sleeping patients. a psychiatric hospital in northwestern russia caught. with perhaps an unguarded cigarette suspected of causing the blaze. the syrian government starts heading towards chemical disarmament the details of which are being thrashed by russian and american diplomats in geneva it's after washington pressed the pause in its war drive against syria. though america is still sticking to its belief that damascus gassed hundreds of civilians in august. who was held hostage by rebels in syria that is challenging this version of events . with the man in question. the n.s.a.

online spying scandal spreads even wider universities as well as getting in on the action following secret. personal data from students. just after eleven am on friday here in moscow it's r t with me let's get straight to your top world headlines right now. thirty one people feared dead after a blaze broke out overnight at a psychiatric facility in northwestern russia six bodies have been found so far twenty three people though already taken to safety. france has the latest. 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 near the village of

luka apparently this wooden and extent does the men's ward many of these patients were bedridden at the time 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 emergencies 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 luca what really brought fire safety into focus 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 at the nightclub one leaf of the double doors was sealed shut. artie's lindsey france right there let's have a look at the biggest fires now that have hit the care facilities across russia a massive blaze in the psychiatric hospital occurred earlier this year on april twenty sixth in the sky or just north of moscow and killed thirty six including two staff members two patients who were led to safety by a nurse with the only survivors or twenty ten nine people died in western russia after retirement home caught fire also though in twenty zero nine the republic of

blaze there an elderly care home that killed twenty three people then march of two thousand and seven two years before flames claiming the lives of sixty two residents of retirement home in southern russia and the november of that year a city in the city of tula again an old age care home of thirty two dead many though left me the many were rescued from that place. are shifting gears here on r.t. to syria it's taken its first steps along the path to chemical disarmament and the u.n. has confirmed it's received documents from the syrian president on joining the chemical weapons convention which bans the use and production of poisonous agents and this all comes amid u.s. threats against syria although washington has hesitantly agreed to try diplomacy first artie's poly boy because following the meeting of top russian and american diplomats ongoing in geneva. john kerry spoke 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 thrashing out a deal after that john kerry took to 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 august he spoke skeptically about bashar al assad's promises to disarm and said that he's come to geneva in order to make 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 interjected that he hadn't prepared a politicized speech and that he was looking forward to just jumping into negotiations and we know however that there are vital sticking points that remain between the two sides one of these sticking 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 of 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 role now bashar al assad also spoke of turkey saudi arabia and qatar and accused of supporting the syrian rebels he accuses of using chemical weapons he also said that it could be the 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 the syrian rebels. 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 and we're going to be watching closely to see if they can come

around to a realistic deal. in the meantime there's been no official findings yet on who exactly was behind the chemical attack which of course. war and while washington accuses president assad of being responsible westerners who were inside the country at that time challenge this notion and my colleague bill dog. came to syria originally under the rebels' protection quickly deep inside the detention. you know. i don't think bashar al assad in the syrian government are to blame for the chemical attack you know during that time my italian friend and i had been taken hostage by jihadists from the al faruq group in syria we were held at one point in a room facing an office of the free syrian army and the elf jihadist group we have been in the barracks of the free syrian army and the alpha jihadist 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 our detention and another officer from. 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 of the day in the damascus suburbs and from the conversation it was clear that the syrian government wasn't behind the attack it looked but it also it. was it clear to you what the motivation was 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 the massacre there 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 he did 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. of neurotic gas. now on touched by fighting during the two years of syria's civil war the battle though has come in earnest now to the ancient christian village of mali a lot of the locals have joined the syrian army pushing out the invaders but the rescue though has come too late and the residents describing just horrific treatment by jihadists executions looting and forced conversions to islam the artes

maria financial reports from right in the middle of the war zone. the late zero zero zero. 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 of that but 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 and

a month syrian soldiers and he has some questions again. 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 would 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 tough climb on the 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 black jihadists flags.

