager for his campaign to continue so who is the self-appointed opposition figurehead who's running for mayor of moscow a lawyer by profession now where you spent the better part of the last few years flirting with nationalistic movements as well as leading a popular blog exposing like scale corruption and trying to make a for a into politics his trial the verdict and the surrounding media frenzy may have been closer to that goal he can according to your earlier report russia moscow city he can give as many interviews as he likes it's an absolute publicist a godsend for him it doesn't remove him from politics at all it's the absolute ideal solution for him in a sense it's been referred to abroad as russia's mandela moment perhaps too bold a claim the b.b.c. has the state run british broadcasting corporation calls it russia's mandela and they've been running stories all day just previously you know bill keller the executive editor of the new york times used to lord this man you know novell me you

already outlined his nationalist views here in this country we have laws against incitement to have the semitism incitement to near not ism which of course this man has flirted with repeatedly although he may not be major household name in russia yet alexina valley seems to have some serious support abroad he is paid by or has been paid by the united states of america when he set up a democratic alternative party a year or two ago it received money from the ne d. the n.e.t.'s the national endowment for the. funded by the us congress that was the main organization funding the orange revolution in ukraine back in two thousand and four the valleys party received money then from the american state as wiki leaks showed it not so long ago it even goes quite cute of central russian and still to come this hour in germany reports emerge accusing the country's intelligence of working hand in hand with american surveillance programs. alleges that the n.s.a.

provided its sister service in berlin with software to aid in the collection of private data of ordinary germans more on that later in the program. israel has reportedly used a turkish military base for a recent attack on syria that's according to an r.t. source who provided the information earlier in the week on cora strongly denies the allegations condemning even the mention of it by the media the alleged airstrike on the syrian city of latakia took place and early july and is believed to have targeted a russian made battery of anti-ship missiles our middle east correspondent possibly or has been following developments for us. there was a lot of talk and uncertainty in the region this week after our sources revealed that we have information that is will launch a strike on syria from turkey now the reports are been ekta to a strike back in early july on the syrian city of latakia if accurate this would be

the fourth time in recent months that tel aviv has ignored an attack against syria the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has neither denied nor confirmed these allegations he simply says that israel's policy is not to allow the transfer of dangerous weapons to hizbollah and other so-called terrorist organizations and that this is a policy that the country will not deviate from that and now who also saying that every time something happens in the middle east israel is to blame the turks for bayside have denied the allegations the turkish foreign minister saying that turkey will never be a part of nor a partner to such attacks he also said that the allegations were aimed at destroying turkey's power and victor taishan what is interesting is that relations between turkey and israel are at an all time low they deteriorated after the fratello attempt back in may two thousand and ten in which nine turkish activists were killed an f. was an attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the people of gaza back in march the

israeli prime minister apologized to the turks for that incident and what is happening now is that real questions are being asked about the sincerity of that apology there are also questions being asked as to why would turkey ally itself with its arch enemy in the region is role to launch an attack against another muslim country now it's no secret that turkey has spoken out against the regime of bashar assad in syria but this certainly is not a sufficient enough onset as to why turkey would work with israel to launch an attack against syria policy r.t. on the israeli syrian border. let's go ahead and track of the previous israeli air raids on syrian territory which have not been confirmed by officials in israel a military compound just outside damascus was bombarded twice in january and then again in may rockets also struck a warehouse at the capital's international airport allegedly containing surface to

surface missiles on all occasions the attacks were explained as operations to wipe out iranian missiles thought to be bound for hezbollah in lebanon historian and middle east expert mark on and believes israel's motives go beyond preventing weapons from reaching the group. it sort of has an interest in preventing hezbollah getting the weapons but the broader context is not just syria but also we are wrong and i think that's what turkey is caught in the could place because turkey is a historical military ally of israel with a lot of cooperation between the turkish military and israelis but it also is a low kind of train it's also borders iran and it could be a conduit for a potential strike into iran so it's an aspiration to make it much more difficult to detect something coming from israel as say the israelis worry that missiles sent from iran to hezbollah vos syria could be used as a revenge attack if they were to move the much discussed preemptive strike to try

and knock out iranian nuclear facilities with the by themselves or with the help of the americans israel may find it quite useful for turkey to be thought to be an active ally in its operations against syria and potentially against iran so that even if the israelis have plans perhaps to strike a diversion from a completely different direction the risk is that the turks a territory will be held responsible and turkey could be drawn into a conflict and this is going to deeply destabilize inside turkey. meanwhile britain's prime minister david cameron appears to be softening his rhetoric on the syrian conflict in a b.b.c. interview he said he still fully supports the opposition but admitted that there is too much extremism among the rebels it signals quite a change from november two thousand and eleven about half a year after the syrian conflict erupted back venda mr cameron called on the international community to engage more closely with the syrian rebels he upped his appeals for more a the following year saying that the syrian regime must be put under pressure fast

