video. omission st now with the palm of your. machine on. the run of the last century closer to a military conflict as a verbal spat over a vital oil maritime routes reaches boiling point. after the outgoing year took its toll on a number of eurozone governments many doubt the so-called your gratz now in charge will bring relief as some of them were behind the euro's failings. it seems that any food reviews no except to the source. while the syrian opposition is bursting with amateur footage showing violence that's claimed to be recent arab league observers have yet to report any atrocities after three days in the country . and to business the russian markets have opened slightly higher though investors

are hesitant to make any big moves ahead of long. breaks break in. watching r.t. live from moscow of an am here on marina joshie tension between the u.s. and iran is mounting with tehran threatening to block a crucial oil supply route in the hormuz strait the u.s. has position two warships in the area where iran is carrying out a naval war games demonstration mainly to ensure passage remains free but as art has gone and she can explain the situation could escalate into an all out war. 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 iranian 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 a livelihood its main source of livelihood is in danger the u.s. congress passed a bill that would dramatically complicate transactions through 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 the reigning economy around eighty percent of its revenues depend

on sales e.u. ministers say they will make a 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 tensions 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. reporting there for some the rainy and france are warranted robert naiman from the just foreign policy think tank believes tehran is simply ready itself should the situation escalate. dinner's context for the iranian

government statements namely first of all. it's understood in international political discourse and international law that it was an act of war and if it is really the policy pursued by the united states and western europe to try to cut off. oil exports then that is an act of war it would be for were it once you respond to that let's just be pointed out that every day you know i'm in washington every day u.s. government officials and people of influence are talking about u.s. and israeli military strikes on iran this is happening in a context of constant threats against iran unilateral threats which of course wily you know you know. which for because it's a neat you would know. from attacking you know the member state without

authorization of the u.n. security council and of course none of these voices are talking about getting u.n. security council approval for ducking iran because they know that they could never get it. they are always eager to know your take on our stories today we're asking what the deadlock in the strait of hormuz will lead to. well about a third about over a third rather of you think it will have no serious consequences being just another move in a long game while half of the viewer is believe america will take advantage of the situation to strike iran and the rest are split between two options whether iran will teach the west a lesson of what it's like to be deprived of wild supplies or america will back off whether it's sanctions so you can cast your vote at r.t. dot com. but that stricken arizona set to enter a twenty twelve and gloomy mood with italy's borrowing costs remaining near the seven percent and danger zone italian premiers pledged more efforts to revive the

ailing economy and he is out of your speech but as our reports there are huge doubts the new man in charge of a number of the eurozone states will find a ram a day for the struggling bloc. the autumn in europe saw the fall of several european leaders spain greece italy all of these countries are changing leadership across a two week period but who are these new faces at helm of europe's most troubled nations and will they really make things better for the people. probably not greeks pride themselves on essentially inventing democracy back in however long ago that was too bad the man who is now being touted as the man with the plan is an economist who was appointed to rule the greek people know gordon elections there well the greek prime minister was the greek finance minister at the time that greece joined the euro so he was responsible for cooking the books to get greece in for this ever expanding empire he was rewarded by going to work at the european

central bank and as soon as papen dreyer would mention the word referendum he was there and even if we skirt the whole issue of current governments being appointed by someone else from another country another question pops up will they be capable of doing anything different than before well the irony is of course that many of these technocrats architects of the disastrous euro project in the first place so it really is pretty annoying then out now in charge of all of these countries and that doesn't go down well with the economists who saw the eurozone disaster develop from the beginning this project is doomed to failure it was always doomed to failure and moreover i would have them arraigned i would have a fiscal crimes tribunals i would like to see some of these people sent to prison so far cutting the public sector firing tens of thousands of people and telling everyone to brace themselves for tough times ahead in the midst of raging protests unruly unemployment and mind blowing debt numbers these have been the only steps so

