the trial continues with more eyewitness testimony from our reporters as we remember the summer the british people said enough is enough. from our studios in central moscow you're watching archie with me and you say no way thanks for being with us our top story israeli warplanes have launched two air strikes on what the army called terror of sites in central and northern gaza killing at least one person and injuring ten others the israeli military earlier confirmed it's preparing for a new large scale offensive against the palestinian territory which hasn't yet recovered from the assault three years ago was probably or reports from jerusalem. for several days now the israeli gaza border has been tense 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. well gideon levy who's a columnist with one of israel's biggest newspaper says his country will face difficulties if it decides to wait another bloody war on gaza. three years ago israel had the card larger not only carte blanche the west had plowed. and didn't say a word against the city but this time we are facing a new egypt and gaza ease in the backyard of egypt and i'm not sure that egypt will remain indifferent visa via another thing but having said this i'm not sure that this is enough to prevent an attack because unfortunately israeli politicians in general not always react in

a most racial and logical way but the current government of israel has no serious intention about serious dialogue with the palestinians maybe some photo opportunities but nothing more than the send the p.a. the palestinian authority had just launched another proposal for israel to get back to the negotiation table they even gave up the precondition of freezing the settlements which is a minimum. condition and they just just symbolic release of one hundred palestinian prisoners to get back to negotiation table and what it is will say no. well we have more opinion reports and a timeline of the guns offensive three years ago on our website for you there you can also find out how the israeli palestinian conflict is developing its at r t dot com. arab league observers in syria has split into groups and are now heading to

three more uprising hot spots they've already been to the flashpoint city of homes where they found quote nothing frightening serious fourth largest city of hamas is among the monitors next destination reports of more start on wednesday six people were killed there and a fresh outbreak of violence that is expert tariq ali doubts the arab mission will healed any posible results. obviously the syrians left in the morning it is to show that they're not going to go i. thinking they'd find nothing but lead has been one of the most fair to call them a stations in the arab world for a long long time doing nothing on palestine doing nothing to prevent the war in iraq and now it's being used as a name here by the west so i don't take the arab league as such too seriously so we shall see what happens if it. are to spoke exclusively to russia's u.n.

ambassador who says carrying out promised reforms may be too difficult for the outside regime well it's caught up in a civil war with extremist. when there was a crisis all sorts of extremist terrorist elements show up for instance several days ago there was a horrible terrorist attack in damascus and the day before that the minister of defense of lebanon said that they detected some al-qaeda groups are moving into syria from from lebanon so i wouldn't be surprised that you know some terrorist elements from libya or other places have found their way into syria some reforms were announced. some of them we are pretty far reaching to expect that those real reforms can be implemented in a situation when the the crisis is sort of teetering on the brink of civil war even under normal circumstances in any country or reforms of such magnitude are not easy

to implement but i mean the point i'm trying to make is that the sooner the crisis the military clashes stop the better position the international community will be to demand that the syrian authorities move along the reform track as quickly as possible. but you can get ambassador churkin insight on all the recent middle east developments and we bring you more of that interview in less than thirty minutes here on our t.v. and elsewhere in the arab world what stage libya's out as we head towards the new year the pump revolutionary fervor has faded but libya's armed militias still patrol argy reports on how the reluctance their reluctance to downed weapons might spark another power struggle that's coming up what's the amazing story of one very spiritual and nerium and increasingly infirm one hundred ten year old russian woman feels her dream of making the pilgrimage to mecca. where

revisiting the key moments which showed how the world is ending twenty eleven very differently to how it began as seen through the eyes of our to use global correspondents august was a hot month for britain not least of all because it was shaken by the worst on rest in decades and styles of rioters grampa's through key cities smith witnessed the chaos that left in delaware mark on the country. we first realised 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 in a field where we couldn't see anything it was already dark it was quite late. and then all of a sudden else of the darkness came a group of around two hundred youths running across the retail park dressed mainly in black colors with hooded top so and so you couldn't see their faces and gradually we realised 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 gear a black jacket with everything i need in the pocket so that i can get away quickly if necessary. and i need the relationship. these. between the people who was in the police and the state's people say

a manifestation oh. we really felt two of the nights the whole of london was on fire you would you would arrive assist us in the 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 breads to different parts of love and. around london following it as it happens. almost anywhere that you went in the more areas of london that was some form of new saying we went round and also days areas to have a look at what was going on and there was streets that were just complete 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 know what to do they were look . they eventually settled on certainly for those first two nights was charging into areas. 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 new 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 three they had surrounded the town center and when he got 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 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 mill millet treat 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 genuinely felt that bringing in the army would have been a good idea and that using water 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 a government to bring in the army to prop him 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 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 the young people in england particularly feel that they have no prospects there's no jobs for them unemployment amongst young people is running a twenty five percent now they've got. those two things remain true. for i see no reason why this kind of thing wouldn't happen again. and there's more testimony to come on the world's big advance of the year from our reporters who were there if you missed any of the series so far they're available to watch right now at our dot com. well the threats are being ramped up over a vital oil shipping route which iran's threatening to block the country says it's ready to confront any military ships crossing the security perimeter of its large

