partners in spying german intelligence is accused of using america's notorious surveillance program to its own advantage just weeks after burning condemned washington's snooping activities. german chancellor angela merkel faces stiff questions over just how involved germany was in the n.s.a. prism spying program. the us invasion of iraq is applying for an epidemic of birth defects and cancer due to the military use of depleted uranium we report from a former war zone where the health cost is turning out to be even worse than originally thought. britain's prime minister admits this too much extremism among the syrian rebels his clearest indication yet that london's i'm willing to go for full scale arms deliveries will be asking what's behind the apparent you to.

international news and comment watching r.t. coming she's live from sky. a german magazine claims that burns intelligence services have been making good use of the u.s. national security agency secret spying program that's raised questions over chancellor merkel's earlier condemnation of washington's surveillance tactics peter all of the reports from birthday. german chancellor angela merkel had to rigidly said that she only found out of the extent of the united states's spying programs through the media and it now comes out thanks to n.s.a. internal documents that have been reported by dish big news magazine that well they

were far more involved than she let on that indeed in fact they quote in the dish people article the internal memos that say that there was a willingness to take risks and pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the u.s. that was shown by the german authorities they also were talking about the head of the b n d germany's foreign security service that he showed an eagerness under a desire to cooperate turns out that germany actually operated one of the main parts of the the expansive spying program it's called x. keyscore program that basically anybody who they were looking into they could find out exactly what was being searched online by that particular person and it's estimated around five hundred million. connections were being monitored every month by the spying program here in germany alone so it was quite an expensive program this news comes out is quite embarrassing time for german chancellor angela merkel

there's an election coming up in september the involvement of germany in the n.s.a. spying program is being used extensively by the opposition but mrs merkel was saying before she either didn't know what her own security services were doing or that perhaps she has misled the german people in germany it seems far more involved in the n.s.a. spying program than perhaps they were let on before. well the original classified documents released by american whistleblower on the run edward snowden show that the united states has been closely monitoring europeans especially germans bugging is not what friends do said angela merkel slamming what she called cold war tactics one german m.e.p. went as far as comparing the practice to the stars a huge germany's him from the secret police and the justice minister said the reports were too alarming to be ignored well for more on this we're now joined live by beatrix dorchen election candidate for the alternative for germany party thank

you very much for coming on to r.t. this afternoon angela merkel has repeatedly denied that she knew anything was going on do you believe her while i could make the armchair very very short i could say no i could put it in a bit longer i would say i don't have any reason to believe her everything she said so far has been a lie and i don't have a reason to believe why this has now changed as we discovered is that what we what we have discovered now is that the germans all also using american technology for spying on the german people so it makes absolutely that they did know that there was some spying going on and. mentioning it spying we shouldn't call it spying on them but monitoring on every single citizen and so i don't i don't think that that

eighty million people are monitored by such anybody and the german government does not know i don't believe the chancellor what will be the reaction in germany to this do you think it will affect her chances of being reelected in september. i think the issue is moving forward i think the issue is coming into public every day a bit more the people start understanding that the government is not focusing on protecting their freedom rights what they are doing is saying that this security is in danger and for that reason there's no evidence for that there's no evidence been shown but for that specific reasons they take all of our of freedom rights and people start in the standing this that this is not possible and we don't have the government who is standing up for the rights was it for the citizens and we don't have their position because they were they've been in charge for the same business

when there were in power so we need we need a strong movement from the citizens and i think this will start where citizens claim their freedom their right for freedom. they they ask their government to protect their rights and this is what the government is not doing so i think this movement will start and as we are now as i turn it in for germany a new party coming up we will take this right to speak out for the for the rights of the people who are just not being covered by the government and not by the opposition ok you said there was no evidence that this surveillance program or this widespread surveillance are prevented or help security in germany but the government has come out and said that its cooperation with u.s. intelligence did help prevent a major terrorist attack in germany in two thousand and seven so do you not think that will certainly sway people in germany to think well perhaps we do need something like this. when the when the federal minister

for interior. a business minister fredricka was asked specifically this question he couldn't even mention we couldn't even name the terroristic attack who have been prevented and then he later on he said well it was a terror terroristic attack we're going to very early stage so i mean what is a terrorist a good tech in a very early stage so they haven't shown any evidence for what they what they're doing and this is why i can't believe them anything and you know monitoring eighteen million people round the clock seven days a week twenty four hours a day and declaring this war on terror i think that's ridiculous and why do you believe that the u.s. has been targeting germany we now understand that a lot of its surveillance was on germans why is that do you think. i think yemen is a very strong economy it's much stronger than france or spain france is passing

