at least seven people have been shot dead and ten injured in a shooting at a navy yard in washington d.c. three gunmen believed to have carried out the attack with two of them still at large. u.n. report says there's no doubt that chemical weapons were used in syria adding that warheads for the siren loaded rockets could have been improvised devices this is russia's foreign minister says the syrian opposition should be made to sit down for peace talks with the government. and under fire r.t. continues its series of reports from the heart of the syrian war this time our correspondent joins syrian troops dodging sniper fire in a damascus suburb. and

i welcome you watching r.t. this evening with me andrey farmer. natural top story seven people reported dead and twelve injured after a shooting at a navy yard in washington d.c. we can i see some sacks he's at the scene sam i understand the area is still in lockdown at the moment and say the gunman is still at large what more can you tell us. rather this is still very much an active investigation there is still on lockdown this is i'm sure it is the alongside me you see police cars coming going you still see helicopters up ahead so we're now about six hours removed from when this began about roughly twenty police responded to an active shooting here at the navy yard and we recently just caught up with a eyewitness who was in that jason building and here's what he had to tell us. the

train for common operations away from here you know with the a.t.v. go off in front of the wars in other cases we don't do it here. so it seems to me down in front of you here where you work it is. a relationship of you talking to you realizing just how fragile life is random it is and how quickly you hear you because you could easily been me the guy who got hit supposedly going to do next. mr mr jaharis is a commander in the navy he said he heard two shots he fled down into the alleyway with someone else he said the man who was right in front of them was shot in the head and went down and he fled the building now from the latest police briefing we had rid of seven confirmed deaths we have people who are still bodies that are still in the navy yard right now we have one shooter who is confirmed dead and police are still looking for possible two other shooters on the loose a white male in a black male wearing military gear but these are unconfirmed the police don't know

if they were involved in the shooting or not but they want to keep a lookout for those individuals but again this is still very much an active scene here in washington d.c. . thank you sam this r.t. sam sachs live there from the scene in washington d.c. . now. that i would who is a defense consultant from birmingham and he says the u.s. government walked into a self my trap. through member there is a u.s. naval ship outside syrian waters currently and it's a great coincidence that a major announcement was supposed to be held by the u.n. weapons inspectors today and also there is a major attack in washington d.c. one of the most secure cities or supposedly secure cities in the world so every time this was with a major announcement somewhere in the world an attack a major attack takes place so one wonders if this is a terrorist attack them how can they get into a secure city and attack

a naval base no less but also why on the day there's a major announcement supposed to take place let's remember everyone in the government from the president dogwoods everyone says the united states is secure no attacks have taken place for a very long time and all that sort of attack takes place in the u.s. naval base let's not forget fort hood where major nidal. allegedly all he's now been convicted for that. attack his his fellow soldiers so. the assurances the u.s. government is providing to the american citizens that the nation is safe and that keeping the nation safe is ruby. not sticking well if you are claiming that you are providing security by attacking the nation's overseas let's remember this is a terrorist attack then they are providing arms to the same terrorists who are

likely to come in the attack in mainland usa let's get more reaction from michael moss from the veterans for peace in washington d.c. . thank you for coming on the program we still don't know who is involved what the motives were but in your opinion what are your thoughts on this what could be the possible motives. well what i suspected what i first heard the story start to break was that i hope this is not a military service member who has been on multiple tours in iraq or afghanistan. and has been dealing with a p.t.s.d. that has gone untreated i mean we're seeing news stories about veterans coming back from multiple tours who cannot get help and who just have these breakdowns because the veterans administration and the u.s. military medical facilities are so far behind in their treatment of veterans who need treatment and there's waiting waiting lists for treatment especially in the

area of mental health and that is my main concern at it we are not giving the people help who have put themselves in harm's way for our country and in terms of the location of this attack a huge surprise that this attack was able to take place at a navy base in america's capital. well no absolutely not because we have people who have access to those military bases with the proper id and they also have access to weapons and are trained to use them so it's no real surprise to me it is very disheartening of course to see the a seven dead and twelve injured but it's not surprising given that our military has access to these weapons and the training to use them in a proper manner think i mean barack obama is being on television he says we have another mashing saying here do you think we'll be another reaction from the u.s.