forward a year later and the rhetoric slightly changes he was still vehemently anti assad but not so sure anymore that arms shipments were the only way forward and this brings us up to the present with the syrian government advancing on the rebel militias the official opposition failing to unite and mr cameron describing the situation as a stalemate political analysts. explained earlier what could have been behind the u.k. leaders shifting position. situation is complicated i told him he will have difficulty getting. approval because there is quite a lot of i need to eat after iraq with this coalition partners the liberal democrats are on remarks or on supporting we have been very comic opinion is not supported brock is being realized in the west that no matter. how

much there are sure instance from western governments that. only the good guys will get help in terms of arms supplies best not the case on the ground and saudi arabia is very worried about the rise of slamming fundamentalism in syria because jordan and some of their white cloaks the minute the united states and britain indirectly by a key are helping the syrian rebels that has not stopped. well still to come on our team more bad news for greek workers athens bends over backwards to please its international lenders are the cost of tens of thousands of public sector jobs we have the full story in just a few minutes right here on our team. germany's foremost a news magazine claims the country's security services have been working hand in

hand with the n.s.a. to spy on ordinary citizens there should be a goal alleges software provided by the n.s.a. was used both by domestic and foreign intelligence agencies the latest revelations run contrary to angela merkel's outrage over the revelations she has denied any previous knowledge of the u.s. spying edward snowden revealed that weeks ago that washington's keeping a europe and especially germany under close watch but news the german intelligence is a willing participant is bound to send shock waves through the country says any machine on a whistleblower and former m i five agent we have a situation in germany where because of their historic experiences with the stop in world war two and the stars in east germany they put in place a very strong cast iron constitution to protect people from invasion that they're pretty pink spied on and this is what the germans have for decades taken for granted they have certain legal protections and we've seen this time and again when

other european wide loads of trying to be imposed on germany where you know things like facial recognition data on google face facebook have been banned in germany and yet the b.m.d. and the the intelligence agencies in germany have been doing this sort of spine so i think the hypocrisy it's quite astounding and it's a great deal of anger and questions right to how much the german government you know about what was going on. meanwhile the whistleblower responsible for exposing german cooperation with the n.s.a. is still stranded at a moscow airport awaiting russia's decision on his application for temporary asylum edward snowden is currently on the run from the u.s. authorities for lifting of the lid on their global spying program however he needs travel documents to move on after the state department cancelled his passport moscow says snowden will have to stop any further leaks if he wants to remain on russian territory jim from open rights group hopes the whistleblower will find

a way to continue with his revelations i hope it doesn't mean that he has to not talk about what the united states have been up to in broad policy terms i mean he's been very careful not to threaten individual peroration is not to expose particular agents or to make claims which would result in people safety being compromised rather he's been talking about the broad programs that the united states and u.k. have been dealing with he says he's got a lot of material and i certainly hope he has more to tell us it does seem that way aides completely change the debate right now and it's very important not to bait keeps happening i think a lot of things are happening in the wake of that there were at least two legal actions being launched in the u.k. on the back of what he's revealed i expect will be more in the usa the tech companies are challenging on the basis of their own free speech and also to clear their names of i was been going on so there is

a lot to happen whether or not he's got more material to give but i really would like to see whether he has got more to say and i hope he does. and you can always head online and for more stories and the latest updates here's a taste of what we have lined up for you right now things got a little shaky in new zealand a six point five magnitude earthquake rattled quite a few residents in a remote archipelago but fortunately no one was seriously hurt you can find the full video on our youtube channel plus. australia's great barrier grief after american warplanes mistakenly dropped an unarmed bomb on the world heritage site go to our website dot com to find out how the pilots got it so so wrong. greek workers were dealt another blow on wednesday with the government approving more massive public sector cuts in order to keep the economy afloat on bailout cash injections athens laid off twenty five thousand of

civil servants the measures were pushed through despite a general strike and huge rallies which brought services to a halt under a bill passed by parliament at least four thousand state employees will lose their jobs by the end of this year of two one thousand workers are being fired in greece every single day according to surveys by the helena statistical authority since two thousand and nine unemployment has skyrocketed from a little over nine percent to almost twenty seven percent and greece's economic output has plunged by almost one hundred billion euros are going off as a story. protected by law since the nineteenth century public workers are still considered to be the foundation of the greek economy but its creditors have demanded that the government cuts up to twenty five thousand public jobs before the end of this year otherwise greece is not going to get its latest financial aid package worth over six billion euros so doctors teachers security guards when you

