skews to curtail iranian influence in the region because this isn't just about nuclear weapons if it were about nuclear weapons in the middle east then the united states would have a bone to pick with israel which is the only power in the middle east which actually possesses nuclear weapons it's not about that that's the cause of spare life but the reason for this continued conflict is because the american administration simply can't live within iran which has as much regional power as it has at the moment you see the americans when they look at the iranian regime they see its links with syria they see links with hamas they see links with hezbollah and this is a challenge to american power in an absolutely critical economically critical geopolitically critical area of the globe and it's that which is the sticking point for the american ministration in my view there are some people hawks in israel hawks in the united states who want to settle this militarily and it does seem to me that once we begin on the process of implementing sanctions of iran responding to the sanctions that there will be calls further down the road for direct military

conflict and that in this case is even more dangerous than it was in the case of iraq. where land a political science professor from paris west university says that by isolating iran western leaders are trying to improve their political standing ignoring the economic dangers it spells. from an economic point of view it is not wise but you know from a belittle point of view this is grandstanding and political. coming from leaders who are facing elections obama in the us and obama has to care very tough on iran because it is accused by the republicans are being soft on iran and so cozy who is quite discredited in trances trying to score a success so trying to bash iran something good for political reasons for this readers on the domestic stage it canonically of course if prices continue to raise it would be very bad for the entire global economy i think the sanctions are likely

to affect european countries as well and in fact i read that mario drag is asking for a delivery to live because he ran knows it to live out of money so maybe the sanctions are not going to happen in the way they were announced today but it would be very bad for europe in your column is no doubt it would also have an impact on the rand but iran has other possibilities the most obvious one is of course selling to china . and of course as always we'd like to hear your opinions on this story head to the forums section of our website tom to get involved and here are just some of the few viewpoints on what's going to happen in the region one viewer says that the world isn't still in a financial crisis which george bush and tony blair left us with maybe russia and china will throw their weight forward to stop an attack on iran another opinion is that iran will not dare to hamper oil exports and start a war in the middle east simply because it will be razed to the ground europe and

america can easily impose any sanction sanctions on iran for the good of all people on earth and one more viewpoint of course is that we should just hope at least one side of this conflict will be sensible and will push the other towards an all out. which automatically means in this case nuclear war with the us playing with fire putting pressure on iran go to the forums dot com to see more opinions and have your say. also on our website filling a gap in the market to find out how an ex-pat seeks to extract profit by launching a cutting edge. check out the latest in our pathfinders series at r.t. dot com.

prosecutors in the trial of ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak have called for him and his closest associates to face the hangman's noose they have justified their request by arguing that mubarak was personally responsible for every protesters death during the country's revolution the prosecutor went on to claim that quote retribution is the solution the eighty three year old is currently suffering severe health problems and was carried into a hearing on. we are now joined live by richard spencer founder and editor of the online magazine alternative right dot com for his insight on the implications of the trial mr spencer thanks of course for joining us at this time now let me ask you is the death penalty for a bedridden eighty three year old appropriate at all. well i don't think age is that important what i see in this matter is grand pa corsi just a couple weeks ago the military interregnum which was controlling egypt

since mubarak was ousted they went out of your protestors with extreme prejudice a number of jiah today were patani people they wanted for beating up a woman i think at some point all these horrible pictures are of course posted on twitter and in quite it caused quite a stir i don't think that those ruling authorities will be held accountable to any of these crimes of what you see at the end of the day with something like this it is something it's right or left or right in many ways it's it's all too human and that is even if we want to imagine that these revolutions are branded romance or not you know love and democracy and so on and so forth at the end of the day it becomes a matter of human emotions and even human babies basic instinct for revenge sensually these are mubarak's enemies who when they get their revenge on

a dissolute or whom they didn't like and at the end of the day that is all it is there are some people who are a new into this when they actually have state power america of course is immune to any kind of prosecution when it engages and say it's killing millions of people or casualties of their iraq adventures and things like that but once you are out of power you no longer have that that shield of government protects you and essentially all your enemies can have a whack at you which is what's happening with mubarak and it certainly happened with gadhafi just a few months ago. now the prosecutor said and i quote from his statements mubarak did nothing to stop the killings yet unlike khadafi or assad he stepped down when he could have clung on to power should this in fact count in his defense. well i well i i guess i mean again states from the beginning of time whether we're talking

