and we look at how russia helps feed ages hungry economies by heading to one of the countries on east export gateways. thing around the world and around the clock this is our carriage. well since the last american troops left iraq the country is learning to manage its own affairs the consequences are proving fatal for some a decade of conflict was meant to herald a move to democracy but journalists there say intimidation and brutality against them is rife sebastian mine now reports. this spring iraqis inspired by neighboring arab countries began protesting against their government in a square in baghdad one which shares its name with a better known counterpart entire time. but iraqi journalists trying to cover

these protests all but silenced by the government security forces in today's iraqi journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten or just simply killed it seems to be a high level of intolerance or dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or particular leaders use it felt to me a freelance journalist showed r.t. some shocking youtube footage from the protests this february that explicitly show iraqi security forces targeting him because he's a journalist. he shouts which is arabic for journalist over and over again but it makes the police more violent three or four maybe five right police were around me one of them slap me in the head other one kicked me in the and they kind of they know grabbed me fasts uses managed to escape arrest thanks to two foreign journalists who intervened but since the arrest of one of his

colleagues he stopped covering protests altogether became hard for journalists for example to go to tahrir square i myself i don't go there i stopped there a long time ago not because. i'm not that scared to be arrested. you know i'm worried to be mistreated we tried to speak to journalists who've been arrested in baghdad but everyone was too afraid to appear on camera so we came up here to the more peaceful kurdish region to see if the situation was any different here i met a young photographer who was arrested while covering similar protests in the kurdish region but after the interview he called to tell me he was scared of reprisals from the government and asked to blur his face and change his name after his arrest in april when i was in prison for four days and tortured. six men came to the room and started to shout at me to be with cables and then they gave me electric shocks they wanted me to admit that i hadn't been at the protest. when he

was finally released after four days a friend took pictures of his wounds and published them in a local magazine immediately ahmed was rearrested as a punishment for publicizing his initial arrest. came and they held me for three days and made me sign a document declaring that i would not talk to the press again back in baghdad the government spokesman admitted to r.t. that individuals in the iraqi government were indeed using their powers to silence the press not just that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against that and i think and you can see that there are people in the minister of interior for example they have misusing their power against the citizen and there is this year and that is they keep accountable and some of them has been fired almost nine years after the invasion u.s. troops are home but what of the country they're leaving behind with politicians using the security forces to silence journalists it appears that iraq lacks any

credible press freedom a freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer r t iraq. well websites were asking what do you think will happen to iraq now that u.s. forces have left so far the sound the bulk of opinion is that the country slipping into details almost a quarter of a tos think things count and worse the same number think iraq is willing to throw the us backed government to turn in their own future less than ten percent said iraq is a valid into a western style democracy along onto r.t. dot com and that of your points. a suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition attack apparently targeted police bus most of the terminal trees are said to have been civilians becomes as are of league monitors who are assessing violence in the country due to give their first report this weekend and to government protesters rallied after the last round of the syrian government for the

violence group international intervention jordan based political analyst. says the problem is a sign that an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful but there were many incidents of. perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course there were denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts are a clear indication that there are armed gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt their life in syria they're not aiming the aggression only against their regime but against the whole syrian people against the whole syrian obviously what we where we are witnessing in syria is that their revolution but actually it

is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only that syria would be able to change the whole area has nothing to do with democracy. freedom and that there are certain forces international forces local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the geopolitical reasons. respective all the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area. also ahead this hour the man who brings hollywood to moscow the american vineyards dollars and studios to russia as today's pathfinder explains how he's succeeding in developing needed magic. to fix the economy what should they be doing. should be pumping more money. pumping more money even pumping billions and billions into really good . residents in new york to ask people there would go about fixing the struggling

