russia's president orders sweeping with poor c. making it easier to run for political office and proposes a return to direct elections of regional governments in his annual address to the polish. arab league observers arrived in syria as part of a plan to end the bloodshed in the country which continues despite increasing international sanctions imposed on the mosque this. more than seventy die as the iraqi capital is rocked by a wave of terrorist bombings less than a week after the u.s. military's but role from the war torn country ranging violence is raising questions already over the entire u.s. invasion and the eight year campaign.

when i am in moscow i matras are good to have you with us here on r t our top story it's time for a change in russia this according to president dmitry medvedev outlining a plan for widespread democratic reforms with the country's political system first in line art he's a catherine mcgrath has more on the i knew a state of the union address. first and foremost make sure that it promised that people's voices will become louder things just sweeping reforms of the country's political system or political status meant was listening carefully to his address to the parliament as he sketched out the first steps which need to be taken he plans to bring those initiatives to the newly elected duma in the very near future in the last months of his presidency. my proposals are to

introduce direct elections for russia's regional heads to simplify the registration of political parties to remove the need to gather signatures to take part in federal and regional parliamentary elections to cut the number of signatures needed to take part in the presidential election i also suggest changing the system for the parliamentary election i suggest introducing proportional representation in two hundred twenty five constituencies this will allow each territory to have the director representative in the parliament. but this wasn't as comfortable as usual for admission at that have to deliver these annual address mostly because he had to respond to the most recent events in the country protests and allegations which followed the december for parliamentary elections and claims that the elections had been had been raked early admission and that if they had ordered a thorough investigation as a result of that the criminal cases had been filed for alleged violations during

the elections the results of twenty one polling stations cancelled but the president stressed today that elections in any country are a part of domestic affairs of that country and the russian leadership would not allow any foreign interference but of. people's right to express their opinion by all of you to me means is guaranteed attempts to manipulate the people of russia deceive them to instigate social discord aren't acceptable we won't allow it. three mists to prove a case is to draw society into the shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russian these democracy not chaos. well this address looked more like a long to do list. should he become the country's next prime minister rather than a farewell address from him as a president he again emphasize the role of the enlarged open government as an

instrument to get feedback from the people this government consists of russia's prominent figures from different areas of society it was with idea he described it today as and social elevator for the most creative and active ones and he also quoted eisenhower when he was talking about a model of democracy is suitable for russia it's not let the government do it for us he said but let us do it ourselves. you can find president had better whole speech on our web site r t v dot com plenty of other interesting stories waiting for you a little way putting this one why one of the seats in the russian parliament is extra special a custom made chair had to be ordered for boxer a new deputy nikolai valuev so we can legislate and come for his impressions on the first day on the job in the duma on our team dot com. a team of arab league peace monitors has arrived in the syria as part of an ambitious plan to bring peace to the conflict torn nation your arrival comes as the violence reaches

a peak with hundreds reportedly killed in recent days latest round of violence has drawn strong international reaction turkey accusing president assad of turning the country into a bloodbath the u.s. also renewed calls for him to step down and order the military off the streets or face more international pressure syria is already suffering under a slew of economic and regional sanctions but as often happens it's the ordinary people feeling the pinch as r.t. sara furthur port's from damascus. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the capital of damascus is the main sit from the conflict in fact in the bustling sand say it seems like it's business as usual this one says sets in the winds of change have begun subliminable stronger the athletes in face tough economic sanctions the effects of way it's being felt even heading in a poor area in damascus and her family is struggling to make ends meet as sunny is learning to keep the beans for

a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty three million pounds a day. and. now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of its shortage is the economic sanctions driving the price up. their last products available and the prices are pushed higher there have been fights over gas we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat the economic situation in syria was one of the areas president assad had been seen to be making some progress be it slowly for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity a block financial transactions. blackouts have become the new. fifth they could be even the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile fuel of gas just in case people are

a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out and this is why you see these queues this in place by the arab league it is hate the sanctions would fulfill the government's hand when it came to ending the violence in the country but inside syria at the moment many feel it every day people who are being punished economic sanctions still. taking the lead that he will want to hit. that become part of the daily life that many people here in syria. from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission at the end of the month much opposition they remain skeptical about whether that too will bring about any change . in the west of the conflict areas change can come a moment to seeing some parity of teeth families like finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. a damascus.

