ok events that shaped the year and also what lies ahead of course of the next twelve months might be well as far as humanity goes there are more of us on the planet then ever before as mankind third half a million population mark congratulations to everyone who became a mom or dad this year. and there are no more countries or the money so we mustn't forget that so it's a done of course getting independence and you had recognition there all this year the palestinians also made their bid for you had members should know that still to materialize although that of course but accepted to the world bodies cultural unesco but it's also been a year of turbulence kevin of course the news this year just incredible the so-called arab spring revolutions we saw a change of power in three north african countries and while the revolutions in tunisia and egypt form the leaders of those countries stepped down libya witnessed a grueling civil war that came a venture only with nato intervention. well only brought to saw each it's

a good time to look at that as well as the british royal wedding this year took international headlines by storm and people's minds off war and recession for a change and that's to me to two billion people watch the ceremony live as prince william and kate middleton tied the knot. there's also been a medical breakthrough this year more were yet to find a cure for the likes of cancer and a chimey the world's first transplant of an artificial organ and given millions of people new hope yeah. it was a very tough year for those pictures we saw ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami that tour through the coast destroying so many lives it was so sad leaving so many others with nothing and of course it sparked a series of incidents at the fukushima nuclear plant ushering in the worst atomic crisis since should all go well trying to do well will begin with one less. more on

the plan and the u.s. has finally pulled its last remaining troops from iraq after nearly nine years and a trillion dollar bill and of course the news of on some of bin laden's killing by american special forces brought hope that the so-called war on terror is on track in finding extremism that continues to strike fear in now. twenty eleven will also be remembered for the biggest information leak in history we covered it such a lot as well as the whistleblower web site wiki leaks released hundreds of thousands of secret u.s. military and diplomatic documents looking up at the stars russia is now the only country which can transport people to and from the international space station that has nothing to retire in its lead and space shuttles after thirty years service we were several very happy new years to the thinks brave crew members currently manning the eye and says going of course beyond the call of duty and science they get sixteen chances to welcome in twenty twelve as they've been above us completing

in orbit every ninety minutes. old so the eternal question over all we loaded the universe will us closer to a big city of the year we're just about to say goodbye to space probes this year revealed what appears to be images of liquid water on mars of the course they say where this will to could be life well that of course kevin is left up to the scientists in any case it will most likely be decades before man can actually set foot on the red planet which brings us back to twenty two well just around the corner let's take a look a bit ahead to what the next year will bring it will be a year of elections russia and the united states in more than twenty other countries head to the polls to choose their next presidents and leaders and there will be an economic collapse to avoid as well of course for the e.u. even a double dip recession to prevent for the. united states and some other countries

the conflict in syria rages on is still to be solved and several other arab countries as well have yet to quell their own dress we're following it closely they'll be fun and games as well the next summer in london so much preparation going into that as the summer olympics kick off there. and the end of twenty twelve has already been labeled an apocalyptic scare when some people firmly under the believe that the world will actually end on december twenty first is the day that the current michael of the ancient maya calendar and some claim it will be preceded by some sort of knots of cosmic events that will directly affect our planet and everyone on it let's hope not well we just have to see or don't wait for the time being less focus on the here or know much better on the end of twenty eleven and it's time that we took a closer look at the key events that shaped the outgoing year.

so question for you first of all who would you say the pits of mice is the money to time magazine of course and its choice of the person but in bodies twenty eleven some hoped it would be the iconic founder of apple steve jobs who passed away so sadly earlier on this year others were in favor of wiki leaks and julian assange truth took us to a whole new level of information awareness in availability but the winner is. the un protester and just one of hundreds of thousands who hit the streets to demonstrate in countries across the globe this year the protester who has helped bring about a change of power in three arab countries. but no cost to our correspondent arena

