if with me wrong receive shape the new year has already arrived in the pacific asia russia's far east as it makes its a gradual sweep across the globe and as we prepare to ring in two thousand and twelve here in the russian capital we are looking back at the key events that shaped two thousand and eleven it's already being dubbed the year of protests in eastern iowa has been covering some of the big ones two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most eventful 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. times chose the protester as person of the year and although there were different slogan 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 order 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 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 that 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 that's 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. act that i read a clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russia and china on the what you know on the other side much more david was in libya protests continue in egypt libya syria and many more arab countries as the year ends. the battle to save the drowning single currency left 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 raged against desperate austerity cuts to qualify for i.m.f.

bailouts germany and france vying for influence in the debt ridden so i think we will see an exit of greece given the the situation in which the greek economy find itself has become really unavoidable draining the economy of big euro 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. 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 bars to 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 felt multicultural programme and racism into the mix. institutional. 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 then truly based in the end of his fruits of american politics but. they are disorganized they look but there's one of the

protesting nobody seems to know but negative coverage didn't stop us from spreading from small towns to huge ports occupied was not going anywhere raids on camps 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. taliban became more evident was the in the the us europe if you. are our police forces have been militarized they are working more in cooperation with the pentagon they're buying and being given

military surplus the quick meant that has been kind of designed for use in war and this is something that leads 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 wrote was raped. by . the protest at least fifty thousand strong the largest in recent history called for free and fair elections and remains peaceful ruling party united russia lost popularity in the vote with official results putting their numbers i don't most 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 said no way r.t. moscow. and this year saw major protests in britain including a wave of looting and destruction in august other spread from london to various other english settings authorities struggle to contain the country's worst unrest in decades groups of young people on the rampage said buildings and cars on fire raided stores on four police with bottles and fireworks our correspondent laura smith witnessed the events unfold as you know joins us live from london. laura good to see you as i was saying you cover the event so from the capital there tell us

about the looting that we saw spread across the u.k. many saying it was history in the making. yes i mean that's certainly how it seems from here and how it seemed at the time when it kicked off at the beginning of august that i mean we as journalists really couldn't believe what we were what we were seeing and hearing as soon as dogless fell on the night of the six when it started the unrest began the riots saying the looting of shops and it all stems as my colleague a nice a set from a demonstration following the alleged murder of a young black man in the north of london by police but there was a chill for him outside the police station the people that judge that no one senior enough had come out to the police station to tell them what had happened and really the writing grief from that started in the north of london but it spread all across the country interestingly only affecting english cities not the other countries in the u.k. which which is a phenomenon that people still don't seem to have managed to get set to get to the

bottom of that the most frightening thing about that time really was that the police didn't seem to be in control of anything that was going on young people and older people who it is now alleged were the ringleaders behind the violence were going around london and then off to bits manchester. and other cities essentially burning and looting anything they could find they still anything they could get their hands on i saw one man walking out of a shop with a vacuum cleaner on his arm his wife would've been happy when he got home and other people stealing trainers track seats ipod's you know that kind of consumer thing that people young people particularly in this country really really want but don't feel that they can afford in divorce and we were trying to picture all the looting and the fallen soldiers taking place as you mentioned a moment ago the police seem to paula during all of this almost to me to allow them to run amok because how else do you how do you handle such chaos what kind of

reaction did we get from the government over this. but as you say the police really didn't know what to do particularly for the first two nights it seemed that they were. saying and but in huge numbers and then charging into these no go areas where cars have been set on fire shops have been set on fire and then just retreating because they didn't know what to do when they got that the government many senior members of the government weren't holiday x. of course it's middle of august so eventually the prime minister and the him secretary on the mare of london boris johnson came home from holiday and and essentially told the young people of said how naughty they were and how they really should be should be sort of knocking down and going to school and all that kind of thing which didn't make a lot of difference to the young people out on the street they really. david cameron the prime minister didn't really doesn't really seem to know how to talk to these young people and certainly he didn't have much impact and it wasn't until the really the full night that the police seem to manage to get these these people under control but in the meantime of course the government was replacing all these draconian measures was a kind of bringing in the military to try to put this on rest out so i and it

