again more than one percent of the best session in four will tell you more about that in twenty minutes in business. seven 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 or the last day this is a primary team of arab league observers due to arrive in the country the mission is to implement a peace plan intended to ensure the regime end 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 states say they are willing to fight for a change in syria or to sex on a boy who reports from post gadhafi libya. a butcher my dad me the

owner of the ski pop shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. such as it is a chemical that begins in the in the water that the syria. mother in syria. you can't 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 tie color but they have very firm on where the revolutionary support should and we don't want to see it here and it's all just we have. and our people such as syria he said just like on the subject we have gone we have enough but i think 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

adrenaline and willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of allah we will make sure that what happened in libya repeat itself in syria. the portraits of shaky bar are now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. war with the help of we can all be like 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 the venture if i put out a vision of freedom and for now at least in the freedom to leave by the gun. as

your mantic 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 who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country or 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 in our man's freedom fighter but for the united states it's now one of the 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 libyan rebels to syria just last month. we can do anything to support the syrian people because we know they are facing the same situation as before and. it comes to be when. i think. the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard them for centuries a save gars against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenaries in the middle east has got to this new and no less bloody chapter in the art sea 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 foreign mercenaries made me to blame for deaths on both sides they say delays five thousand people killed.

by security forces of course it's absolutely. there is a lot of people killed but very few by the security forces will still be in my. groups they put inside the car but the same they use the media and no you will raise some difference to the regime between six and the people coming from libya well now in syria especially at the immediate area go around the off people below is now in turkey to organize all the fight and they're due to tripoli big which was the people from like no responsible for the security people that are now they are you know all of the inside syria and the. spanish reporter was first in libya recognized them here in the inside of the top of beasts the so-called free. syrian army but let's hear him. still to come this hour disastrous chain reaction.

suddenly there was there was panic calls outside of the car about to film the sound . and the police and the emergency workers suddenly just on the sound seeing. things all injective things but i could understand those that you can see the fia an internal so they were seen so you know mean literally yelling in my face to get back into the car. party's international correspondent i have better looking back at the risk you face 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 another 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 his lot of bads knowledge pakistani the pakistani

president now forming up the country's relationship with beijing holding talks with chinese officials last week joseph chang a professor of political science at hong kong city university says the two countries have an important cooperative partnership allowing pakistan to counterbalance its relationship with the u.s. . 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 we all know pakistan's relations with the united states in difficulties because of the nato attack on is military post last month and the washington d.c. the feels to deliver kind of policy defy the pakistani government and at the same time it is very significant that the top chinese 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 staff and the head of the into services intelligence so it seems that china would be would have been asked to give more military aid to pakistan to balance against the weakening ties between pakistan and the united states and it's also possible that time number they play a certain mediating role between the military and the government and certainly tensions between the tool have been high in the recent year or so. it's a day for some to celebrate and others commiserate twenty years since the soviet union was dissolved the fall of communist rule ended the cold war created more than a dozen new nations but also sparked economic hardship and some regional conflicts artie's a catarina gretsch over as more. 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 bitch of jokes. 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 savior to go so use

a lot of the soviet union was the biggest your political disaster of the twentieth century. and in that assessment let 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 crisp air a chance to billeted 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 saw that economies were shattered their deficits skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years the soviet union there was a possibility before this or you're going to continue with i don't for terror and political regime but to liberalize the economy in the market in the same way as the chinese. 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 or before when it was clear the union was falling apart it seems for you and the national minorities started rocking the blanket to their side but it was at that time the georgia votes really included self-assertive and apprise year

into its territories 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 mostly with self didn't feel secure after the fall of the berlin wall the world gripped a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato said about creating a new wall made of me so the allies steadily move 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 offing russia could have expected that there

wouldn't be a nato expansion that. russia itself. she joined nato become a you know a new system of european. click to secure if you the feel of the u.s. 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 to paul full counterweight today's world remains far from secure exceedingly great childre r.t.e. . was interested in your opinion today we're asking what you think what do you think the collapse of the u.s.s.r. meant for the world log on to our website r.t. dot com take part in our latest web poll for this hour for your first sentence say it would have the collapse would have been good if nato had collapsed wrong with it more than a quarter of you think it left us unchecked some think that communism offered hope

for a better future that's coming in third and a minority so far taking the opposite view about the same about saying that the world is better off without the evil empire those the numbers for now you can go online cast your vote at r.t. dot com the wire there you can check out many other stories that are 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 you a terror suspect and. performance of russian carroll's classical favorites in focus songs at the kennedy center in washington played by russia's renowned year old philharmonic orchestra. taking a look back now at the major events that shaped the year through the eyes of our

reporters covering them today the focus is on japan's earthquake and tsunami that killed more than ten thousand caused explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant raising the worldwide specter of atomic disaster or he's ever better reflect on his experience reporting from japan in the hours following the tragedy. covering the earthquake and tsunami in japan was 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 and got a satellite phone and so on the road i was trying to do live 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 the every left. and i remember actually at one point setting up the lab 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 over 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 standup. 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 there's no news crew there the shouting at them and get back in the car and go inland as fast as possible because there was this. as the threat of another another tsunami there'd been a tremor the tide proceed in and they thought another tsunami was coming so and then in those moments when. racing inland as fast as we could weaving our way in between all the day every. 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 to about ten hours because all the transport links were down arrived in the middle of the nights no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center and this was inside the local government offices and they were

