hungry economies as we had to one of the country's far east export gateway. broadcasting around the world twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. 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 say intimidation and brutality against them is rife as sebastian meyer now reports. this spring iraqis inspired by neighboring arab countries began protesting against the government in a square in baghdad one which shares its name with the better known counterpart in cairo tahrir. 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 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 slapped me in the head other one kicked me in the by and they come they know drive 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 tahrir square 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 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 publish 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 i noticed 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 midst of it for example they have misusing their 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 and freedom that is essential to any democratic country

sebastian meyer or iraq. on our website we're asking what you think will happen to iraq now that u.s. forces have left this hour and thirty seven percent think the country is slipping into total chaos while just over a third of voters a believe iraqis will overthrow the u.s. backed government and determine their own future around a quarter think things can't get any worse than they already are and just four percent believe iraq will develop into a western style democracy while the common add your voice. and 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 but most of the casualties are said to have been civilians it comes as arab league monitors who are assessing while it's 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 and calling for international

intervention but jordan based political analyst. says the bombing is a sign that an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful but there were many incidents of. gas perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians of course they are denying this so-called opposition denying that for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terror of the stack so that a clear indication that there are gangs that are totally it's working in syria to disrupt life in syria they're not aiming the aggression only against that but against the whole city and people. against the whole syrian homeland 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. still ahead for you this hour the man who brings hollywood to moscow for. the american bringing stars and studios to russia as today's pathfinder explains how he's succeeding in developing moscow's movie magic plus. to fix the economy what should they be doing. they should be pumping more money into or pumping more money they've been pumping billions and billions and trillions and then residents in new york to ask how people there would go about fixing the struggling global economy. orthodox christians worldwide are celebrating

christmas may follow the julian calendar where believers celebrate the birth of christ thirteen days after western worshipers it also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people follow the eastern tradition it's one of the oldest christian countries georgian worshippers began the holy day with midnight mass in bosnia serbs carried okb wrenches to be burnt as a part of their christmas ritual the fires are believed to warm the community with love and remove religious intolerance artie's peter oliver was a midnight mass at the christ the savior cathedral in moscow. both little christians celebrate christmas and here in russia 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 russia kirill old the russian orthodox church attended by the great new good the

dignitaries old russian society president deby to be made. as well as all the see you think is attending this church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior cathedral both of them but actually take you places around the outskirts of the cathedral to just try and get a view of the church something what was going on inside it of course to hear the bells that had been 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 of the branches of all the docs christianity use the julian calendar as opposed to the calendar used by western christianity which means that in russia as well as some other countries christmas falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old the

docs calendar something that's has become a real tradition here in russia since its opening in one nine hundred ninety seven the traditional christmas vigil mass christ the savior the best of feeling continues online as we bring you more on the orthodox christmas celebrations here in russia. our team down calm you can see the full christmas address from the head of the russian church. now stranded in space an amateur astronomer manages to film footage of the russian martian probe that's stuck in orbit and which will fall back to earth. more now on foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia today as pathfinder as bob van wrong who used to be

a restaurant or 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 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 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 a couple days for two hundred fifty thousand dollars belt 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 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. ok rove you know little of mr baker 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 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 so 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 your 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 which is 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. tanks pts. from making money to losing it now as we ask whether it's time to let the public take over tackling the world's debt troubles artie's a lorry harmfulness meets 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 is doing a good job. let me say. you know now now and. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. in greece wow. 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 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 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. they should be

pumping more money into it 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 they can also say just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves american 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 in 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. they just all lie 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 do you think those 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. thank you for being with us eighteen minutes past the hour 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 anomie the taliban

also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay artie's military contributor believes the rooms 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 goal detail of an office doesn't bode well because he effectively has been cut from this wheeling and dealing between americans and tayla back on the other side so 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 telamon themselves they look like one in only winners in these shadowy negotiation and when the taliban open up. they're all through soon they might as well. read the name plates with the calls from the

carroll do surgeons who doctor the first. winning or losing dress for the u.s. armed forces and second losing we are waiting for that tale about themselves now look at some other main news from around the world there have been fresh attacks on christians in nigeria the latest assaults happening in the rural northeast at least seventeen people died when gunmen opened fire in a town home during a christian group meeting in ruby there are also reports of a deadly attack on worshippers in the town of ula militant group boko haram which says it carried out the assaults has been behind similar attacks in recent weeks. hot air balloon has burst into flames after hitting power lines in new zealand 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 its new zealand's worst air disaster in almost fifty years. as crowds

have gathered in yemen's capital as suspicions grow that president saleh well again when they get on his agreement to quit the protesters also want the release of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began a year ago opposition leaders fear saleh will use the country's own rest to stay in power despite signing a regionally back to deal to head control to his wife's president in exchange for legal immunity. time to bring in more i'll brush a closeout as we continue to explore the country's far east. we have out of school region was 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 feel hungry asian economies but as artie's town barton discovered keeping industry alive there

doesn't have to be at the expense of tradition. the baro 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 ward and coal are going out to the pacific and south understood that they were looking at in my report this monster that. is the new face of russia's far east coast you can load over four thousand tons of coal into ships at this rapidly expanding sea to this year they excrete to ten million tons of stuff almost exclusively south asia. but we've noticed there's a cool. consumption worldwide has increased so these ports covers almost all of asia. the cold comes from some of russia's largest pulls it's five hundred meters in. the joints the oil flowing out of the reed. and 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 own down this vast new ship internals a springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this light house which long before 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 marrying 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 but there's no other way to come or go big

has not had a ship run aground since the early one nine hundred ninety s. he's 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 floor i 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 locally in the summer this whole field would be bright orange and blue if you can pick to retires next year he says he's come to love the spotlight robinson crusoe xylem and 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 how boston the experience of moving here from abroad isn't mean a holiday that came here from britain a basket self is trying to upgrade itself trying to his mood. moving to the out of

the soviet times and into the 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 there are more investment there and this cousin adjoin 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 all been coming this this region as 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 which energies 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 things like that i think when i don't

speak russian people find it frustrating rather than think so i'd bet that in mind prices. so if prices are extortionate. to go. of in adventure 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. and a few minutes the multi-talented performer and artist advancer prez tells us how he juggles acting directing and his passion for photography.

i had a family i lived in a fairly nice community it wasn't rich it was an upscale it was just like you know archie bunker's 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. through these are. the rules of the eaglets line 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 like figure is here's one of the major trails into the united states and. i

watch and they run run down my property and some about this noise. well there's a little gap between a cockroach from becoming a legal 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 know that we all do some somewhere else. wealthy british style sun and some that's not on the times. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into a report. on.

the a. newscast. news. if. the first. more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada

trophy sheinkopf orations are old today. thank you for being with us on how to pounce the hour here's a quick recap of your headlines with american troops now out of iraq concerns are mounting over what's being left behind it's proving deadly for journalists who say they're being tortured by the police for speaking out against the government. a suicide blast that killed twenty six people in syria's capital prompts accusations from both leaders and opposition supporters over who was behind the attack. and millions of words are acts christians around the globe who follow the julian calendar are celebrating christmas day.