i. this is r.t. tonight a provocation by syrian rebels to trigger a foreign intervention that's what vladimir putin has called last month's chemical attack outside damascus an issue that overshadowed the g. twenty summit here in russia. meanwhile global alarms raise over a surge of extremism within the opposition forces in syria after al-qaeda linked rebels procedure an ancient christian village the latest in a wave of attacks on religious minorities. and a fresh insight into britain that america's confidential folder shows nothing can stop government agencies from getting their hands on your personal data even the most heavily encrypted information it seems is now vulnerable.

very good even chief who just joined to say it's kevin owen hear it r t h q in moscow tonight the time just after eleven pm and it's the same time as well in some petersburg and that's the place where u.s. president barack obama is strong has been struggling for the last forty eight hours together international support for strikes against syria the issue divided world leaders at the g. twenty summit which drew to a close ally of the saving in some petersburg we'll bring you a full coverage than in this program from russia's northern capital. g. twenty studio in st petersburg very picturesque it is as well with the latest updates of what's happening at this two day summit this big drawing to

a close and of course as we said but a lot has been covered in the last forty eight hours rory. yeah absolutely right kevin and as you said just a moment ago the whole issue of syria really dividing the delegates here of the g. twenty summit here in st petersburg president barack obama some saying he looks exhausted tired a bit withdrawn and perhaps overwhelmed by what we've basically witnessed as a surge almost an avalanche effect of surging opposition to any type of western intervention in syria it really was the dominating subject a shame perhaps as this is supposed to be a global economic forum here at the g. twenty in st petersburg i could sit down and give you all the latest facts and gossip as well but the one person who has all those details is a nice and he said no way before she joins us live here on the set just a bit earlier she filed this report. but was meant to be a two day summit focusing on how to revive the global economy how to reverse economic global downturn turned into

a two day debate on syria that's putting it lightly almost all of the round tables the discussions the bilateral meetings in one way or another came down to syria and whether or not a u.s. strike on damascus was in fact something that they should support a lot of different views here president putin sat down with obama despite speculation that the two won't meet and it has to be said their views not only of the chemical weapons attack back in august but in how to deal with syria as a whole couldn't be more opposing. i was elected to end wars and not start a u.s. military intervention in syria dominated talks that the g twenty but if obama was looking to gather overwhelming support at the summit he didn't get it in st petersburg you know. so who should do this you know. there is no military sort of. we will not participate in military action. aside from

france turkey and saudi arabia few countries expressed outright support for obama's proposal of a military strike in a joint statement they condemned the use of chemical weapons blaming the author government and called for some kind of response but they stopped short of backing a u.s. attack on syria summit hosted president putin accused the rebels of being behind a chemical weapons attack near damascus in august that he says was. parties in the eyes of the west. i view everything that happened with the so-called use of chemical weapons in syria as a provocation by the rebels who count on help from abroad from those countries that originally supported them that's the reason for this provocation i also want to remind you that the use of force against a sovereign state is acceptable only if it's done for self-defense and we know that syria hasn't attacked the u.s. and only if the u.n.

security council approves such action as one of the participants of our discussions on the issue put it yesterday those who do otherwise put themselves above the law obama continues to insist assad was behind the attack and he won't wait for the u.s. to respond. of chemical weapons isn't just a syrian tragedy it's a threat to global peace and security the u.s. president is due to address the american public on tuesday and try to make his best argument for an attack on syria one that failed to convince global partners at the g twenty summit just to give you a better idea of who exactly is opposed to military action in syria along with russia you have china india indonesia argentina brazil south africa other countries' economies of the g twenty did sign a joint statement condemning the attacks back in august they do believe that also

it was behind it and the joint communique goes as far to really hand that they also support these countries bypassing the u.n. hold russia and many other partners here think that's a very dangerous precedent that's going to be set up and what will happen then to smaller countries what will happen with north korea how will they see this kind of a brazen overstepping of international law what kind of precedent will that set up in terms of trying to convince north korea per se to get rid of their nuclear program so very hot debate here over the past two days but it should be said that leaders are leaving st petersburg with no kind of solution on how to move forward with syria. it was a season it's an hour there right in the thick of it at the convention center colton palace is just a short distance from where i am here at the g. twenty in st petersburg just a bit earlier in the program though i did speak to a new state former deputy speaker for the belgian parliament he said when it comes

to the issue with syria he said it's a hyper dynamic at a hyper level issue many different sides of the story the media is not paying enough attention to his when he told me just a bit earlier do you test the united states stands at all against public opinion in the rest of the world barring france and saudi arabia and even there in those countries us saudi arabia and france we're talking about the government not really the population i mean opinion polls in the u.s. and france show there's a majority against but apart from that there's a legal aspect the u.n. charter is very clear here that no country can attack another country unless there is an imminent danger to the attacked country this is not the case it's pure and simple u.s. cannot attack unilaterally another country can america go alone of course they did before and they can they have the means to do with the christmas do they have a legal grounds and that's the matter also the whole issue of proof even when

