plus. people became very draconian jaring nice times very stilted repressive and they would have supported the government to bring in the army to the problem out of you know the special series of reports on twenty seven's main events we bring you our correspondents inside into the five days of summer riots in britain. well news and much more this is our table straight to our top story this hour fresh israeli air strikes have reportedly left one palestinian dead and injured several others in gaza earlier the israeli military confirmed this preparing for a possible large scale attack on gaza is three years since around fourteen hundred palestinians were killed during a three week long offensive. joins us live now with more on this paula why is israel stepping up its rhetoric now. well for several days now the israeli

gaza border has been tense on monday four palestinians were killed and several others were injured in a series of targeted strikes carried out by the israeli air force at the same time and number of rockets were fired by palestinian militants into southern israel now last night wednesday evening the israeli defense force did confirm that it is preparing a large scale military operation in gaza it says that operation will be varied and different to the last operation that was carried out there three years ago what we're hearing is that the purpose of this operation will be to in hans is ready to terence now we are receiving reports that khaled mashal who is a massive political bureau chief has called for all attacks on israeli civilians to be halted this comes in light of the recently conciliation deal that was signed between wyvil palestinian faction groups amass and fattah in cairo and this would be because of fear of

a massive israeli retaliation. but how do you see the situation developing the talent compared to what we saw three years ago. will this tuesday marked three weeks since marked three years since the last israeli operation in gaza that israelis referred to as operation cast lead that operation lasted about three weeks nearly one and a half thousand palestinians were killed four out of five of them were civilians what we hearing from the israeli army this time around is that this operation will be much shorter and the israelis will employ much greater use of fire power but certainly it is still too soon to say what will happen. ok for now lottie's policy reporting from jerusalem thank you. the arab league monitoring mission in syria is now heading to the city of hama a focal point of the standoff between protesters and the army reports have emerged

that on wednesday six people were killed there a fresh outbreak of violence because it comes after observer said they found the situation in the flashpoint city of homs ensured author and middle east expert terry talley who's in london doubts if we observe additional bring and results obviously the syrians lived in them only it is to show that they had nothing to hide. thinking they'd find nothing but the arab league has been one of the most amazing asians in the arab world for a long long time doing nothing as starry doing nothing to prevent the war in iraq and it's being used as an engineer by the west so i don't take the arab league as such too seriously so we shall see what happens of it. but he spoke exclusively to russia's u.n. ambassador he said carrying out promised reforms may be too difficult for the assad regime as it's essentially involved in a civil war with extremists who version is coming up next down to his

a pretty. we believe that there has been there are been some extremely troubling reports coming out of syria about excessive use of force by the authorities but also telling that everybody must put pressure on on the destructive elements of the of the opposition or various destructive elements which may have found their way into syria that they are of violent acts are not going to be condoned by the international community this is a this is a key to finding a peaceful way out of the situation some reforms were now. some of them pretty far reaching like changing the constitution and getting rid of the. political monopoly of one party even under normal circumstances in any country worms of such magnitude are not easy to implement all that in a situation where. there is an armed conflict being encouraged from various

quarters when we see weapons being moved. illegally into syria all that of course becomes a theoretical conversation. libya is heading into the new year is a completely new country with new leaders and new hopes but turns out as the immediate post of addition excitement fades the different factions of former rebels turning on each other they become a star competition for power that is looks on a voyage to reports. flying high but still running low almost two months after the lifting of a no fly zone over tripoli the city's airport operates far below its capacity the passenger traffic keeps increasing every month as more and more airlines a putting tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with visitors a feller's have already within service and more expected to follow in the coming

months but while flight controllers and customs officials are back of their desks it's still the militia who call the shots here and the rebels themselves admit that the situation is still way to trouble and to cede control to civilian authorities they're no longer flashing their guns to get make it very clear who is in control here the rebel brigades from the western cd of his entire captured the airport in late august as the rebels over on the capital the control of this key facility how the town with the population of some fifty thousand rise to national prominence since then does in time militia have successfully styled itself as the state guards of libya's future. for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one insane person. now we have a historic mission to overcome the difficulties of the transitional period we can build a new country and that. is one of the top guns in tripoli