far undertaken by european governments both old and new. people who think that maria monti came to help italy out of the crisis order to help spain are totally mistaken that those who are in key positions in seats of power one represent the interests of goldman sachs and other major corporations by ease and there is always the chance the things could get even worse there is a real possibility. in the mediterranean countries that will see governor. once well not evil and not even legitimate governments but we'll see governments overthrown i think there's also a big worry that we may well see the kind of nationalist political movements springing out of this we thought we said goodbye to back in ninety forty five if the technocrats fail to raise the wreck the economy is in italy greece and spain the nations where end up not only with a bleak future between the very little reason to call themselves democratic it in it goes grow our team. and stay with us here on our team still to come for you this

hour. when these lines of police started moving me started moving towards me starting shooting towards our direction started tear gassing my cameramen with tear gas i was injured and that's when it really changed for me we continue to count down the top ten stories that shape twenty women with a look back at the occupy movement across the u.s. . wants a taxi driver leave the hollywood limelight and hands back to he is russian held as it prepares for the world in big stage twenty four team. arab league monitors are heading to three more syrian cities to witness the government's peace plan implementation earlier the visit of the city of homs saying the situation there is reassuring although clashes are said to be continuing with twenty five people reportedly killed on thursday across the country the information coming from the country is hard to verify as it's mostly food rich and claims by activists

clashes began in march with both government forces and protesters being armed option or town see a journalist who used to work in the region says the difference between the arab league reports and mainstream coverage shows the opposition is winning the media battle. it's certainly the western media viewpoint that we must believe the most believe opposition groups it seems that any know except as a source so only what they are being said about homes 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 thousands of syrian soldiers are dying and they haven't died because of peaceful protests but. libya syria is the 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 the propaganda about. egyptian forces have been raiding the offices of human rights groups throughout the country it reports say soldiers stopped employees leaving and interrogated them while searching their computers foreign policy analysts dr who told us it's the military government making sure it stays in power this is part of the military the supreme council on forces way of making sure. the you know who you should and basically is molded to the to the type of government they want because that's those are the same generals by the way who work for mubarak to go so that's really basically is part of the struggle is going to be usually in going to go forward or is that a who doesn't vote to be immoral do and some do and do some visible role to the

minute but really the military has to step aside and let the civilian government come to power once the election are held and the elections should be held as soon as possible they will not give up the power of that easily but i think the egyptian people and the arabs in general have lost their fear from corrupt government and they have restored of their dignity and they will not tolerate another military dictatorship in the country i think all the evidence indicates that despite the sacrifices they have given. it is also on the table of the year and uncrossed where pierre le vallon he is a gas discuss the transcending moments of twenty eleven that's coming your way in about fifteen minutes time and r.t. but here's a sneak peek. we're going to see the fulfillment of a lot of the hopes that you saw occur when mubarak actually fell because like i said you can take the snake's head off but what about the rest of the body will

just rot at the expense of everyone else so it's a lot easier to decapitate the snake than tire actually kill it you know the system is in fact more entrenched and more dangerous and more vicious now than it was even under mubarak in during the time when the protests actually started the system is very good it generated itself regenerating itself and the core issues in egypt which ultimately are not just about democracy it is about bread it is about economics it is about a growing inequality in a country that already suffered from maybe thirty to forty percent of the people living on two dollars a day or less it's about how do you reallocate resources nationally and reorient an economy to provide wealth there's some level of wealth and opportunity for the mass of people in that sense what's happening is just a more intense version of what's happened in the united states where you have the same question. as twenty

eleven draws to its hand there are teams looking back at the stories that shape here witnessed by our correspondents this time a look at the occupy movement and the us the story covered by lucy half enough. i remember at the start of the so-called so-called arab spring we saw so many mass movements from europe to the middle east people rising up taking to the streets protesting and the question we kept asking ourselves over and over again is why not here why not in the united states i mean for years we've covered stories that touched upon social inequality economic inequality the overdue undue influence in fact that politics has been the money has in our financial system and i never thought that this kind of popular outrage would really come to the united states

that it would really hit home. when the occupy wall street movement began my initial impression i have to admit it was utter skepticism you know it sounded like some american protesters saw what was going on in the middle east and thought it would be i meet sort of symbolic way to emulate what they've seen for example into where square. one of the biggest things that really sort of woke me up as an individual was that that night in times square in october this was right after the supposed to be announced raid by the mayor where about three thousand if not more protesters had gathered around security park to to defend their space and they succeeded they weren't raided and we saw literally thousands of people marching into times square which you know the physical contrast of the sort of temple of consumerism which is times square in

