visit. sleeping patients. psychiatric hospital in northwestern russia caught in a massive fire overnight with. suspected of causing the. syrian government starts heading towards chemical disarmament the details of which are being thrashed by russian and american diplomats in geneva it's off to washington the pause button in its war drive. so america is still sticking to its belief that damascus gassed hundreds of civilians in all just one man who was held hostage by rebels in syria that is challenging this version of events we caught up with the man in question. as the n.s.a.

online spying scandal spreads even wider universities as well. following. personal data from students. from moscow it's now at ten am on friday. world headlines. well we have reports now of up to at least four dead thirty four feared to have passed after a blaze broke out overnight at a psychiatric facility in northwestern russia three bodies have been found at least twenty three though have already been taken to safety. now joining us here on r.t. the latest on this developing story good to see you again. bring us up to speed no

please. rory the fire reportedly broke out in the evening hours and in me in a wooden an excess of this facility in the northwest of russia in your the village of luca apparently this wooden and extent does the men's ward many of these patients were bedridden at the time and witnesses are saying that they saw a person within the facility who was engulfed in flames before the structure caught fire obviously investigators are taking a very serious look at this and trying to ascertain the the cause of this blaze now crews arrived within minutes but it is said there was very heavy smoke and rescuers have spent the morning searching the surrounding areas to find possibly any patients who escaped the fire and run out into the into the areas surrounding the facility and are possibly still hiding so many many concerned people out there trying to find people who may have survived this blaze one nurse it's reported died

trying to save patients now the martis emergency's ministry has said that it's cited this facility for safety violations and the facility had until august first of twenty fourteen to fix those so obviously that's being looked at very closely on the under very tragic morning in the village of luka. our lives it's not exactly the first time we've covered a story such as this here on our to you can you can you take us back. yeah it's very tragic to think of what has occurred even this year in april a facility outside of moscow in the outskirts thirty eight were killed in a blaze there a nurse and two patients were the only to survive and it also happened at night there was an electrical short circuit and it took an hour for crews to arrive on scene to begin rescuing anyone who may have been trapped inside and to put out the fire because the roads were so bad before that we've got it in march two thousand.

in southern russia at a retirement facility sixty two people were killed that was because of a lit cigarette also there it took fire crews an astonishingly long time to reach people and then of course we've got the infamous lame horse nightclub in december of two thousand and nine one hundred fifty six people killed this was because of a pyrotechnics show on stage. at the nightclub one leaf of the double doors was sealed shut and that really brought fire safety into focus here in russia and unfortunately tragedy has struck again last night and this morning in the northwest or lindsey france that i think you. are to where we are coming to you live from the heart of the russian capital we continue now with the breaking news will get about in just a moment i should say that was lindsey france a moment ago the latest on this story out of northwestern russia or a big blaze at a psychiatric hospital details to come about here when i see for the meantime

shifting gears now to syria it's taken its first steps along the chemical to solve them and now the u.n. has confirmed it's received documents from the syrian president joining the chemical weapons convention which ultimately bans the use some production of poisonous agents and it comes amid u.s. war threats against syria although washington did hesitantly agree to try diplomacy first boy was following the meeting of a top russian and american diplomats in geneva. john kerry to the press ahead of that tough negotiations over how to rid syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles now. concise said that he was looking forward to getting down to the business of rushing out a deal after that john kerry takes the stage he spoke and he spoke for a long time he reiterated the u.s.a.'s position that they believe that damascus is responsible for the chemical attacks on the twenty first of skeptics about bashar al assad's promises to disarm. and said that he's come to geneva in order to make

