live from moscow with the top stories of the week and the latest developments this is r.t. or not he crews spent thirty two hours in a u.s. jail after filming a peaceful protest near the so-called school of assassins in the state of georgia reporter carolyn ford says she and her cameraman were handcuffed and put in the same cell with criminals and despite condemnation from human rights watchdog the o.s.c. the case was ignored by the us media. it started off as a peaceful rally outside a u.s. training camp for latin american military and police officers followed this nonviolent protest caught everyone by surprise dozens were arrested police targeted journalists along with the activists i'm a member of the right. i'm a member of the program sorry ok i'm sorry among those arrested were r t

correspondent carolyn and r.t. cameramen john conway there on assignment covering the protests that brought together thousands of people. here to make sure i asked the officer to please remove the handcuffs these plastic handcuffs and at least 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 now we're still in 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 mirrors he 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 from them 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 little train yes it's many of the latin america's most notorious torturers mass murders are dictators this 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 in the 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 us 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 the rest disturbing. while it is clear that police play crucial role 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 game to shut down r t washington d.c. . so how much freedom should journalists have while covering events like protests when lottie's laurie healthiest also known as the resident took to the streets of the big apple to find out what people in new york think and it comes your way later this hour but here's a quick preview in the meantime. 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 do things that they wouldn't otherwise but the fact is if you're going to go someplace to protest to get that really hard story you've got to be repaired for the fact that life is going to sometimes intercede what about bob forrest on what if they intercede if the people are being a really oh hell yeah what about if the press are being unruly the press is being utterly 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 of. twenty six suspected terrorists with alleged links to al qaeda arrested in europe this week eleven of them of being suspected of being part of a chechen islamist network planning to commit attacks in belgium the group is also thought to be raising money for terrorism in russia's volatile north caucasus region others were detained in connection with a separate probe targeting an extremist group recruiting jihadi fighters in iraq and afghanistan british security analyst peter powers says that once it's

a lost clear that russia and the west are fighting a common enemy the potential for cooperation is vast. let's not fool ourselves that al-qaeda is somehow great regiments of uniformed soldiers marching over the horizon it is in fact much more of a franchise yes there's a strong power base in the foothills between afghanistan and pakistan and it's clearly as a strong kabul 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 but we are now seeing of a commonality that we haven't seen before whether it vindicates totally all that russia has been saying for many years that terrorists are terrorists you could be if you killed by the ira or chechen terrorists. you're just as dead we are now seeing something which i've never seen before i'm president of cooperation. security analysts peter power there. russian president dmitry medvedev has urged

the country's political system to be shaken up in his latest video blog he said there are signs that the country's stability is threatening to stagnate. 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 tasks the task of any democracy is to improve the quality of popular representation make sure that the political maturity is not just static or brand but that it does not become the majority consisting of actors and dummies but. dr of political science and united russia party member says the opposition should draw a conclusion from the messages well i think he was trying to say. actually.

relates to united russia and opposition parties in the. primaries. the development of the interparty. participation in open public debates and so on and so forth. should be done by. as well and that will be very important because. the 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 the parties should provide this kind of feedback in order. to be sustainable. that was to be part of the united russia party you're with are to become your lawyer still to come on the program. russia pledges help for nato campaign in afghanistan and he expects that

the war there can be one of. don't understand what you're going to use for heating gas you don't develop nuclear power what are you going to use it would . energy efficiency advice coming from vladimir putin during a business visit to germany you can stay with us for those details that story coming up a little later. but first the people of switzerland approve the proposed law to expel foreign criminals from the country the nationwide ban it was initiated by a right wing party the measures had raised questions over whether the swiss are discriminating against immigrants is in zurich for us. so today in a referendum the swiss people have decided in favor of a new law making it mandatory for foreign criminals convicted of serious crimes such as murder and rape to be kicked out of the country now this has been a very controversial issue since the proposal was initially passed and today the decision has been made the swiss are in favor of this law and

a change of mentality but this we know what the population wants and they will become stricter towards criminals it doesn't have anything to do with nationalism if you say hundreds of thousands can come and the few hundred because they are criminals that doesn't have anything to do with nationals. just to give you a bit of a background this was first passed by the right wing swiss peoples party or s.v.p. and they say that the aim of this initiative is to make criminality among foreigners lower and also to ensure security of both swiss locals and non-locals earlier we spoke with a member of the s.p.p. and here is what he had to say on the initiative people with. heavy criminal courier the. now there have been a lot of stories of foreigners murdering or raping locals and this has given the s.p.p. a lot of traction in putting forward this a proposal and bringing it to

