shock and fear an eye witness to brutalize attacks on kurdish civilians in syria tells our parts happening in the ethnic enclaves and now plagued by radical list. meet all foreign and defense ministers from russia and the u.s. are such a search for a solution to the syrian violence and the first meetings of the diplomatic friction over n.s.a. leaker edward snowden relations. and to the roots and fruits of the arab spring will look at the ongoing democratic by susan struggle for stability in the arab world more than two yes after the uprisings.

international news analysis the reports you're watching are with me tom would say to our top story now. kurds who try to report attacks by radical islamists in syria in danger of being abducted that's what an eyewitness cheering us all to has told our team the kurdish minority in syria has enjoyed being the target of heavy attacks are allegedly for around three weeks now with the alarming reports of killings and kidnappings growing our correspondent in the region has the story. our ticket is getting new details horrifying details from the eyewitnesses who happened to be in the area those details are extremely hard to come by because of the essential blockade information and physical blockade which has been put up against the rest of the world by the extremists who are permeating the kurdish areas and towns in the northeastern syrian provinces now we do get to manage to speak to some of the eyewitnesses for what is happening in this region we hear truly horrendous

reports. discrete there shot militias raided their houses blew up some of them and robbed others till now they have more than two hundred hostages we are in contact with some of those who managed to escape they are in a shock and fear for their lives the conditions are very bad people are in fear and terrorized. out of control they're raiding the streets there's no media coverage and anyone who tries to reach out is being kidnapped by the militants the united nations investigators are on the ground right now trying to piece together whether earlier reports of some one hundred people being killed in cold blood are indeed true the u.n. has said that if indeed those reports have any basis in reality that this amounts to a war crime nevertheless this is doesn't seem to get any better even though it does get more coverage at this point the problem is like i said it's the lack of communication it's the lack of opportunity for people who are inside the kurdish towns and villages to reach out to the world because they are essentially fearful

to come out on the street where extremist groups are roaming cities and towns and of course the reporters or any other journalists type people who are trying to get into the areas again they cannot get through because of the extremely dangerous situation so of course the situation doesn't seem to get any better and it is something that sort of the international community is definitely becoming more and more alarmed about. you can follow on twitter the latest developments in the syrian conflict and the situation with the country's kurdish minority. as they've been for the peace in the kurdistan campaign the calls on the others are to defend the kurds are from massacre and ethnic cleansing it's after the kurdish democratic union party appealed to the e.u. on thursday also calling world of for help and protection from what they see as genocide against the people let's take a look at that statement right now and now peace activists in kurdistan are skin

the u.n. and the u.s. as well as the e.u. do act now to stop what they see as brutal massacre demanding that they stop sending weapons to groups in syria using them to attack civilians and commit war crimes the statement also says turkey's role in the fuelling the conflict in the kurdish enclave in syria needs to be examined as well its authors doubt turkish claims that it is not involved and that it doesn't support al qaeda linked fighters kurdish politician her son mohammed or things of the support of the syrian rebels are receiving from abroad is to blame for the people's plight. all of this is happening because the rebels have known from abroad by countries that do not want democracy and peace and. turkey in the gulf monarchies arming these terrorists meanwhile western countries are turning a blind eye to their ignoring the atrocities being committed against the kurds were

calling on the west to stop supporting the rebels and to assist us otherwise these extremist forces could eventually turn against their back. the cia's outgoing second in command has warned that syria's turbulent situation raises the chance of al qaida affiliated extremists getting their hands on dangerous weapons and that makes syria the top threat for the u.s. right now now the former deputy director michael morrell says of the potential collapse of the assad government with its massive chemical arsenal or render the country a haven for terrorists he also claims that given the constant inflow of syria could become the next libya and the conflict could spill over into jordan lebanon as well as iraq the director of the institute for policy studies told us that the u.s. and its western allies should reconsider their military support to the syrian opposition since there's no guarantee you will eventually get the weapons. despite

all of the assurances of the various representatives of the free syrian army or the national syrian council who say well we'll make sure they don't get in their hands because we'll keep receipts i'm sorry but receipts aren't going to make it when one force has the capacity militarily to overcome the other force they can't make that kind of a guarantee that they won't fall into those hands it's been true for quite a while that the most powerful militarily of the opposition forces have been the islamist forces allied consciously of their own choice with al-qaeda certainly there will be challenges for the west if there is another permanent stronghold of al qaeda someplace like syria and the danger of al qaeda or other unaccountable forces who have no commitment to international law getting control of weapons of mass destruction that may exist inside inside syria such as chemical weapons that would be disastrous. finding a solution to syria will take center stage when russia's foreign and defense

