as daily violence in iraq brings up the body count to record levels r.t. investigates another legacy of u.s. invasion uranium contamination that's wrecking the lives of those born after the war. they different army clashes were muslim brotherhood supporters as rival rallies rage or throughout the country living over eighteen people date while on the sinai peninsula the military launches a crackdown on suppose it's remus. a long delayed peace negotiations between israel and the palestinians are finally set to start in washington on monday evening after prime minister netanyahu was happening both release one hundred four listing in prisoners. and the diplomatic wrangling over edward snowden takes a new twist as washington rules out the death penalty the man who exploited spying

secrets is still stuck in transit limbo at a moscow eight. am . you're watching r.t. for this weeks of the weekly as well as the top stories from today with me to them with a. another surge of carnage has rocked iraq with two hundred twelve lives lost during the violence over the past seven days in july load a staggering eight hundred people were killed in the country that's become a breeding ground for terrorists since the u.s. led invasion a decade ago and the war has also left a disturbing legacy of contamination which results in birth defects artie's lucic have no reports. 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 these that you were no hook the noose around mount to his office and then to a 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 they're americans are gone but we're still

suffering from the consequences and spiraling numbers of birth defects and high miscarriage rates have also been reported 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 iraq than previously known dr sundin's and as 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 start of the iraq war rates of cancer leukemia and birth defects rose dramatically in a job we believe is because of the illegal weapons like that we didn't hear any i'm at 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 deal weapons are only used to penetrate enemy tanks but a new report funded by the norwegian government. was used against civilian targets in populated areas in it no scribe's 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 knew. is what's making people here sick the families want answers and they want to help. is old enough for school but has 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 two other children one severely deformed the other with a hole in her spine like many of the couples in this city are 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 feet it's a fate that many and not just suffer in silence. help with their lives in the decades 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 if the living victims of that war talk who are still paying the price. concerns over security in iraq have heightened. some five hundred of its members in a coordinated raid on two of the country's a major prisons on monday now gods and swat teams that the abu ghraib and tonty penitentiaries failure to prevent the

massive jailbreak falls into pole to issue international terror alert saying most of those who escaped are senior members and pose a credible threat director of the international action center sara flounders a says of the turmoil that has and goals to iraq in the last decade is mostly washington's doing. grave itself as a prison was notorious for us torture techniques humiliation sexual humiliation tactics that were used it was turned back over to the iraqi government we have no idea if any conditions improved so there was a prison break that we do know but we also really know that it's a us war and occupation that consciously created the sectarian violence of course al qaida or the government they don't serve the interests of the iraqi people but the policy of inflaming sectarian differences and consciously for

mentoring and providing arms and funding and whatnot to groups who inflame sectarian violence that policy came from the u.s. of course a state of security for any of the people of iraq has been terrible has been terrible through the years of u.s. sanctions absolutely devastating during the u.s. invasion the years of occupation and it hasn't substantially improved since. several hundred gyptian have reported together to protest against the muslim brotherhood and the military that follows the brutal clashes in cairo that left over seventy days supporters of the also president mohamed morsi claim another sixty people on life support after being deliberately targeted by these bell two has the latest from cairo i went back to the city in. the violence that ended and spoke to many of the eyewitnesses and also the medics running these very

makeshift hospitals inside the city and speaking to eyewitnesses they told me about a few hundred of them had decided to extend their sittin down the main road toward sequel to the bridge which is a major thoroughfare at about one o'clock to cook in the morning at this point so security forces attempted to disperse them using take us off to this they say they reported cartouche which is that birdshot pellets and also an off the bat they then were fired on with live ammunition which went on until nine o'clock in the morning leaving dozens dead speaking to the medics they said by about four five o'clock in the morning they started to get the bodies in with live ammunition wounds mostly to the chest neck and head they say implying this was the shoot to kill now this is the security forces for their part to nine the protesters say they were not armed however the ministry of interior said saturday evening that the protesters were armed and shot back at them including injuring several soldiers they maintain they

did not fire on any protesters only used tear gas when it was in fact the protesters themselves who caused the most of the violence so we really don't have any confirmation of how. carven looking at the wings of the people on the sheer number of dead it does imply that night i mean issue misuse animism brotherhood have said they will stay put in the sit ins and they will keep protesting to fight for justice and only say for the reinstatement of on that movie the ministry for that part so maintaining that they will clear the sit ins the minister of interior released a statement to saturday saying it is working together with the minute treat the divine as a crime to clear the sit ins using legal means they say however this is being slammed by rights groups who say it's not possible to legally clear is sittin at the house being faced there will be for the violence because we've seen such a heavy handed a response from the minute tree and the police force towards those protesting so it's very divided egypt extremely tense with expected violence on the horizon

