helps feed ages hungry colonies and into one of the country's largest export gateways. were casting around the world and around the clock this is r.t. 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 especially in my and i 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 the better known counterpart in cairo. but iraqi journalists trying to cover these protests are all but silenced by the government security forces and today's iraqi journalists

who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten or just simply killed it seems to be a high level of intolerance for dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or particular leaders. a freelance journalist showed r.t. some shocking youtube footage from the protests this february 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 head other one kicked me in the by and they grabbed me fast 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 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 he 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 that is not just that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against anything and you can see that there are people in the midst of it for example they have misusing their power against the citizen and that is your 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 one 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 freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer or iraq but our website where i ask you what you think will happen to iraq now that u.s. forces have left for the sound of occupation is that the country is slipping into chaos almost a quarter of this think things can't get any worse for the same number thank you rock is went through us back to determine their own picture and less than ten percent believe iraq will develop into a western style democracy onto dot com 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 are big monitors who are assessing violence in the country due to give the first report this weekend and government protesters rallied after the blast from the syrian

government for the ballance and international intervention but jordan based political analyst says the bombing is a sign when 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 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 and the whole 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 but to change the whole area 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 area of political reasons. respective of the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area well still ahead in the program the man who brings hollywood to moscow to be american bringing stars in studios to russia today's pathfinder explains how he succeeding in developing moscow's logic. the big economy which people are. they should be pumping more money into. pumping more money even pumping millions and billions into a good restaurant is 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 believers celebrate the birth of. christ thirteen days after western worship it's also marks the end of a forty day fast but around two hundred million people follow the eastern tradition one of the oldest christian countries georgian worshipers began their holy day with midnight mass in bosnia serbs carried branches to be as part of their christmas ritual. in the community with. religious intolerance. across the say the cathedral. both christians celebrate christmas and here in russia that was ushered in with a traditional service here at the christ say because in the center of the russian capital now that service presided over by the patriarch of moscow and all russia

kirill the heads of the russian orthodox church attended by well the great and the good the dignitaries old russian society president dimitri made to get it in there as well as other senior figures 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 to 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. 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 use 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 calendar and something that has become a real tradition here in russia it's opening in one nine hundred ninety seven the traditional christmas vigil mass christ the savior. festival feeling continues online as we bring in next christmas celebrations here in russia to see the full christmas from the head of the russian church. stranded in space. amateur astronomer manages to film footage of the russian martian probe that stuff in it which will soon fall back to earth. more now on the foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia

today's pathfinder is a bob van ronk or 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 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 millionaires 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 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 it in 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 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. the city and. you know little of mr because they don't know you 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 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 that 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 you know i was thinking you're from year 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 but it is so exciting here every day so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and that i haven't been able to leave. well from my making money to losing it now as we ask whether it's time to the public takeover 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 is doing a good job. let me say. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. injuries were out. there i do you don't know how did that. because i know i said no no no maybe that's why it's going all around a good word fixes each of our problems personally so if we're all out there working hard and spending money the local communities then. you know our way of part of building up each local community eventually the whole country gets right yes in a 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 we can also see just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves. people can sort of theirselves 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 at least 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 did 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 campaign contributions by people that need my help to american politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change the color of money from an oil economy to something else we've got heaps of people with lots of brains and. doing something about the environment just 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 us 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. contributor. but he's the move could signal a major american defeat in a decade long conflict. uncle sam has just recently authorized 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 these shadowy negotiation gate 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 at dressed for the us armed forces and second if we are not losing we are winning for the taliban themselves. look at some other main news way around the world now 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 balloon plummeted to the ground is new zealand's deadliest disaster the almost fifty years. mass crowds have gathered again in the capital or suspicions grow that president sunday and again reneged on his agreement to quit the protest or civil case of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began

a year ago that opposition leaders fear sunday 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 what is said was a brutal police beating of anti-government protest bill rodgers was eventually it's on the head and face with sticks and keep the oil for says the government says police found him injured participating in an unauthorized march. shiite majority began campaigning. on a key ring year ago. but i'm to bring you more of russia close up as we continue to explore the country's far east. yes the region lies on the chinese border and is russia's main gateway to the

pacific it's also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated few hundred asian economies as aunties tom barton 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 stuff almost exclusively south asian markets but also aboard we've noticed there's

a coal boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so this port covers almost all of asia from the come comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in there and he joins the oil and timber 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 to helped along by a much older technology. down this coast vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this life pass which along with four 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. we're close enough to the nearest town look at it 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 seen bears moose and tigers visit his lighthouse 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 for 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 sunrise in the summer this whole field would be bright orange and blue if you could think to retire next year he says he's come to love the sport 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 that 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 where industry with the also working on a new cosmodrome what you know about the new developments here i know that it's 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 in the same or investment there and this 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 the syrian 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. i mean it's 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 bear that in mind prices ok so if prices are extortionate. you can go check it in a venture 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. tom bottom that well it's really whether russian tend to explode in the 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 here what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of us factual truth these are. the rules of 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 i'm going to that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the laws i figure is here's one of the major trails in the united states and. i watch and they run run down my property and something about this noise. bothers a little chap mean a crack mortars from coming over 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 do some somewhere else. the close up team has been. to doug you stuck birthplace to the most ambitious football club in the world. now r 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 mental well starts its way across the ocean. welcome to the mob boss creature russia blows up on archie. 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 at the main stories we're covering for you this hour with american troops now out of iraq concerns on mounting of a 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 targeting a police bus that killed twenty six people in syria's capital western tensions between your position on the government leaders blame the attack on terrorists the test is finding its increasingly hard to claim that just peaceful demonstrators.