one which shares its name with the better known counterpart in cairo tahrir. but iraqi journalists trying to cover these protests are all but silenced by the government security forces and today's around journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten just simply killed it seems to be a high level of intolerance or dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or of particular leaders use it all to me a freelance journalist showed r.t. some shocking youtube footage from the protests this february that explicitly show iraqi security forces targeting him because he's a journalist. he shouts which is arabic for journalist over and over again but it makes the police more violent three or four maybe five right police were around me one of them slap me in the head other one kicked me in

the and they come they know grabbed me fast yousif managed to escape arrest thanks to two foreign journalists who intervened but since the arrest of one of his colleagues he stopped covering protests altogether became hard for journalists for example to go to tahrir square i myself i don't go there i stopped there a long time ago not because. i'm not that scared to be arrested. you know i'm worried to be mistreated we tried to speak to journalists who've been arrested in baghdad but everyone was too afraid to appear on camera so we came up here to the more peaceful kurdish region to see if the situation was any different here i met a young photographer who was arrested while covering similar protests in the kurdish region but after the interview he called to tell me he was scared of reprisals from the government and asked to blur his face and change his name after his arrest in april he was imprisoned for four days and tortured. six men came to

the room and started to shout at me and beat me with cables then they gave me electric shocks they wanted me to admit that i hadn't been at the protest. when he was finally released after four days a friend took pictures of his wounds and publish them in a local magazine immediately ahmed was rearrested as a punishment for publicizing his initial arrest. came and they held me for three days and made me sign a document declaring that i would not talk to the press again back in baghdad the government spokesman admitted to r.t. that individuals in the iraqi government were indeed using their powers to silence the press noticed that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against and you could see that there are people in the midst of interior for example they have misusing their power against the citizen and that is this year and that is the comfortable and some of them has been fired almost nine years after the invasion u.s.

troops are home but one of the country they're leaving behind. with politicians using the security forces to silence journalists it appears that iraq lacks any credible press freedom freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer or iraq. on our website where i ask you what you think will happen to iraq now that u.s. forces have left the bulk of opinion is that the country slipping into chaos to quote about existing things coming worse on the same number saying iraq is one hundred twenty best government telling their own future and nine percent iraq will develop into a western style democracy was going to come at you as. a suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition the attack apparently targeted a police bus most of the actual trees are said to be in civilians becomes as arab

league monitors who are assessing violence in the country to give their first report this weekend anti-government protesters rallied after the blast blaming the syrian government for the violence international intervention but jordan based political analyst said since the bombing is a sign that an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful but there were many incidents of. perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course there were denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts are a clear indication that there are armed gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they're not aiming the aggression only against the

regime but against the whole syrian people. syrian homeless. obviously what we are witnessing in syria is not their revolution but actually it is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the syrian regime but to change the whole area has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and that there are certain forces international forces local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the geopolitical reasons. respected the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area. so i had for you this hour the man who brings hollywood to moscow the american the bringing stars and studios to russia today's pathfinder explains how succeeding in developing. magic also. to fix the economy what should they be doing. they should be pumping more

money. pumping more money even pumping millions and billions in trillions and going to good for instance is in new york to ask how people would go about fixing the struggling economy. orthodox christians worldwide are celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar we believe a celebrate the birth of christ days after western worshipers it also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people from the eastern tradition one of the oldest christian countries georgian again the holy day midnight mass. one choose to be part of that christmas ritual the fires are believed to warm the community with. religious intolerance. to all of it was at midnight mass at the christ the savior cathedral in moscow. all. celebrating christmas day

here in russia. in with a traditional service here. at the christ the savior in the center of the russian capital that service presided over by the patriarch of moscow. the heads of the russian orthodox church attended by the great and the good the dignitaries old russian society president to me to get it in there as well as senior think is attending this church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior could see more of them in fact actually taking places around the outskirts of the cathedral to just try and get a view of the church something what was going on inside it of course to hear the bells that had been a ringing out to celebrate the birth of jesus christ now. question it always comes up is why is christmas being celebrated in january now this is due to the fact that the russian orthodox church as well as some other branches all the

docs christianity. as opposed to the calendar used by western christianity which means that in russia as well as other countries christmas falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old calendar and something that has become a real tradition here in russia opening in one thousand nine hundred seven the traditional christmas. christ the savior. christmas. just a film. more

now on the foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia today's pathfinder is a bob van ronk used to be a restaurateur in los angeles until the sudden one day to leave it all behind he's now hollywood's man in russia and has already brought schools of actors and bands to the country. i basically ended up moving to russia all by accident in one thousand and ninety eight i was asked by a russian friend in los angeles if i could bring a hollywood studio to moscow because mayor luzhkov was interested in building multiplex cinemas and wanted a hollywood studio partner i had friends that were running warner brothers they

