in most parts of the world the shopping spree in russia is on its final lap with russians ready to pay about sixteen billion dollars on presents alone more details on christmas shopping and the latest business news around. five pm in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story activists in syria claim twenty seven civilians have been killed by government troops over the last day this is the primary team of arab league observers is due to arrive in the country their mission is to implement a peace plan intended to ensure the regime and its crackdown on the opposition damascus denies committing atrocities saying it's fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad while that's yet to be independently confirm revolutionaries from other arab countries say they're willing to fight for a change in syria are on

a boycott reports from post gadhafi libya. a butcher our dad made the owner of the ski pop shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. tell us it is economic if we get him enough in the world that syria. other syria. you can make it a lot of the people in syria. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop have even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we don't want syria and its soldiers we have a and people such as syria these are just like you know only this soldier we have only we have enough but i think yeah we want to leave. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as liberators to being called

occupiers shipley residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of the young man who looked on the channeling enemy willing to park in their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know what we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of all along we will make sure that what happened in libya repeat itself in syria the home go by libyan mother over the portraits of shaky bar i now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli is some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary . war with the help of allah we can all belong to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world. and it seems that che guevara's a deal with sporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a buoyant marketplace for soldiers of fortune the most from one revolution to another some motivated by personal gain some by conviction all others by venture if

i put that all in the vision of freedom and for now at least is the freedom to leave by the gun. as a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with mercenaries may not be such a genuine. video women and children in syria gunned down by snipers are inbound on you tube while it's still unclear who is pulling the trigger there are terrorists my prayers who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country they're from libya or from afghanistan or pakistan foreign fighters have been brought in here by the cia and the other western services. one man's terrorist could easily be anonymous freedom fighter but for the united states it's now one big high combat

hige one of the leaders of tripoli militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratic leader who according to our two stores this is not a group of several hundred leavin rebels to syria just last month. we can't do any to support the syrian people because we are they are facing the same situation as before and do because she hated who comes to lead been the wood and if you could see why the syrian people who they need help to get their freedom i think we should do it the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard them for centuries the saved cars against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenaries in the middle east has got to its new and no less bloody chapter in the we are to see tripoli according to u.n. estimates more than five thousand civilians have been killed in syria since march the regime claims it's lost thousands of troops fighting against armed gangs

investigative journalist terry mason thinks the foreign mercenaries are to blame for many deaths on both sides. they say there is five thousand people killed the. security forces of course it's absurd to. have these a lot of people killed but very few by the security forces will still very much. groups they put inside the crowd but the same army groups they use you know you are there is some different situation between the six and the people coming from libya now in syria especially with the military government people being he's now in turkey to organize for the fight and to tripoli which was the people from my kid no responsible for the security people that are now they are now. inside syria and the. spanish reporter was first in libya recognized them here in inside of the

top of beasts so-called free. syrian army but not syria. and still to come this hour a disaster of chain reaction. suddenly there was there was panic cause outside of the car about to film a stand up. and the police and the emergency workers suddenly just like the sound saying. it was all inject me. but i could understand there was that you can see the fear and can also there was a tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car artie's international correspondent i've ever been at looking back back at the risks he faced while reporting from japan ravaged by the raw power of nature. but first pakistan facing a crisis in its relations with the us appears to be seeking more support from other powerful ally to the east china ties with america have been all but severed

following last month's deadly drone strike by the us military and this year's raid to kill osama bin laden without as lot about as for warning the pakistani president is now firming up his country's relationship with beijing holding talks with chinese officials last week just of chang professor of political science at hong kong the city university says the two countries i don't think have an important partnership allowing pakistan to counterbalance its relationship with the u.s. . well pakistan has been beating spece throughout the history of the people's republic of china increasingly pakistan has so has a certain strategic value to china certainly as for your normal pakistan's relations with the united states in difficulties because of the nato attack on is a military outpost last month and to washington d.c. the fields to deliver the kind of policy. to stand the government and at the same

