wherever you are you watching r t live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program now the world is welcoming twenty twelve with mass celebrations and fireworks all over the globe south america has already seen twenty eleven off while north america next in line with huge festivities to be held along the east coast first hundreds of thousands of packed new york's times square for a symbolic ball dropping at midnight this trail you was among the first countries to open its doors to the new year with glittering fireworks lightning the skies over sydney harbor. japan the two koreas and china picked up the baton russia has also met two thousand and twelve with a bang thousands of people gathered in moscow's red square to toast the new year

and watch magnificent fireworks over the kremlin millions of revelers also gathered in cities all over europe for the countdown to midnight. with celebrations sweeping the globe we remember what made twenty eleven it was a year of revolt and rallies as millions around the world went out on to the streets to demand justice freedom and economic equality arches and he said now it looks back at the protests that shaped the past twelve months. two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most vengeful year in years the killing of bin ladin after a decade long manhunt in 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 demanded 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 auto 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 whose 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 as civil war intensifies this is a direct effect of direct clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russia and china on the war in 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 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. bailouts germany and france bond 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. 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 program and racism into the mix. and a sense of place a certain institutions. and probably institutionally 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. there are a 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 rates on campus heavy handed police and burning pepper spray only helped occupy grow read 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 are the rich the one percent from oakland to boston the more people occupy the. more brutality became more and that in the was in the in the sure if you're on the right and you know our our police forces have been militarized

they are working more in cooperation with the pentagon they're buying and being given military surplus to quit 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 vote was raped. 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 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 twenty 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 you see now a r.t. moscow. and there's much more on our website twenty four hours a day including our special new year coverage so watch for exports and expert analysis on some of the most significant events of the past year. plus major stories have seen through the eyes of our correspondents where and the hotspots of events their testimonies are at our team dot com.

witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . violence in syria continues unabated despite the arab league observers mission that started this week security forces have reportedly opened fire on sounds of protesters with monitors giving conflicting accounts of government snipers involved activists claim dozens were killed in recent clashes in flashpoint cities all of which are also being visited by the monitors the u.n. says more than five thousand people have died in the ten month long unrest with damascus blaming armed gangs for the violence journalist afshin rattansi believes a lot of the videos and recent media coverage are very fine. it's certainly the western media's viewpoint that we must believe the we must believe opposition

groups it seems that any mobile footage is no except as a source so only what they are being said about homes very different a great deal from the reports we've been getting on t.v. channels of massacres continually going on what is no doubt because of the thousands of syrian soldiers dying and being having died because of peaceful protests but this isn't a libya syria is the linchpin of the middle east and the united states and other countries some of the more intelligent people realize that there will be turmoil right across the middle east if anything happens to destabilize the government from outside forces but certainly syria the syrian government itself has to step up the pace because it's certainly losing the propaganda about what. former libyan rebels are now chanting for syrians to follow their revolutionary past hundreds of mercenaries some of whom are former terrorists are ready to pick up arms again to

help overthrow president our physics envoy the reports from tripoli. the book turn our dad me the owner of the keep up shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting time for syria's bashar al assad. doesn't exactly make the big. i mean that in the law that the city. of the city. you can make it a lot of people see it. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop have even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we don't want syria and its soldiers we have. and of people such as syria these are just landed on the subject we have all we have you know but i think yeah we want to leave. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as

liberators to being called occupiers tripoli residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of the young man who looked on adrenaline and willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know what if we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of allah we will make sure that what happened in libya will repeat itself in syria by libyan man over the portraits of shaky bar i now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli be some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. with the help of allah we can all belong to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world. and it seems that che guevara's idea of exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a buoyant marketplace for soldiers of fortune they move from one revolution to

another motivated by personal gain some by conviction all others by the venture if i put out a vision of freedom and for now at least is the freedom to live by the gun. as a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with mercenaries may not be such a genuine move video women and children in syria gunned down by snipers are involved on you tube while it's still unclear who is pulling the trigger there are terrorists who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country or from libya or from afghanistan or pakistan foreign fighters have been brought in here by the cia and the other western services. one man's terrorist could easily be and now a man's freedom fighter but for the united states it's now one day hiking but hodge

