it's the first time palestinians have achieved full status at the u.n. body but you know sco will now pay for the decision with a loss of nearly a quarter of its funding but he's going to turn explains. there certainly was a lot of jubilation in paris cheers went up in the assembly hall where the final tally was announced but the vote comes at a price welcoming palestine to the united nations educational scientific and cultural organization means saying goodbye to as much as twenty two percent of the organization's budget washington as being the agency's biggest contributor so far and the state department has confirmed that they will stop sponsoring the organization on what grounds a u.s. law passed the nine hundred ninety obliges washington to cut off funding to unesco if it admits palestine but nonetheless this u.n. body facing huge budget cuts voted one hundred seven four and fourteen nations against the admission of palestine a very sensitive and jubilant moment for the palestinians and

a sour point for these release and for the united states it seems they've been doing everything possible to do rail the vote but to no avail although the u.n. body in question deals with science education and culture the vote is being seen as very much political as a first step as a reminder of the popularity of the palestinian bid for full u.n. membership that application is now pending before the u.n. security council where the united states is threatening to use its veto power most of the international community is for palestine becoming a full member of the u.n. and the u.s. position on this is considered to be very much biased anti palestinian basically although washington says they want two state solution. virtually blocking all attempts of the international community to help the two sides come to such a solution washington says israelis and palestinians should be able to deal with the problem on their own but that proved impossible because one side is too strong

and the other is too weak they can't even start by little talks these days peace talks were supposed to resume but mutual strikes in the last couple of days and people killed on both sides and after that the start of the talks again were stalled. syria's president has told russian television the forces fighting his regime are armed and dangerous and putting civilians at risk but shiela saad also said he's ready to work with the opposition parties that have emerged during the months of uprising against his government syria as this report. strong words coming from syrian president bashar al assad to where the conflict this country's been going on for almost eight months now in that interview to the russian channel he did say that any form any attempt to destabilize the country will result in what he called an earthquake that will reverberate not just in the region but will have a global implications he also stressed that syria is most definitely not libya it's a different situation altogether and he did voice out what he and his government think is a real cause of the conflict in his country. today we have hundreds of soldiers

police and security forces among the dead how were they killed during peaceful demonstrations or because some slogans being shown you don't know they were shot and this means we're dealing with people we don't know whether the weapons reach syria from israel or in you know the state that possesses such weapons but there is evidence of mines and grenades that were put in place is packed with civilians this led to casualties in a number of cases the information obtained during the interrogation of terrorists shows the smuggling to syria from neighboring states become pain was funded from abroad and we have a list of those who are responsible for this the government has tried to put forth some reforms and the president had said that they're planning parliamentary elections in february there are opposition voices such as the national coronation council which shot tries to bring together the different voices in syria they're saying that while they're very critical of the reforms they put forth by the government saying it's not enough they're also wary of calling or what i do or

saying a so-called no fly zone because they do see this could just result in more bloodshed they don't want to see that in their country now the arab league of course has had been actively trying to find a solution as well trying to us speak with syrian officials they put forth a plan to president assad he said that he will be a willing to talk to all of the opposition voices including those formed during the conflict however these are words for now they want to see actual go shushan table and that's not to say that i mean they're the external pressure is increasing that even if there's a lot of hesitation to the. any form of foreign intervention words coming from the western leaders as well as china and russia who as we know had vetoed that u.n. resolution calling for sanctions on syria all of them are calling for a dialogue for real results to see that the violence really stop and that's really the main focus right now of the pressure coming from the outside they just want the violence to stop. there and war correspondent scott taylor says any attempt to intervene in syria using force could have a devastating effect on the entire region it would have potential to reverberate

throughout the entire region which is very unstable right now iraq is not stable americans are due to pull out within two months they're looking to relocating forces into kuwait so they can still maintain some sort of. clout in the area. turkey has launched incursions into northern iraq the kurdish factions minority inside syria as well i mean israel's on the border if you've got all kinds of things there now which would be very difficult to go in there and turn that into a less than volatile situation in other words no one's got any second thoughts about whether nato could force their way in but if you do fight your way in you're going to find are going to be fighting an insurgency for some time to come. back to our top story here in r t the us has declared that it will cancel its funding for the u.n. cultural body unesco after it voted to give full membership to palestine the motion was passed despite repeated warnings from israel and the u.s.

