see 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 a broader allegedly fighting for regime change that. shifting to the east now pakistan with an eye on the future forges fresh ties with china after last month's deadly drone attack shattered its already tense relations with the u.s. and other blessing or a curse it's twenty years now since the fall of the u.s.s.r. where opinion is still split about whether breaking up the union was the best choice for its people.

live from moscow you're watching r.t. or welcome to it's nine pm here now my name's kevin know in our top story activists in syria claim twenty seven civilians have been killed by government troops over the past day it comes as 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 ends 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 confirmed revolutionaries from another arab country say they are willing to fight for regime change in syria artie's xander boyko reports from feel libya. 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 claim of the biggest game in the uk the city of. other cities. yeah

you can make it a lot of people in the city. 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. and our people such as syria these are just life on the subject 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 part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know what if we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of allah we will make sure that what happened in libya

will repeat itself in syria the libyan mother with the portraits of shaky borrow now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli is some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. 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 dia of exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a buoyant marketplace for soldiers of fortune they move from one revolution to another motivated by personal gain some by conviction all others by the venture if i put out in the vision of freedom and for now it is the freedom to live by the gun . as your mantic 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 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. 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 a militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratic leader who according to r.t. stores this 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 appreciate it comes to lead and be will and if we 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 hired 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 its new and no less bloody chapter in the wake of artsy tripoli. well 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 arms gangs invested of journalist terry most are thinks foreign mercenaries are to blame for many of the deaths on both sides. they say there is 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 most of them are.

they put inside the cold and with the saying on the roofs they use in maybe you know you work with some different divisions between six and good people coming from libya who are now in syria especially the military go around the off tripoli libya is no in turkey to organize all the fight and they're due to tripoli which was the people from my kid no responsible for the security people it and they are you know all of them inside syria in the same spanish reporter was first in libya recognized here in inside at the top of this so-called free syrian army but. coming your way later this hour disastrous chain reaction. suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film the sound. and the police and the

emergency workers suddenly just like the sound seeing noise and it was all in japanese but i could understand there was the you can see the fear panic and also they were shouting tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car one of our team of international correspondents i would ban it looks back at the risk see had it take while reporting from japan ravaged by the more power of nature . pakistan facing a crisis in its relations with the united states appears to be seeking more support now from another powerful ally china ties with america have been all but severed following last month's deadly drone attack by the u.s. military and this year's raid to kill osama bin ladin without islam about its knowledge of the pakistani president is now firming up the country's friendship. beijing holding talks with chinese officials last week just a change a professor of political science at hong kong city university told us the two countries have an important cooperative partnership that allows pakistan to counterbalance its relationship with the united states. pakistan has been

beaching spece of the history of the people's republic of china increasingly pakistan has has a certain strategic value to china certainly as for your nor pakistan's relations with the united states are in difficulties because of the nato attack on military outposts last month and washington d.c. we feel has to deliver the kind of policy. the pakistani government and at the same time it is very significant that 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 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 sign 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 or so. or much project christmas is coming out of the west but in russia the big goal of the season is still to come let's cross to a business test to see how spending is being affected by the world's biggest country. well but russians are going to be spending twenty eight percent more than they did last year and the all together we will see sixteen a billion dollars spent on presents alone and whole of a related spending will amount to eighty one billion dollars i'll have more details were you on that around fifteen minutes. a day to celebrate for some one to commiserate for others it's now twenty years since the soviet union was

dissolved. the fall of communist rule ended the cold war and created more than a dozen new nations but spot economic hardship and regional conflicts. even today many generate their own explanations for all the global below but some putting it down to the role of just. ok for two reasons gorbachev and. 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 fetal crack in the soviet union it was over 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 i mean all the billions and billions and billions 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 save your school so using the collapse of the soviet union it was the biggest geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century it was on that road and in that assessment led him or putin is not alone older many russians beginning joining 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 past stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades never happened this one human to worker and go who wasn't so took six years some thirty million dollars to risk. or

not even the government would consider taking down what is among the most famous unofficial symbols of the u.s.s.r. . a strong worker and a quirky collective farmer were a symbol for spare a chance to billet 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 saw that economies were shattered their deficit skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years i saw you can 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 and the market in the same way as the charge. but among the police believe that many didn't want to support the tribe 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 a true gaining independence. when it was clear the union was falling apart it seems for you and the national minorities started writing a blanket to their side but there was at that time the georgia vastly included self-assertive and of 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 trans nice trick 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 most fear itself didn't feel secure after the fall of the girl in both the world bricked a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato said about create. a new wall

made of missiles the airlines 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 would perhaps even join nato or become part of 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 pulse floor counterweight today's world remains far from secure exceeding the great chill that our team let's get. a big story began in verse three always interested to know your opinion especially by this one today that's what we're

asking you on our website do you think the collapse of the u.s. . what you think it meant for the world look on our web site r.t. dot com to have your say this is what you're telling us. well this is a little fear of you it was for you said last hour it's thirty nine percent now think it was good if nato collapsed with it so over a quarter of you still think that left us unchecked the view that communism offered hope for a better future is still coming further than an even smaller number of you know take the opposite view saying that we're better off without the quote evil empire you can influence those figures yourself by heading to our tea dot com accustomed to might be doing these stories. about flashing dollar bills could give you a bad rep the latest security advice in the united states says that paying with cash could brand you a terrorist suspect also. see forms of russian character carroll's classical favor and some folks on. at the

kennedy center in washington played by russia's renowned ural for the morning. let's take a look back now at some more 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 he's either bennett now reflects on his experience reporting from japan in the hours just after the tragedy .

