russia's president orders sweeping reforms making it easier to run for political office and proposes a return to direct elections of regional governance and his annual address to the home of. arab league observers arrive in syria as the conflict there sees its bloodiest period yet more than two hundred are thought to have been killed in just two days despite more international sanctions imposed against a massive us. and more than seventy die as the iraqi capital is rocked by a wave of terrorist bombs and one week after the american military is withdrawal from the war torn country the raging violence is raising questions already over the entire u.s. invasion and the air campaign. good

early morning to you it's six am here in the russian capital i'm lucy catherine of and you're watching our t.v. now it is time for a change in russia these words from president dmitri medvedev who outlined a plan for widespread democratic reforms well the country's political system first in line. was listening to the annual 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. well 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 of four parliamentary elections and claims that the elections had been had been raked early admission and that if at 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 part of domestic affairs of that country and the russian leadership would not allow any foreign interference but our . people's right to express their opinion by all means is guaranteed but attempts to manipulate the people of russia deceive them to instigate social discord are acceptable we won't allow extra. provocator is to draw society into the shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russian least democracy not chaos. all 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 precious prominent figures from different areas of society it wasn't vetted sadia he described it today as an social elevator for the most creative and active 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. now martin mccauley a russia expert on the university of london believes that it is important to listen to the voices of the opposition moreover he also thinks we should be implementing reforms to boost the country's potential for development a form of legitimacy is developed. the authority of the president of the government would be enhanced if the population felt that you could push for the educated population believed that their voice was a great addition to they could enter into a dialogue with the authorities and to transform russia because russia has

enormous potential enormous human capital physical capital and has the potential to become a world leader that they would like the richer the educated people would like to play a part in that their first important that their views are heard and the government . the president the prime minister listen to their views and really take their views seriously. now you can find president full speech by going to our web site r t dot com a lot of other interesting stories there waiting for you as well including this one why one of the seats in the russian parliament is extra special a custom made chair is ordered for boxer a new deputy nicholai of a lawyer so that he can legislate in comfort we've got his impressions on a first day in the do. now a team of arab league peace monitors has arrived in syria as part of an ambitious

plan to try to build stability to the conflict torn nation their arrival comes as violence reaches a peak with hundreds of portably killed in recent days this latest 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 ordered the military off the streets or face more international measures now syria is already suffering under a slew of economic and regional sanctions but unfortunately as is often the case it is the ordinary people who are feeling the pinch most artists are firth reports. it's been nearly ten months the third is uprising began the capital of damascus remain low as he sells it from the conflict. in the bustling sand say it seems like it's business as usual as one says it's in the winds of change have begun subliminal stronger the arab league to impose tough economic sanctions the effects of which have you felt even hid in a poor area in the damascus grass and her family struggling to make ends meet

as the news has learning difficulties beans for a living but he barely makes the hundred and fifty three and pounds a day three dollars to see him. 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 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 but for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity. financial transactions. have blackouts become the new. they could be even

the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rush to stockpile fuel and 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 is inside syria at the moment many feel it every day people who are being punished because of expansion so it's just taking. the one hit. has become part of the daily life of many people here in syria and 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 to bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas change can come a moment to seeing some parity of teeth of families like. finding life under the

sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. now sibel edmonds the founder of the national security whistleblowers coalition says that the western mainstream media is actually distorting the picture of the real situation on the ground in syria thereby helping to increase public support for a war against a country what we see hear about these atrocities add five howser. deaths here and the so-called massacres none of these numbers are confirmed that they are actually given and if you look at the media they are actually telling you that they are getting their information from the. rebel army but they are not getting it from inside the country but of course when you look at the mainstream media at least here in the united states they are just repeating those numbers now for our own use websites we have been getting information from syria and these are

not necessarily the supporters of assad will 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 group reporting here in the united states that is all this is basically a makeup of a psychological warfare first of all the decision on syria was made a years ago even though the preparations began and this is a turkey on the border they're on their nato air base they're injured air base may two thousand and eleven so they have the decision they have had that this edition 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'll return to where the very first

sparks of unrest in the night and north africa in the middle east giving birth to the arab spring. i was very very frightened and it was moments like that when you realize that the news in a place like toughness play someone seeking to nothing can change the mass of. our middle east correspondent discusses what it was like at the epicenter of events that shook the entire region this year this latest episode of our special series testimony twenty eleven in a few minutes time. with. two history making. testability. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven. a wave of synchronized bombings has ripped through the iraqi capital killing at least seventy two people and wounding more than two hundred ambulances could be heard racing back and forth as a massive plumes of smoke rose above baghdad almost twenty blasts rocked the city

ranging from car bombs to hidden explosives the latest wave of attacks comes just days after u.s. forces pulled out of the country leaving behind on certainty and surging religious tensions jeremy corbyn labor m.p. and member of the stop the war coalition believes that the us might use the attacks to discredit the iraq a government security confluent competence and to use it as a pretext for a return to the country. i think they're trying to say that the iraqi government is not able to control the situation and that the forces that it has at its disposal cannot impose its will on the minds of the iraqi government is that he extremely beleaguered and the danger is of course they will ask for western forces to come back in order to protect that government and so will then have a western backed government with huge opposition from its own people it was a war for regime change where in the case of britain the british parliament was told it was sold in