that the move will stall the already struggling relations between the jewish state and palestine more to get more insight on the issue let's now talk to ramsey he's editor of the palestine chronicle dot com thanks so much for being with us here on r.t. before we talk about the political implications sick can you just explain how significant it is being a member of unesco it is for the palestinian people. it is very significant because of your new school is one of the most. will regard and respect to your bodies or organizations that are part of the u.n. and it is so it's very validating for palestinians because it's a cultural. hub for of the international community they are the ones who determine what is. a historical site what is not but this to me is are aiming to include many of the historical sites including the church of nativity eyes heart oh they this

was you could not as historical sites and they've been doing this for a long time but the didn't really have the power the capacity to be because they have been to my eyes as over the head observer status as opposed to a full membership and that has changed today oxer nearly forty years of openness in membership in that organization really it's symbolically very exciting and successful but it actually mean it's isn't it when we bear amount of course the u.s. will scope of the palestinian bid who u.n. membership very shortly. yes and no i mean it is symbolic indeed but the process to recognizing palestine as as an independent member of your disco is the only this similar to the process that i listed these are seeking to garner membership or full membership in the united nations itself this is the same then it will take that new cars have got to consider before that meeting was designed as

a state or not the band of one hundred and seven countries and it started as a state. as opposed to fourteen that did not you could have had a side which includes the u.s. canada. and israel of course it's a very good sign for the palestinian bid regarding their recognition and greater mother organization. and that is a united nations and your newspaper is running the u.s. it very differently they see this move now as something it was going to complicate the peace process it's going to really school the process even more what what do they mean by that what what why should it when many many countries are clearly supporting the palestinian cause well as far as israel and the us are concerned the peace process is it easy to itself i mean it's really about the process of talking what israel is doing what they really wishes to do as far as further clear lines in the west bank and next thing is to sit and so forth and so on the u.s.

wants to be seen at the helm of this so-called classes and so the status quo ante becomes a process the process becomes and indeed itself what the syrians are doing right now they are changing the rules of the game they are taking. their efforts beyond the american history circle and they're saying this in the international community involved here this is changing the rules and the us and israel are finding this extremely accept well even though the us is obliged to cut the funding because of the more they can back the nine hundred ninety s. where does that actually leave a bombs promises of justice and the idea of a two state solution. i think obama's promises of justice were really i mean began being hard from the start and they have never actually i just think any juncture during his presidency this is something we've all read before he even became president when he bowed down before gave back and he basically changed all the promises he made the cairo to the arabs and muslims into the international

community as a whole and basically he provided israel with all that israel has been demanding says the obama hasn't changed course at all he hasn't shown that he's a serious president as far as the peace process and i use that not in euphemism that is straight is like to use the he hasn't cheated drooled any way that he's serious about any of that so you know what i feel like what's happened today in paris is consistent with president obama's legacy so far that many countries will be feeling the impact in this way paramount of course unesco next now eighteen million u.s. dollars in funding that's a fifth of its funding now this is going to affect other countries their social programs their heritage sites jury obviously a period of economic hardship do you think that's really fair. it's not fair at all it's an act of courage up to punishment that's what exactly what it is and the sad thing is that you have many members and the congress is starting to outlaws and

other conservative republican and democratic members who have been pushing for the u.s. to use its iron fist as far as we look to punish me to any organization that either a group of nuns is palestine as the state we're giving membership in and that international body will be doing all this is really any membership at six in any given organisation anyway it's extremely and fat and what is going to suffer not just the palestinians alone but in you know various countries that have been lifted from their basic programs that you just have fun do throughout the years there is but there's one important to my going to do out here and that is president reagan at one point cut funding to do this one pulled out and you know what eunice will survive and it will survive this time as well randi always good to talk to you thanks so much it's good to hear your point of view ramsay brewed editor of public particle dot com joining us live thank you. the russian billionaire owner of

chelsea football club remain a bit of it has been before a london court in connection with a five the whole billion dollar lawsuit being pursued by russian businessman bodies but it's all ski and cell thanks i'll talk to him but it's also he claims his former associate illegally forced him to hand over the money and now he wants it back what he thought about reports on one of the most expensive disputes in history . well this is actually the first time that mr abbott was actually given evidence and spoken in this hearing despite it already going on for four weeks that's just to give you an idea of how long winded this whole process is and today was no different however it was fascinating. to hear him speak and to see this going on because he's a man who's one of the richest in the world with an estimated fortune personal fortune of over ten billion pounds that he very rarely speak to the media if at all and yet today all of that intrigue and mystery suddenly evaporated as he was put on the spot and reduced to being just an ordinary member of the public basically he was visibly nervous he was shy shaking a little bit solemn as words and there's

a lot at stake here he's being sued by mr berezovsky for three point five billion pounds a third of his personal wealth mr berezovsky and him were the co-founders of the oil company sit next to mr berezovsky alleges that he was blackmailed into selling his shares in that company for a fraction of their true value now in this cross-examination today that's just started because lawyers were focusing on details to really discredit mr adam overage think we've heard allegations that he was involved in the arms business also allegations that he lied about his education so these details might not be key to the actual case it's an attempt by the result of his lawyers to discredit mr abramovich both of them concealed behind this curtain of money and and mystery and this hearing is really been the peek behind that both men turn up to call to very shiny cars mr bures or skewer mr b. is the bodyguards call and turning up in my back a mr every move which in in the sadie's they're all both flanked by bodyguards