seemed that the public during that time certainly agreed with them which is very unusual for a liberal society such as. a more i really think one of the key point for me to touch down here when we talk about these protests when you talk about the some of the it wasn't just a case of angry you it's i mean the demographic of those who are out of all what was very broad wasn't that. it was and i mean the riots the riots weren't the only trouble if you like the unrest that we've seen in this country this year there has been eight of the major protests on the streets of london and of other cities against a backdrop of course of austerity cuts in major areas in education in welfare in pension provision we've also seen bailouts given to the eurozone countries people are saying why is tax money going abroad when there's no money to pay for essential services in this country and of course to foreign wars that own going conflict in afghanistan and a new foreign conflict we saw this year in libya so people from all sorts of

backgrounds have been out on the streets we've seen lots of major demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people out from the streets we've seen two general strikes here. in this country the latest one in november and we talked to people he was taking part in these demonstrations. they said if the government doesn't listen to us we will carry on and it seems that the rioters were saying a similar thing if the government doesn't listen to us we will come out into the streets again and smash the place up. live from london many things. i still have for you this hour here on r t what changes were you would you like to see in two thousand and twelve. noble waters and more borders let's just all be one country. this is so difficult to travel around with just hours to go before the new year to use it florida oftenest hits the streets of new york to see what people that want to see the back and. forth you can also get first hand accounts over the

years major events and from our correspondents who cup with them. for those testimonies standing by for you on our web site right now to talk. with this is. history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven. all right let's turn our attention about of syria now where the two largest opposition groups have agreed to unite against president bashar al assad violence continues now across the country and tens of thousands of people have held rallies against the regime security forces have reportedly opened fire in response a government supporters have taken 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 an arrest they would be aware of reports that dozens have been killed since friday alone adding to the figure of five

thousand the u.n. says have lost their lives in total the government blames armed gangs for causing the violence but journalist ramsey rued who used to work in the region says a conflict is actually being managed from outside. this is a real worry we do not know what the americans are cooking right now obviously they are they are thinking of a much greater political context than syria the i thinking iran they are thinking the stability of iraq in the most 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 of the golan heights front 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 the most that would the americans are very worried about they are worried about. israel security very little concern about

democracy or human rights in syria or anywhere else in the middle east i think the americans are yet to find a formula that will 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 a new. other alternative america i can work with and until the americans find an answer to this question we are going to have this this conflict rages on for a long time and i'm from syria to that of egypt egypt now facing the loss of over one and a half billion dollars in aid from the u.s. in response to thursday's crackdown on non governmental organizations in cairo egyptian soldiers raided the offices of ten n.g.o.s camos getting computers and documents kyra suspects that some of the groups receive illegal funding from

countries including america and could be using the cash to store up under arrest in egypt the country's military rulers have promised to end the crackdown and return home a skate of material egypt is in the middle of a three stage parliamentary election which has been marred by violent protests the military's been in control since president hosni mubarak stepped down in february some observers suspect the generals are reluctant to relinquish power. element is the most adamant element when it comes to the egyptian army turning over power to a civilian government at least 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 economics that it can use the officer corps and i don't see turning over complete control to this government

and my guess is that the islamists groups. that somehow made an accommodation with that reality that present reality and foreign policy analyst dr ideal shamu things the egyptian people are determined to see out of the remnants of mubarak's regime. this is part of the military the scout the supreme council of armed forces way of making sure all of the. revenue should and basically is molded to that to the type of government they want because that's those are the same generals by the way who work for mubarak. so that's really basically his forte of the struggle is going to be using going to go forward or is that of addition going to be molded and some dude into some missive role to the military 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

