today's top stories in the best of the week four more years brock obama's new term kicks off with a tougher foreign policy slapping new sanctions on iran and also rising drone strikes in yemen. syrian president bashar al assad pledges to stay in his war torn homeland no matter what as he talks exclusively to our team. and fresh violence players in gaza as israeli fire kills at least six palestinians four of them teenagers but israel claiming it is targeting militants and we've got a live update from our correspondent in the region.

one pm in moscow you're watching r.t. 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 his softer talk on foreign policy he doesn't quite walk the walk as art he's got to count now 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 an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation on a. fiscal cliff we're doing 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've got the pen ready to sign the bill right away. but averting the fiscal cliff is probably not the first issue addressed by the president. he also writes 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 the lack of transparency on the u.s. part we're in uncharted waters when it comes to policy american policy related to drones this week the administration imposed financial sanctions against iranian officials so the u.s. planes but jamming satellite broadcasts and blocking internet access anywhere and 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 unhappy 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 is also made it clear that if it needs russia is still opposed to it still sees it as we're just going to go ahead with the president's actions so far have shown while he may be talking soft he's acting tough looking at some of president obama's first moves after reelection one could say he takes the idea of america being the wall police very seriously but the question is who can hold that world police itself accountable in washington i'm going to check on.

reports emerged on friday that the obama administration is considering a new approach to talks with iran that would ease sanctions but to iran must make greater concessions than ever discussed former cia officer ray mcgovern believes obama should be honest with the american people about what's really behind the pressure of the islamic republic. what i would suggest is that he call a press conference what he would say is you know the campaign is over and i found out that i've been grievously misled they told me to say that iran had threatened to wipe israel off the map and i found out that they never said that it's a matter of fact these really deputy prime minister sort of said ok ok they never said that and so my speechwriters are being canned i'm going to get some new speechwriters the intelligence community keeps telling me that he run has not yet decided to build a nuclear weapon and so i'm going to get rid of all those folks from brookings other places who are the soft on which the speech saying well you know you still

have to worry about this instead of negotiations once these troublesome people have their own agenda are dismissed then he has a square chance of saying look we're going to do a deal with the run just as i said five years ago we're going to talk directly to them and we're not going to let that be sabotaged by either israeli intelligence or is really for sure not ose within the neo conservative camp in washington and staying in the region israeli strikes have killed at least six palestinians and left some thirty injured in gaza officials in the street say four of the dad were teenagers and there are children among the injured well let's not get the latest on this correspond policy so paul israel says it was targeting militants in gaza and the question is are they hitting where they say. well more often than not they missing the latest figures we have is that the number of palestinians who have been

killed has now increased to six four of whom are teenagers now we do understand from islamic jihad that the additional two people who were killed were members of the organization so only two militants were killed most of people killed were in fact civilians there are also around thirty people who have been injured in these figures of the holding to the gaza health ministry spokesperson and among the injured are children now flare up like this among the israel gaza border are quite common place is often however tends to kill civilians rather than the militants that it says it is targeting this morning sunday there was a lot of rockets in southern israel in retaliation from the gaza strip there are reports of injuries but nothing serious the palestinians are vowing to take were vanes on these deaths and as a result israel is warning all its communities near the gaza border to stay within fifteen seconds past shelters in case there's any kind of rocket solver later today so tensions here are running extremely high this is one of the highest casualty

counts in gaza in a single incident in recent months that comes at a time of the new detention along the israel gaza border it was only some two makes ago that egypt mediation managed to calm down and only a flare up. thanks very much for bringing us the very latest polls we are reporting there now syria's president insists he will not leave his country in an exclusive interview with r.t. bashar asad said only the ballot box can determine his future he also said western powers have picked him as one of their a bogeyman and warn against foreign intervention in syria i do so sharon as a mets where the embattled leader in the mask has. 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 armed camp that had a lot of different religious groups always living in peace with each other whether it's sunni or shia or waves 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 he goes because it will get i mean that 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 is 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 in syria and iraq the loss of. ability in the region and coexistence. it will have a domino. to the pacific you know because you know. it's going. to go but. nobody can hear what's next. in our two exclusive. dot com. 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 levy as leader moammar

gadhafi fired on masri the hand of the f.s.a. his media department says it is doomed. in his statement to your 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 managed 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 remains locked in talks in qatar trying to consolidate its alliance against president this as deadly bombing ripped through the country where 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 dissident factions they also see elected a new leader on friday appealing for more weapons to help oust the president of the arab whereas associations out of our says western hands to gain political influence

