with aleppo quickly becoming syria's fiercest battleground russia or accuses the rebels and their western patrons of leaving damascus no choice but to fight on. as the breathtaking in the big games opening ceremony kick to british police to tell a mass cyclist group to get on his bike. and saudi arabia police attacked demonstrators with clubs and live rounds as pro forma protests spread from bahrain and the united arab emirates. international news in comment from the new center in moscow this is r.t. with twenty four hours a day dozens of people have reportedly been killed in fresh clashes in syria's largest city as government forces step up a counter offensive against the entrenched rebels witnesses describe the scenes in

aleppo as the fiercest fighting of these sixteen month conflict russia says syrian authorities need to work towards peace but can't be expected to concede while the western backed insurgents continue to take over cities moscow accuses foreign powers of fueling the violence to bring about regime change in damascus the former head of the u.n. mission to syria says assad's fall is only a matter of time but admits that it won't necessarily mean the conflict will end you know on occasions of also emerged of foreign meddling in syria in defiance of u.n. efforts as our reports. one a week has passed as the united nations has issued a new mandate for its observer mission in syria which at least theoretically should help calm tensions in this country but if anything the violence in syria has only intensified over the past week the clashes between the army and the rebel still continue in the northern city of eilat but the death toll believed to be in the hundreds and norm is down. the city's infrastructure now before the syrian uprising

began aleppo was considered the best case for the burgeoning economic and political ties between syria and its northern neighbor turkey but ever since are there on and bashar al assad stopped calling each other france turkey has played a very active and some would say a very destructive role in syrian affairs turkish territory is being actively used to smuggle weapons for the free syrian army and on the top of that's reuters news agency has revealed that turkey alongside saudi arabia and qatar has stabbed a secret military base in one of its southern cities to direct vital military communications support for the free syrian army now a number of experts have long warning that turkey's adamant support for the syrian opposition may calm at a cost to its own security for a number of days the turkish state has been struggling against its own militants

i'm talking about the crudest on its workers party p k k b it's been fighting for the establishment of an independent sovereign state for the kurds the world's largest people without a state a few months ago i shall get a chance to visit several kurdish settlements around syria and i was very surprised to find that there are a defacto independent they have their own security forces that own schools that own administration so old these developments with the kurds in syria leave turkey very nervous and on thursday its prime minister accused bashar al assad of aiding kurdish militants in syria and those are the on sad that he's country it reserves the right to strike kurdish targets kurdish locations within syria pretty much like it does in iraq and. may be needed for turkish self-defense. but if there is

a tax at every carried out that's going to make it very volatile a very bloody very unstable situation in this region far worse. london based security analyst charles shubert i spoke to him a little earlier here in r.t. he says the forces fighting to replace assad could pull syria into chaos if the regime falls there are certainly amongst the opposition democrats perhaps people who are secular working on the inside as well as the outside with that has to be said many of those should we say opposition figures who are speaking about secular democracy are actually on the outside of syria itself the question is who is controlling who is the influence behind the armed rebels who are succeeding on the ground it may well to continue but one has to look at the supplies and the inspiration of those people and what looks to places like saudi arabia and one has to wonder whether saudi arabia is interested in promoting democracy so it isn't with it within its own internal borders and one i think has to have the greatest fear is that assad fall a little far from being

a panacea for this. may well be looked for atrocities chaos and carnage on a secular basis and a syria that may well be far worse than people could imagine could possibly be a replacement for assad. coming up in the program two raiders on a rampage find out why in the forty's a failing to stem the increasing flow of stolen artifacts from the country. let's turn to come but first the summer olympic games are finally underway in london and while i fleets were gearing up to go tough on their opponents police were getting tough and some locals around one hundred cycling activists taking part in a monthly mass bike ride were arrested during the games opening ceremony they're going to be encircled by police while pedaling towards the olympic park offices reportedly used pepper spray as scuffles broke out the open show itself proved to be a breathtaking spectacle with the final price tag of twenty seven million pounds in

effect torch was delivered by football superstar david beckham for a speedboat on the river thames seven young athletes nominated by british sporting greats the flame to the applause of sixty thousand lucky. strikes against a culminated with understanding. and you can learn how the queen who teamed up with agent double zero seven made a surprise entrance at the olympic opening on the web site. updates from all the competitions. and being swept up by the spirit of the olympic games others are not so enthused. and. crazy back home because. yeah. well later we asked people in the big apple whether they'll remember the names of the athletes several months after the olympics finished don't miss the residents in about ten minutes from now here.

