you're watching our team tonight dozens of new civilian deaths are 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 we've got a report coming up. shifting to the east pakistan with an eye on the future forges fresh ties with china after last month's deadly drone attack shattered it's already tense relations with the u.s. . on a blessing or a curse it's twenty years now since the fall of the u.s.s.r. well in the still split and whether breaking up the union was the best choice for its people.

live from moscow you're watching r t it's eight pm here now my name is kevin know him and first activists in syria claim twenty seven civilians have been killed by government troops over the past twenty four hours this comes as the primary team of arab league observers is due to arrive in the country their mission is to implement a peace intended to ensure the regime ends its crackdown on the opposition damascus tonight he's committing atrocities saying it's fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad and while that's yet to be independently confirmed the evolutionary some other arab countries say that they are willing to fight for regime change in syria artes of son of a report from post gadhafi would be. a butcher and a dad me the owner of this keep up shop in tripoli still undecided what the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. is a limit the biggest game in the world not the syria. other syria.

you get they killed a lot of the people in syria. out of somebody. 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 please i'll just let it go only this soldier we have only 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 tripoli residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of these young men who looked on the channeling 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 belong to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world and it seems that che guevara's idea of exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a boy and marketplace for soldiers of fortune the mobile one revolution to another some motivated by personal gain some by conviction all there is by the venture if i put out all in the vision of the great them and for now at least is the freedom to live by the gun. as a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with

mercenaries may not be such a genuine move 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 neighbors who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country they are from libya they're 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. a big hiking but hodge one of the leaders of chippewa militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratically bear who according to r.t. store says not a group of several hundred libyan rebels to syria just last month. we can do in who

to support the syrian people because we are they are facing the sea situation as before and. it comes to lead been the wood and if you could see why the syrian people who need to get their freedom i think we should do it the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region little is the rulers hired 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 wake of our tripoli. pakistan facing a crisis in its relations with the us appears to be seeking more support from another powerful ally china. ties with america have been all but severed following last month's deadly drone attack by the us military and the shias raid to kill a suburb in love without islam about its knowledge of pakistani presidents now firming up the country's friendship with beijing holding talks with chinese officials last week joseph chairing

a professor of political science at hong kong city university told us the two countries have an important co-operative partnership that allows pakistan that counterbalance its relationship with the united states well pakistan has been beaching spece from the history of the people's republic of china increasingly pakistan. has a certain strategic value to china certainly as for your no pakistan's relations with the united states are in difficulties because of the nato attack on is a military outpost last month and washington d.c. refused to deliver the kind of policy in london just any government and at the same time it is very significant and the top chinese diplomat when he was in pakistan he met the president the prime minister the army chief of staff arguably the most powerful so. stan as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the head

of the interservice us intelligence so is seems fair china would be would have been ours 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 numbly play a certain mediating role between the military and of government and certainly tensions between the tool have been high in the recent year of soul was to worry about bridging this growing global influence talk to columnist in china expert francesco c. she's joining us on the line to just go to see it tonight thanks for being on r.t. if urso start with the big news of the week that the chinese you are ahead an all time high in trade against the dollar a monday in those sales expected to rise further out there how much is that helping china's global economic influence as we had no into twenty twelve. well.

it is in theory helping china but china north that in the long term it sit in. possible to sustain it take konami growth. so i am more on domestic consumption and the francesco more fully sorry i know you can we can hear you very well we've got a problem with the line on your skype per line there we'll try to get back to bit later so we got a better connection so about our francesco ok let's move on. a day to celebrate for some and one to commiserate for others it is twenty years since the soviet union was dissolved the fall of communist rule ended the cold war in created more than a dozen nations but sparked economic hardship and regional conflicts artie's a country to groucho over reports. even today many generate their own explanations for the full of

a global goliath but some putting it down to the role of just a few. ok for two reasons. 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 very sudden and shocking i mean there were people even months before who were shoring us that this was going to go on forever. all the billions and billions and billions of us and put 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 really just a little bit 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 while soviet names have long been a race from the streets and people's memories but some symbols of the past stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades never happened this morning amount of work or so took six years some thirty million dollars to restore not 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 where 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 nine hundred 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 a soviet union there was a possibility before to solve your you know to continue with a no for terror and political regime but to liberalize the economy in the market in the same way as the charge. 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 union was falling apart it seems as though you have national minorities started writing

a blanket to their side but it was about time your job properly and you did self-assertive and apprise your interests 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 word 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 bricked a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato set about creating a new wall made of me sells the alliance 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 often russia could have expected that they wouldn't . nato expansion that. russia. would perhaps even join nato or become. a new system of european. collective security the full of the years the saarc put an end to the called war era forever a fundamental shift in global geopolitics with just a few now calling the shots and without a powerful counterweight today's world remains far from secure in the great children our team. because i was interested to hear your opinion today we're asking what you think of the collapse of the u.s.s.r. and what it meant for the world on our website that's the very question we're asking you can have your say there in our latest web poll this is what you're telling us. for this hour forty percent of you say it would have been good if they took a collapse with a majority opinion about

a quarter of you think quote it left the u.s. unchecked also that communism offered a hope for a better future that's coming in third and then there's a minority so far taking the opposite view that quote we're better off without the evil empire over the numbers for now change them go online you can cast your vote one of their online as well you might be interested to check out these stories to. how flushing dollar bills could give you the latest security advice in the united states says that paying with cash could brand you a terrorist suspect that's an interesting twist to find out more also. see a performance of russian carroll's classical favorites. at the kennedy center in washington played by russia's renowned. struck.

