the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government. prevents the u.s. from. financial disaster. and the f.b.i. is forced into revealing it knew about. occupy wall street but chose not. to russian passport with the government over. the bridge.

with the top stories of the week of today this is the weekly with me. in moscow the syrian leader has outlined his vision on how to end almost two years of continued civil conflict and one of the key conditions for peace according to president bashar al assad is for 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 assad if the western countries and some regional countries as he put it stuff investing into terrorist groups which are fighting to overthrow his his regime has been again pretty much a defined term thing that the only way that syria will listen to the outside world is through a device not through a dictating will 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 just weeks 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 words press on them there also has been an ongoing story of ukrainian journalist on how to question about 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. well let's discuss this further now the whole syrian crisis and possible political steps to overcome it i'm joined live by a political analyst a dollar a coming on the program now thanks very much for joining us today i was keeping

a very close watch on president assad's speech earlier on today he was saying ultimately he laid out of about five steps for the future peace and prosperity of syria saying that the country wants a future of peace and reconciliation do you think assad will be able to start a political process that despite the white widespread view outside of syria that here and his entire regime should be out of politics i think in his speech today he laid out his view as he called it his initiative or. a road map and left it to the other side to decide whether they want to engage or not in my view. the first part of his speech was defiance and reiterated his views of what this crisis was about the second part which we are talking about. the as a political exit he made it clear that a political exit can only come after. the security. proper

problems in syria are resolved in the sense that he asked for stopping. infiltration into syria and that to be monitored by international monitors and guaranteed then a political solution. named the phase two can be initiated by certainly did notice the part where assad was talking about the foreign arms imports must stop coming into syria he did take a moment to say though that any political transition there is a domestic issue and should be treated as such that external political influence influences our unsolicited and unnecessary well what do you think is the point of the speech if many international players including turkey and the u.k. have already denounced it. well i think he he still leaves the door open to anyone that wants to take part saying that we want players and partners who aren't puppets so he is inviting.

syrian voices who are independent or claim to be independent to take part if he. dissipated that there will be rejection of his offers from certain parties and in his speech he said yes after i finish the some parties will reject that this is not is not directed to those who are going to reject it that's exactly what he said and he called upon all syrian opposition and all syrian parties and independent and dependent personalities inside and outside outside syria to take part as long as they denounce extremism as long as denounce terrorism and as long as they do not have an agenda. and operate by external powers i mean in his view to stabilize syria i mean you raise

a good point because as you say he did say that the syrian president did say that he was willing to speak to certain members of the opposition however not those that some might see as puppets of the west so it is quite unclear at this moment who exactly is he willing to to talk. well. he clarified what he means by external and internal opposition he said and internal opposition or internal figures may still be poppets. to those who support from the outside and as the same time. opposition members who are based outside syria still are independent loyalists the west or the or the other regional powers that are operating the struggle in syria so for him i think the red line he drew was a call for international intervention for example those voices that called for nato intervention for no fly zones over syria for sending arms and rebels all these

opposition voices that currently recognized extremist groups such as on the store front and others parts parts of the syrian opposition they don't know but it certainly has become very very clear that the opposition in and of itself is a very fractured opposition and there are many different groups that make up whatever the case though the syrian president did say that we meet today suffering is overwhelming the syrian land there is no place for joy while security and stability are absent on the streets of our country we have to see what kind of ripple effect today's speech has across his country and the region yes i'm not a dollar political activist and member of the syrian dialogue organisation thank you very much for coming on today pleasure thank you very much. well almost two years of anti-government protests change very little in bahrain fresh over form demonstrations against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say it's their brutality that is helping to fuel the uprising. at the u.s.

military is now allowed to hold terror suspects for as long as it wants americans or foreigners as thanks to the new national defense authorization act we take a look at that in just a few minutes here on our. barack obama signed a last minute deal that increases taxes on the wealthiest americans prevented the country fording over the so-called fiscal cliff and the nation was on the brink of a financial nosedive with billions of dollars in tax hikes automatically coming into effect if indeed the law had not been passed by charlie mcgrath from the white 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 or put that kind of 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 who gets left by the

wayside as long as a special interest is served so is long as it's always under the shadow of a crisis they will act but 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 mike kaiser thinks the deal might bring short term relief but the big problems well they're just not going anywhere. the fiscal cliff is just more theater bankers and politicians trying to distract people from the underlying root catastrophe that is a bunch of bankers who are manipulating the system day in and day out the strong economy this fiscal cliff is just more wrong or more theater and 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 good bye flecked attention from the mob what their pitchforks and torches there are 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. cause a report has more financial analysis and full cost for the new year of course available. now recently leaked f.b.i. documents shows the bureau knew of a plan to assassinate occupy wall street leaders but gave them no warning instead it chose to keep spying on the movement which had branded a domestic terrorist group. as the story. 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 and 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 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 and 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. i know what i'm much more about the f.b.i. documents on occupy wall street including the exact wording that's an article top card. protests calls for reform and police violently lashing out of anti-government rallies it's a picture that's been haunting bahrain for almost two years now demonstrators still urging a transition to a democratically elected government as my daughter wish from the european bloc or any organization of 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 i mean are practicing a lot of by an end and a lot to boil nations to human rights when confronting with pro-democracy protests

