tonight six wealthy americans who will foot the bill president obama signed the stopgap law to raise their taxes as part of the deal to avoid plunging off a fiscal cliff. strike kills up to seventy people to damascus fuel station of mutual accusations between the rebels and the syrian regime. while the church of england needs a face lift as its founding creasing get attached by britain's population of course to strip it centuries old power.

from moscow if you just never know when you're at the new census like ten pm here now our top story president obama is to sign the law increasing taxes on wealthy americans the deal was passed by congress after months of political bickering to avoid the fiscal cliff and the threat of a destructive recession it was rushed through on tuesday night before the financial markets reopened after the new year holiday less than twenty four hours after getting senate approval the move prevents deep spending cuts and middle class tax hikes which technically took effect at midnight on gender the first compromise to greece's taxes on household incomes then over four hundred fifty thousand dollars and delay spending cuts for two months some economists though see this of being of little help to revive america. really leave out to really big question that they would have to attack caught in the. one or two month's time the number one priority

would be sealing. the us gov the government already unleashed desailly of sixteen point three trillion u s dollars and they are using the. tricks to get over to government u.s. government over for two months but in february they have nowhere to go they have to go back to the congress a request. that their ceiling and the other one is the long term solution would be budget deficit fiscal deficit is running one trillion dollars a year because tax increases spending because the problem is only reduce the deficit by something like two hundred billion dollars it's way short the government the us government have to cut the deficit to zero or actually to a surplus in order to pay off the huge debt. one area where america's like could

rake in a few more dollars those next years arms sales in the bonanzas most likely to come from pushing weapons in the asia pacific given alice is on that a bit later in the program. like this in syria say up to seventy people have been killed and dozens injured in an airstrike that hit a gas station in the damascus suburbs eyewitnesses say many of the dead are women and children the u.n. report says at least sixty thousand people have been killed now since the civil war began almost two years ago this despite a warning from the top international peace envoy to syria that the country faces hell without without talks meanwhile reports say the syrian rebels claim they could no produce chemical weapons and could use them if attacked by the government middle east expert dr tawfik shoma told me the lack of dialogue will lead to even more violence. if. peace negotiation and peace initiative presented by brahimi last russia is not accepted by the opposition as is at the moment the

situation in syria will be escalating so the opposition is the party who is. refusing any negotiation with the government one position have a chemical weapons this is a very dangerous and with very serious matter and i think. they don't have. all the legal bounding limits to not to use it and the danger now is to be used and then blame the government for it to initiate some kind of international response against the syrian government this is a dangerous position and i think that this is what the syrian government should have always been saying that these to undermine the syrian government and to to get some kind of international attention and international support especially from the nato on the powers of the west. britain's next generation of scientists doctors

a politicians could be at risk because teachers morale continues to drop let's talk about this with a london correspondent laura smith on the line the other laura. well the national union of teachers the biggest teachers' union in the u.k. has commissioned a survey which says that morale among teachers has dropped dramatically they talked about the highs and lows of life in the classroom incredibly low morale but also frustrated continual criticism and interference from the government they said and the figures are quite staggering actually fifty five percent of teachers surveyed said that morale was either very low and that's up from forty two percent just eight months ago so it's really on a declining trend since specific figures seventy one percent of the teachers are said they rarely or never felt trusted by the government seventy seven percent said that they didn't feel that specific education policies of the government so specialist schools free schools were taking education in the right direction in

this country and just five percent felt that this current coalition government impact on the education system was positive and had more specific about what the teachers don't like about the government's policies here. well there are specifics that they don't like they don't like this continuing interference they say that every new government that comes in completely revamped the national curriculum and the education system from what it was before say that constantly on the back foot trying to get used to new systems there's a new test now where children aged just by are tested on phonics some children obviously failed that test and teaches a saying that if you fail a test age five it has a huge impact on your future development makes you feel like a failure from an incredibly young age they're also trying to change the exam system again introducing a thing called back where just a few core subjects would be examined differently from other subjects and people who are in the arts and sports and all those subjects that you really liked when you were at school say that that you know children aren't going to take those

subjects anymore schools are going to place less emphasis on them they're fighting against that and there's also a plan to force schools that are failing to become a specialist academies where they concentrate on just one specific subject and teachers even teachers who now work in those academies say that that is not a good policy that the academies policy as a whole is not a good one how much of this is that of the general malays afraid to britain during all the cups and maybe some new year blues. yeah this survey was done before new year's is probably no blues but as far as austerity goes there certainly is you know teachers talk about how cuts in general have affected families and the students that they teach they say that families who are the children have less access to technology at home they have parents you can't help them necessarily with their schoolwork and in fact i talked to christine loh who's the general secretary of the national union of teachers and she talked about that let's hear it. in the