government what would you like to see them today. i would like to see them in care. of veterans who have been in combat numerous times like i said like i said their waiting list to get into the veterans administration and also the u.s. military medical facilities we're seeing the results of this the the stress just builds up and builds up it's like getting hit in football the damage to the brain continues to crew over time and increase over time and we're seeing that matter first itself in situational like this and with regard to the levels of security in the u.s. and i mean it's been a lot of criticism i've the n.s.a. surveillance bije think perhaps people on a wider level now will be more accepting of the suit as measures and perhaps will wall wide and general security well i think

in the recent revelations of edward snowden bradley manning about how the u.s. government has been spying on its citizens for years without letting anyone know i think that the vast majority of americans are not comfortable with private e-mails and phone calls and text messages and other electronic communications so i think that there will be a call to. decrease some of that and to have more oversight by the government. hoping that something positive will come out of this but i think americans have been lol into a false sense of security by saying that if you go if you give if you give up these security projections you will be safer and obviously i don't think it works that way thank you we do have to leave it that it's michael moss a vice president of the washington d.c. area veterans for pace thank you you thank. i don't know why did you report

confirms chemical weapons use in syria and we'll tell you more about it and get some expert opinion on that in just a couple of minutes. i have been able she'd been a participant to the cio since nine hundred ninety seven and over all these years i have never seen a moment a moment a motor year a moment when tensions were not there. choose your language. choose the consensus. choose your pain use the degrade. choose the stories get in. choose be sent off to.

welcome back now a report on the use of chemical weapons in syria is it and it says there's no doubt chemical weapons were used in an attack in august it didn't say who could have done it but the document did question the origin of the sarin gas laced rockets used during the assault in the damascus suburb meanwhile russia's foreign minister says the syrian opposition should be forced to sit down for peace talks with the government will artie's marina portnoy joins us live now for more on this we know

that chemical weapons were used the report said it was going to blame anyone but what are we getting from this report what does or does it perhaps indicate about who might have done it well the report released by u.n. inspectors says that there is clear and convincing evidence that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in syria on august twenty first but this report does not answer the question the key question of who launched the attack the u.n. inspectors described the rockets used to disperse this as a variant of fourteen artillery rockets with either an original or improvised warhead the report said that the origin of the rockets was the rocket was from north west but gave no specific location and didn't point a finger at the perpetrator now the inspectors caution that the five sites they

investigated had been well traveled by other individuals prior to the arrival of the u.n. the u.n. experts and this report also says that while the invest. there's we're canvassing the area in question individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is could have could have possibly been moved around or manipulated now the report also said that those areas were under rebel control but did not elaborate on who the visuals were that showed up at the scene in question so a lot of a lot of answers have not been a lot of questions have not been answered when it comes to who was behind this chemical attack that is now being confirmed by a group of u.n. investigators in the meantime u.n. secretary general ban ki moon says the unequivocal and objective conclusion of chemical weapon use in syria amounts to

a war crime and he says the perpetrators must be held accountable the u.n. chief also says this is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since saddam hussein used to use them in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight now in the meantime the syrian rebels and they're in the western supporters including the u.s. the u.k. and france blame president bashar al assad's government for the chemical attack and the assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by the syrian opposition and this will sort of course of course is coming at a very crucial time a time when russia and the united states just brokered a deal that has syria agreeing to disclose its full chemical arms arsenal within one week and eliminate it by made twenty fourteen but in the meantime the u.n. security council is expected to draft a resolution for the syrians. in the coming days and according to reports france britain and the u.s. are seeking what they call our strong u.n. resolution under chapter seven that would allow for military intervention if syria

fails to hand over its chemical weapons. the u.s. government has come out and said that it believes that the u.n. report actually does back up its own claims that the syrian government was responsible for this chemical attack which russia's position was the russian foreign minister saying understand that he wants steps to be taken in order for the peace process to move forward. that's right russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says that he thinks that the syrian opposition should be forced to come to the negotiating table in order to proceed with the geneva two peace talks mr lavrov said that the assad government has already agreed to diplomatic efforts without any preconditions but the syrian opposition has not done the same russia believes u.s. and its european partners should be putting more effort in convincing the syrian rebels to commit to the geneva two peace talks because thus far there's threat of

military strike against the syrian government russia believes has kept the opposition from coming to the table to negotiate at the end of the day the united states the european countries and russia have all said that the syrian crisis cannot be solved with military might it can only be solved through diplomatic efforts so russia is now saying since we have this brokered deal since we have a path to the geneva two peace talks the western countries should be encouraging the opposition to now i take a diplomatic approach put down any any weapons and stop fighting and come to come to the table where there could be a discussion of ending the syrian crisis but if there is this possibility of military strikes hanging over the syrian government he believes that it will not inspire the syrian opposition to have any kind of dialogue with the syrian government. reporting live from new york.