time it is very significant that the top tiny's diplomat but he was in pakistan he met the president the prime minister the army chief of staff arguably the most powerful soldier in pakistan as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of stock and the head of the into services intelligence so it seems that china would be would have been ours to give military aid to pakistan to balance against the weakening ties between pakistan and the united states and it's also possible that number they play a certain mediating role between the military and of government and certainly tensions between the tool have been high in the recent poll. it's a day for a summit to celebrate others to commiserate twenty years since the largest nation on earth was dissolved the fall of the soviet union the end of the cold war creating more than a dozen new nations but sparking economic hardship and civil wars some even argue

it made the world less stable by leaving the only superpower unchecked or he catarina groucho but has bore. even today many generate their own explanations for the full of a global goliath but some putting it down to the rule of just a few i'll give you two reasons go because of guilt. the nineteen ninety one august coup was a turning point in the country's history with images of yeltsin standing on a tank creating a new hero yet for most here even that wasn't seen as causing a fatal crack in the soviet union it was all very sudden and shocking i mean there were people here even months before who were showing us that this was going to go on forever so all the billions and billions and billions that the u.s. imported into intelligence and forecasting all proved to be completely useless the collapse of the soviet union was not so much a revolution rather it was

a peaceful divorce of former republics longing for independence but the breakup led to long lasting and painful consequences pushing your savings goal so use a lot of the soviet union was the biggest youth political disaster of the twentieth century i seized on that road and in that assessment led him or putin is not alone older many russians began enjoying freedoms never imagined in the u.s.s.r. sixty percent still believe the collapse did more harm than good twenty years on russians still seem undecided over how to treat of the legacy of the u.s.s.r. in moscow most soviet names have long been a race from the streets and people's memories but some symbols of the parts stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades never happened this morning a man to work or and go who wasn't so took six years some thirty million dollars to restore but even the government would consider taking down what is among the most

famous unofficial symbols of the u.s.s.r. . and strong worker and a portly collective farmer were a symbol of prosperity and stability in a country with a planned economy everyone knew they would be provided with their metaphorical hammer and sickle and knew exactly how much to produce with them. nineteen ninety one changed all that the post soviet economies were shattered their deficits skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years of soviet union there was a possibility before for your you know to continue with i don't for a terror political regime but to liberalize the economy and the market in the same way as authorities. but among the political elite many didn't want to support the drive to modernize and in turn save the union instead they wanted to destroy it and

during that descent many republics were plunged into ethnic violence after gaining independence. when it was clear union was falling apart it seems as though you have national minorities started writing a blanket to their side by the time the order was relatively and he did self-assertive ringing and applies here into its territory similar ethnic clashes between armenia and azerbaijan claimed the lives of over thirty thousand people one thousand people were killed in the transnistria conflict russia remains on a peacekeeping mission there at least a thousand people were killed in a post breakup clashes between georgia and south the search here and over one hundred thousand were displaced into g q stan the consequences were the worst sixty thousand killed and over a million people displaced even mosco itself didn't feel secure after the fall of the berlin wall the world bricked a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato set about creating

a new wall made of me sells the allies steadily moved towards russia incorporating former soviet republics but leaving most out of europe's new security framework the west broke a number of promises to russia often russia could have expected that there wouldn't be a nato expansion that. russia itself. join nato will become . a new system of european. collective security the feel of the us says sorry put an end to the cold war era a fundamental shift in global geopolitics with just a few now calling the shots and without a paul full counterweight today's world remains from secure sixteen the great children r t. four is interested in your opinion today we're asking what you think of the what the collapse of the u.s.s.r. meant for the world log on to r.t.

dot com have your say your latest online poll right now thirty eight percent say you would have been good if nato had collapsed along with it that it left the u.s. unchecked comes second less than a fifth are convinced that communism offered hope for a better future and a minority taking the opposite view saying the world is better off without the evil empire those numbers are there for now you can change them by participating in the vote while you're there you can check on other stories that we have a click away. how flashing dollar bills could give you a bad rap the latest security advice in the u.s. says that paying with cash could brand someone a terrorist suspect plus. performance of russian carroll's classical favorites and folk songs at the kennedy center in washington played by russia's renowned your old philharmonic orchestra.

