the end of. terrorism and the formation of a new government. preventing a nationwide financial disaster. the f.b.i. is forced into revealing new about. leaders of occupy wall street but.

russian passport after falling out with the government in france over. the top stories of the week and all of today this is the weekly on the with me live in moscow the syrian leader has outlined his vision on how to end almost two years of continued civil conflict one of the key conditions for peace according to president bashar al assad is for a regional and international powers to stop supporting groups. he was following exactly what he had to say. well there has certainly been rather interesting quotes coming from the syrian president he in fact called to hold an international reconciliation conference. and the violence and the military conflict which is

going on be going on for almost two years now in syria and this initiative according to assad will lead to a national wide referendum and fair election which is the only way according to the syrian president that the political landscape in this country can be changed but this initiative can only be possible according to a plan if the western countries and some regional countries as he put it stop investing into terrorist groups which are fighting to overthrow. his regime has been again pretty much a defined don't think that the only way that syria will listen to the outside world is through a device not through a dictating well this speech of the syrian president comes amid very serious concerns about the safety of journalists working in syria the year has only just started but already we have a syrian a pro governmental journalist killed this week who was wounded and then taken to the hospital where he later died also in my own called the crown r.t.

arabic station he got injured among a group of other journalists who were covering. the movement of a governmental convoy through the country. says that they were shot at by the rebels despite wearing special jackets with the word press at their home and it's been ongoing for an optimal ukrainian journalist fortunate who's been missing and nobody knows where she is and whether she's actually alive but the reports that she was kidnapped by the rebels and there was a ransom demand that for her release outraged many organizations with the reports that syria has already been named as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists to work at certainly things are not. looking any better at the moment. the reporting right now this week has seen dozens of people killed in a series of bombings on petrol stations in the syrian capital damascus it's not

clear exactly who was behind the attacks but middle east experts say the violence will not go away until the government and the opposition both thing gaijin meaningful dialogue the syrian government have clearly indicated that he is willing to any kind of political settlement at the moment so the opposition is the party who is. refusing any negotiation with the government refusing any sitting to the table negotiating table negotiating a peace settlement there is some opposition which are rational opposition such as how you can see if. it's a man on the hasan abdel aziz him and so on but these people are not the people who are. you know have any role of military parts who are fighting in syria. you're watching r.t. and almost two years of antigovernment protests change little in bahrain fresh

pro-reform demonstrations shatter against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say it's their brutality that's helping to fuel the uprising. and the u.s. military is not allowed to hold terror suspects for as long as it wants americans or foreigners thanks to the new national defense authorization act we have a look at that in depth in just a few minutes here on our. find out barack obama signed a last minute deal that increases taxes on the wealthiest americans it prevented the country falling over the so-called fiscal cliff or the nation was on the brink of a financial nosedive with billions of dollars in tax hikes automatically coming into effect if the law hadn't been passed charlie mcgrath from the wide awake news thinks the fate of americans has never been a top priority for the u.s. government is an enemy when the cameras are off and it's time to pass

a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands with that kind of a deal together since two thousand and one namely we've been governing this nation by proxy the world by crisis and it doesn't matter who gets hurt. by the wayside as long as a special interest is served so long as it's always under the shadow of a crisis they will act when it's only when it has to do with acting in behalf of the people of this nation it seems like the people always take a backseat. and artie's economics expert thinks the deal might bring short term relief but the big problems well they're not going anywhere. the fiscal cliff is just more theater. trying to distract people from the underlying root catastrophe that is a bunch of. manipulating the system. the economy the fiscal cliff is just more wrong. it doesn't really focus on the true underlying problems

and we're going to see more of this going forward in two thousand and thirteen anything. from the mob what they're pitchforks and torches they were coming after these people they want to just delay that day of reckoning for as many months as they can but that day's reckoning twenty thirteen it's comic. he has a more financial analyst for costs for the new year that's available that. thanks very much for joining me here on day recently f.b.i. document shows the bureau knew of a plan to assassinate occupy wall street leaders but gave them the warning instead it chose to keep spying on the movement which it branded as a domestic terrorist group. this report. well it's not clear yet

