sources started eight months ago that death could toll continues to rise artie's tests are sillier reports from damascus. the protests government crackdowns and violence have continued to play parts of syria the capital damascus is still largely sheltered from but beneath the column many will remind you that in syria walls most certainly have ears the more but at the country's intelligence service has political clout in syria that's hardly state secret and says the unrest began in march protestors have accused them of violent interrogations for before i was chased and arrested by security forces in a very tiny cell be beat me severely damaging my back and be electrocuted and be accused of sort of receiving money for taking to the streets they said were agents of america and israel after forty eight hours of detention and torture it took all my money and belongings and threw me out into the street. city and corey is a lawyer who deals with detention cases she says the influence of the security

police extends even into the courtroom. we have three authorities in the country the legal authority of the legislative and executive but it is the security police who make the real decisions the court judge for their decision and i feel sorry for the judge because he is not independent. and good he believes this constant state of fear is thanks to decades of living under the emergency law in place since one thousand nine hundred sixty three in two thousand and eleven assad repealed it to appease the regime protestors this man whose work for the more but out for twenty seven years sustained gunshot wounds in what he says was an ambush by a group of terrorists we asked him about people's fear of the mob but not accusations that they are behind the violence detentions and torture. this is the wrong idea we are protecting our people but the terrorists shoot civilians who shoot us and then accuse security forces of doing such things accusations that we. are also wrong if this person has political activity without any intention of

harming the country and he is free to do this and no one will chase him. but if he has links with terrorists and works against the country naturally he will be to justice we posed the same questions to the deputy foreign minister you know it depends on the people who talk to if you ask me. to do a different view i have never ever been by the security or anybody for something which i am to those who fear. people who. illegal activities or carry arms or put themselves in suspicious ways all this right here is a very open and colorful slice of syria when it comes to talking about security services like anywhere by entry but here their presence is so widely felt that it's not possible to determine just what local feel is normal and what isn't. and when twenty percent of the population is rumored to be in the intelligence service it's no wonder many prefer to keep their voices down in the light of day but within

a crowd that fear is temporarily forgot. yes i'll take to the streets again and again i'll raise my voice and i'll fear nothing and no one will one freedom of expression but we get nothing only bashar al assad is security and enjoy that as for us we are nothing why is there i. r t. earlier we discussed the situation in syria with a beirut based political analyst was me who echoes assad's opinion that the country is under arrest as part of a foreign plot to topple the syrian government. i think it's a conspiracy by a regional power that they wanted to change the regime of bashar al assad they wanted a different regime different government was different had and that's why there you can see that regional power hasn't been friendly to the situation it's taking the

place inside syria actually some of these country has been funneling weapons and money uncertain i jealous easy to topple the regime of president assad the president of syria acknowledged there is opposition in that country and he extended his hand too but it comes within the his country for those people who are asking for change and that's why today they have a constitutional reform but there is an external power or what they say in opposition and exile those are backed by the western powers some persian gulf country. and staying with the topic historian and author and william engdahl thinks the west's interference in the uprisings in the middle east and north africa has left post revolution countries in tatters you can watch his full interview in less than half an hour here's a preview. me as a forward shape libya had the highest living standard in all of africa before the

bombing of nato the day the country is in ruins because of those bombings not because of could offer. the economy of egypt is in dire straits the military remains in control they were in the military high command of egypt was sitting in the pentagon when the polls kicked off and waited for a signal from the pentagon when to return and take control of those events i. palestine has for the first time gotten recognition by a un body its cultural arm has accepted it as a full fledged member but the decision came at a price for unesco with the us cutting its funding to the organization which represents almost a quarter of its budget artie's guide agency qian has more from washington. 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 nineteen 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 it's sour point for the israelis and for the united states it seems they've been doing everything possible to do rail to 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. we would like to know your take on our top stories today we're asking you online what the admission of palestine to you no school actually means there's more than forty per cent of respondents don't think the move really signals any change for the palestinians or third think it clears the way for the country's statehood the rest about evenly divided between whether unesco will have difficulties putting its bills or that the admission of palestine would sweeten the pill of a future possible rejection by the u.n. put on your say and cast your vote at r g dot com. and staying with this topic or i was hebrew to editor of palestine chronicle dot com thinks washington's move is unfair but says you know sco will continue. it's an act of courage to punish that's