in syria are failing. the only closed ability it had was with the western powers we all remember when the us forced many countries to attend a meeting in turkey to recognize this as the legitimate representative of syria which was part of the political gimmick that the u.s. and the western powers nato france britain there were following because what they wanted is the change of three g. but this is a unique case whereby there is a true revolution within syria but those who are recognized by the u.s. and others have absolutely nothing to do with it and say most of them have never been there and most of them have been out of the country for tens of years and the u.s. knew that and the west knew that but they were still nevertheless recognized as the representative of the people now they've come to realize that actually that evolution is going on in syria there is the free army there is the people who are

revolting in syria and they have no links with the external. people who are claiming to represent them so i don't think they. they had credibility before i don't think they would have credibility at the present moment because this is an attempt to create arab or over delusion everybody in the west created this something outside and this they called it a present that. anger in athens trade unions call for and other strike ahead of a parliamentary vote on next year's budget this just days after and violence village into the streets of that wee capital after the government passed the newest area measures to secure its latest bailout. also to calm china's going through l. once in a decade change of power will bring more analysis of how the country is on track to become the world's biggest economy these stories and much more after a short 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 for insulting the king over twitter wow a middle eastern country that has totally shut down any form of protest and holds you down if you tweet about the leadership so it's pretty undemocratic to me that nato is already fueling up ready to take action some 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.

it's. these. just give me a nice big wheels here let me just play by said i don't agree on agree with you. my son isn't isn't it mary and i don't know what is crap we are going to friday for you fair. share of the country. if the country isn't yours. the moon or in hope to help you.

you find in so many own says war. sigrid laboratory to mccurdy was able to build the world's most sophisticated

robots which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only dot com. he was right you are from moscow welcome back and. grey's could be a step closer to receiving the next installment of its international bailout funds but only foreign min approves a twenty thirteen budget trade unions are calling for another strike just days after athens narrowly passed a new a stary package to avoid default this week police used tear gas and water cannon against greeks protesting further budget cuts demonstrators hurled pebble bombs with more than a hundred detain the new measures which include a tax hike and pension cuts are said to be the worst so far in three years of the greek debt crisis and time is right as from the london school of economics says despite the government's hopes the new bailout won't help to improve the situation

. it's not just before stared back at its all children full time that we have at least back it is going to be the last one. but it is like in every single previous prime there's a huge problem the problem is at least back it is the root moving into the entirely different entirely wrong direction and that initial insanity according to it's insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is what's happening right now. after which the country's g.d.p. is going to go dead actually it could be country's 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 the troika interest are they serving this is one of the most kind of times of all examples and truth for this government is not going to serve the purpose of the people and it's not going to work and they favor instead just bringing down the minimum wage or the bringing down the minimum wage to complete their job just of the five hundred you know the

monthly unemployment is already up from eighteen point four percent in in august last year two thousand and lynn and it's gone up to twenty five percent this year it's projected to go to overflow to five percent by of its time next year and the people in this country have to become more self-sufficient and they have to stop depending on the supernational organizations kind of dictating rules for mobile. and once in a decade power transfer is underway in china with 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 the i am after china could surpass the us economically in real terms by twenty six regimes promising to increase its influence across the globe by ailing businesses in your building infrastructure in pakistan and cashing in on africa's fast natural resources the chinese economic

model has so far proved successful and more resistant to financial turmoil as senior fellow at chung we interviewed john way way explains. china has a successfully avoided the major crises like the one nine hundred ninety seven asian financial quizes or two thousand and eight to wall street united states for the nation. to nami. china's economy has been growing for three decades running roughly ten percent a year so i think this leadership world segment charmers ascend to a leading power. ten years from now and the world you are largely called the united states economy. well north to impose more. all of the laws of we have been largely successful mordieu which is working for us

but i think if this more there is really a success its impact will go well beyond the chinese border. should not worry that much in china's rise being a lot of opportunities for the united states as well. meanwhile the country is also looking to rise above the stratosphere of this summer long gone or he dot com to learn more about china's manned space mission for takeoff. trigger happy president obama's reelection promise. american stock up on guns and ammunition find out why on line. while the libyan town bani walid is still struggling to heal the scars of the siege which took place less than a month ago libya's touting itself as a new travel hotspot r.t. sarah first visited the world travel market and london to find out why tour operators remain silent on the tragedy we're here at the world travel market

