we didn't leave. anything. to teach me. this is why you should care. international journalists including. the conflict. us human rights groups. the white house allows the military to keep detaining. definitely without trial. and rises to new levels across the country's prime minister. with a movement before the next election.

it is good of you to join us here today. live in moscow several international journalists including an arabic news crew have had a close brush with death while covering the conflict in syria and they came under rebel sniper fire as their company the military on a counterinsurgency sweep i want to. was. this is his account. we arrived at the damascus suburb early in the morning to report on the syrian army operation we were moving from street to street and when we reached the dock my colleagues and i got caught in crossfire we tried to escape running one after another fearing that armed rebels would notice us a syrian army soldier accompany nuss the entire time he constantly kept his on the situation and helped us to escape the gunfire the rebels were firing on us my

colleagues and i were wearing bulletproof bass with the word press song them that the firing was very intense and it was difficult to find shelter i ran and fell down i hurt my arms but the syrian army doctors gave me first aid on the scene so i could continue to do my job there were many other correspondents there with me including iranians and syrians one of the syrian cameramen was also slightly wounded like me. i mean while a car bomb blast has ripped through a petrol station packed with people in the syrian capital at least eleven have been killed and dozens injured u.s. war correspondent russ baker says such attacks and typical of the western backed opposition still trying to bring down assad i think there's going to be a lot of in the way of covert operations sponsored by outside parties that have a stake in hastening some sort of a resolution of the situation on the surface that western countries and including

my own have stepped up their involvement and want to get assad out as fast as possible these are the sorts of things that we've seen historically going all the way back to the goo in guatemala in the one nine hundred fifty s. in iran and so forth these sorts of provocations are very very common i think we're going to see them increase until something or other is was all there a pretty clearly i think the western countries don't want any kind of halfway measures they want him out entirely and i think he is not going to do that until the last possible moment. us human rights groups are venting anger at the government to president obama extended the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects including americans without ciancia or trial a national defense authorization act of two thousand and thirteen also allows for the notorious guantanamo bay military prison to remain open despite the president's pledge to shut down the facility years ago activists say the act means obama has

failed the test of his second term even before inauguration day veteran congressman dennis kucinich thinks the moves part of a tendency that ultimately undermines democracy. there are great human rights concerns here. that people could be held indefinitely violates a constitutional privilege that people have. we have a constitutional challenge here where not only the national. defense authorization act but the patriot act and other legislation have gradually moved america away from a robust. freedom to a more limited freedom that is based on proscriptions by the government. this is more than problematic because what has always made made america america is

is the fact that we follow our constitution and we protect our constitution and we protect people against unreasonable search and seizure we protect people against being seized without right to. know the charges against them or a right to an attorney or a right to a trial we have in the past condemned government being involved in spying now we have a much broader. spy network this is something that is profoundly anti-democratic i have repeatedly taken exception to it as a member of congress. and a u.s. blogger kept on a constant thinks it's rather ironic how washington is putting the squeeze on freedoms while trying to teach other countries some lesson in commitments currently in the u.s. courts there is in fact a case moving it's on appeal right now the government has appealed it but a judge earlier and in two thousand and twelve had actually enjoying it so i issued

in junction making it so that provision this provision that for indefinite detention was actually not something that the government could use now the obama administration is defending that in the courts think a lot of people in the united states know as much about what just happened given that happened during the holidays it's fair to say that the united states should probably not be lecturing other countries about how you know they protect human rights or how they protect civil liberties especially when there are many policies in the united states that they are not able to you know they're they're not really good policies on their own they're not protecting civil liberties of the united states citizens and they're they're not protecting the human rights of united states citizens. this is auntie and and t.e.u. feeling is hardening in britain where a majority of citizens now field of the country would be better off outside the

troubled union prime minister david cameron has vowed to adopt a clear euro skeptic position to remain in tune with the people but only of my colleague bill dog who spoke on this issue to auntie's a pointy boy in london. the e.u. is popularity a very very low amongst the british public at the moment we just had a poll that asked respondents to grade institutions like in school and the european union got an average grade of a d. plus from the british public that's not very very high now on a more serious note this recent poll it's really marked a tipping point because for the first time in decades the number of people that say that they would vote for britain leaving the european union is the majority of the british public so it's really turning britain turning into a nation of real euro skeptics at the moment and it's not just the result of one poll we've seen things like for example british support for political parties anti

european ones like the u.k. independence party it's at an all time high so lots of bad news for pro europeans at the moment so what is the main grudge that many people are holding against. well the british public has always been very divided over membership anyway but the past year has been particularly difficult we've seen the chronic financial crisis in the eurozone with a real loss of confidence that but also the same time at home they have crippling austerity measures so there's a growing resentment towards the vast sums of money that leaves the british treasury and come straight from the u.k. budget goes straight to brussels every year when very terrible project cuts and it's not just the money there's also the aspect of the control of north that comes from brussels that many people want to see returned back to westminster this.