also we look at how athletes are cashing in on their perfect bodies with glossy covers and fancy photo shoots leaving sport is perhaps an afterthought of the games . tensions a simmering. in eastern saudi arabia following friday's police crackdown on protesters clashes occurred in the city of qatif where activists say about fourteen people were injured after officers began shooting live rounds several arrests were made following the demonstrations against political imprisonment and discrimination by the sunni rulers the area most populated by shiites as seen on restaurant here with saudi authorities beefing up security position forces have also been silenced in bahrain and the united arab emirates geo political analyst says the ruling elites in the region are actually marching to the beat of a different drum. to voice your view in saudi arabia is to stand against anglo american hegemony in the region remember the united states the

british the israelis and the western powers have been propping up these regimes for decades and so to popularize ideas that are anti regime is essentially to say that saudi arabia qatar and the various gulf monarchies are not going to be subjected to us hegemony any more saudi arabia has a very repressive police state apparatus that exists in the country and because of that you see a tremendous amount of repression and that repression can very easily escalate into violence we saw a similar situation in bahrain where the the royal family essentially carries out what what would what could be considered entirely backwards system where people are thrown into prison for tweeting people are thrown into prison for criticizing the regime really what we're looking at is a situation where there it's the pot calling the kettle black the united states and

the western powers and their proxies in the middle east are using human rights as a cover when it is convenient and in turn violating human rights when it serves their interests so we can't we can't look at this in any objective terms this is all in the service of anglo-american imperialism in the middle east and in the gulf as egypt writes new pages in its history pieces the country's legendary polish the slipping away museum looters and to marry does have stepped up the hunt for artifacts and as all of these poor reports officials say they lack the resources to stop with the use. egypt's pride and past which is slowly being stolen from its people here at the museum of egyptian antiquities in cairo more than five thousand years of civilization on display and earthed over the years from the shifting sands with the world's largest collection of fair army pieces and the treasures of king two to carmen but the ancient world's artifacts are being planted so that as this museum and something. from the museum says this is not

the one of the better downsides of the chaos of last year's bloody uprising on the streets of egypt an outbreak of fifty museums and antique warehouses across the country more than one hundred thousand artifacts are stored in the cairo museum basement alone and at least a million are stored across more than egypt protecting these traces requires a colossal effort all the more difficult since many police have left a force in the wake of the countries and raced before the revolution where fifty go to a place the maximum very little can people. do fifty after the russian it became seventy four hundred people around that's again is the twenty inside it all starts here in the shadow of the pyramids or near ancient temples in visit sites here egyptians dig for a quick and illegal back it is easy to go deep under the cover of darkness and far from the nearest security guard but many don't even go there far instead turning

over the own backyards under the ground on the very house there are only one. if you if you monocoque looted from a million pieces on the ground even something as simple as a knife from the times of the pharaohs can sell for up to fifty million dollars on the black market deals are done through a labyrinth of illegal buyers across europe and the united states. of money digs happen and vast open places that are difficult for us to access those. sponsible then leave the country by sea or across the border where we have few police it's impossible to know what's been stolen directly from the ground as we have documented evidence that at least three hundred pieces were stolen from museums since the revolution i think it's estimated that illegal digs have increased one hundred fold in the last year those trying to safeguard egypt's in comparable history feel powerless the country's treasures are falling into the wrong hands and

lost to the people forever the egyptian president may have more pressing matters right now but many archaeologists here feel the legacy of the people is surely worth fighting for before it's too late egypt is in a state of flux and while there are many people here worried about its future they just as many worried about preserving its parts but want to see on t.v. kyra i still have here this hour words of freedom georgia hailed by many as one of the best young democracies but we hear from those on the inside who tell a very different story. was.