a war for disarmament of the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and the damage it's done in iraq in the region and the civil liberties of everybody in every one of the participating countries is absolutely huge. now turkey is recalling a time baster from france in response to the decision of lawmakers in paris to pass legislation that was out of pardon me outlaws genocide denial including the mass killing of our many ends by autumn and turks back in one nine hundred fifteen hundreds of french turks have been protesting in front of the national assembly in paris saying that the atrocities of the past should be left to historians now if this legislation is approved by the senate the punishment for offenders could result in a hero in prison and a five a fine of forty five thousand euros pirg or lane a professor of political science of paris to 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 the mint and then it has to go to the

senate broadly it would not go to the senate before the presidential election and maybe it would die out. so little political gain least 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 establish an historical truth is the work of the story and it is not something that should be done and established by law. right now as promised we continue to look back at the past year with artie's ten reports on the events that shaped twenty eleven today egypt a country where a million man uprising became a springboard for a wave of riots and protests party's policy or shares what she went through reporting at the epicenter of the arab spring.

i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this is the sense 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 story as a journalist and i think it was even more dangerous because i'm not as a foreign journalist i remember when we gave back to my savior we we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the crowd in tough here 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 them is necessarily the officers from which we were forecasting we took off all the signs that say 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 i'm talking here men and women because you're a woman or at least we think perhaps in a male colleague but i do feel frightened being a woman in tough experience that people here are angry they believe it needs to be replaced one dictator hosni mubarak one not one i can tell me that anything i look for toughness square i walk through a female colleague whether it was an egyptian camera man away russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his but people would still want possibly brush i 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. since i was completely honest most in cairo and i remember doing

a lot of reports at night. 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 with that they were going to protect their apartments 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 is there to was very frightened and we were standing on the outskirts of the square i was talking to a group of people and as always had to speak to one person and then everybody comes

to see what's happening and and people reading 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 telegraph 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 new change and people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that the actually want to prove to us as journalists and being a man that i was working with understood immediately both was happening he started screaming for me to get into the cockpit i remember the drive that 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 who did the kemah and was pushing me into the common they getting into the car he kind of flung 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 uses of perhaps the same evolution over 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 if you will 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 the resistance that things are changing but another sense of no one not knowing exactly where and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. now the r.t. crew has prepared eight more reports to you can see every single day until the new year that's more memories and highlights from two thousand and eleven for you to experience right here on r.t. . now as we look at other news from around the world the fear that paula slayer and many women felt on the streets of cairo has come into focus thousands marched in darfur square as they 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 rest female protesters were brutally beaten by the hair stamped on even some had their clothes ripped off of their bodies and the country's military rulers have vowed to hold those responsible accountable but demonstrators are demanding that they face trial protests which began last friday are calling for an end to army control and immediate civilian rule. that the u.s. military has admitted it is to blame for the last month's airstrikes that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers on the afghan border the pentagon said in adequately a zone between the american and pakistani forces led to a misunderstanding over where the troops were located the incident has increased tensions in the fragile relationship between the two countries was i'm cutting crucial nato supply lines to afghanistan in response. and parts of columbia are still underwater after unusually heavy rains and flooding flooding and mudslides

have killed nearly two hundred people in floods that have continued since september the government officials have released more than five hundred million dollars to help those affected the authorities said that it is the worst prolonged rainy season in decades and is expected to continue through january. tunisia's prime minister has unveiled a new cabinet with key posts going to the dominant as long list and often party the government follows the popular revolt which began a year ago eventually ex president ben ali and triggering the arab spring premiere how large a job ali has vowed to make compensation to the victims of the former regime a top priority his new cabinet is facing immediate pressure to tackle the country's economic. now as a hero zone faces an uncertain future with e.u. leaders struggling to agree to a solution to its problems we discussed is efforts with

a british conservative party member of the european parliament that's next right here on our team. well today we're joined by conservative m.p. p.b.s. or daniel hadn't 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 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 very come of this with so much. political capital and actual capital invested in 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 and 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 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 on december ninth the 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 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 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 anderson. 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 had 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 of the european union outside of the euro zone for money to beef up their 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 and you don't help an indebted friend by pushing more loans on him 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. lichtenstein's the channel islands of monaco's the. because of these projects they are in fact helping the growth expand progress. do you think it's a good does outweigh the bad in this case if he. were the way to growth greece would now be the richest country in the union and germany would now be the poorest . and the crowd would be marching furiously hamburg and duesseldorf protesting about the greek learners. just as with individuals so with entire states if you become dependent on subsidies from somewhere else. as 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 in their home 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 in the contributor countries grumble about it but the real pain is felt in the recipient countries. mission three couldn't take three. four judges three arrangement three. three. three.

three volunteers in videos for your media projects a free media john darche dot com. issues that so much there's a huge decision on the mark with the american occupation of iraq. officially coming to a close to speak it's time to take stock was the war in occupation worth it for. the i'm. elaine. elitists.