but the surge is going to focus on baghdad. baghdad was in the hands of the shia militiamen, the mahdi army. the mahdi army had that a local self-defense militia, had the audiology, was disciplined, it spread and became more and more powerful. it was against the control of their own man who began to act like a mafia, exploding from their own population. once they get rid of sunnis and friend neighborhoods they would begin to turn on their own people and the mahdi army kunkel baghdad more or less by the time the search began to meet the movement sponsoring the mahdi army knew that they were going to be the target of the americans focusing on baghdad. so they decided let's have a cease-fire as well. the surge is going to come and it's going to go controlling bad debt. look at the leader of the mahdi army was also concerned because the more collectivities the dormant for giving him a bad name. so we began to have this phenomenon. you have the golden group which is a unit within the mahdi army which is coming around i see people. t

but the surge is going to focus on baghdad. baghdad is now in the hands of sunni militiamen. the army had once been a local self-defense militia, had a certain ideology, was created and discipline. as it spread and became more powerful, its command began to lose control over its own men who begin to act like mafia dons extorting from their own population. they begin to turn on their own people. the army control baghdad by the time the surge began, the movement knew that they would be the target of the americans focusing on baghdad. they decided let's have a cease-fire as well. the surge will come, it will go, and we will remain in control in baghdad. the leader of the army was also concerned because the more criminal activity of his men were giving him a bad name. so he began to have this phenomenon, the iceman, the golden group which is a unit within the army which was going around sucking people, icing them, that was the slang for a killing them. sometimes in cooperation with the americans. the army cease-fire or 2007, seven months into the surge. that's when we saw the rea

other tribes north of baghdad. in summer of 2006, in collaboration with the iraqi army, it was like bosnia. thousands of people in a convoy leaving the neighborhood while americans were watching. in western baghdad the iraqi army used to going to people's homes especially sunni homes and arrest the husband that ran them and force women to have sex with them to release their husbands. i don't want to make it sound like only shiites are brutal. others were shattering at a higher rate. they had the american military and the iraqi army and the body army. they had numbers to defeat the sunnis. in 2006 or even earlier the americans came to the realization three years too late that the occupation was the problem. the american commander began to describe the american occupation as a problem and our presence is creating antibodies. that was certainly true when the main struggle in iraq, we had resistance groups fighting the americans. by 2006 or even 2005 it wasn't just anti-american but the main circle was a civil war. the

most family is too poor to send her to school and so she works eight hours a day sorting through baghdad's landfill collecting plastic and metal that will be shipped abroad for recycling a reward for carting forty pounds of trash around two dollars and fifty cents behind me says acres of baghdad's trash to many this is just waste but for the families here this is not only their livelihood but also their homes over two thousand people live on baghdad's landfill. making their homes out of the garbage that the rest of the city throws away there's no running water or electricity and certainly no access to medical treatment if someone gets sick they have to be taken to hospital the same way they get drinking water by donkey cart can you believe in iraq you would live in a shack made from the garbage people who threw the change so we could see if it's iraq is still a wonderful place by god if you will treat him is gone and we have a new government but the situation was reliving in shacks america spending fifty three billion dollars on the reconstruction effort in iraq but the residents of our je

children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer party in baghdad. thousands of immigrants who when the u.s. green card lottery see it as their ticket to a new life to taste the american dream but even those who believe they've got the education and experience to make the grade are finding it counts for nothing in their new home that they're in the store explains it's leaving many condemned to no paid jobs to make ends meet. in the united states and here in new york every year countless people play the lottery. and train for a chance to win or you will be a mega million dollar fantasy believing a few dollars and a dream could buy them turn for the life of a ticket that could change their lives every year more than ten million people also play a different kind of lottery and fifty thousand when i meet one of them had my name is on one gemini and her husband teenage son and seven year old daughter you see here. are immigrants from nepal they entered and won the united states diversity visa lottery this lottery is a congressional mandate. it's supposed

bbc news, baghdad. >> hope you can stay with us on "bbc world news." still to come, we are in los angeles for the child adulterer accused of the in varlet -- involuntary manslaughter michael jackson case is under way. first is reading, were an opinion poll is suggesting nearly two -- two-thirds of people walking to advocate. >> troubling times for sweden's head of state. recently rocked by it -- [no audio] >> it is not very funny to review a book that has contributed to difficult headlines but are not very nice to see. i have spoken to my family and to the queen, and we turn a page, almost like you turn the page of your newspaper. it is a far cry from the heavy themes of last june, when stock, is transformed into a fairy tale backdrop with the marriage of crown princess victoria to long- term partner. as heir to the throng, victoria has lived her life largely in the public eye, so has the combination of her youth and evidence heaviness persuaded swedes to prefer her to take the throne? >> they thinking should advocate and hand over the crown. he should

