stude free. old free broadcast quality video for your media projects free video done to r t dot com. the observers arrive the arab league's team reaches syria's most troubled city admit reports that government tanks are pulling out. three years since israel waged a deadly assault on gaza the palestinian still struggling with its legacy turn to the courts to make amends. in our series about twenty eleventh's most significant events our correspondent shares her personal experience of explaining who is bringing the changes a little bit russia. hello midnite now here in moscow you're watching r t with me kevin oh in our top story

activists say tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of syria's third largest city of homs apparently bolden by the arab league observers visit to the country the city which has seen some of the fiercest battles between state and opposition was indeed the monitors first destination it's reported that government tanks were withdrawn from the area after around thirty people were killed in the latest violence there the fact finding team plans to assess the real situation and ensure that president assad's compliance with a regional plan to end the bloodshed happens but there are doubts too over the mission's impartiality. the have to investigate activities of the free syrian army these are mercenaries in the sector it's all our arm right outside volves it is outside powers are basically from qatar and the emirates and we all the arab league which is now called troll bait did she see the gulf cooperation council interesting . themselves in this case we still don't know i think going to investigate need to

call truly to call and senator said out in the near the border between turkey and syria he skinned the room which is very across the border basically from a little let's see two hours are you going to investigate there are they going to go first against shipment smuggling weapons by the jordanian syrian border we still don't know but it's a tall order for the area each call caesar in their ease or not is directly democracy is they're investigating one of their all but they're also implicated in the whole big picture pepe escobar they talked a bit earlier with the claim that the syrian opposition is being backed by extremist fighters and shared by foreign journalists working on the ground and later this hour we hear from a french reporter who exposed the rest through eye witnesses.

i think that all be the action to destabilize the country. we see a lot of people killed but this is not the civil war quite told us they want to interweave throwing troops inside leg. or using proxy from the gulf can see. the problem because the scum please read before. but in a putin pledges the government will do everything possible to ensure transparency in the upcoming presidential election promises said exactly in his best interest as a candidate it is no telling of a cover has more about that announcement as well as other developments in the russian world of top level politics. russian prime minister said that the upcoming elections for the country's dub job should be transparent in order to achieve that i didn't want to suggest that the talks should be held with the country's

opposition to hear out their suggestions on how to achieve that transparency but it was suggested that the internet should be used as a platform for such talks where people can freely express their opinions about it and of course this comes after opposition protests which took place after sunday's parliamentary elections when tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of moscow demanding to know there is also all the actions you can do and you're going to misstate the species but i just i want to stress that we're the first who need the transparency because we need to be sure that people supporters of course there are forces to which it's not the development that's important of the turmoil of course they have their rights but the problem is that they have neither a united programs nor means of reaching their goals and that they just want to deal it just reminds the election that's the problem today when the new was in motion. convulsive russian president and the country's prime minister say that they are

happy to see the faces of the opposition and to hear them out however according to which in opposition members are not doing much for now but protesting against the newly poor and violent meanwhile the architecture of the country's political system is already changing presidents need to be disappointed with the sloughs too cool to be the country's deputy prime minister so the man is now out of the kremlin and he is known to be the chief strategist although the current insurance policies russia that is just one of the ideas suggested by presidents of a different how to achieve the country's political system you'll see just the number of storms which will make it easier for political parties to take part in the elections and who are the presidential candidates to also participate in the elections. over there in a few minutes on our back and some of the most significant events in russian

politics twenty eleven see our correspondents first on the oppression as part of our new year's series of reports. this is. history making. two thousand and eleven. very shortly next the palace to use in besieged markings three years now since israel's fighter jets to attack them but operation lasted twenty two days it cost almost fifteen hundred lives entire families were wiped out and for some the battle rages on only now it's in a courtroom. a judge is unusual not because he laid a claim against the israelis but because he won victory though is bittersweet. i'm a broken man the israelis say their army has morals what morals are they talking about

