while i am here in moscow right now welcome you're watching r t with me kevin oh in first u.s. president barack obama welcomed in the new year by signing into law a tough new set of sanctions for iran and in doing business with turan central bank will face 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 is already saying to round the block off a key oil export route in response adding to the situation is rand's plan to test long range missiles during naval drills in the gulf that led to u.s. warships being sent to the area reza marashi of the independent lobby group the national rainin american council told me a lack of diplomatic ties between the two countries is increasing the danger of a hostile outcome. calling the strait of hormuz for the iranian government would be the equivalent of cutting off its nose to spite its face its 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. syria now where violence began in march spilled over into the new year arab league observers on a mission to the country of war damascus against cracking down on protesters at least thirty people there were reportedly killed in the past day despite efforts to

oversee the implementation of a peace plan. for a group linked to the arab league has called for the observers to pull out missions distracting attention from the ongoing. devices nonbinding with the observers due to stay in syria for three weeks to enlist i should return he says the conflicts of . the entire region. certainly the western media 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 the thousands of syrian soldiers dying and they haven't died because of peaceful protests this isn't a libya syria is the 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 forces but certainly syria the syrian government itself has to step up the pace because it's

certainly losing the propaganda battle. another arab country libya is still recovering from the brutal civil war the topple kill gadhafi last year now while there are signs of stability tensions there also rising between the tribes the militias that one time for together against the regime not exert a voice file this report from tripoli that earlier in the week. flying high but still running low almost two months after the lifting of a no fly zone over tripoli the city's airport operates far below its capacity to the passenger traffic keeps increasing every month as more and more airlines of putting tripoli back on their flight schedules the tripoli airport is once again buzzing with visitors a fellow life has already within service and more expected to follow in the coming months but while the flight controllers and customs officials are back of their desks it's still the militia who call the shots here and the rebels themselves

admit that the situation is way to trouble and to cede control to civilian authorities they're no longer flashing their guns to get make it very clear who is in control here the rebel brigades from the western cd of the captured the airport in late august as the rebels over on the capital the control of this key facility how the town with a population of some thirty thousand rise to national prominence since then does in time militia have successfully styled itself as the save guards of libya's future. for forty two years our country had nothing no state institutions just one and same person. now we have a historic mission to overcome the difficulties of the transitional period we can build a new country and that. is one of the top guns in tripoli these days primarily a colonel in the good after his army he still keeps the good office army cap in his

office his subordinates are now holding the deposed libyan leader's son safe will islam. we are against any dictator but if history repeats itself we will wage a war but we will let the rule of law decide his fate. didn't ghazi zintan misrata these libyan c.d.'s one after another rose against gadhafi is regime . their militias now represent the real axis of power in the country as their very soon their legacy and agendas as this tribes on the only base new tricolor the prospect of civil war in libya is always there and it has been there but has been effectively mastered by the very strong centralized rule of the gadhafi regime but of course now that that has been the stabilized we see this all of the tensions there in the fabric of libyan society coming to the fore another militia commander in charge of tripoli rebels is preparing for an interview it's been

a month since he changed his military fatigues for a business suit of deland maker is now trying to transform rebels under his command into a political force a laptop has replaced their rifle as his main tool internet is his new front line of the armed assistant at his door is a sign that political process is still in its very early stages but. we've seen many examples in the past when people's revolutions were stolen and we are very clear that our struggle is far from over he may still come back in some other shape or form and in that case who have to take up our weapons and defend our revolution. with guns are still a common side on the streets of tripoli of their prevalence has visibly decreased the city's covered with posters calling on the rebels to turn them in the design element of militia has so far failed to translate into national reconciliation the

