the week's top stories right here on our t.v. moscow urges washington to. while president obama denounces russia for what he calls a cold war mentality following the granting of temporary asylum to edward snowden. syria's battlefront is moving north radical jihadists. into. a massive. also the guantanamo bay hunger strike. as the pentagon continues to spend taxpayers' money on. the u.s. . and gay rights activists in the west for a boycott of next year's winter olympics. even

going as far as comparing. and broadcasting live from our studios in moscow recapping the week's top stories with the weekly. now u.s. russia ties have suffered a major freeze this week at least that's what washington is claiming barack obama accused moscow of a cold war mentality and even called for a pause in their relations with russia in its part is demanding america act like adults and believes there are no signs of hostility. this week when president obama canceled the bilateral meeting with the russian president in september u.s. russia relations have

a new low on friday the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and the russian defense minister arrived in washington as planned to meet their u.s. counterparts and we heard two different messages coming from president obama and foreign minister lavrov both held a news conference on the same day at the same time in different venues of course with foreign minister lavrov trying very hard to ease the tension to move it away from the cold war with president obama seemingly doing the opposite take a listen remember very well words who said when we were saying goodbye he said we'll i believe that we can make a difference. in the lucian's let's. as adults. and that's what we were trying to do when president putin who was prime minister warned that it was president came back into power i think we saw more rhetoric on the russian side that was anti-american that. played into some of the old stereotypes about the cold war contest between the united states and russia

president obama also said in light of all the disagreements with russia it's time for the u.s. to take a pause and he said recalibrate the tone of the talks of the state department seemed a bit different there were some very serious issues on the agenda like syria like missile defense in europe where russia and the u.s. obviously don't see eye to eye but it seemed there was an agreement on both sides that they should not let disagreements and scandals replete these overshadow whatever progress the two countries can actually make and one area where the two countries tend make a difference is the crisis in syria both state the same objectives that they want to political solution that they want to bring all sides of the syrian conflict together in geneva to try and map out such a political solution and the syrian opposition says they're not going to sit down at the at one table with those who have blood on their hands moscow says in order to stop the bloodshed all hands need to come to the negotiating table and foreign

minister lavrov said john kerry. that the syrian opposition is going to be there but making progress on those very important issues concerning global security becomes not much part of wind relations are defined by scandals now going back to president obama's news conference democracy was not all about president obama's proposal strictly for me and i'd say it's president obama said he intends to work on. one provision of the patriot act known essential between the government broader authority to obtain business phone data records he announced the creation of a panel of outsiders intelligence officials civil liberty and privacy advocates and others to assess the program since. suggest changes by the end of the year but everybody understand it's all happening because of edward snowden's revelations that's why the majority of americans say edward snowden is a whistleblower and not a traitor now it's not clear whether the government will actually go through with those forums promising is one thing delivering on those promises is something else

but at the end of the day the american people may actually benefit from what snowden did which can't be said about u.s. marshal ations. mary. chief editorial writer for the u.k. based newspaper the independent thinks that moscow's efforts to find common ground with washington on the snowden affair have been underestimated know that some people say oh relations between the u.s. and russia generally are very strained and that the the reset never really happened that it didn't have the desired effects but i think that to an extent is exaggerated what i find more interesting is want i think the great efforts. president putin has gone to to try to make sure that the snowden affair damages relations with the u.s. as little as possible i think there's a lot of evidence for that which really hasn't been appreciated i think that being two maybe three one on one telephone conversations between president putin and

president obama since snowden landed unexpectedly in moscow so i think there are actually great efforts are being applied to find some source sort of some sort of solution but it's very difficult to see how that can be a solution which such plies both sides. in a quest to appease public anger triggered by domestic snooping bronc obama has a valid to reform the n.s.a. surveillance program the us president has pledged more transparency and supervision but didn't specify if data collection will be scaled back haven't listened to obama's speech caleb maupin of the international action center doesn't believe obama will keep his promises. if you listen to the speech not much is really proposed that's actually concrete there's talk of some you know a privacy advocate being appointed to a board and you really see that not much is really going to change if you actually actually listen closely and you know as much as when obama was campaigning for

president he made a lot of promises about protecting whistleblowers and all of that you see not much of this is changing and the fact that obama came out and gave this address and it's proposing these reforms which aren't that sweeping but sound sound really great the reason he did that is a response to the public opinion people all over the united states are outraged you know that their rights are not being protected and all of this this patriotic stuff we hear about freedom and the u.s. is the greatest country in the world because the freedom how it's really it's really not true it's a lot of propaganda that's used to push us to war and to push us to blindly support government policies. radical islamists have to turn to syria north into a battleground as they attempt to push kurds out of their territories al-qaeda linked groups are carrying out ethnic cleansing of the local population or so they claim in order to declare an islamist state their four hundred fifty civilians many of whom were women and children were allegedly slaughtered in one attack alone with havoc in the region making it difficult to verify specific information to confirm

