in today's iraqi journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten just simply killed it seems to be a high level of intolerance for dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or of particular leaders use it all to me a freelance journalist should 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 slapped me in the had other one kicked me in the butt and they grabbed me fast yousif 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 i myself i don't go there i stopped there 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 it was imprisoned for four days and tortured. six men came to the room and started to shout at me and beat me with cables 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 noticed that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against it and i think and you could 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 the comfortable 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 or freedom that is essential to any democratic country

sebastian meyer r t iraq well on our website we're asking what do you think will happen to. now that u.s. forces have left for this child the bulk of repeating is that the country is slipping into chaos almost a quarter of it is think things can't get any worse for the same number thank you all this winter turning us back to determine their own picture and less than ten percent believe iraq will develop into a western style democracy want to go home and add your voice. a suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition the attack apparently targeted a police bus most of the penalties are said to have been civilians becomes as our big monitors who are assessing violence in the country are due to give their first report this weekend and government protesters rallied after the blast on the syrian government for the ballance and calling for international intervention but jordan

based political analyst says the bombing is a sign an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful there were many incidents of. perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians 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 gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they are not aiming the aggression only against their regime but against the whole syrian people. syrian obviously what we are witnessing in syria is not their revolution but actually it is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the syrian regime change the whole area

it has nothing to do with democracy and 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. respected the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area. has been in the program the man who brings hollywood to moscow to give american bringing stars and studios to russia today's pathfinder explains how he's succeeding in developing moscow's logic. the big economy which people doing. should be pumping more money to pumping more money even pumping millions and billions in trillions and on the good western cities in new york to ask people that would go about fixing the struggling global economy. orthodox christians

worldwide are celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar where but he was celebrate the birth of. christ thirteen days off the west and russia has also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people for the eastern tradition one of the oldest christian countries georgian questions began the day with midnight mass . in bosnia serbs carried branches to be as part of that christmas ritual. to warm the community with valve and remove religious intolerance parties appeared on a midnight mass across the say the cathedral and mosque. both adults christians celebrating christmas and here in russia that was ushered in with a traditional service here at the christ the say because the jewel 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 nick good the dignitaries old russian society president dimitri made to get it in there as well as other senior think is attending this church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior cathedral more of them in fact actually taking places around the outskirts of the cathedral to just try and get a view of the church hopefully she'll hear something what was going on inside it of course to hear the bells that had been a ringing out to celebrate the birth of jesus christ now. the 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 all the docs christianity jewish the julian calendar as opposed to the gregorian calendar used by western christianity which means that in russia as well as out some other countries christmas falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old the docs

calendar and something that's has become a real tradition here in russia. in one nine hundred ninety seven the traditional christmas. piece all of that while the festive feeling continues online as we bring you the next christmas celebrations here in russia dot com you can see the full christmas press from the head of the russian church. and stranded in space. to film footage of the president stuff you know a bit. more now on the forum as a success we pioneering business in russia today there is

a bulb that used to be a restaurateur. listening one day to leave it all behind he's now hollywood's man in russia has already brought schools of bands to the country. i basically ended up moving to russia all by accident in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight i was asked by a russian friend in los angeles if i could bring a hollywood studio to moscow because mayor was interested in building multiplex cinemas and wanted a hollywood studio partner i had friends that were running warner brothers they head of international theatres with me. 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 big. snus 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 for us with the 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 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 goals using 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 and. elevated me so they could be alone i will go all out 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 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 costs more than

a lot of other parts of the world because russians have been willing to pay more you know russians weren't willing to pay more celebrities would be coming from. yes 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 different 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 you know i was thinking you're from here which is 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 but it 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. well from making money to losing it now as we ask whether it's time to the public take over attacking the world's debts troubles. in this to meet people in new york to get their tips for the politicians and child's.

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 it's doing a good job. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem. in greece wow. i don't know how did that. because i know no no no maybe that's why it's going over on a good word. each of our problems personally. working hard and spending money to local communities. you know our way of part of building up each. country. 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 fix the economy what should they be doing. pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions in trillions and done a good so why is that the solution that we keep going back to the only thing we can do so we can also see just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves. people . not a matter of not throwing money into the economy it's a matter of living with. 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 they have to 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. we don't just keep printing money we don't keep inflating most of the european countries that are having trouble because the government is sixty percent larger than it should be so why why can you and i see business and

government leaders can. 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 i don't get campaign contributions by people that need my help american politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change the color me 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. 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 u.s. has indicated it's ready to back the initiative it's seen as a crucial step towards peace talks between nato and its longtime enemy the taliban

