i. al-qaeda linked fighters retake control of an ancient christian sanctuary in syria i made rising concern over the fate of the country's religious minorities. american lawmakers leaning towards rebuffing barack obama's syria war hall as a group of former u.s. intelligence officials claim the president is being misled in his case for intervention. and early results would was actually lead us against the beyond in our front in the landmark mayoral election his main opposition rival puts up a strong fight.

it's nine am here in the russian capital you live with us on our t.v. with me to bomb would say our first story islamist extremism have a rest of the syrian army out of the ancient christian village of mali which has been besieged since last wednesday the village was seen as a beacon of tolerance in syrian society and one of the oldest christian places of worship art is a mirror for national that has just returned from. we so what more lulu looks like right now and this is a very sad picture which used to be picturesque villages surrounded by mountains in the central part of syria where you feel like time has almost stalled where people train in numerous churches all across the village in make the language over jesus christ in greek in arabic and in french what also is home to dozens over. most of this now looks like

a battlefield and i want to know how to take a look at what we saw. in the row militants and my little now and our. hotel this is the mountaintop hotel which was the. rubble. but as i say. the militants first of all. exploded the car at the checkpoint to enter the village and after that they took the mountain tops i feel. they are firing from this position and this is the highest point in the village and also the rummage behind the mountains that i see around in modeler so their position is very strong and a very good and no one can say for sure now for how long it will last my lul is

a very symbolic place it's reflects how the entire syrian society use to be a very secular society and enveloping very tolerant society and right now we can see that this society is shaken and this is exactly what is happening with the entire syrian community so it is a very symbolic and. recently we saw. posted on you tube where people who call themselves jihadists mujahideen who invaded malula they are in my loan this video they're saying that they came to my lula to protect people from brutal regime of bashar al assad how a cynic is this we were in mali last year and i have to say that i haven't seen any place even here in syria where life is so calm and is so peaceful and of course cynically is that they they came there to protect people with guns with

mortar bombs and with. which actually contradicts the whole the entire idea of protection. coming up in the next hour peter lavelle chairs debate between a u.s. journalist and a syrian opposition figure on the ramifications of american intervention. if you. attempt to try to use military force from outside to overthrow the present regime you are going to set up a situation where there will be a civil war in which the jihad is have a very very strong hand or arguably a stronger hand today then the known jihadist resistance to assad what about these jihadists who they represent you they represent you in the new syria after the bombing ins we're not going to transition overnight into a beautiful democracy we will have

a messy transition but ultimately it is the will of the more than twenty million syrian people that must be done. with brugge obama's finger firmly on the syrian intervention trigger u.s. lawmakers will reconvene later on monday to debate going to war but the white house has made clear it still has a say in surrey on whether to bomb damascus regardless of what capitol hill things congress is skeptical over obama's cases against us that as a even administration officials admit they lack undeniable proof to implicate the syrian government in the deadly use of chemical weapons u.s. senators are almost evenly split in those for and against intervention with the help of the chamber still undecided while the lower and more populated house has more lawmakers for only against or leaning towards turning the war cry down their education has the latest from washington and you may find some of the images in

this report distressing. the upcoming vote in congress might not be as slam dunk as many thought it would be considering the support for military action in syria that congressional leaders have previously expressed members of congress admit that they are being bombarded by calls from their constituents ninety nine percent of whom demand that they vote no to the administration's plan to bomb syria now two hundred seventeen votes are needed to pass or to fail the administration's plan all representatives who are leaning no right now actually vote no president obama's plan to attack syria will fail at least in the house this administrator has failed to show me the direct threat to the united states of america we have absolutely no guarantee it will expand no guarantee of peace in the region the cia has prepared a video presentation that shows the aftermath of the brandis attacks in syria it's a collection of gruesome videos that were previously posted on you tube it's designed to sway members of congress to vote yes on bombing syria but the videos as

