i. it is good if you joined us today the first day of two thousand and twelve real research show you watching the weekly or not see us president barack obama welcome to the new year by signing into law a tough new set of sanctions for iran anyone doing business with central bank will face a punishment thanks to the new measures directly targeting the financial sector the move comes at a time of heightened tension over iran's nuclear program and the threat of sanctions as a ready to iran threaten to block off a key oil export route in response to the situation is iran's plan to test fire a long range missiles during naval drills in the gulf that led to u.s. was being dispatched to the area. of the independent lobby group the national iranian american council says a lack of diplomatic ties between the two countries is increasing the danger of a hostile outcome closing 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 want to have pressure increases to the point where iran is backed into a corner to governments that haven't 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 a cycle of escalation in 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. and from iran to out of syria now where violence began in march as a sport over into the new year arab league observers on

a mission to the country have warned against the cracking down on protesters at least thirteen people reportedly killed in just the past day despite the league's efforts to oversee the implementation of a peace plan this comes as two of syria's leading opposition groups signed a unification deal that also rules out any foreign intervention beyond arab involvement it's estimated that more than five thousand civilians were killed in syria just last year but that figure cannot be verified because damascus has restricted access to foreign media journalist afshin rattansi says the syrian conflict is a powder keg that could ignite the entire region. 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 what is no doubt is that thousands of syrian soldiers are dying and they haven't died because of peaceful protests but this isn't a libya syria is

a linchpin of the middle east and the united states and other countries are 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 battle. well other syrian regime claims its fighting an armed insurgency funded from abroad yet to be independently confirmed but what is fact is that rebel fighters who helped overthrow colonel qadhafi in libya now eager to take the revolution to the president assad's door hundreds of libyan ambassador areas are reportedly already gunning for regime change in syria on a boy reports from aaa. a butcher our dad made the owner of this kebab shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. tell us that it's economically the biggest game in the world that

the syria. other syria. you can make it a lot of people in syria. 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 our people subject syria these are just. wrong if this soldier we have we have enough but i think yeah we want we. 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 these young men who are on adrenaline and willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical

destination. we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of all along we will make sure that what happened in libya will repeat itself in syria. over the portraits of shaky bar i now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. with the help of we can all be like 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 the most from one revolution to another some motivated by personal gain some by conviction all there is by the venture if i put out on the 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 neighbors 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 anonymous freedom fighter but for the united states it's now. a 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 r.t. sources not a group of several hundred libyan rebels to syria just last month. we can't do any

help to support the syrian people because we are they are facing the same situation as before and do but if she comes to lead and we will see why the syrian people who they need help to get their freedom i think we should do it the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard then 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 it's new and no less bloody chapter of some of the artsy tripoli. you're watching out the live from moscow it's good to have your company today still ahead for you this hour year in brief we take a look back at a few of the stories that made the headlines in two thousand and eleven around the world. now to egypt where pro-democracy protesters held a candlelight vigil in cairo's tahrir square on new year's eve in memory of those

killed during the uprising that ousted hosni mubarak meanwhile the u.s. says egypt's current rules have agreed to hold the raids on pro-democracy rights groups this week soldiers and police stormed offices of nongovernmental organizations including some funded by washington documents on computers were seized as part of investigations into the foreign funding of organizations and the groups accuse the ruling military of using the same tactics offer oppression as the former mubarak regime but author william dial believes there is interference coming in from washington. i think the military has made a deal with the islamic brotherhood and washington doesn't want stabilization they want to be permanent on knees so that they can you know use that as a lever in the entire region there's anger because there's been little change but also because. it's quite the case that foreign n.g.o.s financed by the

