well why news twenty four seven this is r.t. live from moscow i'm real receive shame signs of discontent still evident in unstable syria even after thousands of regime supporters crowded the streets of the capital activists say fresh clashes between government troops and ahmed a man in the north of the country have left at least three people dead i mean time president assad has promised to establish a special committee so a draw for a new constitution all of this while international pressure builds on him to step down. as the latest from damascus. that's voices of support. and continuing dissent some and in deadly clashes polar opposites in their demands but in some way united by a newfound zeal to take a stand for years to separate the fear and kaffir with the hour and i have gathered

to show their support for the government that is going is a far cry from images we've been seeing in other cities and a country where there have been reporting watches with me for kurdish forces that is a government protestation however one thing it's about where in this country with all the forces have tried the intensity of that was the very way for you that every night with. her husband and young children were one of many families who braved the heat and joy the crowds in downtown damascus for god it's true that we knew nothing about politics before but now we take a stand even if i'm a sunni muslim i'm pro this president. ever since most people started revealing their political stance openly some people would mock me and say since when do you know about politics what do you know there are divisions among family members some are pro assad some are anti but that's how

it is. it appears that apathy is becoming a less of an option for citizens of a nation now under intense international scrutiny i never watch news i never cared you know i never never had any interest in politics but. i think most of us read it books we watch the news media articles that always we want to know want to know because and then you have the right back around and other issues about your country where you got the work. you have there are those like the new i who sing who are no strangers to picking a side and making it known he's long been voicing his discontent of what he calls a repressive regime and today facebook is one of his main tools in coordinating dissent. coalition activism has evolved in syria for me i feel that my voice goes further now back then it started with stating an opinion that i'm going to jail that hitting dead and no one would even know about it that his changed down there people are more politically aware hussein has been thrown in jail says he was

tortured and finds himself constantly looking over his shoulder i was detained for spreading the word on the violent crackdown in daraa but i'd feel like a coward if i didn't risk my life while those on the streets are doing so asking for the regime to fall a call staunchly opposed by those on the other side yet it was. the. right. one political curiosity and activism among syrians are growing whatever side of the divide they're on people here see the future of their country is at stake but all are adamant that future is firmly in their own hands. r.t. damascus. don't forget to watch equities twitter page to get the latest news and updates from out seem of correspondent so you can easily follow the test australia who is in syria and just hours ago and to the central town of done that with five

days of clashes between protesters and security forces took place tweets that are evidence of fighting it's clear on buildings and the mood is tends to stay on line for the very latest there. they have been beaten pepper sprayed and arrested but the determination of the occupy wall street protesters is growing along with the numbers what started with a small group of activists camping outside the new york stock exchange in mid september quickly spread nationwide thousands of americans are fed up with breaking their backs while wall street corporations growth on the profits however the call to end of the big bank mentality seem. to be falling on deaf ears in the white house guy in a japan explains washington isn't quite ready to turn its back on it for us. investing in politics has proved to be good business in america just a few million dollars in contributions and some lobbying can bring

a company billions in bailout loan guarantees tax refunds another stimulus all of the expense of the average american taxpayer to both in the election system and it's in the ongoing lobbying in service to influence industry these are powerful powerful businesses their whole business model is around using influence to break the rules of the game in their favor so far u.s. corporations have been successful in ensuring that the laws introduced to regulate wall street after the financial meltdown of two thousand and eight don't function those measures were effectively scuppered by u.s. lawmakers the corporations were also successful in keeping their tax cuts intact and finding loopholes for getting billions of dollars in refunds the government of the one percent for the one percent by the one percent propecia wakes accel for the passes rules that allows the banks to get the regulated it restricts our democracy three years after washington gave almost a trillion dollars of taxpayers' money to bail out corporate giants unemployment in

the country is over nine percent the national debt is well past the tipping point and the congress is looking to cut essential social programs her thousands of americans took to the streets to ask where is their bailout and how they marry little country that arrests a hundred nine while in the pool and doesn't arrest a single one of these bankers are looking forward because this course is just boggles the mind in the meantime goldman sachs one of the main architects of the current crisis is richer than ever it is a now seventeen billion dollars in bonuses alone for its staff when asked about the impunity enjoyed by the corporations president obama said a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal it was just. immoral and many agree it pretty much stays that way but not only do the lawmakers come under fire for accepting generous contributions from corporations and then acting

to return the favor but the president himself was accused of bias and cronyism on a number of occasions one of the most recent scandals involves a solar energy company cylindrica which went bankrupt and cost taxpayers almost six hundred million dollars that's the amount that the government approved in loan guarantees despite receiving persistent warnings about the company's financial stability the deal was pushed through by a foundation which in turn was a major donor to president obama's election campaign since last year corporations have been allowed to funnel as much money as they want into political campaigns now they don't even have to disclose the amounts they spend their time trying to violations is very serious the new law effectively gives the corporations even more influence in washington leaving many americans in fear that their voice might no longer count what drew all these people onto the streets of washington and other cities in the u.s. is the understanding that their government and their legislators represent the