about the roman empire or the soviet union in anything like this how essentially defended themselves against revolutionary forces i if you know if the tea party or occupy wall street got out of hand and i'm sure what she did would at the end of the day shift and it's how are things and so mubarak was really he's not uniquely good is not uniquely evil he just is and he was acting like most all state actors have acted out that that the whole of human history and so i you know i think he probably the reason why i stepped down was not because he had some great love for divine procedure of the united states or something or the protesters i think that was his calculated gamble that he might not you know face the hangman's noose if you did that you know gadhafi was maybe a little bit gutsier and braver but it looks like both of their fates will be the same now you mentioned about mubarak that he just is in many ways the situation

hasn't really changed in egypt protesters are still dying there hundreds have been wounded and killed since october by what that rationale shouldn't more people now be facing the same potential pendent penalty as mubarak well that's what i mentioned before i mean the military interregnum temporary government has killed protesters and yet i seriously doubt that they will ever be held to account so this really is a matter of ocracy and i'll just add in here and i hope this isn't too cynical but i imagine that the united states while they they might not have been the one behind this i don't think washington is going to be too disappointed about mubarak being put to death and that is the reason that some in some ways some of these the rebels are kind of doing their dirty work the united states worked with mubarak for decades. mubarak was had a friendly relationship with israel i'm sure there are

a lot of bad secrets there secrets that might even come out in a trial this is a very similar situation to darfur who of course had agreements of the bush administration even though he was always depicted assume evil maniac he worked with the united states he worked with israel as well and i'm sure there are a lot of dark secrets involved in that relationship as there are involved in any kind of state diplomatic relationship and i i think it's the end of the day they probably don't want these to go come out they don't partake you know yapping about some of the things he did to the united states so i don't think the obama or the washington will denounce this i don't think the order but they might actually kind of like it and finally if the military does give up power and hands it over to the government the to the people of the day that means it would belong to the islamists looking forward what kind of a path could that mean for the country. well you know i can't predict that i think in some ways what i hope that the lesson that we might learn

from this is that americans who we seem to be a people we get caught up in a know some of these romantic frenzies about democracy and revolution and a lot of the that is inspired by our mainstream media which does not really report the truth but reports a kind of kooky theater of what they they want you to see and that we can see that you know sometimes that mubarak might not be a really a nice guy but he might be actually of a better choice than someone like the islamic of the of the of the brotherhood who will likely gain power and that you can have fantasies about the people rising up but at the end of the day it is about someone ruling it's not the people it's about one particular party and one particular social order coming into being that if you my guess if i if i if you you know want to press me on it i think egypt situation

is going to be much worse than it was under mubarak this might actually common bite us in the in the you know what because they said they have essentially cleared the way or supported the clearing the way for in his law mic type already to take over egypt thank you very much for your insight richard spencer founder and coeditor of the online magazine alternative right dot com thank you. and barack obama has announced a new road map for the u.s. military with an emphasis on making the military a leader and cheaper the plan calls on the armed forces to abandon their ability to fight two simultaneous land wars and shift focus on stamping their military superiority across asia and the pacific our correspondent going to church again has the latest details. you strategy is to move away from ground wars from long term stability operations to mobile wars where the u.s.

can as we don't put out a put it shift and deploy forces to fight any enemy anywhere they said they're going to invest heavily in new capabilities seen drones in space technology to give the u.s. military this whole new shape which is the defense secretary said it will be nothing like the cold war or the post cold war military meaning they're moving away from ground wars told words air wars toward the intelligence war so to speak the u.s. is pull troops out of iraq but still less thousands of contractors behind president obama said it was draw all day for u.s. forces in afghanistan which is due in twenty fourteen but winding down the decade of inconclusive wars in iraq and afghanistan won't necessarily mean less wars but rather wars of a different shape shape that was outlined to us this morning in the u.s. is already fighting this new kind of warfare on multiple fronts in different countries with the use of air force with the use of drones levy is one example the whole country was destroyed mainly from air pakistan is another example not not