exactly eight fifty moscow time world news no in brief a suicide attack has killed at least seven people in iraq and injured thirty two others by detonating a car bomb in the morning rush the bomber drove his vehicle into a security checkpoint outside the interior ministry five policemen remain with dead no words claimed responsibility yet but suicide attacks are all mark of al qaeda in iraq it follows a series of bombings that killed at least seventy two people last week just a few days after the u.s. troop pullout. the national community has condemned sunday's bomb attacks in nigeria which claimed at least thirty nine lives including children a series of blasts took place outside churches and targeted worshipers during christmas day prayers the militant islamist group boko haram said it carried out the attacks the group wants to impose islamic sharia law cross a country that is split and the tween kristie that muslims. korea's former first

lady leave the whole is heading to a morning delegation from north korea to pay respects to the lately there kim jong il they've met his youngest son kim jong un has been named as isn't has is successor the group is in pyongyang as part of a two day visit but they're not representing the government he hauler said in a statement she hoped the trip would help improve relations between the two countries which are technically still at war the north korean leader died from a heart attack almost ten days ago. let's take a look back now at the major events of twenty eleven through the eyes of our correspondents who covered them today we focus on japan's earthquake and tsunami that killed over ten thousand and caused explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant raising worldwide fears of an atomic disaster artie's arbella it reflects on his experience reporting from japan in the hours just after the tragedy.

covering the. earthquake and tsunami in japan was very difficult because i was actually on my own the cameraman 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 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 you every left. and i remember actually at one point setting up the lamp to want on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road just been dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience definitely. to begin with very strange if you are

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 as strange as that sounds suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film the sound up. and the police and the emergency workers saw me just a sound saying. it was all in jack things but i could understand there was the 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 and then to get back into the car and and go in and as fast as possible because there was this. as a threat of another another tsunami there'd been a tremor the tide proceeded and they thought another tsunami was coming so and then in those moments when we were 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 just. jordan the previous tsunami 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 though 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 the seat 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 one of their 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 the situation to sheen was just going from bad to worse and i was always in my mind it was a very real fear you could see it. amongst everyone else also. there wasn't any visible panic scene like it was in japanese culture to panic and such but more there was certainly fear this is a town of our war i around halfway between tokyo and fukushima i'm still one hundred 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 family one young couple with a newborn baby actually just. i think

a week old also been born a couple of days 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 but they left they just didn't trust what the government was saying that this is true situation in fukushima was under control and they just wanted to get out they were heading heading to turkey by whatever means possible. then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and different reactors in in fukushima one morning the happening 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've got to get out this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast norene like by that there are bridges lystra

you know all over the place here so walls 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 the dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's clear how obviously when i left japan. i feel great relief because kareena story's been very stressful by bending the chin on the nice legs but the story for me wasn't over 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. there were every day up until the new year would bring any more personal reflections from our own correspondents on the events that most of the news of twenty eleven brought stories there's anything you missed as well you can catch my website r.t. dot com. well back here shortly

a fourteen year old russian girl breaks another powerlifting record nazis correspondent learns how to protect his microphone at night kido said when a disaster i'm told was averted as holy roman support bulletin around twenty minutes after but the business well. known welcome to the program the destiny of the soon project seems to be hanging on the outcome of russia's a gas talks with ukraine that's according to gazprom c.e.o. alexei miller who said that russia begad the south stream project in order to secure delivery of gas to europe without having to go through ukraine that was after key have caused a transit disruption saying the cost of russian energy supplies was too high as the prize talks of now got off the ground analysts say russia could cut the capacity of south korea or even abandon the project altogether ukraine comes to agree.

christmas is 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 as our correspondent in the course of doubt russian men are at the forefront of the seasonal spending extra figure. year's eve 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 center 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 as their 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 traders are probably in shopping centers today in moscow as european traders are enjoying box a day so it's a day off most of them brushing the seas however in

a very thin trading volumes were gaining ground the most in four trading sessions are some optimism the u.s. economy will continue to recover helping to school well put so the aussies myself gave more than one percent russia investors need moving back into stocks and therefore safe haven assets like polly's gold are in decline one of the blue chips one higher bank saw in the lead was bank up one point take the sentiment gasper mother and you shares with us again. we watch other stories now russia is a super high capital outflows mostly driven by local firms paying off debts devotee finance ministers are based out of shot says repayments accounted for hoffa cash that left the economy this year the country's central bank has raised the forecast for capital in twenty levon several times let's just let's stand by. russia's caucus is a step closer to welcoming more guests as russia and france register a joint venture to develop tourism in the region plans to build five local ski

resorts and create over for a hundred thousand jobs there by twenty twenty first of the money's needed back is help to bring industry fifteen or twenty billion years my project real. and financially stricken so i promise we'll get the first tranche of a credit package from russia before the rules were country agreed at the weekend to take to help lead years from moscow to support its economy or it's a price waterhouse coopers calculates that around fifteen percent of cyprus is g.d.p. is from foreign companies using view island does not show finance at george v. of a bridge that therefore united with russia. and so for now the headlines are next with cabin do stay with r.t. if you can.

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the old. science technology innovation called the it's developments around russia we've dumped a few jerks covered. if . russia would be so much writer if you knew.