am in the russian capital you're watching our t.v. arena joshie. let's take a look at the highlights of the week at r.t. crew was locked up in a u.s. jail for thirty two hours after filming a protest against a controversial military training facility in georgia the school assassins reporter kalin ford described her treatment as brutal international organizations condemn the use of police violence against members of the media but despite all the outrage american mainstream media has remained silent as more it started off as a rally outside a u.s. training camp for latin american military and police officers what followed this nonviolent protest caught everyone by surprise dozens were arrested police targeted journalists along with the activists i'm a member. i'm a member of the program sorry ok i'm sorry among those arrested were r t correspondent kayleen forte and our two cameramen john conway both there on

assignment covering the protests that brought together thousands of people. here the only thing i asked officer to please remove the handcuffs these plastic handcuffs and at least put one on that was a little bit looser he took out a hunting knife to remove my handcuffs and that's actually part of the reason that i have the cuts on my wrist for our worse killing had no clue what the charges against her were we asked on the bus what are we being charged with and one of the sheriff said don't worry no charge the ride is free we're taken to the county jail and we ended up spending thirty two hours there student tommy were mira's who was there as an activist tells a similar story i kept asking them what did i do you tell me my ra is tell me why i'm getting a wrist i kept asking them and i never got an answer and every year thousands of people gather at the gates of the training camp dubbed the school of assassins calling for its closure officially there to train latin american military and police it's called many of latin america's most notorious torturers masse.

murderers and dictators despite anger at the establishment violence has never been part of the protests so why the mass arrests now we feel like the message was look you know we really want you to be there we're going to make it dangerous you know to make you think twice to even show up despite the outcry from many at the rally that their rights of freedom of speech and assembly were trampled upon it's not a story that's caught the eye of the us media we can see the newspapers of this country editorialized in favor of free speech and first amendment and give stirring in passionate defenses of these core american values but when another journalist from another media outlet is arrested without charge without provocation and put onto a paddy wagon those media outlets are largely silent and i think it's because they feel like these are stories that aren't supposed to be covered well i guess so much

for covering stories ignored by the u.s. mainstream media the incident at fort benning left some guessing what would have been the extent of the media coverage in the west had a member of the foreign press been treated in a similar way in some other country say russia the remarkable thing about a good thing you know in moscow here a b.b.c. correspondent or a c.n.n. correspondent had gone to a demonstration where there was a legal permit and was roughed up by the police in the case of our correspondent she was almost sexually assaulted those are her words that would made headlines all around the world it would have been a diplomatic row between countries but no in the case of the united states the international community is can damage what's happened and called on the u.s. to respond even the organization for security and cooperation in europe sent a letter to secretary of state hillary clinton calling the journalist arrests

disturbing. while it is clear that police pleiku in maintaining or do during public demonstrations the indiscriminate media in bringing charges against them goes well beyond what's necessary to keep the peace but the u.s. state department which is usually quick to condemn freedom of speech violations in other countries has remained surprisingly tight lipped about its own we're going to shut down our t. washington d.c. well that story has raised a lot of questions about the rights of journalists while covering events like protests and later this hour laurie harvest also known as the resident test the public mood on the issue on the streets of new york. we need to be more thoughtful about how we allow the press to capture what's happening so we can get a legitimate true view without encouraging people to do to things that they wouldn't otherwise but the fact is if you're going to go someplace to protest to get that really hot story you've got to be heard for the fact that life is going to sometimes intercede about law enforcement but if they in our state if the people

are being a really oh hell yeah that's the press are being unruly the press being unruly same things apply if you break the rules that's what happens if you're not willing to accept the consequences for your actions don't take the actions. twenty six suspected terrorists with links to chechen militants have been arrested and you are a belgian police suspect the group of being part of an international terror network which was planning a series of attacks over christmas across the continent those held are also under investigation for seeking recruits and funding for terrorism and russia's republic of chechnya british security analyst peter power says once it's at last clear that russia and the west are fighting a common enemy the potential for cooperation is vast. let's not fool ourselves somehow great regiments of uniformed soldiers marching over the horizon it is in

fact much more of a franchise yes the strong power base in the foothills between afghanistan and pakistan and it's clearly. a strong cobol now operating in yemen but we're now seeing this creeping out under this broad term of al-qaeda but it doesn't necessarily mean it's got the official stamp on it so what we've seen is a tremendous increase in european cooperation and the most crucially an increase in not just intelligence gathering but intelligence sharing guy i've never quite seen it like this before but you know something really bizarre about this i went on to the b.b.c. website i found it impossible to find this story and it's been overtaken by the events of north and south korea but also by the pope talking about condoms in the royal wedding coming up in the u.k. strange enough it's called off the front page a bit quickly in the u.k. many people see this is very significant russia's president has admitted the country's democracy is still imperfect but is improving in his latest video blog