and then take a look back at the major events that shaped the year two thousand and eleven through the eyes of the correspondents covering them today focusing on japan's earthquake and tsunami that killed more than ten thousand and caused explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant raising worldwide fears of an atomic disaster are better off flecks on his experience reporting from japan in the hours following the tragedy. covering the earthquake and tsunami in japan was very difficult because i was actually on my own the camera man and producing the visas so they had to wait and i went with a flip camera a laptop when i was there i got a satellite phone and so on the road i was trying to do lives whenever i could set

up a satellite phone trying get a link. and only when i actually got there that was when i fully understood the full force of the tsunami i didn't i didn't appreciate that until i actually saw the sea of debris left. and i remember actually one point standing up that the lap to want on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road and just being dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience definitely. to begin with very strange if you were in a building suddenly you. could feel yourself shaking slightly and it was difficult to walk in a straight line for about thirty seconds and gradually these three days i actually got used to the tremors the strange as that sounds suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film a stand up. and the police and the emergency workers suddenly just like the sound

seeing. it was all in jack things but i could understand there was the you can see the fear and panic and also they were shouting and tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car is another news crew there chanting and then to get back into the garden and go in and as fast as possible because there was this. and there's a threat of another that another tsunami there'd been a tremor the tide it receded and they thought another tsunami was coming so and in those moments when. we were racing in land as fast as we could weaving our way in between all the debris. a member looking around and thinking hang on a minute there's no shelter here. what it was he was destroyed in the previous tsunami and there's no high ground and the only way we're going to be safe is to actually. beat the water. i had to take

a taxi to sendai from tokyo it took about ten hours because all the transport links were down arrived in the middle of the night no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center and and this was inside the local government offices and there are people there who just lost everything all they had were the clothes on their bank whatever positions they had with them at the time the earthquake struck and clearly their houses have been destroyed and they will all they had been in the relief center was was a cardboard sheet of cardboard to lie on and i spend one not one night there i was pretty unbearable because it was very cold and there's very little food around and one thing they were rations for being with all they had was just a cucumber and a slice of bread so that was that was one meal actually. on top of this was also the fear of radiation because the situation to be seen was just going from bad to worse and i was always in my mind it was

a very real fear you could see. amongst everyone else also. there was in any visible panic it seemed like it wasn't in japanese culture to panic and such but more there was certainly fear this is a town over what i around halfway between tokyo and fukushima i'm still under fifty kilometers south of the nuclear power plant but already the radiation levels here over double that of those in tokyo began to mimic meeting one young fan. one young couple with a newborn baby actually just. i think a week old also been born to cover they before the before the earthquake and. the mother wasn't particularly well some of the she was very weak and obviously she wanted to stay put there from sendai that they had left they just didn't trust what the government was saying that the sister situation in fukushima was under control and they just wanted to get out they were heading heading to

a kid by whatever means possible. and then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and the different reactors in fukushima one morning they're having a very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared. so all the news crews were. just suddenly packed up and left and that really difficult for me was i was on my own i didn't have anyone else to consult. and i just realized at that point ok i've got to get out this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast you know ream like by that their bridges lie strewn all over the place here a wall collapsed over here elss of fallen down such as the force of the tsunami now this is also the point where we're going to turn back because big dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero. microsleep it's plain how obviously when i left japan. i feel great relief because covering the story being

very stressful i barely eat in on the nice legs but the story for me wasn't over though until when i was back in moscow. the next day i had to get to the hospital rooms checked for radiation and thankfully i was clear. every day up to up till the new year will bring you more personal reflections from our reporters on the scene at the events that molded the year in news two thousand and eleven and if you missed any then you can find them again on our web site r t dot com let's turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a suicide attackers killed at least seven people in iraq injured thirty two others by detonating a car bomb during the middle of morning rush hour bomber drove his vehicle into a security checkpoint outside the interior ministry five policemen are among the dead is after a series of bombings that killed at least seventy two people last week just a few days after u.s. troops pull out from iraq nobody has claimed responsibility yet but the suicide