spoke police public transport drivers and others have all gone on strike and gathered at the country's prominent happens to fight for their jobs it does the beginning they have in mind to destroy every public service in greece we need teachers we need people in the health sector we need people for the. garbage phone of anything past six years the greek economy has been in recession unemployment is at twenty seven percent but there are many of those who do work officially but haven't seen their salaries in months to handle three graduates are able to find a job there's a rise of drug addicts and the firm was including those with a fired patient and decades worth of work experience but the general feeling on the street is not only the government which is to blame for the situation we have people in the grown men in the private sector people in the brown with now into the public sector for the for the first time so that's which is needed is

a new policy new policy not only in greece but new policy in the european union a new policy in the eurozone no matter what happens next labor unions like you the organization say it's not going to back down until the troika and brussels especially realize it's not only about adding or subtracting numbers but about the real lives for real people you got pissed off party happens greece two british tourists on a fishing holiday and their interpreter have been killed in a helicopter accident in northern russia the three died just after getting off the french made chopper when it suddenly overturned on tape. off while the pilot survived authorities are investigating but suspect that either pilot error or strong winds on the landing zone could be to blame the tour company that organized the trip frequently flies people into the area on luxury fishing tours let's take a look at some other news making headlines around the world for you this hour at

least seven people have been hurt after a huge oil pipeline exploded near mexico city those injured were mostly police and firefighters responding to the resulting fire the blast is believed to have been triggered by an illegal attempt to tap the pipe for fuel. one thousand soldiers have been killed in gun battles with rebels in colombia the defense ministry says that twelve militants were captured during two separate attacks on army units this comes despite both the government and the rebels engaging in peace talks in cuba for the past seven months fark has been fighting the government for almost half a century. at least three people are reported dead as a five point nine magnitude earthquake struck in western china according to the local sources of the death toll can rise as the authorities continue accounting for victims the gansu province shaken by the quake is one of the lightest populated in

the country. now in egypt a group of legal experts have started work on drafting the new constitution that will amended the previous charter which was penned mostly by an islamist panel that's as the country is still gripped by mass rallies after president morsi was ousted earlier this month in the last seven days ten people were killed during protests that brought the monthly death toll to over one hundred the political deadlock and street chaos has apparently encouraged militants to ramp up their attacks on the sinai peninsula most recent such assault left at least five people dead on tuesday the interim president swore in a new cabinet which has no minister linked to the muslim brotherhood islam ists rushed to denounce the move and called on their supporters to press ahead with their protest egyptian journalist shah amine is certain that excluding the brotherhood from the political process will not bring peace to egypt. i think that

is a fatal mistake excluding any political faction from the transitional political process is a fatal mistake people were complaining that morsi was when eyes in the state and now they doing exactly the same keeping the islamists sidelined hoping to push them back underground just a short while ago there was a very brutal crackdown on pro morsi protest is outside the parliament we're already hearing jihadi groups say they will launch. a holy war to defend islam this will have very serious implications. now in the court martial of the wiki leaks source u.s. army private bradley manning is edging towards a conclusion manning who has pled guilty to leaking hundreds of thousands of concert documents faces life in prison without parole on charges of aiding the

enemy the whistleblower strongly denies the most serious charge against him saying he only wanted to increase public awareness. wall has the details. private first class bradley manning faces several charges twenty one total the most serious of which is aiding the enemy the other charges range from computer fraud to theft of government property and asked if convicted of that most serious charge manning could spend his life behind bars without the possibility of parole even if he is not convicted of aiding the enemy the remaining charges amount to one hundred fifty four years behind bars this week the judge could have dropped that aiding the enemy charge but she decided not to manning already spent some serious time in prison about three years before his trial even began now the trial is in its final stages we should hear closing arguments next week that it's up to the judge and this court

martialled to decide the verdict now this comes at a time of great debate over whistleblowers in the country many see manning as a hero but his opponents see him as a traitor for exposing government secrets secrets include iraq and afghanistan war logs and videos of air strikes one ton of obey detainee assessments and diplomatic cables many activists believe the outcome of manning's marcel could set an example for future whistleblowers a glaring example for this is n.s.a. leaker edward snowden many points of manning's pretrial treatment and heavy handed charges as an example of what's to come for snowden should he set foot in the u.s. leading up to the trial and during the trial there have been several demonstrations in support of manning the next major one be more of a nice guy manning support network is set for july twenty seventh and step the international day of action for bradley manning the group is calling for protests in several cities throughout the u.s. and abroad here in fort meade maryland live all our team. attorney

and a peace activist kevin zeese is charging manning with aiding the enemy puts journalists work at risk. this is a very abusive charge and inappropriate charge and it's very unusual a really raises the stakes are for was the blowers especially in the national security arena because in the enemy in the past had meant that you had to have the intent to a the end of the not just the knowledge that you could be in the at the very big difference normally this kind of a in the enemy would mean so on really becoming a traitor and and working with the enemy of the united states not somebody releasing material to the media and not just the risk that was the blowers it's a risk to the media to journalists to reporters now a reporter writes a story. criticizing the media.