international news and comment live from moscow this is good to have you with us this hour. and our top story this hour signs of discontent are 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 men in the north of the country left three dead president assad promised to establish a special committee to draw up a new constitution while international pressure builds on him to step down. as the latest from damascus. voices of support. and continuing dissent some and in in deadly clashes polar opposites in their demands but in some way united by a newfound zeal to take a stand for here the fact that they're in kaffir with our little have gathered show their support for the government that is kind of a far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities around the country

where there have been reported clashes with the kurdish north of any government protest however one thing if you are about where in this country political discourse is sometimes i can tell you that that was very basic you know that everybody. her husband and young children were one of many families who braved the heat and joined the crowds in downtown damascus. 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 less of an option for citizens of a nation now under intense international scrutiny i never watched news i never

cared you know i never never had any interest in politics but. i think most of us baby books we watch the news media articles and always we want to know want to know people and then we have the right background and all the issues about your country you got the. you know there are those like the new i missing 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 cordoning to dissent. 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 now that 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 if i was to. meet. with. you. while 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 that future is firmly in their own hands. that's our cilia r.t. damascus. and don't forget to check twitter page to get the latest news and updates from team of correspondents and you can easily follow tessa's reports that she's in syria as you can see at the moment i'm just hours ago she entered the central town of. where five days of clashes between protesters and security forces took place

she tweets that evidence of fighting is clear on buildings and that the mood is tense. down the line for the very latest. they've been beaten pepper sprayed and arrested but the determination of the occupy wall street protest 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 wall street corporations grow fat on the profits and have a cool too and the big bang mentality seems to be for them death is in the white house and it's gonna change come explains washington isn't ready to turn its back on old friends. 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 every american taxpayer exposed in the election system and it's in the ongoing lobbying and serving 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 loss 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 over the one percent for the one percent by the one percent perpetuates itself it passes rules that allows the banks to get deregulated 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 by thousands of americans took to the streets to ask where is their bailout how can i move it. a country that arrests a hundred nonviolent people and doesn't arrest a single one of these bankers or the people would cause those who are just models not mine in the meantime goldman sachs one of the main architects of the current crisis is richer than ever it is announced 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 phone is mana

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 value elections has been 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 us 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. on our team washington d.c. . reuter neck to vist of occupy d.c. she believes the protests of finally shed light on corporations leeching off the american people. what we're facing now in the united states is a critical situation a dangerous situation where corporations are truly running the times free they're buying our very late and lay out politicians and that's why we're out on the streets all over america to say no to this corruption and graft within the business community that is over into the political situation 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 obama said you know he said some of the things they're doing is not illegal but they're immoral and that's really 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. and yet the green pigs at the top just keep sucking up more and more billions of dollars just for their pockets. can you learn from moscow with the twenty four hours a day still ahead for you this hour when friends meet with us in south korean leaders strike a free trade deal that sole decision to build a naval base open to u.s. vessels by protesters. and the ultimate light snack check out what's being dumped into space as we unveil the process of cosmic. that's coming up very soon. but first a new criminal case is being launched against ukraine's former prime minister yulia tymoshenko she's been charged with leading the burden of debts from an energy corporation she handed only to the ukrainian budget this comes just two days after

two machine who was sentenced to seven years behind bars over her gas contracts with russia is our correspondent in kiev alexy going to shift. this story is very complicated and pretty dark because this case in fact refers to fifteen years ago when he 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 ukrainians but didn't this violates the ukrainian law this is of course a very interesting new twist in this saga with the trial of. indeed two days ago she was sentenced to seven years in prison for 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 axis of very furious reactions from all over the

world we've heard reactions from the united states which condemned the prison in the view that 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 me to visit a meeting in brussels in a short future may also be canceled we also heard very harsh reactions from moscow wish claim that all those gas deal signed in two thousand and nine were completely legitimate we've already heard very interesting statements from president bush who said that in fact this particular law under which he was present could be a bullish in ukraine decriminalised by the ukrainian parliament and thus. could be set free also said that the criminal system in ukraine is outdated and need 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 or 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. the u.s. and south korean leaders have pledged closer trade and securitize in washington d.c. after their two countries struck a long sought free trade deal president lee myung bak visit comes as opposition continues in his home country against south korea's plans to build a controversial naval base u.s. warships will be able to use the facility on jeju island well for more let's now talk to professor frank he's chair of the east asian economy and society at the university of vienna thanks very much indeed for being with us here on r.t. president obama has hailed the free trade agreement with south korea a major win for american workers and businesses but what about those in south korea will they benefit well i think in general it's always a good. industrialized nations to have a free trade deal because it will eliminate artificially created. trade