to the. mayor and more mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of food under the microscope. we've got the future covered. everyone wants to be president. whether they're an old lady on engine drive. but it might be quite tricky to get a fancy head cut. because you live out here in siberia.

and the only way to get to you is by train. more news today violence is once again flared up. saying these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are all today . up to fifteen minutes past the hour now here in the russian capital let's have a quick look at some other stories making headlines across the globe this hour overnight sectarian clashes between sunni gunmen and i like rivals in lebanon's northern city of tripoli people police fired warning shots trying to disperse the

competence before troops were deployed in the area tensions in the country were sparked months ago by the uprising in neighboring syria with the other one minority supporting president assad the two countries share a tangled web of sectarian connections which are easily inflamed. a drive by shooting in southern thailand has killed at least four soldiers and injured two others the troops were cornered by suspected islam is militants and shot at close range as they were turning to their base from a patrol islamist insurgency in the country's volatile south erupted in two thousand and four and has left over five thousand dead so far. major police operation on the stands border with afghanistan has left at least seventeen soldiers dead and forty injured the ongoing offensive was launched on tuesday in an attempt to track down a former warlord accused of killing a senior security official police killed a total of thirty militants captured forty one some of them reportedly have been depicted from neighboring afghanistan authorities have sealed all border crossing

points in the region with the only exception provided to nato supply trucks. severe wildfires in gulf parts of siberia where the state of emergency declared the situation is being hampered by extreme temperatures but the crews battling the blaze say they've managed to protect residential areas. workers being held back by poor visibility that prevents the emergency things and helicopters from reaching the worst hit cities in the region are also enveloping thick small making it difficult for people to greece. praised for preaching freedom and reform the georgian leadership is cast as a democracy success story both by the western media and by state channels at home but some journalists who work in the country see a completely different picture as all of these are going to go. that's exactly what we're seeing in my culture the well you know part of the world you know you are leverage that you know energy by giving people more freedom freedom is the key word find words from the georgian president some western officials like hillary clinton

continuously praised me truly for his supposed program of reform but journalists in the country are less impressed and say talk of freedom doesn't extend to the media made at you know the new journalists is now a dangerous profession in georgia there's always a risk of being accused of being a spy journalist get beaten up frequently all of this is happening in front of the entire country. so the chances are that most people in georgia won't find out about these cases from their evening news according to the latest polls more than eighty percent of georgians depend on t.v. as their main source of information yet georgians only have free access to three channels all of them controlled by the state one way or the other. but one channel is owned by saakashvili aid another where his friends relative to all people get really is just state controlled propaganda and i think so whatever georgians don't

get the full scope of their country's events from the t.v. sets after all there is always the internet but still they have to understand a lot of people here still live in rural areas and for a lot of them the world wide web is simply not available readily at their fingertips. independent channels like of cossey or channel nine are available only to those who have satellite dishes and other luxury for most georgians who are the sometimes i have friends or relatives visiting from other parts of georgia and they watch these channels and say what is this really happening in this country we knew nothing about it but operating an independent media outlet isn't easy here journalists say their cash flow has run dry since advertisers were told by authorities to stay away from channels which may be affiliated with the opposition on top of that their every move is being closely watched by authorities here i know

i constantly find myself facing over the top control from local officials i'm always being followed by some strange people who say they're from some unknown news agencies and ask me questions why do we film stories about political prisoners for example cholesterol just it's about the state officials don't feel comfortable coming to us because we ask questions they don't want to answer but state controlled media never ask those questions. president saakashvili is a frequent guest on various american t.v. channels but he's never made an appearance on any of the opposition channels at home perhaps it's not so much the questions that he minds as the effect his answers may have and billy see georgia is an r.t.a. . we have more stories on our website r.t. dot com with the latest news and in-depth analysis twenty four seven including little secret find out how the search giant has managed to keep an illegal private data collection that it should have destroyed in two thousand and ten classified information revealed online. tree huggers get hot under the collar thousands of