meanwhile at least one person has been killed and around thirty injured in this commission between supporters and opponents of the deposed president morsy in the northern interests and city of port side tonight dr mohammad abdul as well as a from the salam islamic center in california believes the army's crackdown on the muslim brotherhood might lead to the radicalization office young members. of egypt cracking down on on an islamist group we may or may not agree with their policies these but they have renounced violence a long time ago they put them out of prison to torture their members the they should and a group of those members will eventually break off of the muslim brotherhood and adopt a more violent perspectives and this is exactly what happened in the sixty's seventy's and eighty's where toward extremely concerns me right now is those young members of the brotherhood saying the same exact thing feeling that democracy can never bring them to power that their voices will never be heard that they will eventually

resort to violence and then when we have waves and waves of violence this is not going to be good for anybody. the chaos has prompted the u.s. to suspend its embassies operations in cairo meanwhile the gyptian army says it's killed ten extremists and arrested twenty others in the sinai peninsula and has deployed heavy weaponry and aviation in the area to crack down on terrorist forces that follows a spike in attacks on soldiers and police in the wake of president morsi overthrown all highways leading to and from sinai have been blocked to prevent extremist xscape ng an estimated five hundred militants in the area heavily armed and ready to use civilians as human shields it's all speculators some of them are muslim brotherhood supporters that have decided to take up arms and fight the military political social or just dr saeed side deca says of the army's actions are part of a drive to weaken support for the islamist movement in the last sleeves or many

campaigns by the egyptian army complains that not succeeded very well for many reasons one of them is that when president morsi who came to power he released many of the. terrorists who are in jail. despite that they are ideologically different from the muslim brotherhood. a popular uprising that. was not welcomed by. militants. who are now there's a front of me hope that they would be able to eradicate them once and for all this may take time because the sinai is a huge area it's not easy but at least it would give the activity for a long time not only again as it is in the interest of the whole world that they support the egyptian military completely against terrorism. the long delayed peace talks between the israeli and palestinian authorities are set to resume in washington this monday evening that's after the israeli cabinet approved the

release of one hundred four palestinian prisoners as part of a deal to restart negotiations brokered by u.s. secretary of state john kerry now israel's politicians have also given the go ahead to a bill which is if it has to will put any outcome of peace talks to a referendum on this from artie's palace here. well the israeli parliament adjourns this week for their summer recess and what this means is that there will be no legislation able to be passed in this country for at least a few months the israeli cabinet has approved this bill that requires any future peace deal with the palestinians to be put to a referendum now the prime minister's office issued a statement in which it said and i'm quoting that it is important that on such historic decisions every citizen should vote directly this is not a question about supporting a palestinian state but what it is a question about is supporting land swaps which would affect a future palestinian state what we're talking about here is jerusalem we're talking

about talks of land within the green line but we're not talking about the west bank and the settlement blocks there but it is at the same time worth noting that this fall was pushed by a predominantly rightwing government it was pushed by the right wing members of the time yahoo's government meaning that they might be counting on the israeli public to not give its nod to giving land towards a future palestinian state and it might be a way for them of putting another hurdle in the path to a palestinian state i think it's fair to say that most israelis do support negotiations with the palestinians this coming tuesday it is expected that since two thousand and ten there will now be a resumption of direct negotiations between the israelis and palestinians in washington but when you talk about a palestinian independent state the latest opinion polls do suggest that the majority of israelis do support the two state solution but only if israel does not have to give major land swaps and of course that is the contentious issue now the

government is seeking urgent approval of this with a random bill it is asking parliament to foster track its passage we do expect that this coming wednesday it will be brought to the knesset for a first reading. some palestinians have already expressed of the attitude towards plans to resume talks according to a report. by local media it is seven people have been injured as security forces clashed with protesters in the west bank city of ramallah another rally was days in hamas controlled gaza with the group also rejecting the negotiations. coming up later in the program syria's main opposition is becoming impatient as the rebel fighting on c. i cling on to hopes that they will receive arms from america despite fears the weapons could end up in the wrong hands. said was noted his fate is being a played out in a diplomatic game of ping pong between moscow and washington while he's stuck in a moscow a port will have more of the story after the break. nobody

chooses to be holes no one chooses to be in our sorrow. is the world for the show to. get in the six pm get out six b six. there were. three things that. my mom had to have namely the class people. use the word against her. it's tough to think of down. to such and to know that million may not have only been lost due to age should never be but there were also due to foreclosures that never should have.