a referendum stage in the first place and let's not forget switzerland has one of the highest rates per capita of immigration and there's are twenty percent of foreigners living in switzerland so this is a very sensitive topic here especially since it comes just a year after the swiss people voted in favor of a law banning the building of new minarets on mosques so there are criticisms to this law critics are saying that this is just a ploy to divert attention from the real problems of criminality in switzerland and with regard to immigration this is again just a way of diverting attention from the problem of integration of all foreigners into the society can we make a difference between. so i don't make a difference between someone who's wrong now fearing a backlash from the international community the swiss government has put forward a counterproposal to be a version now in this version they say that those who qualify for expulsion would

have to be foreign criminals convicted of at least one year in prison so it has a limit to that also they are saying that deportations must fall within international law and they also put apart their stressing the importance of integration in order to avoid criminality among foreigners into a society that was. reporting from. finance ministers in the irish government have reached a deal on an eighty five billion euro rescue deal for the country's economy went into meltdown this week under the weight of its banking debt and there's been public outrage at the government's handling of the crisis about fifty thousand people marched through dublin on saturday protesting against harsh austerity measures being introduced to cut the country's huge budget deficit demonstrators say ordinary people ordinary working people are taking the hit for the rich and the banks elsewhere in the eurozone there are fears portugal and spain may be next in line for pain and economist marcus the told r.t.

europe's biggest economies will be able to pay the debts of others forever the german taxpayer is no longer willing to lease 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 an either to bail out ireland to fuel the ailing banking sector i think this is a general incentive this umbrella which the. heads of government have created in may 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 island 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 of the eurozone sooner or later and germany is economically not able to. bailout. the german taxpayer who has

a word to say in all that is no longer willing to do saying something like that. currency union between russia and the european union is a possibility russian prime minister vladimir putin and german chancellor angela merkel have admitted the statement was made during a visit to germany on friday the russian premier said the euro is much more reliable than the dollar the spike current difficulties in the region putin also said he no longer sees any obstacles to russia's accession to the world trade organization russia and germany agreed to clear the path through crease business links and to develop science and technology together and in a meeting with german businessmen the russian pm managed to lighten the serious mood over energy supplies. the risk of fish. so the german community doesn't know nuclear power i don't want to make any comments. you actually believe don't understand what you're going to use for heating he don't

want gas he don't develop new nuclear power what are you going to use for the wood a lot of he'd have to get that from siberia to. still ahead for you this from basin of life to hot bed of death. after decades of mismanagement the water is in one of the world's largest landlocked these went away and turn again to fishing industry but now coming back i went to france and joined me in the air all central asia. that story still to come first this week russia decided to give more help to nato struggling campaign in afghanistan it agreed 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 the nato to reduce its reliance on volatile pakistan so you have also pledged russia will continue to provide the tools to battle drug flow

from afghanistan last month russia and the us destroyed one ton of heroin and a combined anti drug operation in the country despite successes like that many experts still believe the americans are yet to learn that this war cannot be won. my basic view is that the war is completely unwinnable russia may be making friendly noises towards nato now 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 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 yet so i don't believe that a military solution could in other words the shipment of arms could pacify

afghanistan. and there will be discussing the american effort with afghanistan's foreign minister interviews coming your way in about ten minutes from now here on r.t. . created tension. detainees be sure civilian casualties at. night rates in the house mood in more afghan forces would be charged off to come but less and less would be discussing the problems. also in the news this week china is seeking to ease tensions on the korean peninsula by proposing an emergency meeting of the six nations involved in north korea disarmament talks voigt was sent to sold to speak with the south korean president but the south has said it was not interested in formally resuming talks on nuclear disarmament tension remains high on the peninsula with the u.s. and south korea having begun a four day joint military exercise in the yellow sea is reportedly deployed surface

to surface missiles in response just days after it fired artillery on an island in belonging to the south killing four. brazil based correspondent for the asia times says that the only way to resolve the conflict between the koreas is to proceed with the teams. you can accuse the north korean regime of anything but they are rational actors day are not crazy they're not foolish they have a kind of bunker mentality when they feel they're under siege he can react sometimes some predictable ways but usually very aggressively like if you corner a cat even the cat will go at you even if you are a huge lion so the only possible solution the north koreans themselves are always saying well we need to sit down and talk and the chinese they don't want to rock at all they don't want to unified korea they want to start school they will north korea as a kind of i would say surrogate protectorate but laurel as their alley you know

