thanks. the latest news in the week's top stories barack obama's tough foreign policy option of kicks in quick after talks secured his control of the white house for another four years. urged by western powers to step down and facing death threats from the rebels the syrian president exclusively tells our team that he'll stay in office until he's voted out. and israel warns of more attacks on gaza after its latest strikes killed six palestinians four of them teenagers. and after some some of the most intense clashes in the months a greaser braces for more protests as a decision just signs on a draft pony and twenty thirteen budget. today's

headlines and top stories from this past week you're watching the weekly on our t.v. with me catherine of what republicans in the us are licking their wounds after we voters put democrat barack obama back in the nation's top job it was a close race that ultimately ended in a clear win over the hard liner mitt romney but obama soft campaign talk on foreign policy soon transformed into tough action even before the ballots had been counted as archie's going to explain. in the wake of president obama's reelection there was no so so few for you 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 we are on the american way and

we rise or fall together as one of those. waiting for him right after reelection is the so-called fiscal cliff a common. nation of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts all we need is action from the house. and i got the pen 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 view 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 in the rent 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 every other 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 a we're just going to go ahead and do it anyway 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 the world police itself accountable in washington i'm going to check on. well a former cia officer told us that obama needs to break free of the strings are being pulled from the right. 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 solve all of 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 but 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. well from a few voting machine glitches to bureaucratic barriers of voting it wasn't exactly straightforward on that and there but those problems have been batted off by the u.s. with accusations that it prefers to scrutinize everyone else's election rather than its own this we report about later. all right well r.t. spoke exclusively to the embattled syrian leader this week who is clinging on to power from the heart of the conflict zone president bashar al assad rebuffed

a western calls to step down and warned that foreign intervention could spark a global disaster the interviews available for you at r.t. dot com and it's also coming up in fall later this hour. 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 he 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 is saying that it's not civil war it's a conflict where he has to fight 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 a do from atlantic to pacific could probably be vision and it's going. to be more the whole world came before because if you have a problem in syria and the world the last stronghold of secularism. in the region and coexistence. between have a domino. to 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 didn't r.t. exclusive friday through sunday on r.t. and r.t. dot com well president bashar al assad says that only elections can determine his future but it seems that not everyone agrees the free syrian army's media chief says that they want the president's head on a plate. 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 will not manage to leave the country the free syrian army will not let him do this he will not get out of syria lying he'll be lucky if he meets the same fate as. well the leaders of the syrian opposition in exile say they have signed an initial

agreement to form a new umbrella coalition during a conference in qatar but the body has lost support in syria itself this after the local coordination committees of activists there this is about the exiled officials the president of the arab lawyers association says the foreign backed syrian national council doesn't represent the revolution. 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 legitimate 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 three g. but this is a unique case whereby there is a true revolution within syria but those who are recognized by the us 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 the religion 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 credibility before i don't think they would have credibility at the present moment because this is an attempt to create a group of you ssion ordovician everybody in the west created this something outside and they call that the present that. well israel says it is ready to strike harder against militants in gaza prime minister netanyahu is warning followed a surge of a rocket and mortar salvos from the palestinian territory six palestinians including four teenagers were killed on saturday in an israeli retaliation middle

east correspondent paula slayer has more 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 now hostilities along the israel gaza border have it's going to choppy 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 figures stands at around thirty eight including children the problem though is that often in these israeli airstrikes is rowland's of killing civilians and not militants as its intention is a must has taken responsibility for this attack there were four israeli soldiers that were wounded in it and response from the palestinian side was dozens of

rockets that were fired into southern israel early on sunday morning the whole sort of israel is in a state of high alert and this comes of palestinian militants about to take the range for these diffs now flare ups 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 single incident in recent months. well there's gritted teeth in a green more protests are planned as parliament prepares to vote for the next year's budget it doesn't make for comfortable reading for the hard pressed citizens but it does need approval in order for athens to secure a fresh international loan injection now an added condition was further wage cuts and tax hikes which now only squeeze through parliament on thursday public patient however wore out long ago with over a quarter of the country now out of work five years into the crippling slump in violent protests as lawmakers the latest concert riot police have tried securing