translators lawyers he's got a team of about fifteen now mr berezovsky he's playing with based on their close relationship form a close relationship them on speaking terms now he says they were very close friends he was his mentor and they were they were business partners yet today. released a statement denying that part of the problem. without actually establishing what exactly the deals were between these men is because none of it was actually written down and this is a fact that doesn't seem to surprise or shock these men they take it as fact obviously and they say well that's just the way it was because this was after all ninety's russia i've been reporting there the new york trial of victim boot the russian businessman accused of international arms trafficking and supplying weapons to terrorists is close to a conclusion he was arrested in thailand in two thousand and eight after a sting operation by the u.s. and flown to new york to face trial our correspondent is following developments in new york. he was arrested in

a sting operation conducted by the united states drug enforcement agency where special agents were posing as members of this group trying to lure him into a business deal with them so that they could promptly arrest him now the prosecution says that should face from twenty five years to a life sentence behind bars whereas his lawyers say that the only thing it was doing was trying to sell two old cargo planes to these people and according to groups lawyer was perfectly aware that he was not exactly dealing with members of the fourth group and we're expected to hear the verdict this is something that could potentially make a great picture booch we have to remember that earlier in september in a similar case or another russian businessman was sentenced to twenty years behind bars basically the hunt for victor boot has been going on for roughly a decade before his arrest in thailand in two thousand and eight we know that u.s.

agents have spent tens of millions of dollars in attempts to build this operation to rescue your boot while he was peacefully living in moscow actually and then catching him in thailand and bringing him over to the united states and what really seems like a hollywood movie they snatched him away in the middle of the night from thailand where technically his legal documents still remain we have to remember that courts found not guilty twice but still he was taken to the united states where he has been facing a trial for the last three weeks and the controversy started really a long time ago because this man was dubbed the merchant of death in the united states way before he was even taken here with even a hollywood film made about this man and the judge was even forced to make the jury sign a pledge that they would not look this man up on the internet because unfortunately for boots in the court of public opinion in the united states he's most likely already lost this case. just turn eighteen minutes past the hour here in the

russian capital let's check some other international news in brief this hour a suicide bombing in the southern afghan city of kandahar is claimed at least four lives truck laden with explosives was detonated near a u.n. aid agency checkpoint several people were wounded in the blast and gun fight between insurgents and the afghan security forces the taliban's claimed responsibility. nato is officially wrapped up its mission over libya marking the end of its military intervention responsibility for national security will be handed to the country's interim government now faces a difficult task of collecting countless weapons and firearms from civilians weapons used became widespread eight months of civil war that ended with the violent death of libya's former leader moammar gadhafi. in yemen huge blast have rocked an airbase outside the capital sanaa prompting authorities to shut the city's international airport officials say that explosive devices were planted inside twelve fighter jets not yet clear how insurgents managed to get access to the heavily guarded area human capital has seen months of anti-government rallies with the testers demanding an end to decades of presidents. the occupy wall street

movement shows no signs of slowing in the u.s. is enters its seventh week scores of activists have been arrested across america for refusing to pack up their camps and russia has voiced concerns over the crackdown on the treatment of protesters by u.s. authorities. portraits of the way the occupy wall street protest is handled is an illustration of double standards quite a number of our counterparts from western countries are pursuing we will never put up with a situation when our western partners who have the right to ask us questions refused to discuss their own problems of which there are plenty so which keeps growing. the statement comes in response to growing criticism from some western countries as russia moves towards its presidential election it forces us of trying to enforce various curtains of the camp to prevent demonstrations from escalating. and seventy protest is calling for political and economic changes have been arrested in the

state of texas oregon california police in denver used pepper spray to disperse the crowds but the protest is a saying they are ready to withstand the pressure stephen toben of the free and equal elections foundation in the us told me that the demonstration should be targeting the government. well those anti-union protests there's anti-corporate just protests i feel and what we really need to have is anti politicians protests here in the united states again whether it's was a tree in the you know union corporatist the real problem is these people in our office once we address that issue and we kick them all out of artists and then we will the people will see you know more of the origins of the constitution which i feel as what taxpayers left and right across the political spectrum really why why i think this protest is the beginning of a bigger movement i don't know or foresee occupy wall street being that bigger movement some argue that it's temporarily a distraction but then others argue that it's the party was a g.o.p.

group when it's back to really just a lot of grassroots people and it was taken over by other entities could be sort of the same for our occupy wall street but i do see that some of the positive people that want to truly make a difference latching on to something pure and that is something again and movement for lack toral reform here in the united states and in other to cross the world. but to bring you up to date for the moment i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in less than ten minutes from now in the meantime as u.s. troops prepare to withdraw from iraq in december they leave behind a campaign that's cost the american taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and next we talk to a middle east expert who says the u.s. is wasting time and money trying to build democracy in the region that's our interview coming up shortly stay with us here on r.t. .

