i. the end of foreign backing for terrorism in the formation of a new government the president of. syria could finally. no fall from the fiscal cliff president obama pushes taxes at the eleventh striking a deal with congress that narrowly 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 about a plot to assassinate the. u.k.'s prime minister says he's ready to order the armed

forces to war over the plans after the argentinean president publicly demanded the return of the islands. and film producer francis he gets a russian passport after a dramatic falling out with his native land over a fierce new attacks 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. 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 regional and

international powers to stop supporting armed groups artie's alexia share of skeet 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 toned 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 colleague 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 that also has been an ongoing story of ukrainian journalists 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 those opposition groups which he considers to be puppets of the west well earlier my colleague bill dodd spoke to political analysts mark is a bit off this they believe that as sad we'll have a hard job finding any that aren't when president assad says he's not going to talk to the opposition he's rushing into the armed opposition the so-called free syrian army and his 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 for 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 as being responsible for heinous vial terrorist attacks 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 see 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 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 believers the world over are celebrating the birth of christ there will be more on the spectacular ceremony later in the program. 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 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 with that kind of a 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 or who's good who gets by the wayside as long as a special interest is served so long as it's always under the shadow of a crisis. 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 nothing to address the underlying problems. it's just more theater. politicians trying to distract people from the underlying root catastrophe that is a bunch of. manipulating the system. the strong the economy. more bromo 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. the tension from the mob. and they're going after these people they want to just lay there for many months if they can but that day of reckoning twenty. report has more predictions in store for the new year and you can watch it at any time. british prime minister david cameron says he's willing to fight to keep control of the falkland islands it comes after the argentinean president sent him an open letter calling for negotiations over the disputed territory which the two nations for to war in nineteen. he was asked this question in an interview whether britain would fight to keep the

falkland islands and prime minister david cameron saying of course they 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 the very strong rhetoric coming from the prime minister david that ishy this comes on the back of. president making these accusations. the falkland islands a 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 very much focus on in the course of this is some of the strongest statement perhaps 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 to cut the child benefit coming in this week she's 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 when she was fighting our own battles here in the country. nearly thirty years since we saw the end the focus was 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 journalist and blogger neil clark believes the falklands islands 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 in britain austerity is really biting people are very unhappy with what he's doing

fine so i think you know about the falklands issue and i. cameron very much hope. for the bring back the memories of ninety two and displaced people's attention here from this area popular thing that he's doing for this issue to come out is very trying to repeat because the government is well down in the opinion polls the government is really unpopular i can't recall a government becoming so popular so quickly and so i think that he will want to keep this in the news headlines this is why he's around in such a as a 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 keeps one time obey open and allows the u.s. military to detain terrorist suspects for as long as it likes warn that shortly plus share of the food huge trade winds of vodka and the balls joyce the former french bank enjoyed his first day as

a russian at the black sea resort of sochi along with one very special guest we'll tell you that was just a little later in the program. i recently obtained 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 he branded a domestic terrorist group report a 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 find the 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 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 violently 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 my darwish from the european bahraini organization for human rights claims the police brutality leaves no one untouched even the innocent security forces who are working for the ministry of interior and not in our practicing and our talk by unknowns and a lot of why nations to human rights when confronting when pro-democracy protests

in bahrain the protesters here in although they are those radical protestants they are the minority and not the majority but they are using such methods to prevent their wireless security forces from entering their religious and tacking on armed 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 and we're going to take a short break now but when we come back we will show you how russia's orthodox believers marked the birth of christ with a grand ceremony in the heart of much scott. it's. mission free credit take free. for charges free. range month free. free spirit type free. download free

broadcast live video for your media projects free media dog hearty dog tom. cole. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've gone to the future and covered. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images of world leaders and seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations are all today .

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 and mosco the birth of christ is marked by a religious ceremony with hundreds of people attending a holy service in the heart of the russian capital. was that 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 docs 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 but the or 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 observance 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. they

chant in the editor in chief i think channel of the moscow patriarchate gave us some insight into why believe is not the orthodox christmas. the main emphasis is on service and prayer so we have the rather long and complicated service which consists of. three main parts the great complement being barton's and the divine liturgy now we have a sion hymns from the fourth and seventh saint trees of course translated into church slavonic and traditional russian melody is. the best pictures from the cathedral service will be available online shortly at r.t. com. hundreds of lawyers 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 flag only on designated occasions rather than year round jason was from the christian science monitor things there are deeper reasons there for the amref than the flag being taken that it's traditionally 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 it's like a republican. majority or we can look 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 loyalists rather than the flag itself because in fact flying the flag there is simply brings it into line with other british government and civic buildings. the may suspicion of ties to terrorism is not enough for the authorities to detain anyone in the u.s. indefinitely without charge or trial that's after president obama signed into law

the new national defense authorization act this week the end will also keep the infamous guantanamo bay prison open for at least another year veteran congressman dennis kucinich thinks the new rule is part of a 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 a 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 any time soon you are planning on paying a visit to the pope make sure you do 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 r.t. dot com. also there 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 leads to longer life. i. i.

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 organization used the money to fund networks to spark violent street protests one of the lawyers that filed the complaint yes a side made says the money was all about preserving interests and influence. 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 the former active member who quit the

brotherhood spoke of such groups who carried out operations for the muslim brotherhood benefit. big screen c g u has finally got its very own russian passport he celebrated the occasion of the d.n.a. in his new homeland with none other than the russian president himself. left his native france over what he called punishing tanks writes pushed on the rich by the new president the radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens have fled the country since funds while holland took office in part thanks to his tax policies and just like the g one of the countries they've been moving to russia my colleague. sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer you michael. 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 comes into effect in france that market 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 instead but 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 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 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 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 so it's really much more stable than in the rest of the 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 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 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 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 more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than the 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 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. venezuela could seem find itself as a political crossroad later this hour for a report on the ultimatums the country's opposition is issuing in case the long time leader hugo chavez fails to attend his own inauguration for health reasons and for better or worse stay with us to find makes israeli palestinian couples go to live in the face of discrimination that's coming up.

crime is a plague of the big cities but in a tiny arkansas town of twenty five thousand it is really getting out of hand pure gold as a property crime index of more than double the national average and rape burglary and assault are also way above average poor poor gold is a dangerous place to live in but what's the answer to living in constant fear of criminals well the mayor thinks that the answer to that problem is to live in constant fear of the government how logical the mayor and police chief have a doorstop plan to send out police patrols with fifteen full swat armor to i guess intimidate the local population into submission well actually the plan is for them to stand around it ask people an important question ask them to show id the answer to crime isn't a police state sending guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just

to check people's id like it's the berlin wall or something won't do anything a guy who breaks into your house for crystal meth money isn't going to be affected by this only the good average citizens will have to show an armed thug of their id just to go buy milk but that's just my opinion. hello again venezuela's president hugo. to attend his own swearing in ceremony on thursday.