al-qaeda linked fighters retake control of an ancient christian sanctuary in syria amid rising concern over the fate of the country's religious minorities. american lawmakers are leaning towards rebuffing barack obama's serial loophole as a group of former u.s. intelligence officials claim the president is being misled in his case for intervention. and early results put moscow's x.e. leader said gates of beyond them out front in the landmark mayoral elections but his main opposition rival put up a strong fight. it's

ten am here in the russian capital you're live with us on our t.v. you're with me to my monthly. islamist extremists who have arrested to the syrian army on of the ancient christian village of mali which has been besieged since a loss to win state the villager was seen as a beacon of tolerance in syrian society and one of the oldest christian places of worship are his weary of an option that has just returned from. we saw what more lulu looks like right now and this is a very sad picture which used to be picturesque a village 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 battlefield and i want you now 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 rummaging you find. god in marla so this position is very strong and a very good no one can say for sure now for how long it will last my lula is

a very symbolic place it's reflects how the entire syrian society used to be a very secular society and yvel is very tolerant society and right now we can see that this society is shaken and this is exactly what is happening within thai syrian community so it is a very symbolic and. recently we saw. posted on you tube where people who call themselves jihad this mujahideen who invaded my lulu 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 in prison 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 they had to protect people

with guns with mortar bombs and with. launch greenways which actually contradicts the whole the entire idea of protection. coming up in cross talk later this hour peter lavelle his 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 jihadist have a very very strong hand arguably a stronger hand today then the hardest resistance to assad what about these jihadists who they represent you or they represent you in the new syria after the bombing ins absolutely not all you need to do is look at the footage the l.c.c. has provided of the massive protests of people going out against the jihadists

there is a degree of agreement here between the united states and russia. this whatever happens must be short of assisting the jihadists in gaining a foothold or expanding their foothold and being able to be the primary arbiter of. power in syria 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 barack 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 on whether to bomb damascus regardless of what capitol hill things are

congress is skeptical over obama's case against assad as even administration officials admit they like in deniable prove to implicate the syrian government in the deadly use of chemical weapons u.s. senators are almost evenly split into those for and against intervention with half of the chamber still undecided while the lower and more populated house has more lawmakers are firmly against or leaning towards turning down the war crime vanity can has the latest from washington you may find some of the images in her 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 leading know right now actually vote no president obama's

plan to attack syria will fail at least in the house this is ministration 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 brainless 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 of ministration 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 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 we 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 towards the united states in the muslim world not only does the obama administration refuse to take your say 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 then. the latest polls show most americans are also agaves intervention in syria the figures are even higher in france and of the u.k. was sixty and eighty percent respectively against military action similar sentiments shit in germany as well as in italy now while in syria's neighbor turkey the percentage of those against intervention is even higher and only seventy two percent. last month the alleged deadly use of chemical weapons in syria

was most likely a provocation by the rebels according to a prominent team of former u.s. intelligence officials they are now appealing to the white house to scrap its war plan saying president obama is being misled into believing it was responsible cia veteran ray mcgovern is among the group he told when why he things the case for intervention is politically motivated. last friday kerry went before the cameras and say we 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 chance to massage it had 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 delay 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 when 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 t and the ugly truth inside modern day south africa come upon tate isn't he a date in a one time in the very heart of the nation where reports show how the country's disturbing history is still alive. and will be no christmas cheer up pull somebody minutes away lawmakers say religious festivals aren't equal enough and were already put their wrecking ball to ramadan along the political party people in just a few minutes.

escalation agenda u.s. president barack obama has ordered the pentagon to double be a task force and expand the target list as part of his assumed assault on syria it was spent of international opinion and polls at home the u.s. on its own is poised to carry out forced regime change in damascus well at least that's the plan. right to see. first street. and i think picture. on our reporter's twitter. instagram. to be in the know. there's a media lead us so we believe that maybe. by the same motions your. father your party has

a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all politics. are today. ok. i david crockett welcome you to take your oliver jane edge a little while and a little of the chesapeake bay and a virginia shop and county. rampage here all in the chesapeake bay probably one of the best there is an alfred. there's an old picture of ten deer island before the channel was good for oh oh oh here. gone way up there. as go all. right here are some of the headstones from the graves it for you this is a fruits that's what we don't want to happen to change your all and we want to get some protection and make sure that we don't go into the chesapeake bay like uppers