these days primarily a colonel in the good af is army he still keeps the good office army cap in his office his subordinates are now holding the deposed libyan leader's son safe will islam. we are against any dictator of history repeats itself we will wage a war we will let the rule of law decide his fate. didn't ghazi zintan misrata these libyan c.d.'s one after another rose against gadhafi as we've seen. them militias now represent and the real axis of power in the country is their very soon their legacy and agendas as this tribes on the only base new tricolor the prospect of civil war in libya is always there and it always has been there but it has been effectively mastered by the very strong centralized rule of the gadhafi regime but of course now that that has been the stabilized we see this

all of the tensions there in the fabric of libyan society coming to the fore another militia commander in charge of tripoli rebels is preparing for an interview it's been a month since he changed his military fatigues for a business suit abdullah maker is now trying to transform rebels into his command into a political force a laptop has replace their drive pull as his main tool internet is his new front line of the armed assistant at his door is a sign that political process is still in its very early stages but. we've seen many examples in the past when people's revolutions were stolen and we are very clear that our struggle is far from over you know he may still come back in some other shape or form and in that case we'll have to take up our weapons and defend our revolution. guns are still a common side on the streets of tripoli have their problems has visibly decreased

the city's covered with posters calling on the rebels to turn them in the design element of militias has so far failed to translate into national reconciliation the competition among various brigades may have become less visible but not less in towns the nato alliance would like to build up. on any division within the groups or the parties that they have revolutionised against the qaddafi regime and according to my own understanding they would like to see certain provinces being divided inside the state of libya back in the arrival hall as in town rebels a screening passengers bags on to the posters laughed from the old regime to get out his golden framed portrait that maddest at the airport a year ago is gone hatred of him and have glued the libyan society for several months if he's killing the former units he appears to have died as well actually the work of art see tripoli. now coming up later in the program

a trip of a lifetime for told russia's oldest pilgrim who took a trip to mecca despite being more than a century old. and looking back at twenty eleven better start he examined the russian stock market their high and their lows in the business will then twenty minutes. hostility between washington and tehran is increasing with the u.s. saying it won't tolerate any potential closure of the strait of hormuz by iran earlier the islamic republic threatened to block oil shipments through the vital waterway if the west adopts sanctions against its petroleum exports senior iranian commander said the move will be easy to implement later while tehran conducts on precedented war games in waters near the strait us also maintains a naval presence in the persian gulf and says its waters will stop the iranians from blocking the passage and tehran has reportedly already detected an american

aircraft in the vicinity this will analyst chris bambery believes the west is putting world peace on the line and that stubbornness over sanctions. there americans could probably force using their military which in the govt would probably force open the straits of hormuz but that would mean war with iran and that would be a huge huge escalation and would threaten world peace and therefore i think the iranians are really challenging the americans sensing weakness we know that from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is egging all america to attack iran over the question of its nuclear program but i think again in a comparison with iraq in two thousand and three iran is in a much stronger position a reunion nationalism should not be should not be underestimated you know even important armitage about we rally to support iraq given. britain and america's history in iran there's a long history of unfortunate british and american intervention in iraq so i think

we're witnessing quite a dangerous escalation and it's the sanctions which the west the talk or importance of iran which is responsible for that situation developing i think we should be clear about that is the west who've racked up this situation every step. but he continues to bring you the main stories of twenty seven through the eyes of our international correspondents it's been a tough year for the u.k. which saw its worst an arrest in decades or several cities descended into riots looting an arson were smith witnessed five summer days of chaos. we first realized what a big story this was going to be on the night of the seventh of august that had been localized just says on saturday the six but we were tracking the news and we

literally couldn't believe what we were hearing we decided that this was a story that we had to go and. we went initially to the retail park and field where we couldn't see anything it was already dark it was quite late. and then all of a sudden out of the darkness came a group of around two hundred youths running across the retail park dressed mainly in black dark colors with hooded top so and so you couldn't see their faces and gradually we realized they were smashing everything that they could find. for me as a journalist it was an incredible story we were out on the streets every night wearing what i've come to call my riot gear a black white jackets with everything i need in the pocket so that i can get away quickly if necessary it's an uneasy relationship. these.