a trade show you taking place in london or people can come to look for holiday inspiration that scouts' exotic spot for a honeymoon a one country you probably wouldn't expect to see being touted as a tourist destination and that's libya the places where the tourist interesting to the site is a political sideshow it's completely safe going to do it's got to be saved more than even dollars to big towns like london or like new york but there's somewhere that's not mentioned in the guide book bani walid a desert town this remain loyal to formally to colonel gadhafi it's just a few hours dry southeast of the traditional tourist destination chipley but it's a world away from the safe environment the two guides of pitching. the town's become the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the libyan uprising last year but despite reports of indiscriminate shelling and gas attacks on the local population at the hands of the libyan army it's been an almost total media blackout

in the. r.t. ran the story for more than a fortnight before anyone else picked it up back in london and despite libya being showcased it seems that bani walid has once again been conveniently left out of the conversation and when i saw this. it was a ghost with surprise and i came. back of the situation of the moment in libya and if we have so many people it means situations they could be coming most and we can think for next season to do something with libya and it's a wonderful country so. what about what's happening in the. lead do or do you mean was hacked was being happening there's been fighting do you know about that no we went to confront the tour operator i saw you speaking some people each telling them about what's been happening in at the moment. this is.

for the future. because it was deeply disturbing is that despite a growing body of evidence about crimes against civilians and increasingly vocal concerns from human rights organizations ek media and government remain resolutely silent they've got to sort of package nish as a success is very important for nato so we have been of these countries have been liberated in inverted commas as great places to go great places to invest and the reality for the everyday person in these countries is a living hell really pick up one of the travel information then you will be given reasons to visit living here and undoubtedly there are many there's a concerning silence in a case by the u.k. media a seeming refusal to pull. about what's been happening in places like bani walid the reality is that the new government is struggling to control its militias and bridge the divides that remain in the country but none of that you're going to read

about in a coffee break sarah. london next we expose the u.s. army's high pressure recruitment of latinos in america's schools. if you're passing through rushes to be a region you really can walk on the wild side thousands of kilometers of unspoilt countryside make up an area where it's still possible to live off the land such spectacular scenery makes it a paradise for fisherman and provides a business opportunity for hunters there are defined hunting seasons in russia but lax enforcement means many animals are killed out of the allotted times which can leave young animals orphaned and unable to survive the heart of just us forest provides a sanctuary for the most famous beast in russia it's home to a group who rescue often bear cubs and raise them when they're old enough to fend for themselves the cubs a target taken to

a remote location and released back into the wild but it's not just bears who find a haven here this is wolf island here wolf pups have been captured by hunters or bought from zoos have a second chance at life and conservationists have a unique opportunity to observe them these walls are all around four months old and they'll stay in this area for up to three years and most will go back to the wild for good just viewing them from the car was an experience in itself but then after a bit of a bumpy ride came an opportunity i just couldn't pass up. this is what i was hoping for when i heard i was coming to a place called wolf island a chance to get close and personal with the locals and it's these guys are going to act as pasta parents for the next generation will come here using the old walls as surrogate parents has already proved a successful technique. every place infant wolves with one year old wolf cubs whose

parental instinct is totally shaped and they take them as their own cubs it's going to continue to take time and money to rehabilitate the wolfs reputation in russia. but the keepers here hope their research and dedication will mean the file and remains a place where visitors can truly understand the call of the wild. mission free credit take three months for free. three. free. free. old free broadcast videos for your media project free media don tarty dot com.

i think now it's very obvious and clear and i have no doubt that donald rumsfeld may god forgive him dick cheney and george bush and the other people who have been responsible for the deaths of these tens of thousands of people americans iraqis and other nationalities tens of thousands if not over one hundred thousand people they are responsible for that because they lied because they wanted a war for economic reasons for political reasons for popularity reasons and maybe in george bush's case for family reasons. united states right now it's not beating its recruiting targets. we have walked through some neighborhoods

down here in guatemala tens of thousands of young able capable boys girls men women . give them the opportunity to come fight for us for five years and here's your green card. and lot of them are going to say yes. they think if they go to the united states they're going to find this beautiful lush lovely land no problems no one employment no violence no poverty. and sell that story create that image and you're going to have lines willing to take the risk to get into heaven like that. and as long as people are willing to pay illegally low salaries somebody will go illegally to take that job. or do you think is building the wall between mexico and california. giving stateside contractors at fourteen dollars an hour paying off. half the workers are probably undocumented or tearing false documentation because

they're taking a lower salary. and this is the wall along the mexican border. is difficult when you look we're joined by a special guest fernando suarez del sol minister look i've been asked about this country's mixed messages.