so you actually do you are living in a democratic power and. syrian and international chemical experts converge in moscow to discuss how damascus can get its toxic arsenal out of the country a condition that prevented an american strike on the war torn state that's among the stories that made the year two thousand and thirteen. saudi blogger and activist faces execution for rejecting islam after already being sentenced to seven years in prison and six hundred lashes which talk to a human rights campaigner about his case. and the british economy could limp past a sluggish germany within the next two decades a new forecast but for those who are not part of the affluent elite there is little cause to celebrate.

visitor to international coming to you live from moscow with me maria josh welcome to the program. it's been almost three years and there's still no end in sight for the war in syria which has escalated away beyond the conventional standoff between rebel forces and the government the year two thousand and thirteen has brought more trial and trauma for the people of the country and more obstacles for the global players trying to broker a solution. a study by of the fans consultancy earlier this year showed that out of one hundred thousand rebels in syria who are fragmented into multiple gangs more than half are extremist jihadism fact make up around ten percent of the armed opposition while more than a third are thought to be islamic hardliners all the rest are more moderate but their voices are being increasingly drowned out by the radicals are just refinish

now was in the midst of the war on the christian town of which suffered a deadly assault from al qaida linked radicals. listen to all of. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out then look at this some of them were killed some of them escaped but the . locals joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms of the so-called national defense but most of the terrain here is very difficult with mountains and caves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the operation of that but we come across one grocery shop owner who we

filmed back in two thousand and twelve here then he told us that the armed rebels hasn't come to their village and why would they this time he's armed with a gun and a monster in soldiers and he has some question is again the story of the thirty of syria is a land of history and of love for their vomit they sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill syrians and each other there why what your eye off the world i mean why if a european citizen is so much just slapped across the face they'd be a scam going on in syria because many victims but how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered become why will it stop with quickly find out that it won't be today held by the militants for a week it seems that mountain tops of fear hotel still poses a threat. that sufi hotel our goal was the liberated them push on my house one of you could do it that's my business everywhere my luna is home to many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here you see either

crosses on the racks now added to these we see blag to harvest flags. it's time to head back they love. it while in the car something goes wrong it. was. we take cover in a place to find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy's bullets. the main road is being targeted and it's he's our only way out. we think over our chances when our engineer gets heat that we just got about you know you're going to kill the person you must get if you scratch. but you can. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we can to wait a minute more. of the

money shot when i'm stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of here using this word. was no no no no. so. those had been anything they want back then here they go there are clear a lot. more focus off to do the bullets did you hear them whizzing by full. well that's a bit rich case here in. the firing room behind the studio when you're told that this is the syrian army get to. test

how do you make. sure you get access. and we leave while governmental forces continue their frenzy for manohla village which despite the claims remains under siege. for a fortune from syria. now thanks came to had in august this year when the u.s. threatened to bomb syrian targets washington accused the us government of a chemical attack outside damascus that killed hundreds of civilians but was unable to produce proof osco moved in to defuse the situation picking up on an american suggestion that syria voluntarily destroy its chemical arsenal that resulted in a un resolution kickstarting the disarmament process the first stage of which has already been completed our days are in english who has more on that. we can see the first hurdle or rather task at hand which is destroying the facilities where the

chemical weapons were stored and produced and then gathering all the chemicals together that that stage has been completed now we are at the stage two and that is the transportation of all chemicals to the port of latakia and now the there is the deadline for that and that was december thirty first but organization for broad vision of chemical weapons is saying that deadline is most likely not to be met because you don't have to transport the chemicals the route they have to go the other route from damascus to a talkie which of unfortunately is rife with various armed gangs populating the areas and that could present some danger although russia is helping out in that regard by sending its special heavy duty armored trucks and lorries in order to transport these chemicals now after the reach the port of latakia the chemicals will be boarded on several vessels belonging to denmark norway and head over to italy where they will be transferred to another vessel this one belonging to the united states there is also of course the issue of the actual destruction off the

chemicals and there are two ways that could be done and the details are being tinkered figured out today. by all parties participating in this rather difficult and very sophisticated task and according to the russian there presented to the russian history of foreign affairs there are some kinks that they need along the way when talking to the representatives of the united states but again russia is remaining very hopeful that the talks today will be very productive and of course they're saying that they're smoothing things out along the way as they go although syria's willingness to scrap its chemical arms was enough to avert an american strike the process has plenty of pitfalls along the way and not all experts agree that it's even a good idea. chemical weapons are not there just to prove. they were there was a really good way he was going. nuclear. so there's a broader. question about weapons of mass destruction in the middle east which