why the f.b.i. would neglect to tell activists that there was a potential assassination plot surrounding them what we do know is that new documents obtained by the partnership for the civil justice fund a u.s. human human and civil rights advocacy organization have revealed that the u.s. the f.b.i. the department of homeland security the u.s. military and private corporations all cooperated together to monitor and investigate occupy wall street protesters as quote domestic terrorists and quote criminals now the more shocking revelation the headline of this story is that reportedly buried deep within the government. mentions of a plan to use snipers to assassinate occupy protesters and the movement's leaders in various cities throughout the country these alleged plans were supposed to be taking place in the fall of two thousand and eleven now the names of the groups or individuals involved in the alleged plot are redacted from the f.b.i. documents but what critics say is clear is that the f.b.i.

never alerted any one of the potential any of the potential victims that their lives could possibly be in danger or that there's any threat surrounding them the partnership for civil justice fund received the f.b.i. documents on december twenty second so this is fairly new information and this was after they filed a request under the freedom of information after now many civil rights attorneys previously have accused the f.b.i. of functioning as a de facto intelligence arm for u.s. corporations during the occupy wall street movement especially as it grew bigger however some critics say they never ever suspected that the f.b.i. would neglect to tell occupy protesters u.s. citizens about an assassination plot surrounding them. want to more important we've got so many a lot more documents on occupy wall street including the exact wording i just find it a drone leasure dot so you talk. protests calls for reform

and police violently lashing out at anti-government rallies it's a picture that's been haunting rainfall most two years now demonstrators still urging a transition to a democratically elected government after darwish from the european bloc raney organization for you human rights claims even the most innocent people are falling victim to the police crackdown. security forces who are working for the ministry of interior and they are practicing a lot of buy in and and a lot to buy in nations to human rights when confronting when pro-democracy protests and behave in the broadest areas you're inviting although they are those radical and caracas tears they are the minority and not the majority but today they are using such methods to prevent them why didn't security forces from entering their their religious and tacking on armed civilians and children like we witnessed and big you had off the four year old child being attacked by security forces with

your gas canisters. now a natural catalyst for discord it's no easy thing getting immigration of right russia was among the four nations that have that's according to the united nations a little bit later in the program we report on what it is that makes a country a living twin you hope it's. like protests in northern ireland and to a second a month with people arrested for allegedly shooting at police more on the unrest off this short run.

something. lies beneath. the thousands of meters of mice and drugs. that is a loser. but dangerous even to those who keep it at a distance. thanks

so much for joining us here on our to today i. go around a thousand loyalist protesters have been wreaking havoc over the weekend in the northern irish capital belfast with reports of shots being fired at police lines the city has been witnessing unrest since a decision by the local authorities in december to fly at the british union flag only on designated occasions rather than year round let's get some more details on this now i'm joined live by our jason walsh from the christian science monitor thanks so much for taking the time to come on r.t. today there are protests now do you think that the belfast city council regrets touching upon such a sensitive matter well i'm sure that the consequence of it seems that there. really the decision actually simply reflects the changes in both first. you talk about reflecting democratic changes in belfast would you would you go into that a bit more for us what exactly are you alluding to that well demographic changes rather it's just that both of us traditionally throughout its history been

a predominantly protestant and unionist city and the latest census results show that's not really the case any longer it's not slightly republican nationalist a majority or we can be fair the decision itself to fly the flag only on seventeen designated daisy or taken on december third. reflects this change and that seems to be what's troubling loyalists rather than the flag itself because in fact flying the flag they simply bring it into line with other british government and civic buildings and there are certainly some experts have said that loyalists see a growing tendency towards nationalism among both or he said you think they have any grounds for that concern you know but the certainly. you know majority rules of northern ireland from one thousand twenty until one thousand nine hundred thirty agreement. has certainly no longer the case so what they perceive as growing nationalism most people see equality and democratic sherritt shared future

after what would many would call perhaps a long period of relative calm in many ways so in many ways some see this violence as a possible return to the dark days of the past sure some people might be being a bit dramatic about that but as i suggest that lasting peace in northern ireland will be almost impossible to achieve. well a full scale return to conflict is extremely unlikely but it is that here you get the riots and conflagrations every year in summer predominantly during the marching season which is when loyalist fraternal organizations march are often to the chagrin of nationalists it is difficult to say they. become a completely certain holy it seems unlikely a return to. equally unlikely what matters now is highly republicans nationalist response to this and so far more or less ignored all right jason was from the christian science monitor joining us our life here on r.t. thank you. now venezuela could soon find itself at

