it is not am in the russian capital you're watching r t and today we bring you the top stories of the week and our t.v. crew was walked up in a us jail for thirty two hours after filming a protest against a controversial military training facility in georgia dubbed the school of assassins reporter kalin for described her treatment as brutal and international organizations condemn the use of police violence against members of the media but despite all the outrage american mainstream media has remained silent on education has more. it started off as a peaceful rally outside a us 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 of that right. i'm a member of the present sorry ok i'm sorry among those arrested were are to correspondent kayleen forte and are 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 i have the cuts on my wrist for our worst 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 to tell you my rise 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 mass 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 don't 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 of the things 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 the rest

disturbing. while it is clear that police pleiku in maintaining or do during public demonstrations the indiscriminate through media and 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. r.t. washington d.c. . while the incident has raised a lot of questions about the rights of journalists while covering events like protests and laurie harkness also known as the resident test the public mood on the issue on the streets of new york and that's coming up next hour here in our team. 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 repaired for the fact that life is going

to sometimes intercede about a lot of forrest gump but it should be interesting if the people are being really oh hell yeah the press are being unruly the press being unruly same things applies if you break the rules and 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 root of being part of an international terror network which was planning a series of attacks over christmas across the continent that was held there also under investigation for seeking recruits and funding for terrorism in russia republic of chechnya british security analyst peter power says once it's 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. 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 the royal wedding coming up in the u.k. strangely enough it's called off the front page a bit quickly in the u.k. many people see this is very significant. russian democracy is improving but it's

political system still needs stirring up in his latest video blog president need to really have called for more opposition voices to be heard to avoid the ruling party getting complacent. 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 they sperry power this is not required manly for the ruling party to feel good about itself a party is a means a political tool for ensuring popular representation are not alone yet this on with the list of republican offering out of russia party says the opposition should consider this message and change 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 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 the fluency of 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 up of three parties that should provide this kind of feedback in order for systems to be sustainable watching r.t. coming to live from moscow still to come on the program the sour as nato gets more help for its afghan campaign from russia many experts question whether it's a war that can ever be won. but i don't understand what you're going to use to he see you don't develop your. use. of germany grapples with how to meet its antigen needs or put not for is a surprisingly green solution to the details in just a few moments. switzerland is preparing to decide whether foreigners who commit serious crimes should be expelled from the country and nationwide referendum was initiated by a right wing party but critics claim the proposed measures are racist teso celia isn't zurich 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 relation to the mandatory expulsion of foreign criminals who have committed serious offenses such as murder or rape now this was put forward the proposal for the small was put forward by the a swiss people's party 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 in the fallow fight trying to get to. keep other people whom the pool 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 switzerland has the highest per capita rate of immigrants that twenty percent of other populations of 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 was 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 s.v. peace proposal if you s.u.v.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 can you make a difference between a drug dealer who was from the judio from russia from india or resist who is is a drug dealer drug dealer a better woman so i don't make a difference between someone who's doing something wrong. but nor should look with the he's white bra and black or what the what language is ten percent of the

populations born in switzerland and doesn't have a swiss passport and you want to keep these guys out i mean come on it's ridiculous there are also questions of the separation of time be should a prisoner convicted be sent out of switzerland what happens to 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 their 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 whether it's going to be a yes or no test are silly reporting there not be economic crisis gripping the euro zone continues to force worried and angry demonstrators onto the streets tens of thousands marched in dublin to protest arlen's harshest already measures workers have been calling for the cuts to be directed at the rich the banks instead of ordinary people earlier island confirmed it's negotiating was an e.u. the international monetary fund for a one hundred twenty billion dollars loan to save its crippled economy elsewhere in