as to make certain that a deal can be hammered out he mentioned that the usa nevertheless is committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis at this point sergey lavrov jokingly interjected that he hadn't prepared a politicized speech and that he was looking forward to just jumping into negotiations that we know however that there are vital sticking points that remain between the two sides one of these sticky stumbling blocks is the threat of military force against syria the u.s. the u.k. and france have said that they want any resolution that goes to the u.n. security council to contain a clause that would threaten damascus with strikes if it doesn't comply with russia in turn has reiterated that this is unacceptable and moreover the syrian president bashar al assad has also said in an in a t.v. interview that if the usa continues to threaten syria with force that's going to be a game changer and that any deal will be off the table if threats continue speaking in that interview earlier the syrian leader also said that damascus would provide

information about its chemical weapons stockpiles one month after it signed up to the chemical weapons convention. this won't be about syria signing a protocol and delivering it with no positive feedback it has to be a mutual process and above all the united states has to give up its policy of threatening syria once we see the united states truly want stability in the middle east once we see it refrain from threatening us and pursuing intervention once we see them stop supplying weapons to terrorists then we'll consider this process is truly acceptable for syria and will look to foreign law as it. russia should play a major role in the disarmament process we don't trust washington and. moscow is the only party that can fulfill this romano bashar al assad also spoke of turkey saudi arabia and qatar and accused them of supporting the syrian rebels he accuses

of using chemical weapons he also said that it could be big usa behind the chemical attacks and that countries that have supplied terrorists in syria with chemical weapons need to take responsibility for their actions finally the syrian president warned that the syrian rebels could try to launch a chemical attack against israel as a further act of provocation so a number of different and very tough positions that top diplomats need to reconcile here in geneva migrates be watching closely to see if they can come around to a realistic deal. no official findings yet on who was behind the. appetite for war and while washington accuses president assad of being responsible some westerners who were inside the country time challenge this notion and my colleague bill dog. he came to syria under the rebels' protection soon after very found themselves deep inside the detention.

i don't think bashar al assad in the syrian government are to blame for the chemical attack and. during that time my italian friend and i had been taken hostage by jihadists from the alpha group group in syria we were held at one point in a room facing an office of the free syrian army and the el for jihadist group we have been in the barracks of the free syrian army and the oil for jihadists group with as well and we heard a conversation from this office the conversation was between one general from the free syrian army we knew him from earlier as he was the one who was in charge of or detention and another officer from the. kids just over the was also a third person who was speaking perfect english and they were talking to him via skype it says they were talking about the events about to take in the damascus suburbs and from the conversation it was clear that the syrian government wasn't

behind the attack but the but it also. was it clear to you what the motivation walls to use chemical weapons to launch a gas attack on civilians in this way what was the motivation do you think was it mentioned. the motivation was unclear from the conversation but we figured that it would have been i served for the syrian government to use chemical weapons with the regime had nothing to gain from that al guta massacre on the contrary it played into the hands of its enemies the u.s. france and the u.k. and it gave them a good reason to use force against the assad government to do the syrian government lost its mind but i don't believe that or the authors of the attack or the opposition and it is clear that the rebels are the ones who wanted to benefit from the situation and let us remind you that the rebels already tried to simulate a gas attack a year ago and alms they made a video showing people on the ground acting as if they had been victims of neurotic

gas attack that. now untouched by fighting during the two years of so syria's civil conflict a war has now come in earnest to the ancient christian village of malala the locals have joined the syrian army to push out invading rebels but the rescue has come too late with residents describing overfit treatment by jihadists including forced conversions to islam executions and looting right from the thick of it reporting with this story r.t. is oriya an option. the late oh oh. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out. but some of them were killed some of them escaped. locals

joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms of the so-called national defense but the terrain he's very difficult with mountains and caves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the operation. we come across one grocery shop owner who we have filmed back in two thousand and twelve then he told us that the armed rebels hasn't come to their village and why would they. this time he's armed with a gun amongst syrian soldiers and he has some questions again. that syria is a land of history and of love they sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill syrians and each other why i asked the world why if the european citizen is so much just slapped across the face they'd be a scandal while in syria how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been