general sense what the government is doing wrong is its whole approach to austerity because one of the things that's obvious to teachers is that great swathes of children and their families are having a very difficult time at the moment and if families lose benefit in london for example that's going to be a huge problem with housing benefit cuts that have to be schools and of course you know family income drops just to clean which it has and lots of places children are coming to school hungry they haven't had part first they may not go and get a meal in the evening so in a general sense there are really quite big problems. and the upshot of that is that seventy six percent of teachers surveyed said that austerity measures were having a negative impact on your british teachers will get nervous about reform yet they want changes now to improve their situation is what will make the the difference at minimal cost to them. well cost is of course the issue the survey asked

a specific question about education secretary michael gove it turns out that he's one of the most unpopular education secretaries the world has ever known so a lot of teachers want michael gove to resign they say although of course he thinks he's doing the best thing rushing through these changes they want fewer and slower reforms they say they want to be consulted more because as i said every government comes in it scraps the current policies and it introduces its own new ones and this government is no different you just find that very frustrating and they say that they don't feel trusted as professionals they say that you know the government doesn't trust and they won't leave them alone to do their jobs and that of course has a huge impact on future generations of children and in fact the national union of teachers is not ruling out striking unions of course never rule out striking christine told me specifically that they don't rule it out. the government is attacking pay and conditions and in fact just before christmas michael gave the education secretary was reported in newspapers having put the department of education on

a war footing with teachers which is not going to help going forward there's not the worst education official the world reserve. all right laura thanks ever so much for the. church of england to find the u.k. its laws for centuries but its privileges no appear to far outweigh its place among british society in the past the number of people who consider themselves christian . has dropped by more than four million police reports on whether it's time for today's religious mix to get the recognition that. one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world with one official state religion to some it's a paradox i think any institute any faith institution like the church of england is going to have some potential threats on the horizon and those threats on the horizon are basically around its relevance to communities in general other faiths are significantly growing in their population but the voice in

a social and political level so it's really important to have a plurality of opinion rather than just focus on one institution as being reflective of the nation yet the national church has twenty six on the elected members in the house of lords the upper house of britain's parliament and it enjoys financial privileges courtesy of the u.k. taxpayer by the church's own admission the number of people coming through the doors of this and every other church in england has hauled over the past forty years the very same report even warns that in the longer term the established religion faces fading away to virtual envelopment twenty anglican churches just like this one being closed down for worship each year entrepreneurial property developers a snapping them up and converting them to luxury housing or even light clubs while the number of church goers in the u.k. continues to fall some one hundred thousand britons have converted to islam over

the past decade three quarters of those white women as you know broaden my knowledge about islam and compared with christianity i must tell you i found a more logical you know it just resonates with me i like what the prince of wales but he wants to be if ever he becomes king he wants to be the leader of faith of all faiths that i think is a wonderful statement because certainly our society here in britain is very multi call. very multi-faith so everybody should be included while other faiths enjoy popularity the church of england's recent rejection of women bishops and disapproval of gay marriage has reignited the age old debate on the separation of church and state people feel alienated if they're not part of that church and so few people are because only two percent go to church on a normal sunday so that's why we must i think make sure that the church

is disestablished in the twenty six bishops that votes in the house of lords the only country in the world to have a parliament where they have the right to do that should be extinguished britain now has one of the lowest rates of church attendance in europe there is a rule. in terms of religious opinions there is and that will grow and that future may actually become wider as time goes on and so i guess what we have today is is the church effectively being relevant to certain parts of this country despite centuries of tradition some question what will be left of the church of england in fifty years time oh the statistics are very clear very clear almost disappeared with something i think the twenty fifty figures are one hundred thousand people in the pews on an average sunday out of

a population of sixty million that's miniscule but the privileges and political influence afforded to it are far from trivial and that's what's fueling the calls of those who say that it's fairer to separate the church from the state party boy r t london. police in bahrain again used tear gas line to government demonstrators surely would bring you analysis where the opposition movement could be heading next as the gulf nation approaches the. two years since the start of the. gaza struggling follows a turning to rooftop crops. a lot of. creative with. the least be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic

it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about seven feet interviews intriguing stories for you to. see then try. to find out more visit. wealthy british style holds. the key. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two kinds of reports on our.

