with the party is in full swing. now russia the world's biggest country celebrates a new year nine times thanks to its nine time zones eight hours ago the country's far east crossed into two thousand and twelve where people in blood of all stuck and sucked eileen go down raised a glass or two at the same time as australia after that two thousand and twelve made its way through russia siberia and the cities of cheap. and the countries of papa new guinea and you belong next with a champagne toast with the residents of the russian city who fall in the same time joan zone as japan and the koreas then three hours ago new years came to the cities of crowded out skin concealed along with china singapore malaysia and the philippines as two thousand and twelve continued to march across siberia it reached such cities as homesick and noble cbs its residents celebrating along with thailand and vietnam next midnight reached the cities of yet fifteen of berg and peons just

an hour before muscovites celebrated the beginning of two thousand and twelve. and thousands were angry at the results of. russia's a parliamentary election results but this year's new year elections will take place in the race for russia's top job is on let's discuss it now with our karen the current chair hello karen and well happy new year to you first of all and will the new year also brings in new elections to russia tell us more about that. that's right happy new year to everybody very interesting first to say a very fond and very regulated new years here on red square everybody laughing yelling fireworks going off but more importantly with the protests this year in december amidst many many claims of ballot box stuffing that coming after the december fourth parliamentary elections where united russia did win two hundred

thirty eight of the four hundred fifty horrible men. protesters took to the streets first on december tenth where seeing the interior ministry reporting twenty five thousand protesters of course the opposition counting somewhat fifty thousand protesters another sanction protests taking place on the socket of a square there we saw about thirty thousand protesters the number is growing and opposition claiming one hundred twenty thousand were calling for fair and free elections so a very interesting year as far as the political sphere in russia goes much of the opposition seeing a lot more of the media and many new faces in that opposition as well. poll resulted in mass protests around moscow and the country can you take us through what happened there and how exactly the kremlin reacted. it's not what you know the kremlin's reaction in president prime minister putin was

a very positive one they actually enforce the people and they want the people to come forward and express their right to voice their opinion so in that regard a very good reaction from the government also a lot of proposals have been put in place by president mugabe did really calling for a rebuilding so to speak of the electorial system sort of looking at the governors the way the governors are elected in russia at the moment they are liked it by the president president medvedev hopes of that he can change that he wants to bring it back to the way it was in the early ninety's and then it was done away with in the early two thousand a system where the governors are elected by the people or by political parties it's not yet known how that will play out but he does want to bring that vote sort of destabilize the power in russia also currently in order for political parties to register you need ten thousand votes he wants to drop down that number to something

a five hundred in order to run for presidency out and an independent candidate must find two million signatures in order to run for the presidency he would like that vote as well those signatures drop down to three hundred thousand so those reforms being put forth hopefully will be approved and those are the changes at the moment those are the reactions by the government to these massive protests overall a very good reaction all right thank you for staying on top of that for us care and reporting there of course will be interesting to see how things play out in two thousand and twelve. and now to one of the stories that hasn't been making the headlines during the past year massive protests swept across greece where angry crowds clashed with police over government austerity measures the country remains under intense pressure from the european union and the international monetary fund to make savings cuts to qualify for desperately needed bailout money our correspondents here for witnessed the worsening crisis in greece in two thousand

and eleven and reports from athens on what's been a turbulent year with an uncertain one and head. well it's just been such a challenging year for the people here in the country because if we pull about that this year that the bailout that that very severe austerity this now and real terms of the people hit us that just because all of this heat carol is that tax hike it's really affected so many people here in the country every household felt the brunt of this the scene and you quote the famous springing up here in the country even here this evening the results that are very clear you can see lots of people out on the sea fleet saying rough on the streets tonight so many different people signed up to that discontent and so many young people who saw that you were speaking to a full team fifteen is a very nice if they did very well educated people that are happening to grapple with extremely big issues and they're you know doing their part c.

