if you believe. the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government president lines his views and could finally paid. no fall from the fiscal cliff president obama pushes up is at the eleventh hour striking a deal with congress that now really prevented a nationwide financial disaster critics say there is still no long term solution in sight. the f.b.i. lands itself in hot water after choosing not to warn the leaders of the occupy wall street movement to assassinate the. u.k.

would not hesitate to wage war to keep the falkland islands according to prime minister cameron the warning comes after the argentine president accused london of maintaining a last post of empire in the south atlantic. and film producers this year to france as he gets a russian passport after a dramatic falling out of his native land over a new tax hike on the wealthy. with a look back at the top stories of the last seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly here on our take. now the syrian leader has outlined his vision on how to end almost two years of continued civil conflict in a rare public speech one of the key conditions for peace according to president

bashar al assad is for regional and international powers to stop supporting armed groups artie's alexia share of ski was following what he said. it has certainly been rather interesting quotes coming from the syrian president he in fact called to hold an international reconciliation conference to end of 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 stop investing into terrorist groups which are fighting to overthrow his his regime has been again pretty much a defined tone thing 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 my own colleagues from 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 on them there also has been an ongoing story of a 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. president assad has said that his government is not willing to negotiate with aides opposition groups which he considers to be puppets of the west earlier my colleague bill dodd spoke to political analyst marcus papadopoulos who believes that assad will have a hard job finding any that aren't when president assad says he's not going to talk to the opposition he's rushed into the armed opposition the so-called free syrian army and its political wing of the syrian national council which is a foreign based opposition movement and it's very important to make this clear in particular to western audiences who are unfortunately not read the full picture when it comes to syria the free syrian army is a lethal cocktail or various groups including many islamist groups and many groups

linked to al qaida and the free syrian army or the f.s.a. it's more commonly referred to has been responsible for heinous dry all terrorist acts in the last couple of years in syria so it's it's it's pretty clear why president assad will not talk to the armed opposition and its political wing and the political wing being the syrian national coalition which of course is influenced by the e.u. and the u.s. so who is there left to talk to then much of the opposition is influenced by the west who does he talk to next then this is another important point to clarify there is a domestic opposition. parties which want to see political change in syria but they do not extremist groups islamist groups for example which reside in the syrian national council and also in the free syrian army. almost two years of anti-government protests change little in bahrain. fresh approach reform

demonstrations against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say it's their brutality that is fueling the uprising warn that coming up. and orthodox believe is the world over are celebrating the birth of christ we'll bring you more later in the program from moscow's main cathedral. earlier this week barack obama worked out a last minute tax hike deal with congress to stop the country falling off the so-called fiscal cliff economists fade a slip back into recession if washington failed to implement the reform of the bush era tax code the wealthy so income tax go up and middle class households also sort will also see their tax bills rise charlie mcgrath from wide awake news says creating a sense of panic over the problem has helped the u.s. government ignore the needs of the people listening to me 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 put that kind of deal together since two thousand and one namely we've been covering this nation by proxy the world by crisis and it doesn't matter who gets hurt who gets work by the wayside as long as a special interest is served so long as it's always under the shadow of crisis. 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 back seat well arty's economics expert max kaiser thinks the deal might bring short term relief but does not just do nothing to address the underlying problems. it's just more theater. trying to distract from the underlying root that is a bunch of. manipulating the system. strong the economy is. wrong. it doesn't really focus on the true underlying problems and we're going to see more of this growing. tension from the mob.

and they're going after these people they want to just lay that. month but the day of reckoning. and report has more predictions in store for the new year you can watch any time. british prime minister david cameron says he's willing to fight to keep control of the falkland islands it comes to the argentinian president said him and calling for negotiations over the disputed territory which the two nations for to war in one nine hundred eighty two. has the details. asked this question in an interview whether britain would fight to keep the fox and islands and prime

