must be as eligible for handouts as britain's at themselves. news twenty four seven this is our live for of moscow. russia is urging nato to look into reports of widespread civilian deaths in libya caused by the military's alliance seven month long bombing campaign the claims filed by rights groups contradict nato's assertion that twenty six thousand of its airstrikes did not cause any civilian casualties and the killing hasn't ended just because could death is dead and gone former rebels continue to take their strong out on the supporters of the topple the regime be warned you may find some of the images in oksana because report disturbing. this is what it's like to look down in the face

a group of men the young and old captured after the nader propped rebels overran get off his hometown of sirte there was behind a camera delivers a verdict did you work for gadhafi did you and the captives themselves seem doubts about what's coming next. scenes like these play now with a costly being as the rebels assisted by western powers to liberate the country from gadhafi arbonne lodgings about he said district tendencies grow more and more outlandish by the day and that seems to justify any sort of treatment for his perceived loyalists in some places the violence is quite bad the town we looked out in was called. and the militias from the neighboring town of misrata are terrorizing the people of to where they accuse them of having fought for qaddafi of having committed atrocities. in his name this is one of the liberated tripoli's new

landmarks a prison where moammar gadhafi was set to hold his political opponents with no access to lawyers and no chance for a fair trial. but while the prisons new guards a very elaborate in their rating get back his ferocity his fear and hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area and saw that in tripoli where more margot had strong support base prior to his fleeing the district also and his name to the tourists presents a scene of torture and arbitrary killings but while gadhafi is gone the human rights abuses still remain rather from this area are still disappearing without a trace their families are too scared to talk about that. this is probably the only place in all the beer with families of a legit good office supporters can turn to for how mohammed to form peace and your

earlier this year it investigated the fate of those who disappeared in good office prisons he is now primarily dealing with people who went missing under libya's new leadership it's usually mothers who come here and at first they are scared to tell me that this son or husband was with the gadhafi forces they usually say he was a civilian court in the crossfire but i tell them that i don't care which side he was on all i need is accurate information so that we can start searching. mohamed and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across leadbetter in recent months this naturists are probably the relatives most realistic hope of finding closure but even after sifting through them many managed to retain hope like this man whose brother disappeared on the front lines of banjo. i hope he's in tunisia maybe he's in hospital maybe he's lost his memory or has no way of contacting us. they say hope dies last and leave

it's still alive even if many people aren't. artsy tripoli. meantime activists in syria say the country has seen some of its fierce fighting since on rest began with over two hundred killed since monday the biggest number of casualties was reported in the syrian nowhere northwestern a province of idlib it's where government forces allegedly used heavy i mean action against anti regime fighters that's ahead of the arrival of an arab league advance team which is going to prepare a monitoring mission for the country. sara for three ports there are hopes the observers can present a clear picture of what's really going on in syria. and it came from the arab league is its. to ride in the country it's a boy that's the head of the observer mission that's expected to hit at the end of the month and that cools that mission concomitant moment he's seeing really as both

sides of the conflict accounts at the death toll rising all the time in the six months yet the day that the main opposition city where we see say much of the fighting bravely out we'll see with that says in parts of the city where the fighting is much more concentrated and we went to travel today supposes it was the key dangerous but even the pause we were visiting with the struggling on you could hear the sounds of heavy gunfire breaking out across the city the government of calls still maintaining that there is fighting and minutes and movement the opposition saying that the government had been operating it quite down the policy of the protest is that i spoke to the foreign ministry spokesman the other day that he was saying that what's needed now from outside countries is that no one should be adding fuel to this fire and again he called for the dialogue to be pushed in the situation if the outside warrant

a neighboring country. was to the world wants to help so they get out of the crisis what we need to do is to help and provide good offices to push the opposition was seeing north of the you know to say yes to the you know we're going to come out on one thing but to discuss everything that are not there was a lot of. discussion we had on the freedom of democracy now here in the capital to masochistic these are a lot of these cells it's a fall from the conflict here at the moment the signs that the economic sanctions that were imposed on the country by the have a lot the last month taking effect now taking nothing ever on the sea but the zone and kicking out there be sure you see that she today sanctions. how cars around the city will say they would come home and the. the sanctions were put in place had now become much more frequent i would love a long ways. off he's a surfeit of putting right i mean time a u.s.