. block the region so this is a war for it's good it's well birth or for the broader or. not. these are very close to being here braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil giants. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that sums up the gulag of our time. is an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines.

now this man may be put to death in saudi arabia as a judge there says he should face charges of rejecting islam blogger and activist dr but he is currently in jail after being sentenced to seven years and six hundred lashes it was earlier convicted of making anti islamic statements on his website the father of three would face the death penalty if found guilty of giving up his religion but daddy's wife and children have had to flee to lebanon and human rights activists hauled the sari says madonna's case is not about face. he has been denied information really. is basically because there is no. clear evidence there is no. information relayed to him as what is his sentence has access to lawyers has been denied and when york agents his lawyer

haven't been able to communicate with him a regular basis or the term has been a concern for him to a decent for over a year and there is no space to fix things that. based on the on the very next there is nothing except that general. description of his attitude as unacceptable so we will believe that this is a political. thing with concrete evidence. now human rights groups accuse the saudi authorities of persistently going after activists amnesty international has labeled dr badawi's trial a clear case of intimidation saying that he's a prisoner of conscience who should be released immediately the saudi government has come under sustained criticism for human rights abuse and i have full of citizens have been found guilty of sorcery before being executed women aren't allowed to get behind the wheel of a car in saudi arabia and some have been flogged for driving taking part in program form activism or anti-monarchy campaigns can have you beaten and thrown into jail

the situation is even worse for migrant workers in the country the often don't receive their pay and can go to prison if they complain where the earth risk of rape and torture. now there is no relief in sight for the turkish leadership as the prime minister tries to prevent the government from being blown apart by corruption scandal crowds on the streets there are calls for his resignation and that's a hat here in our national. a k forty seven designer kalashnikov is about to be farewell in style with all the pomp and circumstance of a man put his stamp on global war fare war and that live from the funeral up next here on our t.v. now. choose

your language. of choice make over the internet or some other. tunes that you can sense to. choose the opinions that you think are great to. choose to stories could impact the lives truths be accessed through.

welcome back you're watching r.t. international at the stage is set for a final farewell for the legendary weapons design army how kalashnikov art is a purpose going off at the funeral in the moscow region and he joins us now live from war your hello to you well do tell us what the atmosphere is like as we know the funeral is about to get on her way. but we're here at the military cemetery just outside of moscow where friends relatives coworkers officials and others have gathered to commemorate i mean people who are expecting the president and the defense minister to arrive here a little bit later on and just a little while his body is going to be delivered or scored rather to the grave itself which it's probably see behind me around those tents over there and as he's

going to be buried we're going to hear three rounds fired from a k forty seven so his invention in commemoration now other commemoration of events of also been held in the city of you just previously where mikhail kalashnikov is from. well i know you have a unique chance of meeting me how a kalashnikov what was he like as a person. i did have the privilege of meeting last week of a few years back he turns ninety at the time and was decorated with the hero of russia star by the president at the kremlin and even though back then clearly had some problems with this hearing his hands were shaking quite a little what a lot he still made a firm impression of a person with a sharp mind quite in gauged in his work and very affectionate about his homeland and back then i asked him if he had ever expected that his invention the a k forty

seven would become so widespread and unfortunately often used by. terrorist gangs and so on and he said it was quite a pity to him knowing that since the only purpose that he did vented his. assault rifle was simply to protect his homeland and not to attack anyone surely this is one of the greatest figures greatest russians. one hundred years or so definitely made an impact on the world and is leaving us with a great legacy absolutely adore thank you so much for bringing us this report from the moscow region where the funeral of the inventor of a k forty seven is about to take place. to other stories now the u.k. is on track to become the europe's largest economy with a new or poor predicting it will overtake the industrial might of germany by two thousand and thirty but unless you're part of a lead it may be