ministers meet their u.s. counterparts late on friday relations between the g. countries to a big hit after barack obama canceled his one on one with president putin because russia granted asylum to n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden as damage again there are reports both sides are trying to stand on repartee shaking common ground on key issues. u.s. russia relations have paid a new low over snowden president obama has just scrapped the bilateral meeting with president putin it's in this frosty setting that secretary of state john kerry and secretary of defense chuck hagel are meeting their russian counterparts to get lover often sergey to try and find common ground on a whole range of issues snowden of course will be part of the discussion it is a part but it is a not a large part of what the agenda will be on friday the obama administration keeps saying scrapped the meeting with the russian president not just because of snowden but because of a lack of progress on other issues naming missile defense and human rights in russia but the u.s.

had helped talk some disagreement over missile defense committee years with regard to human rights imagine if meeting with the u.s. president one possible so is pretty much clear to everyone that at this point it is about snowden and the question many ask ahead of the friday meeting is whether this scandal based tension will affect cooperation between the u.s. and russia in other spheres on syria for instance where cooperation is already under a lot of strain to say the least both moscow and washington agreed to mediate a summit in geneva where they would bring all sides of the syrian conflict together to map out a political solution but are they any closer the opposition has been clear they will not sit down with people who have blood on their hands these are all part of the discussion and all issues we continue to work through the idea of the summit was about bringing all hands to the negotiating table in order to finally stop the bloodshed and save syria from becoming an all but one thing that both the u.s. and russia agree on is that the terrorist threat is growing in syria russia is sure

to raise the issue of u.s. plans to arm the rebels when it's clear that the weapons can easily migrating to the terrorists' hands that happened in libya so similar concerns on both sides but very strong disagreements on what to do and how to do it nobody expects that the fore. officials john kerry and sergey lavrov. meeting on friday with a big smile on their face but the hope is that they will at least not let this agreement and scandals completely overshadow whatever progress the two countries can actually make. by let's look ahead to two of the meeting with political scientists about just love a new can all assume the u.s. ones are snowden's a situation discussed for that but russia claims that the issue is already resolved what else is washington trying to achieve.

while i don't know what to expect washington has any intention to really bring snowden to the united states it's just unrealistic because russia cannot extradite him to the old losing face snowden is widely regarded in russia as well as in the rest of the world as a whistleblower nor does a criminal so there is no way russia can or extradite him without really losing face and respect in the rest of the world including the united states where the majority of the public is in favor of a world snowden says or does in my mind all the horror to a large extent american foreign policy is domestic so what bohm is doing or saying it's more for domestic american consumption russia is not very popular in the u.s. congress russia is not very popular in the press there are many accusations not

just of snowden case but of human rights violations but i think these days america has more problems in russia protecting its human right credentials because of this note in scandal of wiretapping the rest of the world there are many people. he in the world and including the u.s. media who are asking questions whether america is going too far in the war on terror violating the basic human rights. really via tapping the rest of the world so how might this impact on the way the u.s. approaches talks with its own content about other issues. while i don't think it will really influence the agenda of russia american relations or bilateral talks. too much i don't think this whole situation has

anything to do with impacting the agenda for g twenty summit for which obama is coming to san petersburg as for the bilateral agenda it's not very impressive there is of course cooperation on afghanistan especially on the transit to and from again to stand and it will continue but i don't think it will influence the relations as far as. some important international issues are concerned like syria or iran or middle east in general or a situation in the countries neighboring the russian federation as for use russia economic relations they're. quite low so there is not much of an agenda or to be influenced by the situation you tell us a little bit on syria they just want us to turn the geneva two peace conference keeps getting pushed back could we finally see a breakthrough at the meeting. well i am not

optimistic about the prospects of geneva two if it happens because the positions of the sides are two different especially fighting so it's different countries there is turkey saudi arabia united states european countries on the one side there is russia syria iran on the other side and their positions are not getting closer so i think the situation in syria will be more determined by the situation on the ground on the battlefield rather than diplomatic corridors so in general i would not overestimate the impact of the situation on snowden or obama not. meeting for bilateral summit here in moscow on gender and i would actually say that bombers reaction is. really not too

