it is right now it's running two thousand and twelve in tokyo and seoul but here in moscow the countdown continues with only five hours until the rings in the new year do stay with us for the red square coverage on rule research showing the new year has already arrived in the pacific parts of asia and russia's far eastern is making its gradual sweep across the globe as we do prepare to ring in two thousand and twelve we are looking back at the key events that shaped two thousand and eleven it's already been dubbed the year of protests analyses and he said now it has been covering some of them. two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most vengeful year in years the killing of bin laden after a decade long manhunt libya's gadhafi after months of nato bombing and the death of

north korea's kim jong il don't even begin to illustrate twenty eleven. time joe's the protester as person of the year and although there were different slogans signs and demands of solutions twenty eleven will ultimately be remembered as the year people came out onto the streets the arab spring bloomed into a european summer which harvested an american autumn from cairo to california moscow to madrid to her ear to occupy global rallies shared common themes but if one thing stood out in the middle east and north africa alone it was protests that lead down one road regime change. tunisia and egypt got rid of their dictators without war but libya was not so lucky

nato and allies began a humanitarian mission with a fierce bombing campaign the critics called it a mislabeled invasion to take down gadhafi for benefits the only reason they're interested in with libya is about the oil you hear anybody screaming and yelling about all those people last week they were killed in the ivory coast or the sudan gadhafi was brutally killed in october as the world watched the graphic video go viral thousands of civilians were killed over months of bombing and twenty twelve neared syria found itself in a similar set up for intervention russia and china fearing a repeat of the situation in libya a civil war intensifies this is a direct. effect at that. clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russian shined on the war and on the other side much more david was in league protests continue in egypt libya syria and many more arab countries as the year ends. the battle to save the

drowning single currency left to board rooms and banks in twenty eleven and flooded the streets of europe most commonly and violently in athens greek debt became the centerpiece of the euro crisis protests ranged against desperate austerity cuts to qualify for i.m.f. bailout germany and france fine for influence in the debt ridden zone i think we will see an exit of greece given the situation in which the greek economy find itself has become really unavoidable draining the economy of big brother germany can't go on forever greece and italy are now led by on a lark to brussels back technocrat leaders who are trying to curb the crisis coming into a new year critics say twenty eleven bell outs or bust was the beginning of the end for the single european currency there's every chance the euro is going to crash and burn. london burned for days in the

summer of twenty eleven what began as a peaceful protests demanding justice over the death of a twenty nine year old man who was shot by police turned into days of riots and left authorities helpless talks of possibly bringing out the military because the shops were looted car set on fire and windows smashed across the u.k. the police the job center all the banks everything that's happening the recession you know there's a lot of anger about that social experts also through a fountain multicultural program and racism into the mix. the prince. and a sense of the place a certain. but. the play is just a racist as well the riots faded but the problems are still passing some say only a spark is needed to set the public off again.

occupy wall street became a household name in the u.s. and around the world but when the protests began in september if you were talking about it the mainstream media stayed silent until seven hundred people were arrested on the brooklyn bridge and that was truly based in the end of his roots of american politics but he said. they are disorganized they look funny when i protest nobody seems to know but negative coverage didn't stop us from spreading from small towns to huge ports occupied was not going anywhere grates on campus heavy handed police and burning pepper spray only helped occupy grow and spread their message of the need for economic equality and an end to corporate greed their slogan became we are the ninety nine percent and they the rich the one percent from

oakland to boston the more people occupied the more brutality became more evident by. what you do with your. right our police forces have been militarized they are working more in cooperation with the pentagon there. and being given military surplus quitman that has been kind of designed for use in war and this is something that. needs to treating the public as you would treat an enemy a public that has promised to come out in full force in twenty twelve. parliamentary elections were the push behind tens of thousands of people coming out onto the streets of moscow after allegations the december duma vote was raked ha ha ha ha the protest at least fifty thousand strong the largest in recent history call