manhattan these flashing lights these logos these expressions of corporate power and consumer culture in stark contrast to. literally thousands of people who have gotten together to speak to shout to feel the physical presence of of other americans who are just no longer content to sit back and watch society unfold in the direction that it's taken. i was just feet away from the area where several police officers mountain of course facts and out into the crowd hurting some of the protesters seeing with my own eyes for the first time the excessive level of force. old gentleman who looked like he was probably in his sixty's slammed down to the ground his arms and back women of all ages men of all ages carried away for doing what for sitting down on the ground and not moving or making

a point quietly. standing there with my camera man with this line of police officer several hundred of them armed to the teeth you know what. sticks out a line of protesters behind me you know i thought i was there as this protected almost impartial observer there to tell the story but when these lines of police started moving at me and started moving forward towards me starting shooting towards our direction started tear gassing my cameramen with tear gas to i was injured and that's when it really changed for me there are at least a hundred the not two hundred three hundred police officers in full riot gear as you can see advancing behind us right now on the occupy oakland movement now one of the other interesting experiences a i think for me was sort of seeing the contrast between occupy wall street in new york and in oakland in oakland where there is such a radical history of active as and where the people there the protesters there were

so much more outraged so much more ready for a radical fundamental change of this within this country. but at the same time. one of the experiences that really stands out to be in my mind was the day of the port shutdown on the member second you know there are thousands thousands and tens of thousands of people who were gathered who were marching around the timpani is not a lot of police presence there really felt that perhaps we had turned a new chapter in this country perhaps this was going to be an opportunity for these kinds of expressions of political discontent with the sort of crackdown that we've that we've seen in the past and what happened that evening really really shook me to the core i have to say the contrast between these peaceful marches and. seeing firsthand the streets of oakland turned into something i might have seen on the news and as you can see there are marching behind as sticks their hands baton

and i don't know if you can get any closer on that shot i think that really galvanized this country and really woke us up to our reality. the reality is that there is a lot wrong and there's a lot that needs to be changed but instead of sitting here and inviting experts to go and talk about it we're seeing people physically participating in what democracy really should be all about. i'm an american citizen i feel that i am here to tell the stories and i have a right to tell the stories and that is part of what this country is fundamentally founded on and sort of experiencing firsthand the the loss of the the inability to do anything the feeling of powerlessness and smallness. that's something that i think i'm not going to forget for quite a long time. while that's the final of our special reports on

a personal reflections from our team of international correspondents on the bandstand dominator twenty any if you've missed any and watch them right now at or t. com then. don't forget our web site it's also got more news comment and analysis let's take a look at what's in store summary and secured a fire on board a strategic nuclear vessel in northern russia has been brought under control by emergency workers. christmas miracle more than eighty passengers and crew survive a crash landing in a bleak weather former soget republic. a brief look now at some of the stories from around the world a fresh israeli air strike on friday morning has left one palestinian dead and

another injured in gaza earlier the israeli military confirmed it's preparing for a possible large scale attack tension on the border has been rising with at least four palestinians killed and several others injured since monday this week also marked three years since the start of a major israeli offensive on gaza which around fourteen hundred palestinians were killed. clashes have erupted between hundreds of stone throwing protesters and police in the turkish city obvious stamboul and the country's mainly kurdish selfies it follows a deadly airstrike launched by turkish warplanes against suspected kurdish militants on the border with iraq however local officials say the attack killed thirty five smugglers who were mistaken for insurgents the assault marks one of the largest one day civilian death tolls during turkey's twenty seven year drive against the guerrillas. swapping tensile town for russian city with an olympic round an american and armenian taxi driver has turned his back on the bright lights

of hollywood to share in the wind of sochi the venue for the next winter olympics are. caught a ride. you know this life los angeles is very good one of them speaks russian english and there me me i'm a man of the world he came back to sochi after a decade in los angeles where he learned that his hometown was being propelled into the world stage still. when the boys said voted no be a winter games in sochi i didn't believe them i said. it's in the very south on the black sea coast but then i found out that it's true and hopefully it's going to happen as planned. the massive olympic construction effort here attracted pulte two thousand skilled workers from all over the world poor times the construction staff of the two thousand and twelve london games as well as those there are also people like what i've done taking support jobs working restaurants taxi firm some stores