the loose good news in one of them to now joins us live from cairo happy new year to you in reno there where of course in egypt an uprising at the start of twenty twelve saw twenty eleven i should say for president mubarak forced out by the middle of january it was the second country hit by the so-called arab spring revolutions take us back to the very beginning and what you thought while covering the events in egypt. but if we get into these as a matter of fact at the end of last year when it swept over the northern african continent spreading over to egypt and then going over to libya this amounts of people in all of these countries were pretty much the same they wanted greater freedom of speech they wanted to get rid of what they called authoritarian regimes they wanted to do something about the rising unemployment in these countries essentially they want to jobs and they wanted freedom well there or this is pretty much worse militaries and to because whereas in tunisia you had the tunisians mostly on their own conduct in the revolutions going against their government

people in libya and in egypt for very much help so in overthrowing their their regimes by the western powers they had the nato bombings in libya which helped oust moammar gadhafi then you have the overwhelming u.s. financial backing off the adult point. demonstrators who were who were of course enforced by who were backed by the muslim brotherhood in egypt and of course what happened in these countries is that they got rid of their regimes which they so much hated but the ended up with something very similar to chaos in some of these countries the unemployment has actually gotten worse for example in tunisia you still have sort of undecided and to see government going on in libya they still have cannot figure out who exactly is going to be upheld and you still have pretty much the same suspended situation in egypt where people are still pouring out in protest on the lists weekly basis and of course of those protests. occasionally

turned deadly when the police clashed with the protesters and this is what you have at the end of two thousand and eleven the year of revolutions with things in these revolutionary countries pretty much pretty much still in the air. i read it it's covered here three revolutions brought change to the world but have they brought peace and stability of one of the other countries seeing protests but of which not resulted in a change of power what's ahead. but when you have all smother you like you said arab countries which are also on the brink of revolutions you have to hurry and you have yemen in yemen you have a three fold situation we have the government the common people who are protesting the government willing to help the. the protesting elites who are not with the people are not with the government you have been hurrying today they just had clashes where people were wounded there was tear gas and rubber bullets being used against demonstrators and of course you have syria which is also on the brink of revolution where the majority of people are not happy with the regime by president

assad so at the end again you have a sort of a very volatile situation in the middle east and in northern africa with very definite situations and very very questionable fruits of the revolutions so what year two thousand and twelve will bring to this entire region yet of course remains to be seen back to you. but it is a ridiculous good life for the egyptian capital fun q. of course car will ring in the new year just two zero zero zero after a serious well you know. well let's get a job with a man who is how does make sense of the turmoil and changes in the arab world throughout the year mark almond who's a professor of international relations and will cain university in ankara joins us live thanks for being with us this new year's eve is there ahmed let's start with tunisia it's nearly twelve months since president ben ali was forced to leave the country after the remote there what when and she knew since then and tunisians are they found me with their revolution. well the big change of course is that they

who had an election to choose a new problem and the interim president that used a dramatic change because juries are still very secular culture a secular one party state of like two but on the other hand not everybody is so happy with the changes the ennahda islamic party won the law to share the vote they're not an absolute majority and in some places including city busy twitter the revolution began with the suicide. the opposition to the responses to surprisingly well i was people in tunisia nasty kind of conflict between. islam versus up to the saudi but also this affects the economy the force of tourism has been very dramatic because of the revolution and also because of the violence in libya and this means that a lot of tunisians who hoped for better things with the fall of ben ali a found that in the years since his former life hasn't much better so there is the problem that the revolution often gets rid of the person the person who boaties was hated about

the old regime he doesn't listen to get rid of the economic problems that existed before and he also sometimes brings new ones and it's. either global like an arab spring rebel the deposed president mubarak in february elections now underway there but the price at three thirty again this month with more lives lost why anger is so hard to quell in egypt. but i think there's a deep frustration that in many ways the people in power in egypt actually running the government of course were the high officials of mubarak the prime minister who recently appointed was the prime minister in the one nine hundred ninety s. necros the head of the military council for the washington tal he was mubarak's defense minister so for some people there's a sense that the change has been cosmetically the regime was decapitated with the fall of mubarak but on the other hand most of his key officials remain in place but there's also a great sense of frustration. if you like with the. democratic process on the part

