tensions heat up on the israeli palestinian border as fresh air strikes from gaza one person dead and several injured and what to tell will be presented as a prelude to a possible full scale attack. new leaders on the new libya of a militia of now towing the shops in the post-revolutionary country are rushing to disarm a trend some fear might result in another fight for power. exchanging threats the u.s. warns it will take action if you run goes ahead with its vowed to close the vital waterway for oil traffic in response to western planned sanction. people became very draconian sharing those times very sincere for presses and they

would have supported the government to bring in the army to see the full amount in our two special series of reports on twenty eleven main events we bring you our correspondents inside into the five day for summer riots in britain. live from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching archie with me and use the now it's two pm here in the russian capital our top story fresh israeli air strikes on gaza have reportedly left one palestinian dead and several others injured earlier the israeli military confirmed its preparing for a possible large scale attack it's three years since around four hundred palestinians were killed during a three week long offensive paula slayer has more from jerusalem. 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 when state 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 hamas as 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 this tuesday marks 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're hearing from the israeli army this time around is that this operation will be much shorter and that the israelis will employ much greater use of fire power but certainly it is still too soon to say what will happen. the arab league monitoring mission in syria is now heading to the city of houla a focal point of the standoff between protesters and the army reports have emerged that on wednesday six people were killed there in a fresh outbreak of violence because it comes after observers said they found the situation in the flashpoint city of holmes we're sorry author and middle east expert tariq ali was in london doubts of the observer mission will bring any possible result. don't you see the syrians left in them only it is to show

that they're not going to hide it thinking they'd find nothing but the arab league has been one of the most fair to call them eyes ations in the arab world for a long long time doing nothing on palestine doing nothing to prevent the war on iraq and now he's being used as a name geo by the west so i don't take the arab league as such too seriously so we shall see what happens if it. r.t. spoke exclusively to russia's u.n. ambassador who said carrying out promised reforms may be too difficult for the regime and it's essentially involved in a civil war with extremists a full version of that interview with coming up for you later this hour but here's a preview. we believe that there has been there are been some extremely troubling reports coming out of syria about excessive use of force by those sort of is but also telling that the everybody must put pressure on. the destructive elements of

the of the opposition or various destructive elements which may have found their way into syria that they are 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 of the forms were announced. some of them we have pretty far reaching like changing the constitution and getting rid of the political monopoly of one party even under normal circumstances in any country forms of such magnitude are not easy to implement all that in a situation when there is an armed conflict being encouraged from various quarters one would see weapons being moved. illegally into syria all that of course becomes a saturday conversation. libya is heading into a new year as a completely new country with new leaders and new hopes but as the immediate

post-revolutionary excitement fades the different factions of the former rebels are turning on each other in what may become a stark competition for power on a boycott 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 to the passenger traffic keeps increasing every month as more and more airlines of putting tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with visitors a fellow lives have already with them service and more are 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 city of the entire captured the airport in late august as the rebels over on the capital the control of this key facility how the town with a population of some pretty thousand rise to national prominence since then is in time militia has successfully styled itself as the save guards of libya's future. for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one and same 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 get off his army he still keeps the good offices army cap in his office his subordinates are now holding the deposed libyan leader's son safe will islam. we are against any dictator but if history repeats itself we will wage

a war but 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 regime . their militias now represent and the real axis of power in the country as their various and their legacy and agendas as the stripes on the only base new tricolor the prospect of civil war in libya is always there and it has a hole which has been there but 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 under his command

into a political force a laptop has replaced every rifle as his main tool internat is his new front line of the armed assistant at his door is a sign that the 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 gadhafi may still come back in some other shape or form and in that case who have to take up our weapons and defend our revolution. guns are still a common side on the streets of tripoli of their prevalence has visibly decreased the city's covered with posters calling on the rebels to turn them in the design element of militia has so far failed to translate into national reconciliation the competition and monk 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 evolution 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 rebels are screening passengers bags on to the posters left from the old regime to get out his golden frame portrayed that madness at the airport the euro is gone he should have humane have glued the libyan society for several months if you skilling the former you need appears to have died as well actually the work of art see tripoli. it's ten minutes past the hour coming up later in the program for you a trip to a life time report on russia's oldest pilgrim who took a trip to mecca despite being more than a century old was. looking back at twenty eleven business park examines the turbulence of the russian stock market its highs and lows in the

business bulletin twenty minutes. but first how still a day between washington and tehran is increasing with the u.s. saying it won't tolerate any potential closure on the strait of hormuz by wrong earlier in the islamic republic threatened to block oil shipments through the vital waterway if the west adopts sanctions against its petroleum exports a senior iranian commander said the move will be easy to implement a remark made while tehran conducts unprecedented war games in waters near the strait us also maintains a naval presence in the persian gulf and says its warships will stop the iranians from blocking the passage that iran has reported it's already have detected an american aircraft carrier in the vicinity but political analyst chris bambery believes the west is putting world peace on the line with its stubbornness over sanctions. that americans could probably force using their military. which in the

gove could 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 the american weakness we know that from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is aiding all in 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 iranian nationalism should not be should not be underestimated even opponents are measured by rally to support iran's 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 of the 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 the situation every step. party continues to bring you the main stories of twenty eleven through the eyes of our international correspondents and it's been a tough year for the u.k. which saw its worst on west in decades as several cities descended into riots looting and arson laura smith witnessed the 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 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 in a 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 dressed mainly in black colors with topsoil and so you couldn't see their faces and gradually we realized they were smashing everything 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. 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 in the police it's people say and state should know. we really felt on two of the nights