also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay. a contributor. but he's the move could signal a major american defeat in the 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 willing in dealing between americans and taliban on the other side americans it looks like a real elopes a deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to keep that cut as a government out of the loop and as for telamon themselves they look like one and only winners in this shadow negotiation gate and when the taliban open out their

office in doha they might as well it door in it with the two nameplates with the calls from the counterinsurgency doctrine the first if we are not winning we are losing at dressed for the us armed forces and second if we are not losing we are winning for the taliban themselves. well look at some of them a nice way around the world now but first 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 blue plummeted to the ground is new zealand's deadliest disaster in almost fifty years. mass crowds have gathered against capitalist suspicions grow that president sunday and again renege on his agreement to quit the protests is also want peace of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began a year ago that opposition leaders fear sally will use the country's on the rest to

stay in power despite signing a regionally back to deal to hand control to his vice president in exchange for legal immunity. and outspoken human rights activists in bahrain has been hospitalized after a lot of lawyers said was a brutal police beating of anti-government protest bill rajab was eventually it's on the head and face with sticks and toil for says the government says police found him in egypt participating in an unauthorized march. she began campaigning to move rights from a sunni only eighty one year ago. but i'm to bring you more of russia close up as we continue to explore the countries far east. yes they have a region lies on the chinese border and this russia's main gateway to the pacific

is also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated fuel hungry asian economies . tom bottom discovered keeping industry a life that doesn't have to be expensive tradition. the bar ask region 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 ward and coal are going out to the pacific and south and is that they were looking at in my report this monster called 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 the stuff almost exclusively south asian markets but also aboard we've noticed there's a cool boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so this port covers almost

all of asia. become comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in them and he joins the oil and timber flowing out of the region in ever greater quantities tug boats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers once on their way to helped along by a much older technology. this vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this life pass which moment for help 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 more discos are we close enough to the nearest town other lighthouse

keepers are stuck out in the tiger without even roads sometimes a ship or helicopter deliver supplies there's no other way to come or go big has not had a ship run aground since the early. in one nine hundred ninety s. he's seen bears moose and tigers visit his white house and say as he never grows bored of the ever changing seascape far from feeling lonely he talks of the remand to system of being such a secluded spot on the coastline you know i used to go down to the bay of florida am catching crabs and start a fire then my wife and kids would join me and we'd have breakfast on the shore and watch the sun in the summer this whole field would be bright orange and blue if you could pick to retires next year he says he's come to love the spotlight robinson crusoe silent 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 bar often the experience of moving here from abroad is the main a holiday came here from britain a basket self is trying to upgrade itself trying to move into the out of the soviet times and into the modern modern age with industry with the 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 so more investment there and this cousin jane is going to i think any improve putin said it was one of the biggest and most important projects that's happening in russia and then and so yes i think it's up and coming this this region as someone who's come from a different culture from outside what would you say to what the people who are thinking. there is possibly business which changes but should i come here what

would you say to them. and in its worth a try to how did during a russian look at this important and very few restaurants or cafes where they have an english menu and things like that i think when i don't speak russian people. and it frustrating rather than going to i'd bet that in mind prices ok so if prices are extortionate. yeah you can go check it in adventure well there you 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. tom bottom that well it's really whether russian tend to explode in a couple of minutes it's a recap of our top stories.

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 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 proof is there. any reason you eaglets allowed 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 of. my wife's and they run run down my property and about this noise. is a little gap between a cockroach from coming to the wire is protecting the country and 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 do something or else. the close up team has been to. you stuck birthplace to the most ambitious football club in the world. now our g. goes to the far east where the timber industry attracts three legendary siberian

tigers where the ancient native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. well come to the bars creature russia blows up on. no it's not about spilling blood. just a war of barricades from one side and fears blockade from the other. invisible border has cut people from the land for twelve years. the conflict that divided serbia into two hostile parts is still not over.

but the main stories we're covering pointed this out with american troops now out of iraq concerns on mounting of what's being left behind is proving deadly for journalists who are being silenced and tortured by police speaking out against the government. a suicide last top. the police bust that killed twenty six people in syria's capital western tensions between your position and government leaders blame the attack on terrorists protest is finding its increasingly hard to claim their peaceful demonstrators. on christmas has come from millions of orthodox christians

around and some of the few intend to consult abrasions by attending traditional midnight mass. next we explore rome with a russian flavor as we take a look at their cultural connections. hello and welcome to the program from all the tech music russians have been fascinated with italian culture for centuries and today they come here in the tens of thousands in search of everything from populist to the world it's how to position so joining us as we explore various located.