a play for pace 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 acting man. is elected for a new term making past the fifty percent mark needed to secure victory in a single voting round but opposition runner alexina valmy refuses to concede defeat .

a welcome you're watching r.t. and then with me and three farmers. now negotiations not missiles are the best way to resolve the syrian conflict that is the joint message from the russian and syrian foreign ministers who've been meeting in moscow russia sergei lavrov still wants to see these so-called geneva two peace talks take place and says a u.s. attack on syria would derail them r.t. shaun thomas has more. said that he's dedicated to bring all parties to the table to discuss a 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 use chemical weapons and so the situation isn't as cut and dry as the west 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 of your life syrian colleague 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 on this instead of preparing a military strike john kerry and william hague met in london and 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 it prevent an attack from the united states if he handed over his entire chemical weapons arsenal by next week. well for more on this let's talk the syrian political analyst he joins us live from london mr kerry says

if assad hands over his chemical weapons there will be no strike is that a poll is a blow for mr assad do you think. i don't think it is very much so the case i think this reminds us for example with the with the situation prior to the invasion in two thousand and three when iraq was quite encouraged to hand over what. you know weapons and munitions they had that could actually how can force you to them but also. as for example and at the end of the day old of what happened was that was that the americans did but iraq had really very little teeth to resist anything so i don't think the syrians will be falling into the same trap here so i mean what can be done because mr kerry makes the point today that he says at the moment he believes mr assad has too much power if mr assad believes he can use chemical weapons with impunity there's no way you want to

negotiate why should he come to the to the peace to the table and talk place. well i don't think that a weak syrian government at least in the eyes of the syrian government supporters on the ground would be in a much better position than a strong syrian government in fact i would argue the opposite of say that the syrian or a strong syrian government that keeps confidence to its supporters on the ground would be in a much better situation to concede you know any. any ground in any possible negotiations in the future and whilst if it is perceived to be very weak in going into negotiations yes it might concede a little bit more but actually that would come down easy on its supporters and it might complicate matters a little bit more actually than they are complicated already not to be fair everybody is saying that. a diplomatic solution is the only solution and they would like to say all sides come to the negotiating table but if there is a military strike what would happen to the chances of that happening. well i think

the syrian foreign minister made it clear today that the syrian government will know it will seriously rethink its position from with regards to the to the geneva . process the entire political process so to speak if a military strike should place should have any terror strikes or to take place but let us forget here that the syrian government has all the reasons to believe that a military strike whilst probably saying to the world that you know this is for you know pursuing the objective of trying to push the syrian government to the negotiating table the syrian government might want to say will this is about weakening our position in the region the geopolitical position in the region for years and decades probably to come i don't think they will you know agree with the notion that this is about encouraging them to go to the negotiating table this is

more of a punitive and more about degrading the capability on the long term for the benefits of. regional rivals like israel like turkey and someone rather than you know taken to the can to consideration the needs of the syrian people you're in london at the moment mr kerry was there or is there at the moment so why do you think he came to london given the parliament had rejected us bid for military action. why i think the parliament's rejection last week over the last ten days of this military action was was quite surprising to everyone i think it pushed america into consulting their own parliament and probably france to do the same i think president obama and his administration would want to have whatever support they can . you know whatever leverage the british government could actually help them with in trying to convince their own congress and senate you know divert in favor of a military action i think they are also going to start the. search the

possibilities or the options should the congress and the senate refuse such a strike you know what would be the alternative would it to go back stronger to the security council would it to go solo or strike how would britain behave in such a case and really doesn't know who in the british parliament really been in nor does it mean a maybe or whatever should a compelling evidence on the government to a government school you know the responsibility of using the chemical weapons appear so he must have a quite a few issues on the table to discuss with a mistake. ok thank you we do have to leave it there thank you for your time that's syrian political analyst i'm out what have live from london thank you. thank you. well president obama is meanwhile sharpening his case for military intervention before a crucial congress vote here we making a string of media appearances later today before meeting democratic lawmakers and

addressing the nation on choose 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 aren't convinced by obama's speech 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 here's how the senate vote would play out if it took place right now the house of representatives could prove to be obama's biggest challenge is dominated by republicans who are overwhelmingly against the military plan engage the mood on capitol hill a 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 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 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 them. and when it comes to popular opinion polls consistently show over fifty percent of americans are against intervention in syria 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 also in italy and in turkey the majority of people don't want their neighbors attacked either former intelligence and military officials in the u.s. have meanwhile sent a letter to the president which says chemical warfare in syria was a provocation by the rebels ray mcgovern worked for the cia for three decades and was among that group old artie's kevin owen about the politics behind the planned intervention. yes 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 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 is being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper can the 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. while the country's civil war rages on we're bringing you a report from the front lines and christian village in the mountains north of damascus has been besieged by rebel syrian rebels who have now driven government troops and. witnessed all this is a report we saw what more lulu looks like right now and this is a very sad picture would 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 inn and i make the language over jesus christ in greek in arabic and in french what also is home to dozens over. this now looks like a battlefield and i want to know how to take a look at what we saw. the row militants and my little now and. hotel this is the mountaintop hotel which was. right. 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 mountaintops i feel hotel and they are firing from this position and this is the highest point in the village and also the run milton's behind the counter and stood guard in marla 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 lul is a very symbolic place it reflects how the entire syrian society. used to be a very secular society and yvel is a 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 attack and recently we saw. posted on you tube and where people who call themselves jihadist mujahideen who invaded my little they are in