based intelligence gathering has raised questions over the credibility of the existing syrian narrative the company named strapped for says the country's opposition exaggerates and manipulates facts to win outside support from powers like the us dr paul craig roberts a former reagan administration official told r.t. that he believes washington isn't only backing the rebels diplomatically. the united states is involved in stirring up their own position or making it it's a way to justify intervention on humanitarian terms they use the cover of the arab spring arab protests as they do in libya. so. these are not. spontaneous protest and certainly you know authoritarian state you know like cigarette syria you wouldn't find people in opposition able to ridgely those with arms with military weapons and this is not any longer just

protest it is an armed. rebellion and makes no sense it makes no sense for the syrians to the. opportunity for the country to be destroyed when it's like libya or iraq or afghanistan. you're watching r t it's good to have your company today and still to come for you at this hour in the program championing the rights of benefit tourists the e.u. targets of britons a tough hand out policies saying the u.k. is obliged to dole out billions to non-citizens something london believes will only encourage them not to work. and the ten year ten days now before the new year coming down with ten of our correspondents looking back at this year's landmark stories reminiscing about events they witnessed first hand.

to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven. about ten minutes past the hour here in moscow russia's sixth state duma the lower house of parliament has held its first session after a heated debate so to get not a can from the ruling united russia party was chosen as the speaker it comes as protests continue against the election some two weeks ago sparked by allegations of vote rigging let's cross live now to. cover for more details on this hello to both of you know you're starting with you first or so we know the name of the new speaker and now tell us a how were three elected we believe there were some some fiery debate in the process it was very intense rhodri heated debates and raised voices could be heard before the voting and with two hundred eighty five voices for and eighty eight

against a new new speaker of the state duma has been chosen that's as you said united russia's candidate sick in that he can well government to stop the advance shuffle it bonds last week when mr not wish to know until recently kremlin chief of staff stepped down and said that he will go to do mine and united russia put forward his candidacy for opposition parties however disagreed and they have their own preferred candidates but there are mandates in the voting was not enough to outwait united russia apart from that opposition will have a larger voice in the new dumont with united russia failing to secure constitutional majorities believe that the lower house of the russian parliament will again become a field of heated debate some of them we witnessed today and also now that united russia doesn't control the majority of the comedians fourteen out of nine twenty nine committees are now controlled by opposition parties it's also believe that the approach towards lawmaking will change however political analysts say that for

opposition that not only means a victory but actually poses a serious challenge if they're ready to take full responsibility for some crucial laws. the truth of the debate is changing because now the opposition we have said about half of the elite is so they will control four to commit itself this way to then and this is a significant victory for them at the same time a significant this because they will have to show that they're ready to share the responsibility for the fate of the country that they're able to provide a constructive criticism for the policy. new ideas so we'll see how these two mobile function and. the opposition is ready for the stars of. the tommy over to you know this dumas first session it goes ahead against the backdrop of a lot of protests so what can you tell us about that. will indeed here outside the state duma during its floor at the first plane there session of the newly elected

lower house of the russian parliament protesters gathered a members of opposition gathered and over twenty people were arrested during and sanctions the protests who gathered here today that's according to opposition bloggers and also one of them are lexy now vilely who is quite well known for his harsh criticism of the russian government was released from custody today he was arrested during a similar and sanctioned demonstration against the results of the parliamentary elections that took place on the fourth of december he spent fifteen days in custody and there's also been a number of peaceful demonstrations. some twenty thousand people gathered on the streets on one of the central squares of moscow demanding and in the omens of the results of the parliamentary election claiming the results were full supplied and

the number of violations took place also that's a russian president's meeting with eighty four did an investigation into the case and over fifty cases were far old. at. twenty one polling stations there is. an old however if. you take a look at the bigger picture results of the election are still valid violations at twenty one polling stations is a very small number out of tens of thousands throughout the country all right are here to tell you not because of there and you're going to make it a both live in central moscow thank you. now a quarter past the hour here the new year is just ten days away and we are starting our very own countdown with ten special reports on events that shaped two thousand and eleven i was looking back at major stories through the eyes of our t.v. correspondents who witnessed them for themselves and we start with an area that