a little early to celebrate if the rich including top bankers or set to reap the rewards but as our bully boy can now reports that's another way of saying business as usual. for many of those working here in the city of london two thousand and thirteen has been a year of prosperity thanks to a tax cut that kicked in earlier this spring the u.k.'s highest earners have been able to make even more money this year the rate of tax for people earning over one hundred fifty thousand pounds per year has gone down from fifty pence to forty five so for every hundred pounds they earn over that fifty pounds used to go straight into the treasury but that figure has now been reduced and now they're only paying forty five pounds to the tax man from every hundred now all these save five as a rounding up in the u.k. is authorization labor party has done the math they say that collectively the

u.k.'s highest earners have saved almost a hundred million pounds thanks to the tax cuts you have seen the longest fall in living standards on record you've got half a million people using parents now you've got i think homelessness is up by around since two thousand and ten these are serious problems why is the government choosing to protect the fund like this when the government's made such play of the need for services list it's bizarre and there's little evidence that it's benefited the the u.k. economy so most of the people. have their taxes cut their not investing that money this investment story before they're just trying to basically london isn't called a millionaire's playground for nothing you have more super rich individuals living in the capital than anywhere else in the world you have the world's most expensive houses here and butlers a back in fashion but away from the glitz and glamour thirteen million brits are

going to be starting the new year living in poverty u.k. prime minister david cameron has been fighting off claims that his political party only represents the privileged few but this later. tax cuts only benefits the richest one percent while the boy see london and across the atlantic while taxes are a point of contention it's executive bonuses that are evoking more and more anger among the public and new reports suggest that this year u.s. bankers will be paid almost a hundred billion dollars on top of their salaries. and activists from the other ninety eight percent pro quality group told us that those same banks are still receiving subsidies from taxpayers these big wall street banks pay their employees a very high b salary usually in the range of like one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand but then on top of that they get this sort of performance bonus and the way that they're tallied is there's a number of surveys they basically at the top us think how much money they had set

aside for bonuses in two thousand and thirteen and that's how we arrived at the ninety one point four four billion dollars it is crazy right especially when you think about earlier this year there was this bloomberg article about how the government there is like a government subsidy of eighty three billion dollars so it's almost as if all of that government subsidy is just going right back into bonuses but this is just way that wall street has worked for a really long time before so we're going to continue to see these problems and that's why we're saying listen you shouldn't get to take these big dollars that you've gotten in this bill gotten ways and give them to yourselves you should give it back to the people that you've harmed well it's been labeled a flesh eating zombies drug later this hour we're on the devastating effects of a deadly kartik that's cheap addictive and scarily simple to me. i mean tom protesters have spilled into the streets of turkey trying to deliver a final blow to the government which is now teetering on the brink of collapse

activists are demanding that it resign on mass amid a corruption scandal that's already forced the prime minister to replace ten of his cabinet members commentators say prospects are looking good at the moment. it is the biggest political corruption in our history and if it is the case it is more than one hundred billion euro. as some sources say i think government is having difficulties to. cover the prime minister is the video harmed by this and i think the internal reactions and every move from the broad there will be more strong accusations and the turkish government. will somehow try to defend the lost a lot of credit in the eyes of the electorate and also in the international public opinion and in our website we delve deeper into the bribery scandal that's causing red faces in the turkish leadership so had to r.t.

