today's top stories and the best of the week while four more years for barack obama his new term kicked off with a tougher foreign policy new sanctions on iran and authorizing drone strikes in yemen. israel warns of more replies or attacks on gaza this is the latest israeli strikes killed at least six palestinians four of them teenagers but a live update from our correspondent in the region. and syrian president bashar al assad pledges to stay in his war torn homeland no matter what the says he exclusively talks to a party. more

old news and an update on the best stories throughout the week you're watching our team with me lucy catherine of well after the most expensive election campaign in u.s. history barack obama was reelected this week as the u.s. president beating his republican rival mitt romney and although many had picked obama over romney because of his softer talk on porn policy he doesn't quite walk the walk and artie's got an education 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 in his foreign policy rhetoric also a seemingly out of touch with middle class america if congress fails to come to an agreement on an overly a deficit reduction package by the end of the year. everybody's taxes will automatically go up on january first waiting for. 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 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 week the administration imposed financial sanctions against iranian officials so the u.s. planes were jamming satellite broadcasts and blocking internet access and you read that comes on top of a whole lot of other sanctions that had 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 threaten to topple the government by inciting you know food riots or you know people who are unhappy because they can't 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 never had a democrat that i'm aware of is also made it clear that if it needs russia is still opposed to it still sees it as as if we're just going to go ahead with any of 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't hold that world police itself accountable in washington i'm going to check on. well according to london based author and journalist afshin rattansi america's foreign policy remains just as it is regardless of who is at the helm there be very little difference between a republican or a democrat as we can see from president obama's policy of covertly funding syrian rebels and didn't know about assassinations in tehran on tehran streets of academics we don't know what is obama promising except this kind of vague idea of constructive engagement while all the terms supporting i mean it it's an odd word these terrorists we know president obama has been actively courting along with his secretary of state we. in the rebellion in syria and of course supporting also developments in libya so how so many people have been hoodwinked into thinking that

president obama or president romney would be different when it came to foreign policy i don't know where they get that from. all right well israel says that it is ready to strike harder against militants in gaza with prime minister benjamin netanyahu warning of an escalator response to the shelling from that strip six palestinians four civilians among them have been killed since saturday following the israeli attacks now let's separate us from our correspondent in the region paula slayer paula obviously prime minister netanyahu taking a harsh stance here promising to crack down with an iron fist perhaps trying not to seem weak before his election in january when you look at these actual strikes are they are they proving effect on the ground. well they're not proving largely effective the latest we heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is that his country is ready to strike hard to against the gaza strip if it does not stop attacking israel he made these remarks today sunday at the weekly cabinet

meeting in which he said and i'm quoting that the world must understand that israel cannot sit idly by while attempts are made to attack it and the hostilities along the israel gaza border have it's going to be particularly this past weekend this follows israeli airstrikes that killed six palestinians four of whom were teenagers and two of whom belonged to the militant group islamic jihad according to the gaza health ministry spokesperson there are a number of people who were injured the figure stands at around thirty including children the problem though is that often in these israeli airstrikes israel ends up killing civilians and not militants as its intention is a mass has taken responsibility for this attack there were four israeli soldiers that were wounded and response from the palestinian side was dozens of rockets that were fired into southern israel on sunday morning the whole sort of israel is in a state of high alert and this comes as palestinian militants vow to take revenge for these deaths now flareups along the israeli gaza border are quite common and we

had seen already two flare ups of this not of this though is one of the highest casualty counts in gaza in a sea. incident in recent months but it certainly doesn't bode well for peace and that the country artie's possibly are keeping us up to date thank you so much. well syria's president insists that he will not leave his country and in exclusive interview with r t bashar al assad said that only the ballot box could determine his future of he also says that he thinks western powers have picked him as one of their bogeyman and he warned against foreign intervention in syria well or do so via shevardnadze met with the embattled leader in damascus and has this report. but the thing that really mark 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 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's not a western puppet he also denies to fuck that civil war is taking place in his country he's saying that it's not a 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. is going. to be more than. before because if you have problem if you get the flow through. in the region and coexistence. between have a domain or. the pacific. you know because you know. it's going. to go but you do so. what's next but. i didn't are to exclusive friday through sunday on r t r t dot com well after that interview was aired at least one member of the free syrian army the main opposition group and that country had threatened to president bashar al assad that he would follow the fate of libya's leader moammar gadhafi they had of the f.s.a.