sorts fair share of breakthroughs and failures space projects consistently made it into the headlines but there was much more that did not i thought he's peter all of it reveals. well one of the biggest landmarks the resort this year was the fiftieth anniversary of eureka guarin first space flight and just before one of the nasa astronauts went up there i was having to chat with him about what it actually meant to have that first flight by you daryn fifty years ago and he was saying really it changed us as a species we stopped being limited to our own planet we were able to go out and explore further of course a few years after guarin first month set foot on the moon. of the mars five hundred project which came to an end this year was really something quite exciting it was great to be able to go in and have

a look at it where they were when i'd seen it on television i was thinking wow this is just six guys in a shed and then when i actually went to where the the mocked up spacecraft was i realized it was six guys in a very very small shed for five hundred twenty days i mean i'm doing them a bit of a disservice saying that they're in a show in a shed but when you see the pictures of the wood paneling and everything very small confined space that they were in for such a long time one year into their voyage the mars five hundred team currently simulating never journey to earth however it will be another five months before this store can be opened and they can step back into normality it was nice on the day i remember the day when they came out. the look on their faces when the door opened the look on the very very pale faces of course you have to realize these guys haven't seen sunlight for such a long time. they were ecstatic to have come out of there. and it really was

i mean whether scientifically it ends up being the building block or the the first step towards the first step i think it was referred to by the organizers towards going to. in trying to send people to the red planet for real. well looking back on twenty eleven one of the things that really stand out is the crash of that progress module now it wasn't just the module itself they've been using those since the late seventy's it was the fact that this was carried on a soyuz rocket the soyuz rocket is the only way we have now getting people into space. the progress module that was launched at the end of august was carrying valuable food and supplies for the international space station at the time we were hearing from and from the guys on the space station who that those food supplies had been for saying no this is fine it's ok i remember saying in my reports look these guys go through extensive cosmonaut training they know what they're doing

they'll be fine. volkov who was actually the mission commander who was up there when he returned from his time in space he was telling me that yeah they were genuinely a little bit worried they were generally scared at times they were going to run out of food they didn't know if they were going to be able to be brought back down to earth before that ran out in the beginning of twenty twelve. pressures that these people put themselves through evidence thankfully that these failures that we've seen today seen this year these failures that we've seen this year didn't result in . any major problems on months spaceflight that's always the big concern but. it has shown the perseverance of these people who do risk their lives going into space on a well as a job they do it without a choice. that was just the first of our set of reports of special series of what happened two thousand and eleven stay with us for more on

that or catch more of them on our web site. for now though let's check out some other international headlines for you making news this hour in the r.t. world cup thousands of checks. taking part in a perception to pay last respects to the country's late president. whose body has been carried to prague castle where it will remain on display until a funeral is held on friday. died sunday at the age of seventy five causing the government to declare three days of national mourning. egyptians are voting in runoffs in the second round of parliamentary elections the ballot is to elect the first government since former president hosni mubarak was ousted in february the last round will be held next month with the islamist muslim brotherhood thought to be in the lead so far the voting comes after five days of violent clashes which saw at least fourteen went to the streets calling for an immediate end to military.

activists in south korea have launched giant balloons carrying tens of thousands of propaganda leaflets to his north and they contain slogans and messages opposing the hereditary transfer of power in pyongyang this comes off of the death of north korean leader kim jong il who is said to be succeeded by his youngest son today all these people are values this is the. guests if the regime in the secretive communist state will be transformed. the north koreans are worried that the outside world will try to take advantage of this transition period so they're going to be on the defensive and they're going to try to project strength and i don't think that it's going to generate big changes in terms of their foreign policy to engage the u.s. or others i also think we sort of the u.s. lost an opportunity here because of a policy of strategic patience we really weren't engaged north korea in the last year other than these most recent food talks so the young kim doesn't have a legacy that he can say look i'm following my father's legacy and we're going to

go and do all this stuff with the international community kim jong il could do that . now twenty one minutes past the hour here in moscow a new conflict has erupted between britain and the e.u. this time over the treatment of so-called benefit tourists brussels has given london an ultimatum to relax benefit laws saying the country must dole out had asked to anyone who asks for them but as r.t. as i have about it reports of britain's a new spirit of non-cooperation may you succeed in complicating the matter. homeless and jobless this man's too embarrassed to be identified he came to britain from poland five years ago hoping to live a dream but the realities been