twitter me to get also warned that russia's political system shows signs of stagnation and called for greater political competition. if the opposition has no chance at all of winning a fair fight it degrades and becomes marginal if the ruling party never loses a single election it is just coasting ultimately to degrades just like any living organism which remains static for these reasons it's become necessary to raise the degree of political competition but our main task the task of any democracy is to improve the quality of popular representation make sure that the political majority is not just static or rather that it does not become the majority consisting of actors and dummies the task is to make sure that the ruling party has both rights and responsibilities and does not simply act as a supplement to executive power that it plays a full polity in shaping this sperry power up this is not required mainly for the

ruling party to feel good about itself a party is a means a political tool for ensuring popular representation at this time with only realistic way to vote hot of of the united russia party thinks the mass of shows there should be and put from not only the ruling party but from the opposition as well. i think he was trying to say actually that this should develop with relates both to united russia and to opposition parties so in the united russia they have already started a lot of the innovations such as primaries such as the development of this interparty a discussion the size of the dissipation the open public debates and so on and so forth i think the same should be done by. board and says well and that will be very important because as we all know if you want your decision is taken by the authorities depends on the quality of criticism they get so they need to have very

good feedback both united russia and the free bar is there to provide this kind of feedback in order for systems to be sustainable how you want you know if you live from moscow still to go on the program nato gets more help for its afghan campaign from russia many aspirants question whether it's a war that can't be won. if you don't understand what you're going to use you don't develop your nuclear power what are you going to use. as germany grapples with how to meet its angie needs by the report an offer is a surprising way green solution tales and just a few moments. it's the way a show of dissent in a crisis hit eurozone country tens of thousands of taking to the streets of dublin to protest arlen's harshest era the measures workers have been calling for the cuts to be directed at the rich and the banks instead of ordinary people earlier ireland confirmed it's negotiating with the e.u.

and the international monetary fund for a one hundred twenty billion dollar loan to save its crippled economy elsewhere in the eurozone there are fears portugal and spain may be next in line for a bailout british conservative m.p. douglas carswell told r.t. the eurozone is like sharing your bank accounts with your. neighbor some of them would happily spend everything. you cannot have a common fear currency and a common set of interest rates and a common monetary policy across disparate economies and if you try and do that you're putting political delusion ahead of economic reality and millions of europeans are paying the price we thought what we had was a currency union. and we thought it would be to our economic advantage on the contrary it turns out that that currency union in the column c. has actually damaged economies who don't get the interest rate in the military policy they need worse it creates a debt union which in effect means that the twenty seven member states have

a common bank account and ours will probably happen if you shared your bank account with your twenty seven neighboring houses in the street where you live you would probably find that one or two members spent more than they should that's exactly what's happened in the euro it's not sustainable. now currency union between russia and the european union is possible that's the message from prime minister while they were putting on german chancellor angela merkel who held talks and berlin this week the two also promised to clear the path for increased business lang's and to develop science and technology together the report and added he doesn't see any opposition was to russia's accession to the w t o prime minister also had a meeting with german businessmen were he managed to lighten the serious mood over energy supplies with a touch of humor. you missed it uses the words to assure the german community doesn't like nuclear power i don't want to make any comment. but i don't understand what you're going to see you don't develop your nuclear

power what are you going to use so i would. love the world as if you'd have to get it from siberia too. so that way because you don't have thought i would either. so i have for you this hour from basin of wife to hot bed of death. the errol see has become a wasteland of sand solved and pollution and lindy france join me in kazakstan to investigate how this transformation has affected the people here and how it put it down on the environment. switzerland is preparing to decide whether foreigners who commit serious crimes should be expelled from the country a nationwide referendum was initiated by a right wing party but critics claim the proposed measures are racist tests are silly it isn't zero for us. just a year after the swiss voted in favor of

a controversial law banning the building of new minarets and mosques they're going back to the polls for another yes or no decision now this time it's in relation to the mandatory expulsion of foreign criminals who have committed serious offenses such as murder or rape now this was put forward that ripples over this law was put forward by the a swiss people's party people with a. heavy criminal currier there is no place for them in switzerland that is the idea that they're getting a lot of support actually from the people according to initial surveys because of all these stories of swiss nationals being attacked by foreigners who may file to fight trying to get to. keep the other people lose them who's didn't do anything and have no respect for them one that they insist that these measures should is necessary to occur be increasing crime among foreign nationals in switzerland if your kids are coming into switzerland. mainly.