minister david cameron saying of course we would say he made his position extremely clear if an attempt was made by argentina to retake the folk and islands that military treats would be destroyed by britain so absolutely very clear on that very strong rhetoric coming from the prime minister david that ishy this comes on the back of argentina's president making these accusations. the falcon out of the stolen from argentina by britain i think she called it nineteenth century colonialism and i think some concern for people here today that you know this is something that is very much focused on in the course of the n.t. this is some of the strongest statement that of course say the shattering a little bit some of the other very important issues that are happening on a national level at the moment here in the country we've got a child benefit coming in this week as chief say that i'll go to the house of commons as a very important issues here at home and i will of course a lot of people say we're talking about fighting

a war again somewhere else where she was fighting our own battles here in the country. nearly thirty years since we saw the end as a focus it definitely has a very strong resonance with people here in britain that we've seen this this ultimate kick off again as i said we've had very strong comments from the president in argentina is also of course come in much more recent argument again it's been discovered that there are large oil reserves of course i think that's really going to play a big part in seeing this contest over the islands between britain and argentina really heating up again it doesn't look like it's going away well journalist and blogger neil clark believes the falklands issue came up at the right time for the british prime minister. but david cameron it's a great issue that it's come up again because the economy here is in dire straits and austerity is really biting people are very unhappy with what he's doing and so

i see you know. the falklands issue and i think that cameron is very much hope that this was. the average of ninety two and the people's attentions here from the very popular things that he's doing for this issue to come up now is very trying because the government is well down of the opinion polls and government is really unpopular i can't recall him becoming so popular so quickly and so i think that he will want to keep this in the news headlines species why he reacted in such a sort of strong way. failing to deliver on his promises president obama has approved a new pentagon spending bill along with all its controversial provisions the law that all kids. open and allows the u.s. military to detained terrorist suspects for as long as it likes war and that shortly plus. there are the jew trades wine on the for vodka and the ball surely theater the now former french actor enjoyed his first day as

a russian black sea resort of sochi along with the president we've got the full story just ahead. a recently obtained f.b.i. document 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 it branded a domestic terrorist group marina portnoy has the story for us. 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 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 in 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 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. protests calls for reform police finally lashing out at anti-government rallies it is a picture bahrain has been seeing for nearly two years now with neither the opposition or the regime willing to budge demonstrators have dug their feet in and continue to urge a transition to a democratically elected government as more darwish from the european bahraini organization for human rights claims that police brutality leaves no one untouched even the innocent security forces who are working for the ministry of interior and i mean are practicing and are to buy ins and a lot of violations to human rights when confronting when pro-democracy protests and behave in 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 their violent security forces from entering their religious and attacking on our civilians and children like we witnessed in the big you off of the four year old child being attacked by security forces with here gas canisters we are heading into a short right now but stay with us because when we're back we will show you how russia's orthodox believers marked the birth of christ with a grand ceremony in the heart of moscow. admission and free accreditation three pounds for charges free. range month free risk free spirit type free.

download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media oh don the r t dot com. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. please. more news today violence is once again fled uplands these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations are all today please. he survived war atrocities. to make

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hello welcome back now it is one of the holiest nights of the year for orthodox believe is all around the world as they celebrate christmas in moscow the birth of christ is commemorated by a religious ceremony with hundreds of people attending. in the heart of the russian capital artie's tom barton has more for us. here at the christ the savior cathedral the main cathedral in the russian capital in churches and cathedrals both here across russia and in all for the communities across the world it isn't fact christmas it would be awful lot church in the in the crisis a few cathedral worshippers have packed in to take part in to listen to the liturgy chanted and to feel the presence of of the spirit of christmas eve which is here celebrated on the sixth to the seventh of january not the twenty fifth of december because of the use of the julian calendar here by the russian orthodox church

rather than the gregorian calendar in other countries after the soviet union which is just over the end of the soviet union just over twenty years ago there was a a large gap in the number of believers after that long atheist period and even today most russians don't strictly observe the russian orthodox christmas for most russians new year is the real celebration but there is a significant number of of strict religious observers of the russian orthodox faith and for them this is an immensely special night indeed for them just as for most russians on new year's eve at large banquet is held many big dinners held and it's also a time for them to go to their church to take part in what is one of the longest services in the russian orthodox calendar but also. in the view of many believers and observers of russian orthodox faith one of the most beautiful services.