turning out into the states and really making us who we evaluate the way we fools about the eurozone and europe as a whole new prime minister lucas papademos says has said something of the years of them that we still face in the big challenges they gave to all they can and put all their assets into the main and within the human race then of course the one thing i can tell you is that the people here in queens the last thing that they're going to want to teach thousand and twelve is going to the mall and the rhetoric because unfortunately we see too much of that this year rather than serious action and the situation just seeming to deteriorate to the time with the world leaders yours and leaders always a few paces behind and as i said just real impact on people's lives to start weaving food into the new year what people are going to want to be seeing is the real development to two thousand and eleven has been the year of dissent then maybe we can hope for two thousand and twelve to be the year of development because people here want to see some real changes as so well tonight people are going to be

celebrating the new year and seeing that in celebrating with friends and family it's going. you can bring the three because of course everyone you know is it's going to be very tough yes. sir first reporting there from athens now panagiotis sotira selection or at the university of the a g n in greece believes the country will see even more social devastation in two thousand and twelve and euro kratz in brussels are to blame. for in despair. unemployment rates. seen before they have a public spending cut. salaries are owed by the search for the miners thirty five percent we're being told they're going to be doing maybe more ten more years for the stewards to reach those levels when we count them the first time we're talking about big things so we measure the natural course of things looking i think you

would like you were referring to both case since. we would have a strong rejection the world this policy so the thing with government was no way to change it by the european union and the i.m.f. who said no you're going to come out from under you know you can own company election you're going to have a european central bank or a prime minister whether you like it in the uk you're going first to vote hold this moves or stuff that people in the streets covered it take that and then you can have an election but this is a mockery of democracy. and now we cross to the third top story that shapes two thousand and eleven time magazine has chosen and known a protester as the person of the year just one of the hundreds of thousands who hit the streets to demonstrate in countries across the globe and helped overthrow the regimes of three arab countries journalist and author f. william and dahl says that what happened in one of them libya is not about democracy but a way for nato to gain control in the middle east. i think they can look forward to

peer held. the opposition groups were given a promise by the french well before the. ouster of the cut off in government that they would get a chunk of the oil revenues and that was the incentive they were armed by the west and now libya is being converted according to the latest information into a giant nato aircraft carrier if you will and the libyan oil is being used as a bargaining chip with japan and others hillary clinton has promised libyan oil reportedly in return for japanese reducing its intake of a rainy and oil and putting financial pressure on iran so we can see what what the game is in libya is not about democracy or libyan welfare its about using that to militarize entire eurasian land mass two thousand and twelve has yet to reach the united states where the east coast is nine hours behind moscow but when it does arrive it promises to be

a busy year and high corporate occupy protests will continue the economy remains in deep trouble and there's the small matter of a presidential election barack obama is running for a second term but who he'll be running against is not yet known our correspondent marina port tells us if there is anyone she should be he should be worried about. for the past three years us president barack obama has faced an increasing amount of disappointment among his volunteers former volunteers former voters and when he came into office those that supported him and helped him break records when it came to campaign contributions that he received were did see obama come into office under the umbrella of the promise of change and then followed up and extended what many perceive to be bush era policies such as doubling down on the patriot act and extending tax cuts for the rich also increasing drone attacks

in this at the same time corporate profits have increased here in the united states over the past three years while more americans are suffering in the wake of the financial crisis so while many americans put their beliefs and their hopes into candidate barack obama three years ago many have been publicly speaking out over their disappointment with regards to the actions that he has taken it looks as though according to polls that u.s. president obama will possibly most likely secure a second term and there are two candidates that he should be obviously paying much attention to and i would say that would be mitt romney and ron paul because those are the two republican candidates that are leading the polls in iowa where the first u.s. caucus will take place on january third so there is competition for u.s.

president barack obama it's not a landslide by any means but but he does have at least almost half of the country's approval rating so going into a second term a possible second term that doesn't look so bad but it will be a fierce election one we will be reporting on and paying attention to. my reporting for. there from new york now the u.s. in two thousand and eleven witnessed the biggest wave of protests since the vietnam war demonstrators have been united under the occupy umbrella as the movement became known which sprang up in wall street in new york more than three months ago come this analyst max fraud wolf explained what's been driving the protests the occupy wall street movement has mostly given voice to a sense of frustration and anger about unfairness isn't and justices both real and perceived that a lot of people have about the economy i think it's an ambiguous that the u.s. economy doesn't work it doesn't work very well overall the g.d.p. growth is poor our present eight point six percent unemployment is probably under

reporting and it's quite high the high level of college debt that people are coming out with young people and student loan debt and their inability to get a jobs or b. jobs that pay them enough to live and pay back their debt makes very clear that the united states has serious economic problems we haven't really seen anything like a suggestion about a different plan or a different way of organizing the economy come out of the or occupy wall street movement yet you know it's also a very young movement so that may evolve somewhere down the line but this looks to me like the early stages of something with a lot more to calm most of the story yet to be written so to speak i i think what we're seeing is frost duration and anger people beginning to coalesce around that frustration and anger but i for one haven't seen real proposals on economic policy yet we may see a bit more of that this year as it's election time and policy issues i think authorities had hoped the movement would kind of fizzle out or go away and when it didn't want to back grew and got more and more attention and more and more it here and there was a little bit of