a country has undeniable proof it has to go to the u.n. security council with that proof it does not give them a reason to attack even if the u.s. congress votes that does not give them the legitimacy to attack another country that you are the u.s. congress is a bottom of that country and that. that was a. former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament and he joined us just a bit earlier in the program here on r.t. as we continue our g. twenty coverage from the north and capital the venice of the north this is. an amazing backdrop behind us now and i see this cathedral just behind my shoulder certainly surrounded by multiple unesco world heritage sites as well i'm very lucky . and he said now he has left the convention center called polish now joining us here on r.t. set so nice to see you in the fresh i've been looking at you on screen all day and had to take two boats to get here two boats and it took you long enough as well i'll have you know as the temperatures have dropped i'm glad you're dressed fairly well many for the meantime it is getting

a bit chilly here in some people but it's quite chilly sort of represents the mood here. at home to say today's frosty over the past forty eight hours or so but you know you've had the facts you've had the figures the general information here the g. twenty let's talk about some of the things the media is not talking about for example . president putin spokes person there's a whole bunch of hoopla in the western media about something he allegedly or didn't say well it has to be said as funny as it might be that he's saying but he didn't say that so it hasn't been confirmed at all the way you see it denying it western media is saying that first it was some russian official then he was outlined and saying it that britain is a little island and no one really cares what it takes to look out i have to say personally i kind of agree with that i'm just kidding oh i'm devastated but yeah i was being to lots of of the from the huffington post to most major news networks in the west at least their twitter accounts and our correspondents talking about this

and understand you've been reading some of the responses to it in the u.k. i certainly haven't but i can actually the responses that were came out of the u.k. if i one of the guys who made a well he made a rude response on twitter and he was told to take that back and swallow deeply and apologize but apart from that hoopla over what may be allegations of something that was not said he says he didn't say all right choice to answer about the boards he resigned which of some of the delegates here at the g twenty summit was interesting there was a lot of analyzing last night per se obama coming into dinner alone by himself so you had you know francois loans merkel and cameron the europeans laughing coming in to gether and usually at these events they tend to stick together and. groups it's very much like high school there's kind of cliques buddies not so friendly you know put in obama lots of speculation going on but apparently from what i've been reading it seems that president obama was in fact walking in alone not because people are upset with him or anything like better he has been able to gain as much

support as possible sure it might look like that they're obviously all very tired but he's been working so hard trying to get congress behind him on that vote coming up next week so he was working he was doing his homework say so to say at this global summit i mean i suppose maybe a little bit late with his homework and he's as we know president obama ultimately snubbing the russian president to earlier on they were supposed to have a sit down meeting but we understand they did eventually sit down they did and it just goes to show you how much most of the things said about russia and america is speculation nobody thought that the two of them would sit down at the end of the day they took twenty minutes on the sidelines and both of them say yes we don't agree but when we sit down and talk it's constructive it's our job and that's what we're going to do now what about what about the n.s.a. because over the past recent months or so to unity and other networks as well we've been talking about the discovery of the true extent of the national security agency's enormous global spy program many members of the brics nations in attendance here today and for the past two days of the g.

twenty very upset over that what can you tell us a lot of the brics upset about that in fact on the first day of the summit they aligned it with terrorism on a more serious note brazil going as far as saying that they truly expect an apology from the obama administration and then at obama's briefing today which i was that he sort of touched on the question he made a little joke about it but it doesn't look like they'll be any apologizing soon in fact he still calls that allegation so he isn't even really admitting that that was the case and that is not something that the brics brazil mexico even not a great country or not very happy about will and he's referring us to go to to get the comments from the sidelines i mean not just the sidelines but away off so we're not the if. all news coming out of the g. twenty but you telling us what it's like right down there in the nitty gritty artes and it's in our we thank you very much for joining us here on our set as we continue our live coverage of the g. twenty yes indeed it is winding down and wrapping up our here in st petersburg but we do still have a if we can get late breaking news for you in the next hour and

a half here on r.t. for the meantime though on the program the host of artie's venture capital katie pilbeam a report from her is just around the. yes guys were saying that spoke to some papers postal bit later in the program so that predictably understandably of course a major focus on syria at the g twenty the latest from that country tonight government forces have been battling al qaeda linked rebels who attacked a christian village earlier this week is home to some of the world's oldest christian centuries in fact it's one of the places where out of magic said to be the language of christ is still spoken rebels are reportedly being forced out after fierce clashes briffa national reports for r.t. from damascus. i tried to go to my little village shortly after we heard that the clashes erupted there and it's just one hour drive from damascus north of the