covering the earthquake and tsunami in japan which was very difficult because i was actually on my own the camera man and producing even fees. 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. turn over i could set up a satellite phone trying get a link. and then 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 see you every lengths. and i remember actually at one point setting up the laptop on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road and just think dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience there. to begin with a very strange if you're in a building suddenly. you feel yourself shaking slightly and it's difficult to walk

in a straight line for about thirty seconds and. these three days i actually got used to the tram as 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 saw me just a sound saying. 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 chanting and then to get back into the car and go in and as fast as possible because there was this. as the threat of another another tsunami there'd been a tremor the tide it receded 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 destroyed in the previous

tsunami and there's no high ground and the only 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 and this was inside the local government offices and no 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 there were rations put in wood all they had was just a cucumber and

a slice bread of. that was those one male actually. on top of this is 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 can see it. amongst everyone else also. there was in any visible panic scene like it wasn't 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 the government meeting one young family 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 this is 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 in a different reactors in in fukushima one morning the happening very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared. so all the news crews were. just on the 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 their bridges lie strewn all over the place here the walls collapsed over here elss of fallen down such as the force of the tsunami now this is all. so

the ball we're going to turn back because big dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's played how obviously when i left the pan. i felt great relief because covering the story being very stressful i barely eat 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 thankfully i was clear. i've abandoned one of our correspondents every day and when you bring you more personal reflections from our team who reported on the events that molded the news of twenty eleven if any of them you try to catch up again with as well the on our website streaming whatever you want to see about r.t. dot com we bring up today the world news headlines a brief suicide attackers killed at least seven people in a racket injured thirty two others by detonating

a car bomb in the middle of the morning rush hour the bomber drove his vehicle into the security checkpoint outside the interior ministry five policemen were among the dead now is claimed responsibility yet but suicide attacks are a whole 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 u.s. troops. international communities condemned sunday's bomb attacks in nigeria that 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 or cross the country which is split almost equally between christians and muslims. south korea's former first lady the whole is heading a mourning delegation the north korea to pay respects to the late leader kim jong il they met his youngest son kim jong il the news be named as his successor the groups in pyongyang as part of a two day visit but they're not representing the government the host said in

a. it meant that she hoped the trip would help improve relations between the two countries which are technically still a war the north korean leader died from a heart attack almost ten days ago. you're watching r t o's war news most twenty four seven on our website r.t. dot com as mentioned catch up with the london eye business next. 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 that's according to gas from c.e.o. alexei miller russia began the gas pipeline project in order to secure delivery 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 as a price talks and now got off the ground and the say russia could cut the capacity of south stream or even abandon the project altogether if ukraine comes to agree to

. the reform. signaled he's ready for compromises and can even sacrifice key projects if it goes from gets direct participation in ukraine's guest transit network so the stream will no longer be a priority partly because there will be no need for it so i don't think they will stop the project straight away what are the chances of it being realized with full significantly reaching out christmas is over most part of the world in russia the first of season has only just begun despite concerns in europe and the us shoppers still aren't slowing down and as many in the course of found out russian man are at the forefront of the seasonal spending extravaganza. 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 christmas tree and 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 it seems traders were busy shopping today very thin volumes of trade european traders of course enjoying boxing day but russian and the c's saw some gains actually the best gave them food three sessions more than one percent loss and optimism the u.s. economy will continue to recover healthy horrible output. in russia moving back into stocks that will save haven asses like police called room decline while doing chips were higher banks were among the biggest gains by gaining one point eight percent and i just want. to do some other stories now briefly russia's super high capital outflows mostly driven by local firms paying off debts so according to deputy finance minister sergei he says repayments accounted for

half the cash left the economy this year the country's central bank has raised the forecast for capital outflow in twenty eleven several times the latest estimate standing at eighty five billion. dollars caucus is a step closer to welcoming more guest says russia and france register a joint venture to develop with region to build five world class he was also created for free hundred thousand jobs by twenty twenty first though the money is needed from backers hope to bring in between fifteen and twenty billion euros to make the project a reality. and financially stricken cyprus will get the first tranche of a credit package from russia before the year's flu country agreed at the weekend to take two and a half billion years from moscow to support its economy it's a price waterhouse coopers calculates that around fifteen percent of the cypresses g.d.p. comes from foreign companies using vi and doesn't offer shows a majority of the firms are affiliated with russia. headlines an excellent.

wealthy british.