a bit away spain is broke at breaking apart germany is still a very very strong economy and in all of europe so has a specific role and it might be of interest of what's going on here i mean i don't know what they are specifically interested in but i think it's stupid to believe they are doing this only for terroristic for preventing terrorist attacks and this is what people starts to understand that monitoring everybody without any reason without any without any argument without any judge is involved and has nothing to do with that with giving security to everyone this is what we don't believe any longer and so this is why the alternative for germany is also running for the for the election to give a voice to the people again ok thank you very much for your time that was a bitter expounds storch an election candidate for the alternative for germany party thank you. meanwhile the diplomatic fallout from the edward snowden saga continues while the american whistleblower awaits russia's decision on his asylum

bid we take a look at what else is straining dialogue between the kremlin and the white studies just ahead. more than a decade on from the u.s. led invasion of iraq the country seeing an abnormally high rate of birth defects health experts link this to the use of depleted uranium in military assaults in fallujah birth mutations are fourteen times more common than in hiroshima after the second world war. if explored the terrible health cost of the war in the city of najaf. one hundred sixty kilometers south of baghdad the sacred shiite city is known for its holy shrines and is surrounded by one of the largest cemeteries in the world some of the heaviest fighting of the iraq war took place amid these graves its legacy still haunts the residents it was born with severe birth defects he's only eight months old but the doctors don't expect him to

live past his first birthday. i felt there's a you were not hurt the news i ran out to his office in the taxi. but for his mother layla there's no escaping the reality her son has a nervous system disorder and his muscles are slowly wasting away. it's a recurring nightmare for leila and her husband three of their children were also born with congenital deformity as none of them survived and while they don't have proof they believe the radioactive ammunition used by american forces during the war is to blame the rule isn't over yet if the americans are gone but with suffering from the consequences of spiraling numbers of birth defects and high miscarriage rates have also been recorded in fallujah and basra where american and british forces used heavy munitions at the start of the war but our visit to

knowledge off revealed that the phenomenon may be far more widespread in the log than previously known dr sundin's and saif is one of the few scientists who's been documenting cancer and birth defects here and she says as in the midst of a growing health catastrophe. after the iraq war rates of cancer leukemia and birth defects rose dramatically none joffe the areas affected by fighting so the biggest increases we believe it's because of the legal weapons like depleted uranium and hospitals here cancer is more common than the flu. depleted uranium or d u cuts through armor like a hot knife through butter more than four hundred tons of it is estimated to have been used in the two iraq wars the vast majority by u.s. forces the pentagon did not respond to our request for comment but the military generally denies any link between exposure and cancer or birth defects it also says do you weapons are only used to penetrate enemy tanks but

a new report funded by the norwegian government found that was used against civilian targets in populated areas including not jobs in two thousand and three it notes a lack of transparency by coalition forces over the use of depleted uranium but describes one incident in najaf where a bradley armored fighting vehicle fired three hundred five d.-u. rounds in a single engagement. the heavy fighting may be over but in nearly every street we visited in this neighborhood multiple cases of cancer and children with deformities no one knows what's making people here sick the families want answers and they want help. of is old enough for school but have to be cared for as if he's a toddler he can't walk he can't speak he can't even go to the bathroom on his own use of brother is healthy but the family has birdied two other children one severely deformed the other with a hole in her spine like many of the couples in this city they're simply too afraid to have another baby and they're left feeling totally abandoned no one cares about

what's happening to the other families in this area even our own government doesn't do anything to help what can we do this is our fate it's a fate that many and suffer in silence. countless iraqis lost their lives in the decade since the u.s. led invasion all across the country their memories are honored in cemeteries like this one the dead may be the most visible reminder of the human cost of the war but it's still a living victims of that war's toxic legacy who are still paying the price the captain of our team not just iraq. was a little earlier lucy explained to my colleague not trace of white still so difficult to gauge the full extent of the health problems plaguing the region. we've heard about the depleted uranium the birth defect story coming out of fallujah for example because there's been several t.v. pieces and print reports talking about and showing in fact we hear in r.t.f.

showed the birth defects in the city of fallujah when we were completely stunned by is the fact that this is happening in many more cities that have been previously reported including knowledge of where we visited when we showed our filming her and i on the ground in the city literally every single residential street that we visited in several neighborhoods we found multiple cases of families who had children who were ill families who had lost children had to burry children families who had many relatives who were suffering from cancer and while these people can't necessarily prove that it was depleted uranium or are the causes of these diseases this is something that they say has risen dramatically in the years since the invasion how widespread is it i mean how far across the country the problem is that nobody knows exactly and that's because there haven't been large scale studies done we haven't seen big teams of international doctors for example going in and sort of looking at different cities comparing the number of birth defect cases between the

