today's top stories and the best of the week four more years of iraq obama's new term kicks off was tough for foreign policy slapping new sanctions on iran and authorizing drone strikes in yemen. syrian president bashar assad pledges to stay in his war torn home one no matter what as he talks exclusively to our team. fresh violence players in gaza as israeli tanks kill at least four palestinian civilians what israel claiming it's targeting militants we got a live update from our correspondent in the region. dan china's current leadership prepares to step down to let younger leaders develop the country's powerhouse economy once in a decade power transfer. this

is coming to life from moscow eleven am in the russian capital i'm marina joshie now after the most expensive election campaign in u.s. history barack obama was reelected this week as u.s. president beating his republican rival mitt romney and though many picked obama over romney because of you softer talk on foreign policy he doesn't quite walk the walk as he's going to take on the reports. in the wake of president obama's reelection there was no sense of euphoria as in two thousand and eight but his victory did come as a relief to most americans his challenger mitt romney was widely seen as more aggressive especially his foreign policy rhetoric also a seemingly out of touch with middle class america we are on the american family and we rise or fall together as one of those. waiting for him right after

reelection is the so-called fiscal cliff a combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts all we need is action from the house. and i got the pen right to sign the bill right away. but averting the fiscal cliff was probably not the first issue addressed by the president he also rise the drone strike targeting a group of al qaeda militants in yemen on wednesday the u.n. has raised concerns about the legality of such strikes due to reported heavy civilian casualties on lack of transparency on the u.s. part we're in uncharted waters when it comes to policy american policy related to drones this way the administration imposed financial sanctions against iranian officials so the u.s. planes but jamming satellite broadcast and blocking internet access in iran that comes on top of a whole lot of other sanctions that have been put in place by the u.s. which proved to be crippling for the iranian economy the goal is not to change the iranian government's decision making it's actually leverage ordinary civilians

against the iranian government and to threaten to topple the government by inciting you know food riots or you know people who are on happy because they can you know their grandparents are dying and can't get medicine and on friday despite president obama's claims the u.s. should move away from the cold war thinking in relations with russia the white house launched its first permanent military presence on polish soil the issue has been a constant sword in the side of relations between moscow and washington as the u.s. also plans to install missile interceptors in poland but the president every other democrat that i'm aware of is also made it clear that if we leave russia is still opposed to it still sees it as as if we're just going to go ahead anyway the president's actions so far have shown while he may be talking soft he's acting tough looking at all is president obama's first moves after reelection one could

say he picks the idea of america being the wall police very seriously but the question is who can hold the world police itself accountable in washington and that is check on. democrat or republican the united states foreign policy stays the same because the president has no real leverage says former member of the reagan administration paul craig roberts i don't think anything will be any different because you see the united states is not governed by the president or the congress or the political parties it's governed by very powerful private interests is governed by wall street by the military security complex by the israel lobby by agribusiness and by the energy timber and mining. companies and no president no congress can run afoul of these interests so i don't think anything to change nothing really changed the bombing replace bush he continued to develop

the police state the suspension of the constitution the loss of due process but he had his corpus balmer furder to those measures when he declared he had the authority to assassinate american citizens without the due process of law he'd try to fight into law all of the police state measures that bush asserted and he restarted the war in afghanistan so i don't think anything will change syria's president insists he will not leave his country in an exclusive interview with r.t. bashar assad said only the ballot box can determine his future he also said western powers have picked him as one of their bogeyman and a warrant against foreign intervention in syria are you so sure announce a met with the embattled leader in damascus. this thing that really marked me the most is how really how much more complicated situation inside series that from what we see in the media because i talk to people yes the country is divided and even

the people who didn't like us before this conflict started are now so scared that fundamentalists will come to power fundamentalists who are fighting on the side of the free syrian army and syrian people are not about that i mean this is like the only secular are that had a lot of different religious groups always living in peace with each other whether it's sunni or shia or always or christians so they're really scared that if the army will fall apart and then you know you have this extremist muslims coming to them and asking them to basically be just like them so it's not just about assad i think people feel like whether he goes or stays. it's only can get worse if it goes because it will get i mean the terror attacks will continue and the fundamentalists will come to power so they're very scared of that. that he is not a western puppet he also denies the fact that civil war is taking place in his country he's saying that it's not civil war it's a conflict where he has to five different fractions of terrorism. on the fact that

the financing of this terrorist fractions was unprecedented and it was coming from abroad he also said that if the west were to intervene militarily it would have to do from atlantic to pacific vision if it's going. to be more the whole world came before because if you have a problem if you get the flow through. the ability in the region and coexistence. it will have to do mean all through. the pacific. you know because you know. it's going. to go but you do so. but you can't pick what's next but. i did in our two exclusive friday through sunday and r t dot com now after the interview was aired the free syrian army the main armed opposition group in the