competition among various brigades may have become less visible but not less in towns the nato alliance would like to build up. on any division within the groups or the parties that they have revolutionised against the qaddafi regime and according to my own understanding they would like to see certain provinces being divided inside the state of libya back in the arrival hall isn't turned rebels are screening passengers bags on to the posters left from the old regime to get out his golden framed portrait that maddest at the airport a year ago is gone hatred of him and have glued the libyan society for several months if he's killing the former units he appears to have died as well as in the work of art see tripoli. coming up on the program the year in brief we take a look back just a few of the momentous stories that made the headlines and twenty eleven around the world. in egypt 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 meantime the u.s. says egypt's current rulers have agreed to hold raids on pro-democracy rights groups earlier this week soldiers and police stormed offices of nongovernmental organizations including some funded by washington documents computers were seized as part of investigations into the foreign funding when ascensions groups accuse the ruling military of using the same tactics of repression as the mubarak regime foreign policy analyst out radical shamu told me he thinks the generals will make sure they hold on to power but the people won't stop until they outspent. this is part of the military the supreme council or armed forces way of making sure. the revolution basically is small to do that to the type of government they want because that's those are the same generals by the way who work for mubarak.

so that's really basically is part of that struggle is the revolution going to go forward or is that a good use of going to be molded and some dude into some role to the military but really the military has to step aside and let disagree. government come to power once the election are well and the election should be held as soon as possible they will not give up the power that easily but i think the egyptian people and you know in the arabs in general have moss to fear from corrupt government and they have restored of their dignity and they will not tolerate another military dictatorship in the country i think all the evidence indicate that despite the sacrifices. well news in brief starting in nigeria there the country's leaders declared a state of emergency in areas hit by a wave of islamist attacks president goodluck jonathan shut borders with neighboring countries after

a string of christmas day blast which killed over forty he's vowed to crush boko haram militants who claimed responsibility ballance has continued since churches throughout the country first attacked a week ago tens of thousands of homes fearing further. south sudan's government sending army and police to an area you center of a violent tribal conflict the town of people was attacked by stylesheets fighters move rival tribes who thought will restart their livestock and for schools to flee un troops deployed in the region were able to enforce security in recent months ethnic infighting caused by couple rustlings left about a thousand. u.s. president barack obama signed into effect the law which means that any person can be detained indefinitely now without charge made to defense bills into dealing with terrorist suspects and it comes with a massive six hundred sixty two billion dollars price tag but critics say the military will now have more authority to interrogate people denying them the basic constitutional rights. this is our taste to lead in the program down with knowledge

. of what the capital of iran here's the president of iran is now all right do you know his name matter jetted you are for something well we set out for the streets new york to discover what americans know about their country policy at home and across the globe. unfortunately not much new year cheer from economists predicting a turn to recession in europe for twenty twelve fight leaders use the new year messages to warn of hard times ahead in their respective countries german chancellor angela merkel said europe was facing its most severe test decades while french president sarkozy warned that the debt crisis blanketing the continent was for. 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 some analysts now believe that the e.u. leaders attempts at keeping your of them together is only the right. peon leaders

are trying to shore up the eurozone by having greater greece of centralization and more having countries like france and germany have the final say in a sense over the budgets of those e.u. member states that have excessive budget deficits but that really isn't the answer to the problems milt's really needs either a massive injection of cash into countries like greece and italy to shore up their economies course another option would of course to recognize that the single currency has hurt competitiveness in many nations of the eurozone so really there's a number of options either to transfer funds from the north to the struggling south or course have an orderly break up of the euro zone. the israeli military's confirmed it carried out an airstrike on guards or on friday one palace to you was killed in the attack which television claims was aimed at preventing militants from firing rockets into israel the country's 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 now in terms of brokering a peace deal of so far fruitless but israeli column is gideon levy thinks television really trying to avoid conflict. three years ago is the car bludger not only the west had plowed this. and didn't see a word against the city but we are facing a new egypt and gaza ease in the backyard of egypt and i'm not sure that egypt will remain indifferent visibly another thing but having said this i'm not sure that this is enough to prevent the because unfortunately israeli politicians in general . not always react in the most racial and logical way the current government of israel has no serious intentional about this serious dialogue with the palestinians

maybe some photo opportunities but nothing more than these 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 these were to say no. the beginning of twenty twelve has been very festive for the occupy wall street protesters with around seventy of them spending the night in custody in new york they were arrested just before midnight demonstrators took to the streets of the big to a new year's eve they tried to return to the place where it all started over three months ago zuccotti park but they were stopped by police and the public over there are the protesters were on the march on through lower manhattan the occupy wall street movement since its formation is spread across the u.s.