for free and fair elections and remained peaceful ruling party united russia lost popularity in the vote with official results putting their numbers at almost fifty percent but experts say a sixteen percent drop from two thousand and seven should be taken as a warning i think a lot of people wanted to punish. united russia for having power for so long maybe not doing everything they could protest organized by vast groups of opposition members are set to continue in two thousand and twelve next year russia along with the u.s. and france holds presidential elections which makes it a safe bet people will be out on the streets in twenty twelve in europe america and around the world and he's now a party moscow. and in greece protests and strikes have become as common as tax hikes and job cuts and much of the public feel that the only way they can

vent their anger at government imposed austerity measures is to go to the streets and out loud i think has been on the shoots pressure from the e.u. to make cuts in spending to qualify for a bailout money it needs to of for natural collapse. has been covering the protests in greece over the past year now live for us in athens the greek the brink of what has been forced in the budget cuts to pay its debts but what about the impact on the minds of ordinary people. what it's just been such an exhausting year for the people here in greece as the country and indeed the usa face some of the biggest ever challenges and never really has a feature of the united states place within it seems so. now this year it's been all about debt we've seen countless bailouts throughout the year insane in here increased that's led to feel stares he misses being in place in the country known real times to people that's meant job loss on

a huge scale it's meant tax hikes cuts to social services and of course that is led in turn to this huge outpouring of public anger that we've seen time and again and certainly here this year on the streets of athens now i'm joined now by patti to satiric a professor from the university of h.p. and thank you so much for joining us again i'm going to speak in the sun on syntagma square and you were talking about putting an end to this vicious cycle if bailouts and debts and austerity measures at the end of the year we enter any closer to being an end in sight for the euro crisis no. we're in a very deep. and recession under snow just greece is the whole euro zone is just about to enter an official face of recession so no there's no light. at the end of the tunnel this is what we're experiencing out of old were being told we're going to experience next year which means another here. is exactly the proof of the

failure of this. that's why we need a radical tentative these things cannot go on anymore in this way it's a society in despair people are in despair. unemployment has roots and seen before eleven public spending has been cut. salaries minus thirty minus thirty five percent we're being told we're going to endure maybe more ten more years. to reach that level when we have the first time we were told we had to take six so dirty misery so there's no end in sight when we see the protest movement. become a real try to change stuff in the end was saying need prime minister think any real changes come about from the going from no that's was exactly the objective of the.

government which was dictated that the natural course of things would have been either a new election or around to in both case. we would have had a strong rejection of all this polish it so the government was in a way dictated by the european union and the i.m.f. said no you can a full refund and no you cannot have an election you are going to have a european central bank or as prime minister whether you like it or not you're going first to vote all this misery stuff the people in the streets covered take that and then you can have an election but this is a mockery of democracy. thank you very much for joining us and of course and moving towards next year they selections as people here hope will happen at some point early on in the year but that's still very very uncertain what we seem. this year really was the country the really made us all sit up and take note it bought the euro crisis much much closer to home and of course that contagion spreading not

just in greece but of course the year is saying as well here today on syntagma square such different scenes to some of the ones that we seeing today of course is people get ready to celebrate new year's celebrations perhaps a temporary reprieve friend what's been certainly an extremely hard year for the people here and looks set to be another tough one in twenty twelve hour or two so sorry for life for us and so many thanks. well i still had fear that our hero what changes would you like to see in two thousand and twelve. noble borders more borders let's just all be one country. this is so difficult to travel. with just hours to go before the new year. hits the streets of new york to get some two thousand and eleven and two thousand and twelve. plus you can also get a firsthand account of the year's major events from the r.t.

correspondent who covered as they happened testimonies waiting for you on our website. this is. history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven. a quarter past the hour in moscow let's turn our attention to syria now where the two largest opposition groups have agreed to unite against president bashar assad continues across the country tens of thousands of people have held rallies against the regime and security forces are reportedly in reaction opened fire on the people government supporters of taking to the streets in several cities as well including the capital damascus arab league observers are currently monitoring the situation in five provinces gripped by under arrest they would be aware of reports that dozens have been killed since friday