global economy. all of those christians worldwide are celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar where believe us celebrate the birth of christ thirteen days after western worship it also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people follow the eastern tradition in one of the oldest christian countries georgian worshipers began the day with midnight mass. carried branches to be response of that christmas ritual the funds are believed to warm the community with love and remove religious intolerance. piece on a thoughtless at midnight mass at the christ the savior cathedral in moscow. christians celebrating christmas and here in russia was ushered in with a traditional service here at the christ the say because in the center of the russian capital now that service presided over by the patriarch of moscow and all

russia kirill it's all of the russian orthodox church attended by well the great new good the dignitaries. russian society president jimmy t. made to get it in there as well as other senior figures attending missed church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior you can see more of them in fact actually taking places around the outskirts of the cathedral to try and get a view of the church hopefully to hear something what was going on inside and close to hear the bells that had been a ringing out to celebrate the birth of jesus christ now. question it always comes up is why is christmas being celebrated in january now this is due to the fact that the russian orthodox church as well as some other branches of all the docs christianity use the julian calendar as opposed to the gregorian calendar used by western christianity which means that in russia as well as of some other

countries christmas falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old calendar and something that has become a real tradition here in russia since its opening in one thousand nine hundred seven the traditional christmas vigil. christ the savior. people over there on the festive feeling continues online as i bring you more on the orthodox christmas celebrations here in russia but all to you don't come and see the full of christmas address head on the russian church. also stranded in space an amateur astronomer manages to film footage of the russian martian probe that's stuck in orbit and which will soon four back to earth.

more now on the foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia today's pathfinder is a bob van runkle who used to be a restaurateur in los angeles until deciding one day to leave it all behind he's now hollywood's man in russia and has already brought scores of actors and bands to the country. i basically ended up moving to russia all by accident in one thousand and ninety eight i was asked by a russian friend in los angeles if i could bring a hollywood studio to moscow because mayor luzhkov was interested in building multiplex cinemas and wanted a hollywood studio partner i had friends that were running warner brothers they sent head of international theatres with me gosh my my first trip was very impressionable i couldn't understand how so many young people i was meeting were

making tens of millions of dollars a year and some of them billionaires before they were thirty and these were some of the things that made me realize there's a lot of opportunity here there's not a lot of people who are doing hollywood business there hasn't been a lot of contact and interaction with celebrities i love a challenge what could be more challenging than moving to russia and trying to develop and create a business here ross with a real i didn't know any actors but i started meeting them just to bring them to russia or can that project the russian comedy that's going to shoot in america steven seagal zola he told me they'll do a couple days for two hundred fifty thousand dollars bail kilmer's interested in helping out. then the wealthy russians started asking for other people and i just started calling everybody i knew in l.a. who knew a producer a new a director and i called them from russia after eight years i brought over eighty

actors and bands to russia for i think it's very important for you to go to los angeles with me in the next few months and we should meet with you hopefully make your releasing a different actors you would like to do cameos in this film the biggest challenge to overcome is gaining people's trust and performing one example is recently i was asked to bring john claude van damme to chechnya for the president's birthday and day of the city in. yeah live music of the other one i told you only in my heart. it's a place most people are very afraid to go to of course john clyde you know his expenses need to be paid and others for him to go there and it's very frightening dealing and working with chechnyan friends knowing that if something went wrong john clyde didn't come and money is paid. who are people going to come calling and looking for asking for the money back and it took

a long time for me to win people's confidence that they would send money to an actor or a band in advance russia it costs more than a lot of other parts of the world because russians have been willing to pay more you know if russians weren't willing to pay more celebrities would be coming for less but when they have people making such big offers just to get them how can you refuse so russia's been great to help push up their prices jennifer lopez gets two million dollars to go and perform you know in russia and kazakhstan and some other places if you're american in the u.s. we understand our system how to set up a business where we can easily research any product or any idea we have to find out if it's been saturated or not in russia it's really difficult because it's so hard to get to the important people that make the decisions when i have to work with a person who works for someone here i get nowhere i can't do