different cities there really simply are no reliable statistics for birth defects in iraq and so nobody can really say exactly how big this problem is and the big problem with with the iraqi government as well one of the surprising things that we found in speaking to the doctors on the ground is they say that they reportedly have been discouraged discouraged by the government from talking out openly about this to the press in fact the biologist that we had spoken to who was researching the issue in the city had to give us the interview in the privacy of her home on the roof there instead of in her laboratory she said that there is an active sort of push by the government perhaps not to embarrass the coalition forces not to really talk about this issue which we were really quite surprised by we tried to visit the hospital in knowledge of that was dealing with. some of the victims some of the deformed birth defect that children they didn't let us come in they didn't let us film in fact they didn't even let us do interviews with the governor with the families or the doctors working there at all the iraqi officials certainly have

not put in the resources that they could be we spoke to families not japanese that they have gone to local officials you know they've asked for help they were essentially told to sit by you know it's a really sad story. and dr chris busby has been one of the most actually spoken scientists researching the impact of depleted uranium he told us what he learned after visiting philly. we went to we found the levels of concern about formation and cancer and we looked at the parents of the children with congenital malformation and we did analysis of the head to see what was inside the head that might be do you know toxic might be the sort of thing that could cause congenital malformation and the only thing that we found was you radium we found your brain in the hair of the mothers of the children with congenital malformation is not that we know that you're a numerous do you know toxic that it causes these these levels of genetic damage and because of that it also causes cancer so you can work slowly back from that towards your brain you know the only the only source of uranium was the use by the

american forces the american led forces of uranium weapons not only depleted uranium weapons as we later found enriching uranium weapons which we believe they were using in order to cover their tracks so i think we have more or less proved these facts. as a result of the use during the two wars of uranium and the particles that the uranium weapons produced we're going to take a quick break now we'll have more news in a couple minutes. most interested in the medical situation. this group take did a little dove. into the other states and in egypt.

least be cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks books of p.r.p. interviews intriguing story to tell you. the choice arabic to find out more visit our big. dog called. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

welcome back now britain's prime minister hi signaled a change of heart on weapons supplies to the syrian rebels david cameron says he still backing opposition groups fighting against the government but admits that these groups including his words a lot of bad guys and that's quite a change from his aggressive stance in the days early days of the conflict back in november twenty seven cameron colfer close in gage went with the rebels the following year he called for more international aid to put the syrian government under pressure as off last month he was still. very mentally and he is sad but not so sure that arm shipments are the best way forward syria's top rebel commander has already accused the british pm of betrayal for abandoning plans to arm his fighters and that brings us to the present with the syrian government advancing on rebel militias the official opposition failing to unite and cameron describing the situation as a stalemate let's get more perspective on this story from labor m.p.

khalid mahmood joining us live from birmingham firstly thank you very much for joining us this afternoon why do you think mr cameron has appeared to have changed his stance on the syrian crisis. always change his mind because there's been a huge resistance from within parliament from all sides in parliament certainly all of the backbench members of parliament have made it clear that this is not an issue they want to be intervened in terms of military action or british. forces on the ground and now here you are you have to really move with the regional we've also had a problem and only two weeks ago where the backbench committee raised this issue was put on the floor of the house and we only had one person voting against their right to recall parliament if the decision was taken and any decision that would be taken would have to be voted through parliament so i think is realise the position that has been put in is not one that's sustainable that he will be able to do with it

originally as you said you thought he marched william hague off to europe and said let's let's get rid of the ban on syria in turn was supplying arms and i think he found that that wasn't quite as easy his route was going to do so and therefore they had to come back this is is a good step forward in order to try and resolve this conflict this conflict is in nobody's interest and certainly those people that are suffering the best way we can help them is to reduce the number of arms that are flowing into that country and are there any other phase the satiated meet that you said that he doesn't have much parliament the fares that people have if arms are given to syrian rebels. well those who just fly the arms to there there is a significant element of al qaeda in there i know that because i've been raising this for the last year and a half in in parliament in the media and i've got evidence of some of my

constituents from birmingham that have been taken off to syria to join a loser so there are significant al-qaeda influences out there and all you'll be doing is supplying more sophisticated weapons if you can to do that to all qaeda and i think it's seen the common sense of not doing that and she think there is a genuine concern that this could come back on saying british soil because you mentioned there some people who live in your constituency have gone to syria is there a fear they might return home radicalized although that is this is not a fair i think it's going to happen and i think the problem is it's taken the government and the security services something like two years to come to terms with this i've been saying this for a long time because i've known people have been going out people are coming to be talking to me telling me what's going on on the ground these people are british passport holders and they have a right to come back now when they come back how do you vet and validate who was

