but the single currency threatening to bring down the very union pact created. it's five pm here in moscow straight to our top story here on r.t. this hour a deadly explosion targeting police has rocked a mask and killed up to twenty five people it comes as the leader of the country's biggest military opposition group has reportedly called for president also its regime to be overthrown by military means meanwhile a former high ranking syrian military official who defected to the opposition has claimed the government was lying when it said the violence was caused by armed gangs aided from abroad despite ongoing pressure and criticism arab league monitors will continue their mission cairo based body denies its observers are being misled by either side and says they may damascus compromise into pulling out tanks from civilian areas and releasing political prisoners richard spencer from alternative

right dot com says the opposition is taking its lead from libya and using foreign forces to help further its cause. this is once again an example of rebels who will want to make a deal with the united states and use their power to topple their enemy in many ways the remain a tool of the global american order the libyan situation began as merely a america is going to enforce a no fly zone once ball gets rolling so to speak it's ultimately going to eventually wait in regime change war the. rebels being you know lifted up to a new position after their enemy is taken out. political analyst dr omar says

armed opposition groups are using the demands of grassroots opinion in syria to suit their own agenda. they are profiting from the movement the rightful movement of people to protest for basic rights and they have rights and it is true that there are some legitimate demands on the part of the syrian people but it's such a big shame that some western powers and some fallen intervention in syria in 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. where we've been following developments in syria since the very first sparks of uprising ten months ago we'll keep you up to date on all the details of that latest suicide blast in the capital as they emerge you can also follow our twitter feed and our facebook page for the very latest.

the u.s. military is in for a facelift after president obama announced america's focus would fall on a status thing its dominance in asia the plan calls for a shift to special forces operations improve surveillance and cyber warfare capability longsight a slight reduction in ground forces but it's going to can reports there are still plenty of unanswered questions. the new strategy is to move away from ground wars from long term stability operations to move all 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 would be nothing like the cold war or the post cold war military meaning they're moving away from ground wars toll words air wars toward the intelligence war so to speak the u.s. as pull troops out of iraq would suit 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 being conclusive wars in iraq and afghanistan won't necessarily mean less wars but rather wars of a different shape 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 as 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.

strikes which end up killing many civilians and as it happened recently their own pakistani soldiers although 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 as passe and irrelevant in this day and age yet it's not clear what result the new strategy will bring. but just hours after its unveiling the plan was already drawing the ire of peace groups around the world many of them say the strategy is nothing but a military expansion disguised as a drawdown. 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 signaled 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 budget the u.s. government's 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 it is

a budget shortfall you'll see teachers laid off nurses laid off firefighters laid off but the pentagon will get more than its fair share. when i spoke to our g.'s military analysts who sees the overhaul as a result of a power struggle between branches of the u.s. military and army contractors. this is a pseudo strategy that was lauded by the us military industrial complex that is where they're going to make money the united states has failed the troop intensive so-called coin in iraq and afghanistan it's the game is over so now they're shifting their attention to the high tech stuff this is how under the age of. their military contractors are going to make a mega huge bucks by provoking another arms race in a classical fashion against china is just a talking head for god's sake he's only signed up whatever has been done under the

intense battle between the u.s. army u.s. marine corps. navy and the air force so for the u.s. navy and for the u.s. air force they are the main winners in this they knew war for the shrinking you as budget. coming up later in the program power play in the persian gulf. the american administration simply can't live with an iran which has as much regional power at the heart of the moment we take a look at the western scramble to corner iran and terror on accuses the e.u. of starting an economic war with its latest set of sanctions. saying u.s. hangs daffy shot but one fate awaits egypt's hosni mubarak or bring you the latest from the trial of the ousted leader. a stellar beginning and a no less spectacular decline ten years on and the euro is in real trouble with

member countries plagued by deepening debt and widespread disorder it means that what began as a project to establish an economic european superstate is now quickly becoming its very undoing artists are silly reports from brussels. the birth of an ambitious project a common currency celebrated with no less than a big bang. the big. strong euro. the warm berry. ten years down the road the euro is not in the best of shape. a spiraling sovereign debt crisis credit downgrades rising interest rates tens of millions unemployed budget cuts and violent protests. the euro is growing

undergoing the worst crisis that has ever been and obviously the founders of the of the euro did not hope that this would happen for what began as a step towards a united europe has become a race against time with leaders scrambling to keep it together. euro skeptics along argue that the euro was flawed from the start pursuing a political dream above all else well they say lumping together polar opposite economies like that of greece and germany into a monetary union could never work economic rationality has been thrown out of the window in the pursuit of this goal and we're now reaping the consequences of it couple that with internal squabbles and deadlocks there has to be a sign from somewhere that some economic entity that is credible is going to ship to back every euro zone and there are only two or three entities that can do that

