as the first stage of syria's chemical disarmament is declared a success as we recap on the diplomatic achievement that prevented a u.s. strike on the war torn country and look at how the civil conflict has transformed during the year. the u.k. government tax lowering drive seems only to be stuffing the wallets of the highest earners may be no reason for those on basic wage to celebrate. julian a sun shining to all the big names in the world of online privacy protection and freedom of information and getting ready to give their talks here in humbug to the chaos communications conference.

international live from moscow it's been thirty three months of bloody civil conflict in syria and twenty thirteen has brought no relief to the people of the war torn country on the contrary from the conventional stand off between the government and opposition the conflict has grown multi-dimensional marked by infighting between various rebel groups. this year the opposition has grown more fragmented with many rebel groups increasingly dominated by radicals a study by a defense consultancy shows that out of one hundred thousand opposition fighters in syria more than half are extremist made up of to harvest and islamic hardliners the rest are more moderate but their voices are being increasingly drowned out by the radicals this here in syria was also marked by a growing number of attacks on christians with the ancient town of model becoming a front line in our crew was there right in the midst of the standoff between the

government forces and islamist rebels here's what our correspondent maria for notion of filed at the height of fighting. but. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out when you look at this some of them were killed some of them escaped but the policy 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 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 and 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 there why what you're i ask the world why if the european citizen is so much just slapped across the face they'd be a scam going on in syria how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered come 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 coffee i want to strip that we couldn't do it there snipers are everywhere malala is home to many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see

either crosses on the rents now added to these we see black 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 it sees our only way out. we think over our chances when our engineer gets hit. it will know you're going to kill much. but. thankfully it's not serious over water 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 for years and this was. no no no. this has been only think they don't back then they go there are clear a lot. more focus also drew the boots did you hear them whizzing by. but now say that we really take care of. the fire and you're behind the scene. and you're told that this is tsunami get to be careful how do you make.

sure you get there. and we leave while governmental forces continue their friends the former new lives which despite the claims remains under siege. reporting from syria. well the syrian conflict could have taken an even more dramatic turn this august when the u.s. threatened bombing raids on the country it followed a major chemical attack near damascus that killed hundreds washington blames the also government for the atrocity but failed to produce any evidence the airstrikes were shelved only after moscow intervened helping to negotiate a landmark chemical disarmament deal that led to a un resolution that kickstarted the destruction of syria's chemical weapons and production facilities the first stage of the process has officially been completed artie's arena go explains what's next. 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 via the 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 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 is 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 in moscow by all parties participating in this rather difficult and very sophisticated task and according to the russian there presented to the russian ministry 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 another major international initiative on syria it's of course peace talks which are expected to take place at the end of january but whether the syrian government and opposition will finally sit at the negotiating table and whether that will help bring the conflict to an end we'll have to see in twenty fourteen.

these are the ultimate sally here braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil giants chevron. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some dubbed the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which again and just one of the front lines . the british government is bending over backwards to slash taxes and raise living standards for its people the result rich individuals and big businesses are stuffing their pockets with more cash while the public pays the price but despite

criticism from m.p.'s the tax authorities aren't willing to change the status quo is probably boyko finds out. 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. as open session 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 cut taxes at a time like this when the government's made such play of the need for services bizarre there's little evidence that it's benefited the u.k. economy so most people. have their tax cut they're not 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. only benefits the richest one percent. the rich are getting richer in the u.s. as well and they are even bolder there with wall street setting aside near the one hundred billion dollars for new year's bonuses and activists finding corporate dominance says that cash will be coming straight out of taxpayers' pockets 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 the 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 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 of course they were 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 ill gotten ways and give them to yourselves you should give it back to the people that you've harmed. coming up in the program turkey's leadership teeters on the edge of a political a bit of a prime minister trying to prevent the government from being shattered by a corruption scandal crowds keep up their calls for his resignation. was the highly addictive drug crocodile threatens to get its teeth into tens of thousands of drug users bringing founts and painful death.

choose your language. calling for a week over though if you're going to stay still some of the. treatments that you can sense to. choose the opinions that you think great to. choose to stories could impact your life. truth be access to.

oh. come back you're watching r t international live from moscow clouds have gathered over the premiership of the turkish prime minister tired with thousands of protesters demanding his government resign their anger was sparked by a recent high level corruption scandal that's already forced him to replace ten of his ministers are two star firth is in istanbul where the police could draw and they're continuing to unfold here today in prime minister erdogan looking increasingly under pressure as he tries to stem the full out from not corruption probe has targeted dozens of his allies now on the back of that we've seen a number of resignations among which three cabinet ministers one of the things called for the prime minister himself to resign now for his part as one of his responded to that it's of a cooling to corruption crackdown an international smear campaign that's done little to restore credibility though even though wednesday we saw antigovernment

protesters clashing with police and again tonight we're expected to speak at large scale demonstrations protests is gather to pull for the prime minister to resign we're going to be following that closely but of course protests not an unfamiliar cyclists stumble streets even the positive because he's seen not protest movement of polls. has the threats to the prime minister once leadership and what you're seeing right now that so interesting is that the threat not just coming from the streets and from these protesters but from within his own government as well. prime minister don has been praised by the international community as a man trying to create a country where european and muslim values were integrated but some analysts believe he and his party dropped this ambition as soon as they didn't need support . during the first year or so if they keep you it could be needed support from the european union and they were coming from where your heart core islam is.

