a wave of antiwar protests in turkey with activists accusing the government of being. possible military action against syria. to balance its books by laying off thousands of soldiers while still throwing billions of malfunctioning military machine. plus forty years of textbooks socialism a put to the test in venezuela as hundreds of thousands fled the capital in support of world chavez just ahead of sunday's election.

a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at r.t. moscow. what began as a peaceful antiwar demonstration turned a rather ugly in the turkish capital ankara after riot police moved in to disperse the crowd officers fired tear gas water cannons as well as smoke grenades with many by standards also getting caught up in the melee thousands also poured into the streets of istanbul to demonstrate against the policies of turkey's ruling party accusing it of seeing to the tune of the us another wave of popular discontent was sparked by the parliament's approval of cross border military action interests syria which could ultimately pave the way to a full scale war. marty middle east correspondent paula. they were chanting slogans that syria is our friend and that we are against war but they clashed with turkish police landed up firing rounds of tear gas at more people are

concerned that the border tensions could disintegrate into a regional conflict on the first day the turkish parliament held a closed door emergency session in. able was overwhelmingly passed that allows the turkish military to carry out cross border operations against syrian targets now this is in period for a year it has been defended by the turkish government that says it has the right to defend itself it is a pains to point out that this is not a declaration of war and that and operate in conjunction with international bodies the turks are responding to a syrian mortar that was fired on wednesday it killed five took his citizens two of them women and three of them children while they were preparing a meal turkey immediately responded by firing into syrian territory and this offensive continued until the early hours of thursday morning now by all accounts

there were several syrian soldiers who were killed tookie also responded by going on the offensive in the political arena an emergency meeting of nato was hold on wednesday so as i say an extremely volatile situation that we're keeping close watch on of course want to pause for a current of media reports suggest that turkey has carried out around seventy strikes against syria killing a dozen soldiers are destroying heavy weaponry in korea however says it has no intentions of actually starting a war with syria middle east political analyst. says that turkey doesn't necessarily have to engage in direct military action in order to defeat the embattled state. turkey's declared war on syria long time ago this is arrogant endeavor to lose the war they've supplied weapons they've supplied training assistant they've harbored you know gunmen in jihad just on their territory so so you know turkey's at a situation now crossroads where they cannot seem to get the international system

they need to sort of you know do a last question against the assad regime and they cannot get a u.n. security council resolution to authorize these things and this may be you know setting the groundwork a pretext for a backdoor into military intervention because of course turkey venkat can call on its nato allies to to assist and it's essential to the nato allies who would anyways do you know a military confrontation with the assad regime if there was a u.n. security council resolution so now and there are questions about this is this the false why you know operation to to sort of set the ground for military intervention there's been many false narratives over syria i think this is just another one. and in the meantime the un's most powerful body his call for strength from both ankara and damascus as it strongly cried syria's deadly attack on turkish citizens to use more importantly has the latest now from the u.n.

security council in new york. well the u.n. security council agreed and issued a presidential statement strongly condemning wednesday's mortar attack by syria on a turkish border town that as we already heard as killed people and injured several others the council called on the syrian government to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors and the called on all concerned parties to exercise maximum restraint a presidential statement issued by the council also demanded that quote such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated mortar fire from syria had its in turkey on wednesday and that's when the security council began deliberating this presidential statement earlier on thursday the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon also voiced his alarm at escalating tensions along the syrian turkish border and the u.n. itself there's a lot of divisions over how to solve this crisis that it escalates and everybody

within the security council in the u.n. is trying to ease tensions that are growing now really within syria but now on the border between syria and turkey but. more analysis always available for you just a click away don't they also find out more on the ripple effect of the on running syrian crisis how it's sending the violence into neighboring states. and iraq have to be one of the later today who told the country's prime minister he says peace cannot be brought to syria through weapons and foreign troops. this is are now the british army is the latest victim of the country's seemingly endless austerity drive now with eight thousand fewer u.k. soldiers reporting for duty come the new year but it's not his party boycott reports when it comes to funding expensive water britain apparently has money to burn. the number of soldiers in the british army is being cut back by a fifth as you can see here that's quite