between the people who was the police i mean it's people say a manifestation oh. we really felt two of the nights got the whole of london was on fire. you would you would arrive assist us in an area and you'd be able to see the flames on the smoke rising from two streets away and know that the writers had set fire to a car or broken into a shop and set fire to it or even on one occasion they set fire to an enormous coffin. house. arrest grabs two different parts of love and we ground london following it as it happens. almost anywhere that you went in the mall areas of london that was some form of new say we went round and also days areas to have

a look at what was going on and there was streets that were just completely no go areas no certainly for ordinary people but it seemed for the police as well we were talking to the police and it was clear from what they were saying that they had no idea what to do about the situation they just didn't they want to do that we were looks of. they eventually settled on certainly for the two nights was. just to show that presence and then running away again really purely running away and it wasn't until the third or fourth night that they really got into game and elements of control. on the second off to noon we went to hackney west some of the worst unrest was taking place and it was literally shot down like who was a the police were not really less than anyone through they had surrounded the town center and when you go into the town we still people and just smashing into shops

and grabbing whatever they could. but not just young people adults as well. as darkness just. the other frightening thing was the effects that it had on society if you had talked to people two weeks before the riots about whether bringing in the middle military to take control of the streets was a good idea everybody would have said no it's quite a liberal society when you get down to it but the people i spoke to during the riots. and immediately after genuinely felt that bringing in the army would have been a good idea and that using water cannon on the streets of london and other cities would have would have sorted the proper about immediately so people became very draconian jaring those times very sort of repressive and they would have supported the government to bring in the army to sort the problem out. the studies are being

done now into why the riots happened and a variety of reasons have been put forward maybe it's to bad relationship with the police in these impoverished areas particularly amongst the black youth who say that they are stopped and searched by the police sometimes multiple times a day for having done nothing some people say that's because young people in england particularly feel that they have no prospects there's no jobs for them unemployment amongst young people is running at twenty five percent now they've got no hope for the future. those two things remain true and so therefore i see no reason why this kind of thing wouldn't happen again. when you report a lot test in the series just coming up tomorrow but if you missed any of them they're all available to watch right call. well looking at what else is making headlines around the world now we begin pyongyang in north korea.

huge crowds have gathered to pay tribute to kim jong il he marks the second day of a memorial for the late leader a day of mourning follows wednesday's funeral service led by kim jong il son and successor kim jong un thousands of people in tears lined the streets as they said their final farewell to the leader who'd been in power since one thousand nine hundred four following the death of his father. turkish air strikes have killed at least twenty three kurdish villages in the south east rocky border has proved a group was smuggling gas and sugar into the country from northern iraq may have been mistaken for rebels of the kurdistan workers party the groups considered a terrorist organization by and much of the international community clashes between kurdish rebels and the army have escalated after a deadly operation last october. in nigeria church leaders say the

christian community is losing confidence in the government's ability to protect them christians have described recent assaults as a declaration of war against them in nigeria as a whole and say don't respond appropriately to any future provocation it comes just after the militant islamist group boko haram attacked churches on christmas day killing dozens. to impose islamic sharia law across the country which is split between many christians in the south and muslims in the north. of moving on now she's high spirited and fearless despite being more than a century old woman from russia's north caucasus has fulfilled a lifelong ambition by traveling three thousand kilometers as a pilgrim to join the hajj parties but in a questionable set out to discover her amazing life journey. this is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and also considered a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in every muslims life time

the haunch. as the only kello first that happens tricky at a certain time and place from the age to the twelfth day of the last months of this time a calendar. from i do not taking part has been a lifelong dream and what a long life span. i've done a lot in my life this house where i live now i built myself i've never asked for anything special only to help me go for the how much her relatives say she was born in nineteen zero one through the repressions of the 1940's when she was almost hoving in kazakstan and working in the cotton fields to a hard life back in russia laboring on construction sites in north she always dreamt of the harsh to mecca even when in later life she lost her sight she never lost hope. for years she was telling me every day how much she wanted to go i was afraid the trip would be too much for her but i knew how important it was

so one day i thought we should just do it. among her relatives and she has four children and searching grandchildren no one really to could seriously but without even letting anyone else her grandson mogami it and his wife started preparing the trip home life time in her home village avril one knew about her dream but few believed that she would ask for make it to america when her neighbors found out that she had actually been on the irish the news spread across the area far and wide. first the field george and before taking a seti six hour bus journey to make dinner there they joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims all similar tenuously converging on mecca for the week to perform a serious of rigorous free schools a testing time for people in their prime let alone someone who has an true to their twelfth decade. lives she had