interests of the top one percent as they call them the very wealthy corporations that can afford influence in washington to skew the system in their favor. our team washington d.c. all of us talk a bit more about the situation here and we're joined now by ann wright a retired u.s. army colonel also activist of occupy d.c. . thank you for joining us on the program today so do you agree washington and big business are in bed together or is it possible that this position has been over. i don't think it's been overplayed at all i think that what we're facing now in the united states is a critical situation a dangerous situation where corporations are truly running the country they're buying off very blatantly our politicians. that's why we're out on the streets all over america to say no to this this. corruption and graft within the

business community that are on this over into the political situation because as you say the big business is certainly influencing initiatives and policies on capitol hill but what action do you expect to come from washington and possibly from wall street in response to the ongoing protests understand now is a fairly politically sensitive time with the two thousand and twelve presidential election just around the corner well indeed in these protests i hope being seen by politicians as. what the people really are concerned about and what they demand from politicians which is honesty which is not being bought off by corporations however i'm not too optimistic about this i think we are facing a very very. difficult situation where the politicians don't really care much about the the average person. they we hope we can make a pair at the election one who will get millions hundreds of millions of people to vote him out of office if they keep doing this graft and corruption if they keep spending money on the wars that they keep giving sweetheart deals to all their

buddies but right now it's a tough situation we face even though we have groups all over the country and city squares we need millions of people more to be out there actively protesting what's going on so what would you say to the protests in the united states at this point have been fairly small scaled in compared to what we've seen for example in parts of the euro zone over two thousand and eleven we've seen tens of thousands and in various european capitals. absolutely in fact i was in greece this summer and was in syntagma square with hundreds of thousands of greeks that turn out there about every other weekend and tens of thousands every single night or todd must wear the main square in athens so we in the united states haven't yet developed that volume although wall to wall street the new york one is very large the washington one is growing boston is growing i think it adds this keeps moving day by day week by week we will see a lot more people coming out on the streets and as the media finally reports all of

the sweetheart deals that are being given to these corporations it really is important that what the media tells us about what's going on is so so important so we thank you for that that excellent excellent report right before i came on that really lays it out tragically of what's going on here now as you're saying that there's a need and a desire for a greater volume of protesters to hit the streets in major u.s. capitals but it's one of the problems with that is we're already seeing the police have been getting tough with some demonstrators in boston and in new york what's been the attitude to that on capitol hill. well every time the police beat up somebody that is brings out hundreds thousands more people i don't i don't want it to happen that way that the police are just beating people up but the people are responding to it by coming out saying you can't do this anymore here in d.c. we encountered a different situation where even the d.c.

city council has said the occupiers should be here it's a right of protest the police have not kicked this off or an area that october two thousand and eleven has had called freedom plaza in fact we are we may be able to stay there another four months another group called occupy d.c. that's down i think there's one square doesn't even have a permit and they've got tents that are up on it we've been working with the police in order to make sure that things are peaceful nonviolent and when we take to the streets we are respectful of them urgency vehicles that have to get through there but we are occupying a lot of washington and so far as the city council has been very good now the capitol hill people ever arrested typical day before yesterday we did banner drops inside one of the senate office buildings six people arrested there disruptions in the senate but i have to say as you have the numbers comparatively speaking the numbers here are very very small now we've spoken to some of the protesters taking

part in the occupy wall street movement many of them saying that the u.s. government is in bed with for example the defense industries the mineral extraction the energy agency telecommuting telecommunication industries here we are having fairly small protests in a major american cities what else can be done apart from sending people out onto the streets to get ultimately detained by police is there another way to go about getting your voices heard. well certainly we've tried everything i mean we have we have had tell meetings with our elected representatives we will deluge them with e-mails with telephone calls. these are the traditional ways that we do it closing down places closing down streets closing down businesses going into the houses of congress physically with our bodies or you know kind of the next step and this and until we get a response from our our elected officials that they're listening to us and that they will clean up the mess that they have created which is corporate greed being

sanctioned being okayed by the u.s. government and our officials and special laws being written for them until we get them to change that we will have to continue just to keep increasing increasing the levels of pressure and and who knows what we're going to do next it's a it's a creative time it's a time for people to really look closely at what the pressure points are on these politicians and on the corporation says as mamma said you know he said some of the things they're doing is not illegal but they're immoral and that's really the the crux of it when you have these immoral greedy pigs that are taking billions for their personal wealth and don't care when we have homeless all over the world that we have kids that don't have good education anymore that we have roads that are beaten up and yet the greedy pigs at the top just keep sucking up more and more billions of dollars just for their pockets at that's and raging and we are enraged we understand right activist of your people i will show movement in d.c.