capital but we were stopped by the army and warned that it could be a one way ticket because first of all the road from damascus to milo is not safe but even if we're lucky enough to get. to the village the clashes still continue there and the raw are still some snipers who are active on the ground so the situation is very dangerous so it's better not to go there as we were told we're hearing that the fighting is between the army and the militants mostly from. affiliate id groups fighting here in syria. against the regime of bashar assad but mostly for the radical islamic state and we can see that the tactics were also. very similar to those that terrorists all around the world use we know that. early on wednesday. suicide bomber

struck a checkpoint at the entrance of my little village and after a car exploded at the checkpoint the militants of the stormed in and we have online media and i hope you can see it right now showing rebels. in the city and residents have been telling media that the same day the militants managed to take over a mountain top saffir hotel and they've been firing from that strategic poor into what we know is that smile a village is a very special place not only speaking. in terms of syrian reality but internationally speaking it is home to and also the strine for century catholic church and dozens of more scs where residents local residents in the shops and. during their daily lives they speak aramaic the language that jesus christ believed to speak so course the whole christian community not only here in syria

but all over the world was shaken and our team managed to speak to one another on from latar care about the situation and about the fears of the christian minority here in syria i mean that in and here how can the international community ignore the brutal killing spree in the early on august the fifth and the tank that affected five hundred people including children women and all the people in the villages travel as they massacred all the residents and burned down the houses twelve alawite villages were subjected to this horrendous attack it was a true slaughter house people who were mutilated and beheaded there is even a video that shows a girl being dismembered alive with the sioux. well it's worth to mention that malula has very troubled neighbors another village of broad center of smuggling here in syria just twenty minutes drive from my little haunts the city known as the

percent of the question is one hundred kilometers away from this village was the only one not taken not. touched by the rebels. mara for national correspondent on the ground there in syria more news after the break including the latest from the election campaign from moscow man. summit for a showdown as g twenty leaders meet in st petersburg top of the agenda is obama's drive to strike syria his coalition of the willing is weak and divided with a lot of near putin staunchly against any military strike will this summit be remembered as the last step before still another disastrous western intervention in the arab world. choose your language. we could know if. someone. chooses to use the consensus to.

choose to get the news that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to. your news sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dog. hopefuls in the race three mosco marrow holding final rallies out of this sunday's vote thousands of gallons of the capital support that come this despite the bad

weather but only two rival campaigners are expected to put up any real kind of battle this weekend and he can also follow in the events for. the election is on sunday saturday is the day of silence so friday is the last opportunity for the candidates to meet with their supporters and make some new ones the largest event was organized by acting mayor said he sat down in a music concert inside the. stadium that was organized for thirty thousand people but those who did want to attend that event did need special tickets in advance the second largest rally was organized by the candidate from the opposition i'd seen of whining about was organized outside on. the avenue which has become a traditionally a popular place for opposition rallies this particular event was authorized for twenty five thousand people and indeed despite the cold and windy weather many of them are widely supporters gathered there the other three candidates organized similar events but it's fair to say that it's

a banyan and windy for managed to gather more supporters than the others well according to several opinion polls this widely expected that. it is going to win the upcoming involved in the first round with over fifty percent of all started to see not only is expected to come in second place but despite the forecast the opposition claims that your stories are still going to try to use different tricks in order to prevent the second round from happening but it is the first election of moscow's mirror in a long time in many analysts do agree that the authorities are going to try to turn it into an example for the rest of the country that's why video cameras have been installed at over thirty six hundred polling stations across the city they'll be feeding a live video footage into the web eleven thousand observers are going to be all sold there present at the polling stations monitoring the course of the vote so experts do agree that it's in favor of the authorities to to conduct this election as transparently as possible to boost their image and trust among the population

before the story across so we can feel reporting online tonight r.t. dot com workers of the world's largest retailer. lashing out at us supermarket joe walk is the planet's biggest private employer in fact but stuff they say say they need a decent minimum wage some were arrested at rallies we've got their story on the pages online. and rush is set to host a quote wonderful olympics that the words of the i.o.c. president who's given the sochi preparations wholehearted seal of approval on the website how excitement over the winter games is heating up. next still think you're a safe and sound went online well don't party knew about winning documents on a joint u.s. british surveillance program have been unveiled they show countries snooping agencies are able to look pick any digital data you possess using their

multibillion dollar budgets they managed to create nami of eavesdropping super computers one being the way to weaken some of the major brands software at the same time or a smith scope the story. it seems that they're capable of doing practically anything essentially all of the stuff that you do online the emails that you send the banking data that you insert when you transfer money shot paying all those passwords that you've created to protect yourself online even your medical records it turns out that the guarantees that you've been given by the internet companies that all that stuff is protected or rendered practically worthless by this they've got these super computers which basically use brute force to break codes and then here's the kicker it turns out that they're collaborating with the internet service providers themselves secretly also inserting back doors into commercial in christian software so again in on the ground floor and it turns out has made significant inroads into breaking into hotmail google yahoo and also