slaughtered why will it stop with quickly find out that it won't be today held by the militants for a week it seems that mountain tops of fear hotel still poses a threat that sufi hotel our goal was to liberate them push on to mark tamanna street but we couldn't do it the snipers are everywhere my lul is home to many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on the eretz now added to these we see blag jihadists flags. it's time to had back. the twal in the car something goes wrong. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy's bullets. the main road is being targeted and its eggs are our only way out. we think over

our chances when our engineer gets heat. much. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we come to a to minutes more. ok much of a shock when i'm stuck here in this corner and went out trying to get out of here feeling this was. was of no no no. so. the horse had been anything done to back then heck go clear a lot. more

focus off the dream the boots did you hear them whizzing by feel better but now say that we're rich they share. the fire and you're behind this. and you're told that this is because there are no men here who do. care for him but there is too much so you gotta play. and we leave well given. until forces continue their frenzy form on the will of the ledge which despite the claims remains under siege racial shell see for a force in from syria. representing hoffa of the wall its population the shanghai cooperation organization will be looking at how it can bend its way to peace in syria and for that to happen is thought iran will have to play

a major role still to come here on azzi we report on the organization summit it starts today in critical stuff. the main competitor girl on the market is mother nature. may customers struggle with to. fight for each draw from in the you do if you supply. let people think i are prices pure water. the life on our teeth. they use it up there and wash their hands. and flush their toilets with the same lawyer that this series is selling and spring water. choose your language. of choice make it with zero if you are going to stay still

someone that. chooses to use the consensus you. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that in your life choose the access to to offer. thank you for joining us here on r.t. today i'm rule research and the director of intelligence in the us has said that the wide ranging leaks on the n.s.a. spy program fueled an important debate on the tradeoff between privacy and national security but he said he's worried there are more revelations still to come from whistleblower edward snowden earlier here on artsy we spoke to renowned former hacker kevin mitnick right here in our moscow studios and while he believes that snowden secret leaking can be criticized he still feels the revelations were

crucial for americans. i have some mixed feelings that he did cross the line when he revealed n.s.a. operations that we have against other countries because as we all know all countries spy on each other i think is a whistleblower you know i don't look at him as a true i'm actually glad that he revealed what the national security agency was doing at least against americans by violating our constitutional rights to privacy that's dead very damaging right because this was you know it was kind of like how i felt in a lot of colleagues in the information security world felt we already felt this was already being done but there was actually no confirmation but now there is definite confirmation and now that the cat is out of the bag it should surely damages national security because now our adversaries now potentially terrorists know our methods of operation or at least have it confirmed so now they could change the way they communicate with the revelations of snowden that allegedly the n.s.a.

has approached and partnered with a lot of companies that develop security software that develop p.p.m. technology you might have intentionally weak in this technology so they could intercept communications but an average citizen probably but they're you know if they're not a terrorist they really are not concerned about is intelligence agency intercepting communications but more criminal organization i believe it's all about scott mcnealy said i think about fifteen years ago you have no privacy get over it and that was the axiom of sun microsystems and i think that quote is really holds true today now it's not just our governments who are trying to pare into what you do online it's also the universities as well there are serious concerns about how the digital trails of students attract and used as institutions open their doors for yet another semester. smith now takes a look at the whole risk of that of data collection. remember the film minority

report it's the one where tom cruise is the cop in the future and uses paths in the day to stop crimes before they happen while the fictional feature is now universities are out allies in the electronic trail of students how often they use the library what books they guess out even where they park their cars to create a picture of them and how they learn and they use the data in different ways the different you need the marketing courses but also to predict which students are likely to fail or dropouts and here's where it is into nineteen eighty-four territory in the dystopian novel any negative thoughts is thought crime every party member has the telly screen in his or her home which the thought police to use to watch them and record anything that resembles an unorthodox opinion or in a struggle now look for a university in the midlands says it's considering doing something frighteningly similar monitoring student private emails but negative comments on their university