chapman editor in chief of the. kate gave us some insight into how believe this mark the orthodox christmas. the main emphasis is on service and prayer so we have the rather long and complicated so dress which consists of. three main parts the great complement the buttons and the divine liturgy now we have a sion hymns from the fourth and seventh century is of course translated into church slavonic and traditional russian melodies while the best pictures of the ceremony that has been held in moscow is christ the savior cathedral will be available online at our take dot com. hundreds of loyalist protesters clashed with police in the northern irish capital of belfast over the weekend the riots are an escalation of

a campaign against the city's decision to fly the british seen 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 a flag to be taken down but first it's traditionally it's throughout its history been a predominantly protestant and unionist city and their latest census results show that's not really the case any longer it's not slightly slowed to a republican national are still majority work out we could go for the decision itself to fly the flag or only on seventeen designated days a year 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 on there is simply brings into line with other british government and civic buildings . to me suspicion of ties to terrorism is now enough for the authorities to detain anyone in the u.s. indefinitely but that charge will trial after president obama signed into law the

new national defense authorization act this week the n.d.a. i would also keep the infamous guantanamo bay prison open for at least another year that from congressman dennis kucinich thinks the new rule is part of the path and undermining democracy right now we're much more of a garrison and a 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. now if you're planning on paying a visit to the pope to make sure you have plenty of cash on you since the beginning of this year it is cash only in the vatican where all credit card operations have been suspended and a.t.m.'s have been emptied find out why on our website at r.t. dot com and food lovers across the world you don't need to worry about losing weight anymore online for you we have the details of a new study which claims being overweight lead to longer life. egypt's muslim brotherhood is under investigation for taking billions of dollars from the u.s. before even coming to power it's also alleged the brotherhood used the money to fund arm cells involved in sparking violent protests one of the lawyers that filed be complaint yes aside says the money was all about preserving interests.

this money might have been beneficial to both the merican side promise the 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 arm are 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 the former active member who quit the brotherhood spoke of such groups who carried out operations for the muslim brotherhood benefit. some other international news in brief suicide bombers have killed five people after managing to enter a government compound in southern afghanistan to militants arrived in a car killing a guard before detonating

a bomb inside the building the other victims were reportedly members of the local council along with two other civilians fifteen people were also wounded the taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack the district of spin boldak is one of the most violent in the country and they know smuggling routes for weapons and drugs. a strain authorities have started a search for a hundred people missing in areas hit by wildfires thousands more have been evacuated to safety and the now at emergencies chelators winds and very high temperatures nationwide have provided optimal conditions for dangerous bushfires to break out the weather bureau warned that the extremely hot and dry weather is likely to continue throughout next week. in bangladesh demonstrators led by a coalition of political parties have protested against a nine percent rise in fuel tanks twenty five people were hurt and several vehicles were set on fire police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the angry

crowds it is the fifth time since two thousand and nine that the government has hight fuel duty. big screen superstars or a deputy who has finally got his very own russian passport he celebrated the occasion over dinner in his new homeland with none other than the russian president himself the movie icon left his native france over what he called punishing tax rate pushed on the rich by the new president a radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens have fled the country since francoise hollande took office in part thanks to his tax policies and just like their produce one of the countries they've been moving to russia earlier my colleague spoke to r.t. sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer new migrants. let's look at the taxes and that's the question at hand right now if you look at russia at the current laws we have

a flat tax rate here of thirteen percent 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. mark for france goes up to seventy five percent making russia even more trying to do so you know why the super rich would be wanting to move over here and stay certainly 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 didn't it 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 come into 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 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 though to be much more stable than in the rest of the a lot of the same as in all for a 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 policies and 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 through 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 a. 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 they're going to be a little bit more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than regardless of that it's just a fun place to be is and certainly is in fact the arts and 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 in the western cultures i think that the real reason people come here is that you get two christmases and you get two new years. now one that has scientists unspeakable beauty for tourists and one of the coolest experiences imaginable he heads off to discover russia's amazing come got ice that is right after this break.