gruesome as they are do not offer proof that the assad government has carried out the attacks nor does the four page on classified report released by the administration earlier members of congress are supposed to get the proving classified hearings but as congressman alan grayson said they're being given intelligence briefings without any hard evidence to support administration's claims that the syrian leader has ordered the use of chemical weapons here's another cab the members of congress are not allowed to discuss the classified hearings so we have no way of knowing what the administration has actually provided as evidence lawmakers are unable to discuss the evidence the classified evidence even among themselves unless they are inside an approved reading room and as congressman grayson says questioning the official account of events is quote actively discouraged is that the obama administration is doing what it calls flooding the field in other words trying to monopolize the conversation dominate the discourse and provide only information in favor of an attack to members of congress and to

the public i think that's unfortunate. there's always two sides to the story when you talk about war and peace the public and congress definitely here deserve to hear about both sides the obama administration has not put forward any other options but bombing syria which by so many accounts will extend the misery of the syrian people will undermine international law and will steer more hatred toward the united states in the muslim world not only does the obama administration refused to take yourselves classified evidence to the u.n. security council which is required under international law but it seems it also keeps u.s. lawmakers in the dark about the details of the evidence they have and as far as the administration's response on whether or not the president will go ahead with a military action in the absence of a congressional approval but with the president's aides are saying that he will listen to congress the president himself is hinting that he might not listen to congress which of course begs the question why this charade in congress them. but

polls show most americans are almost also against intervention in syria the figures are even higher in france and the u.k. was sixty to eighty percent respectively against military action similar sentiments in germany and italy while in syria's neighbor turkey the percentage of those against intervention is even higher and seventy two percent last month alleged that the use of chemical weapons in syria was most likely a provocation by the rebels according to a prominent team of former u.s. intelligence officer they now appealing to the white house to square up its war plans saying president obama is being misled into believing assad was responsible cia veteran ray mcgovern is among the group he told kevin no one way he thinks the case for intervention is politically motivated last friday kerry went before the cameras and said we've got to do this and here's the not intelligence assessment mind you but the government assessment meaning the white has white house had

a cherished a massage. ted it edited ok here's the assessment it didn't hold up to scrutiny or apparently the military got to the president and i see some evidence of this next thing we know that the president has changed his mind on saturday afternoon and the only thing that really intervened was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey telling the president look you know it's going to be really hard as we're going to be really hard to explain what we have to do this now we could do this tomorrow or next week or next month we don't really have to do it now and the president said that in justifying his the lay now what's more evidence lindsey graham and john mccain the next day just took off after the joint chiefs of staff chairman in a very personal and vindictive way because they know that finally the military leaders went to the president said look you know we know we know you've been told that this is going to be easy and limit all our stuff but these guys and these gals

don't know a thing about war we do how do you think the congressional votes going to play out in the upcoming vote which way is it going to go i talked to a congressman last night for five minutes and it was very clear that he pledged to house leader nancy pelosi that he would vote according to what that what the president says because we have to protect the president and are you could have are you going to say that the president is why you don't have to say the president is lying or you do need to say according to our information is that the president being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper it can be confessed perjury or have thought it in their interests to to cater to the wishes of the white house which have been very clear this time we want to strike syria. still to come on r. and t. and i'll give you truth inside modern day. did in one town in the very heart of the

nation report shortly how the country's disturbing history is still alive. and there will be no christmas shift for some the bird minutes away and lawmakers say religious festivals are going to equal enough they've already put the wrecking ball through ramadan when the political party people is in a few minutes. a . day of a crockett welcome you have to take a virgin it's a little while in the middle of the chesapeake bay on the virginia.

page you're all in the chesapeake bay probably one of the best areas and so fred. this is an old picture of time and your island before the channel was good for oh here. they are. right here are some of the headstones from graves that for here this is a fruits that's what we don't want happen to tangier all and we want to get some protection and make sure that we don't go into the chesapeake bay like i did in other communities. wealthy british style.

markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max conjure for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report. big bucks but. a good way to go did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy but albus. will. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our crack cynical we've been hijacked why handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once will just my job market it on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks rational

debate real discussion critical issues facing up to find her job ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture. thanks for staying with us here watching our team after the tough four contests to be the next mayor early results put the incumbent set against a ban and firmly i hate his main opposition rival alexina while he managed to secure almost a third off of a tz a senior political correspondent on his and now is watching the results. it looks like most definitely sergei said bannon is set to win this election for mayor with most of the votes counted it's a narrow margin really making it so that we won't see a second round in this vote of course throughout election day that was the big question for a while there it was looking very likely that we could possibly see

a second round like i said most of the votes counted. but the main rival pro-democracy anticorruption really leader of the opposition the recent anti-government movement here in russia alexina valiant did much better than predicted over twenty seven percent with most of the votes counted now when he first started campaigning opinion polls suggested that he would get just around ten percent of the euro so really it was a strong fight that he put out but for both of these these top players we can say the real two candidates six candidates in all but these two the most popular turnout was not great in this election that was a huge surprise because let's remember this is the first time that muscovites came out to vote for their mayor something many people have been saying for years that they wanted in ten years to the last election for mayor was in two thousand and three back then the turnout was fifty percent and on sunday's vote it was only

around thirty three percent so not that many people came out a bit surprising because in recent years certainly in moscow and st petersburg big cities around the country more and more people had becoming politically active now like i said six candidates in all alexina five minutes against the gun and probably got the most coverage in terms of the media throughout this election no violent of course wrapped up in a series of scandals is quite a controversial figure here in russia very well known in moscow and other big cities not so much around the country but he did get more popular after basically a fraud case against him he was arrested and then released on bail he is going to appeal that case but it seems like that. it has given him a boost in the popularity of some of the other candidates didn't get so much press it's important to point out that still one in every ten muscovites wrote communist . strenuous efforts by britain's defense ministry to balance out its losses may

have been in vain been revealed there's been back up management mistakes which have caused the u.k.'s minute she is a one and a half billion pounds r.t. dot com tells you where the most biting blunders were. and we're used to seeing the russian armed forces paraded through red square but for eight days moscow tuned into military office truth from around the world for grandiose talk to replant of the best pictures of the festival which is just computed in the capital. right the city. first street. and i think the trip. on our recorders we're going to. be in the.

just fine south africa's capital stands a statue of the man who was behind the ugly policies of apartheid it's a white only enclave which allows black visitors only under special permit but this is not some sort of open a history museum it's a very real self-sustained community plus they went to explore. a half hour drive north of south africa's capital petrolia and you'll be forgiven for thinking you've traveled back in time it might be two decades since nelson mandela was sworn in as the country's first black president but communities hankering after south africa's apartheid past when racial segregation was enshrined in law are starting to wave their nationalistic colors when white people first advanced into the interior of south african eighteen hundreds this is what they saw before them vast dissolute stretches of land and now one hundred fifty years later they were turning to the dreams of a forefathers to create an independent entity with their own laws flag and language

welcome to claim fontayne an aspiring whites only enclave if you're black you can visit but only for a few hours and with special permission for there's a little redistrict. if you go to work you can come in the first thing that greets you as you coming to claim from tain is a bust of hendrik for vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight although signposts are written off recons the language spoken by the town's one thousand inhabitants who can all trace their lineage back to the european settlers who arrived here in the sixteen hundreds residents insist they are not racist it's just that they don't welcome jews catholics or any english speakers either merissa hoss book has lived in came from tain for six years she says she feels safe here there's no crime and she enjoys being part of a community that shares the same culture and history this is private property so

we're not taking anything from anybody else so we don't think i think it's a ratio but we are we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. for danes residents include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a copper to avoid that. gives them water and electricity the community has survived largely without the help of the government it has its own water pumps and a natural reservoir and there's a shopping center a bank a school overtime and center and several small businesses it's residence aid self-sufficiency born out of necessity they dream is to create their own flag and currency the problem. is that many of the law or based on race. benefit a certain racial group. nomic involvement many of our young people that weren't even born in the aborted go to work then the.