harsh here is instead he's going to stockholm not some country which is far. more we going to have to leave it right them say sorry but i'm just running out of time about his love make another political scientists the sharing with us his soul is on the matter. right edward snowden's revelations about the former n.s.a. chief to compare activists who support the whistleblower to al qaida because they could be a major threat to to the u.s. government. good though who runs a website a detailing worldwide intelligence collection says that's quite a turn on ron paul country which prides itself on free speech. the statement of the former head of and is saying that this new group supporting transparency that they might have to be or seeing the new terrorist i mean that's an amazing statement in a country that has been originally having

a first amendment freedom of speech and transparency of governmental affairs was within that tradition something that was normal that simply amazing united states tried to apply a lot of pressure on russia because the and we'll have an idea how much damage snowden can do for them if you just comes out with a material showing the involvement of major u.s. software and hardware corporations in a mission worldwide to get access to data that's been processed with their components and this will over time big impact also economy wise. so russia is not exact the place is from my perception not the guy you can pressure on. you just resistant to that. snowden reportedly favored one particular encrypted mail service but now its owner has been forced to

shut it down or face legal consequences find out more at r.t. dot com. and while you're there i read about n.s.a. official coming clean about exactly how data from american citizens and in the snooping agencies. and soldiers winter olympics are hit by a storm of calls to boycott the games but it's got nothing to do with sport we'll take a look at that in a few minutes say with. economic

down in the fine. they belong to the old shanghai and the rest because i think we may be if we.

welcome back you're watching our team roughly two and a half years after a revolution in a way that shook the arab world that other countries which experience uprisings i'm joined stability today some of them are struggling to stay the course for democracy while others are experiencing deja vu with the riots now police in tunisia for instance have been using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who when the government dissolved artes and he said now has the story. the arab spring captivated the world just over two swords years ago changed democracy and new elected governments were promised in the three countries that began this wave of revolution but what prevailed is nothing short of chaos almost full circles in tunisia and egypt and in neighboring libya a situation some described as much worse than before regime change we don't hear anything about libya in the western press or western television channels what we

now have is different groups vying for supremacy people are desperate to try and put a cover all of what has been created by the libyan disaster in the fall of gadhafi trends have formed take tunisia we all remember mohamed bouazizi the fruit vendor who set himself on fire in december twenty ten his death sparked mass protests followed by the president fleeing in mid january twentieth eleven now again the death of an opposition leader sparked protests in july twenty third teen they haven't let down still this week tens of thousands are on the street demanding the resignation of the government in egypt similar to two thousand and eleven and mass protest mubarak he's out twenty third seen mass protests morsy is also out and violence reigns with the help of the military. the fact that morsy violated human rights does not justify overthrowing him and especially if

together with the overthrow we get more violations of human rights road unless you're an investigator on torture one mendez there he told r g the most worried he is it's about countries like libya where the organization is denied access but are aware of atrocities far worse than under gadhafi very troublesome because we hear about clandestine did. detention centers are run by militias that are not accountable to anybody still many experts including members expect positive change in the our world it's just not clear at what cost and how long it could take egypt's military backed government is struggling to restore political stability but the different people face a much bigger problem now the prize the ramadan feast is over food will be increasingly hard to come by as the most populous arab nation is experiencing major

supply crisis and is also in its worst economic condition in nearly eighty years actually examines the problem. at a cairo hospital food bank volunteers offload banks of provisions to prepare a traditional ramadan dinner for many like most of our words a hospital worker tonight's donated meal is the largest one he'll get this week i earn about fifty dollars a month and we are six people to the maximum i can do is buy beans two for a few sounds so i can eat we want justice i work a whole day and make practically nothing when i'm leaving but if i don't this tiny salary my family will meet the poorest suffering in egypt as policymakers and the media are distracted by the deepening political crisis food banks like this one who tried to cover the whole country are stretched to their limits explains coordinator money and. the poverty line is so high food is the most important think we care about and will provide hundreds of food baskets full of fries and basic food stuff so that they can feed families for a month in some places will go to our totally destroyed every time we visit it gets

worse even provide livestock so that they can feed themselves for a while with the country in turmoil food distribution centers like these a plug in the gaps amid an escalating crisis food insecurity has risen significantly in the last few years according to the world food program resulting in a rise in stunting anemia amongst children due to malnutrition over a quarter of the population is under the poverty line and they're the ones being hardest hit with the continued civil unrest and dwindling foreign exchange reserves and they say the situation will only get worse as egypt is unable to import much needed wheat for the brat millions depend on government subsidized bread that sells for about one cents a loaf however critics say egypt's food subsidies are wasteful and don't filter down to those who truly need it it's basically subsidizing items at a very cheap prices baling it to the mainstream populations with a very. very slow nutrition and very close to nineteen percent of the poorest