it's time to head back. to trial in the car something goes wrong. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemies bullets. the main road is being targeted and it's he's our only way out we think over our chances when our engineer gets heat. much. pressure. but. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we come to a to minutes more. remote . when i'm stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of

here because this was. was of no oh no. that was. the worst had been anything done to back then they go clear a lot. more focus off the bullets did you hear them whizzing by. but now say that we've reached the safe area. they're firing from behind this huge hundred told that this is the syrian army get to be careful you don't know what it is too much so you get paid. and we leave while governmental

forces continue their frenzy for manohla village which despite the claims remains under siege. from syria. and representing half of the world's population the shanghai cooperation organization will be looking at how it can lend its weight to getting peace in syria. iran will have to play a major role still to come here we report on the organization summit it starts today. to build the world's most sophisticated. mission to teach me the creation and why it should care about. is why you should

care only. russia has formally presented a proposal for the disarmament of syria's chemical arsenal and has personally appealed to the american public and political establishment to give negotiations a chance in war torn syria so tough questions remain primarily with the washington can we frame from its habit of using brute force. mission free could you take three. four judges free. arrangement free. free. free. free broadcast quality video for your media project a free media. thank

you for joining us here on r t today the director of intelligence in america said the wide ranging leaks on the n.s.a. spying program have fueled an important debate on the tradeoff between privacy. national security though he says he's worried there are more revelations still to come from whistleblower edward snowden. spoke to renowned former hacker kevin mitnick right here in our moscow studios and while he does believe that snowden's secret leaking can indeed be criticized he still feels though 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's 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 weaken 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 this 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 governments trying to parent and what you do online in universities as well there are serious concerns about how the digital trails of students attract in used as institutions open their doors for yet another semester laura smith now looks at the risks of so-called data collection. remember the film minority report it's the one where tom cruise is the car in the future and uses pax in the day to stop crimes before they happen while the fictional future is now universities are our allies in the electronic trail of students how often they use the library what books they guess out even where they parked their cars to create a picture of them and how they learned 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 fits into nineteen eighty-four territory in the dystopian novel any negative thoughts is thought crime every party

member has a telly screen in his or her home which the thought police use to watch them and record anything that resembles an unorthodox opinion or in the 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 you know i think people things that went on i think people are much more kind of them. 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 him on my emails to monitor i mean the private email is the should have exclusive right to embassy case again private universities

do have a good track record for keeping dates of 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. of course many more stories for you online right now including the military pours in the citizens push out sixteen people evacuated from cities in russia's far east as soldiers fight day and night to hold back the floodwaters. and flames of ravaged a seaside tourist park in the american state of new jersey check out the footage here fifty businesses devoured

a dramatic footage on our website right now of course the. right to see. and i think that your. orders. will gets across talking about five minutes but for the meantime iran is widely thought to be key to any sort of syrian peace deal and one of the biggest organizations on the planet wants to put that to the test now the shanghai cooperation organization which represents more than half of humanity it's meeting today in critical stand aside from the usual talk of an effort economic and

military alliance syria is featuring heavily speaking in bishkek vladimir putin said he welcomed damascus decision to dismantle its chemical arms more on this without sees you go to prison off now. besides 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 among 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's stance on the situation has

been the similar to russia's and china's 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 it's 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 knowledged by moscow and this summit here in kyrgyzstan is a good chance to do that you've got to spin off r t b. why to afghanistan now to open up the are. where a bombing at the u.s.

consulate in the afghan city of herat sparked an hour long gun battle between militants and security forces one military spokesman says the consulate has now been secured with five attackers killed at least three other people have reported dead nine injured in the attack already quick to claim responsibility that of the taliban. and to bahrain where crowds of filled the capital streets on thursday as people lashed out at security forces a huge and them of killing a protester they say a young activist was run over by a police car on wednesday but the protest movement in bahrain has been pressing the government for more than two years to implement human rights reforms and accuses the rules of carrying out a perpetual state of a crackdown. of a look at a startling footage here tarring twin waterspouts a bit of a surprise that's not on the atlantic or the gulf that's in lake michigan and in northern america warm waters combined with cold air made perfect conditions for

these spectacular water funnels to form although all of those people in boats were told immediately to head to shore forecasters are warning expect more of these water tornadoes throughout the day. and white smoke has been seen rising from a reactor at the crippled fukushima nuclear power station a tokyo electric power claims it's steam that's coming from a puddle on top of the plant the company's failed to explain why vapor has been appearing randomly since july of this latest news comes off to reports levels of one radioactive isotope had spiked twenty three times in the past three days. but i'm rovers to share life in moscow stepping aside for peta lavelle and cross talk in just a moment. 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 in 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 your so for 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 the surest my opinion. wealthy british style. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to the report.

lisa. cohen welcome to all things considered i'm peter lavelle. has formally presented a proposal for the disarmament of syria's chemical arsenal flat amir putin has personally appealed to the american public and political establishment to give negotiations a chance in war torn syria so tough questions remain primarily whether washington can refrain from its habit of using brute force. to cross up the war in syria i'm joined by mark levine in washington he's a senior fellow with the truman national security project and a radio host also in washington we have paul martin.