one of the leaders of tripoli militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratic leader who according to artist or sis not a group of several hundred libyan rebels to syria just last month. they are facing this situation before. it comes to be when. i think. the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard and for centuries a save garcia against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenaries in the middle east has got to this new and no less bloody chapter in the art sea tripoli. still to come in the program life after death we'll look at the future of north korea after its longtime leader kim jong il

was finally laid to rest and. asked me who is the president of. the stands today and i'm going to say you know i don't know you know. we find out that it's not only u.s. presidential candidates struggling with their knowledge of the world. meantime u.s. president barack obama has signed a bill imposing new sanctions against iran the measures targets the country's central bank and well particularly hit oil revenues relations between washington and tehran reached a dangerous point this week islamic country threaten to block a vital oil supply route in the persian gulf where it's currently holding navy drills to iran promised to not let one drop of oil go through the strait of hormuz if the west goes on the sanctions the u.s. and the e.u. were stepping up pressure over iran's nuclear program to rada since dad's ready for

fresh talks resume. and lobby group the national reigning american council says a lack of diplomatic relations between iran and the united states increases the risk of a dangerous outcome. holding the strait of hormuz for the iranian government would be the equivalent of cutting off its nose to spite its face it's heavily heavily reliant on its on its income from oil exports the vast majority of which go through the strait that being said just because it's something that the iranian government doesn't want to do it doesn't necessarily mean that it's something that it's won't do if pressure increases to the point where iran is backed into a corner or two governments that have been communicating for over three decades and when you don't have direct channels of communication that increases the likelihood of miscalculations and misperceptions and it reinforces the cycle of escalation and conflict and it increases the likelihood that you can you can take actions that might not be in accordance even with your own interests and rather than governments controlling the conflict the conflict begins to control the governments and we end

up with an outcome that i think both parties independently would seek to avoid. israel says it's killed a senior militant in an airstrike against gaza on friday the army claimed the move prevented an attempt to fire rockets at israel this comes after israel said it's looking into the possibilities of a wider campaign against the blockaded strip just three years after a devastating war there israeli columnist gideon levy says his country will be isolated if it decides to wage another bloody offense of. three years ago israel had the card bludger not only the west had to pull out of this. and didn't say a word against the city but this time we are facing a new egypt and gaza ease in the backyard of egypt and i'm not sure that egypt will remain indifferent visa via another thing but having said this i'm not sure that this is enough to prevent an attack because unfortunately israeli politicians in

general not always react in the most racial and logical way the current government of israel has no serious intention about this serious dialogue with the palestinians maybe some photo opportunities but not seeing more than the send the palestinian authority has just launched another proposal for israel to get back to the negotiation table they even gave up the precondition of freezing the settlements which is a minimum. condition and they suggest the just symbolic release of one hundred palestinian prisoners to get back to the goshi table it would be these were to say no. in a new year's message north koreans have been urged to make every effort to bring their country to prosperity and to fan it's a new leader. to the death that's going against hopes in the west at the death of

kim john l. ward herald a more open country but asia specialist dr ten below things foreign nations have an interest in keeping things as they are as far as we know he was educated in switzerland wants you that's going to happen and don't you know but letting go it's grossly overestimate is freedom of action. system but also. in respect to the outside world you respect the americans so it is not north korea and since don't want to zoom in and want to. constrain. somewhat like they want to contain china. differently but it's all part of the same club so so what we can do is the menus are fairly limited. and we will again will have. really

depends very much on the americans. prospects for the struggling european currency remain low in the new year as the euro fell sharply of the out of twenty eleven debt ridden countries are racing to employ more sturdy matters for spain announcing almost nine billion euros in cuts investment advisor patrick young says he doubts the single currency still has a viable chance of survival. unfortunately the prognosis for the new year must be one of a terrible hangover 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 child after another sham after another sham and they've been spelt summit 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 the year zero 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 shape or form i think you will find there will be defaults in other words countries are going to turn around 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 one morning we're going to wake up and the euro will have changed here for normally another day we may wake up and there will be no euro whatsoever right now that probability is fifty fifty at best that the euro survives the next twelve months. a russian court has ruled it will not ban a religious book central to the hari krishna movement it rejected claims that the book was extremist in nature the case has angered hindus around the world and court's decision was welcomed by india's foreign ministry the trial was opened in

