the arab league's mission arrives in syria in the most troubled city of homs amid reports of government tanks withdrawing. fair and clear prime minister putin promises transparency in the upcoming presidential vote his announcement comes amid a reshuffle with the kremlin's top strategist taking up a new post in the government. north korea is preparing to finally lay its labor leader to rest today the funeral services start off and going on with hundreds of thousands expected.

thank you so much for being with us on karen taraji six o'clock here in moscow we go now to your top story at the moment tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets and serious third largest city of homes demanding international protection the city which has seen some of the fiercest battles between state and opposition was the first destination for the arab league's monitoring team that began its work in syria this week government tanks have now reportedly been pulled out of the area the observers mission is to assess the situation in the country and ensure president assad's compliance with a regional plan to end and the bloodshed but as journalist pipe escobar says there are doubts over the mission's impartiality. did you just against juventus of the free syrian army these are mercenaries and defectors all are armed why all the sudden the followers of these outside followers are basically from qatar and the emirates and leading the arab league which is the local intrigue like the jesus.

the gulf cooperation council exists to get themselves in this case we still don't know are they going to investigators need to call truly to call and center set up in the uk near the border between syria keep them syria in the skin their room which is very across the border basically from a little less in two hours than are you going to investigate that you are really going to incur first against shipment smuggling weapons by the jordanian syrian border who still don't know the good it's a tall order for the arab league season that of these are not exactly democracies they're investigating one of the they're all but they're also implicated in the big picture russia's prime minister vladimir putin pledges to ensure a transparent and fair presidential race in march two thousand and twelve as announcement comes amid a reshuffle at the top with the leading kremlin straight he just taking up a new post in the government in the wake of all reports. russian prime minister

said that the upcoming elections for the country's dubbed job should be transparent in order to achieve that i didn't want to suggest that the 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 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 the country's parliamentary elections when tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of moscow demanding to know there is out of the elections you could go to or you're going to misstate be species but as it is who 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'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 they just want to deal of the

election that's the problem today when the new was most. involves the 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 the puts and opposition members are not doing much for now but protesting against the new leader who are inspiring women 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's known to be the chief strategist all of. the current internal boise's over russia that is just one of the ideas suggested by presidents of a different how to change the country's political system you also suggested a number of resources 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 later in the program are to recall some of the most significant events of russian politics in two thousand and eleven so your correspondence is first hand impressions as part of our series of end of your reports. lots of people say that russian modern politics are stagnant that are predictable but nobody that day expected that announcement to be made yes people expected and there was speculation that he would run for president twenty but no one expected it as early as september . this is. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven. and has been three years since israel began the gaza offensive and the twenty two day long operation around fifteen hundred people were killed for those who lived the battle still rages on but in

a different kind of battlefield artie's polis lawyer has more. 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 because really sitting there all means morals. 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. so

later took his case to the palestinian center for human rights in a precedent setting move they secured and out of court settlement with the israeli military it took seligson 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 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 on its books but the heavy paperwork bureaucracy and expenses discourages many others from coming forward this man however is a rare exception he folded claim three years ago and is still awaiting a response today. it was early morning there was showing

in the apartment above was on fire i want out side with my hands up and here the soldiers told me to pull off my shirt and trousers i did what they said 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 and therefore. a flow. for. then the state will be exempt from. whether some 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. r.t. . informative critical and analytical r.t.

is available for you twenty four hours a day on air and online check out our website at r t dot com waiting there for you right now. aiming high russia is on its way to joining the world's top five economies by two thousand and twenty plus. underwear under wraps there will be no panties in the public eye and it's back to stand by now why women have to buy their more delicate garments under the counter. thank you for being with us just nine minutes past the hour north korea is finally laying their late leader to rest with today funeral services starting off and beyond hundreds of thousands are expected to attend the memorial the ruler son kim jong un has been appointed successor but very little is really known about them

artes maria the national went back to school to uncover more about the man who has big shoes to step into. the death of the north korean dictator has raised questions and types over whether the dictatorship one of the last in the world will follow or will this extremely close society remain isolated and you leader to so little is known about the late leaders great successor his third and youngest son. is a bit of a dark course even his age remains is subject of speculation he's thought to be twenty seven or twenty eight his new ascension to power increases the media hunger for information about him so his expensive education in switzerland suddenly tracked it's a lot more interest. an entrepreneur in moscow with russian origins alexander how good she believes he could have been one of kim's classmates when you spread that

kim charlie may have gone to an elite school in this week's margins in the late ninety's the business man brought out his all the book to refresh his memory there were quite a few koreans some quieter than others. with the last name came. as kim is the most common name in korea's alexander remembers the koreans always different from all the students they were very disciplined they were very disciplined as a group of students. very serious for their interaction. they wouldn't always take part in. fun and games at the other students were very hard studying to be top class they didn't like to do although some think the c's leaders son may be a figurehead overshadowed by his recently promoted uncle who is thought to wield the real power when xander says the three years china has apparently spent in

europe may change the country's future forever but i think. it will make them realize that he has to do something good for his people first country. and make a change in terms of. past experience his knowledge of foreign languages and the skills that he managed to do it in being able the outside world used to get most of the news from behind north korea's iron curtain through the country's strictly censored state run media covering the life of the secrets of society from the inside has been an almost impossible task for international journalists but the details now emerging about the new leader is exposure to the liberal west or for a glimmer of hope that he may ease bag the rigid control over the two terran regime and begin to open north korea to the world and maybe the war old to north korea.