is media department miles really told r.t. that he thinks assad is doomed. 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. well the syrian opposition remains locked in talks and qatar trying to consolidate its alliance against president assad this deadly bombing ripped through the country with the latest attack killing at least twenty soldiers meanwhile the syrian national council the main opposition group has come under western pressure to a sept a new unity plan this i met a growing frustration from other dissident factions the s.n.c. had elected a new leader on friday appealing for more weapons to help oust president assad now

the president of the arab lawyers association a look at our says that the western powers attempt to gain political influence in syria is failing. because the only credibility 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 only representative of syria which was part of the political gimmick that the us and the western powers nato france britain were following because what they wanted is the change of regime but this is a unique case whereby there is a true revolution within syria but those who are recognized by the and. u.s. and others have absolutely nothing to do with it and so most of them have never been there and most of them have been out of the country for tens of years and the us knew that and the west knew that but they were still nevertheless recognized as the representative of the people now they have come to realize that actually that

evolution is going on in syria there is the i mean there is the people who are revolting in syria and they have no links with the external. people who can a me to represent them so i don't think they had credibility before i don't think they would have credibility at the present moment because this is an effort to create a group of you share in order of addition everybody in the west created this something outside and they called it a present that. well more stories for you coming up including anger and onset trading in its call for another strike ahead of a parliamentary vote on the next year's budget this is just days after violence spilled into the streets of the greek capital in protest over the government's new austerity measures to secure its latest bailout. also the comet china is going through a once in a decade change of power to bring you more analysis on how the country is on track to become the world's biggest economy these stories and much more for you coming up

after the 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 i bet nato is already fueling up ready to take action and bomb 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. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world from the streets of canada. showing corporations through today. i mean so know your city in europe i'm the host of a twenty four t. in winter the pick a. song. thank you. thank you. dog days are. days it.

makes. you feel. it's so true. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world's hot spots seventy ip interviews intriguing story are you. trying. to find out more visit.

you're watching r t with me lucy. well grace could be a step closer to receiving a the next bailout installment but only if its parliament approves next year's budget meanwhile trade unions are calling for another strike this show. days after athens finale passed a new austerity budget now earlier this week police have used tear gas and water cannons against weeks protesting further budget cuts demonstrators have hurled petrol bombs on more than one hundred of them to taint the new measures which include a tax hike and pension cuts are said to be the worst so far in the three years of

the greek debt crisis meanwhile journalist charlie mcgrath says that the situation will most change for the better until athens acknowledges that it's bankrupt. we already have people killing themselves in front of parliament in greece you have people that are losing everything using hope that the last thing to go i think is going to be you know their sense that they have anybody representing them with so far whatsoever you have this tyranny of the technocrat majority inside greece one hundred fifty three out of three hundred vote more austerity on the people i think it is they continue to lose all hope that they have any control of their own financial destiny whatsoever how can it be anything but you don't digress into but potentially civil war the financial health of the country is not going to change for the better until they realize that they are in default they're bankrupt and they tell the banks that are holding their debt and the european union and the e.c.b. and the trail that they are going to default this is what happens in the market cap in their their prospects for a return to

a healthy economy has to start with their realizing that they are completely and utterly broke and start over from scratch. well once in a decade power transfer is underway in china the lou new leadership will have to tackle the growing challenges of handling the world's second largest economy and now the i.m.f. says that in real terms china could surpass the u.s. economically by twenty or sixteen beijing is promising to increase its influence across the globe bottling up buying up elling businesses in europe building infrastructure in pakistan and cashing in on africa's vast natural resources experts say that the chinese economic model has so far proven successful and at least somewhat more resistant to financial turmoil china has a successfully avoided the major crisis like nine hundred ninety seven asian find it requires says or two thousand and eight to wall street united states when they show. me. china's economy has been growing for three decades running

roughly ten percent a year so i think this leadership world segment china's ascendance two leading powers the. ten years from the world large economy the united states economy onload united states where a lot. more. all of the laws of we have a largely successful mordieu which is working for us but i think if this more there is really success its impact will go well beyond the chinese border. should not worry that much in china's rise been a lot of opportunities for the united states as well. meanwhile the country is once again after the final frontier common at samarra you can log on to our t.v. dot com to learn more about china's next manned space mission which is set for

takeoff this june. also for you trigger happy president obama's reelection promise americans to stop a. on guns and ammo you can find out more. well while the libyan town of bani walid is still struggling to heal the scars of the siege which took place less than one month ago libya is touting itself as a new travel hotspot artist sara furthur visited the world travel market in london to find out why tour operators remain silent on the tragedy we're here at the world travel market a trade 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 side so it's completely safe going to do it's got to be saved more than

