how russia helps ages hungry economies as we head to one of the country's largest export gateways. through costing around the world twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. . well since the last american troops left iraq the country is learning to manage its own affairs but the consequences are proving fatal for some a decade of conflict was meant to herald a move to democracy but journalists there saying to me and brutality against them is rife with sebastian my 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 the better known counterpart in cairo. but iraqi journalists trying to cover these protests

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 to me a freelance journalist showed some shocking you tube 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 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 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 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 but i noticed that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government or the against i think and you can see that there are people in the midst of interior for example they have misusing their their power against the citizen and there is this building 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 or freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer r t iraq. on our website where i ask you what you think will happen to iraq now that u.s. forces have left the bulk of opinion is that the country slipping into chaos at a quarter of the existing things can get worse under the same number saying iraq is under threat yes but government to determine their own future and nine percent or even iraq will develop into a western style democracy we're going to r.t. dot com and add your own words. the suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition it's a parent who targeted a police bus most of the casualties are said to have been civilians becomes as arab league monitors who are assessing violence in the country are due to give their first report this weekend anti-government protesters rallied after the blast

blaming the syrian government for the violence according to international intervention but jordan based political analyst. says the bombing 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 gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they are not aiming the aggression only against the regime but against the whole syrian people and the whole syrian obviously what we are witnessing in syria is not a revolution but actually it is

a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the syrian regime but to change the whole area it has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and that there are certain forces international forces and 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. also ahead for you this hour the man who brings hollywood to moscow the american bringing stars and studios to russia today's pathfinder explains how succeeding and. also. to fix the economy what should they be doing. they should be pumping more money. pumping more money even pumping millions billions into a good president is in new york to ask how people would go about fixing the

struggling economy. orthodox christians worldwide are celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar we believe this. celebrate the birth of christ days after western russia has also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people from the eastern tradition one of the oldest pristine countries jordan again the holy day with midnight mass. bossiness scary branches to combat this part of that christmas ritual the fires are believed to warm the community with now with this intolerance. to all the families at midnight mass at the christ the savior cathedral in moscow. 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 the heads of the russian orthodox church attended by well the great and the good the dignitaries old russian society president dmitri 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 of all the docs christianity used 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. opening in one nine hundred ninety seven the traditional christmas. christ the savior. for the festive feeling continues online as we bring you more of the orthodox christmas celebrations here russia and r.t. dot com see the full christmas address from the head of a russian church. and stranded in space an amateur astronomer manages to film footage of a russian martian crew that's stuck in the bit which will soon fall back to worth.

more now on the foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia today's pathfinder is a bob van ronk who used to be a restaurateur in los angeles until the sun in one day to leave it all behind he's now hollywood's man in russia has already brought schools 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 working on 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 well 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 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 in de . the city and. yell of live music at the other one i don't know yet 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 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 it 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 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 back but it just so exciting here every day so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and that i haven't been able to leave. from making money now to losing it has we ask whether it's time to let the public take over tackling the world's debt troubles lower half of us to meet people in new

york to get their tips for 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 it's doing a good job. let me say. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. injuries were out. i do you don't know how did that. because i know i say no no no but 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 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 we 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 pay 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 stop the hemorrhaging we don't just keep printing money and 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. i 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. politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change its 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. 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 taliban also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay. to contribute to any who shot them moves 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 wheeling and dealing between americans and tell about on the other side americans it looks like a real deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to keep cut is a government out of the loop and as for taliban themselves they look like one in

the only winners in this shadow negotiation 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 waiting for the taliban themselves and some of the main nice from around the world now have been fresh attacks on christians in nigeria and they just saw this happening in the capital and in the north at least seventeen people died when a gunman opened fire at a town. meeting also reports of a deadly attack on washington in the town of. the militant group boko haram which says it carried out the assaults has been behind similar attacks in recent weeks. the hot air balloon has burst into flames after hitting power lines in new zealand killing all the different people on board two of whom died had jumped out of the

basket in desperation before the boom commented to the ground is new zealand's worst ad is ours to know must be fifty years. mass crowds have gathered in yemen's capital or suspicions grow their presence or again when nato has agreement to quit the testers also want all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began in europe that opposition leaders will use the country's unrest to stay in power despite signing a region that deal to control his wife's present in exchange for legal immunity. time to bring you more of russia close up as we 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 and few asian economies but as artie's tom barton discovered keeping industry alive there 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 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 also aboard we've noticed there's a coal boom but coal consumption worldwide has increased so this ports 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 tugboats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers wants on their way helped along by a much older technology oh and this vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this light house 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 end. in one nine hundred ninety s. he 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. i used to go down to the bay of four 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 pick to retires next year he says he's come to love this 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 aholic 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 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 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 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 with changes but should i come here what would

you say to them. i mean it's worth a try 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 frustrates him rather than think so i'd bet that in mind prices because cyprus is extortionate specially. now you can go chut of intervention well there we go that's an insight from someone who has made the leap out to the far east so bought off so it's not going to get any warm a hair but it seems that with future with the development of the region he's going to get more connected to the outside world. from bottom reporting that weather headlines in a few minutes stay with us here. now

it's not about spilling blood. it's the war of the 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.

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choose ops to. watch on t.v. life on the go. see video on demand ati's minefield costs and feeds now in the palm of your. question. the close up team has been to stop. plays to the most ambitious football club in the world. if not all of our g. goes to the far east where the timber industry affects the 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. come to the bars creature russia blows up.

the world to the. sun it's technology innovation called the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. the headlines now on our team with american troops now out of iraq concerns are mounting ever what's being left behind is proving a deadly for journalists who are being silenced and even tortured by police for speaking out against the government. the suicide blast targeting a police bus that killed twenty six people in syria's chemical has worsened tensions between your position in the government it is playing the attack on terrorists with protesters spawning it's increasingly. just peaceful demonstrators . and millions of orthodox christians around the globe are celebrating christmas presents.