sent head of international theatres with me gosh my my first trip was very impressionable i couldn't understand how so many young people i was meeting were making tens of millions of dollars a year and some of them billionaires before they were thirty and these were some of the things that made me realize there's a lot of opportunity here there's not a lot of people who are doing hollywood business there hasn't been a lot of contact and interaction with celebrities i love a challenge what could be more challenging than moving to russia and trying to develop and create a business here ross for them. i didn't know any actors but i started meeting them just to bring them to russia or working on that project the russian comedy that's going to shoot in america steven seagal zola he told me they'll do it in a couple days for two hundred fifty thousand dollars bail kilmer's interested in helping out. then the wealthy russians started asking for other people and i just

started calling everybody i knew in l.a. who knew a producer a new a director and i called them from russia after eight years i brought over eighty actors and bands to russia for i think it's very important for you to go to los angeles with me in the next few months we should meet with you hopefully make your releasing a different actors you would like to do cameos in this film the biggest challenge to overcome is gaining people's trust and performing one example is recently i was asked to bring john claude van damme to chechnya for the president's birthday and day of the city in. yeah the live news because they don't want to go through all of it in my heart. it's a place most people are very afraid to go to of course john clyde you know his expenses need to be paid and others for him to go there and it's very frightening dealing and working with chechnyan friends knowing that if something went wrong

didn't come and money is paid. who are people going to come calling and looking for asking for the money back and it took a long time for me to win people's confidence that they would send money to an actor or a band in advance russia it costs more than a lot of other parts of the world because russians have been willing to pay more you know if russians weren't willing to pay more celebrities would be coming for less but when they have people making such big offers just to get them how can you refuse so russia's been great to help push up their prices jennifer lopez gets two million dollars to go and perform you know in russia and kazakhstan and some other places if you're american in the u.s. we understand our system how to set up a business but we can easily research any product or any idea we have to find out if it's been saturated or not in russia it's really difficult because it's so hard to get to the important people that make the decisions when i have to work with. a

person who works for someone here i get nowhere i can't do a deal because they need to see so much because their jobs on the line their names on the line they're so afraid it just drags on and drags on whatever i'm talking to them about when you can pick up the phone and call the head of the company or someone on the board of directors i know in a week if i can do this deal or not with them rush is just much more individual life you really need to know some important people here to have success you know i was thinking you're from here which is part of the reason i never learned russian is i just thought ok one year from now i'm sure something will come up back in the l.a. in the u.s. i'll go back i'll start doing movies but it is so exciting here every day and so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and that i haven't been able to leave.

from making money now to losing is how as we ask whether it's time to let the public take over attacking the world's troubles. or this to me it's paper new york to get their tips for the politicians in charge. today everyone's upset with how the world leaders are handling the economy so how would you fix that this week let's talk about that whole country do you think is doing a good job. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem. in greece wow. i don't know. because i know no no no maybe that's why it's going over on a good word. person. working hard and spending money to local community.

you know a way of part of building up each. country. yes in a time maybe for the government to stop trying to fix it and let people and companies fix their own wallets. fix the economy what should they be doing. pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions and trillions and done a good so why is that the solution that we keep going back to the only thing we can do so we can also see just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves to people. not a matter of not throwing money into the economy it's a matter of living with. means if you don't have enough revenue then you have to cut spending yes so governments are trillions of dollars in debt so it sounds like they have no money right they have to obviously you can't stop everything all at once but you do have to you do have to pull back and you have to come up with

a reasonable plan. we don't just keep printing money we don't keep inflating most of the european countries that are having trouble because the government is sixty percent larger than it should be so why why do you and i see business and government leaders. can't because we don't get paid by the people that are behind the scenes and since i'm not ready for campaign contributions by people that need my help to american politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change its economy from an oil economy to something else we've got heaps of people with lots of brains and we need to be doing something about the environment because people with brains are in positions of power. so it seems like with the system that's currently in place for how world leaders get elected it might be time for solutions to come from someplace else.