the eurozone there are fears portugal and spain may be next in line for a bailout german economist marcus prober told our team who its biggest economies won't be able to pay for the debts of others forever. the german taxpayer is no longer willing and this is very very becoming very reluctant to bail out countries like greece where there is an example of very bad governance and we are no longer willing as neither to bail out ireland to fuel an ailing banking sector i think this is a general incentive this umbrella which the. heads of government have created in a under the menace of the president of the european central bank this is so large that everybody wants to be protected and the more it's raining cats and dogs the more they want to be protected and the portuguese. prime minister and the finance minister pushed ireland to put themselves under the umbrella to be under the umbrella themselves as quickly as possible this is an inflation of claims to be

bailout which will ruin the eurozone sooner or later and germany is economically not able to to bear such a bailout. and the german taxpayer who has a word to say in all that is no longer willing to do saying something like that. germany's financial support for e.u. countries was also touched upon by prime minister about the report and during a visit to berlin. we have often used the experience of. things like the cash for clunkers program but i guess profited mostly the french call makers who produce cheap because so it really worked for the good of you in which is great. reaction. put in held talks with chancellor angela merkel worthy of the minute a currency union between russia and the european union is possible the two also promised to clear the path for increased business links and to develop science and

technology together what and also said he no longer sees any obstacles to russia's accession to the w t o and in a meeting with german businessmen he managed to lighten the serious mood over energy supplies with a touch of humor. has that so the german community doesn't like nuclear power i don't want to make any comments. but i don't understand what you're going to use for heating he don't want gas he don't develop nuclear power what are you going to use i would like but i suppose if he'd have to get out from siberia to. so that i like to see he don't have four i would only the of fish. still have for you this hour from mason of wife to hard bed of death. metal monsters like this fishing vessel sit here abandoned waiting for the sea water to return to the deserts of catholics that put international rehabilitation efforts taking them back

to the erroll see proof that may once again return i'm when the friends join me in central asia and the world what used to be one of the world's largest landlocked body of water. this week russia has stepped up its efforts to help nato struggling campaign in afghanistan i decided to allow the alliance 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 that 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. 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 soviet 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 to it so i do believe that a military solution could develop was the shipment of arms could pacify afghanistan . the us military chiefs also admit progress is uneven it was just modest gains against the taliban r.t. spotlessly or has been watching troops in iraq gearing up for their move to get a stand. to both american led forces there where you worry that more troops means more violence. i will 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 sure there was a home that's for sure no one knows whether want to stay here but then it's not just 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 the country it brings in tag an ism 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 they're now building the americans leaving iraq also sends the wrong message to insurgents the afghans seeing the americans are drawing from iraq and they think themselves ok they're going to withdraw in a year or two we got a hold on things we'll take control in a year or two it doesn't matter how real to 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 and so the terrain is a lot more heavier in the mountainous region is that we have to do a lot more walking and whether the beefed up presence in afghanistan will help troops meet mixtures deadline. to pull out or make it more difficult is still unclear the guys and just come back from the cold everything winter play called the next one. to baghdad. and will be discussing the american effort with afghanistan's

foreign minister interviews come your way in just an hour. or two or three issues that is create that tension of if you nice be sure of civilian casualties. of the night raids in the house more and more afghan forces will be in charge of to come but listen this would be this kind of problems. to central asia now hold while there are all see it was once the world's fourth largest lake but almost disappeared half a century ago due to ambitious air irrigation projects the receding waters rob the region of its economic lifeline but the people who are the main living out of shores hope one day the sea will return and as artie's layers of france reports there is science that wish may come true but there are people living at this harbor who have never seen the water which once lapped at its walls the former port city of a raskin kazakstan was once

a bustling harbor of business and human activity but beginning in the one nine hundred sixty s. rivers feeding massive cotton fields for the soviet union diverted water away from the rivers that fed the erroll sea they have pretty hope real close and i came here to see was close to the city my husband and i had and we would swim to the islands for picnics on the weekend we swam and lay in the sun nation the sea started moving away the waters became shallow and then just joined up my children so i don't in the pictures until the waters were so aggressively diverted the air all sea was the size of ireland. disappearing sea took with it fishing jobs commerce and an entire way of life just a few decades ago where i'm standing now as far as the eye could see was bright blue water ships just like this bobbing up and down bringing in the day's catch now when you drive across the former seabed all you see is abandoned villages abandoned