this a very unseemly tums in jew prosecutors claim that the russian translation of the religious book inside of hatred towards nonbelievers and social discord indeed officials have made high level appeals not to ban the text before final hearings took place. else take a look at some other stories from around the world u.s. president barack obama has signed a defense bill with a price tag of six hundred sixty two billion dollars despite serious reservations by critics over how terror suspects will be handled under its provisions the new law means any person can be detained without charge opponents also say the legislation gives more authority to the military to detain and interrogate people denying them constitutional rights. nigerian president goodluck jonathan has declared a state of emergency in response to the wave of violent attacks by islamist sect. and state address on saturday he vowed to crush the terrorist group and condemn the christmas bomb blast that killed more than forty people. the closure of sections of

nigeria's borders until further notice tens of thousands have fled their homes across the country because of the violence. in south sudan thousands of fighters from the louer tribe have laid siege to the town of one of their rivals members of the tribe store and pay board torching buildings stealing livestock and forcing scores from their homes in troops deployed in the town were unable to prevent the attack this latest spate of violence comes as the governor of the sudanese state and the vice president attempt to mediate talks between the tribes. and chinese bus driver has died in the first reported case of bird flu. in a country in over eighteen months the man was hospitalized with pneumonia but later tested positive for the deadly virus according to health authorities had had no contact with poultry a positive test in a dead chicken at market just outside of hong kong last week prompted an immediate import ban on poultry to control the epidemic. and the new year americans will

choose who leaves their country for the next four years but given the influential role of the role the u.s. has in the world faiers some candidates seem to lack a basic knowledge of world events and their key players what's more they don't seem to bother any there are going to has been to new york and discovered they're not the only ones. it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone commerce education and the what's the third one there let's see if he's looking to to actually fire tens of thousands of federal workers and eliminate cabinet level position he can even remember its name asked me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stan stan i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know it's not the fact that he doesn't know it's the fact that he doesn't think he should look it up you agree with president obama.

your view of. the basic knowledge of those attempting to spearhead a country can leave much to be desired witlessly with americans choosing their politicians and their countries potential future let's find out. for some reason i don't know anything about libya do you know what is back and stamina no i do not know what the big you stand back and. do you know the us is an airbase there. or you know do you know about libya and i want you to spell libya. yes do you know. it states was involved in a war with libya. ok. you know why. i know absolutely nothing about that honestly or that new mexico is that a state or a country but is that. iraqis i mean i think. it was my first or now.

it's the old man under bush. while i actually. come on it was not that long ago you know you cheney who is the vice president of the u.s. . you know i have no idea you know it's. the vice president. cheney so when secretary of state police arise stella now we would be fools and nice to ignore their purpose and their plan some countries are at the top of politicians list to attack her belief am literally but how much do people really know about those faraway places. with her. it's her idea was the president. you know the president of iran is no capital capital of iran do you know the capital city of iran. negative do you guys know what iran is oh yes yes yes what's

the capital of iraq. was the president. the president he just died what about the capital of the capital yes i do what is it you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret come i don't know is calling me. now live here it's. anything yes it. is the president of iraq iran iraq all right you know his name but a jet a giraffe or so when it comes to picking a future for the you was choosing what comes next maybe. tom without the knowledge of what has gone on in the past and even the very present that's intruding on our team. our brains up to date here on r.t. i'll be back with reminder of our top story shortly stay with us.

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a screen that's going to be heard. in the flight see a movie and below the ice on our t.v. . talk about here with r.t. here's a look at our top stories the world welcomes twenty twelve with fireworks celebrations and toast as the holiday sweeps the globe north america is next in line hundreds of thousands. packed new york's times square or some dropping at midnight. and in other news this week fresh clashes flare up in syria with dozens reported killed despite the arab league observers mission there while leaving is victorious rebels are taking their revolution to for.