u.s. congress and others the national endowment for democracy various other so-called human rights politicized organizations are fanning the protests claiming pitting the military against against these human rights n.g.o.s so. the idea is to create as much chaos through the region as possible in order to justify i believe a stronger nato role permanently in the region. well let's get to some our world news for you this hour here on r.t. first our attention goes to that of nigeria where the country's leader has declared a state of emergency in areas hit by a wave of islamist attacks president goodluck jonathan has shut borders with neighboring countries following a string of christmas day blasts which killed over forty the leader has vowed to crush a book on how to militants who claimed responsibility for the attacks and violence has continued since churches throughout the country were first attacked a week ago tens of thousands have fled their homes fearing future violence. in

south sudan thousands of fighters from the new or try have laid siege to a town of one of their rivals members of the tribe stormed a people torching buildings stealing life stock and forcing schools to flee it comes just by u.n. troops attempts to step up security in the town in recent months ethnic infighting caused by cattle rustling and left about a thousand people dead in the region. u.s. president barack obama has signed a bill which means any person can be detained without charge the major defense bill is aimed at dealing with terrorist suspects and comes with a massive six hundred sixty two billion dollars price tag but critics say the military will now have more authority to detain and interrogate people denying them of their basic constitutional rights. all right to come out of the program here on r.t. the insight into enigma one of the few people able to shed some light on the new

leader of the world's most secretive country the man north koreans are being urged to defend to the death. there's not much new year cheer from economists predicting a return to recession in europe for two thousand and twelve in fact leaders use new year messages to warn of hard times ahead for their countries german chancellor angela merkel said you. was facing its most severe test in decades french president nicolas sarkozy has warned that the debt crisis blanketing the continent was far from over many governments have been forced to slash their spending to meet debt obligations as economic growth in europe has been at a standstill for months investment advisor patrick young says he doubts the single currency has a viable chance of survival over the next twelve months. 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 shower after another shower 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 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 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. watching the weekly on r.t. the israeli military has confirmed it carried out an air strike on guards this friday one palestinian was killed in the attack which television claims was aimed at preventing militants from firing rockets into israel the country has been stepping up its airstrikes in recent months leaving dozens dead three years after the jewish state briefly invaded gaza military officials are saying they may have to start what they're calling a quote war of necessity attempts at brokering a peace deal of so far proven fruitless but israeli columnist gideon levy thinks that television really trying to avoid conflict. three years ago israel had the card bludger not only carte blanche the west had plowed. 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 serious dialogue with the palestinians maybe some photo opportunities but nothing more than this and 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 just just symbolic release of one hundred palestinian prisoners to get back to negotiation table it would say

no. it's now a quarter past the hour here in the russian capital north korea has a vow to improve the economic life of its impoverished people and rallied into internal support for kim jong un in a new year's statement the country is entering a new era with a new leader firmly installed as a supreme commander of the military and head of the ruling party following his father's death however the quote great successor remains an enigma so what is more if a national looks about what we did. you can see the death of the north korean dictator has raised questions and hopes over whether the dictatorship one of the last of the world will follow or will this extremely closed society remain isolated and it's who you lead it to or you so little is known about the lately there was a great successor his third and youngest son name is a bit of

a dark horse even his age remains a subject of speculation his thought to be twenty seven all twenty eight you know his new ascension to power increases the media hunger for information about him so his expensive education in switzerland suddenly tractors a lot more interest an entrepreneur in moscow with russian origins alexander how good she believes he could have been one of kim's classmates when news spread that kim trani may have gone to an elite school in this week's margins in late ninety's the businessman brought out his all the book to refresh his memory there were quite a few koreans. quieter than others. a lot with with the last name came. as kim is the most common name in korea alexander remembers that koreans always differed from all the students they were very disciplined they were very disciplined as

a group of students. very serious for their interaction. they wouldn't always take part in. fun and games at the other students were very hard studying to be top class they didn't like to do that although some think this is leaders son may be a figurehead overshadowed by his recently promoted uncle who is thought to wield the real power alexander says the three years china has apparently spent in europe may change the country's future forever i think that. it will make him realize that he has to do something good for his people for his country. and make a change in terms of. past experience his knowledge of foreign languages and the skills that he managed to retain being abroad the outside world used to get most of the news from behind north korea's iron curtain through the country's strictly censored state run media covering the live of the secrets of society from