he says being you cabdriver in sochi is nothing like his home improvement job back and will say injuries. the traffic here is too much for a city of this size too many cars there's traffic in downtown los angeles but it dissolves much quicker. even so what i've done hopes the new routes and bridges being built for the olympics will help solve the problem although much of his family are with him and so she would have done misses the relative celeb behind in a way as well as the tinseltown magic where he occasionally brushed shoulders with the stars. and i are some of the. thank you. thank so much for your job. thank you so she may have no hollywood walk of fame but our guide says there are some movie related landmarks. that people call that building the titanic and officially of

course it does look a lot like that big ship and since it's built on top of the hill it has to be. really tough and pretty to greasy views from them. bringing countries together is what the olympics are about and what a dance homecoming shows how family spread from the hollywood hills to the mountain slopes of the southern russia can be clues despite being a world apart. our team sochi. and town and take a look what's happening in the world of business with. thanks mario lanza very welcome to the program good to have your company twenty eleven's been a testing here for investors as the world economy struggled for growth stock markets here and russia also suffered yet some sector speak to be bucked the trend general bushell looks at the rollercoaster ride of the last twelve months and what to

expect in the new year. gold has been an exceptional investment it reached all time highs of over nineteen hundred dollars per ounce in september six hundred percent in a decade but since then the price has slid back and broca's normal thing to put to fall further in twenty twelve fearing the bubble will burst. the dollar and euro remain risks switching your roubles into the greenback would have brought a small return but changing into the euro would have meant losses and unemployment both in the states and the european union mean those currencies continue to be unstable. have become much more reliable the credit crunch wiped out riskier lenders while the state's brought in guarantees insuring all deposits up to seven hundred thousand rubles some banks now offer healthy return of over fourteen percent a year. most weeks merger of russia's stock exchanges has cut paul

twenty eleven the more six slipped eighteen percent as political uncertainty worried investors but analysts invest carefully expect a strong rebound in twenty twelve as the new government settles predicting a return to previous years when russian markets were the world's best performing. let's have a look at the markets now well is high on stronger jobs and housing data from the u.s. how whether the gains a limited by report showing an unexpected increase in the u.s. inventory is. now trading at one hundred eight dollars per barrel while the w.t.f. is that one hundred dollars per barrel. on the rise folding the gains and wall street weighing on the sentiment in hong kong is the latest h.s.b.c. studies saying chinese manufacturing has cooled further and still some property funds and banks are rising this hour in tokyo exporters lead to the gates. and the

russian market saw flat to positive trade so investors on likely to make any big moves ahead along new year holiday break in russia when the markets will be closed . and let's not have a look at some of the individual moves on the my six energy majors a high of the solace supported by stronger crude got spun up on the gas from is gaining point eight percent while oil company a look or oil is a third of a cent in the black and financials are also on the rise will be to be bank one percent higher. but russia has enjoyed a persistently strong oil price this year has been good for the budget but it's done little to propel domestic equities high and there's been some catching up to do us to monday for much greta explains. russian equities which have traded lower by twenty percent in two thousand and eleven from two thousand and ten they have a lot of way to go to catch up with where the ore price adjusts they should be given

the fact that because of prices a relatively high russian sovereign risks are very low yields on russian government debt of contracts it actually in two thousand and eleven so again there's more catch up to do the risk is that the government doesn't do anything and doesn't listen to the issues that have been raised because of these protests in parliament true election if they don't do anything materially soon after the presidential election i think for investors are going to lose faith that there is actually a reform agenda they want to see very material changes being made. on monday from a critic of that and that wraps up the business program all due back in about fifteen minutes with another business update and you can always find more stories no website r.t. dot com slash business.

whether you dive from high or to the depths. catch the power of the wind or drift in the beauty of the currents. being well prepared is a must and if you're lucky enough you'll never forget your experience we only need them a screen that's going to be heaven. in the flight see up close and below.