switzerland has the highest per capita rate of immigrants that that twenty percent of their populations our population is are actually foreigners so it's a very sensitive topic here in switzerland now where we have a backlash from the european union and the wider world the government has put forth a counterproposal now in this counterproposal they amended the list of crimes it's different from that proposed by the s.p.p. and also they are saying that it has to comply with international and swiss laws humanitarian laws it also states that expulsion must be limited to convictions of a year or more so it's kind of a softer version of the esmie peace proposal give us e.b.'s insisting that a hard line is necessary now critics of this proposal are saying that this is very unfair that in the eyes of the law everyone should be treated equal a criminal is not defined by his race or nationality or his papers. also questions of the separation of time be should

a prisoner convicted be sent out of switzerland what happens his family if they've been living here for more than four generations for example but don't have the papers what is going to happen to them to there are a lot of questions coming from the other side the critics of this proposal and so we're going to have to see what the swiss are going to vote alice week russia stepped up its efforts to help nato struggling campaign in afghanistan it decided to allow the airlines to transport armored vehicles through its territory the transit deal was confirmed by russia's foreign minister during talks with his afghan counterpart in moscow and will allow nato to reduce its reliance on volatile pakistan the two also pledged more joint action to battle drug trafficking last month russia and the us destroyed one ton of heroin and a combined anti-drug operation in afghanistan despite successes like that many experts still believe the war is essentially unwinnable. my basic view is that the war is completely unwinnable russia may be making friendly noises towards nato because of those we know there's

a rapprochement between the alliance and russia but in my view it's basically formal in other words these are gestures but they. meant well i don't think russia is playing a double game i'm not trying to say that i'm simply saying that the war cannot be won and the union learned that lesson in the one nine hundred eighty s. the british learnt it in the nineteenth century and the americans are in the process of learning it although it seems that they haven't learned yet so i do believe that a military solution could be another was the shipment of arms could pacify afghanistan no. u.s. military chiefs also admit progress isn't even with just modest gains against the taliban artist polis leader has been watching troops in iraq gearing up for their move to afghanistan to boast american led forces there but many worry that more troops more violence. a real trick which is time in iraq is coming to an end he's part of the american forces who stayed behind to train assist and he quipped iraqi

security forces definitely sure there was a home that's for sure no one knows whether once they hear the genesis largest movement of troops and equipment since world war two the u.s. army is moving its supplies from iraq to afghanistan certain equipment such as are in rap. mine resistant vehicles our humvees are those types of equipment a lot of our rolling vehicles rolling stock of course and some generation that equipment yes will be dedicated towards. the mission in afghanistan but critics warn that moving troops won't help much that. we're not going people see u.s. forces inside their country it brings in paganism and makes them turn to terrorism and al qaeda so as more american troops come here from iraq it will just make

things worse i don't believe the americans will leave for another fifty years they have two of the main military bases here and then building the americans leaving iraq also sends the wrong message to insurgents the afghans seeing the americans withdrawing from iraq and they think themselves ok they're going to withdraw in a year or two we have a hold on things we'll take control in a year or two it doesn't matter i will quote she's already been told he'll be going from iraq back to afghanistan it'll be his second time there and he's not looking forward to it i would definitely say that afghanistan is a lot more difficult it is. the terrain is a lot more heavier the bow in this region is we have to do a lot more walking and whether the beefed up presence in afghanistan will help troops meet mixtures did lying to pullout or make it more difficult is still unclear the guys and just come back from the patrol everything went ok until the next one. to baghdad. and we'll be discussing the american effort in afghanistan

where the country's foreign minister or the interview is coming your way in just over ten minutes time. central asia now whole while the are all seen it was once the world's fourth largest like but it's now one of the worst of the logical disaster areas on the planet due to ambitious soviet air irrigation projects the sea water started receiving fifty years ago causing a drastic change to the local climate and killing the majority of marine life and the threat to people's health from the rapidly disappearing waters is still very real as artie's lines of friends reports the air all see is a shadow of its former self those in the kazak city are asked once had to see at their doorstep but are now confronted by the haunting sight of abandoned ships the water is twenty kilometers away and from the dried up remains sickness comes one local woman who chose not to be named remembers when friends and family started to

fall ill. here new diseases a match did you have never seen in high numbers especially related to breathe in my husband's good chronic bronchitis that's how we leave you can see salt in the air but you feel it on the skin and you can feel it on the tongue. fields planted to make the soviet union completely self-sufficient and cotton consumed the rivers feeding into the air all sea decade by decade it nearly disappeared now what was once the world's fourth largest landlocked body of water is reduced to a pit of sand salt and pollution the salt clings to them moist seabed like here at the harbor in iraq as soon as it's dry enough even the slightest wind carries it into the town and across the country into the lungs of men women and children who don't even know they're bringing it before the ground