three decades of experience in international disarmament program so let's get his opinion on these latest developments thank you very much for coming on to the program this evening we know that chemical weapons were used we don't know exactly who did it how do you think these findings in this u.n. report will impact it's only been to read if used chemical weapons. well first of all of you have a clear demonstration that yes chemical weapons have been used and i'm quite a scale to say so this actually reinforces the need to deal with the your show and to go forward with this plan that was negotiated with the russians and the americans about. basically taking chemical weapons out of the question and the syrian conflict. one question that's come out of this just recently is the question of blame and people are trying to point the finger but we understand that the rockets used in the attack could have been either used by or it could have been a standard issue rocket or an improvised rocket in your opinion does that rule that

rebels. it's difficult to rule them are completely but you see i mean it's not just the design of the work that's important it's also the amount of kind of cooperation that was use there these rockets apparently coats on something in the order of sixteen liters of agent mixture in each of the rocket and there was there was more than one or two of those warrants that has been used. so there's quite an amount of chemical operations that that's not easily improvised i think that has to come from some kind of a stock and the buttons the way they looked to me really looked like things that had been developed in a state program in the military program rather than improvised by somebody and i should also pat to that that the whole context of how the attack was carried out is a clear indication that whoever did that understands how chemical warfare actually works that's a question of how you use the weapons when you use that happens and in which way are you control this whole thing so in my mind a lot points in the direction of the having been used by both trained military

force that knows how to use chemical weapons and in your opinion do you think it's possible to read a sad if his chemical weapons stockpile within nine months. that's an incredible challenge i mean obviously we cannot approach this in the way we have approached the chemicals armament by other countries where we build up chemical weapons destruction for surtees test them run them in and so on we'll have to find some way of speeding up the process of compromising safety and security we'll have to find short cuts and possibly some kind of rather another to intermediate solutions that make it impossible to use these weapons and that in a second step to come to one of the chemical weapons convention you would call a complete destruction which is that. and how difficult is it to do all this within a war zone oh it's incredibly difficult and there will have to be arrangements made between the syrian government and the opposition forces to have temporary cease fires in place during inspections whenever there is some vote going on at the sites

obviously if that happens have to be moved to different locations that is a real challenge so security is going to be incredibly difficult and do you think there's any possibility now have having a guarantee that the rebels won't carry out a chemical attack for example and then blame a sad again for it i wouldn't take anything for granted at all quite frankly i mean as you say in the middle of a civil war. as we know from the reports of the u.n. human rights commission on syria both sides have committed atrocities in this war so what really is needed is a coherent and consistent and strong political move from the u.n. security council and from new york struggle to make sure that this process is moving forward and that any every time something goes wrong we corrected quickly ok mr cat thank you we do have to leave it there is international disarmament consultant ralph trapp live and i thank you you thank. the syrian opposition will meanwhile get more help from western governments as announced by the french foreign

minister and his counterparts from the u.s. and the u.k. and a british defense study has found that nearly half of those fighting against the assad regime either jihadists or hard line islamic well here's how the number of opposition fighters breaks down in that defense report one hundred thousand rebel fighters are split into many different factions these include al-qaeda linked groups with about ten thousand jihad is fighting amongst them the hard line islamists in syria are similar but they are focused solely on the syrian war and not on the global islamic struggle and the rule so moderate islamic which means that secular or nationalist fighters are in the minority meanwhile turkey says they shot down a syrian helicopter which entered its airspace the conflict is raging on the ground in syria to his reef and austin is report from a damascus suburb where she's witnessed syrian government forces battling the rebels. now in there is just a few kilometers from the central damascus it used to be

a nice and beautiful very picturesque town where the population of up to three hundred thousand people but it's been torn by questions between the governmental forces and the rebel strongholds two years now the result you can see everything is ruined the residents left the only people we can meet here either the army all the militants. fighting against my guys i can hear the now we're going with the army to one of the operations. there are a is self of the capitalist sponsor the powerful militant belt around damascus known as eastern ghouta the scene of recent fierce clashes it is also where a chemical attack last month brought international resonance in its wake all weapons smuggled to syria through jordan in the sols comes through here provided local militants with a secure supply line for. fire