a heavy handed over response by authorities that involved using force part of the reason it's a problem is because what it tends to do is bring out more protesters and raise public sympathy for the protesters the ham handed an overly martial response to protest has actually helped to build the occupy wall street movement. and on to bottom rain now where a fifteen year old has been killed by a tear gas canister as riot police clashed with protesters demanding reform demonstrators want action after a government sponsored inquiry found evidence of torture and other abuses against detainees following arab spring unrest in two thousand and eleven for more on this we are now joined by by author radio host stephen leatherman in chicago mr london thank you for joining us if you could please take us through this what does this fresh violence mean for the country. well today's violence may be everyone's but let me inform viewers so this violence has been an ongoing standoff since early

last year it literally goes on in dealey in the rain is a strategic u.s. assets it's called the rich it's the home of the fifth u.s. what it is it is a valued. american dreams of line no idea what's been going on. there what is it still really what he said. well what you have that the world. with the left and it seems that we have the last couple stephen lenin in there but i think we may have regained that connection so if you don't mind let me continue by saying the ongoing repression in bahrain is happening amid international silence compared to syria let's say why do you think the story is outside of the headlines in bahrain when we go to syria it is not on call and state america wants to make syria a client state. so the rain is a very important message for america the u.s.

fifth fleet is based there. is a small country about five to six hundred thousand people they are called the from wanting key rules it like a colony improvement for many many decades britney stock the body it was a british protectorate early in the nineteenth century. it's also attached saudi arabia so how do you read just a much bigger country where as much as a causeway they can make saudi arabia in parade and saudi troops invaded the country it is a very silly come to light articles because if it got scared not foxing. our hands could have been placing blazing every day many people have been killed people who are. the prisons of feel would pollute go prisoners torture is systematic a fifteen year old boy was killed today but this could have been eating at all it's

a make you see this thing all of. it. and it seems that we have some technical difficulties let's try asking one more question here. can you can you still hear us mr lemon. all right perfect let's let's talk a little bit about oil we know that bahrain has very little oil wealth comparatively speaking to syria and we talk a little bit about the differences between the two do you think western powers are more interested in syria with its greater oil supplies. well brings a fair amount of although it's certainly certain you know what i don't i think syria is a bad example to compare to the whole wealth of both countries syria is not particularly rich big oil rich country saudi arabia iran iraq. other countries there were libyan

of course but their brain has there are some more oil and has gone to the us to fleet so it's a fairly strategic mess it's also very sorry you read it because the violence goes on inside of you really you know because i don't agree saudi troops occupy grain violently it came to last march goes blazing against a nonstop since they came in to a story made headlines but the fire hasn't it is think it's. the right people being arrested ninety six journalists alone have been targeted for telling the truth there are hundreds of political prisoners people of the toy children doctors are being arrested and tortured for treating into what is this is the we know on the western media really notice is today they did a little bit now we know that the demonstrations are led by shiite muslim activists

seeking more rights from the ruling sunni dynasty can their demands be met. well we certainly haven't been so far so easily run in like saudi arabia the country is seventy percent shia and it's been marginalized for many many decades they don't have this legal rights been treated like a unwelcome minority and frankly they simply have who will take it to take it in equal if you receive this is happened before it happened last year it happened has been nothing like this year it's been pretty it's been sustained it's been nonviolent it's been met with some fear we're pretty sure i don't see these people giving up they will continue and hopefully they'll get whole world headlines and maybe r.t. can help them because they certainly deserve you right and finally the uprising in

bahrain has started as part of the arab spring do you think the growing violence there could have a knock on effect in neighboring countries as well well it's going on in neighboring countries it's going to saudi arabia in the last few days into the absence going on about rocco tony we don't once you know it was a separate story serious a story and externally generated insurgency because this goes on across the region when you just go hear about tunisians and b. which a new government. so more eruptions going to happen every time i think the arab spring is the wrong because the nation wants these people want social justice just like the occupy wall street movement in america just like the protest across europe was spreading on a local basis or a is one location i think this translates. thank you

very much author and radio host stephen leatherman happy new year to there in the states and we look forward to hearing more from you as this next year develops. also news just in the u.s. president barack obama has signed into law the latest round of tough sanctions against iran. it is expected it to ratchet up the pressure on the islamic republic with relations between the two countries already had an all time low he's also brought into force the legal right of the u.s. military to detain a terrorist suspects indefinitely without charge or trial or even the right to a lawyer this means any person can be detained without any explanation it's. england had a scorching august but it was nothing to do with a summer sun a wave of riots and looting seemingly sprang from nowhere gripping london for days and spreading to other cities nationwide with buildings torched and streets trashed police struggled to contain the worst violence in decades artie's lawyer smith who