a soonest possible they will not give up the fog about the zinni but i think the egyptian people and the arabs in general how mosaddegh feel and corrupt government and they have restored and dignity and they were not following another minute that he dictatorship in the country i think all the evidence indicate that despite the sacrifices they have given. just now we're twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow it's good to have your company the last few hours of this year iran plans to test fire long range missiles in the persian gulf over the next few days it's part of naval drills which have been increasing tension in the region almost daily and saber rattling from the u.s. charles deployed washington area correspondent garner chicken 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 full scale military showdown there for now based on the statements that we hear washington seems to think that iran is bluffing but right now you can find itself in a situation where its main source of livelihood namely oil export 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 we were iran is flexing its muscle showing off its capabilities during their naval military exercise but 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. it will be made in coming weeks the way it 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 if 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 their powder keg which could blow up at a slightest spark and a potential confrontation over the strait of hormuz can be that spark is going to count reporting right there well meantime iran has actually a signal that's writing us to resume nuclear talks with major powers progress has

been at a standstill since early november when the un atomic watchdog reported iran appeared to be designing a nuclear bomb something that tehran continues to deny the editor of consortium news that robert perry says washington is using allegations simply to demonize iran but we could see a 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 that can then lead to something else and 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. well as we continue our retrospective of two thousand and eleven here or not see it as just a brief pause now for the world update for you some other global headlines briefly first to nigeria where violence is continuing after a series of christmas day attacks killed dozens the most recent blast occurred near a mosque in the northern city of my the good it's just as worshipers were leaving friday prayers officials say the attackers killed four and injured several others an army spokesman has blamed at the blast on the islamist group boko haram tens of thousands of fled their homes since christmas day when 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 airstrike that killed thirty five on wednesday thousands rallied in the city of the iraqi or after the funerals of the kurdish civilians took place at least thirty were arrested police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them pro kurdish parties meantime have 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 the move is seen as the twenty seven year old consolidating his or thorough over the nation kim jong il who ruled since nine hundred ninety four died of a heart attack just two weeks ago. while our new york's 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 to ask 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 been. gambling the world be a better place without those things yeah i think it would probably be lots of benefits yeah i agree i think a lot of people would protest though oh i have no doubt a lot of people would protest differently including the government because they are acts of much money out of it would be occupy the liquor store time noble borders and more borders let's just all be one country. because it's so difficult to travel

or are people trying to score points seem politics. you'd make clean up politics and twenty two out made them to things they could for the world to not just get to get reelected oh poverty for sure so how do you think the world leaders 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 ban religion all of a spiritual but religion as a religion we think the differences. own. 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. of course we are always interested in your point of view today we are asking what you

think two thousand. and we'll bring if you log on to our website dot com you can take part in our latest global web poll right now that does seem to be all doom and gloom but what do you expect for the new year let's look at the numbers right here so far. four percent of you say it'll bring up a lot of the world slightly less than a. political hangover currently there's a tie between those who are preparing for more progress. in the coming year and those who think two thousand and twelve will actually bring solutions to existing problems coming in with some of the smallest number. of programs here's what else we have prepared for you right now on our website. some of the chili friends an army of snow men invade moscow schools of. major amusement park in the center of the russian capital just ahead of the new year celebrations which we are covering

for you live tonight. and in some other parts of the world people already greeting two thousand and twelve you can watch the live footage from around the world just on our website. throughout the evening. there live at red square tonight but also bear in mind our correspondents personal reflections on the key events of two thousand and eleven all to be found at www dot com. and i'll be back in just a few moments with the headlines. stream

cascading from my. view is mr mudge. and a speed of more than two hundred kilometers per. step along. now

eight thirty pm in the evening here of course on the last evening of two thousand and eleven here in moscow it's time for your headlines now on the final hours of two thousand and eleven and we look back at the year that ushered in protest civil war and regime change uprising in the arab world as well as public fury in america and across europe all of those stories dominating the headlines. syria's opposition to unite against the government amid a new wave of switches left dozens dead since friday this happening right under the noses of arab league observers the u.n. says more than five thousand people have died in the past ten months of protests with damascus all the while blaming gangs for the rest. iran is

planning to carry out a long range.