we. run a very low. the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government president. his views on syria could finally be paced. no fall from the fiscal cliff president obama pushes up taxes at the eleventh hour striking a deal with congress that now really prevented a nationwide financial disaster critics say there's still no long term solution in sight. plus the f.b.i. is itself in hot water after choosing not to warn the leaders of the 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 falklands after the argentinian president publicly demanded the return of the islands. and film icon. says france as he gets a russian passport after a dramatic falling out with his native land over a fierce 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. 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 ski was following

what he said. well there 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 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 words pressed 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 those opposition groups which he considers to be puppets of the west earlier my colleague bill dodd spoke to political analyst marcus puppet openness who believes that a sad 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 rushing into the armed opposition the so-called free syrian army and his political wing of the syrian national council which is a form based opposition movement and it's very important to make this clear in particular for western audiences who are unfortunately not fed for which 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 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 antigovernment protests change little in bahrain fresh reform demonstrations shatter against the wall of the police crackdown some experts say it's their

brutality that is fueling the uprising more on that coming up and orthodox believers the world over 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 feared a slip back into recession if washington failed to implement the reform of the bush era tax code the wealthy saw income tax go up or 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 papal visit 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 of quebec and a good 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 is good who gets work 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 the house of the people of this nation it seems like good 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. trying to distract people from the underlying root catastrophe that is a bunch of. manipulating the system. the strong the economy. is just more drama 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 what they're and they're going after these

people they want to just delay that. many months if they can but that day of reckoning. and 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 full connivance it comes after the argentinean president sent him an open letter calling for negotiations over the disputed territory which the team nations for to war over nineteen. has the details. here with our says question in an interview whether britain would fight to keep the falkland islands and prime minister david cameron saying of course we would say he made his position there extremely clear if an attempt was made by argentina to

retake the falkland islands that military treats would be deployed by britain so absolutely very clear on that very strong rhetoric coming from the prime minister a view that ishy this comes on the back of argentina as president we making these accusations that the falkland islands were stolen from argentina by britain and i think she called it a 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 interview this is some of the strongest statements but of course perhaps a bit 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 the custody of benefits coming in this week a very it's cheese day that i'll go to the house of commons so as a very important issues here at home at the moment of course a lot of people say we're talking about fighting a war again somewhere else where when actually was fighting our own battles here in the country. nearly thirty years as we saw the end is the focus for it definitely

has a very strong resonance with people here in britain but we've seen this result in the kick off again as i said if you have very strong comments from the president in argentina is also of course commenting much more recent argument again because 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 david the islands between britain and argentina really heating up again it doesn't look like it's going away journalist and blogger new york club believes the falklands issue did come 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.

of a green broke the average of ninety two and the people's attentions here from the very popular things that he's doing but for this issue to come up now is very timely because the government is well down of the opinion polls the 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. open and allows the u.s. military to detain terrorist suspects for as long as it likes we've got more on that shortly plus here are the jew trade winds and the loot for vodka and the bolshoi theatre the now former french actor enjoyed his first day as a russian black sea resort of sochi along with one very special guest will tell you

who that was just a bit later in the program. 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 you branded a domestic terrorist group arena portnoy or as the story for us. well it's not clear yet why the f.b.i. would neglect to tell activists 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 us 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 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. 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 and 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 man 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 nothing are practicing an art of by unknowns and a lot of violations to human rights or in confrontation with pro-democracy protests in bahrain the protestants 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 your gas canisters but we're going to take a short break now but when we are back we will show you how rushes off a duck's believe is marked the birth of christ with a grand ceremony in the heart of moscow. mission. critical three. for charges free. free. free. free. download free blog video for your media project

a free media dog r t dot com. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. heat to. eat. 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 moscow the birth of christ is marred by a religious ceremony with hundreds of people attending. and the heart of the russian capital. was that. 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 three 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 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. and the

best pictures from the cathedral so this will be our vailable online shortly at our 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 union flag only on designated occasions rather than year round jason was from the christian science monitor thinks there are deeper reasons that for the a mess than a flag being taken down the hostess 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 slowed to a republican national of still majority work out we can look for the decision itself to float the flag or only on seventeen designated duty or to go on december third. reflects this change and that seems to be what's troubling loyalists or

rather than the flag itself because in fact flying with low don't do it simply bring it into line with other british government and civic buildings the mere suspicion of ties to terrorism is now 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 n.d.a. will also keep the infamous one tandem obey prison open for at least another year veteran congressman dennis kucinich things that the new law 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 if you are planning to visit the pope to make sure that you've got plenty of cash on you since the beginning of this year it is cash only in the banks can well credit card operations have been suspended and a.t.m. and to find out why on a web site called. food lovers across the world you don't need to pray about losing weight anymore online for you we have the details of a new study which claims being overweight along the line. egypt's muslim brotherhood is under investigation for taking billions of dollars

from the u.s. before even coming to power it's also the organization used the money to fund. street protests one of the lawyers the father complained yes this site it 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 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 a form active member who quit the brotherhood spoke of such groups who carried out

operations for the muslim brotherhood benefit. in southern russia security services have foiled a planned terror attack on churches time to coincide with the orthodox christmas eve offices received a tip off and were able to intercept the suspects the three militants opened fire on police when their car was stopped and there's a city of back sandwich explosives inside the vehicle detonated during the gunfight killing all the passengers the search is underway for possible accomplices a national antiterrorism committee had formed a special unit to prevent the attacks. look at some other international news now in brief suicide bombers have killed five people after managing to enter a government compound in southern afghanistan two 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 were 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 the known smuggling route for weapons and drugs . a strain authorities have started a search for up to one hundred people missing in areas hit by wildfires thousands more have been evacuated to safety winds very high temperatures nationwide have provided optimal conditions for bushfires to break out your thirty's do warn that the extremely hot and dry weather is likely to continue throughout the week. big screen superstar gerard depardieu has finally got his very own russian passport he celebrated the occasion over d.n.a. in his new homeland with none other than the russian president himself the movie icon left his native france over what he called a punishing tax rates pushed on the rich by the new president a radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens have fled the country since francois hollande took office in part thanks to his tax policies and

just like their produce one of the countries they've been moving to is russia 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 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 if

a 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 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 though to be much more stable than in the rest of the world but a lot of people say 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 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 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 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 this is the biggest city in the countries of course things are going to a bit more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than regardless of that it's now brings you up to date for the moment more news is on its way in a little more than thirty minutes but before that we continue our look at the impact on the lives of those who believe the world would end in two thousand and twelve the now is coming your way right now on r.t. .

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. the least be cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the ip interviews intriguing story for you. in troy

arabic to find out more visit arabic dot all 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. it's a more than three kilometer deep maze this spot is for sale and robin is thinking about buying it for the construction of more underground shelters if somebody was to light a fire someone in here what about the ventilation with the smoke or something like that you probably would want to yourself back in a small room with a fire or anything like that but when something like this we are close to an entrance there's a lot of here we've been to probably be all right ok. it's just it's a good survival but it's like i do this week it easily howls a thousand or so people any cell.