what's exactly what it is and the sad thing is that you have many members and the congress is starting to rosin other conservative republicans and to try to. push for the u.s. to use its iron fist on a script to punish to any organization that. you could not exist at this time as a state of membership in that international body or be do not strictly a membership it's six of any given organisation anyway it's six. and i was just going to suffer not just the palestinians you know but in you know various countries because it's from the basic programs that you just can't find it throughout the years but this is what you force it to my going to out of here and this person intrigues one point cut funding to this one pulled out and you know what eunice will survive and it will survive this time this well stay with us here on r.t. still to come tough tactics accusations of us police brutality against anti-war

protesters now we talk with witnesses of the crackdown plus. as likely to be a new round of volatile trading around the world as insurgency comes rushing but that's not to greece's prime minister george papandreou but the country will hold a referendum on the last minute bail until to try to contain the books debt mountain more in business in ten minutes. but first china has successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft into orbit that's a key milestone in the country's drive to build an operational space station by two thousand and twenty over the next two days shen's who vessel is expected to rendezvous and dock with the prototype station module for more on this now i'm joined by michael roscoe defense expert at national university of singapore thanks for joining us so just how important is this launch in china's push towards and its own manned space station. well the ultimate goal for the chinese

human spaceflight program is the thousand year long time human space presence in space by twenty twenty as you mentioned so the shinzo eight will be not an important step to achieve this goal basically shinzo abe will attend the it will be the first time the shinzo a chinese will attend the. rendezvous and docking with the on going one which has a launch in september twenty ninth and basically it's another important step for the chinese to achieve its goal to having a long term presence in space how would you assess china's progress in developing in the country space program and how far is it behind compared to the achievements racked up by russia in the u.s. . well china has come a long way in terms of space technology but i still think. the country has a still a long way to go basically chinese space technologies do not represent a major technology called breakthrough if you compare it with the russian and american space technologies for example the wonder space more joy it could be

compared to the earlier russian space modules of the so you program one nine hundred seventy s. and the space station that the chinese actually envisioned by twenty twenty could be compared to what the mir was in the mid one nine hundred eighty s. that said however you can argue that the chinese are progressively moving toward technology called capabilities. comparable to both the american and russian space programs so it will be put in a perspective that shinzo eight basically the first time for the chinese to achieve docking procedure and for the last decade or so china has. consequently consequently. a major milestone starting for two thousand and three human spaceflight program two thousand and five launching to tie canals in two thousand and eight with street tycoons and first

space walk so the chinese are progressively improving and progressively precisely gradually moving up to american national seats capabilities how do you see washington reacting to china's progress on this front. well basically what washington is is concerned about that the chinese space program doesn't clearly delineate or distinguish between its commercial military and civilian aspects what is interesting to see that the chinese space program is basically controlled by the people's liberation army the general armaments department the p.l. a has basically operational control over both manned and unmanned chinese space flights so i would argue that the u.s. policy makers are clearly concerned about the dual use of chinese space to space program and so what do you see as the future going forward you do you see a new space serious emerging with china versus the u.s. versus russia versus the e.u.

or do you see eventual cooperation between all the programs what do you think. i think the debate is a little bit exaggerated between space you know talking about space race i don't think it's a zero sum game i think they're both opportunities as well as challenges so for example on the chinese the latest mission even tiangong china's activity cooperated with both brazil and france brazil and france for example provide they did tell me tree tracking and control facilities to track the spacecraft even on the shinzo admission the chinese are cooperating with the germans that i think they will be conducting scientific enjoins and to figure experiments to get it so china is pretty much open to technology called cooperation in the cooperation of space flight activities that said however there are also challenges particularly as. chinese this mention is china's space program has a dual civil and military use so you remember in two thousand and seven china conducted its first anti satellite weapons test which basically a warrant lot of