now again please invite reign of violence and press an anti government demonstration the unrest in the kingdom now approaching the two year mark the demonstrators are calling for a transition to a democratically elected government and for better rights for the country shia majority asma darwish from the european bahraini organization for human rights claims that security forces from abroad are stoking the violence by firing tear gas into the homes of unarmed civilians. security forces who are working for the ministry of interior and migraine are practicing a lot of by intense and a lot of violations to human rights when confronting when pro-democracy protests and behave in and out of protests and it took place in many different villages and areas around behaving and all of them all of them got a. crack they were

a crackdown by that by the security forces and behaving who are mostly and not by me and they are working and and they've been since anterior and if they they were brought from different countries foreign countries like pakistan and jordan and syria and yesterday in the village where i live and sit it out it was tear gas excessive you my security forces and i could see security forces running down the streets by my white house and shooting grandin the inside the houses it movement was completely peace said but after witnessing that west that was during and position to or this this situation and behaving or there have been emotion in bahrain it is unlike to what is what they are it claiming they are encouraging human rights in different countries arab countries but when it comes to bahrain they use double standards so the protesters here inviting old though they are those

radical protestors they are the minority and not the majority but they are using such methods to prevent that violent security forces from entering their their and their religious and attacking on armed civilians and children like we witnessed and the big you have off of the four year old child being attacked by security forces with tear gas canisters. israel is easing restrictions to allow building materials into garza but the blockade still severely affects the people who live there even farmers of to leave their land in the buffer zones to grow food on rooftops instead as artie's paulus leader found that the recent assault on gaza leave some fearing they may not see their next harvest. there's not a lot of greenery in gaza at least not in the places you'd expect to find it like abu hafs thumbs farm which since the israel gaza war four years ago has laid a barren and deserted. look to you again or had a very nice plantation

a lot of visitors came to see it also students from the farming school used to come and study at my place. but workers from israel raining down on one of the most densely populated spots on earth meant i will have needed to find another place where he could grow his crops and so he looked towards his own home and upwards that. i needed no alternative so i made this plantation on the roof and started working again. creates a lot of things if he has time and energy i can make fifty thousand suppling from these seventy meters on the roof. it's an idea that's taken root in farms along the gaza israel border where much of the agriculture has been repeatedly destroyed by the israeli army many farmers are unable to access the land because of the buffer zone that's one of at least a third of gaza's farmland your. today there is no

space to have a forum in gaza it is very crowded everybody is building new houses where i stand now used to be a plantation for oranges and lemons and if you look at it now you just see buildings. fall out of five people in gaza are dependent on food aid homegrown food projects like rooftop gardens can help combat malnutrition and severe poverty by allowing farmers to sell their produce marry anyone can do it i work with my husband and my daughters till midnight a lot of farming should be on the ground but we heard that we can plant in volcanic rock on our roofs so i tried it. farmers grow wheat barley and a variety of fruits and nuts on these rooftops they also raise rabbits and chickens showing how a little ingenuity can go a long way ask anyone in israel or gaza whether they think the situation is stable and they'll tell you it's only a matter of time before the next israel gaza showdown they might be

a ceasefire in place between the two sides but no one believes it will hold least of all the gaza farmers who are always the first in the line of fire. on the israel gaza border. over in the west bank dozens of palestinians were wounded after they rounded on israeli troops were disguised as vegetable sellers during a botched mission to capture suspected militants can get the latest from our website whatever to we are as the vatican lost its faith in trusting its star workers given swipe cards to track the moves around papal premises in the wake of a string of embarrassingly. top u.s. arms makers are forecasting a significant rise in sales for the coming year after a pretty solid twenty twelve washington has been shifting its sights these days towards asia looking to arm its allies so a neighboring north korea and china independent journalist james corbett told us the u.s. is creating a pretext to make billions from arms sales which could though backfire through

geopolitical tensions what we can see is really just a return to a very old imperial strategy building up bogeymen in order to. create the sale stew to combat those bogeyman so it's a very old strategy it was identified by you mean by president eisenhower in his farewell address in one nine hundred sixty when he talked about the military industrial complex and we here we are half a century later with the exact same strategy at play and before it was the communists then there was the terrorist threat and now there's china and that threat so i think it creates a situation where the economics may be what's driving this is. give it towards asia pacific but that interim creates geopolitical realities so that for example china now sees all of these arms sales going to korea and taiwan and japan and some of the u.s. is allies in the region and they respond with a military armaments of their own so it's a kind of self-perpetuating. prophecy that fulfils itself by the economics of the