a political crossroad later this hour on the program a report on the ultimatums the country's opposition is issuing thank the longtime leader hugo chavez fails to attend his own inauguration for health reasons. and for better or for worse stay with us to find out where mixed israeli palestinian couples to go live in the face of discrimination. now this week president obama signed a law allowing the indefinite detention of u.s. terror suspects without charge or trial the national defense authorization act also delays the closure of the guantanamo bay prison for another year a veteran congressman dennis kucinich thinks the move is part of a pattern undermining democracy. right now we're much more of a garrison and garrison plus. a powerful military

which keeps asserting itself globally and it doesn't make america any safer and frankly doesn't make the world safer we're spending upwards of six hundred billion dollars for an expanded pentagon presence for more war in afghanistan and for proliferation of war in in yemen and somalia and other places we have a lot of problems here at home that we're not taking care of we have massive unemployment people are losing their homes people are losing their retirement security and i continue to say that we have to start emphasizing taking care of things here at home instead of developing a bigger footprint around the world as far as our military presence this is the high price of x. rated diplomacy where you can have a lot of details on a honda or an ambassador to colombia loses his job offer a wild christmas orgy with prostitutes is actually held inside the embassy even though it is reported he wasn't even banned for all the fun. and he stuck it

out in a form. with the locals they say it's an insult to. the full story on our website. for now a big screen superstar. celebrating his new homeland off to being handed his very own russian possible following dinner with putin the movie. he left his native france over what he called punishing tax rates pushed on the rich by the new president. picks up the story. french activists is out there praise who has mass whereas the russian president vladimir putin and has received his brand new russian passport so now it's official is it a different you has become a russian citizen now they're meeting to place inside she where she is on a personal trip before that he reminds his french to doesn't chip in move to balancing on where we pointedly he has some real estate now this news comes as

french president francois juan is trying to push forward a law that will see french citizens who earn more than one million euro piece seventy five percent of their earnings to track this meanwhile in other french legendary movie i can brigitte bardot is also think of following the footsteps are deployed you about the reason behind her move is completely different now she's also a veteran any mono rights complainer and she has rats into a wife for russian citizenship if the french authorities euthanize peer off the sick allophones at a zoo a new home. made a question of reporting right now a radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens have fled the country since francois took office thanks to his tax policies i just i deployed you're one of the countries they've been moving to is russia i spoke to sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer you boy. let's look at the

taxes and that's the question at hand right now if you look at russia of the current laws we have a flat tax rate here of thirteen per cent in fact france and germany they both have complicated tax codes if you look at france forty one percent right now up to forty one percent in germany up to forty five percent as opposed to russia's thirteen percent so you can see it's a very attractive to come to russia but if this new law comes into effect in france that up to mark for france goes up to seventy five percent making russia even more attractive so you know why the super rich would be wanting to move over here instead we're talking about a massive chunk going to the government here looking at the numbers you have behind you on the screen there certainly that when it comes to the global meltdown that we've been seeing for years particularly twenty twelve was not a good year for the eurozone or for much of the world indeed but somehow russia managed to avoid the global economic crisis and that is certainly the case in fact it is one of the brics countries which means it is one of the emerging markets in

the world but if you look at what's been happening around europe in fact in the past year we've been seeing austerity protests we've been seeing people coming to the streets who are looking for jobs and in fact the unemployment rate's if you look at greece twenty six percent if you look at the e.u. in general the average there are eleven percent france almost at that eleven percent if you look at the unemployment rate in russia only six point four percent so you can see there are more jobs to be had here less people looking for work less of a dire situation but it's also an emerging market it is a diversifying market in things here relatively much more stable than in the rest of europe certainly a lot of people saying there's an awful lot of opportunity here right here in russia the biggest country on the planet interesting that the united nations is actually taking a moment to appraise russia's immigration policy is that what's what's that about well certainly if you look at the numbers the most recent numbers in fact show that russia is the second most desirable country for immigrants to come to only second to the united states in fact a little bit more than twelve million immigrants who are you. living in russia