a lot of defense analysts and policymakers in the west so they're both opportunities and challenges going down the down the road and china still has a long way to go but it is what you know so you know the aid is important step but it's not a major milestone so that pending on how successful the mission will be china still has a long way to go all right thanks very much for your perspective michael rask a defense expert from national university i'm sick of. this hollowing the f.b.i. decided to share some of their own ghost stories a code name given to the operation that saw ten russian agents uncovered in the u.s. last year the agency released surveillance video including those featuring fen fatality chapman artie's peter all over has more from moscow. perhaps spookiest overall is that this footage doesn't contain any actual spooks there was no charges of espionage leveled against the ten people who were arrested in the united states in

june of last year instead they pled guilty to conspiracy to act as an agent of the foreign governments now the case these videos that have been released coping ghost stories cost released on halloween something which did raise a few eyebrows however the f.b.i. . this is just purely coincidental now the footage shows members of this alleged spy ring. doing such things as shopping in macy's and using laptops in popular branches of book stores the f.b.i. saying that operation story sends a clear message to any foreign spice wanting to operate in the united states other critics have suggested this the release of these documents is something of the publicity stunt. for more on the story as well as all the news we're covering you can always check out our team dot com here's what's a click away right now. and do you hate ironing well who doesn't and why not

spray on your clothes a spanish designer showcasing dresses made of non woven fabric for those who really want their outfits to literally feel like a second skin. but first some people even the second skin is too much one naked taxi driver went on a rampage damaging dozens of cars in moscow claiming he did it all in the name of love. the ever growing occupy wall street movement in the us drawing more jobless and dissatisfied college kids into its ranks the record cost of national student loans and high unemployment putting an unbearable burden on the backs of many young people lose wall spoke with some of those already majoring in debt. they call it

the american dream because you have to be asleep to believe a student debt is crushing the american dream for millions of students and college graduates it's this thing that eventually you'll have to kind of face but until then you kind of pretend it doesn't exist because if you did then it's it's a bit daunting vast majority of youth are unable to pay these pay for college and this year which hurts for the first time in the u.s. total student debt has surpassed one trillion dollars now more than the nation's credit card debt this as unemployment amongst college graduates is at an all time high president obama recently announced his plan to ease student loan debt we're going to make it easier for you to have one payment. at a better interest rate and this will pass it won't cost taxpayers a dime but it will save you money and it will save your child but his plan won't help millions of americans already drowning in debt and it excludes private loans

which is where many students run into trouble due to their high interest rates move on dot org launched a petition to eliminate student debt which has garnered over six hundred forty seven thousand signatures if you put more money into the hands of people they're going to spend and that will create demand it will create economic growth and it will create jobs robert applebum says bailing out students rather than banks will stimulate the economy by putting more cash in the pockets of the educated middle class they're not starting businesses they're not buying cars they're not buy houses they're not starting families not having children in other developed countries getting a financial education isn't such a financial burden you have free tuition in france denmark and sweden finland they don't pay anything of public universities and when they do pay the price tag isn't as shocking as it is in the u.s. twenty one countries in europe for which we have data. there's only for. or who

have to is more than two hundred dollars compare that to an average of over eight thousand for public and over twenty eight thousand dollars for a private u.s. college as many cost much more the average schools are charging thirty five to forty five thousand dollars a year and we all myself personally i work at two universities and i net about. twenty eight thousand dollars a year and it's not getting any better over the past two decades to wish i had skyrocketed over four hundred percent this year alone the cost of college shot up over eight percent occupy wall street protesters camped out here and across the nation say this is yet another example of rising inequality and shackled to college debt for years and in many cases decades and washington artsy. but it's not only the students who've been standing defiant on the streets as part of the ongoing anti wall street protest movements attracted thousands from all

walks of life demanding economic justice and recently seen a sweeping police crackdown in parts of the u.s. around one hundred protesters are arrested nationwide in the last three days for refusing to leave their house in denver officers in riot gear used pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse crowds eyewitnesses say the police used brutal force and save a little late in evidence to discredit some of the activists. who showed up kind of ready for it you know for the chance one out at all totally armed to the t.v. and ready for war so to speak and they were moved very quickly we do know that one protester though in fact the gentleman whose arm you showed a picture was shot for climbing the tree and those actually we found out afterwards were ever balls they're calling them they're like bowls filled with chemical agents not river i'm seeing a few videos want to arrest you in particular where an officer drove his motorcycle

into the crowd. one was tweeted out by the right wing saying look at this guy pushy a couple of his bike probably did the second most likely now so but you know it's those people when you can clearly tell where the officer is the gentleman you see is probably propelled backwards then seems to injure his right foot but he jumps back onto his left foot and then in frustration he gives the fender a show at which point the officer comes to control stop hops off the bike just him down and ask lots of. our correspondents are on top of developments in the protests since they started in the u.s. back in september all the latest updates from them as well as comments and videos available on our twitter feed lot on the web page find out more about what's going on in the street.

turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a light airplane taking off in the mexican city of tijuana has crashed into a shop near a populated street market the pilot and his seventeen year old daughter were killed in the accident along with another victim on the ground at least eight cars caught on fire at the scene which is in a neighborhood close to the u.s. border authorities are investigating the cause of the. protests have flared in the thai capital over the government's handling of the flood crisis with many of bangkok's rural areas affected residents accuse the government of sacrificing their neighborhoods to save the inner commercial district you know how it is are suffering from food and water shortages as panic is spreading and may be ongoing fight with the flood waters thailand's heavy monsoons

have killed nearly four hundred people since july and severe conditions are expected to continue for some time and coming shortly join us for a walk through the wild nature of russia's remote city of a hot square the iceberg survive through the summer and september sees the first snow fall is coming your way in our special report check it out. discovery. communicate with the wind. and become free. nature can give you. the. business news starts with you stay with us here on r.t. .

hello and a very warm welcome to the program that's likely to be a new round of volatile trading around the world as uncertainty comes rushing back that's off to greece's prime minister george papandreou unexpectedly called to hold a new referendum on the last minute bailout deal to try to contain the blogs that mountain last week e.u. leaders agreed to hand athens a one hundred thirty billion euro bailout and fifty percent write down on its enormous debt and we say a no vote by its treaty where great greeks could leap to the end of the country's membership in the eurozone and trigger a default they're a friend could be held as soon as next gen and would become the country's first in almost forty he is here and a quick check on the markets for the rich oil prices in the red and fresh worries about europe's debt crisis lights which is trading at ninety one dollars a barrel while brand is hoping that one hundred eight dollars per barrel. european

markets have dropped an early trade on tuesday extending their losses as a greek referendum spurred concern that the country may default mining companies a tumbling of lower chinese manufacturing and across asia stocks are decreasing for a second day as china's manufacturing crew at a slower pace the nikkei shot average fell one point seven percent at the close after panasonic's downbeat earnings reports want to stick to firms and still makers were also posting not notable losses. on the russian market extending earlier losses the r.t.s. is down over two percent while in the my six it's more than the mice it's is more than one percent in the red let's have a look at some of the individual share moves on the index most energy majors a down and cheaper crude with counts from losing over one percent banking stocks are no exception with be to be more than two percent in the right and. russia's telecommunications major rules telecom raised early against the company has

approved a buyback program worth half a billion dollars it can equal shares his thoughts investment strategy for the current market. i would generally recommend to or to wait for a certain correction however i would suggest follow a strategy of whining to weakness it's good for both packages from probably euro bonds which rollie no less than backward a market for speak about a russian market wish a single b. i did just see holding company a which which is quite strong about the whole market or rumors that is going to be included to russia index that's all we have time for now we'll bring you the full update in about one last time for you.

we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from a realm for sure. we've got the future covered.

the. man in russia would be so much brighter if you knew about some move from phones to crash and some. stunts on t.v. don't come.

twelve thirty pm in moscow the zero two you have lines the arab league making a last ditch effort to end bloodshed in syria demanding president assad talk to the opposition and withdraws tanks from the streets violent clashes between anti regime protesters and security forces have claimed some three thousand lives since the arrest started in march. washington stops its funding of unesco hours after the u.n. cultural arm grants palestinians full membership by majority vote the move seen by many as a sign of growing international support for palestine is pending when statehood. and hollowing sharif mainstream media resurrecting the russian spy ring case could mean ghost stories as the f.b.i. releasing footage featuring sleeper agents uncovered in the us last year including ten fatalities and chapman. and turning to syria now at the epicenter of the arab spring and speaking with author and historian if william who or.