alone adding to the figure of five thousand the un says have lost their lives in total the government blames armed gangs for causing the violence the journalist ramzy root who used to work in the region says the conflict is being managed from outside. this is a real worry we do not know what americans are cooking right now obviously they are they are thinking of a much greater political context than syria i think iran they are thinking the stability. of iraq in the course of american withdrawal and they are also and most importantly they are thinking israel how will the political vacuum if such a vacuum is created in damascus affect israel israel's security and the northern border particularly the golan heights front for israel cannot afford another security nightmare from their point of view force to be added to that of south lebanon and gaza and this is really mostly what the americans are very worried

about they are worried about. israel's security and their units of concern about democracy or human rights in syria or anywhere else in the middle east and i think the americans are yet to find a formula that would assure them that in the absence of assad there will be a political rejean that they can trust and i think this is what the americans are trying to ensure right now. is gone there is going to be another alternative that america can work with and until the americans find an answer to this question we are going to have this this conflict raging on for a long time. you watching our t.v. now egypt faces the loss of over one and a half billion u.s. dollars an aid it's in response to thursday's crackdown on nongovernmental organizations in cairo egyptian soldiers raided the offices of ten n.g.o.s confiscating computers and documents cairo suspects that some of the groups received illegal funding from countries including the u.s.

could be using the cash to start up on rest in egypt the country's military rulers have promised to end the crackdown and return promised get into a real egypt is in the middle of a three stage parliamentary election which has been marred by violent protests the military has been in control since president hosni mubarak stepped down in february so i suspect the generals are reluctant to relinquish power. too liberal element is the most adamant element when it comes to the egyptian army turning over power to a civilian government these so far they're the most adamant and the egyptian army. does not want to do that it has a great prestige stake in this it has agreed economic stake in this the officer corps and i don't see turning over complete control to the government and my guess is that the islamic groups. that somehow made an

accommodation with that reality that present reality and foreign policy analyst dr deal shamu thinks the egyptian people are determined to just see out the remnant mubarak's regime. this is part of the. the supreme council of armed forces way of making sure all of this. 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. so that's basically is part of that struggle is that of illusion going to go forward or is that going to be a mall that and some dude in the submissive role to the military but really the military has to step aside and this is the. government come to power once the election are

held and the election should be held as soon as possible they will not give up the bar 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 were not tolerate another military dictatorship in the country i think all the evidence indicate that despite the sacrifices. part is now a twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow this is our iran plans to test fire a long range missiles in the persian gulf over the next few days it's all part of navy drills which been increasing tension in the region almost daily and led to saber rattling from the u.s. which chance deployed warships in the area how correspondent guy nature kind of reports. day after day we see the degree of tension rising iranian and american warships kind of brushed shoulders earlier as u.s. ships passed the area where terror on is holding a ten day military exercise the u.s.

fifth fleet said they crossed the strait of hormuz unhindered and that he was a routine passage iran's right in to cut off the strait of hormuz which is the major golf oil artery forty percent of the world's tanker shipped oil passes through that strait the u.s. said they would not tolerate any disruption of supplies which suggests that if you ran goes through with their threats we might see a military showdown there but now based on the statements that we hear washington seems to think that iran is bluffing but right now you won't find itself in a situation where its main source of livelihood namely oil exports is in danger because of the looming sanctions and the threats that are coming from iran indicate that it's ready to take action to protect its interests if attacked it's almost sure to retaliate right now flexing its muscle showing off its capabilities during their naval military exercise a touching upon some of the latest decisions 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 for their transactions president obama has yet to sign the bill and that's going to be a severe blow to the uranium economy around eighty percent of its revenues depend on crude sales e.u. ministers say. a decision on whether or not to boycott iranian oil will be made in coming weeks the west says all the rand has to do to avoid sanctions is to give up their nuclear program iran says they're not going to do and they're not doing anything wrong by pursuing a peaceful nuclear program for civilian purposes some experts believe cornering iran like that by sanctions creates a powder keg which could blow up at a slightest spark and the potential confrontation over the strait of hormuz can be that spark. now he's got a nature to kind of courting now iran has actually signaled its readiness to resume nuclear talks with major powers progress has been at