what is european central bank the other is basically the german government and neither of them right now are willing to do it so this exhibit shows the journey of the european union and the creation of the single currency the documented events of history that explain why it would have been appealing to decision makers at the time so much so the crux of the fundamentals may have been overlooked or ignored which brings us to this point ten years after the creation of the euro its appeal has waned and despite last ditch efforts to save it its future is still uncertain in the spirit of the new year we asked for some predictions but one can be sure of is that this crisis is going to be a long and bumpy road however if you would ask me do you think that the euro would still exist in ten years time lads who would be yes they can't bring themselves to admit that it was a mistake and so i'm afraid we risk the very thing they purport to fear which is a disorderly breakup of the euro caused by having tried to keep it together for too long downgrades almost certainly i think you'll see

a french downgrade i still think this is solvable if the political will is shown in certain member states to allow for what is called solidarity in europe. and if not if we are in for a huge huge recession in europe city my prediction that at least greece will leave the euro in the next year and what happens beyond that is unpredictable euro watchers may have divergent views of the single currencies future but it seems whichever way the euro goes it won't be painless does our cilia r.t. brussels. well happier tell later this hour for you as we profile another successful export business in russia that's building instead of breaking its balance sheet. we literally wrote our business plan in the. middle between two thousand metres and five thousand six hundred meters so maybe that's why a business plan is. not enough today's pathfinder is an american entrepreneur

working his business in russia is definitely going to help. this but it is an example of a failed between an outside culture and the nature of people party offers you a view from the inside out how ancient communities in russia are struggling to keep their traditional way of life on line. but first egyptian prosecutors want capital punishment by hanging for the country's ousted president hosni mubarak and his close associates the prosecution claims mubarak is personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the crackdown on mass demos last year since the beginning of the trial in august the eighty three year old has been brought to every hearing on a stretcher due to poor health radio host and author stephen leatherman says he believes the trial is aimed at diverting attention from public scrutiny of the in term military. distraction.

believing that. for several days. trying to absolve themselves in the process seems the worst no one of the military and. no law also the people running the country has seen more closely learned with mobarak was that he was seeing people because all agreement is that people who are objecting to i think the protests will go on and that people won't be fooled the violence will continue to struggle there's a long way to go. well to follow the trial of the deposed leader head to our website are two dark calm course there's always plenty more there to be found there's a pretty good what's lined up blocking the flight of political debate german voters disillusioned with the country additional parties are starting to turn towards the

pirate party find out what it stands for. new year fireworks italian style watch the spectacular scenes from mount as europe's most active volcano began its first eruption on to tell that story and much more at arts dot com. iran is planning to hold a new naval drills near the strait of hormuz a critical oil trade plane out of the person gulf so iran had earlier threatened to block it if the e.u. slaps an oil embargo on it which could happen by the end of the month iran's finance minister has described the pending sanctions as economic warfare the country's economy has already suffered through the latest penalties imposed by the u.s. due to suspicion tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons israel and the us meanwhile are planning to hold their own joint defensive drill many antiwar activists see western worries over iran supposed nuclear ambitions as an excuse to curtail iranian influence in the region. 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 it but the reason for this continued conflict is because the american administration simply can't live with an 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 the critical economically critical geo politically critical area of the globe when it's not which is the sticking point for the american administration in my view there are some people. hawks in israel hawks in the united states who want to stop all this militarily and it does seem to me that once we begin 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. but we want to know your thoughts on how the new sanctions might play out for you ron here's how opinion is stacking up at r.t. dot com so far most of those who voted over fifty percent believe the measures will will she wrong to desperation i say iran will regard them as an act of war eighteen percent say they will force oil prices up damaging the global economy while an equal number think sanctions won't work at all thirteen percent say they will harm the people of iran instead of the government. have your say and. up next our series about the risk takers from around the world who took a chance by setting up business here in russia and are still reaping the rewards they are pathfinder as an american woman whose company helps tourists stray far from the beaten track.

and the travel in russia is adventure travel. well. i had a great time in my corporate career but i was working and living in thinking about what is going to be the next trip i realize i'm one of these troops so i was talking with one of my best friends that we do this organization and actually i think we could do it maybe better and we literally wrote our business plan in the you know between two thousand meters and five thousand six hundred meters so maybe that's why our business plan is a little. not enough monks the tube. one of the goals of our like life business plan with this new company was that we're going to find really cool husbands but my friend met her husband on the trip i'm so looking honestly all the businesses that were in our service business and because we've been operating already for ten years and some of the businesses we've already given birth to a lot of that's

a competitors who are you know our top consultants are top of managers who eventually decide they want to try to do this business themselves i've been to more than eighty three countries now before starting ask for of it also since starting asper every year we go to some new places to expand our offering we have our own helicopter school in the northern caucasus northern caucasus development corporation has come to our company have the action and asked you know how can we help promote together to bring more high in luxury venture tourism to the region first thing we said was stop calling it the northern caucasus we call it el bruised but there's so many beautiful places that have a better notion but i would say general business in russia of course it was in a way easier to enter the market and in the ninety's but it was a little crazier than now the business environment it's