this we turn to two kurdish journalist barzani so to help us put together a timeline of the conflict he says that the attacks began back on the nineteenth of july when extremists planted a bomb in a kurdish school and abducted civilians there the next day a number of houses across the kurdish enclave were blown up with one village annihilated while many more locals were kidnapped in islam is a cleric declared from a local mosque to those killing members of the ethnic minority would be rewarded in heaven and encourage militants to loot and destroy kurdish homes the violence has now spilled over into early august with seventy kurds murdered and three hundred fifty kidnapped by al qaeda linked fighters for more on this let's get details from our correspondent in the region are too easy to go. horrifying images of slaughter and mayhem from a region already in throes of conflict this week some reports emerged that hundreds

of kurds had been slaughtered by extremist groups in northeastern syria they're still in very fighting because insurgents keep the media from getting close this is just syrian kurds find themselves in a grave gruesome situation. that the militants started shooting everyone who came out onto the streets become should young men and started cussing them with knives the rebel shouted granted them all their money home i know women and then they started losing houses the kurds who are one of the largest nations in the world without a state have tried to stay neutral for as long as possible in the syrian conflict and it's for that they believe islamic fighters from al-qaeda affiliated groups turned up their killing pressure on the kurds. kurds do not want to be part of the war and they have achieved that by not siding with the the saudis they're showing their ability to administrate themselves and that all the some international players such as it has been hoping those facing against the kurds for example there

are several al qaeda affiliated organizations in turkey going in fighting against the kurds in syria kurds however want to have a democratic syria not just for the kurds but for everyone on top of that jihad is themselves have made statements alluding to their hopes of creating an al-qaeda state right here on what they hope to be vestiges of syria but their fight a deadline came and went the situation is getting worse and the number of people who have been kidnapped and killed and beheaded is rising every day are they know what's going on especially into a lot it's a loss a free army and they are united against this through very just as they are killing people and i didn't take they call their people you can kill them kidnap them capture their woman and it's all how long it's or allowed for you once you fight for for god's. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov was among the first to sound the alarm over reports from syria urging the security council to step in we believe

that in this action we were shocked by the reports of around four hundred fifty kurds massacred in the north of syria including children just because the men were fighting against and it's not the first such report of the un security council will condemn all these terrorist attacks we've seen some of its members refusing to condemn terrorist attacks in syria justifying it with the fact that the people behind them are fighting against the outdated regime and this stance is totally unacceptable terrorism should be treated without double standards kurt seem to be facing a double threats on this side of the syrian state border they're up against extremists on the other lies terry it's been a bit or a long running battle with the kurdish workers party and only recently seem to be making amends at the same time on karrar backs the syrian opposition which is known to include al qaeda sympathizers and allows for arms shipments into syria which the gird say end up in the hands of extremists but when it comes to helping kurds

western powers who wasted no time in trying to force out president assad seem to do little incurring exchange lists an approach that looks ominous to familiar through the overthrow gadhafi in libya to syria we've been supporting al qaeda the very people who attacked united states of america we knew prior is a card that spreads from north africa all the way to the gulf that could bring us to a new world war if we don't stop obama and the british policy but for now syrian kurds plea for international help to seems to have been met with indifference in the photos from r.t. istanbul. the kurds claim what what's happening in syria is nothing short of genocide and they are asking foreign powers to throw them a lifeline the peace in kurdistan activists who want the united nations. well as the u.s. and e.u. to act immediately to halt what they say is that cleansing they are demanding that

western powers stop providing groups in syria with weapons since they fall into the wrong hands and are used to attack civilians the statement also calls for a probe into turkey's role in fueling the conflict in kurdish areas syria's democratic union party has sent a letter to the european union appealing for it to step in and do something about the growing islam is to danger investigative journalist manual oxon writer believes both turkey and the u.s. have links to the radical groups fighting in syria. they are international for us especially the international geopolitical interests of turkey was a very important nato member we shouldn't forget that nato troops also german troops are now at the turkish syrian border with patriot rocket systems heading against syria so we have turkey on this site and it's long turkey place this important role in this conflict i don't think that there will be any serious international reaction a former member stated that the leader of the north. or working