a nightmare he claims the u.k.'s welfare state hasn't been fair on him. i'm a citizen of the european union five years ago i decided that this country would be my home but they didn't come here to claim benefits i came here to work. david's what the government fears is a benefit tourist here to take and not to give back english is still a struggle and the state says he doesn't qualify for its handouts a serious accident eighteen months ago put him out of work and he soon went bankrupt he's been living on the street ever since but still won't go back to poland. i thought this was a friendly country but only if it needs you and you work for it becomes he could give me something but it doesn't need me i never thought it would be like this this is not a paradise. foreign nationals are eligible for welfare once they've lived here for

over three months but they must convince the or forty's they are here to work and support themselves but the e.u. is ordering britain to relax those rules claiming they discriminate unfairly it wants to allow foreign nationals to get state handouts as soon as they arrive in the u.k. it's extraordinary for the european union to say that in britain where north are able to do an eligibility test before handing someone benefit you know first of all it's our money secondly it was in our manifesto that we were going to bring in these sorts of changes it's simply outrageous that an elected official from brussels can prevent us from bringing about the reforms that we said we were going to do when we were voted into office the e.u. commission is refusing to speak to us but it hasn't been shy in issuing britain with an ultimatum. it says the right to reside test what foreigners must pass to claim benefits is too tough and it's given the government until the end of this month to change that otherwise it will suit britain's refusing to budge otherwise

it claims it will have to pay out two and a half billion pounds to those who work but anything back in the part the british welfare state exists to benefit british people. this was very clear in the original welfare state back in the one nine hundred forty s. which had contributed principle you contributed and you benefited if you didn't contribute you weren't eligible forty percent of migrants from eastern and central europe most of those on eligible for welfare already some are trying their luck and no doubt more will the u.k. is forced to sweeten their deal either bennett r t london. just about to turn twenty five minutes past the hour here in moscow you with r.t. time now for dimitri the business. hopes for a quick and long lasting gas conflict between ukraine and russia vanished the

country's failed to reach an agreement during high profile overnight talks however they say this will not affect the transit of russian gas to europe ukraine is struggling to persuade russia to cut the price for its and you supplies saying the burden is too big for the country's troubled economy here didn't even manage the pain of embers bill itself and borrowed half a billion dollars from russia's gazprom bank in one thousand seaman from russia's national energy security fund says another gas war is unlikely as the existing contract runs for another seven years. but then there were songs and i was the last our last guess what we have in general sales of mine it was the main reason for that and you guess what now we have means that according to the law i think we can . see this quantum that is why we can spend new year problems. so i'm going to market this out well is gaining for a third day however it's lost some of its steam this is on signs that the u.s.

economy could be spared a recession and amid growing pressure on iran to curtail its nuclear program lights we discourage the trading up to over ninety seven and a half dollars per barrel brant is almost one hundred and seven dollars. so going to europe in the stock market flat to positively footsie and the dax are gaining by just a notch pretty much this hour that's the second day for german stocks of growth amid speculation that european central bank has supported euro banks with cheap funding helping them whether the fallout from the song and debt crisis. and then rush over of the r.g.s. in the my six declining after positive session on tuesday the my six is now one percent lower blue chips are mostly down the v.t. be one of the biggest losers is shedding almost two and a half percent oil major roast after school so low displaying high oil prices chuck make it come as is better than the market if you can say that about

a company declining over percent it plans to increase its sales by nine percent next year. and i've seen much of fall expects no significant movements in stocks this week. russian market has underperformed global markets a significant of the past three weeks. by by a large margin will probably continue to observe this political risk premium present and perhaps are increasing as we get closer to that we can. and we have another my. station scheduled to take place in moscow so i think many in mass are so want to take. a wait and see approach anticipate or know that so i don't expect significant moves in the russian market before the end of the week and more details have emerged about the possible sale of russia's largest tab for the money out of a minister newspaper reports the owners want four to five billion dollars for one

hundred percent of the shares of the moscow and how the unnamed sources claimed the financial consortium alpha group investment group are now over and so my holdings are the most likely potential buyers however they are these companies are not ready to stump up the full amount being asked that it was reported that goldman sachs was retained to seal the deal. or i'm more business news on a website that's already to come forward slash business and i'll be back in fifty five minutes time with.

witnesses. to history in the making of. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our. british. find out what's really happening to the global economy. headlines to. the official.

video. and. if you are just joining us a very warm welcome to you this is. the headline twenty six thousand. casualties. claims of a. bloody. supporters. of freshly elected parliament has chosen. for the first time two weeks off. protests.