of many of those people in the streets of his square in the center of the road last night for it that they see in a sense the revolution they feel they made slipping away from them because the election results so far do show quite a strong surge of support for the muslim brotherhood and even more money floating down the nile in many of the tourist sentence might look store and so on so we see feel like a three way split in egyptian society between those people who see themselves as western secular liberals who perhaps felt they spearheaded the revolution who disliked the survival in city government offices and foreign sold officials but also fear the coming to power of the muslim brotherhood and a rigorous islamic based society and so those three were tensions inside egypt. it's kind of it was spoken a lot this last year i'd like to look in libya now libya of course so that the deadliest uprising with this civil war that reportedly left tens of thousands dead clearly gadhafi among them and nato weighing in with those air strikes causing

civilian casualties all kind of peace if any lies ahead for the libyan people now do you think. this is we could be very difficult situation because a lot of the frustrations with gadhafi his regime in libya came from people who felt that he didn't collected them economically the people in the street maybe benghazi to brooke had the oil but they felt most of the money was spent in the west of tripoli now they want to see a rebalancing of the spending of money but of course many of the people actually overthrew could be with the aid of nato as you say qatari special forces. militias from western times who seem to have their share of the oil still so we have a big regional division inside libya. people i think exaggerated the degree to which the oil wealth could be redistributed to make everybody happy and so i think it's going to last competition of that and we see the splits not only regionally and over the oil money but also over issues like what should be the role of religion in politics here should be. were intentional deliberate and we see the

turn of course the problem that many people fall for gadhafi after all it took the rebels and nato eight months to overthrow him and this so he collapsed overnight and so there is a body of people who are losers many many thousands perhaps millions or so who aren't happy with the changes and there are huge numbers of comes to watch the country effects of this war is really be germany's comes down to me into libya but of course into egypt even across the train into france where some libyan question also being used. it's a very messengers. but what about syria that of course remaining a flashpoint were reporting on it again today the unrest there so that we take for it on the brink of civil war still i could fold slipping for president the sad who still in power at the moment though who is driving the culprit and is the would end game anywhere in sight. to keep with syria's most dangerous situation that you have an. incipient civil war but it's also as a as

a religious civil and sudanese and shiites are the white citizens in syria and if we go back to what happened in libya we saw how the gulf monarchies qatar and so on funded and propagandized on the help of the anti gadhafi forces but they're also very much involved in syria syria and i think there is the danger now that you could see external forces wanting to rewrite their vision not over a democratic middle east but on a theocratic middle east and in a way the west has talked about promoting democracy rights but it's callous states in the gulf who are. absolute on the peace. and whose concern for civil rights of minority rights are very limited and so the danger is that we will see a religious civil war spreading from syria into lebanon but also including iraq where of course the shiite led government is at the moment in a very sharp. crisis music. sunni minority so i'm afraid we could see it

as the new year comes in syria becoming the center for the expanding so close religious civil war roles of the democratic revolution. a disturbing picture you're painting there mark i'd just like to take a minute on behalf of a naysayer as well to thank you so much for all your input on this channel that you've given us throughout the year we want to wish you all the very best for twenty twelve but we look forward to talking to you in the new year again thank you for your input tonight into the program very hot when you hear her it's appreciated . ok.

well we are turning to europe amongst the fireworks going off behind this twenty eleven is going to be remembered for its mass protests in greece where angry crowds clashed with police and trashed the streets of athens will recall those pictures a response to the government's austerity measures well the leaders there have been under immense pressure from the e.u. to make savings contador to qualify for desperately needed bell out money our correspondent sara further has been covering the protests in greece throughout the past year and now joins us live from happen there at the greek people who have suffered a lot this year you saw it on the top austerity measures adopted by the government put in real terms for us take us through it how is that affecting households across greece. whether it's just been such a challenging year for the people here in the country because it's been all about that this year and the bailouts that have meant to visit us that actually measures now in real terms to the people here that's meant killed because on

