only on our team. russia and syria appeal for restraint and caution over responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons which the white house said there's prepared to go to war over. the american lawmakers lean towards rebuffing barack obama's syria strike call as a group of former u.s. intelligence officials claim the president being misled in his case for intervention. and early results and put moscow's acting their leader as surrogates of beyond and out front in the landmark mayoral election but his main opposition rival puts both of us strong flight.

you're watching r t live from moscow you're with me to mom would say to our top story now. russia and syria say they'll stand together for peace in the face of a mounting u.s. push for war against a mask because the message from the russian and syrian foreign minister came after their meeting in moscow on monday son thomas listened into their news conference and joins me now sean or so what all humans are moscow and a damascus pitting against washington's warmongering. well tell me the two ministers met and they discuss the latest developments in the syrian conflict they stated their opposition to foreign intervention and said that everything that happens has to happen according to international law sergey lavrov said that he is working to bring all parties to the table and has to isolate the rebels a group that he says is trying to hijack the entire process he also said that no group should have a monopoly on the solution to the syrian crisis he says that the u.n.

inspection team needs to get back into the country to. finish their work he said that that looks like it will happen but there are western powers that are trying to stop that process as well he talked about the humanitarian situation on the ground in syria and syria saying that it was dire and that a cease fire is needed in order to get humanitarian aid to the syrian people also said that diplomatic efforts are not exhausted and called on the united states to lead the way this is what he had to say. to the useless mr minister today has confirmed the willingness of damascus to attend a geneva two international conference without any preconditions in order to look for a solution together with the opposition and we call upon our american colleagues to use their efforts on this rather than. preparing a military strike against syria. and one of the reasons sergey lavrov is

urging caution and waiting for the u.n. to complete their information he says there's also plenty of evidence on the ground suggesting that the rebels have done some atrocities as well and that this was all a staged operation moving on to what walid had to say he said that damascus is ready to come to the negotiating table in the geneva two talks without precondition that's a big step forward also said that he is working with russia to prevent attacks from the united states and for peace in syria as for the case of a strike in syria he drew parallels to the situation in iraq. making is very similar he thanked the european union the u.k. and even the people of the united states of america for standing up and speaking out against the idea of strikes he went on to criticize president barack obama for supposedly supporting the idea of democracy but when it comes to following the will of his own people noting that it is an unpopular idea to strike syria back in the

united states that he's not willing to listen to his own people he also kind of showed some surprise at why the u.s. would be so willing to help the syrian rebels listen what he had to say about that . is that we have to ask how can president obama order a strike and support those who are behind the nine eleven terrorist attacks we also ask isn't washington using the same arguments to justify military action as it did before invading iraq. so russia calling for peace talks to be renewed and syria saying that they're willing to go along with it and all of this as the united states is it making its case for war in congress. and to mess with foreign ministers had to say on syria. with the obama's finger firmly on the syria intervention trigger u.s. lawmakers will reconvene later on monday to debate going to war but the white house

has made it clear it still has a say so on whether to bomb damascus regardless of what capitol hill things congress is a skeptical of obama's case agave such as even administration officials admit they like undeniable proof 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 hof of the chamber still undecided while the lower and more populated house has most lawmakers for me against all leaning towards turning down the war crime and education has the latest from washington and 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 cos from their constituents ninety nine percent of whom

demand that they vote no to the administration's plan to bomb syria this illustration has failed to show me the direct threat to the united states of america we have absolutely no guarantee it won't 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 ministrations claims that the syrian leader has ordered the use of chemical weapons here's another caviar 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 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. the latest polls show most americans are also against intervention in syria the figures are even high in friends and the u.k.

with sixty and eighty percent respectively are against military intervention similar sentiments are shared in germany and italy while in syria's neighbor turkey the percentage of those against intervention is even higher and seventy two percent now last month alleged that the use of chemical weapons in syria was most likely a publication by the rebels according to a prominent team of former u.s. intelligence officials they're now appealing to the white house to scrap its war plans saying a president obama is being misled into believing assad was responsible cia veteran ray mcgovern is among the group and he told kevin irwin why he thinks 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 s.f.

and it didn't hold up to scrutiny and apparently the military got to the president and i see some evidence of this next thing we know the president has changed his mind on a 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 and 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 what do you do need to say according to our information is that the president is being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper can be confessed perjury or have thought it in their interest to cater to the wishes of the white house which have been very clear this time we want to strike syria. still in syria the u.s. secretary of state and his british counterpart are giving a news conference in london we're going to show you live pictures there from there these are from the british capital rather john kerry has already said washington's

relationship with britain remains special despite the vote in the u.k. parliament that rejected military intervention against syria now william hague or told reporters that the u.k. must deter further chemical attacks we'll of course i'll be bringing you more on that presser briefing and what the two counterparts have to say. and meanwhile in syria islamist extremism have arrested the syrian army out of the ancient christian village of mount lula which has been besieged just 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 marina financial and has just returned from only. we saw 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 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 the mountains. around in modeler so their position is very strong and a very good in and no one can say for sure now for how long it will last my little is a very symbolic place it's reflects how the entire syrian society used to be a very secular society and eventually very tolerant society and right now we can see that this society is shaken and this is exactly what is happening within thai syrian communities so it is a very symbolic and. recently we saw. posted on you tube a web people who call themselves jihad this mujahideen who invaded modeler they are in model in this video is saying that they came to my luna to protect people from the brutal regime of bashar al assad how