a significant reduction is going to mean the smallest british army since before the napoleonic wars eight thousand u.k. troops face christmas as unemployed civilians defense secretary philip pam and insists the cuts a necessary to balance the defense budget yet at the same time the u.k. is committed to remaining one of the biggest military spending is in the world well any modern army even if it cuts its troops needs up to date equipment but take a look at these the british government has spent some two billion pounds on developing remote control attack drones since two thousand and seven but homegrown u.k. drones don't have a good track record how about the watch keeper drone this nifty piece of military equipment has already cost the u.k. taxpayers eight hundred million pounds it was meant to be up and flying by now it isn't yet ready and now running two and

a half years late the want to keep its predecessor it was a drone called the phoenix that proved so unreliable that an army cycles it became known as the bugger off because it often left on missions never to return the phoenix was such an epic fail that it was used as an example of the quote dismal failure of the british drone systems engineering students in one u.k. university and the cost of this techno flop two billion pounds in fact the ministry of defense his attempt to balance its books has actually contributed to an increase in spending on equipment something those troops facing their final paycheck in the coming weeks will find hard to stomach. arty. of course on more stories features videos and analysis always in store for you on our website including. the jewish and christian activist groups respond to an islamist poster campaign with a message of tolerance. an eleven year old boy from northern siberia has made one

discovery uncovering the near complete remains of a thirty thousand year old creature very deep in the park. so just approaching ten minutes past the hour moscow time after a long and bitterly fought campaign venezuela is now braced for presidential elections on sunday but both candidates. his rifle and. certainly made the most of last day on the trail as you can see here hundreds of thousands of people attended a rally led by chavez display of solidarity with his socialist agenda. though is if you does the polar opposite of being company president on nearly every policy you

also privatized the venezuelan economy scrap welfare programs and stands for closer ties with the u.s. and south american political analyst says it's no surprise that washington wants to see. gone out of the picture i think in the stands which is very highly respected throughout many of these of latin america that the united states is. not just in the middle east but worldwide and not so much. by the united states especially at a time when in two thousand and eight the united states as we activated the south atlantic and we have a very strong military presence throughout latin america. in the south atlantic just as they have engineered insurrection and civil war which seems to be washington's specialisation now with the so-called arab spring mini theater here in latin america we will be seeing a latin american spring with different characteristics but where the united states

will meddle in the in sort of affairs of countries like venezuela and they will even trigger in activate a generalized latin american spring which will be turmoil social unrest and even civil war. and another battle for howard this time though in the u.s. so incumbent president obama. would take a look at why the president's first televised tussle left his supporters called critics in the entire u.s. election system for a lack of real choice. flying north with me in this old soviet work or so the helicopter is dr van amir brodsky and his team from the region's medical aviation service we head across ever more barren tundra higher and higher into russia's arctic far north until eventually we see our landing spot with the arrival of this tiny village after crossing hundreds

of kilometers of snowy wilderness as a boy here suffering from fever and the doctors are going to see what they can do. inside a small building not one but two babies and their parents are waiting for us the doctors inspect them but can't make a diagnosis and decide to bring them to a regional hospital for better care spread larner doesn't like taking her baby away from home but she's been before and agrees to go that's the usual practice with those who live in it to indra they keep mothers with their newborns in hospital for a month. on the way back another stop to check on the health of some native minutes reindeer herders out in the tundra it can take many hours to reach the nearest village so a medical problem simply fixed here in the tent that. they used to be but now we can go to civilized places so we call for emergency help. back at hospital other

patients helped by the air ambulance are being treated the service costs forty million dollars a year to run and there's been controversy with some claiming that locals exaggerate or make up health problems and you. the helicopters as a free taxi service accusations land amir firmly dismisses it is not true usually the calls are perfectly justified sometimes we reproach locals for waiting too long before calling us he's been working as a doctor now for forty three years but vladimir is confident the diva now after he retires his helicopter doctors will remain a lifeline to the peoples of the russian far north. could have you with us here on r.t. today are. the u.s.