very very sensitive border they don't want always a unified korea with american bases in what is today north korea which is very. the chinese way of dealing with it are saying so can we always go back to the same point fools who spin. this new installment of the endless cold war into korea's to its own benefit then usually of course the western corporate media wins this battle for the chinese in florida north korea is just looks like an attacking exercise specially because the joint u.s.s. george washington which is basically a floating war machine with six thousand soldiers and fighter jets it's a nuclear powered you name it they could destroy a whole country if they want to know how it's going to the low c. as well this is a use the struggle creation. pepe escobar brazil based correspondent for the

asia times well to central asia now home of the hour all see once the walls for a snake it is almost gone q two and irrigation projects from the soviet era but some locals say that in the past the sea disappeared and returned again investigate and what's behind this mystery it starts with some of these men fish in one of the worst manmade environmental disaster areas ever now all do the same that you just wrote and then a trip turned up be brought to see back to us. when central asia became the center of the soviet union's plan for cotton cultivation it nearly drunk dried the rivers feeding the erroll see what covered sixty eight thousand square kilometers in one nine hundred sixty around the size of southern california shriveled to a tenth of its size by the mid one nine hundred ninety s. nearly disappearing by the year two thousand here where the greater and lesser seas split there's just enough left for modern technology to make

a stab and regenerating it in two thousand and five the cocoa brown dam was constructed to trap what little water still flows into the lesser sea from the searing river locked safely inside the water is growing to witness the results you must drive hours over rough sea that. then there it is bright blue the fishing village is like being ghost towns now but groups of men and numbers of about twenty to thirty camped out at the newly rehabilitated beaches and catch the day's about one hundred kilo's a day until they've earned enough money to survive and they go back home. they live in dugout hats even in the coldest of winter but this new career means food on the table for young ahmad he was born long after commercial fishing had ceased. i've been fishing for two years my grandfather was a fisherman but he died right now we all work for

a month straight living at the shore then have a week off that's when i go home to our ask we don't get a salary we had piece work payment twenty species of fish now wriggle out of the water and into the hands of the grandfathers of this industry still around to pull out the net once again cart bringing him pike catfish. or fisherman or returning to their home or foreigner overseas providing us with work and profit again they even say it will come back to our desk in around the silent still stands the locals know waves no boats yet there's been one after a serve my term in the army i came back and the water was no longer here that was nine hundred seventy three zero people said that it wasn't the first time they will see had gone they see the sea will be back and maybe we will live to see the good times and life will be even better we do hope. the water has twenty kilometers to

go until it's back. it's impossible to restore the entire erroll sea or to make it the way to used to be if it pleases the northern part remains it will help solve many problems in central asia but while the industrial might of the past can all be restored in full iraq will once again become a people. it may never be what it once was but the arrow scene now boasts two thousand men who now fish for their living for them that's enough when de france r.t. kazakstan. one of the next hour we look at what dangerous being uncovered by the receiving waters of the aral sea. we're back now to our top story and the arrest of an arty film crew in the u.s. is fuel concerns about the way police in some countries treat journalists covering demonstrations laurie the president half of the new yorkers if they think the freedom of the press should be limited.

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. what

if should they intercede if the people are being unruly oh hell yeah what about if the press are being unruly the pressures 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 two 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 unheard. more international stories in brief for you this hour the world's biggest media outlets including the guardian the new york times published the first of

a new batch of secret documents obtained by wiki leaks this time it contained secret cables of u.s. diplomats across the world before the whistle blows website was attacked by hackers who come straight after u.s. government demanded wiki leaks return millions of classified documents u.s. says the leak could endanger lives of some people and caused permanent damage to foreign relations. to turkey now it took firefighters more than two hours to put out a blaze that engulfed one of europe's busiest train stations the country's central rail terminal in istanbul caught far earlier on sunday officials say the fast parted on the roof to repair work with anyone who's been injured or killed. so that's the news from r.t. i'll be back with a look at the headlines after a short break stay with us live here in moscow.

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. if 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 somebody goes died. a new battle is going on. will the history be protected. return to terra what julian cooper story on our t.v. . sweet and clean. salty and very useful. radioactive. and dangerous. and even dead and desolate. keep their unique secrets their unique lakes.

if you just joined us a very warm welcome with the latest news in a roundup of the week's top stories this is. the arrest of an all news crew covering a peaceful protest in the u.s. is criticized by organizations as a crackdown on media freedom and ignored by the mainstream american outlets. is approved in a referendum a proposal. discussion over whether it has nationalistic moves. russia's democracy should not stagnate the russian president is calling on the opposition that he's video to act so that those in power stay awake at the wheel. let's across the world stop publishing a new batch of secret.