thank you very much thank you. a new criminal case has been launched against ukraine's former prime minister yulia tymoshenko she's been charged with laying the burden of deaths from an energy corporation she headed on to the ukrainian budget this comes just two days after tina shanker was sentenced to seven years behind bars over her gas contracts with russia is our correspondent . from kiev. this story is very complicated and pretty dark because this case in fact refers to fifteen years ago when you go was a was the head of the united energy systems of ukraine company she signed several contracts with the russian defense ministry and according to prosecutors and key of she owes four hundred million u.s. dollars to the russian defense ministry and the essence of this new criminal case is that she tried to put this debt on to the ukrainian side didn't this violates

the ukrainian law this is of course a very interesting new twist in this saga with the trial of you look so much and go indeed to two days ago she was sentenced to seven years in prison who are abusing the power during the signing of contracts of gas deals with russia back in two thousand and nine this new case may only add fuel to the fire off a very tense and very furious act is a very furious reactions from all over the world we've heard reactions from the united states which condemned the prison in the view that so much ankle we shall we heard reactions from the european union which said that a possible agreement on association between the european union and ukraine could be canceled and even an invitation for mystery on a college to visit a meeting in brussels in a short future may also be cancelled we also heard very harsh reactions from moscow which claimed that all those gas deal signed in two thousand and nine were completely legitimate we've already heard very interesting statements from president yanukovych who said that in fact this particular law under which he was much ankle was present could be a bullish in ukraine decriminalised by the ukrainian parliament and thus. could be

set free in the car which also said that the criminal system in ukraine is outdated and it's to be reformed so these reforms can in fact set you free but according to many experts she will still be unable to run for president to run for parliament and will still have to repay almost two hundred million u.s. dollars in damages which she inflicted to the korean budget. that's the reporting right there were plenty more stories for you at r.t. dot com and taste of what's waiting for you on line right now americans could soon see their speech rhythms and blinking rate breathing patterns under the scrutiny of the cia as the latest scheme to track terrorists comes under fire. and one of saddam hussein's a bronze but it says going under the hammer doesn't get too crazy here it's only part of his famous statue of course find out what happened after it was torn down dot com. it's time for the world update here on r.t.

some other world news for you in brief this hour french officials have dropped their inquiry into sexual assault claims against former i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn the prosecutor's office says strauss kahn admitted to sexual advances towards roger tristan but no there isn't sufficient evidence to support the rape allegation three others here the french politician resigned as head of the international monetary fund after facing similar charges which were later dropped in new york. libya's troops are claiming they are in control of most of gadhafi stronghold city of sirte making their final push but there are still pockets of heavy resistance from the colonel loyalists libyan leaders have denied earlier reports that one of could offer you some signs that a senior army officer and security advisor had been captured in the besieged city meanwhile human rights group amnesty international has accused the country's interim leadership of torturing thousands of detainees and called for the abuse to

stop. a plane carrying thirty two people has crashed near the north coast of papua new guinea a spokesman for the country's accident investigation commission said there are casualties other figures are still unclear australia has meantime scrambled helicopters to help with search and rescue efforts at the scene of the crash. u.s. and south korean leaders have pledged closer trade and security ties in washington d.c. it's after the two countries struck a long sought free trade deal president lee myung bak says visit comes as opposition continues in his home country against south korea's plans to build a naval base which many believe will be politically and environmentally harmful u.s. warships will be able to use the facility on jay do island although seoul denies it is being built to strengthen america's presence in the region. off a cosmonauts and during a long stay aboard the international space station food is one of the few

distractions from their day to day routine but repairing a meal is no easy task for scientific chefs at home you must stir up a space safe menu that's both nutritional and tasty so we dispatched artie's peter oliver for a lunch that's out of this world. after traveling at phenomenal speed for two days cramped in the small space of a soyuz rocket cosmonauts arriving at the international space station going to be package but how do you eat in zero gravity. well you have to be a bit more careful than down here on earth every little piece of food that gets out of your group will float away and you will not be able to keep track of it to make sure cosmonauts enjoy their lunch without worrying that the rogue morsel will disappear into the inner workings of some potentially life saving computer equipment the russian space agency designed this special table so it is worth what the deal is you know there are two heating compartments here in this area and in

between is a trap for crumbs it works like a regular vacuum cleaner this is important because choking on a crumb is very risky in zero gravity you can have grieve consequences. all the food eaten in space has to be specially prepared here on earth that preparation doesn't come cheap cosmonauts need three thousand calories a day of the same as an olympic sprinter and providing that cost over six hundred dollars a day with most emissions lasting for six months each cosmonauts grocery bill comes in at a hefty one hundred ten thousand dollars per mission and at those prices it's no wonder that the people behind cosmic catering a proud of their product. as the chief designer of space food with twenty three years of experience in the space food industry i can proudly say that russia's space food provides the healthiest city first and the most nutrition rich diet for a cause an. even the most simple food requires special care and attention this tree