r.t. . now for more on this so we are joined by journalist eric margolis eric thank you for being with us we know that after the death of kim il sung in one thousand nine hundred four north korea descended into a prolonged state of mourning how will the country survive this leader's death. well the morning is the ceremonial it's folkloric you know it's very much part of confucian culture the leader of the country is reviewed as the national father and everyone is expected to mourn extensively earth for the departed leader we see this is south korean society and to to a lesser degree but is that it's very formalistic if people don't more sleep get into trouble well as morning has gone on there are poor women that's going on behind the scenes in the leadership. and for the moment what we seem to know is that young kim jong il in ears in fact has been selected by not only

his late father but by the party the power circles in beyond the army of the communist party to be the de facto ruler de jure a ruler a void any kind of power struggle because that would be the north koreans a disaster that could result in the collapse of the states and you just mentioned kim jong un with selected he was groomed for the top job and certainly appears to have taken over the reins of power but is he really the one in control. well there's good speculation that is his uncle is and some other members of the family are kind of pulling his strings but i think more important is the one point one million man north korean army for the good father announced. before he died well over a year ago now says the new policy of militarize ation of north korea as it was insufficiently militarized. the whole country is it's really as the quote frederick

the great it's an army disguised as a country. and that's what's happened to this great and the son military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms because this means cutting spending on the military and military so powerful it's well fed it has all the prerequisites and good position so does the communist party so that they will be a force against change rather than for. in your recent article you mentioned the total collapse of the north korean state why do you think that's possible and what ultimately could be the consequences every time i go to north korea and talked to said in south korea and south korean strategists they tell me that one of the their greatest fears is what they call unexpected reunification and that means of the north collapses and millions maybe twenty million starving desperate north korean suddenly flood south of girls do move through as zoe grab wraps and go to japan

looking for food shelter and safety it is some korea would be destroyed by this it would be their own human tsunami they could deal with it they don't have the money they're not rich like the germans so they could absorb east germany and they would be in desperate straits so from the south korean border view while they took the wonders of reunification and really they're very happy not to have or even to pick asian the least nineteen citizens and their hope is that north korea can gradually improve its economy so that when the day does come that they won't be starving desperate situation there but it's not now erick what about north korea's controversial nuclear program is there a possibility it could now change course. i don't see why the north koreans would need to build any more nuclear weapons and they have these weapons really are for defensive purposes and spy wall the noise about them threatening the world they're designed to prevent an attack on north korea and have been accepted with such by

both china and i believe russia. what will happen is the missiles nuclear weapons will stay put unless the north korean government collapses and then its neighbors may decide to launch an attack to try and destroy them short of that really the status quo is preferred by the whole neighborhood japan does not want to see a united in korea. south korea is not so sure about that north koreans many of them support the present communist regime and don't want to change and china is vitally interested in maintaining a friendly korea that protects its more than flank and manchuria so the idea of united korea scares as many people as the idea of a collapsing korea does eric margolis war correspondent and columnist thank you so much for being with us eric. now to continue our series revisiting some of the

twenty eleventh's most significant events through the eyes of the r.t. correspondents who covered them and he said now i was in moscow for the parliamentary elections and gives her view on how the world of russian politics has changed over the last year. well i think that day it became clear that russian politics are changing lots of people say that russian modern politics are stagnant and 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 in twenty two but no one expected it as early as september. the first ten that this congress and united russia wasn't going to be as simple as just the platform for

the duma lections being announced was lazy 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 their 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. will be part of united russia he will be the list that was in it. and then of course you have to me 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 russia has lost popularity and the ironic thing is you have people who referred to the vote to demonstrate how much they use 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. 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 hipster is 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 they lost. you know in 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 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. you had tens of thousands of people who came out to both my square just around the corner from the kremlin it was the same some protest some fifty 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 have the riot police and officials just letting them do their thing in 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. 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. was a need for now every day right up to the new year will bring you more personal reflections from our team of international correspondents on the landmark events that dominated the headlines of two thousand and eleven and in case you've missed any they're available to watch right now on r t dot com. after spending twelve days in the ice prison the patched up russian fishing boat sparta is finally headed to safety as courted by south korean icebreaker ara it has set its course to new zealand for final repairs the vessel with thirty two people on board hit underwater ice and tore its haul off the coast of antarctica on the sixteenth of december the

trawler tilted to one side and the crew had to throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship in order to raise the breach in the hole above the water line and is now expected to clear the ice path within the next eight hours. we return to syria next as our team talks to a french journalist who's been reporting from the country throughout the conflict and shares his firsthand 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 area miss so 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 inside become three.

making big problems. to quit slimmy commemorates one of the border first in jordan. and various people. recruit some of us to to make bigger fighting groups and no way of entering in coordination with the political opposition and never to discount to a very. long history of opposition between the spotty invade muslim brotherhood saw 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 we have some support and inside the population begin by. fray in subversion but they find a support inside becomes. difficult to know why they find this report

if it's because the people is ready to use any means to reverse for government or if it's. for some ideological reasons and if you were the 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 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 to work for me too is exactly the same they 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 absolutely 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 on the military level. i think that all b. reaction 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 based country is ready for battle glorious country is

leaving since sixty years in the middle east who is that will not likely be no on the economic level there is big problems the beginning of a sanctions destroy different part of the economy of course or the tourism is totally destroyed but during the winter you have more fuel. also a problem will. different imported goods. but. i think this. is no changing because very is new agreements between syria iran and china or that so great why no to impose. sanctions. it could be i needs us to always come clean but to grade school right quick people tend to be

absolute disaster victims just before the overalls arrived countries around so they often stop because centuries so. syria is able to resist a very long time to be. patient from the top thanks very much for joining us. live. fan.