two blasts ripped through damascus one targets a government t.v. station the other goes off near the hotel where the chemical weapons removal team have the latest report from the city also. a moscow becomes a scene of the killing of a local man feels massive riots with almost four hundred arrested. whistleblower edward snowden raises his head above the parapet as he makes his first public appearance in months. threats to privacy. paychecks and the poor food has no desire to compromise leave the united states

just days away from a catastrophic. with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly. two massive blasts of ripped through damascus one of them apparently targeting the hotel where the chemical weapon removal team is staying. reports from near the site of one of the blasts. two massive blasts have ripped the heart of the syrian capital damascus they happened just minutes apart at the square which is not far from the syrian state t.v. building as well as the hotel where foreign experts are staying now these experts have been in the country for a little more than two weeks they are investigating syria's chemical weapons

stockpile we are some two hundred meters from the scene of these blasts and in the last hour the ambulances have been hearing forward and backwards we can still smell those heavy explosiveness in the air and we're starting to see dramatic footage of did bodies on the pavements in front of the syrian state t.v. building at the same time there is a massive fire as you can well imagine there's a lot of confusion the crowds are gathering and the this part of the city is in lockdown all checkpoints in and out have been closed this is a hotspot just hours ago there was a warning posted online by armed rebels warning that they're going to target the syrian state t.v. building and just yesterday they were mortar bombs that were fired at this hotel where the foreign experts are staying now all of this comes just hours after syria's top opposition group announced its refusal to take part in peace talks in

geneva the mood in the syrian capital as you can well imagine is one of extreme nervousness confusion and trepidation. ortiz poorness live there what we hope to get live expert opinion on these latest developments in damascus in a few minutes from now a little later this hour here in our three. most of roots of shaken southern moscow's local spilled out onto the streets outraged by the recent killing of a young man that almost four hundred people have been arrested as morgues went on to storm a local shopping center before clashing with police protestors claim the uncontrolled flow of illegal immigrants has turned the neighborhood into one big crime scene. no reports now from the troubled suburb. all available moscow police crews have been called to this area to try to calm down the rest this was the scene of violent clashes between protesters and riot police following a demonstration over the murder of eight young man here they stormed

a shopping center they also came here broke up a vegetable stand and what you're seeing right now massive damage to cars completely flipped over in a show of anger when this group of young men had come here clashing with riot police in what sparked all of this was again the murder of a young man by. not confirmed on thursday he was stabbed to death after a quarrel over is brought friends by an unidentified male and fled the scene police have offered an award of up to thirty five thousand dollars for any information leading up to his arrest starting tomorrow i want you to intensify the work on bringing all these stories industrial areas to their constant source of tension. especially in the neighboring areas. massive tensions in a neighborhood that's already been seeing some problems between russians and some

ethnic minorities over the past few months reporting from southern moscow for our team. to the u.s. now where there are four days left until washington d.c. . that is and two weeks of deadlock and two weeks of deadlock with seen hundreds of thousands placed on paid leave and vala swathes of the government shutdown even the world bank's chief declared the situation is desperate warning of impending disaster over the continuing standoff has led to protests in the u.s. capitol a group of veterans accompanied by politicians have converged on a world war two memorial in the heart of washington it was closed for visitors during the shutdown just like national monuments and parks broke through the metal barriers surrounded the landmark and then carried pieces of the fence to the gates of the white house and to bomb a protest as it made the rallying point blaming the white house for the continuing impasse in the budget negotiations. u.s.

president barack obama's signature health care legislation is supposed to provide millions of americans with the medical coverage they desperately need but the political debate over obamacare has also ironically created a life or death situation for hundreds of citizens for each week the shutdown continues roughly two hundred patients cannot be accepted for clinical treatment at the national institutes of health that's nearly four hundred sick americans desperately in need of medical treatment and the and i says among the patients being turned away includes roughly thirty people with cancer and many of them being children about seventy five percent of and i was employees thousands of people have reportedly been furloughed because of washington's self-inflicted shutdown as a result mashal langbehn who is battling sir coma a rare form of cancer was supposed to begin receiving medical treatments at the beginning of this month until the october first shutdown forced and i to