people are not getting the subsidy and we know that twenty percent of the subs. and you goes to the richest strata of the society and i guess if there's another product of such a subsidy egypt is facing its worst economic crisis since the one nine hundred thirty s. and food prices have doubled since two thousand and twelve making nutritious food inaccessible to many that were high prices everywhere tomatoes vegetables are too expensive for me with few functioning state institutions and the new interim government focused on developing political events these issues will continue to go on resolved and for the moment the most vulnerable will be left starving tree for r.t. cairo. innocent americans have been paying police billions of dollars for not committing crimes our system designed to seize assets from drug lords and mafia bosses has been corder filling police coffers head to our website for more on that.

and a day it may last eighty five hours and you might have to wait three years or so each summer though freezing moon a revolving around jupiter and maybe mankind's best chance at survival are to dot com tells you more. prominent british actor stephen fry has caused quite a stir with his call to boycott the so she would take games as after russian legislators agreed a ban on promoting homosexuality to children. separates the myths from reality amid the media frenzy. stephen fry's open letter said that russia is making scapegoats out of gay people just as hitler did the jews which is why he's called for a boycott of the upcoming winter olympics set to take place in the russian town of sochi next february now the boycott saatchi idea is gathering at lightning pace with commentators on both sides of the story weighing in some observers have

pointed out that the legislation passed in russia isn't unprecedented in fact the u.k. itself had a similar law were in place until very recently the united kingdom had something called section twenty eight in place until two thousand and three which was almost exactly the same is the recent law passed in russia which said that homosexuality should not be promoted in schools or to minors so much for keeping sport and politics separate which is exactly the message that the international olympic committee gave to r.t. boycotting shorty twenty four team would only serve to deprive the country's athletes from fulfilling their dreams of competing at an olympic games something they've dedicated a great portion of their lives to accomplish history has shown that boycotts do not solve anything but simply punish olympic athletes there is campaigning for gay rights also doubting whether stephen fry's proposed boycott is the right path to go down the only people who will suffer because of this because it is the sportsman

who are participating in these in these competitions that's why i'm against the best solution in this in this case is to go and protest during the olympic games concerns surrounding the new gay propaganda on the war in russia has even lead to worries that gay athletes could be arrested when they arrive in sochi for the games to which russian or foresees of lyra find that the new law doesn't outlaw homosexuality and that those attending and participating in the games will be safe despite the assurances in this former olympic. other world news making headlines at this hour there's been violence between students and riot police and really up in activists from them a pretty ethnic community was found shot dead protesters hurled rocks and molotov cocktails from inside the university of chile was security forces responded with tear gas and water cannons but police are queues of murdering the activists which are the authorities deny actually was recently reprimanded by un investigator using

excessive force against the indigenous more pollution minority over land rights. daily violence in pakistan has claimed at least another nine lives this time in a gun attack on a mosque in what it's a day after a funeral was attacked by a bomber in the same city meanwhile in the east of the country washington is evacuating staff from its lahore mission following the terror threat to both the entire province is currently on high alert. a rapid spread in wildfire has forced thousands of americans to flee their homes in southern california five people have so far been injured and ten homes destroyed officials say another five hundred homes are now at risk a thousand firefighters helicopters and tanker planes have been called in to tackle the blaze. israel has authorized eight hundred homes to be built in occupied west bank territory peace talks with the palestinians are supposed to

resume on aug fourteenth after a stalemate of almost three years but it's feared this new development will put a spanner in the works after israeli settlement expansion in twenty ten brought the last talks to a grinding halt. u.s. journal strikes in yemen has killed up to fourteen suspected militants according to officials the attacks come a day after authorities say they had foiled a massive al qaeda terror plot in the region the u.s. and other western states close their diplomatic missions earlier this week amid fears of an islamist attack but some analysts have believe america's joan strikes are contributing to militant recruitment rather than fighting it right up next to its crosstalk on double standards over the nuclear threat in a few minutes. everyone

respects a promise written in stone promises written on the internet world they're a bit more flexible and a lot easier to erase obama made a lot of promises as a candidate on his site change dot gov including some about protecting whistleblowers and obama said that we need to empower federal employee users watchdogs and that he would strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste fraud and abuse of authority and government but strangely possibly coincidentally two days after the first revelation of government spying by still did these promises of the change dot gov site were taken down if this is there just some odd coincidence and they consciously chose to hide obama's campaign promises that this is political cowardice at its worst and words even worse is that they didn't think that this would get exposed on.