the parliament building experience crowds are hurled molotov cocktails and there were over one hundred arrests during that time and journalist charlie mcgrath who has been watching the developments for a wide awake news says that he had nothing could get better for athens until it isn't admits it's bankrupt. we already have people killing themselves 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 what 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 hold that they have any control of their own financial destiny whatsoever how can you do 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 intel 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 pre-market capital in their their prospects for a return to a healthy economy has to start with they're realising that they are completely and utterly broke and start over from scratch. well there's change at the top in china in the once in a decade at power we shall phone today with argentina as we tell you how the country is on track to become of the world's largest economy and one of the challenges that it faces along the way. plus rains reform campaigners face groups instead of talks in their long struggle for employees you can find out what's driving the crackdown and if you.

usually the police and occupy protesters are like oil and water but in atlanta they've come together to save the house of a former detective jacqueline barber unfortunately ms barbara lost a lot of money battling cancer and was facing eviction when she turned to occupy homes for help so far she's managed to stay in her home despite it being sold out from under her feet but the main thing is that her fight to stay in her home has become like a bridge between two groups who are usually at each other's throats the police and occupiers the thing is the cruel economic practices can affect us all even retired police like ms barber i know there are some irresponsible people who buy things they can't pay for and here the police have to do something about them but they shouldn't throw you out of your home that you've paid for for years just for getting cancer no one should have to live with the constant fear that their home will be taken away after years and years of payment just because they got sick and

america i thought we believed in private property not eternally rented from big banks but that's just my opinion. well. it's technology innovations all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. just give you can i speak with you sure let me get news stream by sort of i don't agree you don't agree with her room my son isn't isn't it marina i don't know what his country are going to be for you is there to. be. sure of your country. if the country. can hope to help you through. some of these. things.

well paul crane's leadership showed that it is still far from being ready to concede it to its publics desperate pleas for reform this is clashes erupted yet again in the country's capital national guard troops have joined police in their battle against the protesters and the growing political crisis there the latest wave of protests began on friday after security forces tear gassed thousands of shiite worshipers who were trying to reach their mosques for friday prayers a teenager was killed in a traffic incident during the clashes and there was more violence during his funeral on saturday authorities banned all public gatherings last week in order to quell nearly two years of ongoing anti-government actions geo political analyst patrick henningsen says that western nations are helping the monarchy gag the

opposition. well if you look at you know william hague and hillary clinton go dancing around with the friends of. we're in meetings accusing the assad government of crimes against humanity you only have to look at bahrain to look at a litany of crimes they're revoking nationality of protesters right now they're they blaming the latest bombing on hezbollah as if this hizbollah has any any connection with bahrain so why not be a rajab he's going to have his appeal denied next week by the the all talk or see in bahrain so you know the euro loves bahrain and they go down there for loads of money in that country formula one grand prix every year and loads of oil coming out of that country there's absolutely zero chance of any democratic reform in this country and this is a country that absolutely needs it washington and london have more or less given the go ahead for the bahraini roll family and that and that government that

autocracy to really go hard and fast and drop the hammer down on any pro reform movements and that's exactly what we've seen. well the e.u. has its budget begging bowl outwith leaders in for some tough talks to secure future funding from broke member states brussels wants more money but britain this week said that it won't shell out any more cash despite attempts to sweet talk it by germany's chancellor merkel and downing street now euro m.p. roger hell miller says that britain should go further. the poorest states welcome the funding they get from from brussels but of course from a british point of view we are and have been for very many years a net contributor to the e.u. and we're not getting any benefits let's be quite clear there are no benefits of membership that we could not get from a simple free trade arrangement many countries around the world have free trade deals with the european union mexico korea india is negotiating one they have

a much better deal than we have as members without all the trading there is no reason to suppose that britain would do any less trade with europe in fact we're already members of the free trade area which preceded the european union and if we were to leave the european union we would still be in the free trade area the germans would still want to serve us b.m.w.'s analogies and mercs and we'd still want to sell them jagger's and. where several high ranking russian officials were sacked this week in the wake of corruption allegations shaking the country's military the defense minister his first deputy and joint chief of staff were forced out after the ministry was drawn into a scandal over allegedly selling assets at well below market value and it's not just their russia space industry is also improving a corruption scandal a government backed probes underway into the company developing russia's satellite navigation system called alone asked after it was revealed that over two hundred million dollars were allegedly embezzled by management president putin and his