close with the cia and we have other information from the kurdish popular defense units who claim that front is also organized and supported by the turkish intelligence and i think this is not a coincidence when we know how the kurds are treated in turkey itself there's anything go in a war and a spokesperson for the free syrian army acknowledges that the rebels have been infiltrated by extremists but believes that the assad government must fall by any means but kurds have an adverse opinion in this respect. i you. know we consider any fight is allied with the free syrian army to be part of a troops concerning that if you take an unacceptable position or make serious mistakes those people will be punished with their extremists liberals fight is of

the free syrian army yes mistakes have been made we have contacted our kurdish brothers seeking reassurance that these things will not happen again but no one responded the ca's have troops who are willing to cooperate with the regime to gain autonomy in the north but overall we do support the kurdish people every day i am. it's clear that the f.s.a. spokesman is seeking to avoid condemning the violence against hundreds of kurds and the ongoing expulsion of our people from their own lands these crimes have been registered officially and the materials have been passed on to the e.u. those who say the al nasra front are fighting a just war against the syrian regime are keeping silent when militants banished kurds from their lands and carry out ethnic cleansing the free syrian army don't talk about these attacks we don't know which groups are a part of the f.s.a. and which aren't they're taking a very dangerous approach how can anyone justify the atrocities that happened in

the kurdish settlements or got more news after a short break you're watching are to stay with us. down in the final. and the rest. will be.

technology innovation. developments from around. covered. and you're watching a recap of the week's top of events right here on our t.v. now the muslim holy month of ramadan has come to an end and the inmates at the notorious quantum obey prison have continued to refuse food their protest against indefinite detention and inhumane treatment has now entered its seven month u.s. military attorney barry when guard who represents to the detainees says it is

outrageous when people are held behind bars unjustly for political reasons. that sense of desperation that's going on in guantanamo bay hasn't abated in any way shape or form eighty six men who have been completely cleared by review task force are still being held in maximum security prisons unfortunately there's many people in washington here who are willing to say we don't care if you've committed a crime we don't care if you've done anything right or wrong we're going to hold you in guantanamo bay for the rest of your natural life because it's good for me politically i can go home and tell my constituents that i'm tough on the emotion of terror in the war continues and i'm going to keep those men in guantanamo bay no matter whether they did anything or not that's outrageous the white house has reiterated that it is standing by president obama's pledge to close the detention camp but it seems that the flow of money to the prison isn't drying up the total

cost of keeping the facility running will reportedly exceeded five billion dollars by the end of two thousand and fourteen and this year alone the pentagon plans to spend almost five hundred million to maintain the prison this means that every day the u.s. government splashes out one million dollars of taxpayers' money on the controversial camp and right here you can see how this all breaks down the major chunk is spent on security while illegal and court issues come second only fourteen million dollars are allocated to fund prisoner review boards. seventy six u.s. senators signed a letter to barack obama this week calling on him to tighten the noose around iran's neck in the document they urge the president to renew the option to use military force and to toughen draconian sanctions on the country that's after the house of representatives already slammed tehran with a new set of penalties on its oil sector days before president bush was sworn in

the iranian leader was clear about his terms and conditions for future talks mutual respect and no hidden agendas but jamal of d.v. from the national iranian american council thinks such negotiations are highly unlikely as washington has a completely different goal the fact that they would vote for new sanctions before the new iranian president who has been saying positive things and who is going to himself face so many obstacles for the house of representatives to go forward with this vote demonstrates that this is a chamber dominated by politics instead of pragmatism and is dominated by ideology instead of. an actual desire to resolve the problems that. lay before the united states now the reason that they went forward with this vote was because of immense political pressure from pro sanctions groups and neo conservative and hawkish organizations that are more interested in seeing

a war with iran than seeing a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear standoff. well hundreds have taken to the streets across europe and the u.s. to vent their anger at russia's new law banning homosexual propaganda amongst minors the protesters have been calling for a boycott of the winter olympics or for russia to be stripped of hosting them over what they say is a crackdown on gays the u.k.'s prime minister rejected the games at waikato which didn't calm down the protests the most furious rhetoric came up from renowned actor and a gay activist to stephen fry who condemned the olympic committee for not trying to fight what he dubbed as russia's barbaric laws he went as far as drawing parallels between moscow's actions and those of nazi germany against the jews the olympic committee reiterated saying sports should be available to all and the new law will not affect those attending the games ben harrison quiney from a leading london think tank calls into question the u.k. protesters focus on russia and particularly first of all we could remember the