way to the top of the u.k. doesn't it right at the top of political levels. well indeed david cameron the prime minister has just said that the conservative party is going to be going into the next general election in twenty fifteen as a euro skeptic party is an anti european political party that really shows that you know the government's banking on the fact that the british public is are you going to get more fed up with british membership in and that they're really confident that that's going to happen what about brussels and how is it responding to the way that britain is giving the cold shoulder transition well it can't be too pleasant listening to all this negativity about yourself because there are reports flying around now that certain senior members of the european parliament want to offer britain a junior membership status associate membership and it would in fact be a bit of a demotion whereby britain since its grumbling so much over its membership in the european union it would have much less influence over issues within the european

union itself so it's got all the hallmarks of a relationship going quite sour and now it's either going to be a question of who dumps who fussed or salvageable but with public opinion turning towards britain getting out it's going to be harder and harder to stay in. book of the reporting from london you can follow her on her twitter feed of course you can also follow watty on a facebook page as well the plenty more to come for you this hour including that of a taming to bet on separatist sentiment in just a few minutes here on the program we'll look at chinese plans to sort problems out by pumping money in to try to integrate one of its most restive regions into the rest of the country. to find out why it flooded me a. second to nobody by a top american think tank in its list of the world's most powerful people.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know. welcome to the big picture. is he ok.

it is a mid afternoon here in the russian capital i'm rori sushi live on r t for years people in tibet have protested chinese rule over their land often taking drastic measures to do so twenty eight self-immolation reported last november alone but since bloody demonstrations of four years ago beijing has been trying to integrate tibet into the rest of the country boosting subsidies and investment china is now pumping almost fifty billion dollars into the region to win the support of the population there so r.t. . filed this report. look i mean it's quality of china

a slogan so widespread in tibet it's even displayed on taxis here everything is an ambiguous mix of modern technology and tradition communism and religion. double is in the six his son is a buddhist monk but ten years ago this elderly man joined the communist bangalore do i knew that the party is breathing new life into our nation and the margins your time in the capital where shops and businesses sit beneath the monasteries on the hills this is quite a normal scene for us every day believers gather in the city center to pray right outside what is traditions are very strong here but at the same time chinese national red flags are hanging almost on every poll in every building as a constant reminder which country tibet is a part of. for decades china has been accused of occupying tibet and destroying its culture human rights organizations

report numerous abuses there on a daily basis some are even willing to go to the most extreme measures in protest in almost all instances protests are put down through violence so chinese security personnel will come in and more use violence to to basically stop those protests we've documented cases where the chinese state news lethal force against tibetans in one town fifteen people were shot legal authorities denial of geishas of human rights violations claiming the so often malaysians are organized from abroad accusing the worst of a full scale media assault on china the united states has been using to bat for. six decades now and since the truman administration co-opted to fight communism and they will continue. this is their modus operandi these days seems to be human

rights. over the years china spent over sixty billion dollars to build schools roads and water supplies as well as developing industries from beer factories to cultural workshops. outside the gap but all in one of tibet most ancient temples when we ask the monk what he thinks of the exile of their spiritual leader the dalai lama he surprisingly said he didn't hear. the government supplies clothes food and other necessities not the dalai lama i couldn't care less where he was assessing tibet is not easy even on the ground it's hard to see what's true and what's being deliberately shown to foreigners but what's crucial for the next generation of tibetans is that the mix of ancient traditions and beijing's billions. of r.t. tibet. and a quarter past three in the afternoon here in the russian capital israel has announced it's to build

a new barrier along the occupied golan heights the reason it says is to protect its citizens from the ongoing violence in syria and that's as the jewish state has completed the bulk of the work on a fence separating itself from egypt and at rooting out illegal migration my colleague bill dog spoke to activist jamal juma who believes these actions have nothing to do with security. israel has. to recalculate what they are doing in the middle east israel dealing with the middle east or dominating power on the try all the time to build walls around then themselves claiming that the people is hating them and they are targeting them as the real has been harmed the whole region and the area around to very they are building the wall around the palestinian areas the claim that it's for security but at the end that one of the worst apartheid systems and get was around the palestinian people that look people have seen it in forty percent of their land they build world around gods and they turn gods into

a jail the biggest prison in the world and you know we know how they differ state that if you are telling god that they are still occupying syria and they are building a wall on the occupied land so they want to keep this land that you keep themselves as a client it's not a solution that you keep building roads you need to do peace with the region you have to retain back their right to the people. israel can't build its future on the expense of the people of the region and then building walls to protect the to protect themselves. is not going to protect israel's people's rights and they will keep claiming the rights israel's merged visible wall is its barrier separating israel from the palestinians while it's also of course building settlements in the area how do you see that situation develop if you think there could be any compromise over this very contentious issue you know you see that you see what how the artist collating even the building the settlements in the west bank and the building in it in a way to control the palestinian people and this is what is leading it and pushing

