syrian and international chemical weapons experts converge on the mosque out 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 big here twenty thirteen. a car blast rips through central beirut killing a former finance minister and four other peeper of people near the lebanese government had ordered. the british economy could edge past druggists germany over the next two decades according to new forecasts but for those who are not part of the affluent elite there is little cause to celebrate. kalashnikov inventor of the a k forty seven is seen off in style his funeral is held outside moscow with all the pomp and circumstance of

a man who put his stamp on global war fare. it's two pm in moscow you're watching international with me and he's to now a well it's been almost three years and there's still no end in sight for the war in syria which is escalated way beyond a 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 a defense 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

the hottest in fact make up around ten percent of the armed opposition while more than a third are thought to be islamic hardliners the rest are more moderate but their voices are being increasingly drowned out by the radicals archies marína finished with in the midst of the war on a christian town of. which suffered a deadly assault from al-qaeda linked radicals. but. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out let's 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 none 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 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 they sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill syrians and each other why i ask the world why if the european citizen is so much just slapped across the face they'd be a scandal while in syria how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered 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 to liberated them push on to mark tough climb

on a street but we couldn't do it there snipers are everywhere milo is home to many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on the rx now added to these we see blag jihadists flags. it's time to head back right now. but while in the car something goes wrong the whole. world. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy's bullets. the main road is being targeted and if he's our only way out. we think over our chances when our engineer gets hit. it will float your group your organization must . pressure. but. thankfully it's not serious

or will work but it becomes clear we can't wait a minute more. remember . when i was stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of here. and this was. no no no. those had been anything done to back then they go clear a lot. more focus also drew the bullets did you hear them whizzing by. but now say that we've

reached safe area. the fire and you're behind this. and you're told that this is there no may get through. that's how do you make. sure you get paid. and we leave while governmental forces continue their frenzy for manuella village which despite the claims remains under siege. for a fortune from syria. well things came to a head in august this year when the u.s. threatened to bomb syrian targets washington accuse the outside government of a chemical attack outside damascus that killed hundreds of civilians but was unable to produce proof moscow 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 now delegations are in moscow meeting to discuss some of the technicalities or. has more. well you 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. 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 a deadline for that and that was december thirty first but organization for provision 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 via the route from damascus to latakia which of unfortunately is rife with various armed gangs populating the area so 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 transports these chemicals now after they 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 of the chemicals and there are two ways that could be done and the details are being figured out today. by all parties participating in this rather difficult and very sophisticated task and according to the russian their present 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. although syria's witness to scrap its chemical arms was enough to avert an american strike the process has plenty of pitfalls along the way and might not all and not all experts i should say

agree that it's even a good idea. comical weapons were not there just to. know they were there was a really good way he was going. nuclear. so . it was a question good weapons of mass destruction and so on in the middle east. region so this is a war for it's good it's well birth. not with. these labels to be. braving the elements in order to stand on us soil giants. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that sums up the gulag of our times.

is an undeclared global battlefield in which young and just one of the front lines . in the u.k. is on track to become europe's largest economy with a new report predicting it will overtake the industrial might of germany by twenty thirty but for those who are not part of the moneyed elite it may be a little early to celebrate it's the rich including top bankers who are set to reap the rewards as are probably boycott reports. 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 that 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. zoë position labor party has done the math they say that collectively the u.k.'s highest earners have saved almost one 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 seriously bizarre and there's very little evidence that it benefits the u.k. economy so most people. have their taxes cut investing that money this investment storm before they're just going 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 thirty 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. across the atlantic while taxes are a point of contention and it's executive bonuses that are evoking more and more

public gangs and the reports are just that this year u.s. bankers will be paid almost a hundred billion dollars on top of their salaries alexis goldstein an activist from the other ninety eight percent pro-equality group told us that those same banks are still receiving subsidies from taxpayers these big wall street banks pay their employees a very high base 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 have to talk to us how much money they have 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 in lebanon at least five people have been killed and seventy wounded in a huge car blast near the parliament building in beirut or mideast correspondent post here is following the situation. when a massive car bomb explosion has rocked central beirut and it has killed the former lebanese economy minister mohammed shocked now he was a close aide of the former lebanese prime minister the blast shook the capital center which is only a few meters away from the parliament buildings as well as government headquarters and a number of five star hotels the people in the me the senate he caught fire and live footage shows them screaming and why the pain there was so cause there were six of blaze thick smoke covered the entire area and the explosion also set fires blazing at several different points it is understood that the target of the attack was the

convoy of shocked who was also a member of the future of newsman who was a former lebanese ambassador to the united states almost immediately ambulances rushed to the scene troops have been deployed nearby and we are obvious and astounding that security forces in lebanon have been on a state of high alert for at least ten days now they which has been hit by several deadly attacks over the past few months as tensions rise over syria's civil war there was back in november twin suicide bombings those happening near the iranian embassy and then over the summer there was a number of bombings in the heart of his village stronghold in south beirut. well there's no relief in sight for the turkish leadership as the prime minister tries to prevent the government from being shattered by a corruption scandal crowd on the streets keep out their calls for his resignation that's ahead. also coming up a report on the devastating effects of

a deadly narcotic that's cheap addictive and scarily simple to make. speak your language. programs in documentaries in arabic in