sabella edmonds founder of the national security whistleblowers coalition says sanctions only provoke violence in the country. by imposing sanctions by actually creating restlessness in the country and this is what we have been doing from our base in turkey by dropping leaflets to actually having the factors working there with the united states with the nato trying to prove low violence what's we're doing is not the situation and to actually encourage assad to act differently and i am not a big fan of i share assad but neither am i to fan of grain or saudi arabia or you know even with egypt i mean egypt what was it that we were absolutely supporting mubarak's regime and then be turned the changed our stand we started putting our trust and these are the us government friends to actually support the

uprising fon the uprising do react the uprising what have what do we have today later in the program we return to where the very first sparks of on the rest ignited in north africa and the middle east giving rise to the arab spring. i was very very slim to none of those moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like this someone sinks into that nothing can change the mass of a middle east correspondent discusses what it was like at the center of events that shook the region this year the latest in our special series testimony in two thousand and eleven coming your way if you make. witnesses. to history making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . a wave of synchronized bombings has a rip through the iraqi capital killing at least seventy two people and wounding more than two hundred everyone says could be heard racing back and forth as massive

plumes of smoke rose above baghdad almost twenty blasts rock throughout the city ranging from car bombs to hidden explosives the way of attack. comes just days after the u.s. forces pulled out of the country leaving behind uncertainty and surging religious tensions for more on the violence and what it bodes for the country run by joseph schorr a writer for the world socialist web site thanks for being with us i know the u.s. invaded iraq for regime change to bring democracy and extensively peace to the country and to reduce what it said at the time was the threat of terrorism but days after the last troops leave the region there's a wave of bombings in the capital what do you think has been in the end the achievement if any after the invasion of iraq well i think this really points to the fraudulent character of the claims made by the american government about what this war was was all about i mean this was not about you know securing iraq and giving it freedom it was about securing the resources and in the process

so secretary intensions devastated the entire society and this is really the product of that you have different factions of the iraqi leader who are battling over power over control over resources including particular oil contracts and threatens to unravel into a civil war but this is very much i think a product of the american occupation and so. what do you think about the timing of the mission it's been going for nearly nine years now and now do you believe that the country is ready to govern itself. it's not a question i think of a ready to govern itself i think that i mean of course the argument now is made in the media and various politicians including in the united states that well this just shows that the united states has to go back in. american troops should never have left because this is the product but i would say in fact you know the conflict

the violence in iraq is very much a product of the occupation itself and you know that's really the source of the crisis facing iraqi politics and iraqi society i mean look at what what this occupation has produced over one million people killed by some estimates thirty five percent of iraqi children. living now is orphans destination of infrastructure the entire society has been scarred by this occupation by this war and that finds reflection in politics now i don't think it's a question of seeking to bring back the u.s. military because american imperialism is really at the source of the problem one of your articles you argue that the country is ruled by an increasingly unstable authoritarian regime in baghdad do you think factional struggles could lead to a civil war what do you think could be the spark if so well it's that's very much a possibility i mean obviously the tensions are very very high the. key of course

is accusing the sunni vice president of terrorism. the vice president his return by calling the leaky another hussein there are intense divisions. critically not with between the kurdish northern region and the central government as well over oil contracts exxon mobil is very much involved in this actually a little known fact. last week was in the united states and met during the course of his trip with the c.e.o. of exxon mobil mobil rex tillerson which i don't know what they were discussing. but these questions of oil contracts who gets the loot essentially are very much at play and factories and the possibility of a civil war as well as of course the intervention of outside powers regional powers as well as the united states itself which stands by i mean the united states has not left iraq there is still an embassy with fifteen dollars and people these tens

of thousands of troops in the region are ready to intervene if necessary and you know you have a very explosive situation in iraq and throughout the region and you know there's very much a possibility of this the ball going to a broader conflict which will have devastating implications right joseph shore a writer for the world socialist web site thanks for your time. turkey is recalling its ambassador from france in response to the second of power lawmakers to pass a bill outlawing genocide denial including the killing mass killing of armenians by ottoman turks in one thousand fifteen hundreds of french turks protested in front of the national assembly in paris saying the atrocities of the past should be left to historians if approved by the senate the punishment for offenders could lead to a year in prison and a fine of up to forty five thousand euros pierre de lay in a professor of political science at paris west university thinks the move is just a way of scoring political points. first of all you have to realize that it's