. it was december two thousand and eight for three weeks israeli soldiers bombed the gaza strip killing nearly one and a half thousand palestinians four out of five were civilians at the same time hundreds of rockets fell on southern israel killing three israeli civilians. i couldn't get to my home for sixteen days because the israeli soldiers were firing all the time as soon as they left i went down inside on the walls the soldiers had written you'll find the bodies fifty meters away i found the body of my brother buried in the sand and the body of my sister much to cover with some bricks. celera took his case to the palestinian center for human rights in a precedent setting move they secured an out of court settlement with the israeli military it took satellites and weeks to achieve the bodies of his mother and sister because of continued fighting in the area these women military said this made the face if you know they feel justified in what they said sally was saved

just under one hundred fifty thousand dollars compensation. if someone loses his leg or his hand up or is killed or injured all the money in the world is not enough but what we're fighting for here is a financial compensation that will offer some relief. the palestinian center for human rights has more than two hundred cases exile is on its books but the heavy paperwork bureaucracy and expenses discourages many others from coming forward this man however is a rare exception he filed a claim three years ago and is still awaiting a response today. i thought. it was early morning there was showing in the apartment a bomb was on fire i want out side with my hands up in the ear the soldiers told me to pull off my shirt and trousers i did with a suit but the funny rocket i would behind me my mother had been blown apart i recognized her by the ears of my two year old daughter my father my aunts my cousin

my entire family was killed at that moment but convincing israeli authorities their compensation is due can be a major obstacle before you which will be ready for the operation far according to the israeli case law. if leave their factor for. the state will be exempt from. whether saddle up will have judges case will help other palestinians is not yet clear these really army is also said it's opened an investigation into what happened but so far no indictment against any israeli soldier has been filed policy r.t. . iran has threatened to blow all shipments through one of the world's busiest waterways if the west applies fresh sanctions against it you know and cement came from the country's vice president as is maybe a war games near the crucial straits of hormuz dr mohammed around the from the university of tehran told me it would be foolish she thinks for the us to push for such measures. i think any act of hostility against iran and that's basically

what an oil embargo would be. would force iran to take retaliatory measures and that would indeed create a very difficult situation globally because that would mean the halt of oil exports from the middle east the iranians are quite capable of closing the strait of hormuz and i think that the americans know that quite well iran's defense capabilities are are very different from what they were ten fifteen twenty years ago and the iranians of course hope that the americans don't. act foolishly but they're american do seem to be having in a very irrational manner and dragging the region towards a very dangerous situation just take a moment like you know of course if you missed any of those stories on our web site as well and a lot more as well plus it's the festive period because some heartwarming holiday treats too like this just take a look at these pictures. that you go. to told you know only to be

aware of this little bear this cute little cubs already captured millions of hogs easy to see why certainly why is this small anyway not sure what it be like to get bigger we'll tell you why he's big and reared in denmark instead of getting in the arctic stuff you. are toast in space festivities are above our heads at the international space station as the crew prepares to see it not one new year but sixteen even chaps waving back at you. as eurozone nation sinking of a deeper in debt crisis the u.k. treasuries working on a contingency plan now apparently for the single currency's collapse the proposal includes introduced. capital control measures as well as closing the country's

borders and even evacuating ex-pats and tourists from affected countries robert oulds is president of the bruges group of campaigners against excess unification in europe he told me that many nations would in fact benefit if the eurozone was to collapse while the european leaders are trying to shore up the eurozone by having great agrees of centralization and more having countries like france and germany have the final say in a sense over the budgets of those e.u. member states that have excessive budget deficit but that really isn't the answer to the problems wilts really needed as either a massive injection of cash into countries like greece and italy to shore up their economies to be talking in the trillions of euros that's what one option of course another option would have cost to recognize that the single currency has hurt competitiveness in many nations of the eurozone and has damaged economic growth meaning that the economies can't grow their way out of the debt crisis that they're

in and they're just in this debt spiral and having deeper austerity measures forced upon them. the u.k. based center for economics and business research has given russia an optimistic forecast for its future standing in the world's biggest economies by twenty twenty according to the group it will rise from its current number nine position to take up the fourth spot i spoke to international consultant to north adrian so what she told me these predictions though are very likely to come true. i believe that all these forecasts are worth in a way well what everybody anyone wants to really make out of them because it's very they normally just base themselves on certain economic data and then project our forecasts into the future i wouldn't be surprised if the european economy is in for a very long spell of trouble and no doubt the russian economy because not only its economic basis but because of its geo political potential of being such a large country having such vast natural resources our country like russia can do