a deal because they need to see so much because their jobs on the line their names on the line they're so afraid that just drags on and drags on whatever i'm talking to them about when you can pick up the phone and call the head of the company or someone on the board of directors i know in a week if i can do this deal or not with them rush is just much more individual life you really need to know some important people here to have success and you know i was thinking your from your which is a part of the reason i never learned russian is i just thought ok one year from now i'm sure something will come up back in the l.a. in the u.s. i'll go back i'll start doing movies back but it's just so exciting here every day and so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and that i haven't been able to leave. the. sixty's. well from making money to losing it now as we ask whether it's time to let

the public take over tackling the world's debts troubles nazis or half of the estimates people in new york to get their tips from the politicians in charge. today everyone's upset with how the world leaders are handling the economy so how would you fix that this week let's talk about that whole country do you think is doing a good job. let me say. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. injuries were out. i don't know yet because i know i say no no no maybe that's why it's going all around a good word to fix is each of our problems personally so for all out there working hard and spending money to local communities then that's you know a way of part of building up each local community eventually the whole country gets

stronger right yeah isn't it time maybe for the government to stop trying to fix it and let people and companies fix their own wallets i think that's a good answer yes to fix the economy what should they be doing. should be pumping more money into it pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions and trillions and done a good so why is that the solution that we keep going back to the only thing we can do so they can also see just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves. people can sort of themselves not a matter of not throwing money into the economy it's a matter of living within means if you don't have enough revenue then you have to cut spending yes so governments are trillions of dollars in debt so it sounds like they have no money right well they have to they obviously you can't stop everything all at once but you do have to you do have to pull back and you have to come up with a reasonable plan to stop the hemorrhaging we don't just keep printing money and that we don't keep inflating government so that's and most of the european

countries are having trouble because the government is sixty percent larger than it should be so why why do you and i see business and government leaders. can't because we don't get paid by the people that are behind the scenes and since i'm not ready for a campaign ad campaign contributions by people that he might help to american politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change the economy from an oil economy to something else we've got heaps of people with lots of brains and we need to be doing something about the environment. people with brains are in positions of power. and so it seems like with the system that's currently in place for how world leaders get elected it might be time for solutions to come from someplace else. as the taliban prepares to open up

a political office in qatar the us has indicated it's ready to back initiative it's seen as a crucial step towards peace talks between the ten minutes long time and me the taliban also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from going to obey. a contributor on the afghani who shall believes the moves could signal a major american defeat a decade long conflict. uncle sam has just recently authorizes the opening up the official office for the taliban in doha qatar for. the opening of the taliban office doesn't bode well because he effectively has been cut from this wheeling and dealing between americans and taliban on the other side for americans it looks like a real elopes a deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to keep cut as a government out of the loop and as for taliban themselves they look like one and only

winners in these shadowy negotiation game and when the taliban open out their office in doha they might as well door in it with the two nameplates with the calls from the counterinsurgency doctrine the first if we are not winning we are losing and dress for the us armed forces and second if we are not losing we are winning for the taliban themselves. well look at some of the main news from around the world now and first to a tragedy in new zealand where a hot air balloon burst into flames after hitting power lines killing all eleven people on board two of those who died had jumped out of the basket in desperation before the group promised to the ground is new zealand's deadliest disaster in most fifty years. mass crowds have gathered again and is capitalist suspicions grow that person signed with an any legal his agreement to quit the protest is also

one of the release of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began here a good position to be this sunday will use the country's unrest to stay in power despite signing a regionally backed deal to hand control to his vice president in exchange for the immunity. but outspoken human rights activist in bahrain has been hospitalized after his lawyer said was a brutal police beating at an anti-government protest. was eventually hit on the head and face with sticks and kicked by officers the government there says police found him injured participating in an unauthorized much range shiite majority began campaigning for more rights from sitting on the key ready to go. by the time to bring more of russia close up as we continue to explore the countries far east.