a cynic is this we were in model 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 so to come this way and i'll do truth inside modern day south africa even the day then one time in the very heart of a nation reporter shortly how the country's disturbing history is still alive. and there will be no christmas cheer for some berlin is where lawmakers say religious festivals aren't equal enough they've already put the wrecking ball through ramadan all on the political party in a few minutes. people are scratching their heads why would any chemical weapons attack in the interests of the assad regime given the fact that in recent months they've been making

advances rather than retreating and why would. i work out such extreme your presence sorry but it's not the russian. language. we can't with oh if you're going to. choose. to use the story is. true. too. well the british sign it's time to. go. to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy is

a report on our. welcome back you're watching our team tough world contest to be moscow's next mayor it looks like incumbency get beyond then that is a keeping the job but his main opposition rival election of all the managed to secure almost a third of the votes all senior political correspondent and he said no one has been watching the results was that he had some predictions panned out not really it's a bit of surprise really i think for many people fair to say that in the barn and did so well with just want to bring up the numbers that we just saw behind you one hundred percent of the votes counted surrogates have been incumbent mayor at fifty one point thirty seven percent and next in the eyes and really the pro-democracy anti corruption opposition leader at twenty seven point twenty four now when you started campaigning polls had him at just ten percent so he did really well for

this it's important to point out that this was the first time that a candidate really started. took the grassroots way so a lot of going around to different districts handing out pamphlets anybody who's been in moscow in recent months would have seen a barn and written somewhere it's not a very traditionally russian way of campaigning but obviously this is going to be the future. of russian politics which has been getting more and more active in recent years. so i said ten percent of the vote originally was thought would go about to nevadan it but also another thing i want to point out is voter turnout because so many people in recent years have been coming out onto the streets social media everyone is voicing their opinions recently it was thought by many analysts that the turnout would be surprisingly high for this mayor elections and that wasn't the case only thirty three percent of registered voters turned out that's compared to fifty percent ten years ago when the last elections were held for mayor

and we heard a lot of people in recent years demanding that they want to vote they want to have elections and then you get this kind of turnout so a lot of the analysts are going to be debating this over the next couple of days why so few people came out to vote what happened i want to find out too so you'll keep us posted on the latest on that that is our senior political correspondent and he said no way here who's been watching the. elections right strange vibrations the defense ministry to balance out its losses may have been in vain a stack of management mistakes have been revealed which have cost the u.k.'s military a one and a half billion pounds r g dot com tells you where the most biting blunders with. and we used to seeing russia's armed forces a parade through red square but for a day of the most. military officers from around the world check out i'll get a week off of the ground which has just concluded in the capital.

right. first. and i. with think the term limits libyan army corps let their lives to live. live and let live. just outside south africa's capitol stands a statue of the man who was behind the policies of our party 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 honestly it 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 strictures of land and now one hundred fifty years later they're returning to the dreams of the forefathers to create an independent entity with their own laws flag and language welcome to claim fontayne and 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. blurred. if you go to you can come in the first thing that greets you as you come in to claim fontayne is a bust of hendrik for vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight all over signposts are written off the cons 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 racial but we are we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. claim for change residents include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a carpet of board 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 over time and center and several small businesses it's residents say it's

self-sufficiency born out of necessity they dream is to create their own flag and currency the problem we have in south africa is that many of the law or based on race. benefit a certain racial group. economic environment many of our young people that were even born in the aborted. system work. 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 work and then my fitting get to work here at plane one time and that's when we come back here under a part hate 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 in romania is witnessing mass protests against to build a europe's largest open concert goldmine thousands have much nationwide to voice their criticism over draft approval for a canadian company to mindful gold and silver in west central sylvania environmentalist to say the mind could become an ecological time bomb a project will mean at the destruction of historic sites are dating back to the roman empire and for mountains in the area hundreds of families will also have to be relocated. a march for human rights on the fortieth anniversary of the coup which brought former dictator gives of pinochet to power has turned violent tones of thousands are tendered their 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. there's been a series of a suicide bomb attacks targeting an intelligence headquarters near the afghan capital at least four offices are 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 the area is a key province for the group's insurgents and al qaeda fighters because they use it to launch attacks on nearby kabul provinces. about one hundred suspected muslim rebels have clashed with troops in a coastal philippine town and taken up to twenty people hostage one soldier was killed in the fight in another six injured members of the moral national liberation front are believed to be behind the a tag of the movement signed a peace agreement with the government in one thousand nine hundred six some

guerrilla fighters remain active. now in one corner of berlin christmas has been cancelled centuries of celebrations are being swept aside for more plain and neutral winter festival it's not only christians muslims have their right to publicly mark ramadan instead of the guards summerfest peter oliver reports on how see you are 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 winter festival 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 celebration 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 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. and if you are immense of the british foreign secretary in office when the decision was made to strike iraq explains why they the need for course and before making the same mistakes again syria will see very soon. fans of the shock to your football club and kind of conduct 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 live stock 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 where 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 of 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.

now welcome to sophie and co i'm sophie shevardnadze and today we're talking about syria the u.s. congress is voting on about his proposal to bomb syria an operation he claims will be surgical not intended to instigate regime change that was seen as the full and if we have why aren't we learning. striking syria an absurdity the righteousness city america's ships sit on the horizon but do they carry hopes for a solution or nails for the coffin of assad.