country threatened president said he would follow the fate of libya's leader moammar gadhafi fattal masri the head of the media department says that is due. channel he said he would not leave syria we know this very well because he will not be able to leave syria he and his people not money to leave the country the free syrian army will not let him do this he will not get out of syria line you'll be lucky if you reach the same fate as. meanwhile the syrian opposition is still locked in talks in qatar trying to consolidate its alliance against president asad this as deadly bombing ripped through the country this week with the latest attack killing at least twenty soldiers the syrian national council the main opposition group has come under western pressure to accept a unity plan and a growing frustration from other and dissident factions the asson see elected a new leader on friday appealing for more weapons to help oust asad activists rend

turkmani says the exiled opposition has no sway over the fight on the frontline. i don't see he was critical of the for the student national council as a body but i'm not against many of the people who formed this council yes it was formed lots of external support maybe externally. but they don't matter a lot to what matter is the people inside syria people who are opposing the regime inside the country everybody is asking the opposition to come in one correlation and coalitions are always weak by any sort of a fall apart in front of tough challenges and we are in front of a very very tough crisis i can sit here in london and poke rationally about political solutions but if i have an eighteen year old who have seen his mother being killed or his house being demolished i can't say he has no excuse to arm and i do also blame any external player who exploited those young people and put their

arms in their hands and send them money and weapons. and staying in the region israeli tank fire has killed at least four palestinian civilians and injured more than thirty others in gaza mostly teenagers officials claim the attack was a response to militants blowing up an israeli border patrol vehicle for more on this let's now cross to of correspondent policy or well paul israel's response has been swift and so are they hitting the targets they claim to be seeking. when as you say there has been a sixteen exchange of fire between palestinians and israeli soldiers along the israel gaza border and the latest figures we have are that at least four palestinian civilians have been killed and some twenty five wounded in addition to this a body was discovered this morning sunday a gaza man who was killed in an overnight israeli airstrike and it's not immediately clear whether or not he was a civilian or a militant now there are regular flare ups between israeli army and assisting in

militants but unfortunately israel often seems to kill civilians although its intended target it says is the militants there has been a barrage of rockets fired into southern israel this morning there are injuries but as we understand it nothing serious at this stage now ballasting of militants are warning that they going to take revenge for these deaths and at the same time israel is warning its residents in that southern communities to live near the gaza border to stay within fifteen seconds of the blast shelters so we are anticipating that they will be more violence today sunday this is one of the highest casualty counts in gaza in a single incident in recent months and it comes at a time of a new tension along the israel gaza border only some two weeks ago egyptian mediation managed to bring down income and of. her thank you so much for this update. public uproar in greece demonstrators are opap from bombs and stun grenades as

a country's parliament passes and a stereo package to secure its latest bailout. of the palm of china's going through a once in a decade change of power it will bring you more analysis of how the country's on track to become the world's biggest economy these stories and much more after this break. recently protests and demonstrations of any kind were banned until further notice and buck rein a curfew as in you can't go out of your home when the government doesn't want you to has already been in effect in the country since two thousand and eleven many of the protests which are now totally forbidden were related to members of the public demanding the release of political prisoners four people were also recently arrested buck rein for insulting the king over twitter wow

a middle eastern country that has totally shut down any form of protest and hugs you down if you tweet about the leadership so it's pretty undemocratic to me i think nato is already fueling up ready to take action bombs and freedom into i'm right well not really if nato really cared about spreading democracy you'd think they'd be more consistent with their targets but that's just my opinion. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images go. from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule today.

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secret laboratory to mccurdy was able to build the world's most sophisticated robots which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only dot com. welcome back you're watching r.t. life from moscow now this week anger and violence once again spilled over into the streets of athens police used tear gas and water cannon against greeks protesting further. budget cuts demonstrators hurled padfield bombs and stun grenades with

more than a hundred it's chained as the country's parliament passed in a stare the package aimed at securing the latest bailout the new package which includes tax rises and pension cuts is said to be the worst so far in three years of the greek debt crisis and rod is from the london school of economics says despite the government's helps the new bailout won't help to improve the situation in the country. it's not just before stand it if i do it all children full time and we at least back it is going to be the last one but it is like in every preceding single previous prime there is a huge problem the problem is at least back it is the root moving into bit entirely different entirely wrong direction and that initial in turn it to according to its insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is what's happening right now. and after which the country's g.d.p. is going to go but it actually it could be countries national debt is going to go

up from one hundred seventy five percent to one hundred nine ninety percent it's a fundamental question of who this government and they struck at the troika interest are really serving this is one of the most kind of times of all examples and true for this government is not going to serve the purpose of the people and it's not going to work in their favor instead of just bringing down the minimum wage or to bring them minimum wage to community and it will start a little bit of the fight on the youth the monthly unemployment is already up from eighteen point four percent in in august last year two thousand and eleven and it's gone up to twenty five percent this year it's projected to go to overflow to five percent by rich time next year and that people in this country have to become more self-sufficient and they have to stop depending on the supranational organizations kind of dictating rules for mobile. i was in a jack a pow we're transfer is underway in china where the communist party congress now