in moscow produces space spirit and the work which goes into making it ready for all but it is almost as high tech as the i assess itself that. there is no mold and there's bread no mold spores we've developed the recipe which stops small growth the bread doesn't go bad for fifteen months thanks to the special recipe and technologies we use when baking it. even when it comes to something simple like bread there's still plenty of choice for your hungry cosmonaut. all in all we make five types of bread and gingerbread white bread that's what i have here on the table now right bread with caraway bread moscow style and dinner bread. those currently around one hundred sixty color options because a lot on board the international space station including all of the taste from home from soups to main courses and desserts and even the basics from salt and pepper

the bread. that alters pretty good after a hard day's work on board the i assess it's nice to see that some of humanity's finest minds still have time to play with their food for thought ok i've got a yellow one for you good bright you ready ready good jewel yummy here a couple more this make you three keep on coming. these are all of the party. all right i'm just a little bit later in the program here on r.t. it is the kaiser report artie's economics and finance show are always on a mission to expose the fat cat greed first the business with career. hello welcome to our business out there sell your fears biggest banks mass must raise billions of dollars in capital to withstand for national term while our the markets that's the plan by the e.u. commission to contain the escalating debt contagion the growing fears banks may

take losses on bonds from countries with shaky finances like greece if gainey governing cover from troika dialog says that even the worst scenario won't have any serious effect on russia well calamities us strong. russia has limited her exposure to. those toxic for. such as for the greek bonds so russia may have a potential there. but through prices through for more diverse his goals don't look for years we will keep exporting real to the same borders of gas of crude or the cold which even in the case of some slowdown in europe for. the major effect comes from prices but with all this the curious from. the reason for the purser's to gold . consider that. because liquidity is being injected we've been jacked to them was injected. or it's also remarkable that despite all those fears in the course of two

most oil didn't go below one hundred dollars per barrel. let's have a look at the markets now oil is trading in the red after the american petroleum institute reported that u.s. gasoline demand fell the most in more than five years in china last month exports climbed the least since february as imports slowed light sweet is dropping at two dollars or forty cents and design is trading under eighty four dollars per barrel while brant is at one hundred nine dollars a barrel stocks in the u.s. open lower or treating after a three day rise in negative sentiment is mainly supported by disappointing earnings from j.p. morgan and chinese economic data stocks of banks stocks of j.p. morgan are down over four percent and european stocks dropped in choppy trading on thursday led by losses for the banks as well lloyds banking group and world bank of scotland so sharp falls after fitch ratings downgrade of both companies to a from a couple a minus b.n.p. perry bombing the biggest decline is dropping six point seven percent mining

companies were also down following reports of slowing export growth in china while also always holdings rallied on the footsie after it announced a new joint venture with united technologies. and in russia markets finished a trading day lower weight by. energy stocks that's as well dropped after the international energy agency reduce its global demand forecast for two thousand and twelve let's have a look at some individual travels otherwise x. the decline of the indexes that buy gas from its two percent lower outlook or as down as well the company says it's going to spend more than ten billion dollars a year over the next decade to develop huge new projects and probably model it raised early against the company has reported a forty percent increase in revenues for the first nine months of the year michael stein from a creature web site the day's trade. today in the markets a consolidation phase poling be a huge ten percent rally in the r.t.s. since late wednesday of last week investor sentiment has clearly improved to some

extent given the europeans are taking a more constructive approach to solving their debt problems and given the market improvement in crude prices from one hundred dollars a barrel last week to close to one hundred ten dollars a barrel this week. the minority shareholders of tanky b.p. have increased their claims against british partner b.p. they now wants thirteen billion dollars compensation following a collapse of b.p.'s tie up with roll snapped the initial request was a quarter of that at the beginning of a year also have the b.p. agreed to jointly develop the rich arctic fields but b.p.'s russian partners in tank a b.p. blocked the deal saying it violated their rights and demanded part of the tie up the minority shareholders now want compensation for the revenues they could have made if the deal had gone ahead. that's all i have for you this hour stay with us for headlines with your week coming up next.

the official ulti of location two on the phone the i pod touch from the. life on the go. video on demand on teasing minefield

comes and says feed now in the palm of your. machine on the dot com. welcome back watching the headlines for you know syrian activists sound the alarm over new crackdowns despite loyalist crowds in the capital president assad is battling global pressure over his role. in the u.s. protesters took the time in to stamp out corporate greed to take their grievances to the doors of the wealthy as they accuse big business of trying to buy elections . and ukraine's former prime minister faces new charges two days after she got seven years behind bars for abusing power while signing gas contracts with moscow. right here in half an hour's time fidel it's the kaiser.