. >> on march 5th, 2007, a car bomb was exploded on mutanabbi street in baghdad. mutanabbi street is a mixed shia-suni area. more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. this locale is the historic center of baghdad book selling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. named after the famous 10th century classic poet, al-mutanabbi, this is an old and established street for book selling and has been for hundreds of years. mutanabbi street also holds cafes, stationary shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. it has been the heart and soul of the baghdad literary and intellectual community. this tragedy is part of a wider and continuing tragedy, but one that we want to isolate and address, not only for the loss of lives but also for the implications underlying the destruction of a street where books were sold. book selling on mutanabbi street is no different from book selling here. we traffic in memory, ideas and dreams. in that sense, we feel that mutanabbi street starts at the front door of all of our book shops. mutanabbi

poverty children like you continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer or tea in baghdad. now it's christmas day for orthodox believers all across the world stage thirty has been reporting this whole days marked in russia almost two decades after he was resurrected from soviet times when it was ignored by the official calendar. and to russia's far east now there's been success in a massive rescue operation to free three ships stuck in the ice for a week while the vessels has been freed and is now being escorted to warmer waters for rescue is being hampered by snow and strong winds in the selling bay the icebreaker is trying to free of the two remaining vessels and officials say the people on board are not in danger as they have plenty of supplies a more powerful eyes breaker is on its way to help while the rescue operations and it's expected to reach the ships late on saturday victor civilian from the federal fishing agency says the rescue mission is far from plain sailing. the weather has got worse a chilling. snowstorm is settled in with winds of up to twenty meters per

children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer party in baghdad while the us piles billions abroad it leaving little in the u.s. for those who choose to make america the new home thousands of immigrants who have secured the sought after green card finding they are being sidelined soon this too explains their education and experience is being ignored condemning them to a life of paid work. in the united states and here in new york every year countless people play the lottery. and train for a chance to win or a mega million dollar fantasy believing a few dollars and a dream could buy them so for the life of a ticket that could change their lives every year more than ten million people also play a different kind of lottery and fifty thousand when i meet one of them my name is owen gemini and her husband teenage son and seven year old daughter you see here. are immigrants from nepal they entered and won the united states diversity visa lottery this lottery is a congressional mandate it's supposed to be an opportunity for people to come to america from

children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer party in baghdad. just to remind you this plenty more news views and analysis on our website is r.t. dot com online all the time here's some of what you'll find there right now if you log on twenty five years after the world's worst nuclear disaster could grown near the radioactive site really end up on european dinner tables and. down but not l.t. may have suffered his first defeat but find out when the russian fighter dubbed the last emperor will step back in the ring those stories of r.t. dot com. when dead black birds started falling from the sky in the american state of arkansas it was blamed on festive fireworks since then a series of mass animal deaths worldwide have triggered speculation online that the incidents are more sinister filmmaker and blogger danny schechter told me a little earlier that the media shouldn't treat the events as merely a coincidence. when one set of incidents happens followed by another set followed by a third said suddenly it becomes a trend then it becomes a much big

in baghdad now it's christmas day for us it's believers all across the world and stay with r.t. as we reported how this whole day's march almost a decade after he was resurrected from saudi times when i was ignored by the official calendar. to russia's far east now where rescue efforts are continuing in the operation to free the two remaining ships which have been stuck in icy waters for about a week and i breaker has managed to pull the third one out and hand it over to another icebreaker which will escort it to warmer waters telling is being hampered by bad weather conditions in sally and bay including snow and strong winds admiral the car has on its way for the remaining two vessels which have over three hundred people trapped on board they say they are not in danger and that they have enough food and drink supplies a third more powerful icebreaker is on its way to help with the rescue operations expected to reach the ships late on saturday victor civilian from the federal fishing agency says the rescue mission is far from plain sailing. beulah's the weather has got worse a c