as the taliban prepares to open up a political office in qatar the u.s. has indicated it's ready to back the initiative it's seen as a crucial step towards peace talks between nato and its longtime enemy also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay. to contribute to any who shot the moves could signal a major american defeat in a decade long conflict. uncle sam has just recently authorized the opening up the official office for the taliban in. the opening tale about an office doesn't bode well because he affectively has been cut from this wheeling and dealing between americans and tale of the other side americans it looks like a real deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to

keep cut as a government out of the loop and as for telamon themselves they look like one in only winners in this shit only go she. tell about open out their office. they might as well door in it with the two name plates with the calls from the counterinsurgency doctrine first if we are not winning we are losing at dressed for the us armed forces and second losing we are waiting for the taliban themselves and some other main news from around the world now they have been fresh attacks on christians in nigeria they just assaults happening in the capital and in the north at least seventeen people died when a gunman opened fire at a town christian meeting and also reports of a deadly attack in the town. but it's and. says it. has been behind similar attacks in recent weeks. ted but it has burst into

flames after hitting power lines in new zealand killing all the different people who want to have died had jumped out of the basket in desperation. into the ground these new zealand's worst and exhausted almost before he is. mass crowds have gathered in yemen's capital their suspicions grow their presence are again unable to quit test. it's also one of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began in america opposition leaders use the country's unrest to stay in power despite signing a region that deal to run controlled his wife's present in exchange for legal immunity. trying to bring you more of russia close up as we explore the country's far east.

region lies on the chinese border and is russia's main gateway to the pacific it's also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated and few asian economies . tom barton discovered keeping industry alive there doesn't have to be expensive tradition. the baro screeching in russia's far east is becoming a growing center for export to the hungry economies in the south china south korea and japan increasing material exports of ward and coal are going out to the pacific and south and it's that they were looking at in my report this monster called coal stacker is the new face of russia's far east coast it can load over four thousand tons of coal an hour into ships at this rapidly expanding sea terminal this year they exported ten million tons of the stuff almost exclusively south asian markets

but we've noticed there's a cool boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so this port covers almost all of asia from become comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in there and he joins the oil and timber flowing out of the region in ever greater quantities tugboats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers once on their way helped along by a much older technology oh and this vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this light house which along with four help makes a russia's gateway to the pacific hundreds of lighthouses dot the coast all the way from the border with north korea up to the arctic. victor has been manning

his lighthouse for over thirty years but he's glad he's not too far out into the wilderness. we're close enough to the nearest town that other lighthouse keepers are stuck out in the tiger without even roads sometimes a ship or helicopter deliver supplies there's no other way to come or go big has not had a ship run aground since the early. in one nine hundred ninety s. he seemed bears moose and tigers visit his lighthouse and say's he never grows bored of the ever changing seascape far from feeling lonely he talks of the remand to system being such a secluded spot on the coastline. i used to go down to the bay for a am catching crabs and start a fire then my wife and kids would join me and we'd have breakfast on the shore and watch the sunrise in the summer this whole field would be bright orange and blue if you could pick to retires next year he says he's come to love the spotlight robinson crusoe silent and while he can remember the pristine beauty of his

coastline others are seeing it sail on into the future with his talk a little bit more about the bar often the experience of moving here from abroad is a marine a holiday that came here from britain a basket self is trying to upgrade itself trying to move into the out of the soviet times and into the modern modern age with industry with the also working on a new cosmodrome what do you know about the new developments here i know that is very very important to the local area and you know that it's improving transport links all the time people are finally investing in the far east which is obviously going to be very good for the economy i mean i'm here because my fiance is working for an oil refinery and they're in a more investment there and this cousin jane is going to i think any improve putin said it was one of the biggest and most important projects is happening in russia at the moment so yes i think it's up and coming this the syrian as someone who's

come from a different culture from outside what would you say to what the people who are thinking. there is possibly business which changes but should i come here what would you say to them. i mean it's worth a try to how did during a russian look at this important and very few restaurants or cafes where they have an english menu and things like that i think when i don't speak russian people. and it frustrates him rather than think so i'd bet that in mind price is ok sorry for us is extortionate specially. if you can go. of intervention well there we go that's an insight from someone who has made the leap out to the far east so bought off so it's not going to get any warm a hair but it seems that with future with the development of the region he's going to get more connected to the outside world. from bottom reporting that weather headlines in a few moments stay with us. now

it's not about spilling blood. it's the war of the barricades from one side and fears blockade from the other. invisible border has cut people from the land for twelve years.

the conflict that divided serbia into two hostile cards is still not over.

download the official. i pod touch from the. life on the go. see video on demand on t.v.'s minefield costs and feeds now in the palm of your. question. the close up team has been to. plays to the most ambitious football club in the world. if not all party goes to the far east where the timber industry affects the legendary siberian tigers where the native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mental well starts its

way across the ocean. to the. world to the. technology innovation called the least of around russia. the future covered. the headlines now on our team with american troops out of iraq concerns are mounting over what's being left behind is proving a deadly for journalists who are being sought and some even tortured by police for speaking out against the government. a suicide blast targeting a police bus that killed twenty six people and syria's chemical has worsened tensions between the opposition in the government it is playing the attack on terrorists with protesters spawning it's increasingly just peaceful demonstrators.

and millions of orthodox christians around the globe are celebrating christmas and some wanted to be in poland. tending traditional midnight masses.