the latest news in the week's top stories barack obama's tough foreign policy action kicks in quick after softer rhetoric secured its control of the white house for another four years. the greek parliament approves next year's budget with a comfortable majority slashing spending to satisfy its foreign lenders finally qualify for them today tranche of new bailout loans. urged by western powers to step down and facing death threats from the rebels the syrian president exclusively tells our team got to stay until he's voted out. and israel takes aim at its neighbors firing its first rounds at syria since one thousand nine hundred seventy three so after killing six palestinian civilians retaliate for

attacks from gaza. on air and online you're watching artie's weekly news review well after a grueling campaign that cost almost a billion dollars. secured a second term as a u.s. president he edged a hard line at mitt romney by setting a socially conscious domestic vision and a diplomacy based focus on foreign affairs but obama's soft campaign talk soon transformed into even tougher action that's before all the ballots have been counted all he's going to is you can expect. 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. 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'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 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 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 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 this year 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 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 realizing one could say he picks 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 a former cia officer told r.t. that obama needs to break free of the pressure exerted by america's right wing. 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 the israeli 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 ryan 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 then he has a square chance of saying look we're going to do a deal with iran 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 israeli official or not those within the neoconservative camp in washington. well from voting machine glitches to build pratik barriers voting wasn't exactly straightforward for some americans these couples have been dropped in the united states with accusations prefers to scrutinize other country's elections on its own as we report later. greek lawmakers have approved next year's budget

a whole see government spending slashed by nine billion euros the figure the marred by international lenders the move follows the passage of another even more extensive austerity package that's part of violent protests on thursday some place qualifies for the next tranche of bailout money from the in just in time to avoid bankruptcy economists literacy and uplifts says passing the budget on such terms is less about helping the economy and more about external control of greek finances the release of these lawmen wagered long delayed thirty one point five billion euro tranche that's the only thing that the government used as justification for the program. and the problem is unfair and probably is going to bring more recession and recovery light years what they want to do is to have full control of budgetary situation i was reading as their

disempowerment off and peace to have a say in the market itself so really the new conditions have to do with who is in our control of the budgetary and new situation in greece is the greek government or is berlin. having last say nothing. well syria's president has rebuffed western calls to step down and warm that foreign intervention will spark a global disaster this in an exclusive interview for r.t. this week you can catch it online at www dot com interview so if you should know to explains what bashar assad had to say. the 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 talked to people yes the country is divided and even the people who didn't like assad 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 country 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 the fact 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 fight different fractions of terrorism. as on the fact that the financing of this terrorist fractions was unprecedented and it was coming

from abroad what he also said that if the west were to intervene militarily it would have a do you know if from atlantic to pacific the problem. is going. doric more than the whole world came before because if you have a problem in theory and god with loss of time call of secularism. cavity in the region and coexistence it think it will have a domino effect benefit the world from the atlantic to the pacific and you know the implication all but if on going to thought of it i don't think. we're through going in but. we got but we did with nobody can tell you what's next. for present men tains only elections can determine his future but it seems that not everyone agrees the free syrian army is media chief says they want the president's head on the 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 not managed to leave the country the free syrian army will not let you do this you will not get out of syria lie and you'll be lucky if you are not the same fate as menarche death. well leaders of the syrian opposition say they've signed an initial agreement to form a new impredicative this folks who elected him either at a gathering in qatar has the table and ask a skerrick and syria was voted as head of the body this comes off the name the anti assad group the syrian national council lost support inside the country itself after key activists there broke away from the exiled officials you know u.k.'s top which i don't says his countrymen don't send them to military intervention as it is this winter political analyst franklin says that any forward action can topple ass at this point. no fly zone

massive massive air strikes no i don't think. the regime can be defeated because their air force is being supplied it still has a lot of reserves and i don't i don't see it measured got nato or a ground invasion i think what we've seen so far of this opposition which is actually splendor again some ways they've got a very steep slope to climb the only reason we have that almost tissue quality was the threats and they could be and the political pressure that was put on them they had to do something this weekend do you think the west is going to show up in qatar and arrange a show no result no how long it will last we don't know and it's been twenty one months into libya you recall and there are factions still aren't glued together and they had the benefit of the one thousand bombing runs by nato so i i think that the other problem is not the groups themselves which are very disparate but the lack of

support. they've got now among the syrian people and what they have lost in terms of respect with through a lot of crimes they've committed a lot of assassinations and massacres this is a last ditch effort in a sense to try to put together viable opposition and only time will tell if it's going to stick together. and as the syrian opposition struggles to form a viable force israel fos its first rounds at the country in decades it comes on the back of the strike on civilians by israel from gaza retaliation for an attack by militants. and less than a month past the end of the siege of the libyan city planning on the need to find out just how much is not being told the country is going to is to nation still ahead in the program. bahrain's largest opposition group says

hopes are fading for any breakthrough dialogue the gulf kingdom's deepening crisis witnessed fresh clashes this week with authorities deploying its paramilitary national guard to back police in their battle against protesters where latest wave of protests began on friday the forces gassed thousands of shiite worshippers trying to reach their mosques for prayers teenager was killed in a traffic instant during the clashes and there's more violence during his funeral on saturday authorities banned public gatherings last week to quell nearly two years of government actions opposition politician. says the international community needs to put more pressure on backing. in doing. things like. meeting in d.c. with. ministers and officials so everyone is banking on all of the international community are saying to their government don't look at the dialogue

they don't want to go to the dialogue they don't want to respond to the people to the one that's why they are. security aspect and try to. do all. they want to buy land but this is create small island platform so they know not to go to political dialogue without. pressure. from don't the national community only get to ask. for the dialogue and reform nothing will happen and we will continue with this stalemate but this is stalemate and stagnation. and known. israel's military is currently engaged on both its northern and southern front is the country fired into syria for the first time since the seventy's response to a mortar attack on the golan heights. his warning of tougher action against