attacks are a hallmark of al qaeda. the international community's condemned sunday's bomb attacks in nigeria that claimed at least thirty nine lives including children series of blasts happened outside churches and targeted worshipers during christmas prayers the militant islamic group boko haram has said it carried out the attacks they want to impose islamic sharia law across the country which is almost equally split between christians and muslims. south korea's former first lady leaves we hope is having a morning delegation to north korea to pay respects to the late leader kim jong il they've met his youngest son kim jong un who's been named as a successor the group is in pyongyang as part of a two day visit but are not representing the government the former first lady said in a statement she hoped the trip would help improve relations between the countries that remain technically at war the north korean leader kim jong il died from a heart attack almost ten days ago. i mean

she's up next with the latest business update stay with us. and there's you know welcome to business r.t. the destiny of the south stream project seems to be hanging on the outcome of russia's gas talks with ukraine gazprom c.e.o. alexei miller says the prospects for the pipeline are tied into the outcome of the ongoing energy dispute russia began the south stream project in order to secure the livery of gas to europe without having to go for ukraine that was after key have caused the transit disruption saying the cost of russian energy supplies was too high as the price talks have now got off the ground analysts say russia could cut the capacity of south stream or even stop the project completely betrayed comes to . christmas is over in most parts of the world but in russia the first of season has only just begun despite the debt concerns in europe and the u.s.

shoppers still aren't slowing down as many in the course are found out russian men are at the forefront of the seasonal spending extra for cancer. years leave as when the russians give gifts and this year they're going all out at least eighty one billion dollars will be spend this the and the fifth of that will go towards presents consumer spending is expected to increase by twenty eight percent and muscovites will withdraw twenty percent more cash than any of the month of the year that's about five hundred sixty dollars each if you are a russian woman then you can look forward to a particularly lavish gift as mandible spent twice as much ice or partners so what kind of gifts are we're looking at well the most popular items are expected to be alcohol then we have a choice and finally household appliances so not all that romantic on the

the christmas tree and the russians are not the only ones refusing to tighten their belts many experts had predicted americans and europeans would trim their spending but it's turned out to be a different story most surveys now suggest we will see an increase actually the average american is expected to spend up to twenty two percent more while in the u.k. some shops already seen an increase in sales more than last year but this may be because it's been such a tough year for ordinary working people now about the holiday season this year so feel that they have an excuse to finally spend some money on themselves and their loved ones. well stock traders are probably the ones rushing to malls right now is a quiet day while european traders are enjoying boxing day russian in this. trade gaining the most in four trading sessions that's on optimism the u.s. economy continues to recover helping boost global output rushing investors are

moving back into stocks now for safe haven assets like foreigners gold out of mining around one percent in the south. banks in the lead as buyback and b two b. both up more than one percent gazprom and other energy shares are also slightly higher. and so for now we will be back in fifty five minutes time with an update i'll see that join if. you're.

among the least explored areas. and untouched by money. surrounded by steep long. cave paintings on display for thousands of years. eastern science and beyond the tiger. come on t.v. . well the floods technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. witnesses. to history

in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . in two thousand and ten especially economic zone for industrial production was established in russia's somalia region with a total area of six hundred sixty ect as. its investors are granted exclusive tax and customs benefits which includes a five year exemption from property lands and transport taxes as well as an income tax reduction to fifteen point five percent. the special economic zone operates as a free customs zone which enables manufacturers to market their products in russia free of employ to tease the sim our region is he said is currently witnessing

a sewage infrastructure construction the somali region special economic zone promises exceptional opportunities for developing your business in russia will come to the small region for more information log on to invest in somalia are you. five thirty pm in moscow the zero r.t. headlines dozens of new civilian deaths reported in syria as the arab league gears up to monitor the implementation of a peace plan but hundreds of mercenaries from abroad are allegedly fighting for asian change there and the u.n. estimates more than five thousand civilians have been killed in syria since march while the regime claims its fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad. led shifting to the east pakistan with an eye on the future of forges fresh ties.