chinese go protest as rampage the coastal city of qigong. to plug a pipeline find out the details on that story at r.t. dot com. well the olympics grabs the headlines these days with the lavish opening ceremony and sports events some say it's just a way to hide from real problems when next our own resident takes to the streets of new york asking whether people share the jubilant olympic spirit that has taken over the british capital. do you really care about the olympics this week let's talk about that are you excited about the olympics i know i'm here. but is it crazy back home because of it yeah and we got out what are you excited about rod team usa i hope we go all the way. does that mean we're the best country in the world if we win all the gold

medals oh i don't know about people really aren't that into track and field and. you know then the swimming you know the media build up between. phelps and his rival you know but you don't even know the name of the right man even to give his name on the front just finished and i think. for a minute do you think that the olympics are kind of a way to just distract people from what's really going on might be. problems do you think people remember the names of all the athletes three months after the olympics are done i guess it depends what kind of sponsorships they've got and what advertisements are doing but yeah if their names are in plays and in lights everywhere yeah they're selling us wheaties yes exactly those athletes yeah they'll be remembered a lot of them probably wouldn't be you know i guess a sort all some boss that did push ups. for a. big push up so that might for the olympics. that's in satan so

they're trying to yeah they're getting they're getting people excited anyway that they can what is why do they do that just for the good of sports i have no idea probably just try to drum up some more money for the country at that right over here tourism you know historically the olympics is something that's always meant to be a unifying action yes so it doesn't that kind of take away from that message of unification when it comes down to just drumming up business ya think. greed is unfortunately taking over the priority of some folks whether or not you care about the olympics the bottom line is you should be prepared to be bombarded by a lot of media coverage in the coming week. stay with story number one in sports today and then in big games which are a perfect chance for the athletes to attract the world's attention not only with

their sporting skills but also by flushing their flesh and as honest as a child going to find out some of the competitors have been very quick to strip faster higher stronger bodies built like machines and olympic extravaganza of athletes grace magazine covers baring it all it would be nice to tape like to not look at these athletes like you know these are special specimens almost members of a different race but these are people just like us they could they could help us strive to do better their superhuman bodies are on display in a competition for attention and personal exposure the olympic gold is not just the the gold at the sleeves when and where but the good old of all these endorsements and all this this ability you know they want to cash in on it's their moment in the sun unfortunately i think that undermines the olympic goal and ideal. the original ideal and old two of lettuces in and human might scrapped the olympic

dream and culture now transformed into glossy images of athletes striking a pose in the nude the original olympics were performed completely naked so you could make the case this is turning back to the original form of the olympics. in an ever expanding entertainment culture surrounding the olympics self p.r. is the new tradition and the fifteen minutes of fame an opportunity not to be missed and you've got hundreds of athletes who come back to nothing but a lot of them really look back and say well what do i get out of the last four years i could have made more money being a manager at mcdonald's corporation that's one of the biggest sponsors of the olympics is on a journey to send a somewhat confusing message while the athletes are busy promoting their stunning bodies mcdonald's sets up the biggest joint in the world outside the olympic stadium to record one hundred fifty thousand condoms are also being distributed at the olympic village that's roughly fifteen condoms for each athlete some argue

sexing up the olympics is slowly racing the true meaning of these historic games the marathon really became into effect and they based it off this is a great story in regards to peter's coming from wanting you know what is his citizens about basically how the war was ending with the persians and going twenty five miles and just having bleeding feet and how that inspired the marathon for what it is today. while the aura surrounding the olympics of today's anything but poised sportsmanship appears to be the last guest joining this party and stacy a church in a new york. when in a few minutes from now we discuss how the universe came to existence that's off to the headlines coming up here on r.t. .

well from the from me more and more mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of food under the microscope. we've got the future covered. mother mission free accreditation free transport charges free. range from and free

risk free. to tide free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media and on to r.t. dot com. more news today violence is once again flared up flow from these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are the day.

her. world for the first player in the war mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of food under the microscope if we've got the future covered.

line. would be soon which brightened if you move the sun from funds to impression. start on t.v. don't come.