dot com for more on that and a car blast has hit central beirut not far from the lebanese government have quaters and parliament some viewers might find in a ballot to show stressing at least four civilians have reportedly been killed and up to ten are wounded the country seeing a recent surge in violence fueled by tensions leaving syria. body fit. and now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world music get on the head of. thousands of protesters have marched through the bulgarian capital calling for the resignation of the socialist led government and snap elections students studying abroad and returning home for christmas join the rallies as part of the so-called early risers protest movement as a government demonstrations have become a regular side of the area over the past six months since the government was caught up in a corruption scandal. his row has launched

a new round of airstrikes on gaza in retaliation against a two rocket attacks from the palestinian territory tel aviv says a target of militant sites including arms production and storage facilities second wave of strikes in the space of three days the previous one left a six year old girl dead. at least twenty nine people have died in a bus crash in central thailand there were forty passengers on board a vehicle skidded off a bridge smashing through the rail and plunging into a ravine fifty metres below police say the driver may have been speeding or dozed off at the wheel. a fire in a shopping mall has killed at least four people and injured thirty five in southwest china the blaze caused by a natural gas explosion quickly spread throughout the building it took twenty eight firefighter crews four hours to put out the flames our search for survivors is still ongoing little ones he it's

a narcotic that's ravaged parts of provincial russia named crocodile because of the scaly marks it leaves on the body where it's injected the concoction is highly addictive and the ingredients are dirt cheap but you know caution of a now reports on the horrific effects of a deadly drug. it's two years since drug addict alexina lost his best friend and every december i have visited his grave and leave the new author andrew it was a group exactly he was into advertising he was involved in several projects but the thing just killed him he couldn't stop it chased him to death that thing was just some more of an extremely addictive opioid to which users inject as a better known as crocodile because it gives out x. keeley gangrenous skin as also described as the flash to be dropped it causes severe brain damage or skin eventually falls off and kills addicks within two years

alexy managed to escape the consequences of the drug but his story is more of an exception than the rule in reality those who try the so-called world's deadliest drug even ones pay dearly for the cheap and all too often they end up here or abroad and you've got to remember my friend couldn't work because of the drug he needed to inject again it became an obsession in the end he was only working to afford the crocodile is cheap costing just in terms of the price of regular herring and most worryingly manufactured at home using over the counter chemicals. at the pleasure would be one of the main factors widespread over to responsible decisions made about could be under the ninety's where the health minister it was the sales regulations of medicine of which contains called being well no one needed any prescription to buy medicine. alexei agreed to show us just how easy it is to get

the vital ingredient painkillers. we're on our way to the drugstore i don't have any prescription but i believe i'll get everything i need to it's not a problem. it is. take a moment just five minutes on your list alexey tells us that crocodile is made from buying homes with the ordinary household detergents or even gasoline which every summer is just a conflict even god so many different really dangerous toxic ingredients you get all the guys in retirement is a very intense and very short time i the diction has developed so fast falls has been heroin this is a drug of poor those who can't afford anything. russia's problem with crocodile peaked at the turn of the century sense that the veil ability of coding has been half of the restricted and pharmacist as one of the lockyer addicts who survived after quitting crocodile alexy has

a stark warning by the new deal with you don't do it this thing just turns you into a monster. so painful it's so scary you lose everything your friends your family everything. i do question all our moscow go out all the arctic thirty environmental protesters can finally leave russia and go home moscow has dropped all charges against them for trying to board an offshore oil rig and ass started issuing i was it raises the full story on our website. and after decades of heated talks the way is clear for japan to move to a u.s. army base and its borders but not nearly as far away as the crowds of protesting locals had hoped that story in full on r.t. dot com. a look at the latest breakthroughs and gadgets in the high tac world next technology update stay with us.

although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v. show but gosh i heard about the scandal involving one of the stars of the show phil robertson who got suspended for making what many consider anti homo sexual comments in an interview this celebrity scandal is creating a lot of arguments about freedom of speech on social networks many people who believe that robertson deserved to be booted from the show for what he said argue that freedom of speech means that robertson can't be arrested by the government for what he said but the any t.v. channel has the right to fire whom they like the thing is that if the situation were reversed and robertson was fired for making pro l.g. p.t. statements then people who are currently defending any right to hire and fire as they please would all be bashing the t.v. channel for violating the star's freedom of speech think cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand

a boycott a closing of a n.d. forever very few people actually believe in freedom of speech for all they just believe in freedom of speech for people who agree with them but that's just my opinion. and you will like these policies to surprise people.