which has short and long term benefits. in south korea the problem is. that so far the state has relied on the particular model of economic development with a strong state probably in two years because of the tariffs were part of it so it was not reducing the options it has for intervening. on the other hand it will help korea to foster closer ties with the united states and most importantly it will help south korea to fight its growing trade dependency on china and i think this is sort of the mood political reason for having concluded. agree let's talk about this controversial naval base south korea is denying it's being built specifically for the u.s. but still seems to be no official confirmation or denial on this how do you see this facility in the future being used. well one purpose that very obvious is its uses part of the missile defense shield against long range ballistic missiles nala

it's up to you to guess where those missiles might come from they might come from north korea they might come from further up north. and the other is really a quarter south korean navy to help it to a project its power into the waters around. and let me remind you. most korea is five hundred fifty kilometers away china's five hundred kilometers of which a plant is less than two hundred kilometers away so let's get this clear will we see the u.s. navy using this base on a fairly serious way in a fairly serious way well since south korea and the united states all very close allies in particular in terms of military it's very obvious that the u.s. navy will be using those fears of course a lot of concern about the base in south korea itself over the political and environmental issues by all accounts it's it's dividing the country but what about

the reaction from north korea. well so far i could see an old reaction from north korea of course north korea will always feel offended when enemies u.s. and south korea improve and expand their military capabilities but as i just a distance is really too far from north korea. to really have a direct effect on the north korean security so i think reaction will be as usual. but not overly you could just talk about the relationship between south korea and the u.s. just how much influence does the u.s. have over so. well the united states traditionally had a very strong influence. in the korean war they were. supporting south korea's economic growth and they have also supported the. open democracy is also clear so that relationship is very close it has always been seen

with mixed feelings by south koreans and recently i think. the problem growing. agreement on most also those in south korea this alliance needs to be redefined not canceled but really fine and that it needs to grow into a more. equal kind of go over the line so the united states influence is there but its goal changing nature professor to get frank chair of the east asian economy in society at the university of vienna thanks very much indeed for time here on out he could hear from me. by the way that's plenty more stories for you dot com indeed you can see that interview once again if you log on here's a taste of what else is online right now americans consume to see their speech rhythms blinking rate some breathing patterns under cia scrutiny as the latest scheme to track terrorists comes on to find. one of saddam hussein's brawls baltics is going under the hammer that's part of his famous statue of course you can find out what happened after it was torn down all online at all dot com.

the expanded eurozone bailout fund has been given the final go ahead parliament has approved the four hundred forty billion euro facility after tuesday's vote against it saw the country's ruling coalition collapse increased cash will go to struggling nations such as greece. ground to a halt as workers walked out of the forty eight hour strike to protest against the government's austerity policies demonstrators marched away flags and the latest in a series of rallies and strikes to hit the cash strapped country. seeking to prop up the banking sector fearing the debt crisis could spread that on thursday ratings john fitch followed in moody's footsteps and downgraded to major u.k. banks and the royal bank of scotland. update you on some of the of the world headlines this hour in our world update french officials have dropped the inquiry into sexual assault claims against former

i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn the prosecutor's office says can admitted to sexual advances towards the writer christine there isn't sufficient evidence to support rape allegations earlier this year a french politician resigned as head of the international monetary fund after facing similar charges which were later dropped in new york. it was troops claiming they're in control of most of gadhafi stronghold city of making their final push there are still pockets of heavy resistance from the colonel's long list of denied earlier reports that one of the sons was a senior army officer and security advisor has been captured in the city meanwhile human rights group amnesty international has accused the country's interim leadership of thousands of detainees and called for the abuse to stop. at this hour a plane carrying thirty two people discretion of the north coast of papua new guinea a spokesman for the country's accident investigation commission said there are casualties though the figures are still unclear australia has scrambled helicopters

