palestinians face a new year nightmare israel warns of another deadly onslaught against war battered gaza hitting the region with renewed strikes. that rhyme says it's ready to strike ships sailing too close to its maneuvers near a vital all route following its threat to block passage of the west insists on tough sanctions. firefighters put out a blaze of a nuclear submarine in northern russia after scaffolding surrounded it went up in flames during repairs. also. people became very draconian times very stilted for oppressive and they would have supported the government to bring in the army to solve the problem now. when britain boiled over artie's

countdown to twenty twelve continues with more eyewitness testimony from our reporters as we remember the summer the british people said enough is enough. thursday night here in moscow welcome my name is kevin knowing you're watching r.t. international and our top story israeli warplanes have launched two air strikes on what the army called terrorist sites in central and northern gaza killing at least one person and injuring ten others the israeli military earlier confirmed it is preparing for a new large scale offensive against the palestinian territory which hasn't yet recovered from the assault three years ago. as the latest from jerusalem. the situation along the israel gaza border has been tense for several days now since my . and a full palestinians were killed and many more way injured in

a number of targeted strikes carried don't by these radiate force at the same time several rockets were fired by palestinian militants onto southern israel now wednesday evening the israeli army admitted that it was considering a possible launch scale military operation into gaza it said that this operation would be very neat and different to the last operation that was carried out the three years ago and would aim at increasing israel's determines in the area khaled mashal from us his political view achieve has called on palestinians nor to target israeli civilians because of the fear of a massive israeli retaliation now back in two thousand and eight nearly one and a half thousand palestinians were killed in a three week operation that these rabies referred to as operational costs made four out of five people killed were civilians what we're hearing from the israelis now is that should they go ahead with another operation this operation will be short and it will see the use of more firepower but it's not clear that the timing is

right for tel aviv to go ahead with another invasion of gaza certainly the natanya who government is isolated on the international front more than a was it three years ago and it will not want to risk losing more brains the congo of today is also very different to the cairo of two thousand and eight when the former egyptian president hosni mubarak was in power the leadership in egypt today is much more likely to go to the aid of hamas if indeed it is to attacked by israel at the same time palestinian militants have more weapons at their disposal including antitank missiles that are capable of inflicting a lot of damage on israeli tanks so it's not a done deal that israel is going to go ahead with an operation but certainly the fact that the israeli army has admitted that it is considering such an operation has people here or on standby. professor heard or read from girls university told me it's unclear whether israel will dare to launch a new offensive given the latest changes to the arab world three years ago the

palestinians of gaza lost more than one thousand four hundred forty people ninety percent of whom were civilians including more than four hundred thirty four children and that was a time when we were threatened with in the words of the israeli dipshit the defense minister then. we were threatened with a greater show or a greater holocaust of course if the if the the organizations the military organizations based in the gaza slim did not stop you know launching rockets against against israel and israel lived up lived up to its word launched its genocide that will go against the palestinians of gaza and killed so many people and i think now what what is happening right now is that israel has a different government a government that is considered by so many analysts to be the most fascist government in the state in the history of the state of israel we are talking about of ecuador liberman and binyamin netanyahu who are intending actually the complete

eradication and destruction of the girls us today and so yes we are bracing ourselves for the worst times to comes but we also on the other hand need to remember that there is a new out of world right now we are witnessing a new era in the arab world and i think that israel is confused as in a dilemma with or to launch a new genocidal war against the palestinians of gaza and the godless of the reaction of the new other world or just to stay and wait and test the water of the arab world without launching a massive war against gaza. we got a lot more opinion reports on the timeline of the guards were offensive three years ago on our website if one refresh yourself with that also you can find out how the israeli palestinian conflict developing right now we've got the latest comment and reports at r.t. dot com. the arab league observers in syria have no split into groups in the visiting stream or uprising hotspots they've already been to the flashpoint city of homs as we were reporting yesterday where they found quote nothing frightening

