worldwide news live from the heart of moscow this is artsy with me rule received shy two u.s. warships have entered an area iran is using for large scale naval war games the maneuvers are taking place in neutral waters close to the crucial strait of hormuz it's the major global oil supply route that indeed the meantime iran has threatened to block washington says the vessels are there on a routine mission but as artie's guy nature can explains the worst case scenario could be ultimately 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 tanker shipped oil passes through that strait it's a major oil artery a potential cut off might cost turmoil in the global oil market although a saudi official says that gulf nations were ready to offset any loss of. 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 rain in 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 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. reporting right meantime foreign affairs analyst richard hadari and thinks that the u.s. should moderate its hawkish streak and actually seek dialogue with iran of course

in every negotiation it takes two to tango so. you can get in negotiate and you might. be trying to resuscitate him maybe. in two thousand and nine we. brokered by turkey just. obama a few months ago and. i think just after the recent american wants to just as a sign of just. only the statement that he should be willing to engage in negotiations with iran to reduce its nuclear enrichment so i think the level of interest in negotiation what the americans do with. the west does not want to compromise and wants to. in the area. really have. a peaceful nuclear program under the auspices of the treaty i think the best solution illustrated by. step by step bringing.

compromise. on every level. you know there. will be and. will be a corresponding. and unfortunately i do not see why the united states of america is not considering this very good. has been supported by a lot of merging powers and business that pool has been assessing the market's reaction to the whole standoff he said it's not likely to drive all process very high for the moment but the situation could benefit russia in the long term. certainly in the worst case scenario prices would go ahead in leaps and bounds but at the moment the market is not really factoring that it seems to incremental rises where the risk seems to be getting a bit but do you really believe this is going to lead to an all out escalation potentially administration where there is one silver lining in this for russia

because russia. russia schools and is heavy and it's very similar to iranian so it has to benefit when reading supplies approaching questions so we've seen that actually a premium for russian oil at the moment and on our website i call mother you can share your opinions on this story i told you to get involved tell us how you think the strait of hormuz deadlock well ultimately if the number one about half of those who voted so far think the u.s. all use the standoff as a pretext to attack iran just over a third say one had any immediate consequences being just the latest move another long ongoing game only eight percent think iran will teach their western lesson by cutting off vital supply and even fewer think tehran will achieve its and the goal of preventing sanctions. at r.t. dot com. it's good to have you with us here on r.t. still to come later in the program the final countdown. ladies of lines of police

started looming started running towards me starting shooting towards our direction started tear gassing my cameraman with tear gas i was injured that's when everything changed let me bring you the view from in the side the occupy movement is where you showed from a new up close and personal perspective. this is. history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven. now or seven minutes past the hour here in moscow egyptian rights groups have accused the military rulers of using what they describe as mubarak era tools of oppression that's after soldiers and police raided the offices of ten non governmental organizations including some foreign ones of all the details here's a tease. thursday jip carried out unprecedented armed raids on at least seventeen

high profile human rights and pro-democracy organizations all across the country and it's been done in a very brutal and very unpleasant way policemen and soldiers swept into office into a gated people didn't let anybody you know out didn't actually let the people make calls to their relatives and eventually seized computers and documents from the offices among those targeted organizations were the u.s. government funded national democratic institute the international republican institute whose chairman is now republican senator john mccain and freedom house so as you can see. sponsored from abroad especially for america have been targeted washington whose military aid to egypt amounts at one point three billion dollars has been very quick to react expressing its. disappointment with what happened in egypt on thursday call it highly provocative and call it only did to try to resolve it as soon as possible and to return the stuff that has been taken from the n.g.o.s

employees the organizations themselves have also responded they've condemned the raids carried out in egypt. claiming it reminded them about tough times and egypt's former dictator hosni mubarak in egypt is going through tough times of course these days clashes between demonstrators and police and soldiers still continued all across the country continuing claim lives just last week it ended in the dust on leave at least fifteen people and these days a supreme council of military forces egypt's new authority is often criticised for being too slow and too and determined in promised democratic reforms struggling to cling to power very sensitive about any influence especially for women who are very sensitive about control and they're trying to keep power and to control everything and of course as part of this for a new military government might even suspect these organizations n.g.o.s sponsored