the whole of london was on fire. you would. arrive versus us 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 all broken into a shelf 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. around london following it. almost anywhere that you went in the mall. 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 there was streets that were just completely. ignore 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're look. they eventually settled on. tonight's show. 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 we went to hackney west some of the rest was taking place and it was literally shut down. and the police were not really less than anyone three they had surrounded the town and when he goes into the town we still people just smashing into shops and grabbing whatever they could. but not just young people adults as well. as. just 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 tree 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 speak to during the riots. and immediately genuinely felt that bringing in the army would have been a good idea using water on the streets of london and other cities which 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 of. studies it 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 say that they are

stopped 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 it's running at twenty five percent now. those two things remain true and so i see no reason why this kind of thing wouldn't happen again. well a new report in our testimonies series is coming up for you tomorrow but if you missed any of them there all of the right now at our dot com. let's take a look at what else is making news around the world we begin in north korea. huge crowds have gathered to pay tribute to can join the second day of

a memorial for the late leader a day of mourning for those wednesday a funeral service led by son and successor kim. thousands of people in tears lined the streets as they said their final farewell to believe we've been in power since one thousand nine hundred ninety four for allowing the death of his father. turkish air strikes have killed at least twenty three course. it's religious in the south east near the iraqi border is believe the group was smuggling gas and sugar into the contrary from northern iraq and may have been mistaken for rebels of the kurdistan workers party the group considered a terrorist organization by ankara and much of the international community clashes between kurdish rebels and the army have school aged 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 assault as

a declaration of war against them in nigeria as a whole and so they will respond appropriately to any future provocation becomes just after the militant islamist group boko haram attacked churches on christmas day killing thousands the group wants to impose its bhaumik shari'a law across the country or just quit between mainly christians of the south and muslims in the north. well she is high spirited and fearless despite being more than a century old a woman from russia's north caucasus has filled a lifelong ambition by traveling three thousand kilometers as a pilgrim to join the harsh seas medina question of us set out to discover her amazing life journey. this is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and also considered a religious duty to must be carried out at least once in every muslims life time. as the only that happens tricky at

a certain time and place from the age to the twelfth day of the last months of the slum a calendar. why did no one taking part has been a lifelong dream and what a long life it's been. 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 religion of saying she was. born in nineteen zero one through the repressions of the 1940's when she was almost starving 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 america 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 grandchildren and no one really took it seriously but without even letting on to anyone else her grandson mogami it and his wife started preparing the trip of a lifetime in her home village out everyone knew about her dream but few believe that she would out for make it to mecca when her neighbors found out that she had actually been only half the new spread across the area so far and wide. first they flew to jordan before taking a thirty six hour bus journey to medina there they joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims all similar tenuously converging on mecca for the week to perform a serious of rigorous rituals a testing time for people in their prime let alone someone who has entered their twelfth decade. she had a difficult life but was always strong both physically and emotionally that's why

maybe she coped with the trip she's an example for me in our family i. know almost everyone here in north caucasus knows about her her strong drive and lack of fan not only made her dream come true but also proved if there is a will there's always a way mind in the question or r.t. reporting from the north caucasus. that wraps up the main news block this hour headlines are coming up for you in a few minutes before about let's take him on the latest business news with natasha . it's twenty three minutes past two pm here in moscow you're watching business and r.t. as twenty eleven comes to an end business r.t. looks back at some of the highs and the lows of the year today we're focusing on the russian stock market but in the course of a looks at how bears came to replace the polls.

it's been a roller coaster ride for investors the c.e.o. with markets being bashed by micro and political events like the unrest in the middle east and the earthquake in japan that's 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 suit 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 are out 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.s. people two thousand a record for the biggest one day fall now prices for oil russia's key export

also sang suu 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 political uncertainty 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 where went 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. a pinch of salt though international issues are likely to continue to dominate son simmons on the home fronts of the russian economy is expected to

consume needs to grow and flotation will moderate further and the governments will press ahead with its massive profits as ation 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 now take a look at the markets oil first it's gaining for the seventh session on supply concerns like sweet as and more that more than ninety nine dollars a barrel and brant is up almost one hundred eight dollars and now on to equities and europe they're quite upbeat the sour banks and telecoms are the main gainers and london and frankfurt all ours are on a long term italian bond auction is taking place later in the day. and here in moscow the losses are widening the r.t.s. is now moving around two and a third of a percent while the my six is down more than one percent. and

a quick look at some individual share moves on the my six most of the blue chips are down the sour financials are among the main losers with their bank down more than two percent the rules committee is also lower it says it plans to invest three billion dollars in production next year as part of the effort to become one of the world's five largest miners nafta's among the top gainers the company is planning to increase production by more than four percent next year. it's been a bad year for moscow drivers the capital suffered multiple kilometer traffic jams year round not to mention the notorious mid summer and we can't stand still the city hall says public transport is the solution it is open ninety five kilometers of bus lanes it now plans to introduce contraflow systems on seven highways and build three million parking spaces in the city the deputy mayor nicola blames the deteriorating traffic on more than three hundred thousand new cars that have moscow

roads annually and at this time of the year the situation is even worse as people drive in from the regions to go shopping. with little more than a million calls into mosco from the region every single day and they're not just from the mosco region they're coming from all over russia the before the new year holidays the amount of cars increases by no less than forty percent must go is in gridlock at this time of the year five years ago it would be the same now. that's all the latest from the business team i'll be back in less than an hour of the event.

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