temporarily turn her away langbehn a new mothers started an online petition to put pressure on congress to reopen the government the movement has garnered more than one hundred thousand signatures in an interview with r.t. langbehn says she's been able to restart her treatments after receiving financial donations but says hundreds of other people in her position have been denied a chance to live because of washington's political partisanship it's a matter of life or death it's not a matter of inconvenience or just an air taishan for us i have heard a couple of instances where they find that this is just the game between them and it's a matter of winning and i'd like to say that it's not a matter of when or lose i mean it's a please listen to the people and know that it's affecting so many us leaders who have the power to change this situation have so far failed to agree on a budget a political deadlock leaving the lives of kids. answer strict adults and children

in them reporting from new york marina artsy. renowned american academic and political commentator noam chomsky told us he believes the united states is turned into a one party state ruled by the business policy. in the history of parliamentary democracy. interesting to see which. there have been significant economic changes in the past generation where the economy struck. one of the strangers basically liberal programs and they're having the same kind of effect there were. direct will to narrows. the increase in inequality. as an immediate effect on politics. the. higher a b gets more concentrated

political power as well so. elections are almost bored. so plutocracy. both political parties are to the right. one party state the business. this is the weekly here in r.t. still ahead for you this hour a global day of action against genetically modified crops is biotech giant monsanto faces a major backlash from consumers for the health that's coming your way in about five minutes from now. the first edward snowden has returned to the media spotlight this week breaking his silence for the first time since july he was filmed at a ceremony in moscow where the leader was awarded for integrity in intelligence by a group of american whistleblowers. discovered some of what snowden has been up to during his stay in the russian capital. for over two months this footage of edward snowden leaving moscow's sheremetyevo airport was the only evidence he's alive well

and in russia since after getting in that cab the only thing we're told about him is that he's somewhere in a safe place while this week america's most wanted man returned so the public snowden appeared on camera meeting other former u.s. security service officials turned whistleblowers they flew into moscow toward him with the same atoms prize for intelligence and integrity the whistleblower awards. this time snowden leaked his personal view on the fate of those spilling official secrets. you know relationship to god where we have an executive for just this on the last. night is lying to congress and they want but they're stuck. to the first song all the courtly the whistle blowers who would have him paid a visit to our moscow studio as well but it was

a long awaited family reunion that was likely to have been the highlight of his week i cannot speak for my son and really the legal issues his father mr snowden senior was finally able to make it to moscow after months of being separated from his son washing his feet played out in global headlines but i don't want to really share my opinions at this point in time i'm shipley thankful that my son is safe and free free in russia but wanted at home before arriving in the transit zone of moscow's sheremetyevo airport the former n.s.a. contractor leaked thousands of documents with details of how u.s. security services spy on officials and ordinary people all across the world washington has been calling for his extradition accusing him of espionage but russia granted snowden temporary asylum lawyer say his father may not be the only family member heading over to visit since it's really unclear why. the former n.s.a. contractor will ever be able to return to the u.s.

again you've got to skim off moscow if only n.s.a. leaker's faith has been the main focus of discussion in our studio this last week as we interviewed the group of former u.s. officials turned whistleblowers who were in moscow to give snowden that award and they discussed how the american fugitive is getting used to his new life in russia and what his main concerns are either doing remarkably well under the circumstances in which he came here. we've obviously came to find out personally i was you know what to look at these days. i thought he looked great he seemed very centered and and. brilliant smart funny very engaged. i thought he looked very well considering the amount of pressure. to think that's taking any toll on the psychological toll i think it would in ordinary circumstances but this is an extraordinary person he's made his peace with what he did he's convinced that people that he did was right he has no regrets and he's willing to face whatever

the future holds for him is that the person you saw in front of you kohli yes actually we discuss this intel integrity and intelligence issue quite extensively and we talked about prior examples of great people in history that had themselves been under this type of pressure and he's remarkably centered i found that continuing pattern the more secret the us became and the more we grew into a surveillance state the more people who were willing to just do their job and tell the truth and obey ethics rules were getting in trouble so while i suffered i was under criminal investigation and put on the no fly list things like that i thought were very draconian i could never have imagined in a million years that president obama would begin indicting and prosecuting people like thomas drake and edward snowden and bradley manning and john kiriakou and

a number of other people under the espionage act which is the most serious charge you could level against an american what was the reaction from snowden last night when you told him that he'd won this civil war he already knew because we awarded to two months ago that the problem was getting it to him and it is our tradition starting with colin that we physically present this it's sort of like it and me or what it is is a candlestick holder for someone who has shown the right light into the dark corners. so he knew he was he didn't know about the candlestick holder he knew that he had received the award and you know we were coming and the reception we got was just so for the warming it was a person now realizes that he has very senior people alumni you know and some of the size senior people who speak for a lot of people still within these organizations that admired greatly what edward snowden has done and hopefully will summon the courage to follow his example. he

also discussed snowden and security in an exclusive interview with. the full interview is available on our website. i'll be back with more news break. expect some of the strong. live. may disagree. but i believe america is exceptional.