ships and camels now people here call an arrow coom or errol desert. others who mota soviet planned economy is largely to blame for the dying of the aral sea all decisions are made in moscow which took no account of the ecological balance of that region the consequences of that could be felt as early as in the one nine hundred sixty s. the r.t.c. region the fines the terms pre-crisis crisis and disaster. it was after the collapse of the soviet union that people were faced with the seriousness of the disaster the sea had split in two in two thousand and five experts harnessed what little water still flowed into the lesser erroll see from this river by building the cocoa. and eighty seven million dollar project funded in part by the world bank the smaller body of water had become the great hope of the future. we had over two hundred people here from russia kazakhstan and his back

a step the work was very hard in many of us lives here on site for two or three years but now we're happy to say the time has come to pack up the structure is working perfectly. welcome to news after years of failed them projects and wasted water in just a few short years these small downs have turned parts of the cows like desert back into a seascape dotting it would be. the hope is that as the project progresses the dams will be built even higher keeping more water and extending the boundaries and the boundaries of the lesser errol back to the city. when the sea left my husband did not want to leave this place he used to say children would grow to see with their own eyes even before he died he believed that the sea would come back. now as the excess water flows through the sluices it disappears out into the nearly empty greater peril see no grand scheme for saving that this not for

the one million people living in kazakstan poorest region measurable improvement will only come when these shores once again fill with folks lindsey france r.t. kazakstan. was latest in our series of reports on one of the world's worst of the logical disasters about of the hour we'll look at how the prospect of their peril season return is putting fishermen back in business. into. and their reactor at a nuclear power plant in iran's bush era began operating on saturday after decades of waiting the russian build facilities expected to start pumping electricity into iranian homes early next year the country's atomic energy agency says the reactor is fully loaded with fuel and are just a few final tests to be completed the construction of the plan began some forty years ago but was halted after reading islamic revolution in one nine hundred seventy nine then russia to cough up the project and completed it iran is currently under un sanctions over its nuclear program but the law from the center for policy

studies says it's russia's role to ensure the plant's safe running. we want to do we'll know all of that out of that will be russian engineers present it's the facility that's the facility is quite well controlled by russia we will get both electricity and experience from the sea food security viewpoint russia. some may think there may be a proliferation consume the reason why the open every news for in iran talks of both peaceful uses of nuclear energy and transparency. now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world and a georgian owned cargo plane has crashed in pakistan killing at least eleven people including eight crew members and three people on the ground and went down five minutes after takeoff causing an explosion and fire in

a housing complex for naval officers the russian made i'll seventy six was heading from karachi to sudan carrying relief supplies 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 deterrence to north korea pyongyang has reportedly deployed surface to surface missiles and galaxy as a response and south korean officials say artillery fire has been heard again near an island which was bombarded by north less than a week ago killing four people. well that brings us up today here in our zero hour there for more you always turn to our web site our tita qabalistic short break now after that i'll be back with more updates read on the way.

most of them. read you the latest in science and technology from around slush. we've dumped a few jerks covered. on . the news today violence is once again flared up.

these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations are on the day.

welcome back you're watching r.t. live from moscow these are the top stories of the week the arrest of an arche crew covering a peaceful protest in the u.s. and the silence from american news outlets leads to questions over media freedom. crisis of multiculturalism endured as was rylance holding a referendum on controversial plans to deport foreign criminals with a proposal already being branded a racist by manning. and russia's the mockers sees far from perfect but is improving that's what the country's president sad and his latest video blog we did have called for a stronger showing from the opposition to prevent complacency from those in power. up next a world war two hero returns to tara why an island in the pacific and the side of the.