a standstill since early november that's when the un atomic watchdog reported that iran appeared to be designing a nuclear bomb something which tehran vigorously denies the editor of consortium news a robert perry says washington is using the allegations simply to demonize iran but we could see war we could see some some kind of conflict. there's been a propaganda campaign in the united states very similar to what we saw before the invasion of iraq an audit of the major news organizations have been hyping up threats about iran. we've seen questionable allegations being given a great deal of weight here in the united states people have a tremendous animosity toward. the leader of iran so i think you have the kind of climate here led can then lead to something else and then of course you have israel which has been which has been making a point that it considers. the iranian nuclear program an existential threat so you

add those combustible elements together and one false move by any party a mistake or intentional or probably cation could lead to catastrophe all right and let's get to some other news for you in brief this hour to nigeria where violence is continuing after a series of christmas day attacks killed dozens the most recent blast occurred near a mall in the northern city of my the goody it's just as worshippers were leaving friday prayers officials say the attackers killed four and injured several others an army spokesman has blamed the blast on the islamist group boko haram tens of thousands have fled their homes since christmas day and the militant group launched a series of attacks on churches throughout the country. demonstrators in turkey have clashed with police during a second day of protests over a military strike that killed on wednesday thousands rallied in the city of the

year after the funerals of kurdish civilians took place at least thirty people were arrested as police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them pro kurdish parties have now requested a u.n. investigation into the strike. the son of the late north korean leader kim jong il kim jong un has been formally named supreme commander of the country's armed forces senior government officials declared kim jong un head of the communist party on thursday following his father's memorial move are seen as the twenty seven year old consolidating his already over the nation kim jong il who had ruled since nine hundred ninety four died of a heart attack two weeks ago. now a new york times square is one of the iconic spots to meet the new year so it seemed a good time to send our own big apple residents asked the people there what they'll be happy to see the back of in two thousand and twelve.

two thousand and twelve is now a riving what would you rid the world of in the new year this week let's talk about that i think wall street protesting because it doesn't really help anything at all if you ask me i'm a business student it's my fifth year in college and i just i don't know what the point is i understand what they're fighting for and i grieve for but for me i'm like you just taking up space i would probably get better after gambling do you think the world be a better place without those things yeah i think you would probably be lots of benefits yeah i agree i think a lot of people would protest about oh i have no doubt a lot of people would protest definitely including the government because they make so much money out of it would be occupy the liquor store time yeah that's right noble borders and more borders let's just all be one country. because it's so difficult to travel or. people trying to score points seem politics. would make the

clean up in politics than twenty two out made them to use things to good for the world to not just get to get reelected oh poverty for sure so how do you think the world leader should go about starting that. well distribute the wealth intolerance you'd make everyone tolerate all different cultures yeah. that's a tall order i know well you asked if i could religion probably banner legend all of a spiritual but religion as a religion we think the differences. around. control no matter what you'd like to abolish internationally let's just hope two thousand and twelve brings us a little closer to a better world. and that we are always interested in your point of view so they were asking what do you

think two thousand and two. we'll bring you can log on to our website. to take part in our latest poll which could also be nominated as a two thousand and eleven is most depressing so what do you expect for the new year here are the numbers sixty four percent of you say. half the world slightly less than a quarter a speck the financial political. seven percent a pairing for more protests on fuel. but only a minority think the new year will bring solutions to existing problems as you go online. and here's what else we're prepared for you on our web site www dot com so i have this i'll be a snow man invades moscow school frosties major amusement park in the center of the russian capital just ahead of the new year celebrations that we are covering live in just a few hours here and also in some other parts of the world are people already greeting two thousand and twelve you can watch our life with it on our web site throughout the evening and as i said they did today our special coverage from

obvious correspondents are actually going to be throughout the evening here in moscow with their personal reflections on the key events of two thousand and by the way it's about half an hour's time the new year in china so we'll keep you posted throughout that you can hear what i say just a few moments it's going to be spotlight but before that a recount of the headlines see you shortly.

witnesses. to history in the making of. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven.

or the. washing off the line from moscow with just the last few hours of two thousand and ten dollars to take it down the final hours we do look back at the year that ushered in the protests so will war and regime change uprisings in the arab world as well as public fury in america and across europe all those stories dominating for years headlines. syria's opposition and unites against the government all amid a new wave of violence which is reportedly left doesn't.