old. technology innovation all these developments around russia we've got this huge earth covered. russia's president orders sweeping reforms making it easier to run for political office and proposes a return to direct elections of regional governors in his annual address to the parliament. now arab league observers arrive in syria as part of the plan to end the bloodshed in the country which continues despite increasing international sanctions imposed on damascus. and over seventy die of the iraqi capital is a rocked by a wave of terrorist bombs less than a week after the american military is quick to draw from the war torn country that waging violence is raising questions over the entire u.s. invasion and eight year campaign.

good evening it is true i am here in the russian capital i'm lucy catherine of and you rush watching our t.v. now it is time for a change in a rush at this from president dmitri medvedev who outlined a plan for widespread democratic reforms with the country's political system first online now r.t. as a country over was a listening to the annual state of the union address. first and foremost make sure that that it promised that people's voices will become louder thanks to sweeping reforms of the country's political system what 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 passing 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. well this wasn't as comfortable as usual for admission of it 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 had ordered a thorough investigation as a result of that 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 it due to means is guaranteed but attempts to manipulate the people of russia deceive them to instigate social discord are acceptable we won't allow extra. to prove a case is to draw society into the enterprises we want interference from outside in our internal affairs russian these democracy not chaos. well this address looked more like a long to do. 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 government consists of russia's prominent figures from different areas of society it was medvedev so i did and he described it today as and social elevator for the most creative and ones and he also quoted eisenhower when he was talking about a model of democracy suitable for russia it's not let the government do it for us he said but let us do it ourselves. and of course you can find president made a speech on our website r.t. dot com what other interesting stories are waiting for you there as well including one on why one of the seats in the russian parliament extra special. custom made chair is ordered for a boxer and new deputy nick like my lawyer so he can legislate in comfort we've got his impressions on his first day in the duma. now a team of arab league peace monitors has arrived in syria as part of an ambitious plan to bring peace to the conflict torn nation their arrival comes as violence reaches

a peak with hundreds of portably killed in recent days for flattest round of violence has drawn strong international reaction with turkey accusing president assad of turning the country into a bloodbath the u.s. has also renewed its calls for him to step down and to order the military off of the streets or face more international measures now syria is already suffering under a slew of economic and regional sanctions that is as often the case the ordinary people are feeling the pinch r.t. sara for three ports it's been. ten months syria's uprising began the capital of damascus has remained largely sheltered from the conflict. in the bustling sun so it seems like it's business as usual as one says the winds of change have begun to flow a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in a poor area in the suburbs of damascus interests and her family struggling to make

ends meet. he has learning difficulties beans for a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty syrian pounds a day three dollars to support him and his wife and now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with 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 we just 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 economical pitchiness a block financial transactions. have blackouts 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 the government hand when it came to ending the violence in the country was 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 the mosque has become part of the daily life of many people here in syria. from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission to at the end of the month. position 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 it's imperative to see families like finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate sara. damascus.

now sibel edmonds the founder of the national security whistleblowers coalition says that western mainstream media is distorting the picture of the actual situation on the ground in syria helping to increase public support for a war against that country. what we see here about these atrocities five howser. deaths here and they're still called massacres none of these numbers are confirmed they are actually given and if you look at the media they are actually telling you that they're getting their information from the. rebel army they're not getting it from inside the country but of course when you look at the mainstream media at least here in the united states and the so-called larger chua's i alternatives they are just repeating those numbers now in our news websites we have been getting information from syria and these are not necessarily the

supporters of assad that these are people who are providing information to us they are there they are on the ground and then be run these stories nobody picks them up except a handful of international news outlets because it does not conform to what the reporting here in the united states that is this is basically a makeup of a psychological warfare first of all the decision on syria was made a years ago even as the preparations began and this is a turkey on the border they're on their nato air base their injured air base in last may and this is may two thousand and eleven so they have the decision they have had that this occasion they have been preparing for an actual war and then they begin the propaganda and the psychological warfare by trying to get the public support for an unwarranted war. now later in the program we will return to

where the very first sparks of unrest in guide in north africa and the middle east giving birth to the arab spring. i was very timid and it was moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like toughness square from one second to that nothing has changed so much of. our middle east correspondent discusses what it was like at the epicenter of events that shook the entire region this year the latest episode of our special series testimony twenty eleven in a few minutes time. this is. history making. testability. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . now a wave of synchronized bombings has ripped through the capital of iraq killing at least seventy two people and wounding more than two hundred others. ambulances could be heard racing back and forth as massive plumes of smoke rose above baghdad

almost twenty blasts rocked the city ranging from car bombs to hidden explosives the wave of attacks comes just days after u.s. forces pulled out of the country leaving behind uncertainty and surging religious tensions joseph the shore a writer for the world socialist web site believes that the u.s. is now we're sponsible for the factional struggles inside the iraqi elite of course and also the battle for oil in the country. the conflict of 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 iraqis it's light 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 and politics and you have different factions of the iraqi