did in other communities. thanks for staying with us here on our tea from all international news now it's. a tough haul flight contest to be must close next may early results put an incumbent set against the beyond and firmly i hate to say the main opposition rival ellison of all new menaces to kill was a third of the votes senior political correspondent and he somehow is watching the results. it looks like most definitely circus abandon 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 so great in the selection 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 thirdly 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 violin and sergei sit down and probably got the most coverage in terms of the media throughout this election nevada and 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 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 . serious efforts by britain's defense ministry to balance out its losses may have

been in vain a stack of letters made mistakes have been revealed which have caused the u.k.'s military a one and a half billion pounds r g dot com tells you where the money is bunting blunders where it. and we're used to seeing russians on forces parade through with squid but for eight days last could change into military all kestrels from around the world. gallery of the grand taji which has just concluded in the capital. right see. first street. and i think the true. on our reporters were very. instrumental.

in the. just all signs off africa's capital stands a statue of the man who was behind the ugly policies of a party at the white only enclave which allows black visitors only under special permit but this isn't some sort of open a history museum it's a very real self-sustained community put us leah went to explore. half hour drive north of south africa's capital 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 returning to

the dreams of the 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 but there's a little. we don't actually say that. if you go to work you can come the first thing that greets you is you coming to claim fontayne is a bust of hendrick for vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight although signposts are written off we can see 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 haas book has lived in came fronting 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 racial but we are we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. came from jane's residence include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a copper to board that. 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 a dream is to create their own flag and currency the problem we have in south africa that many of the law or based on race. benefit a certain racial group. of black economic empowerment many of our young people that

weren't even born in the aborted don't have access to work that don't have free access to education. 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 at least no work and in my free and get to work here at l'enfant day and that's when we come back here. under apartheid the white of economy of government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dices turned and many white of economies feel that white homelands are the only solution but many south africans fear their communities like came from tame a merely lingering outposts 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. now for some of the world's other headlines now romania as witnessing mass protests against plans to build europe's largest open

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

assaults on local government offices in the town of maidan shah was also left more than one hundred others wounded the area is a q province where the group's insurgents and al qaeda fighters because they use it to launch attacks on nearby kabul province. about a hundred suspected muslim rebels have clashed with chimps in a coastal philippine town and taken up to twenty people hostage one soldier was killed or during the fight another six injured members of the mora national liberation front are believed to be behind the tag of the movement signed a peace agreement with the government in one thousand nine hundred six but some guerilla fighters remain active. in one corner of berlin their christmas has been cancelled centuries of celebrations are being swept aside for the more plain and neutral winter festival as not only christians muslims lost their right to publicly mark ramadan instead of

a god summerfest beat all of our reports on how few sharing 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 handmade christmas stories and mold wine generally regarded as fun for all the family and they've become a major export from germany press popping up as well all around the world however this year they could be in for something of a change of name in one particular region in the quote 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 bull market now this rebranding has ruffled a few feathers but it does have its roots in a decision 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 celebrations 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 celebrating 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. after the break as promised across talks and gets the weigh in on the possible american strike on syria.

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 and someone who lives 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 aren't responsible for the actions of individuals but that's just my opinion. please. welcome the crosstown for all things are considered i'm peter lavelle escalation agenda us president barack obama has ordered the pentagon to double the attack force and expand the target list as part of his assumed assault on syria to respect

. international opinion polls at home the u.s. on its own is poised to carry out forced regime change in damascus well if we start the plan. to cross-talk the war in syria i'm joined by my guests in washington gareth porter he's an investigative journalist and author of the upcoming book manufactured crisis the untold story of the iran nuclear scare and we also have. a spokesperson for the local coordinating committee in syria and the director of the foundation to restore equality in education in syria all right cross talk rules and effective means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it gareth let's assume the strike happens you know sixty days ninety days what kind of syria does the administration intend to create they don't have any idea of a serious turn to create. i.