a plea for peace russia and syria washington to shift its focus to international negotiations and a joint message warning that military action against syria would provoke chaos and terrorism. meanwhile barack obama tries to persuade reluctant lawmakers to back an armed intervention ahead of a crucial congress vote. moscow's thing may be an in is elected for a new term edging past the fifty percent mark needed to secure victory in a single voting round but opposition runner up next in the valley refuses to concede defeat.

good afternoon welcome you watching with me and three farm. negotiations not missiles are the best way to resolve the syrian conflict that's the joint message from the russian and syrian foreign ministers who have been meeting in moscow russia wants to see the so-called geneva two peace talks take place and says a u.s. attack on syria would derail them artes sean thomas has more. sergey lavrov said that he's dedicated to bring all parties to the table to discuss the solution in syria he says that they need to wait for the united nations to complete their investigation and for those results to be brought on the table also calling for the un inspectors to come back into syria and can plead their work. sergey lavrov reminded the public that they have evidence that it could be the rebels themselves that actually used chemical weapons and so the situation isn't as cut and dry as is making it seem to be and then also called on the united states to lead the way in

peace process talk to school hear what he had to say about that. syrian coley has confirmed that damascus is willing to attend the geneva two conference without any preconditions in order to look for a solution to the crisis together with the opposition and we now call on our american colleagues to focus their efforts this instead of preparing a military strike last week it was decided that russia was going to send a delegation to the united states of lawmakers to meet with u.s. lawmakers that is now not going to happen it has been announced because. the leader harry reid and the house speaker john boehner said that they would not meet with a russian delegation on the topic of syria so russia announcing that they would not be making that happen now as far as his counterpart. syria's foreign minister he said that damascus is ready to come to the negotiating table for geneva two peace conferences without preconditions that's a big move also said that they're working with russia to prevent an attack from the

united states and to work towards peace he said that the case for a strike against syria is very similar to the case that the u.s. made for invasion in iraq ten years ago he then thanked the united kingdom the e.u. and the people of the united states for standing up against the idea of a strike and then went on to criticize president obama saying that while he pretends to support the idea of democracy he's not listening to the voice of his own people he also. showed an element of surprise that wondering why the united states would be interested in helping these particular rebels at all let's listen to what he had to say. 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 a did before invading iraq. john kerry and william hague met in london and in that meeting william hague said that the u.s.

has the full diplomatic support of the united kingdom this despite the fact that parliament voted against the idea of military intervention john kerry went on to say that it caught assad could prevent an attack from the united states if he handed over his entire chemical weapons arsenal by next week so big news here that kerry is offering a way out or a way for to prevent some sort of intervention by said that evidence of the assad regime having used chemical weapons is compelling on the idea of a strike he said that the scope would be unbelievably small and a limited kind of effort also saying that the united states will not be going to war now this is important wording because only congress has the ability to declare war so it is believed that this could be john kerry making the case for the united states to act or the president to act without congress tional approval making that case now he also said that it doesn't matter if assad didn't order an attack that

it was a regime and the regime is a regime and so action needs to be taken so at this point time it looks like both sides sticking to their guns in terms of their positions on the conflict in syria meanwhile president obama is sharpening his case for military intervention before a crucial congress photo we making a string of media appearances later today before meeting democratic lawmakers and addressing the nation on cheese day the senate could vote as early as wednesday in the house of representatives may take another week to make a decision while many in congress on convince by bomb this page they want to see more evidence of assad's involvement in last month's alleged chemical strike a majority in both chambers of congress are undecided and has had the senate vote would play act if it took place right now the house of representatives could prove to be obama's biggest challenge it's dominated by republicans who are overwhelmingly against the military plan janacek e engage the mood on capitol hill the report does contain images which some viewers

might find disturbing. 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 he said 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 is 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 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 face hinting that. you might not be listening to congress which of course begs the question why this charade in congress then. when it comes to popular opinion polls consistently show over fifty percent of americans are against intervention in syria and the numbers are even higher in france and eighty percent of british people want security council approval for any strike similar sentiments are shared in germany and italy and in turkey the majority of people don't want their neighbor attacked either former intelligence and military officials in the u.s. have meanwhile sent a letter to president obama which says chemical warfare in syria was a provocation by the rebels mcgovern worked for the cia for three decades the most among that group he told r.t. is kevin owen about the politics behind the planned intervention. 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 exception 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 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 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 the 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 going to 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 is being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper can they 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. more the country's civil war rages on we're bringing you

a report from the front line an ancient christian village in the mountains north of damascus has been besieged by rebel syrian rebels who have now driven government troops and artesian riff and witnessed all this here's her report. we saw what more little looks like right now this is a very sad picture would 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 inn and i make the language over jesus christ in greek in arabic and in french what also is home to dozens over. most of these now looks like a battlefield i want to know how to take when you get 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 said 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 army to find. out that marla 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 lula is a very symbolic place it 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 video posted on you tube away of people who call themselves jihad this mujahideen who invaded my daughter they are in model on this video they're saying that they came to my luna to protect people from brutal regime of bashar al assad how a cynic is this we were in modeler last year in spring 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 you can follow me on twitter to get her updates on what's happening in syria she's also got pictures from the loop where she traveled with the syrian army and you can see how about military operation has been unfolding over the past few days and what makes that ancient landmark so unique.