meantime opposition activists in syria are now suggesting over thirty people were killed by security forces thursday let's talk to journalist i should returns used to work in the region knows a lot about it is in london tonight hi there the syrian regime's given its assessment the arabs are observed as are doing the same and human rights groups have all reported back who do you think can give the most credible account of what's really happening on the ground. well i don't think the western media is giving much of an accurate assessment of what's going on there we had great hopes of the arab league a group of arab dictators people going down and checking whether your human rights in another country now that's because of that assessment in homs the western milling mainstream media also. the arab league delegation is all wrong because they have a sudanese head of it in sudan a country that doesn't agree with western policy either so let's just talk about

the arab league because that's the really the main focus see those arab league observers lot of people questioning the missions impartiality saying they're already siding with the syrian regime and quite get the gist of what you were telling me there you're saying you believe them about what they're saying and how do the homes or has not been home so you don't believe. i think the arab league delegation has its own politics it's a very complex range of countries a lot of dictators of those countries but i think the main the main aspect of a whole crisis in syria and it is a crisis is that we have a government in syria that has helped so many thousands of people human rights you were just talking about gaza on your show and syria has helped national liberation movements in the middle east one must always remember that but now the assad government and i was in damascus a couple of times in the last year or so the government hasn't. reacted as it should have to the human rights demonstrators but of course we

know why the west is now so concerned about syria and will continue to ignore human rights violations in bahrain and saudi arabia we're only hearing about syria for one reason and that is that syria has stood up for the human rights of arab peoples in the region so what the arab league says it doesn't matter that much when one interesting aspect is that sanctions that have been there since the nine hundred seventy s. have helped the syrian government become very autonomous and independent and it's a big loss to european oil companies canadian oil companies the royal dutch shell because china india and iran are all moving in to take up where those foreign interests were so good economic times ahead for the syrian people i'd say i go back to my first point i should who should we turn to who should we believe the information about what's actually going on there a lot of people reporting but it's difficult to know what to believe isn't it. well

the syrian government should allow journalists and of course but it's certainly the western media viewpoint that we must believe the we must believe opposition groups it seems that any global footage is now accepted as a source and reuters and associated press reporting routinely unverified reports certainly what they are being said about holmes different very different a great deal from other reports we've been getting on t.v. channels of massacres continually going on what is no doubt is that thousands of syrian soldiers are dying and they haven't died because of peaceful protests the worry is that what we now have in our hands is a battle between saudi arabia and turkey over syria and as to who we can believe well we'll have to would depend on voices that are very much for the line movement and away from western interests there's no theory i want to be getting nurtured

just in the last thirty seconds so there's not a quick quick three i would run past you syria is under intense international pressure now you've witnessed that it's also a close ally of iran all those two situations connected in any way. well i think iran has found its hand to be very strong which is why we're hearing so much about the straits of hormuz and with verbal standoff that's happening at the moment i think iran is obviously watching things very closely but this isn't a libya syria is a linchpin of the middle east and the united states and other countries some of the more intelligent people realize that there will be turmoil right across the middle east if anything happens to destabilize the government from outside forces but certainly syria the syrian government itself has to step up the pace because it's certainly losing a propaganda battle i should return zero three journalists thank you for your thoughts on r.t. . well though we spoke exclusively yesterday to rush's u.n.

ambassador i did in fact who it says carrying out promised reforms may be too difficult for the assad regime while it's caught up in a civil war with extremists and we've got the full version of that was a half hour chat we cut it down a bit for you coming up next hour is a quick preview. when there is 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 through to 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. in a better position the international community will be to demand the syrian authorities move along the reform track as quickly as possible. rushes the tally churkin there my mistake the full interview coming up in fact in just over fifteen minutes time is coming up this hour so you don't have too long to wait for that if you'd like to catch more threats of being ramped up over a vital oil shipping route which iran is threatening to block to rand's holding large scale war games in neutral waters near the hormuz strait the u.s. has its own contingent in the region to mainly to ensure passage remains free artie's got a teacher can has been following the latest developments today. responding to iran's warning the u.s. said no such disruption would be tolerated and that the u.s.