a build good thing through the lower house that are meant and then it has to go to the senate most probably it would not go to the senate before the presidential election and maybe it would die out people of this so a little political gain mislaid by various political parties. there is that historical debate genocide is not in down there was a genocide and there's also the political games being played by various parties to get the armenian vote in the french elections every nation as soon best to gauge its crimes in the past but establishing historical truth is the work of the story and it is not something that should be done and established by law time now to continue our look back to the past twelve months with artie's ten reports on the events that shaped the year today egypt a country where a million mad uprising became a springboard for a tide of riots and protests are things policy or shares what she went through

reporting from the heart of the arab spring. i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this is the status of betrayal and anger that people in egypt still have there are hundreds of thousands of people who lost are not right now in times square as you can see many of them heating oil and occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt stories of journalist and i think it was even more dangerous cousin that as a foreign journalist i remember when we were there back to save newsweek we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the quality tough to square we took all kinds of signage that we had on us that said we were journalists i mean of course a con tied to temora the by and large you don't want to do the attention to that is

necessarily the officers from which we were for cost and we took off all the science that said that we were media because this was also was in sites in anger and frustration among the people. people often asked me if being a woman is an advantage or disadvantage to going to dangerous areas as a journalist most of the time that is an advantage because we find that people have shake things mode with you and i'm talking to men and women because you're a woman and you list i think perhaps in a male colleague but i do feel frightened being a woman in tough explain to people you know. maybe even need to be replaced one dictator hosni mubarak one not one i can tell me that anything i'd look for toughness square i want to female colleague whether it was an egyptian temperamentally russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his but people would still want possibly brush out squeeze a part of my body and look at me with this kind of knowing that leaves you feel very frightened and very vulnerable as

a woman. back in february when the police were taken off the streets there was a real. yes in cairo and i remember doing a lot of reports. coming out i am not. married. and certainly at night i had to move back to the hotel because there was a curfew and there were no cars on the street and it was almost surreal looking possed apartment buildings and seeing people coming in front of the apartment buildings that had formed a kind of nightwatch group and you had people in their eighty's and their ninety's standing there with literally a kitchen knife or a kitchen broom and wish that they were going to protect their apartments following these gangs that were patrolling the streets of cairo they were trying to steal what they could because as i say there were no police around your friend. there was one to surrender to was very frightened and we were standing on the outskirts of

the square i was talking to people and as always had to speak to one person and everybody what's happening and and people were eating really angry so it's not that they are listening to what's being said often they just want to get a voice is exposed on the camera and in the moment and that's and that's the scary part is that these things happen in a moment in a moment the entire change and people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that they actually wanted to prove to us as journalists and cameramen that i was working with understood immediately ruff was happening he started screaming for me to get into the cockpit i remember the driver because we had a driver that had been allocated to us came screeching down the road i mean looking pushed the crowd and the journalist was pushing into the comedy getting into the car kind of throwing himself in off to me in the crowd was banging on the car as we squared away. and i don't even know if the word revolution is there why would but i

don't think the revolution in egypt is over we've. just to say this is of that's the same with additional to the nuisance but again the angle of the frustration the disappointment the scenes of hopes of not being realized is pull people on the streets of cairo if you will be when it is and things that this country is no way near where people had hoped and dreamed it would be back in st louis and i think this is the general uncertainty that is sweeping the middle east in these in a sense that things are changing in another sense of no one not knowing exactly when and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. and artie's got eight more reports you can catch every day through the new year it's more memories of two thousand and eleven for you to experience here on r t so stay with us as we look at other news from around the world the fear paula and many women feel on the streets of cairo as come into focus thousands marched in tahrir

square continuing to show outrage over the treatment of female protesters assaults on egyptian women during the recent government crackdown sparked continuing uproar and not arrest protesters were brutally beaten pulled by their hair and stamped on some of them having their clothes torn off the country's military rulers have vowed to hold those responsible with demonstrators demanding they face trial protesters that they get protests that began last friday are calling for an end to all of the control and new civilian rule. the u.s. military's admitted it's to blame for last month's airstrikes killing twenty four pakistani soldiers on the afghan border the pentagon said it inadequately ase on between a pack of american and pakistani forces led to a misunderstanding of where the troops were the incidents increased tensions in the fragile relationship between the two with islam a bad cut in crucial nato supply arms to afghanistan in response. as the euro zone faces that uncertain future with each new leaders struggling to