a huge scale it's meant tax hike has really affected so many people here in the country every household felt the progs of this we seeing a new class of haven this springing up here in the country even here this evening the results of that a very bleak looks of people out so to speak leaping problems speech tonight a huge amount of love into the country and we'll see still not up boiling a full time in again this year and see the huge outpouring of public anger on the street simply. because still here a service point out to all of you is that the banging on the bar going to courses not happening with you there enough with this ugly behind us we've already letting off fireworks in preparation for those big new new year forwards coming in about forty minutes from now but if you still can hear me we saw a lot of discontent on the street says the force of the problem hit home you were there amidst it food all thought of those protests what struck you most about it.

what really struck me for most of the tons that we've been here what we've seen happening and how things this year it was just how far reaching this you are quite as has been as i said it really has affected so many people here in the country and you know a different thing for tonight here in the central square where society many of these protests has happened and these are the people you know from all walks of life it was the young it was the same many different people tend to show that discontent and so many young people who saw that he was speaking to a full team fifteen these are very motivated very well educated people that are having to grapple with extremely big issues and that you know doing that puts the turning out onto the streets and really making us to re-evaluate the way we feel is about the usa and in europe as a whole as they said incredibly motivated and we seen as a direct result of their esses of their energy this year and some real change happening here in the country. and he's a hero

a young group or place to the government in november how do things change in the country. that has been one of the biggest changes that we saw at the end of the need prime minister lucas papademos his steps summing up the year's events that greece still faces a big challenge is that getting stick will they can and put all their assets into remaining within the e.u. but of course the one thing i can tell you is that the people here in greece the last thing that they're going to win in two thousand and twelve is going to be more and the rhetoric because unfortunately we see too much of that this year was that then serious action and the situation just seeming to deteriorate to the time with the world leaders that you know it's a need is always a few cases the heightened as i said just real impact on people's lives leaving food into the needy what people are getting too old to be seeing is the real development to two thousand and eleven has been the year of to send them. maybe we live in two thousand and twelve to be the development because people want to see

some real changes and say wolf tonight people are going to be celebrating the thing that is celebrating his friends and family. grieve with me because of course everyone here is it it's going to be a very tough year. right sarah ferguson portie live from happens of course saying goodbye there on this new year's eve to a very difficult year for three people grief one when alone with much of the eurozone on hand belt tightening to deal with that euro debt crisis just a few weeks ago european leaders held a crucial summit in brussels where they agreed to form a fiscal union and rein in bunch of controls over the big spenders. go ahead without great britain though which opted out of the new interim government because it feared it would harm the banks of the city of london less so put that in perspective share with investment advisor patrick he's on the line from warsaw in

poland patrick very good evening chewy very much enjoyed talking to you over the year just gone by giving us your take on things in your own inimitable way trying to cheer us up. and give us some insight of art some very gloomy stories this one in particular clouds of gathering over europe throughout the year it's very close to the water in terms of smuggling nine ships going on there where are we now as we head into this new year. resolution or especially in twenty twelve patrick. have a good evening hello to you i have to say it seems entirely appropriate that i'm speaking against a back wall drop of fireworks the seething because while we haven't perhaps had the multi-faceted and beautiful colors that are limiting the moscow skyline already in anticipation of the new year tragically the european union has had a crisis throughout the year as you rightly said given i don't fortunately the prognosis for the new year must be one of a terrible. over it is absolutely to my mind clear that we are going to have

a crushing recession it's a tragedy but the european union has alternately made no effort to resolve its problems we've had one shower after another shower after another shower and they've been spoilt so much and unfortunately there's just nothing at this juncture that gives us any reason to be remotely optimistic apart from the fact that we're going into a new calendar year and the fact that you know it's easy to talk about the big picture because this affects people families people losing their jobs people maybe not having a good christmas maybe not having a new year because they haven't got a great time to look forward to not a great prospect ahead as you saying maybe losing their homes it's a bad time isn't it all round and you're not seeing it getting better than particularly at all know. kevin look the situation is as follows i mean in the western european countries essential people have stopped spending to a large extent not because some people are not spending because they're worried