militants in gaza after surgeon salvos from the palestinian territory reports. only on sunday afternoon israel fired into syrian territory for the first time since the nine hundred seventy three war as though they really are with the israeli defense forces folks listen unit who did confirm that these warning shots took place he said that they were in response to a mortar shell for link near and the israeli military post in the golan heights now these ladies do not believe that they were the target they do believe that the shell was part of the byproduct of the internal fighting taking place in syria between forces loyal to assad and rebel fighters but the army is saying that if one hundred eight more attacks from syria that violates the disengagement agreement between israel and syria now there have been several such incidents over the past two weeks just last week three syrian tanks crossed over the demilitarized zone between the two countries alarming israelis and also causing them to raise their

alert in the area the idea has filed a complaint with the united nations saying that any kind of high image meeting from syria into israel will be responded to also on the southern israeli border we have seen a flare up of violence between the israelis and palestinian militants the latest we heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is that his country is ready to strike harder 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 escalated 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 biggest stands at around thirty eight including children the problem though is that often in these israeli airstrikes

israel lands up killing civilians and not militants as its intention. it is a must have taken responsibility for this attack they worked for 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 south 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 this month this though is one of the highest casualty counts in gaza in a single incident in recent months. in the ballance between rival religious groups erupts in neighboring lebanon three people were killed in a gun battle in a sunni followers of a hardline cleric confronted his butt off fighters comes at a time when shia muslims including his butt i'll walk in under ten the morning ritual is later spillover of the fighting in syria which analysts say is

a mirror image of lebanon's own sectarian divisions. violent clashes a broken out in warsaw for around twenty thousand people on polish independence day the test is chanted anti-government slogans and threw fire crackers security forces and rubber bullets tear gas and baton to the situation room. two police officers were injured and several right wing nationalists detained. a british soldier in afghanistan has been shot dead by a man wearing an afghan military uniform the shooting took place in helmand province and is the latest in a series of so-called green on blue attacks such incidents have claimed the lives of more than sixty coalition troops this year and then. at least twelve people have been killed and dozens more injured in a devastating earthquake in the in the six point eight magnitude quake struck near the largest city monday elapsing

a bridge and throwing workers into the river is the biggest earthquake to hit the country since twenty eleven. west african leaders have agreed to deploy more than three thousand troops to tackle that equation midsts in mali. linked militants seized control of the evil the country more than six months ago conscience didn't lead to a final approval for the action on the un security council. now libya is trying to tout its wealth of ancient ruins to encourage tourists back to the country after the revolution visitors went away the country's most recent history is off the map or they may have done much about the deadly siege of bani walid less than a month ago artists are a further experience we're here at the world market a trade show a taking place. where people can consulate the holiday inspiration that scouts exotic spot for a honeymoon a one country you probably wouldn't expect to see being touted as

a tourist. and that's libya the places where the tourist interesting the site is a political fight so it's completely safe it's got to be safe more than even 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 chipley 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. story for more than a thought night before anyone else picked it up back in london and despite libya

being shaikh aced 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 at the moment and if we have so many people means our situation is 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. what do you mean what's happened was 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 you telling them about what's been happening in bani walid at the moment. this is. for the. 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 media and government remain resolutely silent i've got to sort of package this as a success it's very important for nato so we have. 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 travel information and 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 divides that remain in the country but none of that you're going to read about. well five months behind closed doors is taking its toll on julian the songs it's

fear is deteriorating mental health is putting him in jeopardy the report on. the cost the cia says it is going to really want to force patrol. tough times force one of mick jagger's go friends from the sixty's. he tells right dot com. the u.s. election wasn't without its glitches with some reports of voting irregularities but it's overseas polls which seem to be a big concern to americans. and the reports. you know like to me to tell you the

truth honesty is the best policy while maybe not in u.s. elections two words define why people hate america double standard on everything this presidential election season these two words are back in full swing the basic definition of a double standard is a rule or principle unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups let's find out if this is relevant to the us election system from questionable voter id regulations to shorten to early voting time slots to gerrymandering were rejoicing congressional district lines to favor certain party laws affecting voters rights are passed left and right and vary state by state do you have an eric holder this video shows how easy it is to attempt to steal attorney general eric holder's vote when an idea is not required i should forget my id. yet places that do ask for a government issued photo id can affect over ten percent of americans that simply

don't have one there is an attempt to prevent large numbers of people from actually exercising the ballot election monitors usually serve the purpose of keeping track of and discrepancies and while the us likes to keep a close eye on the way elections are handled abroad even the carter center which grows a rod and does the great we're monitoring elections. refuses to monitor us elections on the grounds don't meet the basic standards of integrity when election ideals are not met elsewhere criticism runs rampant elections in venezuela elections in iran elections in russia. the press will go to town on any sign that the outcome was fixed and while nit picking abroad is all the rage the elephant in the room remains unnoticed at home policymakers and to a great extent our media and and trickle down to the american people have literally the literally think that the rest of the world is stupid. that they don't see it

that everybody naturally house to admit you know admire us that we're great and that's not the case well obvious flaws are met with a deaf ear here in and year out a flawed election process continues to be the first vote cast in the u.s. and if there's a church in our party new york. but coming up almost thirty years ago india suffered the worst industrial disaster in its history and poisonous gas leak from the union carbide plant in bhopal the special report takes a look at the effects of the catastrophe that is still being felt today. well. science technology innovation all these developments from

around russia we've got the future covered. if lines. would be soon which brightened if you knew a song from finest impression it's. nice clean stone totty dot com. wealthy british style. is not on. the. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds

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