these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule today. the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government president assad outlines his views and syria could finally be at peace. 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 that critics say there is still no long term solution in sight. plus 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 with the falklands after the argentinean president publicly demanded the return of the island's. film producer 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. we'll 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 ski

was following what he said. but 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 don't think that the only way that syria will listen to the outside world is through a device not through a dictating will this speech of the syrian president comes amid very serious

concerns about the safety of journalists working in syria the year has only just started but already we have a syrian a pro governmental journalist killed 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 ukrainian journalists on how to question about who's been missing and nobody knows where she is and whether she's actually alive but there were 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 days opposition groups which he considers to be puppets of the west earlier my colleague bill dodd spoke to political analyst marcus papadopoulos he 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 form 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 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 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 change little in bahrain fresh probe reform demonstrations shatter against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say it's their brutality that is fueling the

uprising born 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 feared a slip back into recession of washington failed to implement the reform of the bush era tax code the wealthy still 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 as an enemy when the cameras are off and it's time to pass a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands 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 hurt who's 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 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. 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. 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 what they're pitchforks and torches coming out of these people

they want to just lay there for as many months as they can but that day of reckoning twenty third. and cause 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 last a calling for negotiations over the disputed territory which the two nations fought a war over in one thousand nine hundred eighty two. has the details. here with 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 really 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 was some of the strongest statements because that's a this 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 cuts to trial 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 when it when actually was so loose fighting our own

battles here in the country on the screen nearly thirty years as we saw the end as it has very strong resonance with people here in britain that we see in this result may kick off again as i said we've had 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 over the islands between britain and argentina really heating up again it doesn't look like it's going away well the 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.

of a green broke the average of ninety two and the people's attention is here from the very popular things that he's doing at home for this issue to come up now is very timely because the government is well down of the opinion polls a government is really unpopular i can't recall it becoming so our populace 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. open and allows the u.s. military to detain terrorist suspects for as long as small or not shortly plus. do phrase wine and the move for vodka 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 we

will tell you who 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 it branded a domestic terrorist group portnoy or 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 the civil justice fund a u.s. human human and civil rights advocacy organization have revealed that the u.s. the f.b.i. the department of homeland security the u.s. military and private corporations all cooperated together to monitor and investigate occupy wall street protesters as quote domestic terrorists and quote criminals now the more shocking revelation the headline of this story is that

reportedly buried deep within the government. mentions of a plan to use snipers to assassinate occupy protesters and the movement's leaders in various cities throughout the country these alleged plans were supposed to be taking place in the fall of two thousand and eleven 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 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 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 one continue to urge a transition to a democratically elected government as my 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 an art of by an ems and a lot of boy lesions 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 wireless 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 by security forces with here gas canisters that 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 marred 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. 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 six 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. and assegais chapman editor in chief of the journal of the moscow patriarchate gave us some insight into how you 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 the great complement the bartons and the divine liturgy we'll have a sion hymns from the fourth and seventh st mary's of course translated into church

slavonic and traditional russian melodies and if you like what you saw there the best pictures from the cathedral service will be available online shortly at r.t. 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 walsh from the christian science monitor things there are deeper reasons there for the a mess than a flag being taken down. hostess traditionally throughout its history been a predominantly protestant and unionist city and the latest census results show that's not really the case any longer it's not slightly less like a republican nationalist a majority or we can look for the decision itself to fly the flag only on seventeen

designated daisy or taken on december third. reflects this change and it seems to work struggling with loyalists a role in the slogan so because in fact flying the flag they simply bring it into line with other british government and civic buildings. the mia suspicion of ties to terrorism is now enough for the in the ties to anyone in the us and definitely without charge or trial that stuff that president obama signed into with a new national defense authorization act this week the n b a a would also keep the infamous guantanamo bay prison open for at least another year veteran congressman dennis kucinich thinks that the needle is part of the past 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 are planning to visit the pope some time soon to make sure you've got plenty of cash on you since the beginning of this year it is show 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 art 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.

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 violence and street protests one of the lawyers the father complained here see a side mad so the money was all about preserving interests and influence. this money might have been beneficial to 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 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 for mark tidd 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 on where able to intercept the suspects the three militants opened fire on police when their car was stopped near the city of black sand explosives inside a vehicle detonated during the gunfight killing all the passengers a search is underway for possible accomplices the national antiterrorism committee had formed a special unit to prevent the attacks. why do you talk to some other

international news in brief now suicide bombers have killed five people after managing to enter a government compound in certain 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 were 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 the name smuggling route for weapons and drugs. in bangladesh demonstrates is led by a coalition of political parties have. rising 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 crags it is the fifth time since two thousand and nine that the government has hight few duty. 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 and very high temperatures nationwide have provided optimal conditions for bushfires to break out youth already sworn that day but that the stream the hot and dry weather is likely to continue throughout the week. and chile has pushed through emergency anti terror measures following a fatal arson attack on an elderly couple it appears the pair were embroiled in a dispute with local pucci indians who laid claim to the land there was a spate of similar attacks over the weekend local indians have already described the deaths as senseless and abhorrent big screen superstars there are the producer 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 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 front walk along took office in part thanks to its tax policies and just like their produce one of the countries they be moving to is russia well earlier my colleague spoke to r.t. sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer you 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. 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 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 locally much more stable than in the rest of me 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 that actually

taken a moment to appraise russia's immigration policies that what's what's that about well certainly if you look at the numbers the most recent numbers in fact show that russia is the second most desirable country for immigrants to come to only second to the united states in fact in fact it can be a little bit confusing because people look at the numbers about moscow being one of the most expensive cities for ex-pats to live with that's for ex-pats and it is true things here it is a big city. 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 goddess of that it's just a fun place to please 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 to christmas. if you've ever been curious to see what the kremlin looks like on the inside our correspondent. is on hand to give you the grand tour take a trip to the heart of russia's corydoras of power but after the break. well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've. covered. i didn't use it secret laboratory to mccurry was able to build

a new world most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only on the dog. 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. to. the.