iliza smith moved here after being unable to find work she now cleans houses a job she's very grateful to have my skin and all that i there is no i'm not black abroad for work no work and then my fitting get to work. and that's when we come back here under apartheid the white afrikaner led government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dice has turned and many white often carnets feel that white homelands are the only solution but many south africans fear their communities that came from tain a merely lingering outpost of the apartheid era threatening to return the country back to the dark days of its racist past policy r.t. came from tain south africa. some of the world's other headlines now romania's witnessing mass protests against plans to build europe's largest open causing goldmine thousands of much nationwide to voice

a criticism over draft approval for canadian company to mine for gold and silver in u.s. interests all the indian environmentalist will say the mind could become any a logical time bomb project will mean the destruction of historic sites and dating back to the roman empire and four mountains in the area hundreds of family who also have to be relocated. in march for human rights on the fortieth anniversary of the coup which brought a former dictator a goosed of pinochet to power has turned violent tens of thousands attended the rally in san diego honoring the victims of pinochet's regime fighting broke out when a hooded mob or use stones and sticks to attack police responded with tear gas and water cannon. there's been a series of suicide bomb attacks targeting an intelligence headquarters near the afghan capital at least four offices did the taliban admits in the string of

assaults on local government offices in the town of maidan shah which also left more than one hundred others wounded there is a key province all the groups insurgents and al-qaeda fighters because they use it to launch attacks in nearby kabul provinces. in one corner of berlin the christmas has been cancelled centuries of celebrations are being swept aside for the more plain and neutral winter festival it's not only christmas the muslims lost their want to publicly mock ramadan instead they got some of the asked people all of our reports on how few cheery in the changes. we may just be approaching the start of autumn here in germany but already minds are turning towards christmas and in particular the traditional german christmas market these markets which pop up all over the country that sell ham and make christmas toys and mulled wine generally regarded as fun for all the family and they've

become a major export from germany just popping up as well all around the world however this year in berlin they could be in for something of a change of name in one particular region in the quite area of the capital councilors there have ruled that the public celebration of religious festivals isn't allowed which will see the christmas market become the winter festival market now this rebranding has ruffled a few feathers but it does have its roots and if the situation made earlier this year the islamic community in this part of town had wanted to hold public celebrations to mark the end of ramadan they were told that they couldn't and now next year's celebrations may go ahead under the name of the summerfest to go alongside the winterfest in a move that critics are saying could just end up upsetting everybody. what we've ended up doing is not just prohibiting ramadan so abrasions we are prohibiting the soul of all religious holidays under the pretext of equality but i think we are

forgetting that some of our cultural traditions are based on christian traditions i'm interested to see if they're also prohibit the jews from soberly hanukkah i wonder if our multiculturalism will go far. so over the coming months we're just going to have to wait and see how locals and tourists alike take to the rebranding of a centuries old german tradition. i'll bring you more news in about half an hour from now up next we take you to the small island in the american state of virginia that's steeped in history but is barely above sea level leaving a small population fighting with of.

fans of the shocked your football club and kind of gonda kazakhstan believe that a certain special ritual help them achieve victory against the world famous scottish team celtic this ritual was sacrificing a sheep at the stadium as someone who lived in kazakhstan for two years i know there's a real meat eating country with deeply rooted traditions in livestock racing so this news is unusual but maybe it's not completely bizarre for the culture of course defenders of animal rights who don't seem to realize that the sheep would be turned into people of the next few days anyways demanded that you a full officials punish the shock to a club for the actions of individual fans this is the same logic as if someone wearing a sexy tim kirby t. shirt went around robbing liquor stores i am not responsible for the actions of people like this program and it's not like i'd ever advocate robbing liquor stores and i doubt the shocked your management secretly arranged for fans to slaughter the sheep at the stadium when the slaughter of animals is acceptable to you or not well

that's one thing but we don't need to regulate the morality of individuals in other countries via soccer especially if that regulation means punishing the football clubs who are responsible for the actions of individuals but that's just my opinion . ok. david crockett welcome you to attend your isle of virginia it's a little while and the middle of the chesapeake bay or virginia. america. or a population of four hundred seventy people give or take. ever most are paper or independent watermen humor. fisherman crabbers and other twenty percent are war are tug boat captains are our tanker mine are our our second mates on the tugs. so far we're holding on to ourself that erosion has taken us to take in

a so way slowly but other than dad everybody saved of a contented right now worried by to future but been a waterman you are a day by day and night not you can't worry about tomorrow you have to get by today and then you hope good morning you wake up there's a new light. now you get up but if it does you'll get up to thirty. posts on three o'clock in the morning. i'm surprised. it's soft and ready for market. or feel deprived. degraded when you sam alito. and. thomas john roberts.