cotton scheme the aerial see was one of the most picturesque places in central asia as it disappeared along with the soviet union the task of regeneration fell to the heads of newly independent central asian states in the early one nine hundred ninety s. it was then that people learned of the extent of the seized the mines that until that point was known only to those close to the cultivation projects pesticides used to yield cotton leached into the rivers making the water a silent killer used in. the growing days heavily polluted as well in essence we're living in a disaster area in the past our infectious disease ward had one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty patients especially children with intestinal diseases per year it's about five per year it was the exact same with viral hepatitis this is all things to clean water. three years ago a group called the international fund for saving the erroll sea stepped in to

protect their people from the tainted water. just now the fresh water project solves many issues when possible they lead tap water pipes to the villages and for distant villages they grade local water pipes systems but the pesticides aren't just in the fresh water they're blowing across the dusty seabed as well. in addition multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is on the rise exacerbated by this toxic combination special rehabilitation warrants are reserved in area hospitals so. our government pays fifty percent of what it calls ecological extras to our salaries they throw an extra for living near bucca nor with the rockets are launched and the aerial see we have serious problems with the draft young people come in unfit for service. small dams now trap what little water flows

into the upper air all see irrigating the desert little by little but walking through this place that's been given a new lease on life one can see the legacy of mismanagement it begs the question is bringing the water back enough to overcome the years of neglect or is the pollution too great to turn the dust bowl back into a thriving basin lindsey france r t kazakstan. now that was the first in our series of reports from the are all sea region and about an hour we look at the chances of reversing one of the world's worst of the logical disasters now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world in a cargo plane crash in paris and you know at least eleven people including eight crew members and three people on the ground according to some reports the crew were all ukrainian was one russian member on board and the russian made while seventy six was heading from karachi to sudan carrying relief supplies but it went down five minutes after takeoff causing an explosion and fire in

a housing complex for naval officers the exact cause of the crash is not yet known . the u.s. and south korea have begun four days of joint military exercises in the yellow sea according to washington the maneuvers are intended as a sign of the turns to north korea pyongyang has reportedly deployed surface to surface missiles in the yellow sea as a response and south korean officials say artillery fire has been hurt again near an island which was barred by the north less than a week ago killing four people now back to our top story the arrest of an r t film crew in the u.s. it has fuelled concerns about the way police in some countries treat journalists covering demonstrations very hard it is also known as the resident has spoken to people on the streets of new york about the freedom of the press and its limits.

how much freedom should the press have should they be treated differently than people on the street when covering events like protests this week let's talk about that well i think the press is how we are informed so personally i like it when i see members of the press that get in can get more information than what i as a regular citizen can get because i would look up to you for my information on many occasions the thing that they should be allowed to get more access absolutely i think the public is wary of the media but at the same time i think they're doing a lot of freedom because with cell phone cameras and all kinds of video went around that the authorities are much more careful than they were in my age when they push people around a lot more so i think that today the press does have that access but i think it's very important that the press continues to have that access but the fact is if you're going to go someplace to protest to get that really hot story you've got to be prepared for the fact that life is going to sometimes intercede and about a lot of what if should they intercede if the people are being unruly oh hell yeah

what about if the press are being unruly the pressure is being on really same things apply you break the rules that's what happens if you're not willing to accept the consequences for your actions don't take the actions that gives people a stage or a platform that they wouldn't have if the camera wasn't there so i think that's why we need to be more thoughtful about how we allow the press to capture what's happening so we can get a legitimate true view without encouraging people to do to things that they wouldn't otherwise whether or not you believe the press should be treated differently during a protest the bottom line is that without them the protestors voices would go largely and. also have the main headlines from the sour an interview with afghan foreign minister dr zalmai ever so was coming up next.

seventy six hours of intense fighting. six thousand dead at a beach front battlefields several kilometers long. and now there is only one

person who cares. you see we are surrounded by garbage everywhere but also there are. on this beach which of course is very most appropriate signification a symbol of everything that's wrong with our goddamn government allowing not only garbage but to accumulate where so many gays died. a new battle is going on. will the history be protected. return to terra what julian cooper story on our t.v. .

welcome back here with r.t. here is a look at the top stories of the week the arrest of an hour to covering a peaceful protest in the u.s. and the silence from american news outlets leads to questions over media freedom. harshest area measures in ireland sparked massive protests and trigger fears of even greater financial troubles around you were. russia's democracy is far from perfect but is improving that's what the country's president said in its latest bit of also called for greater political competition in russia due to some signs of stagnation. nato leaders have mapped out there was draw of the alliances combat troops from afghanistan and for years but doubts remain over cobbles ability to manage security on its own in an interview with our foreign minister dr zalmai rassoul said.