situations easing has its eye on what's happening with taiwan and b. the. retrofit the f. sixteen fleet of time timeline but also the japanese expand radar for example that just recently has is being expanded and worked on i think has to be seen as a threat by china as well so i think definitely we're going to see an increase in tensions and that will probably create more situations like we saw in the past year with the same guy who i would dispute between japan and china. want to do the edge pacific's likely to take a good share of the twenty thirty into later in our t's crossed or people of wells experts explain why. binary problem that the united states sees with china is that its economy is too strong and that it's building up its military so these are two things that the united states prides itself on i've giant military and a big economy right what the weather what a big economy in china reflects is number one a lot of hundreds of thousands of people being lifted out of poverty inside china

but also means help for the united states because trade is obviously mutually beneficial and so trade in international borders being a little more open to trade this is a good thing for the united states and washington wants to paint it as a bad thing they're playing a very sort of great game geo politicking in asia and because china is having success they're moving to try and contain china so that means backing a lot of unscrupulous people in asia pacific surging military forces there naval forces there this is all very bad it's an interesting way of the. states turning something positive into something very terrible and it makes it easy for people to go china is our next greatest enemy. and that cross talk will be on air again at around seven twenty five pm tonight g.m.t. . more the world's news a brief those for the sick to intention iraq with thousands of sunnis protesting

against the government of shia province to nuri al maliki demonstrations have been gathering pace across the country for over a week calling for an end to discrimination along with the release of political prisoners maliki's party conceded by releasing hundreds of jailed women but has warned against further protests the country was dominated by the sunnis until america's two thousand and three invasion changed the political landscape in favor of the shiites. venezuelan president hugo chavez is in a state of consciousness now after undergoing another cancer operation according to the vice president but nicolas maduro stress that leaders condition remains delicate and rejected earlier rumors that chavez was in a coma a hospital in cuba the president's third term inauguration should you all for the tenth of january. this is beyond the dishes capitol tonight where police are fired rubber bullets and tear gas of an anti government rally the protesters who are believed to be supporters of an islamic party threw stones at police there they're

demanding a halt to the trials of the top leaders on charges of crimes against humanity during the one nine hundred seventy one independence war with pakistan there was a spate of deadly anti-government clashes in bangladesh last month. but it seems there's a price to pay for free love after all america's health officials are warning there's a silent epidemic stalking the baby boomers of the sixty's we did a cauldron of reports on the call in california now to get checked for deadly hepatitis c. . california once the center of the hippie revolution a mounting pot of music rock sound sexual freedom we did drugs that we didn't think about there was no process because everybody was doing their own dean make chill is a baby boomer born during the pos world war two years nineteen forty six and nine hundred sixty five his generation now is paying for that lifestyle

a life of things drugs and rock'n'roll all fueled by flower power and the summer of love they say if you remember the sixty's you were entry they're the baby boomers out of the sexual revolution may have lost some of their memories and they had the mists of time but there is one legacy of their past which is anything but harmless the centers for disease control has already named him patatas c s n and recognized health crisis according to their granny station car and he won in thirty baby boomers are in fact it with the virus the silent killer it can lie dormant for decades that's what happened to dean mitchell's friend who died just two months after being diagnosed with the disease they're paying for the car consequences because they are now so. they have to get medication. it's a disease that i understand can kill you but worst of all it's not just baby

boomers who are interests many could have a knowing if you contract it the virus through blood transfusions screening was only improved the aids crisis in the ninety's californians bay area has been the hardest hit with more people dying in theory than anywhere else in the country it is also a very costly problem for the bankrupt state costing billions of dollars the number of people. who are. very. poorly suited us or. more widespread than h i v have to tightest kills around twelve thousand people in the us after a year and with the baby boomers in the highest risk group the center for disease control has called for mass screening they say they could identify almost a million people now living with the disease and save many more lives but the

question remains if the present generation will listen my to the question archie reporting from watts angeles california. because of the past now it's. exactly twenty. three with this case you say with a business like a to see a bucket of most holiday and everything back to work now the bugs to work with some good news of course what we've all been talking about the last forty eight hours or so the fiscal cliff drama over the last minute it's been averted or the worst of any way the markets are going up but the big question for how long of those markets going to go that is the question we've been asking this of course we've been saying how long do you see this optimism because we are looking at overleaf rally we're calling it and we're saying how long and we're getting comments like kicking the can down the road short term fix not everyone is convinced cap and i'm going to be chatting about that in the business cards and off the bike can.