fifth fleet that's based in the gulf would ensure that doesn't happen the strait of hormuz links the golf and the oil producing states of bahrain kuwait qatar saudi arabia the united arab emirates to the indian ocean about forty percent of the world's tankers shipped oil passes through that strait it's a major oil artery potential cut off might cause turmoil in the global oil market although a saudi official said that golf nations were ready to offset any loss of reigning crude from the statements here you get a sense that washington things iran is bluffing because there have been there had been such threats before but right now you are in finds itself in a situation where it's livelihood its main source of livelihood is in danger the u.s. congress passed a bill that would dramatically complicate transactions iran's central bank european and asian nations import iranian oil and use its central bank food for their

transactions president obama has yet to sign that bill that's going to be a severe blow to your brain an economy around eighty percent of its revenues depend on sales e.u. ministers say they will take your decision on whether or not to boycott the iranian oil in coming weeks and those threats that are coming from iran indicate that it's ready to take action to protect its interests pensions rice the west says all the rana has to do is to give up their nuclear program iran says they're not doing anything wrong by pursuing a peaceful nuclear program for civilian purposes the rhetoric here in washington against iran is getting very harsh the u.s. spy drone shot down by the uranium before that a washington accusing iran of plotting to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s. and blow up the israeli and saudi embassy in washington those were just some of the most recent episodes it all adds up and creates a lot of tension now if something happens over the strait of hormuz this could erupt into an all out war. what he's going to teach a county washington d.c.

well for some around the state in the symmetric response to the constant threats the u.s. and europe. where there's robert naiman from the just foreign policy think tank told us there is a context for the iranian government statements namely first of all that. it's understood in international political discourse and international law is now the war if it really is. the united states and western europe to try to cut off iran's oil exports then that is an act of war and it would lead since it wants you to respond to that let's just be pointed out that every game you know states and washington every day u.s. government officials and people of influence are talking about u.s. and israeli military strikes on iran so this is happening in the context of

constant threats against iran unilateral threats which of course miley you know you know. which for bids any you would know. from attacking you know the member state without the authorization of the u.n. security council and of course none of these voices are talking about getting u.n. security council approval for the dark in iran because they know that they could never get. a fire that engulfed clear submariner dockyard in northwest russia has been put out r.t.c. called piskun off has been following that story later on today. forty two reports coming from the locals they saw huge clouds of smoke rising from the ground and all the way to the skies was already said that they had the fire on a patrol although. the fall off these nuclear submarine was on fire on the dock around it they didn't fall on there any of your vocals from nearby villages and towns got to eat and they mediately said that there's no threat to their health and

that the levels of radioactivity are within the norm fortunately since the submarine was being repaired there were no weapons on board no miss else but there was and still is the nuclear reactor and that's obviously why this fire caused so much attention but the latest news from the authorities is that this reactor was shut down as soon as the fire started we're talking about a pretty big vessel this is its name that you can see in the book it's a strategic nuclear submarine it's around one hundred seventy meters long which is over five hundred feet long and it was being repaired in the dark but just in the spring and summer it's forces just three to four in the navy drills actually intercontinental ballistic missile a successful launch from it's part of the six such submarines in russia's northern pleat and usually they're on the sixteen intercontinental ballistic missiles with

nuclear warheads on them a corresponding office going off we're revisiting the key moments which show how the world's ending twenty eleven very differently to how it began as seeing through the eyes of our global correspondents now oldest was a very hot month for britain not least of all because it was shaken by the worst on rest in decades as thousands of rioters rampaged through key cities laura smith witnessed the chaos that left an indelible mark on the country. we first realized what a big story this was going to be all in the night. that had been localized. 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. field where we couldn't see anything it was already dark it was quite late. and then all of us saw. a group of around two hundred. running across the retail dressed mainly in black. 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. black 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 and the police it's people say and state should know.

we really felt two of the whole of london was on fire. 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. the right says had set fire to a car or broken into a shop. or even on one occasion they set fire to an enormous call. house. arrest grads to different parts of london to. around london following it. almost anywhere that you went in the mall. and you say we went round and also days areas to have a look what was going on there was streets that were just completely. you know

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 were. they eventually settled for the two nights was. just to show that presence and then running away again really running away and it wasn't until the third or fourth night that they really. controlled. on the second we went to hackney west some of the rest was taking place and it was literally shut down. the police were not really less than anyone three they had surrounded the town and when you go into the town. people are just smashing into shops and grabbing whatever they could. but not just young people adults as well.