marlow in 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 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 maria on twitter to get her updates on what's happening in syria she's also got pictures from travel with the syrian army and you can see how that many military operation has being unfolding over the past few days and what makes that. below. still around the corner for you from the past off the bright we travel to a place in south africa where the ghost of apartheid is very much alive.

today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. corporations are today.

critique three. three. three. three. three. three. video for your media project free media r t dot com. the results of moscow's marital action show acting messick is again and has secured more than fifty percent of the vote winning the race he did face a tough challenge though from his main rival opposition figure head election or valley he managed to collect around twenty seven percent of the vote more than most had predicted the senior political correspondent and they said he has been following the developments. so down in. number now with one hundred percent of the votes counted is fifty one point thirty seven percent but his main rival

anticorruption leader. 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 twenty 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

have been 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 obviously it's worked alexina ran 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 or against it certainly has to be said that politics are taking on a new life here in russia. you can find these stories plus plenty more on our website also online at the moment that revelers get in touch with their wild side at the hindu harvest festival in southern india you can see all the best picture. is in our in vision gallery at r.t. dot com. last one for stereotype bites and belts of tightened why not waste

a few billion dollars that's what's happened in the u.k. military according to a spending report that has just come to light r.t. dot com tells you how those costly blunders came the bad. news today violence is once again flared up. in these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada as. a giant corporations rule the day. a statue of a man who was behind some of the ugliest policies of apartheid stange just a stone's throw from south africa as capital guards a whites only enclave and it's not just a museum to past injustices. traveled there.

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. well come 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 or there's a little there's redistrict. we don't actually say that. if you go to you can come in the first thing that greets you is you coming to claim fontayne

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 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 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 a ratio 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 overtime and center and several small businesses its residents eight self-sufficiency born out of necessity they dream is to create their own flag and currency the problem we have in south africa that many of the laws or boast or 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 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 work and in my free and get to work here at plane from time and that's when we come back here. under apart 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 are 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. let's take a quick look at some other news now from around the world in chile police have broken up an anti pinochet march using tear gas the massive rally in santiago was to mark the fortieth anniversary of the coup that brought the dictator to power crowds commemorated the tens of thousands of people killed and tortured by the military juncture which ruled until nine hundred ninety riot squads moved in after groups of demonstrators built barricades and the fires. an explosion near a primary school in china has left two dead in seventeen injured at least ten of the wounded are children witnesses say

a three week old motorbike pulled up in front of the building just before the blast security had already been tightened education institutions after in violent knife attacks. more news for me in about half an hour's time up next life is the sport. people are scratching their heads to keep why was 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 words. by work out such extreme your presence inside is regime but he's not the russian. elite speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on t.v. reporting from the world talks about six of the ip interviews intriguing story for

you. in trying. to find out more visit arabic all teeth call. i don't forgive her joining me for the artsy sports show i'm. coming up with our weekly roundup of sport from russia and across the globe and here are the top stories. fantastic five serena williams wins the u.s.

open for a fifth time author of furling of presents picture against victoria azarenka. four in a row sebastian vettel on course for a fourth straight of formula one drivers championship title is six one of a season of italian grown bre. dominates reigning become champions given u.k. chelsea's and up to the perfect three wins from the first three games. will kick off for football where russia cruised to a convincing of four one win over luxembourg in their world cup qualifier in an exam the koreans brace and goals from alexander cares a call for and alexander made of wraps up a four one triumph a korean record of the quickest goal in russia's history as a twenty two year old striker scored after just twenty one seconds fabio capello's men looking ahead to choose these clash against israel in some petersburg and have

a chance to leap frog or portugal and return to the top of group half if they get all three points. plenty of other qualifiers going on around europe belgium eased to a two no victory in scotland to move a step closer to qualifying for the two thousand and fourteen world cup more real months as men headed into the mantua influential joe. camps in vincent kompany who are missing through injury stephen before put the visitors ahead before be interval with a goal from outside the box and give him around as wrapped up the two no way in the closing minutes belgium six five points clear of craig. at the top of group a. meanwhile there was no love lost in belgrade as bitter rival serbia and croatia played out a one one draw the game is still both sides in the clash with only ten men it was a visitors to bring the dead along to clinch funnyman top of the three minutes but the serbs levelled marx's fifteen minutes later and alexander.