the weekly continues here in r.t. activists have held dozens of rallies as part of a global day of action against genetically modified foods with biotech giant monsanto bearing the brunt of their anger organizers say four hundred cities across the world stretching from australia to europe where involved they say crops grown from seeds made by the company can be dangerous to human health some of the biggest

rallies took place in the u.s. where people also accuse the multi-national company of aggressive lobbying and suppressing food safety research and he is in washington. many cities across the u.s. took part in this second organize march against the agricultural giant monsanto protesters rallying against the company's use of genetically modified organisms and trying to raise awareness about its corporate practices some protesters told us that even though the government is shut down months on to a lobbyist are hard at work here in washington many pouncers by actually came up to activists what we were standing there holding anti g.m.o. signs and asked what is a g.m.o. so awareness is very low in terms of what exactly genetically modified foods are let alone the dangers they cause in the capital the protests began with activists going into large grocery stores and retailers trying to ways raise awareness about controversal insecticides which affect the nervous system and have been repeatedly

linked to death while the demonstration then made its way to the white house all sorts of activists students even young children our gannett farmers caterers chefs so real wide range of people there are a lot of veterans actually showed up to talk about the dangers of g m o's just outside the white house they then began to march made their way to the i.m.f. world bank and eventually to monsanto offices here in washington d.c. now other cities across the u.s. los angeles portland denver orlando just to name a few held similar demonstrations also up in canada and vancouver british columbia there was quite a large turnout for their march against monsanto organizers say this is just the beginning that momentum is going to pick up and they will continue their fight against the g.m.o. giant monsanto reporting from washington and you see now a arts. riot police have dispersed a protest against the sunni ruling family in bahrain's capital manama the rally

started at the funeral of a sheer taney who died in a prison hospital security forces reportedly used tear gas and injuring several demonstrators dr not at bay for the head of the bahrain rehabilitation and violence organization i spoke to earlier she says the police often target sheer funerals. it's getting like a common practice by the security forces. of the. nation specially the dead one is related to political. comedy in this imagery the mass. joining the if you know there are many. attack and happen are the common practice. now look at some other world news this hour in

a world update a stampede on a bridge at a hindu temple in northern india has killed at least one hundred ten pilgrims over one hundred others were also injured as huge crowds attended a religious festival in port said police used battens to restore order which caused an even greater panic stampede began when group claimed the bridge was about to collapse in order to speed up killing. in australia a huge far fuelled by high winds and dry conditions as force one of the whole thousand people to evacuate from the site of the olympics held in the year two thousand and three were treated after breathing in smoke and it took fifty firefighters to bring the blaze under control is just one of a number of fires to swept across the eastern state of new south wales in the last twenty four hours. having amassed a three trillion dollar war chest chinese firms have gone on the shopping offensive in europe just today it's been reported that beijing is on the brink of a multibillion deal to snap up shares in the u.k.'s nuclear industry and not even iconic london texas has been spared the interest of cash rich businessmen from

beijing. reports. this time last year it looked like the iconic london cab would be consigned to the history books after it's made because the financially troubled london taxi company went into administration chinese manufactured g.t. which already owns volvo stepped in and bought the company for eleven million pounds the factory is now back in business this part of the assembly process is called the marriage of the carriage where the shape of the time. meets with the shaft see all of the taxi here but it's a marriage between the chinese manufacturer and she and the london taxi company that managed to save a british icon from going out of production g.-d's pledged to invest a hundred and fifty million pounds into the coventry based business over the next five years promising to create jobs and develop new engines so the future really previously when we were a company the financial resources to continue to develop the product as we would

like to. finance is also. gives us the ability to develop. a which we could have only dreamed of financial analysts have called it a win win situation the london cab comes back from the brink of extinction while a major chinese manufacturer gets to invest in an exciting new project but what does it say about the state of british industry business secretary vince cable called the chinese buyout a clear demonstration of the strength of the british car industry but the london cap is just the latest in a raft of u.k. businesses being sold off to foreign companies cadres chocolate is now american. indian and the british airports authority spanish to some it represents a hollowing out of corporate britain and i'm happy that it's not but it shows government policy for a long time now as encourage foreign companies to take over our british companies