you lose a lot of it with. we're sitting down with peter van buren a state department foreign service officer who a few years ago had it anyway rocky reconstruction team then he came back home and wrote a book titled we meant well how i helped lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the iraqi people and now he says the state department one thing fired because of the book what what's in the book that they don't like so much stuff i'm sure when you throw pies the clowns they sometimes get angry the state department is a lot like the mafia you don't talk about the family outside the family and the

state department was i think bothered by the fact that i told the true story of what happened in iraq which contradicts what they've been putting out through the media for almost eight years now tell me a little bit more about the projects that you were involved in as part of this nation building team that in the sponsored by the united states why do you think those projects failed around two thousand and seven a number of state department people were sent to iraq to spend a lot of money to rebuild the country and hopefully create a nation that was going to be our ally and friend and a happy spot in the middle east didn't work out that way. instead what happened was that we were sent over there with almost unlimited funds but no vision we had lots of time and lots of people but no one in charge we lacked many things including adult supervision so instead of the long term cool word unaided efforts that real development work requires we got short term efforts that were thrown together not

guided by any broader philosophy and almost were required to fail the very first thing that happened to me was i was presented by my team mates with a fraudulent receipt to sign they had over spent three thousand dollars on snacks for a conference and wanted me to sign off on a priest a receipt for printing to make it all right they then tried to talk me into spending twenty five thousand dollars to buy a few sheep to give away to a few widows and that was are going to be our contribution to democracy in the war effort the more i love of god it was as close to we were going to buy some sheep from a guy who was going to give them to his relatives who were going to raise them and put the rest in his pocket you could buy a toyota for what we were going to pay for sheep in iraq. the problem was that these were not isolated incidents what i thought might have been just a really bad first day at work turned out to be evocative of the entire year of our

people so there was like a systematic squandering of resources there absolutely the squandering of resources occurred a very small levels of thousand dollars a couple thousand dollars here and there and soon all the way up into hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent on hospitals that never opened or prisons that never took any prisoners in the united states lacked a plan constantly being forced into short term solutions to europe constantly being asked to produce publicity stills and have something ready by next thursday for the photographers to show up c.n.n. is coming over the weekend better get something ready none of these things were part of the long term the slowed work of development that really is necessary if you're serious about rebuilding a country i want to read something to him really serious some use irate the government watchdogs have raised the alarm about billions of dollars of warzone waste and fraud are falling silent or are missing in action this. item is actually

about the commission on wartime contracting and that charter that they were working under it has expired and has not been rainy and i'm just going to tell our viewers that this commission on wartime contracting claimed waste and fraud may have siphoned off up to sixty billion dollars from contracts in iraq and afghanistan now this watchdog could be out of business are you surprised who might be interested in it i'm actually ashamed that the commission on wartime contracting is going out of business and there's actually more to it than even the story that you just shared with your viewers first of all the state department has attempted to exempt itself from the scrutiny of the committee that you refer to the state department has claimed that it was not part of wartime contracting that it was involved in diplomacy. and therefore not controlled by that organization and they didn't want them to peek into what the state department was doing even worse the committee as it's dissolved has sealed all of its records and no one will be allowed to see any

of the results of its work except what's already been published until two thousand and thirty one so the things that the committee on wartime contracting uncovered the incredible amounts of waste fraud and mismanagement that they documented in the limited public documents that they do produce all of that is being swept away i don't know how old i'm going to be in two thousand and thirty one i'm going to be a lot older than i am now but it's shameful shameful that we will not be able to see that information why aren't they are allowed to publish that before the eat official version is that there may be classified information in some of their reports that needs to remain undercover for that long i think most intelligent people realize that the reporting from the committee is so horrific it needs to be put away to avoid embarrassing the government even further thank you very much for this and if you thank you very much. for the.

mission. critical three years for charges. arrangement free. free. free. and free broadcast for your media projects and free media the hard time.

within twenty four hours a day live here in. a new story an historic day for palestine which is achieved its

first full membership to a u.n. agency but recognition comes at a price with unesco losing nearly a quarter of its funding which the u.s. cut in response. back syria's president claims a protest campaign against his regime is being funded from abroad and warns the west not to get involved and the head of nato has ruled out imposing a no fly zone over syria which some demonstrations in the country have been calling for. and clash of the russian tycoons two of the world's wealthiest men. take them. out and spend no money on the fight. in the five billion dollars. bag. that's it for me today my colleague sean thomas will be here less and the news continues in the meantime october thirty first signals a landmark in history after the global population officially reached its.