presidential candidates barack obama and mitt romney they address their supporters following their first t.v. debate and the polls show that romney overwhelmed incumbent obama in the duel commanding the ninety minute debate but rocky anderson a presidential candidate for the justice party he thinks two parties alternately dominating the country and politics is unhealthy. i left the democratic party and helped form the justice party because now the republican and democratic parties are simply one do up only they have a stranglehold on our electoral system from the stage of getting on the ballot all the way through the debate process and they have both been bought and paid for by the same special interest we have a plutocracy not a democracy in the united states where our government is up for sell to the highest bidder romney would bring us along the same path that led to the economic

disaster in two thousand and eight with huge tax cuts for the wealthy enormous deficits low unemployment rates and president obama has a pathetic record he's the only president that has presided over three years of unemployment of over eight percent that absolutely can be changed which we know that that's what the american people want it's simply that we don't have those elected to office that are willing to take on the special interests. now a chinese owned company is suing president barack obama after block the farm from building wind farms that are not far from a u.s. military base and the justification for the ban was that of national security are the first such use of the law in twenty two years and it's the last thing the firm says obama overstepped his authority and acted in an unlawful munna professor joseph chang he believes is just part of an effort to limit china's range. there is to try no not to are now trying not to.

believe in discrimination against i know there are two levels of concerns over the use one is the general intention of the united states to china china certainly wants to look at mons countries that world and it is easier to acquire technology at least minority and so on from the united states and other western countries the other concern of course is the you know action. gimmicks or your action campaign politics he's a literary under time no reason presidents or you know action campaigns tendency under the tender grace to engage in time your. state did in so and bashing in the eighty's and ninety's. into the world that they will go or start with jordan where police reportedly arrested eight people at mass rallies in

the capital. around two hundred thousand supporters of king abdullah's reforms and about fifty thousand backers of the opposition muslim brotherhood party are both gathering for peaceful demonstrations at the same venue earlier the king dissolved parliament clearing the way for new elections he pledged to introduce more reform aiming to avoid arab spring style and rest the country has already faced nearly twenty months of protests with people demanding more say in how the state is run. eighty seven people jailed in tunisia for storming the u.s. embassy may be sentenced to death this according to their lawyers back in september an angry mob attacked the diplomatic headquarters in the capital tunis before being met by a strong response from riot police for demonstrators were killed and many more injured and follow up clashes the incident came in the wake of furious anti american protest. muslim communities across the globe over u.s.

produced film that mocked the prophet muhammad. a jewish american man has opened fire in a hotel in the red sea resort town of last in israel he killed at least one staff member and he reportedly stole a gun from the hotel security guard police and the terror unit stormed the building forcing the attacker to retreat to the kitchen before eventually killing him israeli media reported the man had once worked at the hotel and a previously argued with his victim. i will see marina with the business soon for another the replications from the war in afghanistan have now reached as far away as india their entire farming communities are being devastated by the influx of cheap afghan heroin addiction tainting many aspects of life and i'm sure over the issue is being directed at the us which refuses to go off the afghan drug lords and their vast plantations for fear of driving them into the arms of the insurgency. as the story. almost two thousand kilometers from the war zone in afghanistan and

women like smith rocor are fighting a battle of their own in punjab india and i doubt he you know my son lives with me we lost his father to drugs and recently lost his brother to drugs everyone in the neighborhood is taking up drugs and if my son or i them who were after the children going in. once known as one of the most prosperous states in india punjab is now one of the biggest drug trafficking hubs in the world officials say most of the confiscated drugs are coming from nearby afghanistan the largest global producer of opium and the situation is getting worse the united nations has reported that opium production has more than doubled in afghanistan since the united states invaded the country in two thousand and one critics say that nato and the united states have not done enough to eradicate the narcotics producing poppy fields which they say is

the afghans biggest source of income. this. is such a bankrupt lead used to its condition. trysts so they are resistant to anything you see the community is hardened it's of so much so they're not going to. look nice you know stop going to await the drug addiction problem in punjab this becomes so bad that at spirit say that one in three people are actually addicted to drugs and in this area alone people say that seventy percent of the people between the ages of fifteen and thirty five are addicted to drugs and that's not good news for these women smithville corps community has now become known as the village of widows because of all the men who have died from drug addiction. now many bring their children to this. cool where sixteen percent