the inside has been an almost impossible task for international journalists but the details now emerging about the new leader is exposure to the liberal west offer a glimmer of hope that he may ease bag the rigid control over the terran regime and begin to open north korea to the world and maybe their war old to north korea riff not r.t. moscow. for twenty pm on the first day of the new year here in moscow of course russia welcomed two thousand and twelve with a bang being the world's biggest country it celebrated new year not once not twice but nine times thanks to its nine different time zones with the country's far east kickstarting the festivities and russia's a western most point the baltic city of kaliningrad finishing off while hundreds also gathered in moscow's red square to toast the new year of the world was treated

to operation so far works over the globe to hawaii has just become the latest now to ring in the new year while australia was among the first countries to open its doors to the new year with glittering fireworks all over sydney harbor asia picked up the baton with spectacular shows held across the region and in dubai hundreds gathered at the world's tallest building to watch an amazing illumination display millions of revelers packing cities all over europe for the countdown to midnight with celebrations sweeping the globe ati's a nice and now we now looks back at what made two thousand and eleven. two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most eventful year in years the killing of bin ladin after a decade long manhunt libya's good to have free after months of nato bombing and the death of north korea's kim jong il don't even begin to illustrate twenty eleven

. time jos the protester as person of the year and although there were different slogans signs and demands of solutions twenty eleven will ultimately be remembered as the year people came out onto the streets. the arab spring bloomed into a european summer which harvested an american autumn from cairo to california moscow to madrid to harir 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 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 a civil war intensifies this is a direct effect that direct 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. bailout germany and france fine for influence in the debt ridden so 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 your own 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 cope 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 you know stop and so. on a sense of place a certain institutional. people 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 when the protests began in september if you were talking about it mainstream media stayed silent until seven hundred people were arrested on the brooklyn bridge and that was truly based on the anarchists roots of american politics the crowd is easy so. they are disorganized they look funny what are they 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 and 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 the rich the one percent from oakland to boston the more people occupied the more brutality became more evident

by. what you do with your own. right our police forces have been militarized they're 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 raked. by the protest at least fifty thousand strong the largest in recent history call for free and fair elections and remains peaceful ruling party united russia lost

popularity in the vote with official results putting their numbers at almost fifty percent but experts say a sixteen percent drop from two thousand and seven should be taken as a warning i think a lot of people wanted to punish. united russia for having power for so long maybe not doing everything they could protest organized by vast groups of opposition members are said to continue in two thousand and twelve next year russia along with the u.s. and france hold presidential elections which makes it a safe bet people will be out on the streets in twenty twelve in europe america and around the world and he's now a r.t. moscow. and we have much more on the events that shaped two thousand and eleven all waiting for you though on our web site c dot com also for you right now at our web site you can see how the world celebrated their wives of two thousand and twelve

you'll find some spectacular footage of new year's celebrations from all around the world. at the end of the year saw u.s. troops wave a farewell to iraq dot com explores the implications and consequences of nine years of conflict. and a look at the uprising demos and disasters of two thousand and eleven as seen through the eyes of our correspondents here that testimony at all to dot com. witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and seven on our t.v. . and it is sunday afternoon on january the first two thousand and twelve this is on tape just a few moments we'll talk to russia's ambassador to the u.n. . before that though a recap of the top stories with me will research. wealthy

british science. market. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into a report. this is r t live from the heart of moscow your headlines now president obama has signed a bill which imposes new tough sanctions on iran over its disputed nuclear program this is despite tehran's threats to shut off a key oil supply route in the gulf between the two countries continues to build. the syrian regime's crackdown on demonstrators continues unabated forcing arab league observers to warn damascus to rein in the violence they want to use our overseeing the implementation of a peace plan.