agree to a solution to its mounting problems we discuss the efforts with a british to. party member of the european parliament interview coming up. well today we're joined by conservative m.p. mr daniel had him thank you very much sir for joining us first question that everyone is asking is where do you see the eurozone headed well we can now see very

clearly that the euro is a recessionary instrument and it's making people poorer it's causing deflation and emigration in the southern states is causing tax rises in the northern states if we were looking at this completely logically we would immediately move towards an orderly unbundling of the single currency but of course the european union is not looking at it logically they come at this with so much political capital and actual capital invested in it that they can't bring themselves to admit that it was a mistake and so i'm afraid we risk the very thing they purport to fear which is a disorderly breakup of the euro caused by having tried to keep it together for too long an orderly break up is that really the cheaper at least painful option here and there are those that would argue that a breakup would be the more expensive option but do you think there are no good options from here there are no easy outcomes when you are looking at states with the level of debt that some of the e.u.

member states have so we're dealing with lesser evils but there is no question that allowing the. each country to return to its own currency to start pricing its way back into the market exporting its way back to growth is less bad for all the maybe some. short term uncontainable transitional costs is less valid than carrying on with the current crisis while december ninety e.u. leaders agreed most of them at least agreed to move on into forming a fiscal compact and the u.k. used its veto to prevent any treaty changes so that when it comes to those who are saying that the u.k. probably will have less influence now in making decisions in the e.u. wouldn't it have been better if the u.k. had just got on board with the rest with this was the argument of course that we were given when the euro was launched in the first place you have to be a part of it or you'll lose all the influence you know the city of london will decline and so will look who was right you know i mean look there is nothing less attractive in politics and saying i told you so but there is actually no there's

one thing less attractive and that is listening to the say discredited arguments from the same shameless politicians who got it wrong says who got it badly wrong ten years ago and who are now trotting out exactly the same logic what else has to happen before they accept that their logic was flawed well wisher logic is flawed do you think the economic or political logic mainly the impossibility of jamming widely divergent economies into a single exchange rate and a single interest rate there is also a democratic cost it's not only a political cost last month we saw crews in two e.u. member states initially as in greece elected prime ministers were toppled in favor of bureaucrats respectively a former european commissioner and a former vice president of the european central bank they head what are called national governments but the governments have been put together for the sole purpose of pushing through an agenda that would be rejected at

a general election so that we see the if you like the anti democratic. tendencies that were always there implicitly in the eurozone we now see them explicitly all the e.u. is still continuing to ask and look for help from outside the european union outside of the euro zone for money to beef up their e.f.-s. . those mechanisms to help the bailouts in the euro zone countries as well as the i.m.f. what do you think of this measure of trying to look for help from the outside will it actually help solve the problem i mean this is this is treating a debt crisis with more debt. you don't help an indebted friend by pushing more loans on them when a country can't meet its existing liabilities it's crazy to extend those liabilities we should move towards a. partial orderly default in countries which simply can't meet that debt and

an agreed separation of the of the eurozone so you're saying that a euro collapse is the only solution here the collapse of the euro will be the beginning of a solution or you see the end of the euro as it currently stands will be the beginning of a solution but the real solution will come when there is a proper devolution of power so that decisions are taken more closely to the people that they affect and if you if you look at one of the really successful prosperous countries in the world the little ones the hong kong is the switzerland lichtenstein's the channel islands the monaco's the brunei's of the european union would argue that because of these projects they are in fact helping the growth expansion of progress of member states of the european union do you think it is a good does outweigh the bad in this case if we knew from means were the way to growth greece would now be the richest country in the union and germany would now be the poorest. and the crowds would be marching furiously in kiel and hamburg and duesseldorf protesting about the greek learners. just as with individuals so with

entire state. if you become dependent on subsidies from somewhere else. as you start to think the russians arranging your affairs around qualifying for the grounds instead of creating wealth and this is the tragedy of the recipient countries the best and brightest people in those countries the entrepreneurs the people who could have done so much making things inventing things selling things creating businesses and states because nothing can compete with the advantages of being on the e.u. payroll they all start gravitating towards by that directly the brussels bureaucracy or in directly becoming contractors or consultants dependent on loans. contributor countries grumble about it but the real pain is felt in the recipient countries.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. giant corporations are today.