school here on. reporting from the world talks six of the c.o.r.p. interview intriguing story to tell you. the. arabic to find out more visit our big. welcome back here with our two international live from moscow the stage is set for a final farewell for the legendary weapons designer mikhail kalashnikov our g.'s your groups is at the funeral in the moscow region. well here are the military cemetery just outside of moscow where friends relatives coworkers officials and others gathered to commemorate i mean to give and just a little while his body is going to be delivered scored it rather to the grave itself and as he's going to be buried we're going to hear three rounds fired from a

k forty seven s. his invention in commemoration now other commemoration of danceable been held in the city of asia i did have the privilege of meeting. a few years back he turns ninety at the time and was decorated the hero of russia store by the president at the kremlin and even though back then clearly had some problems with this hearing his hands were shaking quite a lot he still made a firm impression of a person with a sharp mind quite in gauged in his work and very affectionately about his homeland and back then i asked him if you'd ever expected that his invention the eight hundred forty seven would become so widespread and unfortunately often used by terrorists 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 of the past one hundred years or so definitely made an impact on the world and is leaving us with a great legacy. you can read about the life of the man who created the world's most widely produced firearm on our dock. also on our website the arctic thirty environmental protesters are finally free to return home moscow and drop all charges against them for trying to board an offshore oil rake and has started issuing exit visas to get the full story on our website. plus after decades of complex negotiations the way is clear for japan to move a u.s. army base on its territory but not nearly as far away as the crowds of protesters locals had hoped that story in full for you at r.t. dot com. protesters have spilled onto the streets of turkey's main

cities piling pressure on the government which is now teetering on the brink of collapse activists are demanding that it resign en masse over a corruption scandal that's already forced the prime minister to replace ten of his cabinet members and of the air to on faces an uphill struggle to remain in power. this is an open warfare now between the so-called. and oc party and both sides have you not seem initially against each other but i see we can expect to see more allegations or or corruption scandals to put up and he does. floodgate it's really broken down that may bring down our growing government this reaction after eight days confirms that he's increasingly becoming story it did actually bring in entries government because now he's accusing the u.s. government the cia is real and using quite a few anti-semitic terms. the so-called quote unquote jewish lobby is they didn't

give our protests last summer so. quiet for you to the dismay reached out to him and made talk with him. on our website we delve deeper into the bribery scandal that's causing red faces in the turkish leadership head to r.t. dot com for that let's take a look now at some global headlines for you this hour thousands of protesters have marched through the ball carry in capital calling for the resignation of the socialist led government and snap elections students studying abroad are returning home for christmas join the rallies as part of the so-called early risers protest movement anti-government demonstrations have become a regular sight in bulgaria over the past six months since the government was caught up in a corruption scandal. israel has launched a new round of airstrikes on gaza in retaliation against two rocket attacks from the palestinian territory television says it targeted militants sites including arms production and storage facilities is the second wave of strikes in the space

of three days the previous one left a six year old girl dead. 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 flame. search is for survivors is still ongoing. a car has blown up near an international military convoy in afghanistan's capital there are no immediate reports of casualties but kabul police say the blast was very powerful this comes after a spate of attacks in the city mostly being claimed by the taliban but it's a narcotic that's ravaged parts of provincial russia named crocodile because of the scaling marks it leaves on the body where it's injected the concoction is highly addictive and the ingredients are dirt cheap but in a question of a now 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 visitors his grave. andrew was a group exact 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 better known as crocodiles because it gives addicks gangrenous skin that's also described as the flash. drop it causes severe brain damage your 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 high and all too often they end up here or abroad and you 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 which contains called the well no one needed a prescription to buy medicine. alexy agreed to show us just how easy it is to get the vital ingredient painkillers. we were 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's. take

a moment just five minutes on the list that alexy tells us that crocodile is made played by income to what it would you know a household detergents or even gasoline which i recently just taking for needs not so many different really dangerous toxic ingredients in the good old to get in return is a very intense and very short time i dixon has developed so far faster than heroin this is a drug is poor there's a condom food and things that will get you rushes problem with a pocket down peaked at the turn of the century sense that the veil ability of coding has been half of the restricted and pharmacists as one of the lockyer addicts has survived after quitting crocodile alexy has a stark warning. don't do it this thing just turns you into a monster. it's so painful it's so scary you lose everything your friends your family everything. i do question our team moscow. coming up abby martin

explores the challenges facing injured u.s. war veterans and their readjust to civilian life. 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-homosexual 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 eighty t.v. channel has the right to fire the. like the thing is that if this situation were

reversed and robertson was fired for making. 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 stars freedom of speech they cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand a boycott or closer to 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. please.

what's up people i'm not even in this is breaking the sets all veterans day came and went last week day full of empty gestures and baseless rhetoric of course the main unaddressed concern during all the pageantry was the dire state of american veterans today as he just days after the holiday a shocking new report revealed that almost one million servicemen and women have been injured in iraq and afghanistan that's right one million wounded soldiers have visited v.a. hospitals and the start of these wars compare that to the vietnam war despite the draft the number of wounded warriors totaled just over three hundred thousand and one million might sound extreme what's more disturbing is that it may even be more busy as of march the department of veterans affairs actually stopped publishing their statistics on injured veterans why or according to report by international business times the v.a. cited reasons of national security so on top of the already and adequate health

care for vets now are being censored from the eye opening it up to six of the true reality of the war on terror not being able to see the truth prevents us from understanding why there's been such an exponential growth and wartime injuries and vietnam so if you want the v.a. to explain this trend to and join me and let's break the set. this is. the piece of. it was a. very hard to make that. once again. plug that never had sex with their lives let alone.