nothing but improve it into the future as long as a series of correct policies are in place and more of it beyond any criticism one can do to the circumstantial government russia has kept it so aloof of this parasitic global banking and financial system so probably russia as other countries throughout the region may be in the i'm definitely china and even some qualities in latin america have good potential because of the very fact that they are keeping away to some great tips there from the global financial system and because these countries themselves especially the case of russia have huge natural potential that they will have to do is tap into it and naturally the economy will then follow in a rising manner. if you watch the shows ago you may recall that brought use developing news story breaking news in fact at the time but a massive earthquake to reach the magnitude of almost seven in southern siberia near the russian mongolian border earlier on tonight we can give you

a few more updates on that now the epicenter was in a sparsely populated area there is a man according to preliminary reports by russia's emergency ministry still no casualties reported but shocks were followed hundreds of kilometers away in some of the region's major cities such was the power of this quake communication networks know kristie supplies in the area have been severely affected workers at nearby coal mines are also being brought to the surface now just in case of more shocks it's a story with even a close eye on tonight earthquake up to six point seven six point six six point seven close enough to seven on the richter scale earlier on tonight on the map as you can see it there of course in japan a much more damaging earthquake in march this year caused the worst nuclear accident in twenty five years the fukushima crisis and investigation has now found that the worst of the problems were done to the plant's operators being ill prepared and not responding properly to the disaster professor christopher busby scientific secretary to the european committee on radiation risks he told us he

believes the reporters left many questions unanswered. i don't think. that this inquiry has gone far enough because there are lots of questions that they haven't asked and there are lots of questions that still haven't been answered in the most important one is has to do with the health effects of the contamination. it's kind of assumed that everybody knows that these health effects are not going to be serious but just like i said before the health effects will be very much more serious than anyone is saying now and i can tell you that it will probably be in some years time another story which will show that i'm right and this is really sad because actually if they did concede that there was a big problem then people could be could be moved out and other other activities could take place which would ensure that fewer people got sick than are going to so really this is quite a criminal and i would hope that eventually somebody would be brought to justice or at least they should be some court case about it it's extremely unlikely that the

that these reactors are in what they call cold shutdown i mean i think this is discourse manipulation. very recently xenon being released from those those plants and the xenon isotopes have sufficiently short lives for us to know that fissioning is still taking place in those reactors professor chris of a busby there from the european committee on radiation risks and if you remember our coverage then significant coverage we gave to this story we spoke to him a lot and he had an uncanny an eerie way of predicting kind of what was going to happen in the next coming hours you know what he's talking about right so let's focus lex now on the most significant events in the buildup to this year's do relation here in russia as part of our series revisiting the key events of twenty eleven artie's in this in our cover those developments for us mainly she shares her experience next of the outgoing year in russian politics.

well i think that day it became clear that russian politics are changing and lots of people say that russian modern politics are stagnant that they're predicting bold but nobody that day expected that announcement to be made yes people expected there was speculation that they would run for president twenty but no one expected it as early as september. the first ten that this congress that united russia wasn't going to be as simple as just the platform for the duma lections being announced was glazier putin and. entering the hall on time exactly when it was supposed to start together and that's when the atmosphere inside the hall kind of changed everyone thousands of people at the same time you could feel the energy going something's going to happen today. first to come up on stage was putin and he made the big announcement which no one expected that he

believes that top of the list for the dumas elections in december. after that everyone thought ok that's it this is the big news we felt something in the air that something was going to happen and now it's been announced to me three major major of will be part of united russia if you will be the list that was in it. and then of course you have saying that he believes that. should run for president in twenty twelve and there was just this uproar explosion of applause at least certainly in united russia people there i think were genuinely surprised like i said no one expected this to come today they thought they were coming to hear what their plans for the dumas elections were. the elections this year. were a big deal first of all because. clearly united. has lost popularity and the ironic thing is you have people who referred to the vote to demonstrate how

