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

and welcome you're watching r t international with me and he said now way our top story 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 multidimensional 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 a hundred thousand opposition fighters in syria more than half are extremist made up of jihad this 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 an ancient town of mali becoming

a frontline and r.t. crew was there right in the midst of the standoff between the government forces an islamist rebels here's a report that our correspondent marie if a notion of filed at the height of fighting. we're. told. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out. but some of them were killed some of them escaped the locals joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms of the so-called national defense. the drain he's very difficult with mountains and caves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the operation. 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 month syrian soldiers and he has some questions again syria of 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 asked the world why if a european citizen is so much just slapped across the face that 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 i'll go with the liberated them push on the market while i'm on the street you couldn't do it last night bazaar everywhere my lul is home to

many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on their rents now added to these we see blag jihadists flags. it's time to head back. to trial in the car something goes wrong. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemies bullets. the main road is being targeted and it seems our only way out we think over our chances when our engineer gets heat. must get exposure. but. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we come to a to minutes more. ok

much of a shock when i'm stuck here in this corner and went out trying to get out of here feeling this was. well no no no no. that was. the worst had been anything done to back then herc go clear a lot. more focus off the boots did you hear them whizzing by. but now say that we've reached the safe area. that far in your behind this new to

enrich all of this is there no me here to be careful you don't know what it is too much so you gotta play. and we leave while governmental forces continue their frenzy for marla village which despite the claims remains under siege. she reported from syria. while the syrian conflict could have taken an even more dramatic turn this august when the u.s. threatened bomb raids on the country it followed a major chemical attack near damascus that killed hundreds washington blame 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 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 of 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 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 transport these chemicals now after they reach the port of latakia the chemicals.

going 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 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 another major international initiative on syria is of course peace talks which are expected to take place at the end of january but whether the syrian government and the 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 local to me 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 summed up jobs the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which again and is just one of the front lines. in other news the british government is bending over backwards to slash taxes and raise living standards for its people the result the rich individuals and big businesses are stuffing their pockets with more couse while the public pays the

price but despite criticism from m.p.'s the tax authorities aren't willing to change the status quo as 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 yeah 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. zero 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 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 seriously bizarre and there's little evidence that it benefits the u.k. economy so most people. have their tax cut they're not investing that money business investment still on the floor they're just trying to you know 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. see. the rich are getting richer in the us as well they're even bolder there with wall street setting aside nearly a hundred billion dollars for new year bonuses and activist fighting 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 this sort of performance bonus and the way that they're tallied is there's a number of surveys they basically asked a top u.s. bank 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 say 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 ill gotten ways and give 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 abyss as the prime minister tries to prevent the government from being shattered by a corruption scandal crowds keep up their calls for his resignation. plus the highly addictive drug crocodile threatens to get its teeth into tens of thousands of drug users bringing fast and painful death. from.

the. economic down in the final. days to the deal and the rest of the life they meet katie will be every week. for the new book the moment like the. face of your life you know. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher.

welcome back you're watching our international live from moscow clouds have gathered over the prime prime premiership of 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 to start first is in istanbul with the first good drama 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 just 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 called for the prime minister himself to resign now for his part one of his responded to pensively cooling the corruption crackdown an international smear campaign that's

done little to restore credibility to the antigovernment protesters clashing with police and again tonight we're expected to see a large scale demonstrations and protests it's gather to cool 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 possibility she did not protest movement of polls. has the threats to the prime minister the ones leadership and what you're seeing right now the so interesting it's a threat not just coming from the streets and from these protesters but from within his own government as well prime minister drawn 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 found they didn't need to support. during the first year or so if they keep you keep the needed support from the european union and they were coming from where your heart core