a little bit more regulated little bit easier to work because everybody is you know not paying taxes it's not like you're competing against the people who don't pay taxes at all i have to say you know because we have quite a small group of clients we are growing every year but it's we're not a big agency so i can't say that our trying is like the rest of the market but what we do find it is that the people that have. more money than they can ever spend. and had the opportunity to travel everywhere in the world they want to travel in russia and what russia needs really for russians of that caliber and also foreigners who want to travel is needs we need more infrastructure bridges and i'm shocked that the season is very short so most people come between july and august maybe the beginning of september in june you can still have some snow on the ground and the mosquitoes are bad by col has three hundred on the actual lake you

have something like three hundred sunny days a year it's really a year round destination two thousand and twelve will be sending at least six expeditions around the world we have already planned iceland the media probably mexico because we want to see the end of the mayan world which is the end of two thousand and twelve she made me feel and also around russia again it's another area of growth you have a lot of foreigners who want to come to russia most important thing is having the right business card. i have been really blessed i met my business partners most of them in the early ninety's when we were working together with come a trophy and so we had some like expedition and tough experience together very good dinner guest because i can always talk about different places that i've been a good places to go. always argue. because i love it really. people ask you know you know how can you be living in russia all the time and i think because every day still now you know never never know what's going to happen it's

like or maybe it's not always a good thing sometimes it's a bad thing but there are always lots of surprises you never ever ever board. just. let's take a look at what else is making headlines around the world in turkey a former chief of staff has been arrested after being accused of leading a terror organization and planning to bring down the government general. is the most senior official in the dock in the series of investigations into alleged anti authority plots in the country comes after three elections reshuffled the power structure in the country's government. a roadside bomb has killed at least four nato troops in south afghanistan this follows another explosion that happened earlier in the day and claimed the life of another servicemen nine coalition soldiers have died in the country during january alone two thousand and eleven was

the deadliest year in a decade for the alliance with over five hundred troops killed in afghanistan. now it's time for our close up series as we continue to explore russia and bring its most spectacular corners closer this week our team has ventured to part of the country's far east region. this is russia's melting pot of cultures with all sorts of customs and traditions mixed into an amazing blend because our tucson bar discovered sometimes it's hard to adapt old habits to the pace of modern day life. the dance of the drums these are the nana and native people who were here in the far east long before the first russian explorers arrived they still retain links to their pretty russian culture. to the last opinion most nanay families are happy for

us to teach our native culture here at the village hall there is a relatively large population of man i and that's helped conserve some of the traditions for the central to the nano way of life has always been fishing the russians brought with the new technology and culture most of the eighteen thousand and eight sea now have other jobs but still take regular trips out onto the windswept ice. fishing is extremely important to us as part of our traditional way of life to fish drop we froyo them boil them smoke them and dry them we are all sorts of fish. which further to the east we find a much bleaker picture this village is an example of a failed meeting between an outside culture and a native people whereas the night sea have accepted a large degree of assimilation but remain productive and connected to their heritage the origin people here have lost far more than just the native ways the

orit's were also a native fishing people now their fishing boats lie broken and unused on the shore that of. our parents are to blame they started the drinking the children seat and start as well some children grow up too fast they start smoking at six since soviet times attempts to integrate the origin to society have had disastrous results the houses here go largely unrepaired most or its children soon drop out of school unemployment and alcoholism are rife. with torah where their culture and implanted ours will help them so they became dependent. now the social and economic situation has changed they need to start helping themselves but they're not ready to do that oksana as house is falling apart and she hasn't stored enough food to last in the winter but her and her jobless husband want to be given

a new house and free schooling. why is your husband not walking does he want to walk he wants work but there's no jobs and in the neighboring town he would need to go there every day but it's not far he would need to pay for the boss to help at wages but at the moment. miller's house nearby is much better kept she is the village elder and shows me pictures of her grandfather revered as the last ground sharman amid a world still rooted in its origins but nowadays the people around her are very different they've given up they don't want to live a normal life there are now only a few hundred or it's left this village is perched on the edge of the sea but in a quite different sense it's now clinging to the edge of existence tom barton r.t. . our special report on the way for you which reveals the grim reality of life in

and around the us mexico border for that we're going to take a short break and i'll be back with our top stories. i had a family i lived in a failing nice community wasn't which was an upscale it was just like you know

archie bunker society ok then they started showing up here what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of us. through those are. the rules of the eaglets line legally we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills and we have to do it and i'm going to that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the laws i figure is here's one of the major trails in the united states and. i watch and they run run down my property and something about this noise. well there's a little gap between the cockroaches from coming over the wire is protecting the country i'm the kind of guy who doesn't mindedness pants dirty so i come out here you know we're all immigrants as well know that we all do some somewhere else.

here with r t live from moscow in the headlines a suspected suicide bomb attack targeting a police boss bricks through a residential part of the syrian capital comes amid growing opposition calls to overthrow president also by military news. shifting strategy brock obama announces an end to the rocks fall behind miers in favor of a power shift to asia next emphasis on air domination and unconventional warfare. iran is calling the proposed oil embargo.