from abroad of support and of sponsoring protesters all across egypt. his memory for national reporting what our foreign policy analyst stuck to addle shamu and believes that the military government is making sure that it stays in power but the people are determined to call it continue calling for democratic change this is part of the military the supreme council of armed forces way of making sure all of the the you know who you should and basically is small to do that to the type of government they want because that's those are the same generals by the way who worked for mubarak to go but really the military has to step aside 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 indicate that despite the sacrifices there have been and are coming up in the program that will be after the next in the next hour rather an hour to the guests on cross talk discussing how the egyptian revolution in february set a trend for similar movements or across the clamp. you have the so-called easter of the muslim world teaching us now new ways of protesting wisconsin have been less than a month after tahrir square after the removal of mubarak was certainly very inspired by it i had people calling me from wisconsin asking me to put them in touch with the protesters in tahrir square so they could figure out how they did it all across the world it's about people taking back their countries and whether the united states or any other power there's only so much that foreign troops can do at the end of the day it's up to the people themselves.

and you can see cross talk about an hour and twenty minutes from now large scale and the regime arches are being held all across syria it's a bit fresh reports of violent crackdowns against protesters in the country activists also suggest that over one hundred people have been killed by security forces since tuesday when the arab observers began their fact finding mission in syria's flashpoints however it's hard to verify the information coming from the country clashes began in march between government forces and protesters with both sides being armed afshin rattansi a journalist who used to work in the region says the difference between arab league reports on the mainstream coverage showed that the opposition is winning the media war. it's certainly the western media viewpoint that we must believe the we must believe opposition groups it seems that any mobile footage is no excepted as

a source certainly what the arab league said about holmes very different a great deal from the 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 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 the propaganda battle and i don't forget that our website also has a more useful comment and analysis a quick look at what's standing by for you right now at our dot com a deadly delicacy police in some petersburg seize almost two hundred kilos of cappy they found it stored deep within. you ain't seen nothing

yet a mystical creature from russia's wilderness comes to town to shine a light on the less fortunate you can find out those details at r.t. dot com. so nearly a quarter past the hour here in moscow greeks and italians were devastated by enormous cuts and tax hikes imposed by their governments this year two thousand and twelve promises more of the same a ridiculous going to report on the struggling europeans who say their new leaders are offering them little to help because they were to blame in the first place. 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 but 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 for. the disastrous euro project in the first place so it really is pretty annoying then out now in charge of all 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 the rain and 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 deck numbers these have been the only steps so far undertaken by european governments both old and new that's leave us give us a game and the people who think that maria monti came to help italy out of the crisis or are going to help spain mistakenly that those who are here position was in the seats of power on representing the interests of goldman sachs and other major corporation this fall by east and there is always the chance that things could get even worse there is a real possibility. in the mediterranean countries that will see gover. 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 that we thought we said goodbye to back in ninety forty five if the technocrats fail to reach the right economies 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 the coast go r.t. it's a good to have you with us today here on arts here fire crews have managed to put out a blaze on a nuclear submarine at a shipyard in northwest russia the military says there is no nuclear threat as the reactor had been shut down even before the fire started firefighters continue to cool down the submarine's hull with water to make sure it doesn't reignite some of the crew remain on board to monitor the vessels systems nine were injured after scaffolding around the sub was set on fire. i know that's going to some of the headlines from around the world for you in our world update here on. israel has

carried out an asse strike against palestinian militants in the gaza strip killing one man and wounding another the army says it prevented an attempt to fire rockets at israel israel recently announced it is preparing a full scale offensive against just three years after a difference in the blockaded strip. in the southeast thousands of mourners attended a funeral ceremony to pay their last respects to the victims of a strike thirty five civilians were killed on wednesday after the turkish forces launched an attack on what was thought to be a group of rebels based in iraq the incident start up. in the region and protests were held in cities in turkey and iraq. as two thousand and twelve creeps closer we continue to look back at the stories that dominated last year this time it's the occupy movement that expose social and financial injustice in some of the most unexpected places.