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 the 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 spent one not one night that i was pretty unbearable because it was very cold and there's very little food around one there were rations but people would 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 a war i around half way 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 are going to make meeting one young fan. one young couple with a newborn baby actually just. i think a week old also been born to cover the 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 turkey by whatever means possible. but then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and the different reactors in fukushima one morning by having

a very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared. so all the news crews were. to 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'm going to get out this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast norene 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 this is also the point where we're going to turn back because the dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's plain how obviously when i left japan. i felt great relief because covering the story being very stressful i barely eaten up any sleds 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.

remember every day up till the new year we'll be bringing you more personal reflections from our correspondents in the field on the events that shaped the news in this year and if you missed me then you can always catch them again our web site r t com let's turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a suicide bomber has killed at least seven people in iraq injured thirty two others by detonating a car full of explosives in the middle of morning rush hour he drove his vehicle into a security checkpoint outside the interior ministry five police men among the dead this after a series of bombings that killed at least seventy two people last week just a few days after the u.s. troops pull out no one claimed responsibility yet but suicide attacks are a hallmark of al qaeda in iraq. international communities condemned sunday's bombings in nigeria that claimed at least thirty nine lives including children the blast took place outside of churches and targeted christmas day worshippers the

militant islamist group boko haram said it carried out the attacks the group wants to impose strict sharia law across the country which is split almost equally between christians and muslims. and south korea's former first lady leaves we hope he's heading a morning delegation to the north 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 to groups in pyongyang as part of a two day visit but are not representing the south as government former first lady said in a statement she hoped the trip would help improve ties between the two countries which are technically still a war the north korean leader died from a heart attack nearly ten days ago i'll be back with headlines after the latest business news with dmitri stay with us. hello and welcome to the program the destiny of the south stream project seems to be hanging on the outcome of russia's gas talks with ukraine that's according to

gazprom c.e.o. alexei miller russia began the south stream project in order to secure the livery of gas to europe without having to go through ukraine that was after key of course transit disruptions saying the cost of russian energy supplies was too high and 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 altogether if ukraine comes to agreeable to. christmas may be over in most parts of the world but in russia the first of season has only just begun despite their concerns in europe and the u.s. shoppers still aren't slowing down and there's marina costa found out russian men are at the forefront of the seasonal spending extra they get. here is 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 sand bar and a 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 madame boll 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 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 seeing 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. second to the markets while european traders were enjoying boxing day russian izzy's were gaining the most in the four trading sessions as my six and up more than one percent on optimism the u.s. economy will continue to recover helping to boost level output now russia investors are indeed moving back into stocks therefore safe haven assets like pull his gold out of the game sit down one. percent but blue chips were high as burbank or one of the top gainers of point eight percent in gas from among other energy shares was. losing bricks now despite the lingering global financial uncertainty russia's still aiming to attract

a further five percent more foreign investment in twenty twelve presidential way that i got a call which says he expects investors to start bringing their cash in the second quarter of next year investment in russia grew around twelve percent this year but most of the money was short term credit which should doesn't provide fundamental support to be on. russia's caucus is a step closer to welcoming more gas as russia and france registered a joint venture to develop tourism in the region plans to build five world class ski resorts and create over three hundred thousand jobs by twenty twenty first so the money is needed back as hoped to bring in between fifteen and twenty billion euros to make the project a reality. financially stricken cyprus will get the first tranche of a credit package from russia before the year's through the country agreed of the weekend to take two and a half billion euros from moscow to support its economy order pricewaterhouse coopers calculates the around fifteen percent of cyprus is g.d.p.

is from foreign companies using the i'll does an offshore finance center majority of the firms are actually affiliated with russia. as often as the headlines are next with. culture is that so much now lot of people are curious more than a little more of

a difference of twenty years ago in historic event time from the soviet union came to an end and with it the conclusion of the cold war what is the soviet union's. move to. the beyond. the bank. if the be. wealthy british style it's

a small town to its clients might go. back to their. markets why not coming. find out what's really happening to the global economy in kahn's a report on r g. seven thirty pm in moscow these iraqi 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 regime change there the u.n. estimates more than five thousand civilians killed in syria since march but the regime claims its fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad. shifting to the east of pakistan with an eye to the future of forging fresh ties with china as its u.s. relation.