scale war games being held in neutral waters near the hormuz strait iran has already spotted a u.s. aircraft and other battles in the region earlier the islamic republic threatened to stop oil shipments through the channel if western backed sanctions hit its fuel exports america's valen to use its navy stationed in the persian gulf to stop the iranians from hindering passage 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 the military in the gulf 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 both from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is egging

on 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. by a 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 still talk are important around which is responsible for that situation developing and i think we should be clear about that is the west who've racked up this situation every step. well i had to argue dot com for more insights and video reports of what's happening in your world some of what we've lined up for you today from a seventeen thousand dollars door to defense spending on a crucial costumes we tell you who wasters who weighs about wasters are so say

we're winning russia's brush of shame for blowing public money. and scoring big that these two teams of elephants have indeed mastered passing and shooting all part of a three day elephant festival held in nepal check out who won the double game at our team. slowly but surely visitors are returning to libya with tripoli air traffic on the rise but what greets you at the gate are heavily armed militia the first sign of arriving passengers get the country has a long way to go to restore trust and sex on a boy to reports the extremely diverse former rebel groups must urgently consolidate and transform into

a civilian political force. 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 adeline's of putting tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with visitors a feller's have already been 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 brigade 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 the population of sample fifty thousand rise to national prominence since then does in time militia have successfully styled itself as the save guards of libya's future the sword for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one insane person rule now we have a historic mission to overcome the difficulties of the transitional period and build a new country and that animals will be upon us. 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 i need to take her out of history repeats itself we will wage a war but we will let the rule of law decide his fate. didn't gazi zintan misrata these libyan c.d.'s one after another rose against gadhafi is regime

. their militias now represent the real axis of power in the country as their various and 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 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 destabilized 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 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 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 have their problems 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 among various brigades may have become less visible but not less in towns and the nato alliance would like to build upon any division within the groups or their part is that they have revolutionised against the cut. and according to my own understanding they would like to see certain. robin says being divided inside

the state of libya beckoned the arrival home rebels of screening passengers bags on to the posters left from the old regime to get out his golden framed portrait death madness at the airport the year ago is gone he should have humane have glued the lead be in society for several months if he's killing the former unit appears to have died as well actually the boy who are at sea tripoli a look now at some other stories from around the world this hour the turkish air force killed more than twenty people on border with iraq in a raid on suspected kurdish rebels local reports say the dad are civilian villagers who were smuggling fuel and other goods into turkey and were mistaken for militants clashes between kurdish rebels and the turkish military have escalated so as a deadly operation last october to crush a separatist movement. tens of thousands of north koreans have spent a second day marking the funeral of their late ruler kim jong il his son kim john

on again left the ceremony where senior figures declared him the supreme leader is thought the massive memorial in pyongyang will conclude the thirteen days of mourning for his father. and it's never too late an ad as that's been proven by a hundred ten year old woman from russia's north caucasus despite her age and losing her sight she managed a three thousand kilometer journey of a lifetime to join the sacred islam excess to vote hearts archies medina course tracked her odyssey. 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 pillow of islam that happens tricky at a certain time and place from the age to the twelfth day of the last month of this lamb a calendar. from i do not taking part has been a lifelong dream and what

a long life it's been. 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 with. her relatives say she was born in nineteen zero one through the repressions of the nine hundred forty 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 so she grandchildren 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 her life time in her home village average about her dream but few believe that she would ask for make it to mecca when her neighbors found out that she had actually been on the ash the news spread across the area far and wide. first they flew to george and before taking a thirty six hour bus journey to medina there they joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims all similar tenuously converging on america 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 and. i know almost everyone here in north caucasus knows about her her strong drive and lack of

fan only made her dream come true but also proved if there is a will there's always a way mind you the question will r.t. reporting from the north caucasus. ok it's got the support later this hour including why deliver ball has them to their next mass without one of their top scores first though let's cross to our business to ask for a live update with jimmy. thanks for the last twenty eleven games two of them business out here looks back at the highs and lows of the year today we're focusing on the russian stock market but in a closer look at how the bass came to replace the bulls in russia. 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 blow 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 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 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 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 cement on the home front the russian economy is expected to continue to grow and flourish a more moderate further and the governments will press ahead with its massive privatization 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 looking. for a second going to the market is looking at the moment losses are widening actually in moscow that as investors are selling ahead of the long new year holiday is the obvious down two and a half percent my sixty one percent secular the main movers on the. main blue chips legs burbank. if erring in the red to more than two percent losses on nicole is better than the market it's up point two percent or plans to invest three billion dollars in production next year as part of its efforts to become one of the world's five largest miners and gazprom now is among the top game is the company's planning to increase production by more than four percent next year. despite the crisis russia's top banks managed to boost their profits central bank says the country's third largest lenders opposed to the fifty two percent increase in profits for the

first eleven months of the year that's compared to single digit growth for large banks in developed countries the regulator says aggressive lending brought in most of the growth. so we've got time for this our headlines are next with things.

it's four thirty pm in moscow these are the top stories on our team palestinians face a new year nightmare israel warns of another deadly onslaught against war battle guns way ahead in the region with renewed and strikes. iran says it's ready to strike ships sailing too close to its maneuvers near a vital oil following its threats to block the passage if the west insist on tough sanctions. new.