actually the united kingdom had something called section twenty eight in place until two thousand and three which was almost exactly the same as the recent will cost of russia which said the homosexuality should not be permitted in schools or to mine is. to compare this to nazi germany i think is is is slightly hysterical great britain of course took part in the two thousand and eight olympics in beijing i think some people in britain might say that there's a question will he even rights record in china we also plan to take part in the upcoming world cup in qatar you know the qataris have a very different view i think of of what is appropriate in society than we do it's perfectly appropriate to go to those countries to have a respectful difference i think on those issues. well despite all the controversy preparations for one of the world's biggest sporting events are in full swing the

sochi winter olympics are now less than six months away record funds have been pumped into the games but some critics still doubt if all of the venues will be ready in time artie's martin andrews who traveled there to find out if there's really cause for concern. ok i'm not see bad but i think it's best to leave it to the professionals when they arrive next year insults you for the winter olympics twenty fourteen the countdown is getting lower the olympic park with its brand new arenas is almost ready and in february next year many of the world's top athletes will compete against each other right here at the skating palace. it's the first time since nine hundred eighty that russia has hosted such an event and with an estimated three billion viewers russia will be in the spotlight once again when all the construction is finished such will boast some of the best and technologically advanced sporting facilities in the world although with many cynics tells of corruption local opposition and

concerns with overspending is such ready well the proof as they say is in the putting. the finishing touches are being added now and the amount of work that has been done in the city is huge for the whole area is being improved and made more comfortable. with new pedestrian it was an underground passage being constructed the city has got a completely new look now with its newly built and very beautiful and there cannot be any doubt that everything will be on time to. slowly and surely each piece of the jigsaw is coming together another example is this next stadium. the ball sure i stone since twelve thousand people and as you can see well it's an impressive stadium it's unusual ready various competitions i've been staged here over the past few months and during the olympics will be used for ice hockey and after that it can be transformed to more accommodate a plethora of other sporting activities ranging from basketball to boxing. the

mountain cluster of course that pollyanna and the rosa khutor resorts will host the by a fun and ski center and there will be a freestyle skiing and snowboarding park. the two parts are to be connected by a forty eight kilometer highway as well as a high speed train that will run every five minutes and transport tens of thousands a day once they reach the mountains base by train passengers will take one of several new cable cars up to the ski resorts and olympic competition venues. the winter olympics is only the beginning for the whole area after the main events early next year such she will set about hosting twenty two international sports events ranging from the grand prix of figure skating to the formula one next november. the olympic sign here. represents what the entire occasion is for it. brings out the best in people and sporting events and politics aside as the whole

world focuses its attention on on the surrounding area the final preparations we put into place and what promises to be or the greatest sporting events. and often my trip here i can confidently say that the winter olympics twenty fourteen will be one to remember. more international news in brief for you this hour israel has given the green light for another twelve hundred settlements to be built on palestinian land palestinian chief negotiator lashed out at the move saying it will hamper a two state solution from being reached during peace talks set to resume in jerusalem on wednesday despite settlements being considered illegal under international law israel refuses to hold instruction for a decision comes after the german foreign minister claimed her visit during her visit to the jewish state but the international community should not create new obstacles for the negotiations. the train carrying consumer goods has derailed in

the u.s. state of oklahoma around thirty cars turned upside down spilling beer and soda cans on the rails near the city of. an emergency crew has arrived on the scene but no injuries have been reported so far the train is owned by the railway company. coming up after the break katie pilbeam and venture capital might even catch me in there as well. the u.s. government project arrow marty has been in place for twenty years this project was designed to break the media monopoly of cuban television by putting u.s. government propaganda up to t.v. screens this injection of american t.v.

works with a blimp and a c one thirty military plane working in tandem you know this would actually be a major achievement in the history of technology if it actually worked this program which over the years has built up a billion taxpayer dollars simply does not work but continues to exist despite the cuban government completely blocking the transmission the official logic of continuing the program is that it would send a bad message to the cuban government if they stopped brilliance and action but the big question is who gives the u.s. government the right to propagandize cubans just because they have a different lifestyle doesn't mean it is wrong and the u.s. government does has the right to destroy it and even if cubans on mass actually do hate their system then it is their job to change cuba not the military industrial complex and its cronies in washington but that's just my opinion.

l.a. that well can defend to capital with me casey pilbeam this week we're going to be talking about the bank salaries all right still to five of them exclusive and to be coming out on that one also the world's highest paid female athlete finding out today all thanks for saving kate. partridge artie's sports presenter coming in to talk to me about football and business as well as that we got corporate news and checking in at the markets desk with our in-house trader here i'll see that it's all to come but let's get started with us. because the official figure of sixteen trillion dollars seemed warningly high but according to a study by the university of california america's debt is actually four times higher at seventy trillion dollars so how much does that sum a quote serious compare it to the world's most valuable company apple so here we go that now as you can see this official figure equates to forty.