to help with search and rescue efforts at the scene of the crash. for cosmonauts enduring a long stay aboard the international space station food is one of the few distractions from the day to day routine but preparing a meal is no easy task for scientific chefs at home who will stir up a space safe menu that's both nutritional and tasty and all of a for lunch that's out of this world. after traveling at phenomenal speed for two days cramped in the small space of a so huge rockets cosmonauts arriving at the international space station going to be. but how do you eat in zero gravity. put it 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 a 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 and this area 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 it can have grieved 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 the same as an olympic sprinter and providing that cost over six hundred dollars a day with most missions 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 me catering a proud of their product. is the chief designer spice food twenty three years of

experience in the space food industry and i can proudly say that russia's place for health used solely first nutritional rich diet cause i'm going to get you through even the most simple food requires special care and attention this tree in moscow produces space bridge and the work which goes into making it ready for all that is almost as high tech as the i.x.'s itself. there is no mold in this bread no mold spores we've developed a 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 brownies gingerbread white red that's what i have here on the table now drive bread with caraway right bread moscow style and didn't read those currently around one hundred sixty three options because i'm

not on board the international space station including all of the tastes 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 six nice to see that some of humanity's finest minds still have time to play with this food. became a yearly one for we. brought you ready ready good yummy. a couple is make it three keep them coming all slow. be sure all of us are. so the temperature up to date for the moment twenty four minutes past the hour very nearly here in moscow time now for kareena with the business something. welcome to our business update this hour with a creative mail account thanks for joining me here as biggest banks must raise

billions of dollars in capital to withstand financial turmoil on the markets that's the plan by the e.u. commission to contain the escalating debt contagion going fears bank is banks may take losses on bonds from countries with shaky finances like greece in getting of a langkow from tracker dogs says that even the worst scenario won't have any serious effect on russia while commodities are strong. russia has limited for exposure to the rule of those toxic for. such as for the greek bonds so russia will have a potential there. but through prices you for more do vs girls don't look for these we will keep exporting real there was a war that was a guest of the order for that even in the case of some slowdown in europe for. or leisure for those from places that with all these victories. by the reason for the prices to go she does consider that. because of the religion being injected

will be injected that was injected. it's also remarkable that despite all those fears of the two most oil didn't go below one hundred dollars per barrel. and let's have a look at the markets now all this trading in the red up to american petroleum institute reported u.s. gasoline to the most more than five years in china last month exports climbed at least since february as imports slowed light sweet is dropping at two dollars forty cents are trading at eighty three dollars a barrel while brant is at one hundred and nine dollars per barrel u.s. stocks are trading lower of banking stocks are dragging the market down up to j.p. morgan chase reported that a slow down investment banking turned its income bank of america's also down both losing over four percent. european stocks fell on thursday as well led by banks lloyds banking group and world bank of scotland after fitch ratings downgraded both

companies to a from a minus b.n.p. perry was the biggest decline and dropping six point seven percent mining companies were also down following a report of slowing export growth in china while rolls royce holdings rallied ten percent on the footsie after it announced a new joint venture with united technologies and here in russia markets finished the trading day lower weight by energy stocks as oil drops after the international energy agency. it's global demand forecast for two thousand and twelve let's have a look at some individual shambles optimize that the decline on the index was led by gazprom down two percent core was also losing ground the company said it's going to spend more than ten billion dollars a year old the next decade to develop huge new projects and probably little you raised early gains of the company has reported a forty percent increase in revenues for the first nine months of the year michael stein for one pretty wraps up today's trade. today in the markets

a consolidation phase tolling the 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 about one hundred dollars a barrel last week to close to one hundred ten dollars a barrel this week. and more news from tank a b.p. the minority shareholders of the company have increased their claims against british partner b.p. they now want thirteen billion dollars compensation following a collapse of b.p.'s tie up with we also have the initial request was a quarter of a quarter of that now at the beginning of the year rosneft and b.p. agreed to jointly develop the rich arctic fields but b.p. is russian partners in take 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 went through. that's my business update for this hour but don't try me at forty five minutes for walking on this. the limited.

period. is easy to. see.

this is good to have you with us top stories now. in the capital. in the u.s. . corporate greed. of the wealthy big business of. ukraine's former prime minister faces new charges two days after she got seven years behind bars for abusing power. with. corporations getting rich at the expense of american taxpayers is at the core of the occupy wall street movement which is now well into its fifth week well in new york.