and behind the protestors here in although they are those radical protestors they are the minority and not the majority but to be are using such methods to prevent them why wouldn't security forces from entering their 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 your gas canisters. what you know it's a natural catalyst for discord it's no easy thing getting immigration right but russia is among the four nations that have called into the u.n. a little bit later here we report on what it is that makes a country luring. protests in northern ireland. with people arrested for allegedly shooting at police arrest after this break.

download the official. language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television. with your mobile device so you can watch on t.v. any time anyway.

thanks for joining us here and. around a thousand lawyers protests have been wreaking havoc over the weekend in the north northern irish capital belfast getting reports also of shots fired at police lines the city has been witnessing on rest since a decision by the local authorities in december to fly the british union flag only on designated occasions rather than year round jason walsh from the christian science monitor thinks there are deeper reasons for the unrest than simply a flag being taken down but first it's traditionally throughout its history of

being a predominantly protestant and unionist city and the latest census results show that's not really the case any longer it's not slightly it's like a republican. majority or for the decision itself to fly the flag only on seventeen designated days a year taken on december third. reflects this change and that seems to be what's troubling with loyalists like it so because in fact flying the flag is simply bring it into line with other british government and civic building. were highlighting the top stories of the week here on r.t. and it was this week that president obama signed a law or 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 that ultimately undermines 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 we are not far off from the dead but for now big screen superstar just celebrating his new homeland to being handed his very own russian possible at this following dinner with him and putin the movie called left his native france over what he called

punishing tax rates pushed on the rich by the new president and in a culture to picks up the story. french activists are their prey to has mass where the russian president 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 citizenship and move to balance your own 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 taxes meanwhile in other french legendary movie i can brigitte bardot is also following the footsteps. the reason behind her move is completely different now she's also

a veteran anymore rice complainer and she has threatened to apply for russian citizenship if french authorities you for nice peer off the sick allophones at a zoo in your own i don't know radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens have fled the country since francois took office thanks to his tax policies just like the one of the countries they've been moving to is russia but earlier i spoke to sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer a new way. 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 and stand there 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 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 has actually taken a moment to appraise russia's immigration policies 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 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 well that's for ex-pats and it is true things here it is a big city it can be. 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 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 and lots of time to celebrate of course this is on the line from moscow egypt's muslim brotherhood is being accused of taking billions of dollars from the u.s. even before coming to power it's also alleged the brotherhood used the money to fund the cells involved in sparking protests one of the lawyers that followed the complaint just out of mohamed says the money was all about preserving interests. this money might have been beneficial for both the american side promises support for the muslim brotherhood while they in turn promised to secure american interests in egypt namely a u.s. air force base in the province of. dealing with the brotherhood as a political authority is permissible for funding it before it had even come to

power is not we also believe that the brotherhood run cells tasked with provoking public unrest and violence are protests a form active member who quit the brotherhood spoke of such groups which carried out armed operations for the muslim brotherhood benefit me i felt my side of them went home and only twenty five minutes past the hour moscow time it seems everyone wants a piece of tibet while beijing wounds the region with riches western media focuses on human rights abuses. got a person off went to gauge the feeling on the ground. look at 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. six his son is

a buddhist monk but ten years ago this elderly man joined the communist. party is breathing new life into our nation the market your time in the capital where shops and businesses beneath the monastery's on the hills this is quite a normal scene for us every day even as 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 poor 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 basically stop those protests we've documented cases where the chinese state lethal force against tibetans in one town fifteen people were shot legal authorities denial of geishas of human rights violations claiming the softly malaysians are organized from abroad accusing the worst of a full scale media assault on china the united states has been using that for. six decades now since the truman administration co-opted to fight communism and they will continue this because their modus operandi these days seems to be human rights violations. over the years china spent over sixty billion u.s. dollars to build schools roads and water supplies as well as developing industries from beer factories to cultural workshops. outside the capital in one of tibet's 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 to 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 can be off. this one off r.t. tibet and after a short break here on r.t.i. we take a look at the people who thought they had a front row seat to the end of the world a time now past three and four of the mine apocalypse.

join me on a journey to the heart of the kremlin to a place is hidden from the tourists you're going to meet some real kremlin insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. . look. we believe. if you.

believe. the means be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world's hot spots of the i p interviewers intriguing story for you. then try a small t. arabic to find out more visit our big teeth dog called. it's a job but it's also a religious vocation that's pushing her to constantly find new ways of developing a business. today she visited this cave in the denver area.