watched events said the unrest was unprecedented. blew up seemingly out of a very small vigil for a young black man who was allegedly shot by police in north london it grew from that vigil and it turned into a nationwide rising essentially out of control and that the violence was particularly in those first couple of days with an escalating all the time eventually it grew from london and into burning of manchester all the cities but only in england interesting a note in scotland all into wales the police response was i think very slow certainly in the first couple of days the police literally didn't know what to do they turned up at a scene where people had set fire to cause all to shops along the street they would charge and involves numbers and then not knowing what to do when they got there they would retreat as far as for the government much of the government was on holiday of course because they go on holiday in august say prime minister david cameron eventually came back from his holiday as did the him secretary and the

matter of london boris johnson and essentially told people what naughty children they were being and how they had to go back to school and learn to do something the media blamed it on a sort of something for nothing mentality but eventually it's come out really the other people's stories is a symptom of deeper ills in society the fact that you services have been cut and that the relationship between young people young black people particularly and the police is very bad and i was talking to some people on the street here tonight actually who was saying that they didn't feel that anything had been done to address these problems a lot of rhetoric but not any actual action. he's lower smith reporting for us there now back to the new year's celebrations and while half of the world has rung in two thousand and twelve the rest are getting ready to do so. two thousand and twelve first arrived some ten hours ago now and in a new location this year it was an independent state of samoa in the south pacific for the first time ever it used to be the last in line but switched time zones to

get closer to new zealand this week it skipped friday completely the previous new premier venue was keer to monte better known as christmas island which is why i was a little bit hard to say their next country to enter two thousand and twelve was new zealand closely followed by russia's far east and as the new year started its march across russia as a vast territory australia japan the two koreas china and other countries lit up as midnight past three hours ago they were ringing in the new year in thailand and vietnam with kazakhstan nepal and india following minutes later as they use some. right now the south pacific is probably heading off to sleep after hours of celebration but here in moscow we're already over an hour to two thousand and twelve further west dozens of countries from europe south africa and the americas are no doubt getting the champagne on ice and setting out the fireworks then completing the circle american samoa american samoa will be the last to leave two

thousand and eleven behind some twenty five hours after the other half of the summer when island chain looks. in the west he's known as santa claus but in russia he's known as father frost the mysterious man who lives far in the north and travels across the country on new year's eve spreading gifts as well as festive spirit. russia's believe that the world's most expensive country it celebrates new year nine times thanks to its nine time zones nine hours ago the country's far east across the. into two thousand and twelve and people there are probably still celebrating homes in russia as a lot of us stuck in this colleen no doubt raised a glass or two at the same time as those in sydney in melbourne in australia after that two thousand and twelve made its way through russia's siberia the cities of cheetah and the countries of papa new guinea and glom next with a champagne toast where the residents of the russian city who fall in the same time

joan zone as japan and the koreas then three hours ago new years came to the cities of cars and they are going to zele along with china singapore malaysia and philippines as two thousand and twelve continue to march across siberia it reached such cities as the no sibierski its residents celebrating along with thailand and vietnam and just over two hours ago as midnight hour crept closer to the russian capital it reached the cities of bergen chelyabinsk russia's western most point the baltic city of kaliningrad has celebrated the arrival of the new year it will at the top of this hour and that's the news for now stay with me for a recap of the headlines and lots more to come and the happy new year to you again from all of us here in moscow. all.

wealthy british style. that's not on the time. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. ride to clean

a ghost town. squandered money. abandoned mine. what is now. more than sixty square kilometers of environmental devastation and those who are still surprisingly alive i'm finding are just. it's getting bad out here. but not saying hardly any birds squirrels you know. you know i don't know what's going on here. on crete one of. the close up she has been to new stuff first plays to the most ambitious football club in the world. league naldo r g goes to the far east where the timber industry attracts the legendary siberian

tigers where the native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. to the bars creature russia. broadcasting live from russia's capital moscow this is our team would like to say happy new year to minsk khartoum and nairobi and also coming up in less than thirty minutes cairo and they'll be in two thousand and twelve as well now two thousand and twelve is finally here in moscow happy new year to all of you watching our team wherever in the world you may be russia has been marking the rival of the new year with the grand fireworks displays and celebrations across the whole country from all of us here we wish you.