it for the explosion we witness in the settlers attacking the palestinians every day and many villages this is north of the jordan valley is evacuated now by now by the israeli. attack on the people in the south of settlers attacking the people in the middle areas so they are russian war on the palestinian people and they want the walls at the end to to bring peace to them stealing the people's land looking them in jails diversity of their life is not going to bring peace in any way must realize that their years change and they must they must understand this change the need for them to conciliate with the people deal with the people i to i don't we don't consider yourself as part of your job or you want to isolate yourself and look yourself within the walls from the region you can do that. and meanwhile in the gaza strip thousands of celebrating the forty eighth anniversary of the

movement this is the first major gathering since two thousand and seven which saw hamas takeover from gaza i want you looking at right now live pictures on our team with an impressive attendance there at the rally is indeed seen though as a tit for tat move after a recent major celebration in the west bank a true rival movement trying to reconcile and join forces in their plight for palestinian statehood in fact the authorities are thinking that they would indeed like to tell the like to invite the factions for new negotiations within two weeks if indeed they could come together on a variety of issues issues ranging from whether it's questions of power sharing control of weaponry and to what extent israel and other powers would accept a palestinian administration including hamas and to those i like to just run. into other world for you this hour venezuela's leader hugo chavez has suffered a respiratory failure following

a cancer operation in cuba that's according to one of the country's top officials it was earlier reported that he was suffering complications caused by a lung infection venezuela's vice president has stressed that fully conscious under the constitution the socialist president is due to be sworn in for a third term next week. and iran has agreed to talks with six major world powers about the country's atomic activities later this month with the exact dates and venue get to be finalized at the u.s. russia france britain germany china and iran last met in moscow in june a number of countries accuse the islamic state of trying to develop nuclear weapons it is something that iran continues to deny. the controversial death of a. with about a dozen people arrested a twenty two year old was shot dead by police in two thousand and eight during

a dispute in the south of the country. that represent about five percent of population and sporadically but for you.

the way. i thank. you. so i could have you with us here and i want to today i'm rory sushil let's shift gears now and turn our attention to that are france and it's been just over seven months since french voters invested their hopes for

a change in socialist francois hollande trusting him to steer the country out of stormy economic waters but as our to be found out less than a year in office it appears the president has already lost a lot of the momentum that originally swept him to power. the debate on whether gay marriage should be allowed has split french society for years with protests about the issue often ending in violence with francois oman coming to power the gay community breathed a sigh of relief but it may have been too soon activists say the new law which is going through parliament in january is not exactly what they've been dreaming of but we are. very happy that flow has been introduced by the government to open marriage to same sex couples and option and supposedly. medically assisted procreation but we're still very concerned because. people against same sex

marriage same sex equality are getting very strong including in the parliament. in the new issue of mayors were obliged to officially register gay couples marital status and that's where many revolted including francois labelle the mayor of central paris. allowing same sex marriages in france and moreover permitting them to adopt children will destroy the foundations of our family institution if we allow this now the next step will be allowing paedophilia and incest. so it seems in this scenario no side is completely happy which puts the french president and his electoral promise under serious pressure from bringing the french troops back from afghanistan to creating more jobs in france and preventing the country from going into austerity during his campaign to become a normal president francois hollande had made many promises some of which now

experts say may backfire against the french leader and if the gay marriage law wasn't divisive enough all on splurged to impose a seventy five percent tax on the wealthy may become another sticking point several million years have already decided to take their businesses out of france that's called a lot of problems and it does divide the country because a lot of people realize that the rich aren't going so far as financial problems everybody's going to have to pay france's national programs including socialist voters which of course frost all along when he was being elected gave the impression that. this wouldn't happen the latest polls suggest. he has dropped by twenty percent winning the election may prove to be the far easier challenge than what awaits the french president now with the economic promoters for twenty thirteen in france looking far from optimistic he could face an uphill joran alexy russia of ski r.t.

reporting from paris. well the french. elsewhere and over on our website we get further reaction to the news that. has been granted russian citizenship after saying how pleased he is that his request was. rather a twist in the case of the violent gang. that emerges now the man believed to be the most. severe punishment. the most powerful person on. according to a survey by a prominent american based think tank it says he's single handedly brought about the most significant change for large numbers of people all over the eurasia group consultancy firm place the russian president only second on its list reserving

first place for a world. wide range of global issues. says no person has consolidated more domestic and regional power. following the russian leader in the rating. or isolated today. william binney u.s. national security agency whistleblower what about the ways the american government is spying on its citizens for now a quick. f.b.i. has access to the data collected which is basically the emails of virtually everybody in the country. and they have the f.b.i. has access to it all the congressional members on the surveillance to no one's excluded they're all included so yes this can happen. to anyone if they become

a target for whatever reason. if they are targeted by the government the government can go in with the f.b.i. or other agencies of the government can go into their database pull all that data they've collected over them on them over the years and reanalyze it also retroactively analyze everything they've done over the last ten years at least. that i i i believe i've been on it for quite a few years. so i keep telling them everything i think of them in my e-mail so that they when they read it they'll understand what i think of them. now if you didn't already know it how the cia is being sued over its domestic spying collaboration with the new york police department and in the wake of a scandal. discussed whether it's time to ultimately disband the agency altogether of course that's a crosstalk coming your way in just a sec.