predecessor dmitry medvedev had named countering corruption and russia as one of their main goals. well five months behind closed doors is taking its toll on julian of songe it's fear of the whistleblowers deteriorating mental health is putting him in real jeopardy of the report online. plus the feeling that forced the cia boss out of his job but is in delhi the only reason for the troops to go. also rolling with the stone tough times force one of mick jagger's girlfriends from the sixty's to auction off the rock legends of the love letters all those details for you and much more at r.t. dot com. well china has launched its once in a decade transfer of power this week the communist party congress is now reviewing its list of candidates and it's expected to announce them in about three days the incoming top officials are valid to tackle the growing challenges facing the

world's second largest economy the i.m.f. predicts that it will overtake the u.s. to become number one by twenty sixteen that is in real terms now beijing is promising to increase its influence across the globe buying up ailing businesses in europe pulling building infrastructure projects in pakistan and of course cashing in on africa's vast natural resources but it won't be that easy as economic researcher william and explained to our team. the corruption issue and that's a huge issue among the chinese population i've talked with students as recently as three weeks ago when i was in beijing. and i asked them what they considered the greatest weaknesses and this is a pervasive sense among young people that the party leadership is not. in touch with the aspirations of the younger generation or the people generally in this this is a question of the very legitimacy of the party and that i think is a huge challenge that they are going to have to address the chinese are very

concerned about the so-called obama pivot the asian pivot which is really a china pivot that obama announced earlier this year the south china sea the provocations there with in the eastern part of that with the islands next to taiwan where the japanese government made an extremely provocative move no doubt at the behest of washington to claim that those islands are japanese islands because private investors sold them to the japanese government now that those islands are a security necessity for the chinese in their long term defense as they see it and historically the chinese have. quite a strong right to claim those as chinese territory so it's a very provocative kind of game that's going on between japan and australia and the chinese with the us very much in the background. well less than a month after the deadly assault on libya's historic opposition stronghold. the

country is surprisingly being touted as a tourist hot spot and out of the four shores will take the full picture of a nation that's been ravaged by revolution as we report short game. also contracts corruption and question marks are robbed in ice pulling a four billion dollar arms deal with russia over concerns open foul play in baghdad will explain the full story in just protect. the interests lie often enough and knows that to ride a horse you've got to catch it first. for him it's a daily routine that you're soft as a force on the island of horn and the heart of by call his life on an isolated farm

is about blue sky green grass and his horses were there sometimes he gets lonely here who have become totally made no move so many times sometimes. it's part of my every day life. i've been home to it around it's like you just saw for centuries most still live off the land but you can't and fish. might call is often called the pearl of siberia a horn is sent to be the pearl of by call it's all end of think forests. and boss stops. virtually undiscovered by tourists until some. and two years ago i was cornish quickly becoming a magnet for nature lovers and curial seekers you're quite some way from

civilization here accommodation on the island is very basic so you can forget about it or even run in water for most people tent is the only real option but for those who come here it's exactly what they're looking for. in journey to buy coal can be unique a trip of a lifetime and the locals say once you've seen it will be coming back again and again. welcome back well libya has been trying to tout its wealth of ancient ruins in order to tempt tourists back this of course after the revolution kept the visitors well away but the country is most recent history is unfortunately off the map and

vacationers aren't likely to learn much about the recent deadly siege of bani walid archies our firth has more. we're here at the world travel market a trade say taking place in london or people can consulates the holiday inspiration of 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 the site is a political sideshow it's completely say it's got to be saved more than even towns to big towns like london or my new york but there's somewhere that's not mentioned in the guide the 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 of pitching. the town's

become the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the libyan uprising last year that 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. us he ran the story for more than a fortnight before anyone else picked it up back in london and despite libya being shaikh ace it seems that bani walid has once again been conveniently left out the conversation when i saw this. it was a ghost surprise and i came. back of the situation of the moment 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 bani walid at the moment when you were lead do or 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 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 the same media and government remain resolutely silent i'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 and you will be given reasons to visit libya and undoubtedly there are many there's a concerning silence in a case by the u.k. media a seeming refusal.