a successful one though people in pakistan are infuriated by u.s. rights which end up killing many civilians and as it happened recently their own pakistani soldiers over washington said the strike was a tragic mistake the u.s. will have to do a lot of damage control work to help the pakistani leadership overcome the humiliation so although the u.s. administration looks at the old strategy of ground wars is passe and irrelevant in this day and age yet it's not clear what result the new strategy will bring that he's going to force there now brian becker of the anti-war answer coalition believes the new plan means america will save money but won't spare the misery for others targets for conflict. this is not a step away from war this is not a step towards pacifism or a step towards a retreat from empire building it's actually the use of a military strategy that costs the american political leaders be they obama or

whoever takes his place afterwards less on the home front if there are fewer american casualties of all the bleeding is done on the other side of all of the destruction is done by those who are suffering the consequences of air war they feel that there will be less antiwar sentiment at home so it's not a promise in the progressive directions what the obama administration and what the pentagon are doing in it and obama signaling that explicitly in his speech he puts again the primacy of the turn towards asia which really is a turn against china i think they're looking forward to this competition and the evolution of a possible cold war type scenario with china which again gives the pentagon a long term enemy which justifies gives rationale to the continued expansion of the us defense budget this does not cut the defense budget it only slows the projected growth of the defense budgets the u.s. government budget deficit is a major major problem in

a threat to the united states standing in the global market but nonetheless the primacy of the military industrial complex is in fact intact so if there's a budget shortfall you'll see what teachers laid off nurses laid off firefighters laid off but the pentagon will get more than its fair share. on to syria now where the syrian national council one of the country's main opposition groups wants the arab league to accept its observer mission to monitor violence and broker peace has failed and is urging the u.n. security council to approve a no fly zone opposition groups have also accused damascus of misleading the league observers by taking them to areas loyal to the government as pressure builds on the syrian authorities the country's foreign ministry has attacked the u.s. for interfering that's after washington sent an envoy to the arab league for talks on the latest developments beirut based political analyst and journalist dr omar believes the league's observers however are under heavy western pressure. the arab

observers that have been. sent to syria from the arab league in cairo have been working for the past week and additional numbers of observers entering syria they are under a lot of pressure apparently some american pressure there are pressures by some arab countries that are pro-american on the euro observers to actually affect the way they will draft their reports these observers the city and officials have been given the observers access to all occasions in syria today the observations are visiting the prison in that. they have access to police stations they have access to different localities in the different neighborhoods where there was a lot of tension now let's hope that they will let these coalition do its job independently and will make the truth come out and the truth i think is that there are. gunmen shooting at the army there are some groups of gunmen

who are creating chaos in syria and now they are profiting from the movement it's such a big shame that some western powers and some fallen intervention in syrian affairs is using these people and using the demands of these people to reach political objectives and that's a very destructive move on the part of the united states and its allies in the region. now let's check what else is happening around the world for you now. a wave of explosions in iraq has killed seventy two people and wounded more than one hundred the deadliest attack was in the country's south claiming the lives of at least forty four shiite pilgrims meanwhile in baghdad a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near a bus station and was followed by three more explosions the violence has raised fears insurgents are stepping up attacks after the u.s. troops pulled out by this month. former israeli prime minister ehud olmert has

been indicted on corruption charges he's accused of taking bribes to promote the construction of housing projects and it takes dates back to before his time in office has already been on trial for three unrelated counts of fraud and breach of trust but denies all charges. thousands of demonstrators have taken it to the streets of the yemeni capital sanaa demanding the prosecution of the country's president ali abdullah saleh and the release of political prisoners he remains in power despite ten months of violent unrest demanding that he quit. not resign from the presidency despite signing a deal six weeks ago in november to stand down and hand the power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution that followed several other internationally brokered deals for him to depart. thousands of visitors have flocked to the city of harbin annual i special in the northeastern china lavish of

fireworks marking the opening ceremony the lighting up the sky the show goes on traditionally until the snow melts trying to over thirty thousand visitors organizers claim the carbon ice is one of the largest structures predictors in the world. well the new year is just days old but already there is another looming crisis for the eurozone with greece's threat to ditch the euro if the country doesn't get another bailout our interview next with a call. looks ahead to two thousand and twelve and what might lie in store for the european union.