in baghdad. the site of the world's biggest a civilian nuclear disaster at chernobyl as largely being a no go zone for most twenty five years but now ukraine is planning to make use of the land there which is still fertile despite years of radiation by using it for agriculture the shock proposals have led to a clash between experts over the safety implications as r.t. alexy reports these berries may look ripe and delicious but they're definitely not part of a healthy diet the bush is inside a thirty kilometer chernobyl exclusion zone in ukraine and radiation levels are off the scale people do not live here anymore but same cannot be said about flora and fauna some say it is the absence of anthropogenic harm in the church nor will exclusion zone which made nature develop here rapidly. after the nine hundred eighty six fallout in chernobyl the environment suffered badly one strip of forest was burned by radiation and turned red people left the area but mother nature stepped in now chernobyl is home

is not only their livelihood but also their homes over two thousand people live on baghdad's landfill are. making their homes out of the garbage that the rest of the city throws away there's no running water or electricity and certainly no access to medical treatment if someone gets sick they have to be taken to hospital the same way they get drinking water by donkey cart can you believe that in iraq you would live in a shack made from garbage people hope for their family and change so we could see that iraq is still a wonderful place at least by god if you will treat him is gone and we have a new government but look at our situation we're living in shacks america spending fifty three billion dollars on the reconstruction effort in iraq but the residents of our jet haven't seen a dime of it what they have seen though is the sectarian violence that drove them from their home five years ago. we used to live in abu ghraib you know then america came the war increased in iraq people started killing each other and so we fled because we were freed in two thousand and five names family moved

stack, what was your experience in baghdad and afghanistan? >> well, i was in baghdad and afghanistan covering the stories for the los angeles times. in afghanistan i was there in 2001, it was actually my first foreign assignment. i was a younger reporter and i sort of got thrown into it. and it was dramatic and exciting and amazing and completely memorable. i went to iraq later on on and off for years after the invasion in 2003. just covering the events and watching everything more or less fall apart has been sort of the arc of my experience in afghanistan and iraq. >> so this book has been about nine years invite making? -- in the making? >> that book is drawn from reporting in 2001, 2006, 2007. and it took a few years to write and get out in the market. so yeah, it's about a decade of my life. >> where did you come up with the title "every man in this village is a liar"? >> it comes from afghanistan. there is a phrase that somebody had said to me just before i went into afghanistan. every man in this village is a liar. it derives from an ol

just outside of town, outside baghdad. why were there and there? to secure the oil. they did secure the oil from british petroleum and they said if we don't secure that oil, if the nazis get that oil they will be unstoppable. the nazis did not get their oil. eventually it was stopped because someone had the courage in the iraqi government which was changing form from minute to minute to call about guards. thereafter, changed their tactics and we will no longer work with just urban riots and mass mayhem in this city, will help hitler do what he wants to do. to come around and exterminate the jews of palestine. how? first of all, with the iranians. what does the word iran mean? it means are in. the name was changed from persia in 1935 to invoke the well entrenched name of iran as a salute to a massive nazi dominated iranian infrastructure. the british took over the oil wells, secured them as they had for decades in iraq, years, not decade, move into iran, expelled the shock and brought in the man you know as the shah of iran and kicked out 2,000 nazi agitators' and adv

specifically, over baghdad. the pilots' task a little easier. attack planes were at high altitude. i only heard the engines of one. seen through a night lens the scale of the attack can be seen much more clearly. the illuminated sky was filled with a star-spangled display of lethal force. it was terrifying to watch an attack on this scale and so close. iraqi anti-aircraft gunners probed the sky. no attacking aircraft was visible to the naked eye. behind this curtain of light, the electronic guidance systems of planes and missiles sent their payloads to saddam hussein's front door. those who were caught out in it ran for cover. but at the time of this report, i do not know the extent of iraqi casualties. the bombs and missiles targeted saddam hussein's palace. the communications centers. the warfare production plant. and his missile ranges. destroyed by high-tech weapons. it was impossible to pick out all the weaponry. missiles going across the skyline to their target. the iraqi defenders were spectacular in thei

children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer forty in baghdad it's now or just approaching the quarter minute mark of the hour here in moscow you are with r.t. and there's plenty more news views and analysis on our website that's r.t. dot com and here are some of what you'll find online right now twenty five years after the world's worst nuclear disaster could a food grown near the radioactive site really end up on european dinner tables and . not out he may have suffered his first defeat but find out when the russian fighter the last emperor will step back in the ring. now let's get to some other world news in brief this hour and in germany about five thousand farms have been closed following a scare over dioxin contamination scientists found a toxic chemical in eggs produced in the northwest of the country dioxin scare has led to a ban on deliveries to any businesses involved in the production of animal feed there are fears the contamination will spread as the exact course remains unclear. a suicide bomber has killed at. seventeen people and i