doing what and what they were doing and unless you do that these people will be allowed to come back and if they don't like something that you're doing in terms of foreign policy or anything they will see best way fit that they can resolve this and that's going to be through acts of aggression and terrorism and you mentioned their ways of solving this crisis what is the solution gee think is it a diplomatic one is that still an option on that it has to be. that is the only option that is on the table we should have learned this from what happened in iraq what happened in afghanistan a mess you have a stable establishment you have a stable system that continues to stabilize that country you will not be able to move forward if you want to deal with assad i think we need to speak to people when you speak to russia really speak to china when you speak to iran and say look how can we broker this peace how do we stop this complete absolute tragedy that's

happening at the moment in syria young people losing their lives people being tortured on both sides and people being blown out of existence in some of the areas and we've got to seek a peaceful settlement we should have learned over the last decade what happens when we don't do that and we've gone too far i think saudi arabia and qatar turkey to an extent need to reevaluate their position and i think all of us need to get together and say look guys we need to resolve this when it is only through amicable settlement whether that involved assad or not i'm not picky about that but we need to keep tact the syrian army and syrian forces in order to have stability in that country and we don't know what war is that could be rakhal chemist mahmoud thank you for your thoughts. labor and a life there from him in the u.k. thank you. now the u.s. has expressed its concern over the fugitive whistleblower edward snowden's paid for

temporary asylum in russia moscow is expected to grant that request and says the lack of an extradition treaty with washington makes handing him over impossible we've got the details now from vienna h.q. and he joins us live and again extradition has become a divisive word and divisive factor in relations between the two countries hasn't it why is that. that's right and remember when journalists asked president putin what about washington's request to extradite edward snowden he said and i quote here russia is not going to extradite anyone no one ever extradite anyone to russia russian officials were asked to expand on the extradition situation between russia and the u.s. the office of russia's prosecutor general responded by saying that the u.s. does not cooperate with russia on the extradition of criminals is that in the past ten years russia has made at least twenty extradition requests that were either ignored or denied take

a listen socialist system with each skilled cause or the united states systematically refuses to hand people over to russia for prosecution including those accused of serious offenses you know so we have plenty of examples of such behavior around twenty cases in the last ten years we've been denied the extradition of killers because of outlaws and people implicated in corruption on grounds of washington so it's the lack of an extradition treaty which they themselves are not willing to conclusions and i want you to. now one name on that list of russia's extradition requests that the u.s. never acted upon is a fuse wanted in russia as a terrorist still the us of motive was the right hand of the internationally recognized chechen terrorists now quick reminder of who was in one thousand nine hundred five when his gang attacked to the city of blue join us and took up to one thousand and eight hundred residents of that city hostage in a hospital including one hundred fifty children at least one hundred forty people

died as a result of that attack also as he gained power in the region stated his objective to have all muslims in russia break away from the country it was a call to start a war on all fronts and all along with him was wanted among other crimes there was the hostage crisis at the moscow theater nord-ost in two thousand and two one hundred thirty people died there so the right hand of this monster a lot of a rise in the girl was somewhere around two thousand and three settles down in boston and receives political asylum despite russia's requests to treat him as a criminal and send him back to russia at the beginning u.s. federal authorities appealed the boston course decision to grant a lot of asylum after all the u.s. had by then recognized. his boss as a terrorist but nothing came out of that appeal federal authorities later withdrew their opposition to granting the us a lot of asylum after a number of political heavyweights in the u.s.

tuned in to support the chechen militant so according to russian officials there is no history of extradition between the u.s. and russia instead there is a history of request ignored and requested night. thank you danny for the. line from washington thank you. now to some other international news in brief the e.u. has agreed to put the armed wing of the lebanese group hezbollah on its terror list at a meeting of foreign ministers in brussels hezbollah has angered the european union with its role in the syrian conflict where it's fighting alongside government troops against rebels the use decision required the green interval twenty eight member states britain has insisted on sanctions after blaming the group for prosecutor last year's attack on a bus carrying israelis in vogue area but until my brussels had resisted pressure from washington and israel to label them as terrorists elsewhere accordingly

stamboul has approved the demolition of gezi park the turkish government's decision to redevelop the park to make room for a monument to the ottoman empire sparked weeks of fierce rallies that spread across the country in late may four people were killed and over seven thousand injured in cheering police crackdown which was strongly criticised by governments around the world. and in bahrain at least one hundred people have been injured in a brutal crackdown on protests over the past three days police stormed villages across the country arresting dozens of anti regime activists the raids followed the opposition's calls for new rallies against the monarchy and government whose ruthless drive to stifle dissent has claimed over eighty lives over the past two years. in china seventy five people are reported dead and over four hundred injured and a five point nine magnitude earthquake that hit a sparsely populated northwestern province the rescue effort.