and that means our british companies are not competitive across the globe. so we're not putting in the right tax policies we're not dealing with regulation that hinders these companies six welcome to have new investment it always is in the long term this takes away economic productivity from this country it means that staff and jobs are more liable to go because there's allegiance between the companies that are owned by foreign entities and their country rather than britain pieces been a cabbie for over forty years in a scene the london taxi company goes through several british owners i hopped in for a ride and asked him how he feels about turning chinese this is a shame that it's not owned by a british company but it's better then go into the wall a dynamic the companies that are still british they would be faced with and you see . i see london so let's have a look at some of the china's recent investments as just mentioned in two thousand

and ten the chinese car maker flush with money decided it would be easier to buy out sweden's troubled volvo than compete with it in general last year one of germany's premier concrete makers also fell to beijing's richest that same month italian yacht builder ferretti was snapped up by a company controlled by the communist regime and just a few weeks later french fashion brand new recall was taken over by hong kong based firm in keeping with the east growing fondness for luxury where roger nightingale he's founder of an economic strategy consultancy firm says many european countries believe chinese investment poses a threat. a lot of european countries are very nervous about except seeing chinese cash who many of them and i think you find this in southern europe you find it in france you find it to some modest degree in germany also some countries think that they are threatened if china buys into their

industrial base my own view is that that is entirely wrong my own view is that the industrial base of these countries will fail if you don't get the investment into them they're all allow them to raise their productivity and to raise raise the profile of their products it's something comparable to that which afflicted the africans earlier they think that by selling out their assets they actually somehow undermine their capacity to have an economy that is viable in the future i think they're wrong but time will tell this week the olympic torch began its long journey from moscow to sochi in the twenty fourteen winter games the flame involved in a four month relay covering more than sixty five thousand kilometers across russia and space lit in greece it was then taken to russia by plane last sunday it was escorted to red square by two hundred strong cavalcade of bikers. and president

putin personally lit the ceremonial cauldron kicking off the relay torch then toward moscow for two more days before setting off on its epic trip across russia to visit nearly three thousand cities and towns of scale the country's tallest peak and the center the bottom of its deepest make believe to be taken for a space walk for the first time in history and on the seven the february twenty fourth team it will finally end up in sochi to herald the start of the games and you can enjoy the highlights and see reports from the ceremony over at our web site right now at all t. dot com. well that's all from me today my colleague met president will be in the channel next hour with the news team before that we send one of them to take part in the rigorous training of russia's paratroopers that special report coming your way after this break.

switzerland will soon vote if they should start giving out thousands of dollars in cash to every adult citizen in the country you heard me right there's a grassroots campaign that is trying to get the government to give out to every adult says a two thousand five hundred swiss francs approximately two thousand eight hundred dollars per month the motivation for the project is that many in switzerland fear that the financial crisis has caused wealth inequality to skyrocket you know i'm not an expert at swiss culture so maybe people there are different but if they gave out thousands of free dollars per month anywhere i've lived you would see the majority of people going into early retirement and not working at all it's sort of like how they tell people not to feed the bears at parks because then the bears lose their instincts and will go hunt because getting a sandwich thrown at them is

a lot easier i mean why go through the effort of odd thing when the sandwich just. magically appears handouts often creates law according to reuters some people are proposing a much better law for switzerland limiting executive pay to being twelve times higher than that of the lowest paid employee although this plan is making headlines it seems like a much better idea because it doesn't to motivate people to be productive and yet it would create almost utopia like levels of wealth equality also if the bosses salary is tied to the employees that a lot of people be getting raises very soon this one to twelve pay ratio is much better than the free swiss francs and it gets my seal of approval but that's just my opinion. israel is the country iran threatens to wipe pounds those are done with them nobody that can the iranian leadership openly says so in this sense there is no difference between rouhani enough money to save for his visit to new york through honey

publicly declared that their goal is to annihilate israel. the russian paratroop regiment small so there is nobody but. they will push you harder than you've ever been pushed in your life. they say once a power of the ways of. the many of the conscripts like the reminder. it's all. about you you're one of us now. dress right. dress right. attention.