even dollars to breakdowns like london or 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 tripoli but it's a world away from the safe environment the two guides the 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 there'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 when i saw this. it was of course with surprise and i came. back of

the situation of the moment in libya and if we have so many people it means our situation is that it becoming more stable and we can think for next season to do something with libya and it's a wonderful country so we are. good about what's happening at the moment i knew you were legal but do you mean what's happening as being happening there there's been fighting do you know about that no we went to confront the tour operator i saw you speaking some people eat telling them about what's been happening in benny walid at the moment. this is. for the future. reason 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 the same media and government remain resolutely silent they've got to sort of package nish as a success it's very important for nato so we have this sort. of these countries

have been liberated in inverted commas 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 libya and undoubtedly there are many there's a concerning silence here that's been echoed by the u.k. media a seeming refusal to talk. about what's been happening in places like. the reality is that the new government is struggling to control its militias and bridge the deep divides that remain in the country but none of that you're going to read about in a very sorry oxy london. well tour operators may hold people from all over the world had to libya there are some who do see the country from the inside a relative of those trapped in bani walid told our team what conditions they have to live in he asked us to shield his identity for his own safety nobody nobody can . nobody can go. and get close. to.

be able to leave without that it's. going to get is know if. you can leave you know. and. many. many could lose they got to. go to your. room but it would. be going to. kill several high ranking russian officials have lost their jobs this week in the wake of a corruption allegations shaking the country's military the defense minister his first deputy and joint chief of staff were replaced after the ministry was drawn into that scandal over the alleged selling off of assets at well below market value meanwhile russia's space industry is also in the throes of

a corruption scandal as i was revealed to that around two hundred million dollars for allegedly embezzled by the management of the company developing russian satellite navigation systems known as now president putin as well as his predecessor dmitry medvedev had named countering corruption and russia as one of their main goals. well rock's defense minister just denies that his country has cancelled a four million dollar arms deal with russia reports on saturday suggested that baghdad had pulled the contract but the minister says the sale has been put under review and concerns of internal corruption government and a business consultant to consult horse tells us the complications are a sign of pressure from washington if this deal head to gone through that would have meant for the iraqi people it kind of you know starting a balanced situation of the yelling east and with sort of see that would be healthy for the iraqi people because this is in line with their geographical very simple

geographical situation now putting this deal under pressure you know that means that the us are insisting on a monopole in the region it is it is very clear you know it is not mr maliki who is calling the shots in the iraqi policies that is the us right now and that they are not able you know to allow a little petition just a little you that is a very sad story for for washington and it doesn't bear good sides for the future. all right well more world news making headlines for you this hour in pakistan a series of violent attacks across karate have claimed the lives of seventeen people injuring dozens more gunmen on motorcycles had carried out several targeted killings with a magazine editor and five a seminary students said to be among the victims the motives for the attacks are not yet clear meanwhile sectarian political and ethnic violence in that city has

resulted in nearly two thousand deaths this year alone. saudi arabia's top spiritual leader has issued a prohibition against any contact with the foreign press amid ongoing pro-democracy of protest announcing the regime he had urged his worshippers to in the capital of riyadh to save their complaints to the authorities in charge the move to claims the international media is unreliable and accuse the press of wanting to destroy his country's unity. meanwhile the b.b.c.'s reputation has taking a huge hit with a reporting scandal forcing its head george george and whistle to resign now the broadcasters flagship programme on newsnight have mostly accused a conservative lord of child sexual abuse that had forced and was told to put his post he said that he wasn't aware of the broadcast his tenure as the b.b.c. chief lasted just under two months the shortest in the corporation's history. well

as sochi gears up for the twenty fourteen winter olympic games the volunteers across russia are starting their very own preparations to help the city greet the globe now our special report on that issue is up next don't go away. the sun rises over what seems like and loosed forest here in the new directions crime hundred kilometers north of la due for a storm as much of the world. it's disappearing at a catastrophic rate. for. mortgages both illegal and those finding ways to outsmart the system for filing down the forests of the region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis the world wildlife fund for

nature makes regular trips to help local rangers do what little they can to stop the logging but it's not easy logger set up trucks making them hard to reach in an already rough terrain and have mastered ways to jump through legal loopholes this is a nature reserve were only sanitary logging of disease trees is allowed cording to law and not a single berry can be picked up along like this used their sanitary logging permit to cut down absolutely healthy trees and sell the profitable to member over the border in china we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be easy to farmers. and our chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dreams but as soon as we find tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and get out silently in order not to scare the loggers off alexander someone in ca has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group.