well today we're joined by are you an economist author and professor at the erasmus university in rotterdam thanks very much for joining us today and the first question is in one thousand nine hundred one you wrote at a newspaper article that a monetary union is not sustainable cannot be maintained without a political union well after all that said and done we have the euro exists and there is a crisis. a political union save the euro at this point given the circumstances that it's in ideally. you could say that the political union could be formed to have a stronger fiscal. coordination but also better social policy that would sort of supporting dural only in my system it is that this europe will not be

able to form such a political union there is too much. countries through different. countries are too attached to their own self until they have different styles they have a hard time working together on international issues think of iraq. and so it will be very hard to to to have one address that foreigners can call. emerged. he is there. that they will speak with one voice that are willing to give up their very seats in the united nations and the i.m.f. and they will speak in voice it is at the moment inconceivable. that britain will give up their rights but also france is not even thinking of giving that up. germany will become too powerful there's simply too much that prevents europe from

becoming one political union if you answered the chancellor i'm going merkel she said that political union is already taking shape is it though and what is she basic that statement on well from where we are we are making progress in the in the sense of suggestions of because these are suggestions or plans to have stricter rules and to enforce those rules and her view and her reality that is working moving towards a political union but my critique is that what is lacking and what they're really needed for political union is also in sense of society i think as an example germany germany is a society how do we notice that germany is in society there are parts of germany form east german states. that are a real dire financial economic situation much worse than greece is right now do you

notice anything about that in the rest of the world because west germans take it as as self as something self evident that they are to support the east german states there's massive transfers of money going from west to east to maintain a sense of unity and a sense of stability and for a sense of society those conditions are not in place and also. can be imagined to be in. place in europe at large the greek government spokesman said quote unquote greece faces an exit from the europe bloc unless it clinches a deal on a second one hundred thirty billion bailout from its international lenders how much do you think they really believe in this threat is it something the really think is likely or are they using this rhetoric to gain support for pushing more sturdy measures i think that they usually know as an argument to enforce all kinds of

cutbacks and to get popular consent which they need in order to make the policy effective i think that greece is still an overall desire to hold on to the euro and the reason is that the greeks are very suspicious of their governments there so they desperately want to have european government involved in their country because they're sort of a countervailing power against their own politicians the same story applies to tell us. another issue this is going to work i don't think so the best spreadsheet is to do what iceland did in argentina has gone in so many other people countries have done before is allowed to have their own currency devalue it so to make their country more cheaper and use that as. the beginning all the. efforts to organize commercial activity at the neighborhood then to sell now when

we talk to experts analysts and economists to even if they are euro skeptics is the situation seems to have gotten so complicated that they would also mention concessions that they're saying that there are two choices now one is being forced into more europe more integration otherwise the alternative is a financial crisis are these the only two options left. i do think that if. you up the euro which i think you need to do we will face a so-called crisis all kinds of institutions to serious trouble banks will fill the countries will look at the trouble unemployment we will feel faced serious depression i think all that will materialize but i also see is the possibility and that's what i would focus on. restructuring rethinking the way be doing things rethink also the way we view would you call me focus less on economic growth focus

more on quality being more concern to the sustainability and so if you also would have. that i see action an opportunity arising if we give up on ideal that i think is an old fashioned one. for the next stage. thanks very much for your time. wealthy british style soccer. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike stronger or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. had a family i lived in a failing nice community was there which was an upscale it was just like you know society ok then they started showing up what happened was my company decided. i could get cheap labor and they get rid of. the roses legally legally. every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills and we have to do. it that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the law. here's one of the. states. and they write down my property and about this noise. all these people. from the wire is protected and. so i come

out here you know we're all immigrants that we all came from somewhere else. and direct from central moscow to move this is out of. the e.u. says it has agreed in principle to an embargo on iranian oil exports driving up fears of a spike in oil prices that troubled global economy. egyptian prosecutors are demanding death by hanging for eighty three year old former president hosni mubarak from power by public protests earlier last year it's already being seen as an attempt to divert public attention from criticism of the country's interim military . and in the army iraq obama announces a new strategy for the u.s.

military that will make it leaner and cheaper while maintaining its superiority plan calls on the armed forces to shift focus to asia and the pacific and abandon the capability to fight two simultaneous land or. now to our special report and the greatest danger of all facing skiers or snowboarders the threat of avalanche the story of the mountain thrill seekers who've stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale. the koehler peninsula in russia's north home to the q.b. in the massive mountain range this is the cold and windy bolshoi pass the snow here is between one and a half and four meters deep avalanche safety specialists are probing the snow structure on one of the slopes.