much they popularity but then also refer to the same exact vote saying that it was falsified so how can you refer to a vote that you don't think was real to demonstrate this kind of popularity think this was an interesting to thing to me as a journalist covering the elections. so we have a lot of western publications and networks referring to this popularity fall for united russia which certainly you can feel it happened a lot of people i think went out to vote against united russia it's not a secret that the opposition in russia for twenty years hasn't really been able to get it together you have these figures like journal. who are very well known and and they're part of that whole stagnation because they've been around for years but you don't have any real opposition and i think that's what this young generation these so-called hipsters that that are part of social networking and are on twitter and facebook and trying to be part of politics that's what they came out to vote

they really came out to vote to send a message to united russia and that became very clear that. you know two thousand and seven it was some sixty four percent and it's just under fifty percent this time around so clearly united russia has a lot of work to do in this became very visible in these elections also course in the protests that we're seeing straight after the elections on monday we saw people come out to choose to prove that which is not very far from the from the kremlin thousands of people opposition members were arrested the interesting part about being in moscow at this time is to see how many different networks cover it differently you have. russian state television only covering it when it gets really big you have western media covering any little meeting that happens in the center of moscow many times exaggerating the situation. and then the saturday after the election you really had it's fair to say day in

russia you had tens of thousands of people who came out to my square just around the corner from the kremlin it was the same protest some fifteen thousand people is the most common number we have all the figures do vary depending on who you ask peacefully protesting for fair elections and you had the riot police and officials just letting them do their thing and their symbol really i think a really strong example of this where these white flowers or these white ribbons and there's pictures of actual riot police holding these flowers and it was certainly a feeling that day for me that it's such an interesting time to be in russia and i'm glad to be someone. that can work on all of these stories and cover elections and cover protests and that kind of be really in the thick of it here in moscow not a far telling the story about russia from outside of russia but being in the center of it all. there every day brought

a new year was set to bring your personal view for more of a team of international correspondents who brought you some of the biggest news stories it was turned out to be a very big news here twenty eleven if you missed any of it as well it's on our website. we're talking to syria next talks to a french journalist who's been reporting from the country throughout the conflict and now shows his first impressions of what's really happening there.

as the conflict in syria continues it's been extremely hard to establish exactly what's been happening here inside the country we're joined now by independent journalist the airiness sun thank you very much for joining us now you've been working on the ground here in syria can you tell us where your perceptions of the situation are to begin we have some groups entering inside the country and making big problems trying to quit. or it's the border first. and various people. recruit some of the two to make. fighting groups and no way of entering in coordination with the political opposition or to miscount to a very. long history of opposition between the bass party invite muslim brotherhood

so no reason that i didn't speak to in this. groups coming from abroad so that's why this groups come in go quite everywhere because they have some support and inside the population begin by. frayne subversion but they find a support inside become. in the difficult to know why very friendly support if it's because people is ready to use any means to reverse for government or if it's. for some ideological reasons and if you were muslim brothers they said the very reverse. president bashar said not because they want democracy but because he's. so it could be the beginning of

a religious war inside the country and you're also on the ground during the war in libya in what ways did you draw comparisons to the situation that's happening now in syria so the way it works for me too is exactly the same be do exactly the same way to create the file on the united nations first two with virgin of a council on human rights and after the security council they try to manipulate we are rubber league exactly in the same way in the libyan case they organize a big story in front of vision of a concern for human rights they say there is five thousand people killed by security forces of course it's absolute zero on the base a lot of people killed but very few by the security forces most of them killed by this armor groups they put inside the cold how do you see the situation progressing now first. i think that all

be the action to destabilize the country are not working we see a lot of problems a lot of people killed but this is not a civil war great way to organize if they want to enter with foreign troops inside like be doing leiby are or using proxy from the gulf council i think they will. very problem. because base country is ready for battle love this country is leaving soon sixty years in the middle east with that will not likely be you know on the economic level there is big problems the beginning of a sanctions destroy different parts of the economy of course all the tourism is totally destroyed but during the winter you have the more fuel. there is so also a problem with. different imported goods. but. i

think this. is no changing because varies new agreements between syria. and china or that so wait why no to impose. sanctions. it could be. his country but to rediscover a quickly able to. stomach and disaster for the orbitals arrived countries around so often stuck because centuries so. very long time to be. thanks very much for joining us.

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