you're watching our team in an apparent attempt to distance itself from extremist the syria's main opposition group has condemned the alleged massacre of government soldiers near the city of aleppo that's just a few days after its representatives urged the u.s. to start supplying weapons to its fighters also many rebel groups active on the ground is unclear where those arms could eventually end up r.t.s. plus court takes a closer look. while the opposition are united in their desire to overthrow president bashar al assad that seems to be where their similarity ends the syrian

national coalition is the umbrella group recognized internationally as the legitimate representative of the syrian people but they don't represent all factions opposed to a sad one group operating out of their control for example is the al qaeda linked al nusra front the coalition say they've hijacked the revolution or they've been classed by many in the west as a terrorist organization elsewhere a separate syrian group for the eighty two al qaida helped facilitate a jailbreak in iraq bring high ranking al qaeda operatives infiltrated by foreign fighters on the issues agenda seem separate from out of the coalition and it's even led to infighting on f.s.a. commander was killed by a rival group and the f.s.a. feel they could soon be fighting on two fronts but when we use the phrase opposition exactly who are we talking about well the coalition alone is made up of at least eleven different groups including the muslim brotherhood who have recently called on the us and the e.u.

to send arms in the battle with assad while only offering loose guarantees they won't fall into extremist hands there's also the coalition of secular and democratic syrians the syrian democratic people's party supreme council of the syrian revolution and so it goes on the disparate nature of the syrian opposition combined with the presence of islamic extremists means any nation looking to support the rebels are walking a continual tight rope with very few guarantees that any military support won't backfire and actually encourage the one thing that trying to fight elsewhere. well america's most wanted whistleblower is stuck in a moscow airport his fate is being juggled in diplomatic games between russia and the u.s. washington says they will neither torture nor execute edward snowden who expose the sweeping surveillance tactics should he be handed over to the u.s. in the meantime moscow refuses to extradite the man saying there are no legal grounds for the procedure or it is a losing friends reports. the world's media and u.s.

law enforcement may not be chasing edward snowden from country to country at this point but there is plenty of chasing going on at the airport and there's no sign of it slowing down as the weeks passed the kremlin has stuck to its guns on allowing snowden to stay as long as he does not harm the united states by disclosing any more information tension mounted wednesday when reports emerge that snowden's russian advisor anatoly. was in route to share the metro airports terminal with documents allowing snowden's temporary release from the transit zone while his asylum bed is considered but he showed up toting a brown paper bag filled with nothing more than a new clothes and a few copies of russian classics translated to english along with some rather dismal news for snowden the paperwork was delayed. it was in waiting mode now we can all imagine how he feels being unaware of what's ahead of him and whether he'll get a yes or no answer from the russian authorities and for me procedures can take up

to three months anyway he's very grateful to russia which didn't abandon him and to the people who are trying to help him needless to say snowden was nowhere in sight for the media's hungry lenses meanwhile the game of diplomatic ping pong gets better and better while russia allows snowden's remain in the transit zone the white house demands he's returned without delay the kremlin returns the volley by pointing out the absence of an extradition treaty with washington u.s. ambassador to russia then takes to twitter claiming they're not asking for extradition just to return russia points out the absence of an international law requiring a return secretary of state john kerry call snowden a traitor to his country russia states part of the reason for sheltering snowden is worried that he could face capital punishment it's then that u.s. attorney general eric holder pens a letter to russia's justice ministry no torture no execution russia points the fact that snowden has been stripped of his passport he can't travel to which.

holder scrambles to offer a temporary pass for for direct travel to the secure embrace of american law enforcement the kremlin is unmoved while the white house asks for clarification on snowden status i think edward snowden has really been in many ways a hero and he has sacrificed his entire future i think as an american how much it's clear he loves this country he will never again see the golden gate bridge or the blue ridge mountains or the grand canyon all the things that we americans take for granted other irons in the fire congress accelerated a bill applying sanctions to any country offering asylum to edward snowden and some hawkish senators are calling for everything from a change of venue for september's g twenty summit in st petersburg to a boycott by the u.s. olympic team of the twenty fourteen winter games in sochi outside the states there are plenty of people lining up to make sure snowden is not thrown to the washington wolves anytime soon it's important that people from whatever government can say i