a difficult life but was always strong both physically and emotionally that's why maybe she killed with a trip she's an example for me in our family and we know almost everyone here in north caucasus knows about her her strong drive and lack of financial only made her dream come true but also proved if there is a will there's always a way mine's in the question why are you reporting from the north caucasus a story in the headlines just a few minutes way before that they just a business news with a tash. twenty three minutes past the hour here in moscow watching business r.t. as twenty eleven winds down business r.t. looks back at the highs and the lows of the year today we're focusing on the russian stock market by the coursera looks at how bears came to a place the bolz. it's

been a roller coaster ride for investors to syria with markets being bashed by micro and political events like the unrest in the middle east and the earthquake in japan this over debt crisis in europe the u.s. rates in downgrades quantitative easing and bank recapitalization uncertainty regarding u.s. and china growth high volatility and low confidence leading to a flight safety then we had investors trading in the seas rather than individual stocks and finally trading volumes by historical comparison now let's take a closer look and see how the r.t.s. was affected we can already see some major drops throughout the year and this is the investor reaction to standard and poor's downgrade of the u.s. credit rating both the my six and the r.t. has beat the two thousand a record for the biggest one day fall now prices for oil russia's key export

also sang soo a five month low and we can see that figure a year in august the low point came on october fourth as a russian stocks closed more than five percent in the red and there's been little in the way of recovery since trade has been highly volatile domestic issues have also played a part following allegations of fraud in the parliamentary election in the same breath thousands gathered on the streets to protest the pentagon certainty call some investors to head for the exit as we can see by the numbers for that period right here now in the end the r.t.s. has lost around twenty percent since the beginning of the year we can see where it started and all the way were down and analysts forecast an even deeper fall in two thousand and twelve but after such a turbulent year any predictions about the next twelve months must be taken with a large. pinch of salt though international issues are likely to continue to

dominate sun summons on the home front of the russian economy is expected to consume needs to grow and more moderate further and the governments will press ahead with its massive profits as asian program though this may seem like the recipe for success the truth of the matter is we've already seen how easily russia is dragged down by negative external factors so that's what investors will be looked into. and let's take a look at the markets now first gaining for the seventh session on supply of concerns light sweet as at more than ninety nine have dollars a barrel and brant is that almost one hundred eight dollars and now on to acquiesce in europe they're quite upbeat this hour banks and telecoms are the main gainers in london frankfurt all eyes are on a long term italian bond auction that's taking place later in the day and here in moscow the losses are widening the r.t.s. is now losing around two and a third of a percent while the my sex is down more than one percent. and let's have

a look at some individual share moves on the mindsets most of the blue chips are down the sour financials are among the main losers despair a bank losing around two percent in the rolls connect whole is also lord plans to invest three billion dollars in production next year as part of its effort to become one of the world's five largest miners a little crude is weighing on energy majors gal's problem nafta is down around one percent the company is also planning to increase production by more than four percent next year. it's been a bad year for moscow drivers the capital suffered longer traffic jams year round not to mention the notorious midsummer and we can't stand still the city hall says public transport is the solution that is open ninety five kilometers of bus lanes it now plans to introduce contraflow systems on seven highways and build seven through. the million parking spaces in the city a deputy mayor nicholai laumer of blames the deteriorating traffic on the more than

three hundred thousand new cars that have been off the roads on an annual basis at this time of the year the situation is even worse as people drive in from the regions to go you know you're shopping. for more than a million calls into mosco from the region every single day and they're not just from the moscow region that coming from all over russia before the new year holidays the amount of cars increases by no less than forty percent of the world must go is in gridlock at this time of the year five years ago it would be the same now. and that's all the latest from the business desk i'll be back in about fifteen minutes here that.

the big. moment i think. of the movie hit.

back here with r.t. the headlines for you now tensions heat up on the israeli palestinian border as fresh air strikes on gaza and the one person dead and several injured what television says is a preview to a possible full scale attack. new leaders of the new libya the militias now calling the shots in the post-revolutionary country and rushing to disarm a trend some fear might result in another fight for. the u.s. .