experience to see if they're at risk of quitting. students at the london school of economics are not keen on the idea. that it would be an infringement of my integrity it sounds a bit cia now i think people things that went on i think people are much more kind of them. could be more violence is i don't think it's right it's a kill that you can say sure you wouldn't do it in denmark where i come from i think people would like that i would mom my emails to monetise. i mean the private e-mails to should have exclusive right to have the seed maize. private universities do have a good track record for keeping data private but the worry here is that there's so much data and of course how it could be used ultimately the information could be used to allocate resources for example if it identifies the type of person most likely to fail universities could stop recruiting those people altogether or not

waste money on trying to retain them as students start returning for a new academic year they'd better beware big brother is watching them now more closely than ever. and every hour hereabouts he were loading up the top stories at odds he thought right now for you are the military pulls in citizens push out sixteen thousand people are evacuated from cities in russia's far east as soldiers are fighting day and night to hold back floodwaters. and flames arrive at your seaside tourist park in the u.s. state of new jersey footage fifty businesses including an ice cream shop and smoke are dramatic footage for you right now at odyssey. right to see. first street. and i think that your.

orders. thank you for joining us here on out to you today iran is widely thought to be key to any peace deal with syria and one of the biggest organizations on the planet wants to put that to the test the shanghai cooperation organization which represents more than half of humanity is meeting today in critical stuff and now aside from the usual talk of an economic and military alliance it's thought that syria will feature heavily reporting on this story. he says the six constant members of the shanghai cooperation organization which include russia and china its observers are also here including india and iran they're also looking at becoming constant members of the organization in large mint is one of the things

that are going to be discussed here as well as joint economic projects and the situation in afghanistan which is also here it's an observer as well but it's syria which is going to be definitely one of the key issues on the table iran is a key player in the region and it's widely agreed including by senior u.n. officials that any diplomatic and peaceful solution of the conflict in syria would not be possible without tehran's involvement iran stance on the situation has been the similar to russia and china saying that only a peaceful solution is possible and warning that any military intervention would not only create more violence in syria itself but would risk spreading the violence throughout the whole region now there's also another very important issue here is that iran along with hezbollah are syria's main shiite allies and it's agreed by many analysts that syria which is the key link in this chain and if it's dropped

out that will lead to a breakup of the balance of forces in the region and would eventually lead to unpredictable consequences and definitely more violence so getting iran involved in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in syria is something which is definitely a good knowledge by moscow and this summit here in kyrgyzstan is a good chance to do that you've got to spin off. try to afghanistan now to open up the. bombing of the u.s. consulate in the city of herat sparked an hour long gun battle between militants and security forces one military spokesman says the consulate has now been secured five attackers killed at least three others have been reported. nine injured as well already though quick to claim responsibility the taliban. and outraged crowds filled the streets on thursday as people lashed out of the security forces and accused them of killing a protester they say a young activist was run over by

a police car on wednesday the protest movement in bahrain has been pressing the government for more than two years to implement human rights reforms and accuses the rulers of carrying out a crackdown. of this footage right here towering twin waterspouts churning across lake michigan of course in the northern us warm waters combined with very cold air made ideal conditions for the spectacular water funnels to form officials told everyone in the boat to head to shore immediately as forecasters are warning more water spouts expected throughout the day. all right still to come here and see how one major company tunde water a free resource into a multi billion dollar industry live from moscow it's auty.

david silver and president of american atheists initially had his request for a custom license plate with the word atheist on it rejected atheist written with a one as the i was deemed to be just too offensive after some pressure the new jersey motor vehicles commission caved and allowed the plate this is only logical because a properly spelled atheist point had already been in use i look at this two ways one if you're going to give people the freedom of choice of expression then some people are going to express themselves in an offensive way so if you're terrified of offending people then why not just give everyone a random plate with a random number and no one will be offended at all or to if you really believe in freedom of speech and expression all that then allow drivers to pick whatever they want and be responsible for themselves if someone throws a brick through their car window for having an ultra offensive license plate and if

you want to express yourself or express something really offensive on your car then you better be prepared for some blowback or at least a few people spitting on your windshield but that's just my opinion.

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