facebook where they don't work or don't stretch to of course there are all of these these direct taps that they've got on what's called the backbone of the internet these cables that run under the sea transatlantic that carry all the internet traffic and then of course intercept. centrally the message is from these leaks that if the n.s.a. wants to get into your computer it can but there are some things that security experts say can make it more difficult for them to do that and ultimately that's what you're aiming to do really so first of all you can use this redirecting software that enables online anonymity but you can also encrypt your communications again not failsafe not foolproof but it will protect you slightly better another thing that security expert in the guardian is suggesting today is to have a computer that has never been connected to the internet also as we've learned don't control don't trust commercial encryption software because that's likely had

a backdoor inserted into his already by the n.s.a. or g c h q this is here is the experts in the guardian sums it up by saying look you know the n.s.a. . amazingly efficient at doing this it seems but ultimately they're not magicians they can't do everything and they're constrained by the same financial and economic constraints that all the rest of us are so basically all you can do is make it as difficult for them as possible and just cross the fingers. floor smith of london to the g twenty summit in st petersburg and. thanks very much governor we are continuing our live coverage here of the two thousand and thirteen g. twenty summit just a bit earlier in the program i did speak to katie pilbeam the host of our business program venture capital oh she filed this report wrapping up basically the end of two days of the twenty thirteen g.

twenty global economic four. day the first part of it we had the b. twenty and that's when the five hundred international biggest business leaders the the global elite if you like come together with the political leaders and they get to ask the questions that they want all it says is a surprise the likes of tax evasion and job creation were pretty much sent to to the conversations and it was pretty agreed upon that tax evasion is being come down upon and it's the multi nationals so as we know there was some big companies the likes a starbucks appling google the accuse of evading taxes but they certainly won't breaking any rules in the us because they want any deals in place and that is set to change in n.p.t. really he praised the cooperation of all of the leaders on that tax evasion and also the collaboration with the cd on the decisions that have been made in what i also do you can tell us from today day two of the g. twenty day two will probably i would say one of the biggest events is come out of

this said g. twenty in terms of the business would be the bric development bank because before we came here we didn't have any details when they saw the case and talk about the break some talk about brazil russia india china south africa and i before we came here we didn't know how much money each one of these countries was going to contribute and just to put this into context is a rival for the likes of the walled bank and the i.m.f. because the moment we know the developing world is suffering they all dealing with volatility they're dealing with that that current is a suffering that's in light of ben bernanke even federal reserve chairman saying he's going to be attending the taps off of the so-called medicine. steroids if you like for the sick patient as we've been calling it let's get back to this by now this bank china will have the bulk with the money in this because it is the biggest economy out of the break so it's going to contribute forty one billion russia india brazil look at it gave eighteen billion in today's five billion will be from south africa this is believed to be a big deal because before this as i say there were a few negotiations as to how much money each of these countries was going to give

so they've laid the foundations if you like for the banks i mean you're told you're talking a big money here but they said they daily enchanted reach consensus or not he added fairly and reserve yet right now is to be out of russia's finance minister he said that the papers are ready and the creation of such a pool is ready to happen fairy suit. there is particular demand our for a pool of reserve currencies because it would help prevent currency instability the size of the pool has been determined the share of the countries involved has been to time and presidents have given orders to the finance ministers and central banks to finalize this issue with central banks will be instrumental in this week's the pool will be formed using gold and foreign currency reserves at the next meeting we hope to get close to completion on the. and that was.

russia's finance minister talking about. being the host of a venture capital new business program here on c as our live coverage continues from the twenty third scene in g. twenty summit here in st petersburg a pleasure to have you with us the old day today if indeed you can stick around live coverage just around the corner. if i'm story up back here in moscow after the break people fellas have a crystal. iraq afghanistan the balkans somalia haiti libya yemen and so on and so on the list of engagements and airstrikes by post cold war nato just keeps getting longer and now

it looks like it's serious turn a lot of people have written me asking me to predict what is going to happen next which for me is a possible i'm not good at predicting the future but i can say is that we are living in a very tense moment in history many argue that the u.s. economy with its unfathomable debt is really propped up by war and the petro dollar so if the u.s. backs down here won't could be the beginning of the end for the world's only hyper power but if they do attack syria there will probably be some sort of reaction from iran russia and china if you haven't noticed nato has been trying to encircled these nations and in russian internet conspiracy land a lot of people are saying that russia is next you see if there is no resistance in syria then one by one all resistance to the un ending hunger of nato will be smashed out one by one the reason syria is so important and so scary is that you have one massive military force that could be very motivated to attack for its own self interest while you have a group of massive military forces.