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battles between state and opposition was indeed the monitors first destination it's reported that government tanks were withdrawn from the area after thirty people were killed in the latest violence there the fact finding team plans to assess the real situation and ensure that president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 two of the missions impartiality they have to investigate the activities of the free syrian army these are mercenaries in the shakhtar it's all are armed by outside powers then these outside borrowers are basically from qatar and the emirates and we all the arab

league which is now called to all the way did she see the gulf cooperation council interesting get themselves in this case we still don't know are they going to investigate the need to call truly call and senator said out in the near the border between turkey and syria in the skin there room which is very across the border basically from aleppo let's see two hours are you going to investigate that you are really going to hurt us against shipment smuggling weapons by the journey in syria on board we still don't look good it's a tall order for the area each call caesar in that these are no it is directly democracies they are investigating one of their all but they're also implicated in the whole big picture. pepe escobar they talk to me but with the claim that the syrian opposition is being backed by extremist fighters is shared by foreign journalists working on the ground and later this hour we hear from a french reporter who exposed the unrest through eyewitnesses.

i think that all be reaction to destabilize the country are not working we see a lot of people killed but this is not the civil war quite all. they want to interweave throwing troops inside maybe doing libya or using proxy from a good concept the very problem because this currently is ready for battle. but in a putin pledges the government will do everything possible to ensure transparency in the upcoming presidential election the promises said it's actually in his best interest as a candid it out 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 dob job should be transparent in order to achieve that

budget would have suggested that talks should be held where the country's opposition to hear out their suggestions on how to achieve that transparency but it was suggested that the incident 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 the country's parliamentary elections when tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of moscow demanding to know the results of their actions you can they go on your question mr president i want to stress that we're the first who need the transparency because we need to be sure that people support us of course there are forces to which it's not the development that is important but 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 for them that they just want to deal it just reminds the election that's the problem today was more than. in both

service and presidents 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 reports in opposition members are not doing much for now but protesting against the newly formed moment meanwhile the architecture of the country's political system is already changing presidents meet 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's known to be the chief strategist all over the current internal policies over russia that is just one of the ideas suggested by presidents with a different how to achieve the country's political system you all suggested a number of reforms which would make it easier for political parties to take part in the elections and who are the presidential candidates to also participate in the

elections telling overcover there in a few minutes on our back in some of the most significant events in russian politics twenty year eleven see our correspondents first time impressions as part of our pretty new year's series of reports. witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . very shortly next the palace to use a besieged gaza or markings three years now since israel sent tanks and 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. explains. judge is unusual not because he laid a claim against the israelis but because he won victory though is bittersweet with

the 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 for all to five were civilians at the same time hundreds of rockets fell on southern israel killing three israeli civilians and the government couldn't get to my home for sixteen days because the israeli soldiers were firing all the time so 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. took his case to the palestinian center for human rights in a president sitting moves they secured and out of court settlement with the israeli military it took satellites and weeks to achieve the bodies of his mother and sister because of continue fighting in the area these women military said this made

the case itself and they feel justified the way 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 like salaries 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 it was early morning there was showing in the apartment above was on fire i want out so i with my hands up in the ear the soldiers told me to pull off my shirt and trousers i did with a suit but they find a 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 that compensation is due can be a major obstacle there for you is what the military operation far according to the israeli case law. if leave their sector for. then 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 is threatening to blow all shipments through one of the world's busiest waterways if the west applies fresh sanctions against it the announcement came from the country's vice president there's maybe a war games near the crucial straits of hormuz and dr mohammed around the from the

university of tehran told me it would be foolish she thinks for the u.s. 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 americans do seem to be hating 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 miss any of those stories it's all a 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. well there you go r. i told you no need to be aware of this little bear this cute little cubs already captured millions of hearts easy to see why certainly what is this small anyway not sure what it be like to get bigger we'll tell you why his big hand reared in denmark instead of getting an arctic start. to toast in space festivities are above our heads at the international space station as the crew prepares to see it and not one new year but sixteen even chaps waving back at you. as eurozone nations sink ever deeper into crisis the u.k. treasury is working on

a contingency plan now apparently for the single currencies collapse the proposal includes introducing 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 campaign is against excess unification in europe he told me that many nations would in fact benefit if the eurozone was to collapse. well 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 bitit 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 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 spade of trouble and no doubt the russian economy because not of 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 into the future as long as a series of correct policies are in place and more about it beyond any criticism one can do to circumstantial governments 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 stead from the global financial system and because these countries themselves especially in 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 a few hours ago you may recall that brought use developing news story breaking news in fact at the time but a massive earthquake the magnitude of almost seven in southern siberia near the

russian mongolian border earlier on tonight we give you a few more updates on that now the epicenter was in a sparsely populated area there it is on the map 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. 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 down 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 risk c 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 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 also 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 there 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 on being released from those those plants and the xenon isotopes have sufficiently short half life for us to know that fissioning is still taking place in those reactors professor christopher 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 and 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 so next now on the most significant events in the buildup to this year's do relection here in russia as part of our series revisiting the key events of twenty eleven artie's in less than hour 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 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 two but no one expected it as early as september. the first ten that this congress of united russia wasn't going to be as simple as just the platform for the duma lections being announced was lazy or putin and to meet the demands of 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 their energy going something's going to happen today. first to

come up on stage was lead singer putin and he made the big announcement which no one expected but he believes that top of the list for the duma lections 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 minutes of age of will be part of united russia if you believe the list that was in it. and then of course you have to meet three men to do saying that he believes that putin 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 russia 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 are 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 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 they lost. 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 historic day in russia you had tens of thousands of people who came out to buy a lot in a square just around the corner from the kremlin it was the same protest some fifty thousand people is the most common number we have on 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 these white flowers are 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 they can they can work on all of these stories and cover elections and cover protests and that kind of be really in particular 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 up the 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 two of the eleven if you missed any of it as well it's on our web site or to dot com. we're talking to syria next he talks to a french journalist who's been reporting from the country throughout the conflict no 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 with some groups entering inside the country. making big problems trying to quit islamic emirates the border first in nevada. and various people. recruits some of us to to make bigger fighting groups and no way of entering in coordination with the political opposition or to discount to

a very. long history of opposition between very spotty invade muslim brotherhood so no reason that i didn't speak to in this. groups coming from abroad so that's why these groups come in go quite everywhere because b. of some support now inside the population begin by. frayne subversion but they find a support inside the country. difficult to know why they find the support if it's because people is ready to use any means to reverse the government or if it's. for some ideological reasons and if you are the muslim brothers they said the very reverse. prism bashar said not

because they want democracy but because he's a low it so it could be the beginning of a religious war inside the country they were 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 so we've version 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 who 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 it they want to enter with foreign troops inside like be doing libya or using proxy from the gulf council i think they really are. very the problem. because base country is ready for battle love is countries leaving nine hundred sixty years in the middle east who is at war was not likely to know on the economic level of those big problems the beginning of a sanctions destroy different part of the economy of course all the tourism is totally destroyed but during the winter you have more fuel.

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. just to his country but they discover very quickly the truth of your suit is a stomach of the best hope for your goals arrived countries around so they have to stop because centuries so no. tories east's very long time to be. pushing from the top thanks very much for joining us.

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market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report. live from on. this is our top stories tonight the observers the rive the arab league syria's most problem city now amid reports that government tanks are pulling out. fair and clear prime minister putin promises transparency in the upcoming presidential election after a series of mass protests against alleged for the parliamentary vote. and three years since israel waged a deadly assault on gaza the palestinian still struggling with its legacy turned to the.