. this is what the syrian war looks like today urban battlefield provides dense cover and that's work of underground tunnels also shields the militants there is no defined front line and you don't know when your enemy's watching. the syrian army soldiers say they could be snipers there and they pull out curtains like this one just to protect to prevent star players from seeing what's going on here. the simple system helps save many lives every day where he doesn't work soldiers just wrong. in a full two minutes with travel from one district to another we follow the army as you can see through. the buildings through the holes in the walls like this one or this

one they are everywhere. and you think for one to. carry you through this here in the morning is the need. for life. in this war snipers are from both sides of the frontline. is what they do most of the time waiting for the enemy. in office assures me the map they update every day this is where we are the militants are building the army liberates the town street by street building by building very slowly and very carefully has always just addressed militants to surrender their arms promise you it will be sleep sometimes they leave their weapons. but sometimes they refuse and we have no other choice but the quote of an

american strike seems to be on the back burner at least for now but syrian civil war goes on and on. damascus suburbs syria. and you can follow maria on twitter she has the latest updates from the fighting in syria right now she is tweeting about what is going on in the battles around damascus. back to our developing story the washington d.c. police chief says twelve people have now been confirmed dead after a shooting at a navy yard in washington d.c. witnesses say a gunman was shooting from the fourth floor people in a cafeteria reports claim two or three gunmen may have been involved in the attack two of them already killed though that information is confirmed several civilians and police officers are among the victims approximately three thousand people to work. the building where the largest of the navy's command systems is situated will

bring you more as we get it. quick now to some other news happening around the world and salvage teams are attempting to right be grounded luxury cruise ship the costa concordia the eleven story line which is roughly the length of three football pitches is now being freed from rocks and moved onto a platform built on the sea bed the accident killed thirty two people when the ship ran aground off the island the italian island of giglio the operation is expected to last at least twelve hours. a six night of protests least has resulted in scuffles between police and anti-government demonstrators rubber bullets and water cannon were used to disperse the crowds the demonstrations began after the death of a twenty two year old student involved in the city and against a construction project affecting his university. now hard economic times have made uneasy bedfellows of france and its eastern investors

china has emerged as one of the world's top three investors with a significant share of that cash benefiting french firms are to. gauge is where the feelings between paris and beijing on mutual. vineyards in burgundy of bordeaux including well known. sold iconic french branded holiday resorts club med sold parisian fashion brands. eighty percent sold to hong kong investors the tip of the iceberg as far as chinese money and french firms is concerned but if you ask french president francois lauded his army of trade ministers and business x x there's always room for more especially as recent grim industrial output figures cast doubts on paris's claim of economic recovery france accounts for a tiny portion of china's foreign trade just one point three percent of vs germany's five percent france buys more from china than it sells so much so that

there's a twenty six billion euro trade deficit with the asian giant. i think the. more . we're france's core industries are concerned another one of those with increasing chinese of well what in the billions is the nuclear energy sector france of expertise has a crucial position within the street giants are. leading the pack bot and gaining access to china's massive market and investment dollars france finds itself straddling a delicate balance of opening up its wealth of knowledge and protecting its relevance which means once the know how it was passed on what's stopping china from going it alone there appears to be a price of doing business with asia's booming economies should we stay outside or do we heard to invest in china no in the crew fellows carrillo in vietnam i don't know but do you really believe that. the party called about the.

technology although the chiefs of these two nuclear giants moved to reassure the public about what technology they've given china deals in denial still caused it. fear that national interests were compromised leading the finance ministry to launch an investigation early this year and maybe oh so many chinese people are very we like it of before we didn't want to american investment but you know we cannot stop the movement if story of the world. by the possibility of our technologies to make every day every more over a year new products new credit e.v.t. by the way we will be competitive again an uphill battle for a country an internal german memo described as a europe's biggest problem child and image it will have to clean up if it wants the

chinese to keep heading its way to us or sylvia r.t. paris. coming up next is the world trade organization capable of tackling global trade problems so i think i will be attempting to answer that just after this break . we talked before about people getting in trouble throughout the usa just for gardening in fact according to the christian science monitor a couple of florida has been fined five hundred dollars a day until they dig up their vegetable garden which is on their own property and mili people who write these articles drop comparisons to communist russia where people weren't allowed to grow their odds.