islam is. claiming that they were changed therefore was a more liberal party and the people. inside a party the members of the party the members of the parliament front group but. has cemented his power. used to think so. it doesn't need the e.u. supports him or. he has changed the game or authoritarian. if you want to know more on the bribery scandal that drove the turkish leadership to the brink of collapse had to r.t. dot com we have all the details for you also online the arctic thirty greenpeace activists are just a step away from leaving russia moscow dropped all charges against them for trying to board an offshore oil rig and issued exit visas get the full story at archie dot com. and it turns out that evolution's hollywood big shots 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 illegal content. right. search string. and i think you're. on the record with. julian assange the wiki leaks founder has 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 whose partner was held in question under terrorism laws and jake about

the wiki leaks hacker detained a dozen times at the u.s. border today they will be have miners at a major conference in hamburg on surveillance and privacy or just peter oliver is there to. well as the thirtieth anniversary of the chaos communications conference here in how member gets drawing more and more supporters 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 i.e. made 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 saying to 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 often 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 perhaps next year as a speaker i would like to hear from today it's fast as possible and i would like to have an 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 ebeling who say privacy online privacy activist here talking about the thirtieth chaos communication conference. and look at some other stories making

headlines around the world and taliban suicide bomb attack on an international military convoy in afghanistan's. killed three servicemen and women did six civilians on tuesday 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. one person has been killed and over one hundred twenty arrested in a wave of pro morsi protests that are sweeping through egypt caro police fired tear gas at protesters from hurled stones at security forces the first clashes followed the arrest of twenty three activists from the muslim brotherhood on accusations of inciting violence just days after declaring it a terrorist organization the brotherhood are promising more rallies. 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 this 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 for two rocket attacks from the palestinian territory it's the second wave of attacks in three days the previous one left a three year old girl dead elsewhere in gaza the sole power plant there has stopped working due to a shortage of fuel after israel closed the supply route i was twenty and officials blame it on television crackdown on underground tunnels in the region. recently released from jail members of the russian punk band pussy riot have returned to moscow and held their first press conference in the and. reiterated their earlier statements that they will now focus on human rights issues a 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 a presidential amnesty after having spent almost two years in jail they were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred following their notorious performance in moscow's christ the state. 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 as artie's medina question of found out. it's two years since drug addict alexina lost his best friend and every december i have visitors his grave. under it 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

someone an extremely addictive opioid to which users inject as better known as crocodiles because it gives addicts gangrenous skin that's also described as the flash 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 tried 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. 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 alexy agreed to show us just how easy it is to get the vital ingredient painkillers . we were on our way to the drug store i don't have any prescription but i believe i'll get everything i need that it's not a problem. it didn't take him long just five minutes and it was alexy tells us. that crocodile is made by combining comedy with the ordinary household detergents or event gasoline which i recently just taken for review god so many different really dangerous toxic ingredients you get what they get in return is a very intense and very short time i feel the dixon has developed so fast faster

than heroin this is a drug is poor so there's a con the golden things that will get you as one of the lock your addict has survived after quitting crocodile alexy has a stark warning about on the deal with you don't do it this thing just turns you into a monster it's you insulate all that because it's so painful it's so scary you lose everything your friends your family when you have everything up to be civil i didn't question our team at moscow. a look now at the latest breakthroughs in gadgets in the high tech world in technology update.

crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. that's so true of the twenty fourteen olympics what's this place like the one i use is so special as the russian resort prepares to local world power the games shaping the city's present and future life so it will bring you this is the moment everybody from a very cold snowy windy mountain is tough yet beyond the olympics but come. on our team. millions around the globe

struggle with hunger each did. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. they can the very strong position against g.m.o. and we think that's. the genetic anymore the fight products are priest tool tool there is no. evidence that there is any problem with genetic engineering when you make a deal. or is free cheese always in the most trap i don't. destroy for and that free. enterprise is profit. for this golden rice barkeep.

right down the street. first street to use a knife gripping pictures. on a reporter's twitter. and instagram. to be in the know. on. hello and welcome to technology updates on today's show christmas comes early from moscow's union of eight is. a novel animation up brings films to the big screen. a moscow state university gives a whole new meaning to.