elite who are battling over power over control over resources including particular oil contracts and it threatens to unravel into a civil war but this is very much i think a product of the american occupation and so. now in other news turkey is recalling its ambassador from france in response the decision of lawmakers in paris to pass legislation that essentially outlaws genocide denial including the mass killing of our many and spy ottoman turks back in one thousand fifteen. now hundreds of french turks happen protesting in front of the national assembly in paris saying that the atrocities of the past should be left to historians if approved by the senate the punishment for offenders could it result in a year in prison as well as a five a forty five thousand euros or elaine a professor of political science at paris west university thinks that this 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 you know all the ins so little political game is played by various political parties. there is historical debate genocide is not going 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 has to investigate its crimes in the past but establishing historical truth is the work of historians it is not something that should be done and established by law. and right now as promised we continue our look back at the past twelve months what artist ten reports on the events that shaped twenty eleven now today in egypt a country where a million man uprising became the springboard for right of tyrants to riots and

protests our tea party's policy or was of course there and shares what she went through reporting at the center 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 on arriving here in times square as you can see heating oil and occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt story as a journalist and i think it was even more dangerous because i'm not as a foreign journalist i remember when we there bathroom safety we we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the quality of tough to square we took all kinds of signage that we had on us that said we were journalists i mean of course ican tied the camera there by and large we don't want to do more

attention to you than is necessary the officers from which we were for cost and we took off all the sciences save that we were media because this was also was inciting anger and frustration among the people. people often ask 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 to shake things mode with you and i'm talking to men and women because you're a woman and you laced with me perhaps in a male colleague but i did feel frightened being a woman in tough explain to people you know. maybe even need to be replaced i want to take ten months remembering what not i can tell me that anything i look for toughness square i want to female colleague whether it was an egyptian camera man away russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his that people would still want possibly brush up squeeze a part of my body and look at me with this kind of leering 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. scenes. in cairo and i remember doing a lot of reports at night. and i know how to. get them certainly at night i had to move back to the hotel because there was a there were no cars on the street and it was almost soon 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 the 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 incident or two was very frightened and we were standing on the outskirts of

the square i was talking to people and as always happened 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 expressed on the tenth. and in a moment and that's and that's the scary part is that these things happen in a moment in a moment the entire mood changed when people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that the extra time to prove to us as journalists and being. that i was working with understood immediately both 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 me into the comedy getting into the car kind of flung himself in off to me in the car was banging on the car as we sped away. and i don't even know if the word revolution is the one i would but i don't

think the resolution in egypt is over. just to save themselves perhaps the same revolution or two revolutions but again the anger the frustration the disappointment the scenes of hopes of not being realized is poll people on the streets of cairo every week when there is a saying that this country is nowhere near where people had hoped and dreamed it would be back in february and i think this is the general uncertainty that is sweeping the middle east there is a sense that things are changing but another sense of no one not knowing exactly where and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. now we here at r.t. have prepared eight more reports that you can see every single day until the new year that's more memories of twenty eleven for you to experience here in r.t. don't miss out. now as we look at other news from around the world to the fear that

paula and many women felt on the streets of cairo has come into focus thousands have marched into her square as they now continue to show their outrage over the treatment of female protesters assaults on egyptian women during the recent government crackdown have sparked continuing uproar and on the rest female protesters were brutally beaten pulled by the hair stamped on even some having their clothing ripped off the country's military rulers have valid to hold those responsible accountable with demonstrators demanding that they face trial protests which began last friday are calling for an end to army control and immediate civilian rule. now the u.s. military has admitted it is to blame for the last month's air strikes which killed twenty four pakistani soldiers on the afghan border the pentagon said inadequate liaison between american and pakistani forces had led to a misunderstanding over where the troops were located the incident has increased

tensions in the fragile relationship between the two countries with. cutting crucial nato supply lines to afghanistan in response. now parts of colombia are still under water after unusually heavy rains there flooding and mudslides have killed nearly two hundred people in floods that have continued ever since september government officials have released more than five hundred million dollars to help those affected the authorities have said that it is the worst prolonging the season in decades and is unfortunately inspected to continue through january. now as the eurozone faces an uncertain future with leaders struggling to agree to a solution to its mounting problems we decided to discuss the efforts with the british conservative party member of the european parliament that's next on our team don't go away.

well today we're joined by conservative m.e.p. . thank you very much 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 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 relieve the cheap or at least painful option here i mean 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. so we're dealing with lesser evils but there is no question that allowing 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 bad 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 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. strata 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 the f.s.f. the e.s.m. 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 that 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 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 so lichtenstein's the channel islands the monaco's the brunei's and 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's 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 crowds would be marching furiously in kiel and hamburg and duesseldorf protesting about the. learns right just as with individuals so with entire states if you become dependent on subsidies from somewhere else. to prize you start perfectly rationally 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 either directly the brussels bureaucracy or in directly becoming contractors or consultants dependent on brussels loans. contributor countries grumble about it but the real pain is felt in the recipient countries. this was the plan that was responsible for causing the world's worst industrial disaster and now it had been abandoned in a condition where it had become

a source of pollution of the most recent study that was done shows that this water pollution is already. more than hundred thousand people in. groups working with children see that you're going to be more likely to be born with birth defects in children. in the sea as little as five hundred dollars. and. just. the littlest.

boosts to say. just seems. absurd. to me into the future thanks to the years wishes on technology updates next generation places made from super strong also likely building materials to help with his community isotopes cleaner planet for instance the revolutionary new ways to get rid of our growing mansell's and along listening to the russian invaders. please the muslims should.