as. just. the other frightening thing was the effects that it had to see 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 in 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 which it would have sorted the problem of out immediately so people became very draconian jaring those times very sort of repressive and they would have supported a government move 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 youths 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. laura smith a little trust me to come on the world's big events of the year from our reporters who covered the war brought you those stories if you missed any of the series as well for joining us this plenty more to see at our home. italy's currency christmas present its borrowing rates have plummeted in recent days alone now to cheaply raise so much needed but it does so with its debts but. the problem

is really at least not popular champagne called just yet he says more is needed to be done the calm the markets and that means more cuts belgium business journalist you're on but over the euro zone economies got a gloomy prospect still ahead of it. the intention was to raise eight point five billion euros italy could raise something like seven billion which is not bad but which is in any case below the target and secondly the price the interest rate on those seven billion was seven percent now given the fact that italy has already a government dept equal to one hundred twenty five percent of g.d.p. and given the very poor growth prospects of the economy this is an interest rate that will. lead to a rep it escalation of interest burden for italy will undermine the health of the public finances of the country for the so indeed mr monti as big job to do

to get things in the clear in terms of what can be expected for the coming year first of all i think we will see an exit of greece given the situation in which the greek economy finds itself that has become really for the secondly in terms of what will happen inside to resume a lot will depend on the attitude that is taken by the u. central bank will they intervene more or less that is one of the key questions that need to be answered and it's very hard to predict what the answer will be in terms of what will happen to the euro zone next year but you can bet your bottom dollar will be following it no twenty eleven was harsh for the economy across the atlantic as well with nearly half of americans now living below the poverty line later on this channel artie's mix kaiser and stacy herbert take another shot at those they believe the blame for all the hardship. the bank j.p. morgan gets congress to change the laws of. their name as a predatory terrorist. is that

a bad thing i would think so hey let's call the white house. but nobody saw what the white house this guy is out golfing. because they're poor an hour from now this is business next though to be trees here . i know you're watching business r.t. as twenty eleven comes to an end business r.t. looks back at the highlights of the year we're focusing on the oil deal between x. and mobile and rosneft to work on the russian arctic shelf the joint venture not only dashed any hopes b.p. had of reviving its own deal with rosneft but also caused friction within the russell british joint venture t n k v p but in the course of explains how the drama unfold.

it was a love and hate relationship from the get go which adventure lead became an affair both parties would like to forget that's the hobs of seeing a v.p. we're going after each other for years the russians represented by a r. and the brits in b.p. what have gotten a divorce if this were a marriage there irreconcilable differences involved this fits over the company's corporate governance and strategy but any business is just like a marriage if there is money at stake that sometimes keeps parties together but when rosneft came into the picture and seduced b.p. they are one said revenge b.p. wants it to partner up with russia's oil major in the share swap and explore the russian arctic they are said any deals made in russia should go through the peak they took them to court and froze the deal there was a way out b.p. could include seeing the end the project but rosneft refused and the deal went

belly up while each side was blaming the other over the failed deal ross never found someone new and that was exxon mobil this new couple is now seen as a powerhouse that will not only develop oil and gas reserves but also open up one of the last on concorde drilling frontiers the arctic shelf has an abundance of mineral resources so the potential is huge both companies have already invested hundreds of billions of dollars and the money is expected to come back to fold now when it comes to the jilt of partner b.p. it's currently embroiled in lawsuits regard than the deal that never was so as the two halves of think a v.p. are going after each other ross naff has obviously moved on securing the deal of the year. and a quick look at the markets and the end of the session mixed with the r.t.s. declining as investors prepare for a long holiday said look at some of the individual share moves on the. my side's

banking stocks are among the main with preachers of the day with u.t.v. down more than two percent gains of more than three percent of plans to invest three billion dollars in production next year as part of its effort to become one of the top five largest miners and gazprom next also ended high the company spawning to increase production by more than four percent next year. as a business team for now the headlines are next on r.t. to stay with us.