about the future outlook and they want to see of what money they have on the other people they unfortunates of this situation is your rightly mentioning are the people who are already on employed and finding it incredibly difficult to get a job i mean we have a lost generation in western europe something like forty percent of all spaniards in their twenty's are on employed that's a travesty it's an absolute failure of government kevin and it's appalling and one really sympathizes but the difficulty is that you can't keep the government simply spending money in order to manage to make things work and the hangover we have these affectively fifty years of state controlled socialism in western europe that ultimately has proven to be on affordable in many countries no it's falling really really hard on a great many individuals and that is a terrible price to pay and unfortunately i don't believe things are going to get better although i will offer one tiny ray of hope and. dos come from the european

union which is that the european union is working very very hard on trying to improve conditions for small and medium sized enterprises a dialogue which i'm actually actively engaged in so let's hope that something is going to come out about it but the problem really is that ultimately businesses need customers and it's difficult to newer customers are they aren't really in the united states of america their economy doesn't look terribly good even the great power houses that have been growing in recent years like brazil like china like india all of their growth rates are significantly down there are some pockets of opportunity and i have to say fortunately under me this is somewhat of course in our own interest they happen to lie somewhere between where i am today and warsaw and indeed russia but that's not going to be enough to propel the whole world economy and it's not going to be enough to keep lots of western europeans under many unfortunate people almost ten percent of the united states of america who are unemployed and that is a tragedy a lost generation indeed kaveh you right in europe particularly so many folds dogs

so many dates to be looking ahead to wondering how long greece could hold out for a run out of money eccentrics said for the latest is now there are people saying the first six months or twenty twelve going to be crucial for the eurozone or for many economists is time for make or break decisions isn't it what is the likely outcome will you're still be circulating a year from now. given the euro is living on borrowed time it has been on life support for the last six months it could survive on life support for the next twelve months that is possible but realistically i cannot see how the euro can survive certainly not in its current share or form i mean we've just been hearing from people in greece on this show and indeed look at the greek situation the greek economy is in a death spiral there raise new economy worth speaking of within greece at the moment they're headed towards a mediæval barter economics. all because of the whim and fear of politicians in

northern europe that's not tenable and i don't believe that honestly the greeks are going to be able to live with it i think you will find there will be defaults in other words countries are going to turn round and say you know what we can't afford to pay these debts we're walking away and i think that will happen it will happen in greece and it may happen in other countries in the euro zone as well hard far that spreads will dictate whether we have any form of euro war not at the moment but the truth of the matter is twelve months ago on this show if we sat here and said the euro will be in a death crisis in twelve months time we would have been ridiculed because all of the power of the establishment would have said oh there's just a little local difficulty on the mediterranean well rubbish and the truth is the fact that the euro is being widely discussed as potentially falling apart in the next twelve months is in itself undermining the euro and leading to what is likely to be a very very brutal extinction because one morning we're going to wake up and the

euro will change chip enormously another day we may wake up and there will be no euro whatsoever right now that probability is fifty fifty best that the euro survives the next twelve months. the trick i'm afraid we're out of time thank you ever so much for giving a shit thoughts there although they are pretty grim it has to be said but i can say very much enjoyed talking to you and i hope to touch again a lot next year on r.t. with more coverage of what's going on thank you for now. i think with me i. let's go to the u.s. now where. go in your witness the biggest wave of protests since the vietnam war

americans have been turning out in droves in hundreds of cities across the u.s. they too want a revolution but an economic one they've all been united under the umbrella occupy movement is it because you know which sprang up in you you will than three months ago let's go to the now showing because shit with. me covering the protests for this channel seems no great seems too good to see you know the occupy protesters were criticised for having no focus on exactly they want but has put a pull the law on how they got themselves more together know. well at this point kevin and the occupy wall street movement is still meeting and they are strategizing and planning clearly it's not out in the open ever since there i had a quarter or so to speak was raided by the new york city police department in november but they are strategizing.