really. the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government president assad lines his views on how syria could finally be paid . 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 is still no long term solution in sight. for us yes the island itself in hot water after choosing not to hold the leaders of the occupy wall street movement to assassinate the. u.k.'s prime minister says he's ready to order the armed forces to war over the four

clones after the argentinean president publicly demanded the return of the island's . film i come here our deputy juices to 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. but they 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 the peace according to president bashar al assad is for regional and international powers to stop supporting groups r.t.

to lexi yoshi have ski was following what he said but it has certainly been rather interesting quotes coming from the syrian president he in fact called to hold an international reconciliation conference to end 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 regime has been again pretty much a defined thing that the only way that syria will listen to the outside world is through a device not through a dictating while 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 words press. bit ongoing story of a ukrainian journalist and 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 only 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 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 fed the full picture 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 you have been 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 does it talk to next then this is another important point to clarify if 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 changed little in bahrain fresh from demonstrations shatter against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say is their brutality that is fueling the uprising

more on that coming up and orthodox believe is the world over are celebrating the birth of christ there will be more on the spectacular ceremony later in the program . early 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 hearings to put 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 hurt it was good who gets work by the wayside as long as the special interest is served so is 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 backseat but artie's economics expert max kaiser thinks the deal might bring short term relief but does nothing to address the underlying problems. the fiscal cliff is just more theater. trying to distract people from the underlying root catastrophe that is a bunch of. manipulating the system. the strong economy this fiscal cliff 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 mobs pitchforks and torches there are

coming after the people they want to just lay there for as many months as they can but that day's reckoning twenty. report has 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 can dial and it comes after the argentinean president sent him an open last according to negotiations over the disputed territory which the two nations for to war in nineteen. has the details. herewith asked this 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 the fluid by birth and so absolutely very clear on that very strong rhetoric coming from the prime minister over that issue this comes on the back of argentina is president we making these accusations. the canal is a stolen from argentina by britain 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 was some of the strongest statements but of course that's a discharging 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 cuts to trial benefits coming in this week saying 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 so loose fighting our own battles here in the country at the moment the screen nearly thirty years as we saw

the end of the focus war it definitely has a very strong resonance with people here in britain that we seeing this this old me kick off again as i said you have very strong comments from the president in argentina is also of course common 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 over the islands to tween britain and argentina really heating up again it doesn't look like it's going away journalist and blogger new york police 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 will have a green back the memories of trying to make it to people's attention to hear from the very popular things that he's doing this issue to come up now is a very trying week because the government is well down in 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 headline is why he's 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 keeps one time open and allows the u.s. military to detain terrorist suspects as it likes shortly plus if you're out there for a do trade wine and the louvre and the bolshoi theater the now former french actor enjoyed his first day as a russian at the black sea resort of sochi along with one very special guest to tell you who that was just

a little bit later on. 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. as 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 and the movement's leaders in various cities throughout the country these alleged plans were supposed to be taking place in the fall of two thousand and eleven now the names of the groups or individuals involved in the alleged plot are redacted from the f.b.i. documents but what critics say is clear is that the f.b.i. never alerted any one of the potential any of the potential victims that their lives could possibly be in danger or that there's any threat surrounding them the partnership for civil justice fund received the f.b.i. documents on december twenty second so this is fairly new information and this was after they filed a request under the freedom of information after now many civil rights attorneys previously have accused the f.b.i. of functioning as a de facto intelligence arm for u.s. corporations during the occupy wall street movement 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 one continue to 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 writing are practicing an art of by unknowns and a lot to boil ations to human rights or in confrontation with pro-democracy protests and behave in the broadest there is here and although they are those radical protestants they are the minority and not the majority but to be are using

such methods to prevent their wireless security forces from entering their 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 now it is one of the holiest nights of the year for orthodox believers all around the world as they celebrate christmas and moscow 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 artie's tom barton was there for us. spirit the christ the savior cathedral the main cathedral in the russian capital in churches and cathedrals both here across russia and in all through doc's communities across the world it isn't fact christmas it could 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 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 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. and surrogate chapman editor in chief of the journal of the moscow patriarchate gave us some insight into how believe his mark 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 be great complicating the barton's and the divine liturgy now we have a sion he means from the fourth and seventh century is of course translated into church slavonic and traditional russian melodies and if you like that the best

pictures from the cathedral service will be available online shortly at our take. hundreds of loyalists 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 i think there are deeper reasons they for the rest than the flag being taken down but most of us 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 slow to a republican. majority work out we were 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 on there is simply bring it into line with other british government and civic buildings. the minute suspicion of ties to terrorism is now enough for the authority to detain anyone in the u.s. indefinitely without charge or trial that's up to president obama signed into law with a new national defense authorization that this week the end will keep the infamous one ton of my bay prison in for at least another year that's from congressman dennis kucinich things the needle is part of a patent 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. now if you are planning to visit the pope thing 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 an a.t.m. has have been emptied to find out why on our website at r.t. dot com also there food lovers across the world you don't worry about losing weight anymore online fear we have the details of a new study which claims being overweight they eat a 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 is also alleged the organization used the money to fund networks to spark violent street protests one of the lawyers that followed the complaint. says the money was all about preserving interests and influence. this money might have been beneficial for both the american 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. 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 am were able to intercept the suspects the three militants opened fire on police car was stopped near the city of facts and explosives inside the vehicle detonated during the gunfight killing all the passengers the search is underway for possible accomplices international antiterrorism committee had formed a special unit to prevent the attacks already. some other international news in brief now 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 the 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 a known smuggling route for weapons and drugs. 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 cranes it is the fifth time since two thousand and nine that the government has hight fuel duty. destroying 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 and very high temperatures nationwide have provided optimal conditions for bushfires to break out borne that the extremely hot and dry weather is likely to continue throughout the week. chile has pushed through emergency anti terror measures following a fatal arson attack on the elderly cut on an elderly couple it appears the pair were broad in a dispute with local approaching indians who laid claim to their land that was a similar spate of attacks over the weekend local indians have already described the deaths as senseless and of horror and. big screen superstars are at the producer 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 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 be moving to is russia my colleague greasy shea 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 very attractive to come to russia but if this new law 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 and stay 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 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 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 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 things are going to be a little more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than for goddess of that it's just a fun place to please and certainly is in fact the arts in the culture 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. coming up it is a wonderful scientists unspeakable beauty for tourists and one of the experiences imaginable he heads off to discover russia's amazing congo i skype that he's right after the break. well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've. covered. something. lies beneath. thousands of meters of ice country rock.

that is aloof from men. but dangerous even to those who keep it at a distance. from the top. of.