of the six hundred fifty children are orphaned most of their parents died from drug related deaths mainly through private donations they are all able to get an education for free but it's little consolation for what many fear could become a lost generation in punjab if more action against drug trafficking isn't taken again i think if something happens to my son will happen to the family where we can i bring them up my so. far from the bullets and explosives in afghanistan and the people of punjab wonder how they too can escape the war that has started to impact millions of their own preassure either r t india. oil or let's go to the down and dirty here on the financial matters of the day those were in a good to see you again the busy bee that you are marina what happened to that old friday. first of all roy i like to say down and dirty it will cook that dirty that's my not of this of this and of business that's for sure but i yes it has been

very busy it's there because we had economic reports that are due to come out later in the day some coming out from asia are they are all in the trade in session and also we have reviews on the economic health of greece and spain and all gets that in a second but first we had something going on here in russia and that is the fact that the country is now considering offering its licenses for drilling for oil that is the arctic self the energy rich of course arctic waters there and basically what's happening is that because russia is the world's biggest producer of this of course opening up a whole slate of opportunities for foreign investors are very on the whole explains what that entails. it contains at least one fifth of the world's untapped reserves and the territory of course belongs to russia but russia is aware that there is a problem in getting those resources out is enormously expensive and take the key very challenging no number of deals have been done with western oil which all

needed for the banking and technical expertise these include the us. if any in the way. the energy minister here so the government is considering allowing foreign oil. in the licenses that they operate this would be a radical departure normally what happens here is only. the big state. of the ground but they do need to make the projects attractive to give you an idea of the amount of money involved made these comments on the trip to london which is about land one trillion dollars worth of investment in the russian oil and gas sector by twenty twenty. now the european union is fighting for transparency in its energy market and the new plan to have the member countries disclose all their oil and gas for that matter now by march on nations will have to provide the commission with deals starting from next year as all the e.u.

commission will be able to take part in all energy talks the move comes amid the e.u.'s antitrust investigation into gas pricing strategy in the region last week expresses downs over the economic efficiency of europe's energy talking of europe let's take a look at european markets that's what was then there was a lot of optimism and sentiment and that's because investors are waiting for the u.s. in on. and as you can see from the numbers are expected to be good. for over half almost about half a percent and slightly ahead now it's. they would be up and talk about greece because the country has said that basically its economy could go belly up by the end of november if it doesn't get the next tranche of just bailouts e.u. officials are now in afam scrutinizing the nation spending cuts which are which is a condition for receiving the aid the next installment is thirty one billion euros

and without it greece may have to default on its debts. also the french ratings agency says that spain's biggest threat is its intensifying recession spain is resisting making the request of which is expected to see its economy shrink and this will result from crummy high unemployment rates and a massive spending cuts also the french ratings agency currently has a triple rating for spain with and that it's of out. all right here in russia we can set the figures are very optimistic very high that the artsy has gained over two percent this hour and the my sex life behind there but still quite impressive numbers i should say despite the fact that we've seen while prices going down the fact they're heading for their third weekly decline and that's a major war is that there is a rise in supply there now from a volunteer to look at currencies will see that the euro as though we can against

the u.s. dollar although it's been one line for the past couple of hours when it comes to the ruble and mix make sure the sour is down and we see that the ruble is payments to the greenback losing now so this of course. would get us a jobs report which types of five the markets and the currencies as well now if we can sing you know look at all the news in the secular facebook which says that the number of active monthly users has now topped one billion it's roughly half of the internet users in the world all the social networks courtsey years ago the average age of a facebook user is twenty two and their country of origin is likely to be personal or. and analysts say the latest milestone raises questions where the facebook can actually profit from its giant user base. and that's it from me rory maybe to follow up on what you said last hour that's it for me. will join you next and i'll go on the facebook page that you said i'm so obsessed about marina close

it down. i can't get over see you soon thanks marina just a few minutes here in the vietnam war and almost four decades ago however his legacy and scars can still be plain to see a special documentary just. the for. more news today violence has once again fled up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada the first chunk corporations are. wealthy british style sun. times that's right.

market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines in two cars a report on our.

well for. science technology innovation all the system elements from around russia we've got the huge earth covered.