into other countries. and the formation of the protest group in new york which demands social equality and an end to rule by the rich was in day one of the remarkable milestones of twenty eleven and this is now a look back now at some of the other big developments of the past year. two thousand and eleven could easily go down as the most eventful year in years the killing of bin laden after a decade long manhunt libya's gadhafi after months of nato bombing and the death of north korea's kim jong il don't even begin to illustrate twenty eleven. times chose the protester as person of the year and although there were different slogan signs and demands of solutions twenty eleven will ultimately be remembered as the year people came out onto the streets the arab spring bloomed into a european summer which harvested an american autumn from cairo to california

moscow to madrid to where 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 that 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 that 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 did 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 raged against desperate austerity cuts to qualify for i.m.f. bailout germany and france fined 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 a vague year old brother germany can't go on forever greece and italy are now led by on a lark to brussels back technocrat leaders were trying to curb the crisis coming into new year critics say twenty eleven 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 that the police certainly institutional. people 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 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 that was truly based in the end of his fruits of american politics the crowd isn't 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 grates 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're doing if you're. 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. needs 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 i mean 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 at all most fifty percent but experts say a sixty percent drop from two thousand and seven should be taken as a warning i think a lot of people wanted to punish. russia for having power for so long and 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 he's now a r.t. moscow. and if they do we'll of course be covering it now we've got more on the events as well as the last year the year just gone twenty eleven waiting for on a website called while you're there you can also see the world celebrated the arrival of twenty twelve i thought our web site some spectacular footage of new year's celebrations around the globe to compile it all together for you very nice to. it's about. first the end of the year so u.s. troops wave farewell to iraq a web site exposed the implications and consequences of nine years of conflict. and a look at the uprising the delos the disasters of twenty eleven the seen through

the eyes of our correspondent a special series we brought you last week if you missed it online from us as well. witnesses. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . the men and women hoping to become the next president of the united states appear to spend as much time demonstrating their ignorance of the world as they do their political credentials but. found that that could just be a reflection of society. 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 he's looking to to actually fire tens of thousands of federal workers and eliminate an entire cabinet level position and 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 so you agree with president obama livia. basic knowledge of those attempting to spearhead a country can leave much to be desired would be this leave americans choosing their moment titian's and their country's potential future let's find out. what spec is heard of a war for some reason i don't know anything about libya do you know what is the pakistanis know i do not know what the pakistan and pakistan. do you know the us is an airbase there. nor do we know about libya. you know dispel libya yes yes do you know the united states was involved in a war with libya. ok. you know why.

i know absolutely nothing about. what about new mexico is that a state or a country what is that i dare you tell me if you don't like that. it's the old me under bush. while i actually. come on it was not that long ago you know you cheney was the vice president of the us. you know i have no idea i know it's. the right one. cheney. so when the secretary of state that i'm lisa rice tell them that 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. like missouri. it's here on here with 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 here's. the president. the president he just died but the capitol grounds the capitol yes i do but if you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret come i don't want to support him and. now living here in pakistan anything he gets a. little something if the president of iraq iran iraq all right you know his name but a jet a giraffe or something when it comes to picking a future for the you wants to see what comes next may be tough without the knowledge of what has gone on in the past and even the very present it is this it

should not be on. the top secret response. troubles a bit later very said. ventured to a small over the world who had to rush white sea for diving and kite surfing hofner that commercial and. headlines in two minutes time.

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wants it all to moscow autopsy doris' u.s. president barack obama signs a bill imposing new tough sanctions on iraq targeting the central bank the financial sector in response. has to run for at least a couple for crucial supply routes through which a fifth of the world's oil flows. and he wave of violence erupts in syria with demonstrators claiming schools more would be killed by security forces arab league observers reacted to recently made in the end their mission to broker peace. while the world welcomes the arrival of twenty twelve father works and champagne almost.