reviewing the list of candidates the new leadership will have to tackle the growing challenges of the world's second largest economy and as our chief lucy coffin of reports beijing is promising to increase its global influence. lighting the flame on the international stage building to new heights on this world. and soaring beyond its limits whether it outer space the arctic outer continental shelf or on your local store shelves china is making its ambitions known let's see this is made in china. made in china china for cheap economic goods have translated into massive profits for china as well as criticism no list comes amid growing concern that china is using its economic clout for political leverage. different. trying not a very promising country i'm sure you probably think you're probably right for

twenty try less than five the i.m.f. says china could surpass the us economically in real terms by twenty sixteen it may not help the countless chinese who live in poverty but it sure makes rivals nervous china's economic clout has grown it is now the second largest economy in the world it's the second largest manufacturing exporter in the rimini the chinese currency is playing an increasingly important role in the world economy so there is a shift in relative economic might in the world that might has been threatened by the economic slowdown and it will be up to china's new leaders to try to reverse the trend for now they seem to be getting their way china is inching into europe to snap up ailing businesses this french vineyard is just one of the casualties. with these people they come here and leave by learned just like to buy up a castle or jewelry. on iran u.s. sanctions against oil trading with the islamic republic don't apply when you're

america's largest banker. in africa china is using cash to buy clout beating western rivals in the race to exploit the continent's vast resources you know its efforts to buy influence through investments have been met with an intense public backlash and countries like pakistan building infrastructure instead of military bases has made china the preferred superpower among locals. born into thier ok. other countries that does not like. it or that like america. still it has been abandoned its military the country's new leaders are expected to continue to pour billions into its defense budget the second largest in the world this may worry pentagon planners and beijing's asian neighbors but so far china's economic might has proven more powerful than the sword the other two nations which

are fighting in their words what is america what is china so america is using which is water and there is a lot of losses and china is using up peacefully and civilized with the other there is no loss and if the strategy is working well why change it chinese theaters understand the importance of soft power. and yet understand that you come. to some extent and mated a certain to be studied if not to be followed completely for now a growing red dragon means that china's version of a new world order is here to stay you see captain of our t.v. moscow. meanwhile the country is also looking to rise above the stratosphere this summer we're going to argue i'm gong to learn more about china's manned space mission set for takeoff this do. trigger happy president obama's

re-election promise americans to stock up on guns and ammunition find out why on line. iraq's defense minister denies the country has cancelled a four billion dollars arms deal with russia reports on saturday suggested baghdad pulled the contract but the minister says the sale has been put under review and it concerns of internal corruption government and business consult the chris of course will says the complications are signs of pressure from washington. if this deal head gone through there it would have meant for the iraqi people it kind of you know starting a balanced situation of the evening east and west. and that would be healthy for the iraqi people because this is in line with geographical very simple geographical situation now putting this deal under pressure you know that means that the u.s.

insisting on a monopole in the region it is very clear you know it is not mr maliki was calling the shots in the iraqi policies that is the u.s. right now and that they are not able you know to. petition just a little you that is a very sad story for for washington and it doesn't bear good signs for the future and up next we expose the u.s. army's high pressure recruitment in america's high schools. it's perched atop a giant rock and the view from the kremlin stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city to siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even before it was bypassed but a chance siberian railway but

a spiritual center. with . things like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of worshippers did themselves implicity water to commemorate the baptismal jesus. you know when you pull up or go. it doesn't matter if it's minus thirty it's a siberian tradition i do it myself every year for everyone to overcome their worst fears it is desirable to take the plunge. but that's a picture postcard church is the story of a city built by opportunist explorers political exiles and crafty fur traders in the fifteen eighties the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies to be their stronghold constructed on top of the

city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian oil of its time bringing in a third of all russia's state revenue. location head of the says for the russians. to moscow's one of the most popular places to send political dissent is not any people were exiled that once a giant power that was used to incite riots was supposed to set a three hundred ten. the russian heiress across who led a revolt against the eight hundred twenty five known as the decemberists will stand here and drove. there they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at least once they made it from paris to siberia but the city also served up some bitter irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is

the office was nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole family had been exiled here they were at a fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or go outside themselves whilst leaving this ordinary normal countryside lifestyle they even had thoughts of escape but within the year bizarre and his family would be dead. never again its political significance but the streets will always echo with a glorious past and it will likely provide the livelihood force inhabitants in the future.

there are no made everybody. we're going up to san francisco we'll walk about fifteen miles a day for sixteen days from here to san francisco that's right will arrive on march to. the seventh the third anniversary of the pacers this death of

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