i remember at the start of the so-called so-called arab spring and 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 be over do you. influence in fact that politics has. 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 they occupied. 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 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 with literally thousands of people who have gotten together to speak to shouts 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 mounted on horseback sort of out into the crowd hurting some of the protesters seeing with my own eyes for the first time the excessive level of force. and the 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 officers several hundred of them. armed to the teeth you know what bins out sticks out

a line of protesters behind me you know i thought i was there this protected almost impartial observer there to tell the story but when these lines of police started moving at me started moving forward towards me starting shooting towards our direction started tear gassing my cameramen was tear gassed i was injured and that's when it really changed for me there are at least a hundred in 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 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 activism where the people there the protesters there were so much more outraged so much more ready for a radical fundamental change with us in 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

court shut down on the member second you know there are thousands thousands and tens of thousands of people who were gathered who were marching around to many 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 fore 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. sticks their hands baton from hand 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 where we al of. 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. and an american citizen i feel that i am here to tell the stories and i have a right to tell their stories and that is part of what this country is fundamentally founded on and sort of experiencing firsthand the loss of that being the inability to do anything though the feeling of powerlessness and smallness. that's something that i think i'm not going to forget for quite a long time. and that is the final reports on the personal reflections from our team of international correspondents on the events that shaped two thousand and eleven if you missed any of them just. dot com and find them all there for all the time that i was at a retreat he is next with your business update.

thanks rory maybe the holiday season but negotiators in moscow and still working hard to secure a deal on gas ukraine has to make this pipeline system is worth around twenty billion dollars and once you will nine billion dollars discount on gas supplies if the two countries create a consortium to transit gas is not outright rejecting the idea speaking to gas problems head prime minister putin said talks must go on but if you go national i ask you to continue the negotiations as ukraine will remain a strategic partner for treating gas and considering the growing demand from european consumers and also the several countries to warn down nuclear energy ukraine's pipeline system will undoubtedly remain in demand. twenty eleven has been a testing year for investors as the world economy struggles for growth stock

markets here in russia are also suffered yet some sectors spectacularly bucked the trend down your bushel 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 cage but since then the price has slid back and brokers no more playing tippett to fall further in twenty twelve for the bubble will burst. the dollar euro remains risks switching your roubles into the greenback would have brought a small return but changing into the euro would have been lost is the point that the employment both in the states and the european union mean those currencies continue to be unstable. and have become much more reliable the credit crunch wiped out riskier lenders while the brought in guarantees insuring all

deposits up to seven hundred thousand roubles 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. expect a strong rebound in twenty twelve as the new government settles predicting a return to previous years when markets were the world's best performing. secular markets this hour how they're faring in the world is laughter rising sharply recently following iran's right to destruction and to the vital strait of hormuz brant is trading at just below one hundred seven dollars per barrel light sweet it is ten eleven cents under ninety nine dollars for. stocks in europe positive this hour germany's finance minister ruled out a euro zone breakup the forty closed in the short session up point one percent the

dax is still up point. fifteen minutes left on the part for russia and it's looking quite positive although trade. has been the head of the new year holidays the r.t.s. m i six again in one half percent each company is gaining one point three percent financials are also on the up but we could the market and floor is a standout again it's up six percent after announcing plans to boost passenger numbers twenty five percent. russia's enjoyed a persistently strong oil price this year it's been good for the budget but it's done little to propel domestic companies this means there's some catching up to do as tom monday from a community bank explains to russian equities which are 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 oil prices just they should be given the fact that because our prices are relatively high russian sovereign risks are

very low yields on russian government debt of contract 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 parliamentary 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 the headlines are next on our.

white stream cascading from mountain slopes the view is midsomer much. of this beauty brings death and a speed of more than two hundred kilometers per. step is not a long one on. you're just joining us a very warm welcome to this is artsy life from moscow are your headlines now the gulf is on edge two u.s. warships sail close to an iranian naval exercise that's right next to a crucial oil route that tehran has been threatening to block. egypt's ruling generals were accused of terror any as raids a staged against the offices of foreign human rights groups the military say are stirring up trouble.