they have basque region lies on the chinese border that is russia's main gateway to the pacific it's also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated and fuel hungry asian economies but as artie's told battle discovered keeping industry alive there doesn't have to be expensive tradition the bar or street in russia's far east is becoming a growing center for export to the hungry economies in the south china south korea and japan increasing material exports of warden coal are going out to the pacific and south and it's that that we're looking at in my report this monster called the coal stacker is the new face of russia's far east coast it can load over four thousand tons of coal an hour into ships at this rapidly expanding sea terminal this year they exported ten million tons of stuff almost exclusively south asian

markets but we've noticed there's a cool boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so these ports covers almost all of asia from the come comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in them and he joins the oil into flowing out of the region in ever greater quantities tugboats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers once on their way helped along by a much older technology oh down this coast vast new ship internals are springing up to suppliers these markets the old see very foundations presented by this like caps which mom with four. makes a russia's gateway to the pacific hundreds of lighthouses dot the coast all the way from the border with north korea up to the arctic. victor has been manning

his lighthouse for over thirty years but he's glad he's not too far out into the wilderness. we're close enough to the nearest town look at how the lighthouse keepers are stuck out in the tiger without even roads sometimes a ship or helicopter to deliver supplies there's no other way to come and go big has not had a ship run aground since the early one nine hundred ninety s. you see bears moose and tigers visit his lighthouse and ses he never grows bored of the ever changing seascape far from feeling lonely he talks of the remand to system being such a secluded spot on the coastline. i used to go down to the bay if it were i am catching crabs and not a fire then my wife and kids go join me and we would have breakfast on the shore and watch the sunrise roca split in the summer this whole feel that we've grown it always and jim blew his pick to retires next year we say he's come to love the sport like robinson crusoe and so on and while he can remember the pristine beauty

of his coastline others are seeing it sail on into the future with his talk a little bit more about the boston the experience of moving here from abroad is the main a holiday that came here from britain and ask itself is trying to drain itself trying to is moving somewhere out of the soviet times and into the modern modern age with industry that also working on a new cosmodrome what do you know about the new developments here i know that is very very important to the local area and you know that it's improving transport links all the time people are finally investing in the far east which is obviously going to be very good for the economy i mean i'm here because my fiance is working for an oil refinery and you know so more investment there and. cousin jane is going to i think only improve putin said it was one of the biggest and most important projects that's happening in russia at the moment so yes i think it's up and coming this this region someone who's come from a different culture from the outside what would you say to the people who are

thinking. there is possibly business with changes but should i come here what would you say to them. i mean it's worth a try how did during your russian look at this important and very few restaurants or cafes where they have an english menu and and things like that i think when i don't speak russian people find it frustrating rather than think so i bear that in mind prices ok so if prices are extortionate. go. of intervention well there we go that's an insight from someone who has made the leap out to the far east so bar ask it's not going to get any warmer here but it seems that with future with the development of the region it is going to get more connected to the outside world. well a few minutes the actor director screenwriter and photographer vincent perez explains how he juggles his multi-talented crypt before that's a quick look at the headlines to go.

i had a family i lived in a fairly nice community wasn't which was an upscale it was just like you know archie bunker's society ok then they started showing up what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of us factual truth is

there will be rows in the eaglets love legally we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills and we have to do it and that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the last i figure it's here's one of the major trails into the united states and. i watch and they run run down my property and something about this noise. was a little mean that got mortgages from coming to the wire is protecting the country i'm the kind of guy who doesn't mindedness pants dirty so i come out here you know we're all immigrants as well that we all here some somewhere else.

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recap of our top stories for you with american troops now out of iraq concerns are mounting over what's being left behind is proving deadly for journalists who are being silenced and important point police are speaking out against the government. the suicide last targeting a police force that killed twenty four people in serious trouble with western tensions between the opposition and government leaders blame the attack on terrorists protesters finding it increasingly hard to play there just peaceful demonstrators.