right now who have moved to russia to make russia their new home in fact it can be a little bit confusing because people look at the numbers about moscow being one of the most expensive cities for ex-pats to live with that's for ex-pats and it is true things here it is a big city it can be expensive but if you look at average cost of food it's cheaper than the rest of europe much cheaper to live here for gas prices as well and basic living costs in russia now keep in mind moscow russia you know this is the biggest city in the countries of course things are going to be a little bit more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than in europe for goddess of that it's just a fun place to be and it certainly is in fact the arts in the culture of the entertainment here moscow is famous for its nightlife but if you look past that we have famous musicians coming from russia famous artists famous history architecture all of that here but i'm going to say russia has always had this balance between east and west right so if you look at the orthodox culture and the western cultures i think that the real reason people come here is that you get two christmases and

you get two new years. from now venezuela's president hugo chavez who's currently battling cancer may be too ill to attend his own swearing in ceremony that supposed to take place on thursday his political rivals are demanding a new election if indeed he doesn't show up to be inaugurated for his fourth term of office but geo political analyst eric draitser believes the opposition is taking advantage of the situation in order to undermine the government. what is important is the fact that the opposition is using this as a political mechanism by which they can try to deal a jew demise the government in venezuela remember that in two thousand and two when the united states and spain and other powers around the world collaborated in conspired to oust chavez in an illegal coup and we saw what the significance of chavez was that he had a base of support on the streets in that country that could not be shaken by an international force and so what they're attempting to do is to use his health

situation to break apart that base of support and to convince people that chavez is unable to serve the the constitution in venezuela allows for wiggle room here it does not say that just because he can't be at the inauguration that there has to be new elections where that is what the opposition is trying to create something they're not explicit they're trying to make it explicit. it could be a symbol for peace and a troubled region but a village open to mixed israeli palestinian couples is now straining under the load of all those who want to move that. reports on the challenges of a village seemingly forgotten by the israeli. israelis cannot live in the west bank and most palestinians cannot live in israel which leaves those israelis and palestinians who want to share a home out in the cold. my husband this from have broken i'm from jerusalem i found work in jerusalem and used to live there with my children but without my husband

because he is not allowed to live there he couldn't visit me even once at the end of each week i would go to have been to visit him but lived like that for four years well come to no man's land a neighborhood that is technically part of jerusalem but in reality is on the palestinian side of the security wall that israel has built some two thousand mixed couples live here. the problem of course is that so many people are immigrating to the area because they have to so in four years we've had a growth of thirty five thousand people it's become more crowded than gaza. so hair and stuff one came to live here six years ago with their three children but life in the village is far from ideal the schools are overcrowded garbage is collected only once a week and there's little fresh water so if one is old and sick and basic health services are hard to come by. my husband and my daughter don't have israeli i.d.'s

and they can't pass through the checkpoint any special permission which is very difficult to get far curb is in north jerusalem eighty two percent of the land belongs to jerusalem eighteen percent to the west bank residents pay taxes to the israeli government but because the area lies outside the israeli wall israel is slow to provide services the municipality says that many of the people living in far curb are doing so illegally and so it's not obliged to provide them with services it also says that the security wall makes it more complicated to carry out the services and the state needs to give it more money there have been small victories though residents took the municipality to court and one garbage collection at least for now should be more frequent this is them in a bubble and from them it's really worth of an enemy and arabs in jerusalem so we have to change that because we have our right we will be the text of everything and the suffering from that phones and internet access are limited because palestinian

companies are not allowed to install lines in a so-called israeli area and because the israeli police won't come here law enforcement is scarce and living in the middle of it all are couples and suffer and they nearly want to be together but politics and division are making that more and more difficult every day police fear r.t. jerusalem. right after a short break here on r.t. we take a look at the people who thought they had a front row seat to the end of the world of course we're talking about the mayan apocalypse i will be you know just a sec. to least be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on the t.v. reporting from the world's hot spots the v.i.p.'s interviews intriguing stories for

you. in trying. to find out more visit our big dog t.v. dot com. he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the miracle worker on r.t. .

one afternoon on the shores of the ocean blue.