think my government has been doing wrong and has been breaching people she writes and i need to apply for asylum in order to be able to speak about it is while all sides battle it out back and forth back and forth where is there squarely he's quietly hanging out in duty free or possibly thumbing through his new copy of dostoyevsky's crime and punishment back at sheremetyevo airport in moscow lindsey france are taking. american lawmakers have chosen to allow the national security agency to continue its surveillance on people both at home and abroad motion to curb its activities failed in the house of representatives this week both republicans and democrats were split on the issue with a margin of only twelve. of the u.s. is also being accused of spying outside instead of its own borders protesters took to the streets in the cities across germany say but lynn is a clone of washington by. they demanded that they government reveal the. whole

creation with the n.s.a. activists in new zealand saving us was behind oakland's push to allow its intelligence service the g.s.a. c.s.d. to spy on citizens and over in ireland the government is being accused of the prophecy all its refusal to investigate reports of eavesdropping on its territory we discuss the issue with. one of the few internet service providers which has rejected the n.s.a. surveillance requests as long as that information is transmitted in the clear and there are willing partners of the n.s.a. allowing them to collect data off the internet they're going to continue doing that as long as they can there are many in congress who are calling edward snowden a trim a traitor and a criminal when in fact i think it's the people in the n.s.a. who are the criminals who are not following the constitution and have perjured themselves in front of congress these are these are people we cannot trust and it's

time that we audit them or shut them down all the solution for keeping the n.s.a. from spying on people on the internet is people using encryption and then having service providers that are willing to stand up and stand against broad surveillance and wholesale monitoring the more international news in brief now by breaking news first every twenty people have been killed in a bus crash in they tell you in city. according to local media reports the coach struck a car when it came off a fly over and plunged twenty five meters down a slope rescue crews are at the scene attempting to pull more people out of that that remain stuck under the wreckage than that nepal's up by re highway where the accident happened has now been closed. thirty one people have drowned while trying to reach they tell you an island of lampedusa a vessel carrying fifty three migrants capsized friday evening off the coast of libya the survivors from nigeria gambia mean and senegal were rescued by

a passing match and ship boat overturned after three days at sea. a suspected u.s. drone strike has killed at least five people in a tribal region in pakistan two missiles reportedly hit the province of north waziristan one main crossing on food into pakistani territory from against on it comes just a day after an apparent to us during a strike for suspected islamist militants in southern yemen america's drone program is a source of extreme tension between washington and islamabad which considers the strikes a violation of his solvency. three powerful explosions have rocked the eastern libyan city of benghazi the blasts reporting targeted to law courts and a justice ministry office officials reported about ten people wounded two seriously this comes as a day after over a thousand inmates escaped from a local prison the day after the jailbreak about one hundred escapees where

recaptured. very training has finished in mali's presidential election where large numbers turned out to cast their ballots major organizational problems have been reported in the north with many people i'm able to find the right polling stations and many of the half a million people forced from their homes by violence and long running instability where are unable to vote historian gerald horne says molly was simply not prepared for the election. the country is not ready at all for example text the electoral roll for example the list of voters it's unclear why does the fact that there's so many refugees and internally displaced persons put it this way if our northern mali i would be hesitant to go to a polling station that was not so long ago that these militant so-called islamicist were actually ruling that part of the country we recall the devastation they wreak

the havoc they wreak in terms of beating women in the streets in terms of destroying valuable manuscripts stretching back centuries that basically revealed the intellectual firepower that then existed and that part of africa it seems to me that is election in many ways is going to be an uncertain in to an uncertain enterprise. coming up after the break we look at the every day battle for by americans who lost everything in the two thousand and eight minutes of christ stay with us. i got a big question for you how stupid can stupid terrorist paranoia get according to four progressive stuck on the texas department of public safety demanded that any

women entering the state senate hand over any tampons or pads before entering wow so why would they do this are they really that scared that some terrorists are playing to sneak a bomb into the place at any cost according to news at yahoo dot com the official reason is that they're afraid of people using projectiles as a form of protest against a law that would really restrict abortions oh well no i kind of see where you abortion is an issue that people really get furious over now it kind of all makes sense but what what's that they're afraid of projectiles but people with guns were allowed to take them into the senate are you kidding me i think the second amendment does a lot more good than harm by i think it goes without saying that for women to concealed carry their hygiene items they should need a permit or permission from anyone but that's just my opinion.