claiming that they were changed therefore. the more liberal party and the people. inside a party the members of the party the members of the parliament front group. has cemented his power. used to think so. it doesn't need the support even more. he has changed became more authoritarian. if you want to know more on the bribery scandal if you can that drove the turkish leadership to the brink of collapse had to r.t. dot com where we have all the details for you also online the arctic thirty greenpeace activists are just a step away from leaving russia after moscow dropped all charges against them for trying to board an offshore oil rake and issued exit visas to get the full story online. also it turns out that even politicians hollywood big south and even

vatican officials don't always practice what they preach when it comes to piracy as it emerges they've been downloading huge amounts of content. right. search string. and i think you're. on the record like. instantly. julian assange of the weekly leaks founder who's been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for over a year hiding from prosecution glenn greenwald the reporter who broke the n.s.a. scandal and his partner was held in question under terrorism laws and take up the wiki leaks hacker detained a dozen times that the u.s.

border today they will be headliners at a major conference in hamburg on surveillance and privacy peter all over is there to. well it's the thirtieth anniversary of the chaos communications conference here in how get stronger more and more supports as people are made aware of just how fragile they online privacy actually is now i'm joined by michael ebeling who is a online privacy campaigner michael thanks very much for speaking to me how are people started to take more of a interest in looking after their online security you know a lot of people do it in a different manner. some start to encrypt the e-mail is something that we would like to support those people how to do it how to manage p.g.p. for example as iran's reducer communication on the internet whatever this is going to be a big impact for everybody's life and i think we're just looking at the beginning of a big thing for somebody like myself who's barely computer literate is there anything that i can do it to look after my own online security. of course start to encrypt

the e-mails start to use office software start to change your system on your computer not microsoft not apple but use linux are you going to and anything like that people away a year ago before these leaks from edward snowden just how would risk we are online . normal most of the people didn't realize that some few people always were talking about it on the events like this once here by accident normally there would have been been a big voice an immediate now would you like to see edward snowden here but next year as a speaker i would like to hear from today it's as fast as possible and i would like to have food german government to give him a safe place and a secure place here in germany i would prefer it this thank you very much that's michael ettlinger who say privacy online privacy activist here talking about the thirtieth chaos communication conference. a look at some other stories making

headlines around the world a car blown up near an international military convoy in afghanistan killing three soldiers according to nato officials six civilians have been reportedly wounded in the explosion on tuesday two rockets were fired at the u.s. embassy in kabul followed by another attack that injured three police officers the recent spate of violence comes as president karzai is considering an agreement to allow u.s. troops to stay in the country beyond twenty fourteen. police have fired tear gas at protesters during pressure the rallies in cairo clashes followed the arrest of twenty three activists from the muslim brotherhood on accusations of inciting violence this comes just days after declaring it a terrorist organization authorities accuse the brotherhood of being behind deadly attacks on a police headquarters and a bus this week. in bulgaria thousands of protesters have marched through the capital sofia demanding the resignation of the socialist government for involvement

in fraud cases the rally was bolstered by crowds of students anti-government demonstrations have become a regular occurrence in bulgaria over the past six months since the government most caught up in a corruption scandal. israel has launched a new round of airstrikes on gaza in retaliation for two rocket attacks from the palestinian territories it's the second wave of attacks in three days the previous one left a three year old girl dead elsewhere in gaza with the sole power plant there has some working due to a shortage of fuel after israel closed the supply route palestinian officials blame it on television crackdown on underground tunnels in the region. recently released jail members of the russian bet punk band pussy riot pussy riot have returned to moscow and held their first press conference maria to come out. and the judge to. reiterated their earlier statements that they will now focus on human rights issues they plan to create an organization that will help russian prisoners

and say they want to work with former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky the pair were released under presidential amnesty after having spent almost two years in jail were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred following their notorious performance in moscow was christ the savior cathedral. a substance that devours you from the inside and is addictive in almost every case in russia the drug known as crocodile has got its teeth into tens of thousands of drug users despite its ingredients being restricted to buy over the counter they are readily available is. found out. it's two years since drug addict alexi lost his best friend and every december his visits his grave. andrea was a group exact he was into advertising was he was involved in several projects but the thing just killed at least he couldn't get chased him to do that thing it was

just some more of an extremely addictive opioid to be choosers and jack is better known as crocodile because it gives addicts gangrenous skin as also described as the flash is things on the drug it causes severe brain damage or skin eventually falls off and kills addicks within two years alexi managed to escape the consequences of the drug but his story is more of an exception than the rule and reality of 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 boyfriend 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 i would

visit one of the main factors widespread over to responsible decisions made about could be under the ninety's where the health minister it is the sales were gracious of medicine which contains called the alexy 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 didn't take him long just five minutes and he was back alexy tells us. that crocodile is made by combining comedy with ordinary household detergents or invent gasoline with larry summers just taking for people not so many different really dangerous toxic ingredients and what they get in return is a very intense and very short time the diction has developed so fast faster than

heroin this is a drug of poor those who can't afford anything as one of the luckier 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 sophie shevardnadze talks to a former british intelligence officer about the changing face of espionage that's on sophie co here on our team international. although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v.

show but gosh if 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 and 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 he said but the eighty 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 b 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 stars freedom of speach. why 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 the 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.

but if you're going to like. the face you know. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure. you will have the. technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've. covered.

hello and welcome to sofia and co i'm sort of the shepherd not said the internet has given intelligence agencies unprecedented cappa militants to snoop on anyone they wish but it has also empowered whistleblowers to shed light on what's really going on behind closed doors is robbing justified if the government is trying to protect society and this is what we're going to talk about today. shadow.