the in the. still around the corner for you will be echoes from the past after the break we travel to a place in south africa where the ghost of apartheid is very much aligned. plus the people of the lane pay a steep price for political correctness officials set their sights on the christmas market putting a stop to traditional nativity cheer more on that after the break. so we may be. motions to the other your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with to get that you deserve answers from. politics.

do we speak your language or not a day of. school music programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles kittens stories. you hear. to try i'll teach spanish find out more visit.

hello again the results of the election for moscow's top job show acting met to be secured more than fifty percent of the boy winning the race he did face a tough battle against his main rival opposition activists alexina valmy human to collect around twenty seven percent of the votes more than most had predicted the senior political correspondent and he said he has been following the developments. in. its number now with one hundred percent of the votes counted is fifty one point thirty seven percent but his main rival anticorruption leader elects in the wild in fared much better than expected really at twenty seven point twenty four official results formally will be announced later but it looks like with one hundred percent counted these are going to be the numbers. now when polls were taken when he started campaigning he was only getting around ten percent so he really did do much

better than people thought but another thing to take into consideration is turnout only thirty three percent of registered voters showed up that's surprising a lot of analysts because in recent years we've seen a lot more people politically active you have social media we had anti-government protests back into it in two thousand and eleven and it was supposed that a lot more people would come out to vote that wasn't the case and this was the first time moscow was voting for a mayor in a decade the last elections were in two thousand and three and even then turnout was at fifty percent so that's come as a bit of surprise just to let you know a little bit about for viewers more so about these two top candidates surrogates are down and of course incumbent mayor he's had quite a bit of success in moscow traffic in bringing moscow up to higher european standards and he promised to basically continue that line obviously it's worked alexina ryan and his. demographic tends to be younger crowds he did

a lot of grassroots campaigning lots of handing out flyers going to districts himself and that is very new to russian politics so for again it certainly has to be said that politics are taking on a new life here in russia. of course we've got plenty more stories online for you and on there at the moment big can't. touch with their wild side of the hindu harvest festival in southern india you can see all the best picture is in the vision gallery at r.t. dot com plus. some belt tightening why not waste a few billion dollars that's what's happened in the u.k. military according to a spending report this just come to light at r.t. dot com and tell you where those costs and blunders were.

the news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule today. a statue of the man who was behind some of the ugly policies of apartheid stans just a stone's throw from south africa's capital guards a white. it's not just a museum it's a past injustices traveled by. 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 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 where there's a little there's redistrict. if you go to work you can come in the first thing that greets you is you coming to claim from tain 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 the cans 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 has lived in came from ten 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 the right show but we 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 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 we have is that many of the law or both arise the

benefit of a certain racial group. nomic involvement 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 smits 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 freedom get to work. and that's when we come back here under apartheid the white of economy government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dices 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. a quick look at some other stories in chile police are broken up and finish a march choosing to gaston thirty thousand strong rally was to commemorate those who died during the dictator's brutal seventeen year old right squads reportedly moved in after groups of demonstrators built barricades and lit fires. an explosion near a primary school in china has left two dead and seventeen injured at least ten of the wounded children witnesses say a three wheeled motorbike pulled up in front of the building just before the blast security had already been tightened at education institutions after a surge in violent knife attacks. and a large scale insurgent attack in indonesia has left at least six dead including four civilians violent clashes broke out as the military try to fight off hundreds of militants reports say twenty civilians are being held hostage or many locals have fled the area it's believed the assault was led by the islamic group the moro

national liberation front germany's time honored tradition of festive christmas markets is under threat in berlin the authorities are saying religion should be taken active the celebrations and made the same decision for ram it down some think we can sense political correctness may be doing more harm than good artes peter all of investigates. 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 toys and mulled wine generally regarded as fun for all the family and they've become a major export from germany 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 area of the capital councillors 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 it 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 soul bruton's 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 often break we head to the u.s. state of virginia where rising water levels are threatening livelihoods and. 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 his 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. you're welcome you to take your allah virginia it's a little island a 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 waterman. our fishermen crabbers and other twenty percent are where our tug boat captains are our tanker mine our our our second mates on the tags. so far we're holding on to ourself that erosion has taken us taken us a way slowly but other than dad everybody saves the vacant and right now we're worried by to future but in a waterman you are a day by day and not you can't worry about tomorrow you have to get by today and he hopes the morning you wake up there's a new light. you get up but if it's busy i'll get up to thirty. most of john three o'clock in the

morning. i'm surprised and he. gets off and ready for market. for the order private. very. degrading when you sam alito. and. thomas john roberts. and. condi rice and i am called for. a conservative group. oh they can get a mainly. for the be taken to. the face ready for a. new york. friends in the same spot here and by ground zero for you.